[Re A role in Middle East prosperity, Sep 29] For historical and practical reasons (some also point to a cultural component), China would like to see Israel do well. At the same time, a peaceful Middle East would best serve Chinese interests; so it's understandable that Beijing's approach to the region will be ironically motivated. Revolutions, regardless of the color and floral variety, won't likely work out to any country's benefit unless the outcome can be fixed beyond doubt. But the Middle East as an engine of economic growth rivaling East Asia? Let's not get ahead of ourselves.
John Chen
United States (Sep 30, '11)


"In the land of the blind, the blind man who claims to see is king."

This paraphrased aphorism is a sound reflection of Wonderland, a wondrous landscape littered with experts, sages, Nobel laureates, academics, professors, intellectuals and outright superstar geniuses who pontificate, opine, muse and ponder on the great issues and problems of the day. Indeed, to hear Amerikans tell it, we have the greatest concentration of such collective wisdom on earth, a fact that cements our power, potential and future. Alas, 'twere it so.

In Blunderland, all that is required to be among such an elite corps is to SAY you belong to such an elite corps. Indeed, the trick is to not just say this to your peers but to proclaim it with the loudest voice from every electronic rooftop available so that every Joe Schmoe will recognize the self-proclaimed "expert" and immediately anoint him the self-affixed title because, after all, it's on the Web and TV, isn't it? The constant regurgitation of such shameless self-promoting becomes self-fulfilling after awhile. Not even repeated demonstrations of total inadequacy for such acclaim will suffice to remove the subliminally anointed crown of expertise. In Wonderland, promotion is nine tenths of the reality. Examples abound of such wondrous capacity for Teflon imagery.

Ronald Reagan is the unchallenged Poster Boy, of course; despite his own renunciation of no-tax increase dogma and the explosion of Big Government under his watch, he remains akin to Godhood amongst the unsighted pagans of the GOP as the icon of no tax, Small Governmentness. Alan Greenspan, Fed chair from 1987 to 2006, was proclaimed an Olympian Economic Sage during the Boom Years of Delusion and Something-for-Nothingness. Only now, with the proof so choked in the pudding has the bloom gone off his rose somewhat, but he did have the good sense to leave his post just before the roof caved in. Nevertheless, he still makes big expert bucks fouling the banquet circuit with his relentlessly maintained image. Other economic whiz kids, like Tim Geithner and Larry Summers, complicit in the Subprime Chernobyl, have continued to polish their images,thanks to Obama's craven capitulation to Wall Street.

Military experts follow close behind in pounding their macho chests with advice, predictions and counsel on solving America's myriad security dilemmas. Mind you, these were the same ones who proclaimed the Taliban as "finished" in Afghanistan in 2001 and said Iraq would be a two week cakewalk. Fortunately for them, the Fox Network burns all digital images of such experts' previous predictions, lest any challenge to their well-paid expertise be challenged by facts and history.

But in truth even that drastic action is not really needed. Trusting in their "sighted" king, the sightless of Amerika will meekly be led by their collective noses to a Promised Land where vision, hearing and common sense are not only not needed but a positive hindrance to the Future Paradise they've been promised. Everyone will be an expert, everyone will be a sage, everyone will fall off the same cliff at the same time.
Hardy Campbell
United States (Sep 30, '11)


My name is Htoo Htet Tayza and I am an eighteen-years-old currently in my tertiary studies. On February 21, 2008, an article titled Smart sanctions target Myanmar tycoon was published on Asia Times Online which has caused much distress and agony to my life and I would like to clarify that the information depicted about me and my family is inaccurate and false.

Furthermore, the article portrays me and my family in a very negative and injustice way, falsely claiming my father, U Tay Za, to be "an arms dealer" and the "Junta's helping hand". I can clarify that my father is an entrepreneur and as any other businessman today, it is inevitable to work within the laws of the jurisdiction. His business activities are solely dependent on trading, logistics, travel and tourism and have no correlation with arms trading. His companies were incorporated in 1984, before the military junta.

Moreover, the article claims that I have "caused a stir in the aftermath of last year’s pro-democracy protests" through an e-mail that was supposedly written by me. This claim is utterly untrue and false. I categorically state that I am not responsible for such e-mail and that it was an impersonation.

All information that was depicted on the e-mail is false and has portrayed me in a very negative way. It claims me to be a 19-year-old at the time, when currently at the time of writing this letter I am only at the age of 18. Through false and discrediting information, it has very much affected my studies and social life especially with discrediting statements such as "rocking" in my "red brand-new Lamborghini" which gives a very dishonest impression on my personality. A police report has been made in Singapore about this cyber-impersonation and investigations have revealed that the e-mail was sent from an unknown account.

As a victim of this crime, I would appreciate your cooperation on removing this article and notifying your readers of this cyber-crime. It has been a great external obstruction and has disrupted my educational opportunities and caused me personal anguish.

Lastly, I would highlight that the economic sanctions imposed on Myanmar in the name of human rights have caused untold misery for many of us, myself and all the thousands of employees of businessmen impacted by the sanctions. In attempting to introduce more human rights in Myanmar, the sanctions have trampled on all the rights of all the employees and citizens in Myanmar of their ability to carry on their lives and earn a living “freely” compared with citizens of countries without such sanctions. Much thanks and I appreciate your cooperation. Htoo Htet Tayza (Sep 30, '11)

Editor's note: The article has been amended.


[Re US twisted Seoul's arm in drone deal, Sep 28] Will South Korea scotch plans for the purchase of four high-altitude drones, otherwise known as "RQ-Global Hawks, owing to the United States doubling the asking price from 450 billion won (US$385 million) to 940 billion won?

The South Korea media can speculate long on the matter, yet lose sight over the overall military strategy South Korea envisages as a key player in northeast Asia. The US government can sweeten the deal by finally passing the Free Trade Zone agreement with South Korea or coming up with a formula of time payments. Price then is taken off the table.

Ostensibly the immediate concern is keeping a close eye on what's happening in North Korea. Drones know no boundaries, though; they can "peek" into what's happening on the ground in China, Russia, or Japan, too.

As South Korea looks to maintaining mastery in the air in the Korean peninsula, gone from public view, but hardly without a fight, is the construction of Gangjung naval base on the UNESCO-designated "World Natural Heritage" site on Jeju Island. By 2015, the same date for the purchase of the Global Hawks, the navy base should be online and ready to accommodate 20 warships (mainly American) and house two US Aegis missiles to begin with. In other words, with a strong military on the ground, backed up by the presence of 28,000 US troops in South Korea, a state of the art air force, and an important base on the Yellow and East seas, South Korea will be a force to reckon with in the region.

The South Korean generals may quibble over price, but will stand down when it is a matter of country pride and prestige.
Nakamura Junzo
Guam (Sep 29, '11)


[Re A state of grace for Palestine, Sep 27, '11] The cause of the Palestinians has been hijacked by the speculators in the political arena. On one side you have the ones who support the Palestinians as a mean to gain support in the Middle East. On the other, you have the ones who support Israel because of what they read in the Book of Revelations; something along the lines of that there must be a State of Israel so the Christ can come back. I find both sides utterly offensive.

The author of this article writes: "Arabs and Jews have coexisted in peace and social harmony for millennia. Coming from the same monotheistic religious tradition, the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions are branches of the same tree. History is made of many strange and unexpected twists and turns, and as we well know from examples in our daily lives, disputes and even quarrels are inevitable facts of life even among the most cohesive, loving families."

I am astoundingly pro-Israel, but a secure, prosperous, stable Israel does not mean that Palestinians have to live like cattle without an owner. When President Abbas applied for UN full membership, everybody victimized the Palestinians and did not even bring up the gigantic challenges that come along statehood.

Furthermore, I did not hear a lot about Hamas role if the UN approves Palestine's bid to become a full member state. So as usual, the press focused on the issues that stir our passions - that is gossip and chick-whining journalism.

If the Palestinians get their state, it will have tremendous implications in the world and a never before seen challenge for the Palestinians. With statehood comes the responsibility of self-sufficiency and to provide the conditions so that market thrives and people can earn a decent living.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a scapegoat for politicians, a never ending source of controversy for lazy, irresponsible journalists, and an unlimited well of political influence in the Middle East for some. I want to see what the next chapter is after the "becoming a full state" chapter ends.
Ysais Martinez
United States (Sep 28, '11)


[Re US F-16s hone in on cross-strait links, Sep 27] China's reactions to America's arms sales to Taiwan are predictable and an exercise in banging the drums of hurt pride. The kerfuffle over whether the Obama administration would upgrade Taiwan's F-16C/D fighters had more to do with the island republic's domestic issues than with ruffling China's feathers.

