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Please note: This Letters page is intended primarily for
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The Edge is the place for that. The editors do not mind publishing one
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November 2011
[Re Blazing Saddles
in Pakistan, Nov 28] I'm very surprised by the humanity of this
analysis: "The Reagan administration did its best to prolong the Iran-Iraq
war." So by that assumption we can summize that Spengler approved of the
Iran-Contra affair - the cocainized policy of US in Latin America that led to
millions of refugees and deaths. He approved of the US giving Saddam Hussein
weapons of mass destruction, and of selling weapons to Iran. He approved of the
US financing and backing the Taliban versus that ugly demon of the red bear. He
approves of the fact that a good part of the US political elite is part of a
hardcore drug cartel that financed Osama Bin Laden. Spengler doesn't mind in
what form the West wins as along as "US democrazy" wins in the end.
Canek Zapata
Mexico (Nov 30, '11)
The ongoing pedophile scandal in one of Wonderland's premier college football
factories highlights a tried and true American expertise that, t'were it
saleable, would garner this country trillions in profits. The hush-hush
cover-up behind the alleged child molester's decades of predation served to
preserve the school's hypocritical veneer of integrity and prevent decades of
lawsuits that, of course, they will have anyway, and in spades. The
functionaries that participated in the denial, excuse-making,
self-rationalization and whitewashing doubtless thought they were doing
everyone (except the young victims) a favor, but, in truth, they were merely
upholding the The American Art of the Cover-up which has been honed on the
grinding wheel of media scrutiny, social morality and legal consequence.
This talent of obfuscating the embarrassing is best exemplified by the
Watergate scandal, with second place merited by Iran-Contra. I preclude the
American Catholic Church's pedophile-friendly coverups just because that is
part of a worldwide conspiracy coordinated from the Vatican, but I would not be
surprised if home-grown, media-savvy WonderPriests didn't have plenty of input
into that process. Competing for the remaining positions in this Hall of Shame
would be the numerous covered-up-then-exploded corporate scandals exemplified
by Enron and WorldCom, Pentagon cover-ups like the Pat Tillman friendly fire
incident, and of course the as-yet unexposed involvement of the US government
in the 9/11 "terrorist attacks." Less well perceived is the ongoing coverup of
the financial meltdown that is both incipient and predetermined. The continuing
undermining of all efforts to rein in Wall Street shenanigans is kept under
wraps by the financial media and the politicians who stand to profit from it.
It's as if 2008 hadn't happened, as if the US dollar was not inflated into the
stratosphere, and as if more jobs aren't disappearing every day to some distant
shore. But that is the essence of Wonderland; covering up the unpleasant,
hiding the facts, denying the consequences and dreaming of a world where simply
being American makes you a superstar.
Hardy Campbell
Texas (Nov 30, '11)
[Re Blazing Saddles
in Pakistan, Nov 28, '11] Once again this author displays his weird
propensity for transferring a description of Israel onto another nation. I
refer to the description of Pakistan. It is Israel that is "run by terrorists"
and has atomic weapons that it uses as a threat to others. For those who
remember their history, the British government characterized the founders of
Israel (among them the Stern Gang) as "terrorists". Subsequent events (such as
attacks on neutral vessels on the high seas by Israel) verify this description.
Lou Vignates (Nov 29, '11)
[Re Taiwan's Ma
fails to stir panic on rising rival Tsai, Nov 28, '11] A Taiwan that
switches to all-nuclear power energy for its industrial, residential, and
transportation needs is one that can better resist reunification with the
Chinese mainland. The stakes will be higher, as the mainland might actually
attack the nuclear facilities (with tremendous ramifications and economic
consequences to mainland China due to global outrage), but Taiwan will have
greater probability of prolonging its status quo for more decades. The Chinese
mainland may never have the courage to attack them. On the other hand, as long
as Taiwan relies on fossil fuel, the mainland side will not need to actually
initiate any attack on the island to compel reunification. Unlike fossil fuel
that is abjectly bulky and requiring large and slow moving vessels that are
completely exposed and vulnerable, nuclear fuel rods are much more concealable.
The mainland will need a comprehensive blockade to affect Taiwan’s nuclear
energy supply. It will be more decades before the Chinese mainland acquires the
power to actually and completely blockade Taiwan; whereas virtual blockade on
fossil fuel supply, designed to erode Taiwan’s economy slowly, will be much
easier, scalable in application, and non-committal (situationally reversible to
be re-applied later if necessary). As long as Taiwan relies on fossil fuel, the
mainland will eventually gravely affect the Taiwan’s economy with very little
force actually applied, only with enormous force as intimidating standby,
giving Taiwan the token chance to attack the mainland first.
"Taiwan would be able to generate sufficient electricity even if it abandoned
nuclear power, she [Tsai] said." This is very wishful thinking. Time will come,
maybe in 30 years, when the fossil fuel to generate electricity will be much
more expensive if available. The mainland can compel owners of oil-tankers to
consider the elevated risks: oil [or coal] will be more expensive (if available
at all) if oil-tankers have a real chance of requiring repair after each
delivery, to say the least. Will the USA aid Taiwan, risking a destructive war
that has not happened? Eventually, the answer will be no.
Taiwan cannot hope to have its eyes on the stock market and rhetorically
proclaim sovereignty. To prolong the status quo, it will need to endure
decisively. A combination of prosperity with the Chinese mainland and more
mundane peace is tantamount to eventual reunification, as a niche within China.
Jeff Church
USA (Nov 29, '11)
Dear Editor: Since US free-market capitalism has failed under the
administration of former President George W Bush, and now is collapsing again
under that of President Barack Obama, and since the US Congressional
bi-partisan super-committee has failed to form any agreement on how to bring
the US budget under control, it is obvious that neither Republican nor
Democratic political parties can solve the current economic and political
collapse. They simply are not willing to face the fact that free-markets do not
work over a long-term, because without sufficient regulation of large banks and
corporations by the people, the natural tendency toward maximum greed causes
catastrophic economic collapse. Nations which have been experimenting with
deregulated free-markets should take heed, while there is still time to
re-impose proper regulations on banks and large businesses. All incumbent
candidates must be voted out of office in the next election, and a new
political party must arise from the people's "Occupy" movement to stabilize the
economies in both the US and Europe. We must turn our hearts away from greed
and towards non-profit, stable economies to save our currencies. Benefiting our
fellow citizens, rather than ourselves is obviously the way.