Taiwan is entering a presidential election cycle; the race appears close, and the Democratic People's Party seems to have a chance of ousting the current Kuomintong government. Apparently, the DPP has earned the US' displeasure. Its return to power would put an unwanted fly in the Obama's administration's diplomatic waltz with China. Stronger geopolitical and historical factors weighed in on beefing up arms to and the ties the US has through treaties with Taiwan. Reality triumphed, finally.
Mel Cooper
Singapore (Sep 28, '11)


[Re Decline and fall of just about everyone, Sep 27] The United States in decline? Not so fast - not with the greenback still acting as the lifeblood of global finance and the US military being the most powerful on the planet.

For all the problems that it faces, America is really going through an unpleasant consolidation phase. Any talk of the sole superpower being supplanted as numero uno should thus be shelved, for now and for the foreseeable future.

That said, and as Doug Noland pointed out in The risks mount, Asia Times Online, Sep 26, the Federal Reserve's beggar-the-world schemes will only offer the US a temporary advantage. In the long run, such financial legerdemains will serve to undermine dollar hegemony and, in turn, harm the country's overall national interests.
John Chen
United States (Sep 27, '11)


Never before have Pakistan-United States relations been at such a low ebb. The US seems to have come far from the days when it requested Pakistan to ''do more'' to its present stance of ordering Islamabad to ''do away with the Haqqani group''. The diktat is not only confined to the speeches and statements but has also veiled threats of sorts - economic as well as military intervention. People are talking openly of the possibility of a war between the two erstwhile closest of allies. Though the signs look ominous, the brighter side of the picture is that it has imbued the nation with a unity full of resilience.

Whether the war comes or not, prudence demands that the nation must be prepared. In that:

The National Security Council should immediately be revived and tasked with recommending immediate measures to counter the threat.

A War Cabinet under the prime minister should declare emergency in the country to gear up, regulate and ration all national resources to sustain the nation in the event of any embargoes.

As the war is most likely to be aerial, civil defense organizations should immediately start training volunteers in all cities and towns, with special emphasis on the ABC (Atomic, Biological & Chemical) warfare.

Political parties must forget their petty differences and come out as one united nation, and the media must make our adversaries see for themselves our resolve, our unity, and our national resilience to safeguard and sacrifice even our life for our country and independence. Col Riaz Jafri (Ret'd)
Pakistan (Sep 27, '11)

[Re Palestine: China's mission accomplished, Sep 26] United States President Barack Obama's speech at the United Nations threatened to veto the Palestinian Authority's call for recognition of Palestine as a full member of that world body. It was not his best moment. It badly damaged America's reputation as an "honest broker" in the Israel Palestine question. In parsing the president's words, they betrayed a dose of historical dishonesty.

A generation ago, the US had woven a seamless web of alliances in the Middle East, involving Turkey, Iran, Egypt, Israel, and Saudi Arabia. Today, that reality does not exist. What is more, Israel is odd man out, and the US is having more than its share of trouble in maintaining influence with a boldly independent Turkey, a post-Mubarak Egypt that is thinking of revising the Camp David Accords, and a restive Saudi Arabia not in the least pleased by America's embrace of Israel's nationalist policy on Palestine.

Peter Lee is right to see that a badly thought out American tack on the matter of Palestine opens opportunities for China. Had Obama a sense of history, he might have studied the inept moves of Eisenhower's secretary of state John Foster Dulles in reneging on America's pledge to Egypt's Gamal Nasser for the construction of the Aswan Dam. By that stroke of perceived slight of America's power, the US opened the door to Soviet influence in the Arab world. Differences of time notwithstanding, the US is once more showing that it has learnt nothing from the past but how to wound itself by its own gun.
Abraham Bin Yiju
Italy (Sep 26, '11)


[Re Not all doom and gloom in Pyongyang, Sep 22] Andrei Lankov is one of the most interesting and trustworthy of the Asia Times Online writers. His latest piece, "It’s not all gloom and doom in Pyongyang", is proof of that. The irreverent middle ground that he occupies between the loons to the left and right of him is refreshing and heartening. Contrast his style and substance with that of Kim Myong Chol, the "unofficial spokesman of North Korea", an oddly debased and anti-journalistic anachronism on ATol. Fortunately for us ATol devotees, Lankov and many other ATol writers don't mind sharing space with effluvium. Lankov's dismantling of the American conservative think tank, The Heritage Foundation, and their absurd portrayal of North Korea's economic "unfreedom" over time as utterly unchanging during periods when obvious, though short-lived, ups and downs occurred, was eye-opening. ATol is blessed with a fine crop of writers covering Korea: Lankov, Aidan Foster-Carter, Sunny Lee, Donald Kirk, and Yong Kwon. It's very unusual for any publication to have such a high caliber of writers covering one geographic area.
Geoffrey Sherwood
New Jersey, USA (Sep 23, '11)


[Re Tsunami clears way for solar-powered Japan, Sep 22] The journalistic quality of the articles about Japan and nuclear energy published by Asia Times Online during the past months is not very convincing, in my view at least. Obviously, all of the authors agree in pressing Japan to relinquish nuclear energy and replace it by the so-called renewables. Differing opinions seem not to find a platform in your magazine. This I find regrettable and unfair.

The so-called renewables, wind power and solar energy in the first place, are extremely expensive - the required capital spending as well as the continuous operation - they drive the prices for electricity (and energy in general) upwards, make electricity power supply less reliable and are really catastrophic with regard to their environmental life cycle assessment. Favored in the first place by politicians who are striving to de-industrialize certain countries, they are hostile to the interests of most inhabitants of the countries concerned. Generally, however, they are portrayed by the main stream of the media as friendly to people and nature. The assertions that restructuring large parts of national economies by and in favor of renewables creates jobs and revitalizes the economy are short-sighted. In the longer run, nations are, of course, much better placed for international competition if their industry and infrastructure benefit from relatively cheap and secure electricity, and that comes the least from the so-called renewables.

The odd unanimity of your authors currently writing about the Japanese problems almost resembles participation in a certain political scheme, in my eyes. Japan has been giving the impression of becoming increasingly weak, politically and economically, since long and even more since the catastrophic tsunami. I don't think it very far-fetched to suppose that there are some scenarios existing in the leading political circles of the US which mean to further weaken Japan and to benefit, if this country would belong to the first ones to be brought to their knees by the crisis.

If such endeavors are existing, then such journalistic contributions by ATol fit well. There are more than 100 nuclear power plants in the US, all the nuclear technologies, reprocession of nuclear fuel and breeders included, are constantly developed further, and other than the civil use of nuclear energy there is the gigantic complex of nuclear technologies residing with the military. If in such a nation there appears a significant concentration of contributions in the media recommending the denuclearization of another country, one of the most important economic powers internationally - my own country, Germany, has already set this miserable course, not quite exclusively of its "free will" - then, in my honest opinion, only naive people will believe in coincidence.
Walter Grobe
Germany (Sep 23, '11)


[Re China's reminder…but is the West listening?, Sep 22] China shouldn't waste time trying to convince the West of the country's intentions, because no one will listen. Moreover, it would be utterly naive for China to wish to be left alone for so-called peaceful development. The world is a jungle; the fittest survive.
John Chen
USA (Sep 23, '11)


Victor Kotsev says in Palestinian state still on drawing board [Sep 21], "it seems safe to bet that whatever happens between now and Friday, a Palestinian state will not appear overnight". He explained that this is because the US has promised to veto any application for statehood at the Security Council, which would block a path to full membership in United Nations.

I see this Friday as a dark day for President Barack Obama and for the US. It sickens me to see our president siding with people who consider themselves to be worth more and to deserve better status than other people. I agree with French President Nicolas Sarkozy that this veto will cause extreme frustration and trigger violence around the world. Put yourself in a Palestinian's shoes. How would you feel that you have been treated by US over the last 40 years?
Daniel N Russell
Willow, Alaska (Sep 23, '11)


[Re Palestinian state still on the drawing board, Sep 22] A Palestinian state has been on the drawing board for 63 years. To ask the Palestinians to have the patience of Job is asking too much. The Palestinian Authority's decision to apply in the name of Palestine for "recognition and membership" in the United Nations has suddenly cleared the diplomatic chessboard.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' bid has upset the United States and Israeli policy of pushing him to a gratuitous submission to a road map to peace leading to nowhere but ensuring the Zionist state's incorporation in a 'Greater Israel'.