Daniel N Russell
Willow, Alaska
USA (Nov 29, '11)
[Re That rocky
road to Damascus, Nov 23, '11] It is impossible not to love you Pepe
[Escobar], with your endless, genuinely helpful facts about the world, and your
"loving?" anti-Americanism. None the less I do turn to you first, for the feast
you provide, and the wonderful humor. It goes without saying that I deeply
appreciate the entire Asia Times Online staff, and look to you all for a breath
of truly fresh air.
Paul Vereshack M D
Toronto, Canada (Nov 28, '11)
The movie J Edgar features a fine performance by Leonardo DiCaprio
depicting the man who held absolute power over Wonderland's domestic security
apparatus for 48 years. J Edgar Hoover's ruthless Inquisitorial tactics to
intimidate, coerce, disinform and lie in order to suppress minorities,
progressives and any Americans who didn't fit his WASP stereotype have left a
legacy that Torquemeda himself would surely have given a thumbs up to.
But the truth is, Hoover merely acted as the conduit and mirror for all
Amerika's fears, prejudices and secret desires. His obsession with
foreign-inspired communism reflected the native xenophobia that today demonizes
poor migrant workers, his persecution of "uppity blacks" a symptom of white
supremacy that has yet to go away, and his acquisition of extortionate
information on people in power a fitting tribute to Joe Schmoe's envy and
contempt for the high and mighty. That Hoover broke the law on numerous
occasions will not deter his admirers, the vast majority lily white neo-cons
whose idea of law and order is pretty much limited to putting as many blacks
and browns behind bars as the penal institutions can accommodate. That Hoover
manipulated the press and perjured himself before congress on numerous
occasions are yet more reasons for the average white trash neocon to high-five
this Ghost of Deceptions Past.
Now, of course, the thoroughly rotten organization he left behind has become a
retirement home for incompetent hacks who did all they could to keep the
al-Qaeda patsies from being discovered prior to 9/11, who allowed Robert Hansen
to embarrass their counter-intel operations for years and who conducted such
inept investigations into the anthrax murders of 2001 that to this day these
remain unsolved, despite their driving one "suspect" to convenient suicide. And
these examples are merely the tip of the proverbial submerged ice cube of
duplicity, ineptitude and criminality. That this modern monument to
institutional corruption continues to thrive says volumes about the real
motivation for all government security organs, such as the FBI's sister
sinisters, the Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency, to
create domestic and global instruments of wealth accumulation and power
control.
In other words, Hoover would be quite proud.
H Campbell
Texas (Nov 28, '11)
[Re Lieutenant Pike, Li
Gang, and China's Internet dilemma, Nov 24, 2011] Suppression of
freedom of expression in the US is often validated by economic realities: A
permit to demonstrate is often denied are there are insufficient funds to pay
for police for crowd control. A large can of pepper spray costs less than
overtime pay for the large number of police officers needed to physically
remove protesters. Those who do not want tuition and fees to rise in the UC
[University of California] system should understand this basic economic
reality.
A police state is not necessarily one that has the most police presence but one
in which the police, perhaps fewer in numbers, uses deadly force. In fact, a
large police presence often deviates from being a police state. The use of
pepper spray by the UC Davis campus police represents an compromise. Perhaps
political progress for China is also the use of capitalistic criteria to
selectively allow demonstrations. Ironically, in order to be less of a police
state, China will need a larger police force and to spend more on domestic
security.
One needs to look at freedom in the West with objectivity. When there is a
critical national need, such freedom yields to various degrees. Social progress
toward assimilation is much less about freedom or human rights and more about a
thoughtful elite group seeking what it believes as necessary for what it
believes to be social progress.
If China has the financial means, it can also allow more protests but can be,
analogously, oblivious to the voices of those who object, such as ethnic
minorities who protest for autonomy, for the same reason that China has a
“tradition of assimilation” and that "separate is inherently unequal".
Jeff Church
USA (Nov 28, '11)
[Re Proposed sale of
Taiwan raises no laughs, Nov 22] I doubt if Beijing is interested in
any clandestine deal with the US to pay a trillion dollars for an item that has
already been given to it through formal diplomacy. As much as Beijing takes
umbrage in US arms sale to Taiwan as it interferes with China's internal
affairs, Taiwan will never have the courage to use such weapons to, virtually,
start a war. Any such deal will have to be overt for China's national ideal and
the psychological impact on Taiwan.
Central should be that the US role will keep diminishing in the coming decades
for three reasons. First is China's immense size and rapid growth and the
commensurate advantages over Taiwan and proximity to the United States in due
course. Second, in terms of US interference with personnel, is that Washington
will never know if Taiwan wants war or negotiation, and hence will not
capriciously start a war when one has not started, to rob Taiwan of a niche
within China. Third is that the burden to start a war to deviate from the
course of reunification is Taiwan's, not that of the Chinese mainland. As long
as Taiwan relies on fossil fuel, the Taiwan issue will gravitate toward this
geographical reality: the mainland will effectively press on Taiwan's exposed
energy artery in the next decades without major military offensive initiative.
It is best for America's future to accept Taiwan being compelled into a niche
within China. A sinner is one who creates another Israel for the world. Just
one, provoking the fury of one billion Islamic people and Western reaction to
such fury, is already causing havoc to the Western world and the decline of
America. Fortunately, East Asia does not allow the American Judeo-Christian
religiosity to dominate over commonsense. Provoking the fury of one billion
religious people is quite enough to create such malaise to the Western world;
another 1.5 billion who know how to progress economically may induce its
collapse.
The question most relevant to Americans should be whether the US and China can
get along with Taiwan being compelled into a niche within China, not whether
Taiwan has the right to self-determination. The answers to this appropriate
question can be found in Taiwan's history and China's anticipated and natural
reaction to such history; that is, they are in Taiwan vowing to reclaim the
Chinese mainland, in Taiwan, dutiful of the only government of China, took much
of the Chinese cultural relics to the island, in Taiwan righteously taking much
of the Chinese treasury to the island , and, in the consolidating US response,
the US recognizing the Chinese claim that Taiwan is a part of China. It is
illogical to presume that this history should not motivate China to recover
Taiwan, and only Taiwan. China is not obligated to validate the Taiwan Relation
Act, which is a US domestic issue. The Shanghai communiqu้s are fully
expected to be viewed as the articles of diplomatic mutual good faith between
the two countries. Why should one pay a colossal surcharge for something one
already owns? Why will the US and China not get along with Taiwan being
compelled into a niche within China?
Perhaps by around 2040, when China fires a few shots over an oil-tanker leaving
Taiwan, and vows to do the same at any time without further warning, would
Taiwan take the first major military offensive and attack the Chinese mainland
in order to break free. What then will restore business confidence in Taiwan?
Will right to self-determination be worth starting a destructive war? What
could the US do? What right will the US have to decide for Taiwan between war
and a niche within China? What would China actually need to do in response to
any US initiative or otherwise? What realistic demand on China could the US
make then? An apology to Taiwan so as to restore business confidence on the
island? Those who honestly ponder on these questions should know that the US
really has nothing much to sell, that reunification across the Taiwan Strait is
inevitable in due course.
Jeff Church
United States (Nov 23, '11)
[Re Proposed sale of
Taiwan raises no laughs, Nov 22] If indeed there is to be a money for
land deal, you' would think there would be much better candidates than Taiwan.
Take Mongolia, historically part of China. The CIA facts show a 2011 population
of 3.13 million, and a 2010 GDP of US$6.125 billion.
Mongolia is landlocked (so what if it has lots of minerals, they can't be air
freighted out, and China remains the prime market); and it has terrible
management. Average household income is like $2,000-3,000 a year. If Beijing
goes in with an invitation for Mongolia to join a Federated China, by offering
US$50,000 (this is close to a lifetime of current income per family) up front
per head (which comes to $150 Billion), plus a trust fund that pays 10% of all
mineral extractions to the natives, now that'd be something to talk about.
And it would provide a model for a new federated system.
Zhuubaajie
Hong Kong (Nov 23, '11)
[Re It might not be an
Asian century after all, Nov 21] Many have counted on American ability
to innovate, and the freedom, to a guaranteed eventual recovery. But
irresponsibility is not freedom. A perfect storm appears to be gathering
tremendous destructive force.
America's ruling elites have for almost two decades "bet the farm" on the next
industrial policy. Let the developing nations fight for the $1 per hour sweat
labor jobs. America would enjoy the high living standards from the affordable
goods thus produced, and American financial institutions would skim the
cream of the the bulk of the reserves and profits of central banks and other
large financial institutions around the globe, through America's advanced
financial innovations.
That was the vision and policy so far espoused by BOTH of the US ruling
parties.
After the 2008 debacle, both Germany and China banned their banks from
derivatives gambling. Their economies are the only ones among the major
economies that recovered. In contrast, America's has not recovered. In America
today, the derivatives cancer has now grown to over US$700 trillion (by
June of 2011, according to Bloomberg), which is almost 50 times the
American GDP.
On its face, derivatives are brilliant. As a postindustrial move, derivatives
are not constrained by natural resources, not limited by labor, and restricted
only by the salesmen’s ability to sell. Upside growth looks unlimited, as
''derivatives trading'' is based solely on the ''ingenuity'' of the newfangled
breed of financial engineers. The number of ''contracts'' is not constrained by
anything in the real world.
Like opium, it costs very little to ''manufacture'', the profits are humongous,
and it is hugely destructive. In the 1800s, Anglo Americans (google "Delano"
and "Opium") forced Opium on China, and in one generation or two, caused
China’s economy to drop from the world’s No. 1 or 2, to No. 178. Just like
opium, this time around this new ''drug'' is also pushed as part of ''free
trade''. Demands are made on all nations that want to do business, that they
must open their banking industry and relevant markets to the trade.
The difference this time is that it is done backwards. The opium trade was
supposed to plague foreigners, and to be banned domestically. But the
swashbuckling "traders" this time around, are so greedy they have no qualms
about profiting from the pain of their own brothers and sisters and even
grandmothers, and so they did. The derivatives drug is so potent, it took down
the Anglo-American societies and economies before they could kill the China
economy.
The cancer appears unstoppable. This month there is serious talk of American
mutual funds adopting derivatives on a large scale, and the Commodities
Commission is setting rules to make trading derivatives more accessible to the
small guys. The derivatives casino is going to be $1.5 quadrillion in no
time - another American contribution to the human race.
The 2008 derivatives-caused debacle was only a first taste. Sheer gambling at a
level 50 to 100 times GDP is sheer madness. Zhuubaajie
Hong Kong (Nov 22, '11)
Pity the West. After 500 years of undisputed hegemony, the end of that
domination is nigh. The signs, of course, are everywhere; China playing the
role of enabler to Amerika the obsessive-compulsive junkie, India siphoning
jobs out of middle Wonderland, Japan, Taiwan and Korea being the sole provider
of everything of manufactured value. But of all the symbols that proclaim doom,
none compares in comic absurdity to the imperialist obsession with Iran, the
brown country that refuses to kowtow to Western injustice, colonization and
impoverishment. To the white powers, there is no greater sin than a non-white,
non-Christian nation like Iran thumbing its nose at all the hypocritical values
that the West holds so dear.
Monday saw the unveiling of yet another futile, impotent and irrelevant
embargo, sanction or restriction on the Islamic Republic. This farcical ritual
has become so commonplace that no one even musters a yawn anymore when some
State Department blowhard pompously proclaims this or that denying to Iran of
something the West thinks is a big deal. The fact is, nothing has worked.
Neither the levers of finance or the rattling of swords will deny Iran their
right to protect themselves from the capitalist-Zionists. One would think that
the Wonderlanders would run out of things to attempt to coerce Iran with, yet
every week comes some new and improved sanction to follow the hundreds of
worthless sanctions that over 32 years have done nothing but embolden, anger
and reinforce Iran's defiance.
The definition of insanity seems operative here, and the looney Americans,
Brits and NATO stooges will continue to whittle down their list of things left
to embargo on Iran until all they'll have left is pistachio nuts (somehow very
apropos). Maybe Washington will pepper Tehran with the shelled nuts, because
that's as close as a bankrupt Pentagon will come to warring with the Persian
state. What these white idiots don't realize is that these very acts of
punitive futility enrich the ascendant East by allowing Asians to profit from
supplying the Iranians with all those "embargoed" items, thus allowing Tehran
to continue its nuclear program with nary a worry. They accept Iranian oil in
payment without a concern over the easily evaded "restrictions" imposed on
companies that trade with Iran. (Though don't doubt for a second that Western
companies and politicians aren't profiting mightily also.)