Now both the Barack Obama administration and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud led government are forced to deal with the horrible legacy of depriving the Palestinian people of a homeland. The American president has little maneuver to act as an "honest broker" since Israel has become a domestic and presidential issue. Netanyahu's tireless pursuit of undermining the Oslo Accords and any meaningful negotiations of a two-state solution and his lethargic policy of delays is part and parcel of a campaign to transform the West Bank into revisionist Zionism manifest destiny as Samaria and Judea.

Abbas has played a trump card by going to the United Nations. His people's destiny will benefit from the world body's conventions and treaties that can challenge Israel's 44-year occupation of the Palestinians. Obama and Netanyahu are fighting tenaciously to hold the tides of change, as they realize imperfectly that time is no longer on their side.
Abraham Bin Yiju
Italy (Sep 22, '11)


[Re Cairo, Egypt and Cairo, Illinois, Sep 20] Spengler's suggestion that inhabitants of two Cairos should have been eating cake (in a sense of getting college education and joining the modern knowledge-based economy) is very generous and would have made Marie-Antoinette proud. However, I am afraid that he has a somewhat simplistic idea of a current job market for college graduates.

It is certainly true that in the United States the unemployment rate for people with a Bachelor's degree or above is significantly lower than national average. However, a considerable number of these graduates work the jobs that have nothing to do with their education. There is no need to go to college to get "basic reading comprehension, basic math and the ability to produce work on time" that Spengler deems to be sufficient qualifications for a job in corporate America. These supposed to be acquired in high, if not middle, school. There is a pretty good chance that somebody who did not learn how to count by the time of getting a high school diploma will not do it in college either. I have certainly seen my share of such graduates throughout my career.

In the same time, there is an unquestionable correlation between family's socio-economic background and decision to send children to college. It is likely to have its effect on the employment perspectives. Simply put, Mrs Smith is more likely to hire Johnny from across the street than Tyron from the other side of town to mow her lawn. She will do it not because Johnny has a brand new Bachelor's degree in Art History. She will do it because she knew Johnny since he was a little boy, and her husband plays golf with Johnny's dad. This situation is not going to change if Tyron shows her a college diploma with a Bachelor's degree in Gender Studies.

Of course, one can argue that the situation would have been entirely different if Mrs Smith ran a semiconductor factory and Tyron had a degree in electrical engineering. However, if this were the case, she would have hired neither Tyron nor Johnny. Instead, she would have outsourced the entire operation to China, cashed in her stock options, and lived happily ever after.

Complaints about the difficulty of finding qualified candidates compiled by the Manpower Group do not really tell much about the state of the job market either. The definition of a qualified worker changes dramatically in difficult economic times.

Companies are not particularly eager to hire anybody. Therefore, they are willing to wait in perpetuity for a perfect candidate (preferably riding a white unicorn and wearing shining armor) to show up and jump on the opportunity to work for 12 hours per day in exchange for room and board. This is similar to most of my single friends in their forties complaining that it is impossible to find a good woman nowadays. I know from my own experience that it is simply not true, yet they seem to keep searching.
Andrei Alyokhin
United States (Sep 22, '11)


It may be a bit early to comment on the 40th anniversary of the Watergate break-in and scandal which will occur next year. After all, it's not like we don't have other things to think about, like economic armageddon, the increasing cost of oil and the plummeting dollar's woes.

Perhaps precisely because of those very current issues, Watergate merits scrutiny and skeptical review. Each of these modern problems has connections to Watergate, and by extension, to the precipitating event that spawned all. That event, the "Nixon Shock", which has surprisingly received little attention these days, is the decision by Richard Nixon in 1971 to eliminate the conversion of US currency into gold. This was necessitated by the exploding (pun intended) costs of the Vietnam War and the increasing pressure from nervous foreigners that were draining US gold reserves. By doing this without consulting the other signatories of the post-World War II Bretton Woods agreement, Nixon pulled the rug from under the Europeans in particular, who were left holding billions in dollars that now no longer had the cushion of a commodity behind them but only discredited faith and trust in the duplicitous Amerikan government (one side benefit of this for the EU was that the incentive to create the euro began then).

But Nixon upset quite a few people outside Europe also by this self-centered action, not least the OPEC nations, selling oil, their only export commodity, in increasingly debased dollars. As the world's reserve currency, the US could abuse the dollar at its whim to satisfy its national security paranoia, while the rest of the world financed its profligacy. Devoid of any external constraints like gold reserves, Wonderland went on an unlimited print-and-spend spree that has only now caught up with us.

One individual who intended to challenge that system announced his decision in 2000 to trade oil for euros instead of dollars, a first step in a trend that could potentially destroy America financially if others followed suit. That individual paid for that affront by going to the gallows after his country was illegally invaded in 2003. Hmm.. just a coincidence I'm certain, but maybe the Weapons of Mass Destruction Saddam Hussein was not-so-hiding were actually Weapons of Monetary Destruction.

But just to suggest that sometimes bad deeds are punished, consider this; the downfall of Nixon's presidency was initiated by a very dubious and supremely botched minor criminal act, a petty and totally useless break-in at the Watergate Hotel that by all accounts should have gone unnoticed. That it turned into something else altogether may be just a happenstance of good reporting and timely information, or it may be payback for the money losses Nixon caused. The timing of the scandal, coming less than year after Nixon's decision, merits noting. And only two years later, the OPEC "Oil Shock" guaranteed that the one way the oil producers could make up for the lack of gold convertibility of their dollars was to make more of them, lots more, in fact. That momentous sea-change in wealth transfer began Amerika's irreversible decline and soon-to-follow oblivion.

So I leave you with the scenario that Nixon and the US paid personally and nationally for his 1971 decision, whether by design or coincidence, who can tell? But I rank coincidences with unicorns, tooth fairies and honest politicians in my Wonderland Hall of Make Believe.
Hardy Campbell
United States (Sep 21, '11)


It may be that "War-derland" is a more appropriate a term for the United satrapies than "Wonderland", given the enormous enthusiasm there is here for armed conflict at the drop of the proverbial helmet. But, to be fair, war is the most basic and essential element of our species.

I know that is an unpopular view. We like to think that war is an aberrant state of civilization and that fundamentally humans are peace-loving creatures. That is nonsense and delusional poppycock. War has been the sine qua non of our existence as a race from the day we crawled out of the slime in pursuit of some smaller poor bastard amphibian. There is no such thing as "Peace"; there is only periods of Non-War and Getting Ready for the Next War.

Social anthropologists would have us believe that the building of cities and the mastery of metallurgy, agriculture and wheeled transportation were peaceful developments. More bovine droppings; cities were built to resist sieges, copper, bronze and iron were smelted from rock to build swords and spears, and horse-driven carts were created to transport the cultivated food for mobile armies to invade and destroy their neighbors. Even today, inventions like the computer, internet and the laser hair-remover were spinoffs from military applications like the hydrogen bomb, not creations of their own accord for the good of humanity. Indeed, if not for war, we undoubtedly would still be cave dwellers grateful for the occasional lightning-induced fire to cook our supper mastodon with.

We go to war over the flimsiest of reasons, from pigs to bird droppings to soccer games to cut-off ears. When our politicians lie to us to get us to war, we ignore the illogic or transparency of the deception because we only want the thinnest of patinas of rationality to justify our need for war. War creates heroes, myths, and sacrifices of blood that bind, inspire and delude us into thinking ourselves noble and brave beings.

But war is even more basic than that. War becomes part of the emotional fabric of our collective culture, even affecting the least likely human ideal to be associated with war, that of love. For such a noble concept generally identified with the virtues of peace, tranquility and happiness, the language of love is frequently violent and strive-ridden. People "fall" in love, just as a soldier "falls" in battle. The famous saying "All's fair in love and war" is the most obvious equating of the two concepts I can think of. And what does Cupid strike us with to make us love? He does not use a fragrant flower or a gentle breath of Olympian divinity; he pierces hearts with an instrument of war, the arrow. We use the term "The Battle of the Sexes" to describe gender relations, and some have characterized men as Mars, the Roman god of war. Hardly the terminology of sweetness and light the romance novels promote. So we are left with this conundrum; We doth protest too much about how evil it is but fund, promote and engage in this evil with the most casual patriotic abandon.

True enough, of all earthers, Americans grasp violence easier than most as a solution to all their problems, and war is really as Amerikan as the proverbial baked confectionery. But let us concede that, on a planet where there has never been a single year without war somewhere, war defines our species in ways we would rather conceal under the mattress, at midnight, when no one is looking.