All this means that the West can do nothing but grind their teeth in
frustration that all the elements that have allowed them to subjugate the brown
people of the planet for 500 years is now useless. They have been broken on the
wheel of belligerent war, reckless finance and social injustice, and their
so-called role models of democracy, capitalism and technology have been shown
to be impotent portends of decline, decay and death.
Hardy Campbell
United States (Nov 22, '11)
[Re US creates an
Iranian albatross, Nov 17] After reading Afrasiabi's article, I was
left wondering why no one else especially in the American media has detected
the significant holes in the terror story mentioned in this article? I applaud
Afrasiabi for his usual mastery of the subjects he pens about. He is a head and
shoulder above so-called Iran experts that are paraded on US television all the
time.
Tim
Canada (Nov 21, '11)
[Re Revelations
of a secret war, Nov 18] Bertil Lintner has written an engaging and
clear review of Gibson's and Chen's book The Secret Army: Chiang Kai-shek and
the Drug Warlords of the Golden Triangle. In his review, he mentions
the excellent Enquete sur une armee secrete by Catherine Lamour,
unfortunately only available in French. I can recommend another book by her,
co-written with Michel R Lamberti, Les grandes manoeuvres de l'opium (1972),
translated as The Second Opium War (1974). These sorts of
well-researched and intelligent books never age, they are treasure troves.
There are five chapters dedicated to the Golden Triangle, including one titled The
KMT: a New Secret Army, and they make very interesting reading.
Dr G Bittar
Switzerland (Nov 21, '11)
[Re Linda Goetz Holmes' letter of Nov 16] In her reply to my letter regarding
her interview about
Japanese Americans, Linda Goetz Holmes shows that she still fails to appreciate
my critique or the troublesome nature of her charges. She continues to place
her faith in David Lowman's past accusations that US intelligence intercepts of
coded Japanese messages revealed massive spying by Japanese Americans. The
intercepts show spying by Japanese officials, a point which no historian has
ever contested, and a tiny fraction reveal intentions or hopes to connect with
Japanese Americans. However, there is no evidence that the Japanese government
recruited Japanese American agents, both because they would be too vulnerable
and because Tokyo doubted (with reason) the loyalty of the American-born.
Colonel Kenneth Ringle of the Office of Naval Intelligence, who was the
best-informed agent on Japanese espionage, and who led the daring midnight raid
on the Japanese consulate in Los Angeles that led to the unmasking of Japanese
spy rings there, firmly defended the loyalty and Americanism of the Japanese
Americans and opposed mass removal. During the 1980s both Congress and the US
Court of Appeals heard Lowman's arguments rationalizing mass removal of
Japanese Americans, and rejected them. No serious historian lends credence to
them.
The fallacious nature of the argument, apparent on many counts, is most easily
revealed by a larger vision. If the American government had information that
Japanese Americans in fact posed a threat, the round up would logically have
started right after Pearl Harbor, and would have centered on Hawaii, the place
that was actually attacked.
Indeed, a group of some 1,000 community leaders and other aliens were arrested,
and some of them were interned after hearings). However, Japanese Americans in
Hawaii were never subjected to mass confinement. Instead, it was the white
nativist and commercial interest groups that had long despised Japanese
Americans, and the opportunistic politicians representing them, who clamored in
later weeks for the government to "get rid of" the Japanese Americans. The Army
carried out removal with terrifying literalness, emptying out orphanages and
separating families.
Assistant Secretary of War John McCloy himself, the chief director of mass
removal, admitted in a private note to a colleague in July 1942 about Japanese
Americans, "They are under no suspicion for the most part and were moved
largely because we felt we could not control our own white citizens in
California." Moreover, the fact that the Canadian government, which certainly
had no access to the MAGIC intercepts or the information contained in them,
rounded up and confined in similar fashion all citizens and residents of
Japanese ancestry living on its West Coast. Are we to understand that the
Canadians were paranoid and racist, while the Americans were rational and
justified?
Goetz Holmes persists also in stating that because Japanese Americans were
either dual citizens or aliens, they were worthy targets for mass confinement,
just like Europeans interned by Japan. Japan's treatment of its prisoners was
indeed brutal, and deserves redress, but that is a completely different matter
from a nation seizing a select group of its own citizens, plus a smaller number
of long-term residents barred from citizenship (until 1952, not 1957), and
placing them under guard without due process on racial grounds.
As I stated previously, by no means all Americans of Japanese ancestry had
Japanese citizenship, and for those who did it was purely nominal. In any case,
whether or not people are "dual citizens" does not in itself erase an iota of
their loyalty, still less their right to equal treatment and protection of
their fundamental liberties. To say otherwise is an insult to the American
Constitution.
Greg Robinson
Author of By Order of the President: FDR and the Internment of Japanese
Americans (Harvard University Press, 2001)
Canada (Nov 21, '11)
Editor's note: Writers are invited to send any further correspondence on
this issue to The Edge.
[Re Israel strives
to impress, Nov 17] Israel is being driven into a corner of its own
making. It will capitalize on any event - such as the recent explosion of an
ammo dump at a military camp in Iran - and through innuendos embrace the
incident as the work of the Mossad, even though it may not be true. The Zionist
state is applying the grease of propaganda to its own squeaky wheels.
Looking at a rebroadcast of the American talk show host Charlie Rose's longish
interview of Israeli defense minister Ehud Barack, I was immediately struck as
how maladroit he was in presenting his country's case. In fact, Rose had to
take him up on Barack's blatant torture of the truth. He couldn't hide the
reality we see on the television on Israel's acts in the West Bank, Arab East
Jerusalem, Gaza and Egypt and in international waters that violate
international law. The list of the Zionist state's wrongs is long and well
documented.
In spite of an Israeli general's warning that another "Cast Lead" is needed in
Gaza, the Associated Press reports that Israel has allowed lorry loads of
construction materials into Gaza for the reconstruction of 10 privately owned
factories. Surely this is a signal that Israel is engaging more and more in
braggadocio as its reputation sinks in the West.