Homo Sapiens? I think not. Try Homo Cidious.
Hardy Campbell
United States (Sep 19, '11)


[Re Najib punts on legal change, Sep 16] Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak admits in interviews that he is taking a risk in calling for the replacement of the Internal Security Act and Emergency security laws, a legacy of British rule.

His bold move is more than a challenge to the opposition; it is a realization that his father's legacy is untenable, and if UNMO wishes to dominate the Malaysian scene, he has undertake a palace revolution. Mel Cooper
Singapore (Sep 19, '11)


In Iran set to release US hikers [September 14] Kaveh Afrasiabi informs us about his efforts together with the MIT professor Noam Chomsky to reach out to Iranian president Mahmud Ahmadinejad in order to gain the freedom of the remaining two US hikers. As usual Afrasiabi provides a balanced and accurate analysis of often murky and complicated issues Iran and Middle East issues. I also read with interest Afrasiabi's other article about US hikers getting lost in stasis of US-Iran two years ago that correctly predicted a long ordeal. In my opinion the two articles should be read together and remind us why Asia Times Online is essential reading on Middle Eastern and world affairs.
Tim
Toronto (Sep 15, '11)

"If Iran is so interested in obtaining US weapons I believe will should load up our B-52s and allow them to examine several millions tons up close and personal." Dennis O'Connell [letter, September 15]

Better yet, send them our "best" neo-conservatives, libertarians, and banksters!
Lester Ness
Kunming China (Sep 15, '11)


[Re Taliban hijack the US's narrative, September 15] I know this may sound obvious, but the farthest thing from the Taliban's minds is driving the Crusaders out of Afghanistan. Rather, the "Tet-Lite" attack on the US "Embarassy" in Kabul is intended to be an incentive for the imperialists to stay longer in their quagmire. After all, the Taliban pretty much run things anyway, but unity would be compromised without an infidel occupier to glue the constantly divisive tribal and ethnic factions together. So expect more "in-youR-face" reminders to NATO that they may well have to repeat their invasion years form now, following another "terrorist attack" on the West. Of course, they know as any other sane person knows that 9/11 was not orchestrated in the caves of the Hindu Kush but in the bowels of Washington, London and Tel Aviv. But continued occupation guarantees unlimited purloined Western aid funds, unhindered drug trafficking, infinite supplies of US weapons and limitless intimidation of citizens who otherwise would demand Western-style reforms. The Pakistani ISI, as well as the Saudis, have ensured ongoing conflict in Afghanistan since the Soviet War, since both use the chaos and instability to undermine local allegiances and reinforce their own power bases. The synergy between the US military and security organs, Saudi Arabia, the ISI and the Taliban profits all, and expect all to push a beleaguered Obama to extend the occupation indefinitely.

And, again, belaboring the obvious, the assassination of Shah Ahmoud Massoud two days before 9/11 was a necessary component of the CIA's chief role in making certain that there would be no cohesive figure to assume power after the Taliban's "overthrow". A patriot like Massoud would certainly not be the compliant stooge that Karzai was handpicked to be, so his elimination by CIA wet boys was a necessity. This is the only reasonable explanation for the timing of his death, since the Taliban and Osama bin Laden had had plenty of apparent incentives to arrange his death beforehand. But of course, until then, they were not under the instructions of their Western mole handlers to do so until the internally arranged attack operation was ready to commence.

But a bleeding wound demands staunching, and with the Empire hemorrhaging treasure and blood exponentially, the Taliban's wishes as well as all those who profit may be disappointed. The European allies are jumping ship, tours of duty have been extended to the breaking point, and the little publicized but ongoing drug, suicide, homicide, gang and theft problems in the US military are unraveling the sinews and bone of the decaying Empire. Pity. There's so many other brown countries to destroy, Amerika!
Hardy Campbell
Texas (Sep 15, '11)


[Re The suicide-bomb capital of the world, September 15] "Pakistan suffered one suicide bombing before 9/11 - and 4,808 deaths in 303 attacks since. Responsibility is at the door of jihadi groups who for years had been indoctrinated by the Pakistan military and intelligence services for action in Afghanistan and Jammu and Kashmir."

I suppose 9/11's aftermath and the US intervention in Asia is just incidental.

"Truth has to be repeated constantly, because Error also is being preached all the time, and not just by a few, but by the multitude. In the Press and Encyclopedias, in Schools and Universities, everywhere Error holds sway, feeling happy and comfortable in the knowledge of having Majority on its side," Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Shaukat Amir
(Sep 15, '11)
If you read the full story you will find the role of 9/11's aftermath and the US intervention in Asia are well covered. - ATol

[Re Iran set to release US hikers , Sep 14] Kaveh Afrasiabi is again defending the the outrageous behavior of the Iranian fascist mullahcracy. There is no comparison between the actions of three stupid hardcore leftist hikers who lack the common sense not to hike in a war zone and the Iranians in American jails who were legally convicted in open court and allowed access to defense council, rights not allowed the US hikers.

The Iranians were using front companies to illegally obtain US weapons. Every article I have read along with Mr Afrasiabi refers to the million dollars demanded by Iran as bail, evidently these journalists do not have access to a dictionary. The million dollars is extortion not bail, and it will not be paid by the US but by the government of Oman or the Sultan of Brunei.

The government of Iran will always be the enemy of the US and take actions to kill and injure US citizens, negotiation is not an option as Iran is responsible for the death of thousands of Americans. If Iran is so interested in obtaining US weapons I believe will should load up our B-52 and allow them to examine several millions tons up close and personal.
Dennis O'Connell
United States (Sep 15, '11)


[Re Normality trumps rhetoric in Yeonpyeong, Sep 14] Matthew Clayton may see signs of a return to normality in Yeonpyeong, yet what he describes is refortifying the island as a forward military base with a captive fishing population. So we learn that the new fortifications under construction will house "Israeli Non Line of Sight GPS guided missiles": this is a sign that the regime of South Korea President Lee Myung-bak is upping the ante in his forward design to topple the North.

Apparently, he and his American ally have not fully absorbed that continual joint military exercises with live fire along the Northern Limit Line, may and did provoke a riposte from North Korea when they violated its territorial waters.

In the last few weeks, his regime has pushed his fantasies as "the man who can reunify the two Koreas", by initiating "unitv Korea" and "uniradio Korea", whose sole purpose is to antagonize Kim Jung-il through an intensification of a heated propaganda war.

Lee is playing a dangerous game at a time Russia and China are taking measures to bring North Korea out of the diplomatic cold. It is not for nothing that Lee has earned his sobriquet: the Bulldozer.
Nakamura Junzo
Guam (Sep 15, '11)


A Tea Party debate yesterday featured a question put Republican Party maverick and medical doctor Ron Paul about whether he would allow an uninsured man in a coma to die. Paul stumbled for an answer, since he had seconds before denounced the idea of everyone being responsible for everyone else in Amerika. A voice from the crowd shouted "Let him die!" In a previous Republican presidential nominee debate, when the governor of my state, the inexecrable Rick Perry, was asked about Texas's record number of executions, the rabid crowd broke out into rapturous applause.

Once again, the irony of the white trash, cro-magnon, Bible thumping GOP comes to light; the party that denounces evolution as an unholy, anti-Christian liberal secular doctrine demonstrates their fervent embrace of evolution without, of course, calling it that. Darwinian theory postulates that the fittest survive the rigors of their environment and pass that "hardiness" onto their offspring.

This explains the adulation the Republicans show those candidates who would promote policies that would ensure a weeding out from society of the poor, the ill, the old, the non-white, ie, the natural Darwinian Presidents, if you will. This also explains the GOP fascination with endless war, a cleansing institution that separates the weak (ie, the dead) from those that deserve passing their genes on (ie, the survivors.) Executing criminals is just the finishing touch to ridding society of those clearly unfit for enjoying Americanism. Mind you, by going to church religiously and sprinkling their vitriol with scripture, these Evolutionists ensure their "compassion" and "humanity" cannot be questioned. In their view, Jesus only gave loaves and fishes to those Sermon on the Mount attendees who had a good chance at surviving.