Abraham Bin Yiju
Italy (Nov 18, '11)
[Re The
incredible lightheadedness of being German, Nov 15] I am quite amazed,
given your author Spengler's claims to have served in a consulting capacity at
the National Security Council, that he could have made such a mistake as
saying: "Schmidt had always opposed installation of medium-range
missiles in Germany; he used to joke that the definition of a tactical nuclear
weapon was one that exploded in Germany. His government fell in 1982 when his
coalition partners, the Free Democrats, dumped him and formed a government with
Helmut Kohl's Christian Democratic Union. I always suspected (with no evidence)
that the United States dug out some old dossiers to persuade the Free Democrats
to bring Schmidt down." In fact Schmidt was anything but an
appeaser. He was a former highly decorated Lieutenant of the Wehrmacht and an
adamant proponent of the stationing of American medium range missiles in
Germany. He and his generation (his conservative opposites Franz-Josef Strauss,
Albrecht and Helmut Kohl come to mind) did indeed believe that there needed to
be nuclear missiles in Germany to counter the Soviet threat. And when they
didn't get them at first from the Americans in the seventies, they tried to
build their own. That is the background to Nukem and Alkem (two reprocessing
plants near Frankfurt) and to Intrac, a big missile building project which had
already acquired a huge piece of land in the Congo.
At the end of the Seventies, Germany was a "latent" nuclear power. The plants
were there and in a few weeks there would have been quite a few bombs would
Bonn have so desired. Now the US liked neither Germany becoming neutralized by
the Soviet threat nor Germany acquiring her own deterrent and thus becoming
independent of US "protection". Therefore a more assertive US stationed the
Pershings.
In the telling of Spengler it sounds as if a Germany that had given itself up
had been rescued by a benevolent US administration. The reality is much more
complex. The same goes for the rest of his article. How can he claim that the
low German birthrate is a sign of Germany having given in to memories of the
Holocaust, when Singapore, Japan have even lower birthrates? Not to speak of
White Anglo-Saxon Protestants of New England, among whom children are just as
rare. Maybe something else something much more complex is at play here.
Tom Lessoskallow (Nov 18, '11)
[Re Uyghurs challenged
by life in Beijing, Nov 16] The author depicts the typical vacillation
in subjective reasoning of ethnic minorities. The essence is in: ''Further, in
a reflex of passive resistance against a society which quite systematically
denies them integration, Uyghurs have come to regard Han Chinese as a threat to
their culture, and tend to strengthen their national identity by emphasizing
the cultural, linguistic, ethnic and religious aspects which distinguishes them
from the Han.''
The simple fact is that in order to have true integration, minority cultural
identity must end. The majority's culture cannot be viewed as a threat. A
minority cannot reasonably complain about being denied integration and
simultaneously seek to retain one's culture, let alone that of the offspring by
autonomy, or other euphemism for segregation. At the most basic level,
integration is about cultural exchange and dilution; as the ideal end,
integration is that of the genes through courtship and marriage, body fluid
exchange for the procreation of the next generation. Multiculturalism, where
cultural differences are respected and accepted, can be an interim milestone,
but assimilation leading to end of clan mentality in a country has to be the
end.
Moreover, in view of such typical vacillation in subjective reasoning by
minorities, the intelligent leadership devises rhetorical expressions and
symbolism in policy to cater to such vacillation. Such is the explanation for:
''The national media usually offers an idealized portrayal of ethnic
minorities, emphasizing their exoticism and folklore and stressing the fact
that they live in harmony and unity with the Han majority.'' It simply portrays
and promotes multiculturalism. Such is only a milestone in fact but in order to
be effective as the milestone, multiculturalism must be advertised as the end.
Those who insist on rigor in truth in expression, and even debate on it, are
missing this most basic truth. There is a need for rhetoric when there is a
prevalent psychological idiosyncrasy to overcome.
There is a parallel in Martin Luther King's ''I want to be the white man's
brother, not his brother-in-law''. One cannot find rigor of truth in this
rhetoric expression. Did it mean ''we black men know our places and will leave
white women alone''? Such could be the interpretation. One could have asked
Obama senior. No, at the time it was only a psychological buffer to black
idiosyncrasy toward assimilation and white arrant fear against it. Beijing's
proclaimed policy of multiculturalism bears the same reason. All
pseudo-promises of segregation should be reneged upon; one should have the
objective view of such intelligent rhetoric. Moreover, at the time China was an
agrarian, poor, and very underdeveloped country, which had a natural tendency
to have greater regionalism and social separation; modernization and
development of the tertiary sector favor assimilation.
Another contradiction is found in: ''The overall sense of resentment is so
pervasive that even trivial cultural differences have become the target of
criticism, standing in the way of unbiased communication and contributing to
further segregation.'' If one does not want ''segregation'', one should not
demand any autonomy. It is unwise to seek ''unbiased communication'' when the
very bias is in proclaiming the virtue of ethnic cultural identity and in
denying the virtue of assimilation.
Jeff Church
United States (Nov 17, '11)
[Re Conditions unripe
for North Korea revolt, Nov 16] To me, it sounds astonishing that
seasoned North Korean watchers finally have to come to the conclusion that
North Korea is "unripe for revolt". At long last, the finger of reality has
dissipated the puffery of tortured intellectual models and the strong pull of
what Freud called "wish fulfillment of collapse" of the regime in the North.
And it's about time!
Nakamura Junzo
Guam (Nov 17, '11)
[Re The
incredible lightheadedness of being German, Nov 15] Bad temper because
some European nations, especially Germany, are offering some obstacles to
wishes of Wall Street, presently?
Walter Grobe
Germany (Nov 16, '11)
[Re Europe's
Lehman Brothers, November 15, and
The capitalist myth, Nov 15]. ''The global economy may be destined to
decades of decline, from which emergence may be impossible.''
Gee, Martin, thanks for that cheerful note to start the holiday season. Au
contraire, humanity actually has a great deal more room to grow and prosper,
notwithstanding the recent eclipse of the seven-billion population mark. In
fact, if the world is not consumed by military conflagration within the next
ten years or so, a prolonged period of global prosperity will likely follow.