But endorsing Darwin would be subscribing to those Bible denying sciences like saying the earth revolves around the sun, or the sphericity of a planet which every True Believer knows is as flat as a bombed out Baghdad suburb. But sadly for all of us, Darwin's Theory extends to countries too. Countries that show an incapacity to delete diseased government, corrupt media, greedy corporations and a selfish, self-centered and blind public will not long survive. Step aside, dodo, dinosaur and wooly mammoth; make room for Uncle Sam.
Hardy Campbell
United States (Sep 15, '11)


[Re The myth of the 'China model' in Africa, Sep 13] Perhaps we should take the Chinese leadership at its word. They don't see themselves as having a model, or a mature model, but instead taking a pragmatic "trial and error" approach. Or as they put it, "fiording the river by feeling the stones underfoot". It's the West that's become model-obsessed, and increasingly, mentally closed. Perhaps the best way to categorize the Chinese "model" at all is to call it a technocracy, as Kaiser Kuo did back in this 2001 Time Magazine article.

At the time Kuo was working on his PhD thesis, on the rise of technocracy in China. But he subsequently moved to Beijing and succumbed to the city's charms; I always wished he had completed this insightful thesis...
Taking the analysis up one level, it's fair to say debate in the West is focused on the legitimacy of power, and in the East on the competency of power. In the West it really doesn't matter that a leader like George W Bush can arise, however incompetent, because he arrived at his power legitimately (that is by a democratic vote, nonsense about hanging chads aside). In the East such incompetency in a leader denotes system failure and loss of the "Mandate of Heaven".
My Chinese friends tell me they were more shocked by the loss of New Orleans to hurricane Katrina, than by George W Bush's invasion of Iraq. Prior to Katrina, it was simply unthinkable to them that an American (American!) city could be lost in that way.
Francis
Canada (Sep 14, '11)


[Re Erdogan stokes the flames in Egypt, Sep 13] Viktor Kotsev is ill at ease in the emerging pattern in the eastern Mediterranean that is fast challenging Israel's hegemony. If anyone has gone to extreme lengths to stoke the flames of unrest the blame has to rest at the door of the right wing Likud led government of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israel's loss of face in Lebanon and its irrational exuberance in a 22-day war in Hamas and attack and killing of nine Turks on the Mavi Mamara no longer strike fear in the Zionist state neighbors and erstwhile allies like Egypt and Turkey. Add a good pinch of change of the Arab Spring, not only has Israel's dominance has withered drastically but the newer design of forces has exposed Netanyahu's inability to adapt as well as the inadequacies of a moribund strategy which has outlived its uses.
If Egypt is rushing towards anarchy as Kotsev claims, so is Israel belabored by internal political disorder and international impotence.
Saying this, parsing Netanyahu's reaction to the sacking of the Zionist state's embassy in Cairo, he may very well unleash a blitzkrieg against the Palestinian Authority for any military action against Egypt, Turkey, or dare I suggest Iran would bring the house down on his head. Such an offensive against the Palestinians may assuage Israeli rage and frustration, yet it is further proof of its impotency and its no longer being the bully in the region.
Abraham Bin Yiju
Italy (Sep 14, '11)


[Re Gene code promises crops for all seasons, Sep 8] While discovery made by Dr On Sun Lau and other members of the research team is interesting and important, Raja Murthy seems to think that it is about to solve the problem of world hunger. To put it mildly, this is an exaggeration.

Circadian rhythm maintained by an internal biological clock is not a handicap. On the opposite, it is an important mechanism of adaptation by living organisms to their environment. This is why it has been around for millions of years.

Seasonality and daily activity cycles are driven by resource availability. Biological clocks have evolved to warn an organism that lean times are coming. For example, in temperate climates shorter days and longer nights are a sign of approaching winter. A genetically modified apple tree with a deliberately impaired biological clock will not start bearing fruit in January in Alaska as Mr. Murthy implies. It will be killed by frost and desiccation. In another example, insomnia is a serious medical condition, not a wonderful opportunity to work extra eight hours per day.

Food shortages are caused by an unfortunate interaction of many factors, which may be different from one famine to another. Expecting that it can be solved by deciphering the function of a certain gene is not much different from expecting that performing a certain dance will bring the rain upon parched crops.
Andrei Alyokhin
United States (Sep 13, '11)


Consider Turkey's new foreign policy shift. It sees the twilight of the American Empire as both an incentive and opportunity. The Empire's proxy (if not overlord), Israel, stands in the way of asserting New Style Ottoman influence in the region, which was its old stomping grounds, after all. The Arab Spring, carefully orchestrated by the reigning oligarchs to appear as a "mass" movement (sorry, romanticists; this regional "insurrection" was choreographed from Day One), is also a recognition that new political maneuvering in the wake of impending WonderDemise is necessary.

Thus a new cooperative reconciliation between the principal ethnic players in the Muslin World is underway. The recent statement by Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan that Israel's attack on a Turkish vessel constitutes "an act of war" establishes the intent of Turkey to marginalize a nuclear Jewish state, while the Egyptian "spontaneous" attack on the Israeli embassy in Cairo is another clear message to the imperialists that business as usual is not in the cards. Iran is careful not to overplay its hand, but it clearly is delighted at the discomfort caused Washington and Tel Aviv; its nuclear capabilities will be an important component of an assertive Middle East determined to discard the tired, impotent Christian West, which Turkey has finally accepted will never embrace their old nemesis.

Turkey's recent assault on Kurdish bases in Iraq is yet another clear sign of assertiveness, dismissing US concerns with a flippancy unheard of previously. Syria remains the wild card, with its insurgency being funded and supplied by both the Turks and Persians; Assad's maverick style, like that off Gaddafi's, won't cut it anymore. Little wonder one is already out, with the other clinging to fragile support from the likes of Russia and China. Both of those nations, with large Turkic populations, have to be wary of these new muscular trends, so consider their actions prophylactic in nature.

The Turks and their co-religionists now realize that the "War on Terror" is just another neo-imperialist ploy to keep them under the Crusader thumb indefinitely. With no end in sight, the West hoped to ensure acquiescence to Muslim suppression forever, and thus ensure Israel's security (which is one of the main goals of the faked war.)

But the times, they are a'changin'. Both the Turks and Iranians know that Israel has to ultimately be neutralized, and the best way to do that is to keep them off balance and unsure where the next body blow will come from. Erdogan's statement should make things quite clear; the region's principal players are in a permanent state of conflict and confrontation with the aggressive Zionist state. Nothing short of its total liquidation will ensure regional as well as world peace, and since that will not happen in the near term, a slow, methodical erosion of Israeli security and stability will suffice for the long term. But once the Empire is dead and buried, well, then all bets are off.
Hardy Campbell
United States (Sep 13, '11)


[Re US drivers pay steep price for China tire tariff, Sep 8] Peter Lee mentions "the ancient story of the futility of protectionism". I beg to disagree.

The problem with the China tire tariff is that it only applied to a narrow range of products from one source - so of course it resulted in substitutions to other foreign suppliers etc. But history shows quite clearly that a coherent and comprehensive policy of protectionism works just great.

All the American presidents carved on Mt. Rushmore were unapologetic protectionists (OK, Jefferson started out as a free trader- he was always the least practical of the founding fathers - but he soon came around). They and their fellow protectionists took the United States from a backwards agricultural colony to the greatest industrial power the world had ever seen. I would hardly call this evidence of futility. Indeed, it is only AFTER the United States embraced "globalization", that things started going down-hill.

I recall Abraham Lincoln saying that if we buy foreign steel, we get the steel and the foreigners get the money and the jobs and the industries, but if we buy our own steel, we get it all. Or Alexander Hamilton asking if would you console yourself with the loss of an arm, with the thought that you could buy your shirts for 40% cheaper? Or Teddy Roosevelt stating more simply, "I thank God I am not a free trader". Under this leadership the United States did great. It has done a lot worse under the likes of free-trading Clinton, Bush, and Obama.

If you want to build a house, you don't need to be 'competitive' with people starving to death on the other side of the world. You just need tools and resources and the will to employ them effectively. Until not that long ago foreign trade was a negligible fraction of the economy of the United States. There is no a priori need to be 'globally competitive' if your internal markets are competitive enough. Being 'globally competitive' with Bangladesh ultimately means having the same standard of living as Bangladesh. I mean, if you can't win, get out of the game, right?

It's not just the United States - virtually every major industrial power started out as protectionist, and whenever they shift to 'free' trade, there is inevitably a decline.

Of course, 'free trade' as generally used is not even a coherent concept. Most 'free traders' are fully in favor of restricting trade when their wealthy patrons want it restricted. So a big corporation can import finished goods into the United States from low-wage countries because we must have 'free trade', but any attempt by a private citizen to import legal pharmaceuticals or DVD movies etc. is strictly controlled, because that would conflict with the 'freedom' of big corporations to maximize their profits by restricting trade, and result in the collapse of investment etc, etc. 'Free trade' as commonly used is worse than wrong, it's internally inconsistent and dishonest.