While things invariably look hopelessly dire in the middle of a gut-wrenching
economic downturn (and the worst is yet to come with the current one), the next
decade will allow nations to realign themselves and to figure out how they’ll
each fit in and contribute to a more-or-less reordered international system.
Though that’s a task easier said than done, the biggest challenge remains
mankind’s unwillingness to channel its collective energy toward creative
innovation and away from greed-driven destructive tendencies, be they military
or financial. Let’s hope we won’t need a global war to (re)learn that lesson.
John Chen
United States (Nov 16, '11)
[Re US, China
in Sudan great game, Nov 15] China has historically not been an
occupier. The Great Game is a term better applied to those with an
imperialistic mindset.
Since US manufacturing has decamped to China, why is the United States fighting
for resources with China? The Great Game prognosticators fail to make that
logical connection.
They should also take note that China was the beneficiary of US interventions
in both Afghanistan and Iraq!
Human rights are abused in most countries. As one torture specialist noted over
two-thirds of the countries apply torture. Yet Western countries have no
problem dealing with those countries without any complaint or moralizing! The
sheer hypocrisy of what is happening in Bahrain today and how it is being
ignored also delegitimizes human rights as a moralistic stand as well. Also
condoning rendition and water boarding is another smack in the face.
And the use of depleted uranium (DU) in warfare which leaves its mark on
countries for generations is another smack in the face to human rights
moralizers. The should know who uses DU in weapons. They should also ask why
what Sudan did in a civil war is considered so bad when far worse in Fallujah
was accepted?
The US is wasting money on its military while its economy rots at home! Soon
that military will be too expensive to maintain. Right now China is helping pay
for that military by buying US debt; yet the military wants to bite the hand
that feeds it. Not a sign of sanity.
May Sage (Nov 16, '11)
[Re Revisiting
Japanese-American Internment, October 13, and Greg Robinson's
letter, Oct 13] In response to the critique of Professor Greg Robinson
at the Universite du Quebec a Montreal of the interview that I gave to Victor
Fic, who besides Professor Robinson has "long discredited" David Lowman's work MAGIC:
the Untold Story of U.S. Intelligence and the Evacuation of Japanese Residents
From the West Coast During WW II?
Lowman was deputy director at the National Security Agency, and he personally
examined the intelligence documents he cites. Having done much research at the
Modern Military Records of The National Archives at College Park, MD, I
recognize the authenticity of these declassified documents, which clearly cite
incidents of Japanese espionage activities and plans during 1940-41. It is a
fact that after Japanese were relocated from the West Coast, cable activity
about espionage plans ceased entirely to and from the U.S. and Japan.
Also, I believe it was Tom Clark, not Francis Biddle as Robinson suggests, who
was the attorney general overseeing the relocation of Japanese from the West
Coast. Plus, I remind Professor Robinson that the US Supreme Court found that
the Justice Department's relocation of Japanese was warranted as a wartime
measure.
I underscore my point from the interview that the US did not relocate Japanese
away from our West Coast until after Japanese forces had rounded up every white
man, woman and child in Asia and thrown them all into internment camps or jails
- where they slowly starved. As I also noted, over 22,000 Dutch civilians died
in Japanese captivity. True, these Dutch prisoners were not Japanese citizens,
while Japanese children born here were indeed Americans. However, the Japanese
born here had Japanese parents, and as I noted the latter could not apply for
US citizenship until 1957. Therefore, the children actually held dual
citizenship if their parents so desired. As for the 40,869 Japanese adults
living on the U.S. West Coast at the time, they were not Americans. So if the
US is pressured to face its incarceration of non-Americans, then similarly
Japan must confront its - far more brutal - treatment of non-Japanese.
The fact that many Japanese-Americans were, in fact, dual citizens or not
citizens at all also rebuts Professor Robinson's charge that I "skewed" the
figures regarding the breakdown of Japanese adults and children in the the
relocated population.
I believe that Professor Robinson misunderstands my reference to the
confinement of Japanese who declared their loyalty to Japan. Many West Coast
Japanese who declared loyalty to Japan were in fact interned at Camp
Livingston, Louisiana, but perhaps more were interned in Texas. True, as
Professor Robinson notes, the US asked several Latin American countries to send
their Japanese citizens here. But I note that was because the Japanese living
here had to demonstrate that they wanted to return to Japan and Tokyo had to
show its willingness to accept them. But it became apparent that Tokyo clearly
balked at accepting the farmers and businessmen who comprised the bulk of the
Japanese West Coast population; instead, Japanese officials focused on
retrieving their diplomats and high-ranking military officers, many of whom
were intelligence agents. Most of those diplomats were posted to Latin American
countries -- that explains the US request.
As for how FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover "strenuously opposed" the internment,
why did he dispatch his agents aboard the Gripsholm to strip search the male
Japanese passengers as the vessel was about to sail from New York Harbor with
1,500 Japanese civilians aboard to be exchanged for Canadian and American
civilians? Unfortunately, this action violated the US pledge to treat Japanese
civilians respectfully and so infuriated Tokyo that it halted the civilian
exchange program after about 3,000 civilians had been exchanged. This doomed
thousands of US civilians to confinement in Japanese camps for the rest of the
war.
Professor Robinson's charge that I might be "blinded" to the differences
"between Americans of Japanese ancestry and Tokyo's military regime" puzzles
me. It is obvious to me that they are not one, just as the Kremlin regime was
different from Americans of Russian ancestry during the Cold War. I assert
instead that it is a fallacious over generalization to accuse Washington of
interning "American citizens", some of whom did not in fact hold that status.
Linda Goetz Holmes
United States (Nov 16, '11)
[Re Pakistan
Taliban chief snubs peace bid I read with interest your online article
today about Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan leader Hakimullah Mehsud, written by Amir
Mir. I would like to draw your attention to one inaccurate statement Mr Mir
made in his article: ''The FBI's Rewards for Justice Program is
offering a prize of up to US$5 million for information leading directly to the
apprehension or conviction, in any country, of Mehsud ..." Although
the FBI is advertising the reward offer on its web site (see below), the
Rewards for Justice (RFJ) program is not an FBI program. RFJ is managed by the
Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security and is an initiative of the US
Department of State. The FBI falls under the US Department of Justice.
If you review the final paragraph of the FBI web page about the reward offer
(http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/wanted_terrorists/hakimullah-mehsud/view), you will
see the reference to the US Department of State's Rewards for Justice program.
Because this statement comes at the bottom of the page in small letters, it is
easy to see how Mr Mir may have overlooked this fact.
But we want to set the record straight and ask that the article be corrected to
reflect the fact that the reward for information on Hakimullah Mehsud is being
offered by the Rewards for Justice program, not the FBI.
For more information about the Rewards for Justice program, we invite you to
visit the RFJ program web site at www.RewardsForJustice.net. To learn more
about Diplomatic Security, please visit our web site at
www.DiplomaticSecurity.state.gov.
David E Bates
Diplomatic Security Public Affairs (Nov 15, '11)
Editor's Note: The article has been amended accordingly.
[Re Will Aba be the
CCP's Waterloo?, Nov 10] Peter Lee's article is replete with
unsubstantiated allegations. After reading that ''Chinese security forces put
out the flames but then, according to reports of Tibetan emigre groups,
detained Phuntsok and subsequently beat him to death'', I was anticipating some
credible substantiation of the ''reports of Tibetan emigre groups'', but there
was none.
It is only followed by the subjunctive, ''If the government's objective was to
deny the Tibetan independence movement a martyr by dousing the flames, and then
discourage prospective imitators by administering a fatal beating, the effort
failed miserably.'' Such use of the subjunctive seems to be at least incidental
deflection from the need for veracity. Articles on current issues on the
Tibetan region of China seem to be replete with unsubstantiated allegations,
since both the Tibetans in exile and the Chinese government have their agenda.
While current events are hard to verify, the basic thrust exists and is
immutable. A progressive government has the basic obligation to promote
assimilation and ethnic culture is not necessary for happiness. The ''ethnic
Tibetans who say their culture is being eroded by China's government'' are
arguing against natural reality. All governments should promote assimilation
but finally the person who allows his or her culture to be eroded is the
individual. The Tibetan language is allowed; its erosion is due to the greater
utility of the Han language. When individual Chinese citizens of whatever still
remaining ethnicity find such utility of the Han language palpable, under the
situation of natural and inevitable Han prevalence in the Chinese economy,
social progress exists naturally with the diminution of ethnic culture.
Minorities are expected to lament, but objectively there is nothing to lament
about assimilation.
Finally, I find a great deal of presumptiveness in ''The Olympics turned into
something of an expensive disappointment, primarily because the West was
conspicuously unwilling to welcome China on the world stage as an equal
partner.'' I doubt very much whether the Chinese expectation is that
quixotically grandiose. The ideological rift between China and the West is just
too wide. I think the Chinese are just happy to portrait themselves better for
commercial reasons mostly, and mostly successfully.
Jeff Church
United States (Nov 14, '11)
[Re Will Aba be the
CCP's Waterloo?, Nov 10] Peter Lee emotionally predicted that
self-immolation by Tibetan Buddhist monks and nuns as a sign of "beginning of
the end of its (CCP) authoritarian reign." To back up his claim, he quoted
sources like Radio Free Asia and US-based International Campaign for Tibet
(ICT) on how the situation deteriorated inside China.
Mr Lee will earn more credibility if he quoted more credible sources. As we
know, Radio Free Asia is a US-funded propaganda tool inherited from Cold War
era, with specific agenda to destabilize US's adversary. As for ICT, how could
an organization led by a movie star had a such superb intelligence-gathering
skill? Seems this strange phenomenon doesn't bother Mr Lee. He would also earn
more credibility if he were to write a more balanced article on how certain
people within the Tibetan community are oppressed by the Dharamsala regime.
Weston Fan
China (Nov 14, '11)
[Re Hardy Campbell's last letter, Nov 10] First of all, Hardy Campbell's latest
letter has an astounding misrepresentation of what is happening in State
College, PA. I am a doctoral student of computer engineering at Pennsylvania
State University. The head coach that he is referring to is Joe Paterno. In his
letter, Hardy implies that the victims were Hispanic or non whites. That is a
big lie. No one knows who the victims are and judging by the demographics of
"Happy Valley (this is how State College is called)" I doubt the victims were
non white.
Second, in his virulent hatred for anything American and of European ancestry,
Hardy implies that Americans don't care for such crimes if the victim is not a
white American. This is clearly an oxymoron given the fact that Paterno and
Penn State president Graham Spanier were fired on Wednesday night precisely
because of public outrage. Some people should try to see through the fog of
hatred and reverse-racism that is blinding them. Turning such a sad chain of
events into a race bait is absolutely despicable. That is all I have to say. No
need to go all "Fareed Zakaria" on something that can be clarified with plain
English.
Ysais Martinez
United States (Nov 14, '11)
Today in Wonderland, angst and the gnashing of teeth are rife in the sports
world. A distinguished and eminently successful college football head coach has
become embroiled in a child sex abuse scandal. Not that he was involved in
these crimes, mind you, but because he did the minimum the law required and
nothing more when he found out about the allegations against a close friend and
valued assistant coach.
The paradox that has so many here in a riddle-wrapped conundrum is that this
head coach has always been recognized as being a role model of ethics and
integrity, with nary a peep from anyone about recruiting violations that plague
the corruption ridden game everywhere else. So how could this man of integrity
and Christian devotion show such appalling lack of interest in these heinous
crimes?
Let me suggest that his ambivalence about the molestation of children not
related by blood to him mirrors in desensitizing nausea the same indifference
Americans show to anyone not blonde, blue eyed and Red, White (that color
especially) and Blue. As long as 'mericans are not being tortured, or bombed,
or raped, or having their country's resources pillaged and their economies
hijacked, then Wonderlanders can look at their TV screens, tsk tsk at
what a terrible world it is, and go back to hurrahing its troops as they return
from their own torturing, bombing, raping, pillaging and hijacking operations
overseas.
This moral ambivalence displayed by this American coach, who now says he
regrets "not doing more", is symptomatic of a nation that likes to think itself
charitable and generous and humanitarian, but, in truth, will only display true
humanity when it's their child that's in the shower with the pervert. Alas, in
Wonderland's Bizarro Universe, the pervert is us and the child some innocent
brown Third Worlder.
Hardy Campbell
United States (Nov 10, '11)
[Re Why North Korea
won't quit, Nov 8] Yong Kwon's summary of scenarios of the ever
imminent collapse of North Korea? To my mind, it raises the question: how many
times can you beat a dead horse to death?