As populations are increased and resources get scarcer and scarcer, it may be that the opportunity for countries to rely on their own internal markets is reduced, but that is only because of this specific circumstance of running out of domestic resources, and not because the historical record in any way suggests that protectionism is futile. Indeed, it suggests that one of the great benefits of moderating population growth is that it gives a society a greater opportunity to practice protectionism, and avoid a zero-sum competition with the most miserably poor nations on the planet for dwindling global resources.
Timothy Gawne
United States (Sep 12, '11)


[Re Putin's European goal no more a pipe dream, Sep 8] I enjoyed reading regular contributor M K Bhadrakumar's latest column, on Putin's victory with the launch of the Nord Stream pipeline and the cementing of the South Stream deal and what this means for increased European and Russian integration. But the second part of his article, on the ways these victories could end backfiring in Ukraine, seems to ignore the conclusions of the first part.

Just as Bhadrakumar seems to suggests, and as more than one respected and knowledgeable expert says, the future of the European Union (EU) looks increasingly uncertain. The capture of EU elites by banking interests has led it to a narrow-minded pursuit of austerity that is making it more and more unpopular to its own members, not only among non-eurozone currency members (like Hungary), but also among fervent Euro adopters in Eastern Europe (Slovenia).

So what is else is there? The Schengen treaty allowing free circulation within the EU? Well, the flood of North African immigrants during the Tunisian and Libyan revolutions brought back border controls in France, and forced Germany to strengthen policing against illegal immigration.

But what are the prospects of the Ukraine truly joining the EU, if it is around five years from now to start the long accession process? Bhadrakumar himself describes at length how increasing economic ties between Western Europe (specially Germany) and Russia is weakening even die hard Russophobe Poland's resolve to spoil the honeymoon between its two longtime imperial overlords.

The US has little to offer by way of alternative economic incentives: it has a largely bankrupt consumer base, and loans it offers through organizations like the International Monetary Fund and World Bank come at such a cost, most voters, like those in Greece, would prefer national bankruptcy. All the US has offered Poland so far is Anti-Ballistic Missile batteries with which to threaten Russia's nuclear deterrence (even if their effectiveness has proven, after more than 30 years of development, little but a promise). And here we come to the crux of American imperial weakness: its growing dependence on military power. Paul Kennedy, on his The Rise and Fall of Great Powers explained the trajectory that modern world powers followed, without exception.

Collapse is preceded by an increasing reliance on the military to maintain its influence abroad, a push that is sapped by a fragile economy (due to a growing dependency on high finance to the detriment of manufacturing). So, if the US, in the future, can't rely on even its "New Europe" allies in the EU to block economic integration with Russia, can it do so through the North Atlantic Treaty Organization? What then is British Prime Minister David Cameron, a fervent believer in the Atlantic alliance, doing in Moscow then? More than once I have heard about NATO's renewed dreams of global domination after its Libyan victory. Yet a more in-depth analysis reveals an alliance that can't get its act together: its reliance on air power failed once again (without the rebel's invasion of Tripoli, the Big G would almost certainly be still in power), top member Germany bluntly refused to join, and most of the rest provided token support at best - the US, once again, did most of the heavy lifting.

Is this the same NATO of the Eisenhower era, or the one that closed ranks against Serbia during the Clinton one? I am afraid that by the time Ukraine joined it and the EU, both would be another Holy Roman Empire, a fancy fa็ade kept alive by a desperate Atlanticist media.

In a previous column Bhadrakumar described the fear the presence of American warships in the Black Sea engendered in the Kremlin. But Mahan's grandiose sea power theory, a product of the Dreadnought era that doesn't even consider anti-ship missiles (why are the biggest warships in the Israeli arsenal small - but bleeding edge - corvettes?), can only go so far: was the British Royal Navy able to keep the pound sterling as the world's reserve currency? Russia and Germany are, and have always been land-based powers. Pepe Escobar would tell Bhadrakumar that he should review Mackinder. Lets see what would happen to the Atlantic Alliance now if the US depth-charged North Stream.
Carlos
Ecuador (Sep 12, '11)


[Re Osama crippled the American century, Sep 8] I do not belive that Osama bin Laden had the capacity to think so far in the future.

I do believe that Osama was behind the 9/11 attacks, but he was not alone of course. While I do not want to speculate, to me it was clear that from the very first moment of 9/11 the whole of the United States was taken over by the military industry.

Since then it seems that the aim of US policy is try to show the outside world that the US is invincible even though anybody can see that the US is actually gradually weakening. Obama has been so far unable to revert this process (the weakening of the US) this will of course accelerate with a Republican government in my opinion (if the Tea party take over, the pace would even be a faster and major catastrophe).

I cannot see how the US can save itself without a radical change of its external policies - ie withdrawal from Afganistan and Iraq, a desire start fewer wars, etc. The military industry and probably the Israel lobby would not like that.
Manuel de la Torre (Sep 12, '11)


[Re Toys for the boys in Myanmar, Sep 7] May I commend your correspondent Bertil Lintner on his account of the Myanmar arms industry. Absent his coverage of the country over the years we would all be far less aware of its ways.

However, I was a little confused by some minor details of his account. Following his advice to readers that they take a glance at Google Earth, I did so, punching in place names he mentioned and flagging as best I could those the search service could identify.

The resulting map can be seen here.

It appears that far from being "scattered all over the country ... situated "in the middle of nowhere (they can be seen with a even cursory look at Google Earth)", they appear to be with few exceptions all very close to the country's main artery and important transport route, the Irrawaddy (Ayeyarwady) river, and so also close to the country's main highway, which follows the river.

Mr Lintner refers to "some dots seen in the hills east of the central city of Mandalay" - but none of the factories he mentions appears to be at all to the east of Mandalay (but see my comment below on my own mapping assumptions). He might, however, be able to advise readers just what is that 3.5 km or so runway-like strip at Anisakan.

So that while your correspondent says their distribution "makes it extremely difficult to coordinate production", it in fact makes it relatively easy, though clearly not as easy as having them all in one location.

It might also be noted that most locations (ignoring Taikkyi) are also close to, and form a single arc in relation to, the country's new capital, Naypyidaw. That in turn suggests that the country's rulers, rather than being an inept bunch of planners, in fact know well what they are doing and plan for the long term (whatever the disastrous consequences for the country as a whole). This has no appearance of a disorganized rabble.

Further evidence of this is the "mysterious industrial complex" at Sidoktaya, which as Mr Lintner points out is close to a dam and so a consistent supply of water. That certainly makes more sense than building a water-dependent plant close to the Irrawaddy, whose own water flows are very inconstant and may be increasingly so with construction of a string of dams (notably the Myitsone) in its upper reaches. Not so much a mystery, more just common sense.

I should note that I have made some possibly erroneous assumptions, with occasional reference to a 2007 government map published before the 2010 renaming of administrative areas, which Mr Lintner uses. See Myanmar Information Management Unit. (see http://www.burmalibrary.org/docs6/MIMU001_A3_SD%20&%20Township%20Overview.pdf

Assumptions:
1. Lintner refers to Taikkyi, Bago Region. I am assuming this is Taikkyi township (township #318, Yangon division in the 2007 map).
2. Lintner refers to Sinbaungweh. I have assumed this to be Singbaungwe.
3. Padaung (presumably township #47 in Bago (West) Division in the 2007 map) is less easily identified on Google Earth, though such a township definitely exists. I have labelled Okshittpin, which is in Padaung township, to identify the area.
4. Sakhangyi village in Thayetmyo township, Magway Region. I have labeled Thayet.
Marina Bay (Sep 9, '11)


Bertil Lintner responds: The new (and many of the old) ka pa sas, although some of them are indeed close to the Irrawaddy river, are located far away from population centers. Hence, as my piece asserted, "in the middle of nowhere” and the new ones are scattered over a much larger area than the old facilities.

Not all of the more than 20 ka pa sas are mentioned in my article, and some are indeed located east and west of Mandalay, including several which are under construction. The sources I interviewed and quoted, including former technicians who used to work at some of the sites, said "it was extremely difficult to coordinate production" because the new sites are not located as close to each other as the old ones near Prome (Pyay).

Spare parts and raw materials have to be transported long distances from one place to another, and technicians at one location do not always know what their counterparts at another are doing. The ''mystery'' surrounding Sidoktaya is not because there is a new hydroelectric plant close to it, but, as the article says, the huge buildings within the complex itself. The construction of a new hydel plant close to the Sidoktaya facility just underscores the importance of the place. As for the Romanization of Burmese place names, there are several methods and thus it is impossible to be consistent. (Sep 9, '11)

[Re Roh sheds light on Russian switch, Sep 7] The late Roh Tae-woo's thoughts grasped the tectonic shift in the international climate preceding the collapse of the Soviet Union. In classical prose he justifies opening relations with the USSR by analogy, by alluding to Chinese history, to justify his playing his "Northern card".

In the long run, Kim Dae-jung's "Sunshine Policy" is seen in a clearer light in relaxing tensions with North Korea, an opening to northeast and Russia's vast Eurasian land mass for regional economic development.

The Soviets readily responded to Roh's initiative the more especially since it could no longer sustain subsidizing the North. Although they did not break with Kim Il-sung, in hindsight, Russia let a stitch drop with Kim Jong-il.

Today, it is rushing to repair that damage. By contrast, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak has not acknowledged Roh's foresight in glasnost with Kim Jong-il. Once in office, he abrogated the sunshine policy, and thereby, began again the Cold War between the two Koreas. The result of his short sidedness is best seen by his regime's plaints that opening a gas pipeline carrying Russian natural gas through North Korea allows Kim Jong-il to potentially hold the South's fuel supplies as hostage. If that is so, he only has himself to blame and should rue the outcome of his own political myopia.
Nakamura Junzo
Guam (Sep 8, '11)


[Re Confidence wearing thin, Sep 7] As the American economy is threatened by insolvency, therefore presenting a clear and present danger to America's national security, let the wise discuss what the Fed does or does not do. However, the stakes are a lot higher than that. On this tenth anniversary of September 11Th, we cannot forget how the reckless policies of the Bush/Cheney administration, based on speculative fiction in its war on terror, drove America's vibrant economy to the verge of collapse doing untold damage to its national security and making America appear in the eyes of the world as a toothless giant.

How did all this happen? Aided and abetted by Republican Congresses, the Bush/Cheney administration managed to double the national debt with the mantra that "Reagan proved deficits do not matter." Now, with their "tea bagger" supporters, the Republicans claim to be deficit hawks, giving new meaning to hypocrisy. Two wars were conducted without paying for them, currently costing US$10-12 billion a month. A tax cut not paid for, which over 10 years will cost over $4 trillion. A Medicare fix not paid for and a national security state created that when you add it all up, cost over $1.3 trillion a year out of the budget.

Having inherited an economy in a mess, the Obama administration is trying to implement a new direction. But every citizen should also be demanding, from his/her representatives and captains of industry, relevant discussions to answer a series of questions. For example, what happened to enlightened patriotism that kept jobs in the United States rather than shipping them overseas? Jobs that paid decent wages with decent benefits keeping the American dream alive? What happened to investing in the US rather than keeping trillions of dollars offshore so taxes would not be paid? What happened to paying your fair share of taxes as billionaires grow and the middle class shrinks? What happened to investing in America's future by renewing and building roads, bridges, public facilities, schools, etc, badly in need of repair?

America cannot be America if its national security is threatened by an economy in despair and a land of opportunity for the few rather than the many. Those who understand this will move America forward and those who do not, will surely be part of history's dustbin.
Fariborz S Fatemi
United States (Sep 8, '11)


The use of moles to infiltrate, influence, subvert and undermine people, companies and countries is nothing new in human history. The employment of patsies is also of ancient vintage; they are used by the moles to either take the blame for some heinous act they had little to do with or do something they think is good but is actually, in the long run, against their best interest.

The ideal patsy works for utopian dreams, money or a need to feel part of a greater social good and are usually mentally unstable misfits, unlikely to connect dots or ask questions. The marriage of mole and patsy is therefore a sine qua non of the successful intelligence operation that typically involves creating crises so that a massive transfer of wealth can occur without suspicion.

The beauty of the arrangement is that the public is entirely focused on the group or cause the patsy represents, while the mole ensures that this misguided attention never wavers and the moles' role remains concealed. Usually this involves subverting the media into a stooge accomplice, pounding the illusion into people's heads and viciously denouncing contrary views as "unpatriotic".

A spectacular and very public operation allegedly perpetrated by the patsy becomes the cause celebre for the mole's employers end goals, which more often than not means destroying the rule of law, imposition of a fascist state and the acquisition of vast wealth at the beguiled public's expense. These employers, the so-called "shadow governments," are the real powers that pull the cosmetic government's strings so they support the patsy fable to the public. You and I will never see these real powers, though; we're too busy screaming at their stooge politicos on ranting heads TV.

As we approach a decade since the 9/11 Mole/Patsy Event, we see that all these plans have been fulfilled. Identifying the moles and patsies behind this monstrous crime is irrelevant now, since the loss of American sovereignty is now inevitable and the transfer of its treasure almost complete. However, the identity of one mole, Rupert Murdoch, merits special mention, as his climb up the mogul ladder was hugely assisted by the CIA and MI6 for their deep cover plans of the future - plans that, as all can now see, have come to full fruition with his media empire's invaluable help. Those security organs, in league with criminal mafias and like-minded intelligence resources like Mossad, are the mole controllers and patsy handlers (though, ironically, they themselves are riddled with moles planted by the never-trusting shadow government.)

But from a historian's point of view, identifying the beginning of the mole/patsy relationship may be useful. I, for one, favor 1898 as the starting year, with United States President McKinley being the patsy and the well-connected Teddy Roosevelt his mole handler, instigating imperialist takeovers with manufactured crises in Cuba and Hawaii. These two were soon followed by Woodrow Wilson, patsy, and his mole, Edward House, who created the oligarchy's institutions of wealth control, the Federal Reserve and the income tax, and in their wake came the set-up Lusitania incident and America's lucrative entry into Word War I. Pearl Harbor was the creation of the moles in the patsy FDR administration, and the CIA the inevitable product of post-war corporatization of the mole-patsy coupling. You see a pattern here, I'm sure; set up the faked crisis, initiate war, reap the profits, move on and repeat. This modus operandi created America's illicit empire, so it is fitting it will end it also.
Hardy Campbell
United States (Sep 8, '11)


[Re Long-term prospects for Israel and Turkey , Sep 6] Victor Kotsev has put sugar on a bitter pill: in the long run, we are all dead, Lord Keynes famously said. Will Israel have enough commonsense to rescue its relations with Turkey? Maybe if the Likud led right wing government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is replaced by a center left coalition? Yet, no one can say for sure.

At the present moment, Netanyahu is willing to sacrifice long standing relations with Turkey. Did not M K Bhadrakumar write in Asia Times Online, that Netanyahu has a fall back position with Greek Cyprus and Greece, and we might add Romania and Bulgaria. Do the sums, these four countries do not, by a long shot, make up the heft militarily and economically of Turkey. Of course, the US stands behind Israel.

If Israel has not enough cotton to thread, today's The New York Times Online revealed a crack in the US Israeli friendship. The wraps have flown off a story of a leak of monitored conversations by the FBI of the Israeli embassy in Washington, specifically on way the Zionist state tries to manipulate American lawmakers and opinion through entities like American Israel Public Affairs Committee. The Times story revealed that a conversation involved an unnamed congressman from Texas, and the embassy was preparing speeches and articles which influential supporters of Israel would willingly ghost for.

For months not a word of this leak was bruited until today. It is a signal to Netanyahu of the Obama administration's displeasure of Israel's break with Turkey by refusing to offer an apology and compensation for the attack on and killing of nine Turks on the Mavi Marmara. Through his mulishness, Netanyahu is causing serious trouble for the US and Turkey, if not the Arab and Muslim world.
Abraham Bin Yiju
Italy (Sep 7, '11)


[Re Long-term prospects for Israel and Turkey , Sep 6] Turkey under the Justice and Development Party (AKP) is no longer Turkey that Israel was used to, and it will never again be the same.

The last support base of Israel, the Turkish Military hierarchy has crumbled. Turkish generals, realizing that their game was up, had to throw in the towel and resign. Since the Young Turks Revolution, which was mostly funded by Jewish financiers, Israel had enjoyed Turkish support and collaboration against Arab countries. This will never happen again.

Turkey, having realized that it's future lies with Asia, Middle East and Africa rather then Europe, has made tremendous progress in veering away from Europe and Israel. It is a deliberate policy that will make Turkey a leader in the Muslim world. Israel is no longer important to Turkish geo-political and economical goals. As a matter of fact, relations with Israel were a huge burden on Turkey and the liberation from this bondage has been masterfully crafted by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the AKP. Turkey does not need Israel.
Vincent Maadi
South Africa (Sep 7, '11)


[Re Gross out and Confidence wearing thin, Sep 6] When that ''fateful day of reckoning'' comes and the outsized amounts of greenbacks sloshing around in global markets race back to the US, major economies of the world will learn a painful monetary lesson courtesy of Uncle Ben (Bernanke).

The US is in trouble? Maybe somewhat economically for certain segments of the population, but not financially as a nation. When the next global crisis hits, all that cash being hoarded by American multinational corporations can be deployed to gobble up distressed companies all over the world at fire-sale prices. It’s a clever plan, just a bit deficient on long-term thinking if the US intends to go it alone.
John Chen
United States (Sep 7, '11)


The hubbub in Wonderland revolves around the question, Are we headed to another recession? The curiosity is akin to that of a man falling from the 30th floor of a building, worried that he'll catch a life threatening cold cold on the way down. Sadly, even his sudden encounter with Mother Earth will not enlighten him a singular iota. Similarly, in this Land of the Clueless, drifting down the River Denial in the leaking Titanic, brushing against a sleeping crocodile will be more than enough to bring the once mighty to a bitter and soggy end, but no matter; all the deck hands will instead be scanning the horizon for signs of a rescue vessel, a mythic resurrection of a system so corrupt and rotten that the kindest fate will be for it to commiserate with the fishes.

I hear these fantasies on a daily basis, and can therefore identify so well with Lewis Carroll's bewildered Alice, though the Tea Partyers in her Wonderland are, I daresay, more intelligent and rationale than the rabid white trash who foam at the mouth in our "real" version. In Alice's universe, there the denizens can think of six impossible things before breakfast, but here, thousands of preposterous and fantastic dreams are conjured up every second, on a continuous, neverending basis, to be disseminated to an eager, anxious, desperate public, from reviving manufacturing industries that will never to see these shores again to resuscitating the vanishing middle class to eradicating our debt with more debt (even the Mad Hatter scratched his mercury-soaked head on that one.)

Alice also met someone who was obviously an American, the famously bloated, pompous and fragile Humpty Dumpty, who was convinced that all the king's horses and all the king's men would do to his fallen carcass what Obama, Geithner and the Wall Street Gang hope and pray (in public, at least) will be done to our shattered-into-a-trillion-pieces-of-eggshell economy. Alas, I'm quite certain all the king's men and horses will have better things to do that weekend. Alice also learned that running faster and faster was necessary to stay in the same place, a lesson being learned all too well in falling-further-and-further-behind-the-rest-of-the-world Ameri-can't.

While it is true that Alice's acquaintances had their incredible and downright stupid beliefs, none could compare with America's fervent, almost religious obsession with the 9/11 Fairy Tale, a concoction of physical impossibilities, mythological coincidences and where's-the-pea-under-the-shell rubbish that would make the Cheshire Cat grin with smug superiority.

Indeed, she met so many delusional and befuddled characters in such an idiotic landscape, one wonders if it wasn't Modern Amerika Lewis Carroll used as his backdrop, as if he had a time machine crystal ball to see how addled, topsy turvy and utterly ridiculous America would become in the 21st century. Maybe we can sue for plagiarism.
Hardy Campbell
United States (Sep 7, '11)


As we approach the commemoration date of the Greatest Treason in History, let us ponder one of its most sinister legacies. The cancer rates amongst firefighters and police who were at the collapse sites of the Twin Towers is, 10 years on, 19-32% greater than normal.

Doctors are puzzled at these extraordinary rates; even with heavy exposure to the witch's brew of toxic chemicals pulverized and distributed into the lungs and systems of the rescuers, the latency period for such malignancies should be plural decades, not a singular one. ( I note in passing similar bafflement about the still mysterious Gulf War Syndrome among veterans of that escapade.)

However, in the case of the Twin Towers, the reasons for such obfuscation seems obvious; the special high energy demolition explosives embedded in the structural foundations prior to the "attack" carry distinctive and unique chemical and radiation signatures, completely incompatible with the National Fairy Tale of Jet Planes Causing Building Collapse.

Indeed, the removal of most of the fallen steel immediately after 9-11 (which constitutes tampering with evidence at a crime scene) meant that a definitive forensic analysis could not be conducted to determine the cause of the collapse, allowing the George W Bush cabal to disseminate to a bewildered public their bogus and preposterous fiction. But inside the sickened and dying bodies of those heroes of 9-11 may lie residue of the demolition explosive the government of the "Change" President (aka Bush the Third) still wants to conceal from us.

Methinks Barack Obama and his plutocronies will be content to say kind words at their funerals and see that chemical truth buried with them forever.
Hardy Campbell
United States (Sep 6, '11)


[Re Dear Leader plays it smart, Sep 1] For sure the "economic ramifications" of a trans-Korean pipeline are "significant", yet Yong Kwon's eye is not on the target of Russian-North Korean talks. The political consequences of the meeting of Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev and Kim Jong-il are even more important.

Not only is China giving traction to Kim's call to return to the six-party talks with no conditions, but Russia is putting its weight behind that effort too.

A negotiated resolution of North Korea's nuclear program is key to economic stability for the development of the pipeline. Although South Korea and the US might dismiss Kim's declaration, which also includes abiding by North Korea's 2005 explicit announcement to suspend that very say program, they cannot ignore it.

South Korea and the US need China's and Russia's support on many issues of global import in perilous economic and changing political fortunes that they will, like it or not, have to agree to reconvening the suspended talks in Beijing. Neither of these two countries are in the cat bird seat on this matter, it seems.
Nakamura Junzo
Guam (Sep 2, '11)


"Freedom" is the single word used most frequently by Blunderlanders to justify the enormous crimes committed in its name. "Our troops are fighting to defend our freedom," is the standard phrase used by the parrotheads. But what's never elaborated is what freedoms they talk about. One might suppose freedom of speech is what's meant, but if that were so, we would have plenty of open discussion about the suspicious nature of the 9-11 "terrorist" attack, but that subject is The Third Rail of Amerikan Media; anyone questioning the Official Lie risks losing more than their jobs.

So not much freedom there. What other freedom could it be? Freedom of assembly, perhaps? Well, I suppose if you put asterisks by that, maybe; white Tea Partyers are free to heckle, harass and intimidate Democrats 'til the cows come home, but just yesterday dozens of liberals were arrested outside the White House when staging a public protest against a pipeline being proposed in Canada. So, no, that's a very qualified and restricted freedom; surely we're not losing trillions of dollars and destroying lives for that?

How about freedom to move form job to job without worrying about any repercussions? No, no, you would lose insurance benefits if you have a pre-existing illness, since we have no single-payer health insurance in this country like all civilized countries around the world have, so you're really not free to change jobs when you want.

Hmm ... lemme think ... oh, yes, I know where our genuine freedoms lie. Freedom of governments to deceive and cheat and loot, freedom for corporations to reap enormous tax subsidies while they transplant US jobs overseas, freedom for bankers to rob their customers blind and then get reimbursed handsomely by the same tax-paying customers, freedom for the government to suspend all your rights as an American so they can protect your rights as an American, freedom for Amerika to wage war on literally any brown people on earth, well, the list of freedoms goes on and on.

Our cup runneth over with a bounty of freedoms, freedoms that include the right and opportunity to slit a nation's throat and let to bleed slowly to death in a sea of ideological recriminations, theosocial conflict and unrestrained jingoistic militarism. This is the Freedom of Pyhrrus.
Hardy Campbell
United States (Sep 2, '11)


[Re US vapor trail leads to Jasmine revolt, Aug 31] Tempting as it is to find the United States' hand in fomenting revolt, it would do to recall that revolt against China's authority does not date from yesterday.

Already in 1935 as he set about to trace a road through Xinjiang or East Turkmenistan at the request of the Chinese government in Nanjing, the Swedish explorer and topographer Sven Hedin noted a widespread uprising brutally put down by Chinese troops.

Revolt and rebellion are a "red" thread which run through Muslim resisters against Han expansion. Today with the influx of Chinese at the urging of the central government in Beijing has already turned the Turkmen into a minority and they share the almost universal feeling of being strangers in their own land.

China has its own self to blame for its wanting to turn its minorities into model "Han" citizens.
Mel Cooper
Singapore (Sep 1, '11)

August Letters