Soviet-trained Korean experts take the sudden implosion of the USSR as the way
North Korea will shrink and ultimately cave in. Americans are more
ideologically focused in predicting Kim Jong-il's end. Any which way you slice
and dice the matter, each script comes up short. For each is a contemplation of
an historical time and period which is not readily applicable to North Korea,
parallels notwithstanding.
If you want to know about the fractured Korean peninsula, the history of Korea
would serve as a better guide, as Yong Kwon suggests. The kernel of "truth"
lies there. However, the talking heads prefer to fall back on the familiar
platitudes which fuels pipe dreams and wish fulfillment even when the obvious
is readily at hand to point the way as to what is happening before their eyes.
Bertil Lintner wrote a useful "Demystifying North Korea ..." that clearly
mapped out why, through high tides or low, North Korea could and would weather
the storms against the DPRK. But, Linter clearly doesn't belong to the old boys
club of North Korea experts.
Russia, under President Dmitry Medvedev, now sees the value of engaging with
North Korea after long flirting with South Korea. Alas, the US is still
enmeshed in a hoary policy which can and has failed time and time again.
Nakamura Junzo
Guam (Nov 9, '11)
[Re The rise of Kim
Il-sung's mini-me, Nov 7, 2011] Kim Jong-eun is going through rigorous
training from the ground up so that one day he can and will assume leadership
of the DPRK. Do not be fooled by honors and titles bestowed on the "Dear Little
General", senior North Korean officials are in charge of his ascent to replace
his father when Kim Jong-il steps down. Comparitively speaking, what is the big
difference to say, William, Duke of Cambridge, heir to the British throne, with
a military grade assured for him by birthright, learning his craft in the same
manner as Kim Jung-eun?
Nakamura Junzo
Guam (Nov 8, '11)
In The rise of Kim
Il-sung's mini-me, [Nov 7, 2011], by Andrei Lankov we are treated to a
completely one-sided, uncritical look at the North Korean succession process.
We are told how Kim Jong-eun dresses and by what names he is called as if this
had any meaning to the North Korean people or the wider world. The North Korean
people are just trying to survive and get a bowl of corn gruel to eat at the
end of the day. The North Korean state exists only because of the terror it can
inflict against its people. The feeling of 95% of the country towards Kim
Jong-il ranges from complete lack of respect to outright hatred, Jong-eun is an
non-entity to the North Korean people.
The North Korean people are not fools and they have come to learn in the last
15 years about the great wealth in South Korea and China and what miserable
lives they lead. And they certainly don't have "unparalleled admiration" for
Kim Jong-eun. The North Korean economy has shrunk in the last two years and
there are real fears of another famine like the one in the late 90's that
killed over a million people. To try and draw parallels between the succession
in the 1970s and 1980s are ridiculous because of the massive changes in North
Korean society - the Kim's were loved than. Perhaps Lankov would be enlightened
by the view of this expert, "From 1994 to 2002 North Korean society changed
tremendously, state-run industry collapsed, the rationing system ceased to
function", that expert was Andrei Lankov in 2009.
Dennis O'Connell
USA (Nov 8, '11)
[Re Israel sends
out loud warning to Iran, Nov 4] Israel is taking advantage of the
confusion in the eurozone to warn Iran of a possible strike on its nuclear
facilities, on one hand. On the other, it is an attempt of the Zionist state to
draw attention away from troubles at home as well as a noticeable weakening of
its international posture in the Middle East and international institutions.
At the present moment, two of its warships are surrounding a mini Peace
Flotilla from Canada and Ireland that are challenging Israel's illegal blockade
of the Gaza Strip. Prime Minister Benjamin Netenyahu's spokesman has announced
that Israel is not paying its $2 million contribution to UNESCO, which has
welcomed Palestine as a full member this week. The Palestinians now have means
to challenge Israel occupation of its cultural sites, especially the heavy
military presence in Hebron protecting a few hundred illegal Jewish settlers
who run the town as though it were some American western cowboy town with
suspect law and order.
Netenyahu has stepped up to the scrimmage line in announcing his threat to bomb
Iran. Israel has even gone to the extent in the past few days to test a long
range rocket which could carry a nuclear warhead. With the support of defense
minister Barak who last the last war in Lebanon and ultra nationalist prime
minister Avigdor Lieberman, is the Likud prime minister?
The UK and the US have little appetite to open another theater of war in the
Middle East. US President Barack Obama is falling back on Kuwait as a base to
keep an eye on events in the region.
The way matters are unfolding internally in Iran, it makes more level headed
observers wonder if Iran is as big a threat as the Israeli propaganda machine
make it out to be. If anything, Netenyahu is playing a dangerous game of blue
smoke and mirrors to rescue Israel from its own blunders and inflexibility to
adapt to the changing Arab world and the push for, at long last, the birth of a
Palestinian state. Is he willing to go to war for a hoary idea of a Greater
Israel and suspect dreams of regional dominance?
Abraham Bin Yiju
Italy (Nov 7, '11)
[Re Israel sends
out loud warning to Iran, Nov 4] The latest saber rattlings from Tel
Aviv and its puppet-stooges in Washington coincide with the 55th anniversary of
another imperialist adventure against non-quiescent Middle Easterners. In 1956,
the aged, decayed and delusional British and French Empires teamed up with the
Zionist Jews in Israel to attack Nasserite Egypt, hoping that a reluctant
President Eisenhower would accommodate their stand against an uncooperative
Arab state.
Alas, in behavior that today seems positively anti-Wonderlander, "Ike" refused
to go along, and let the already beleaguered British economy twist in the wind.
The weak pound sterling, already dependent on massive US aid, took massive
hits; ultimately, the unholy trinity was forced to evacuate Egypt in a
humiliating step-down that signaled the denouement of power transfer after
World War II. With huge International Monetary Fund and American loans, the
pound shakily recovered, but the damage was done. In the next 10 years vast
swaths of the Third World were liberated from the bankrupt British yoke.
But the Anglo-French dilemma of 1956 is nothing new. History has shown that
weak, incompetent, moribund once-great empires can stumble along for quite some
time, until they invariably resort to ill-considered wars to prop up sagging
patriotism and their exaggerated sense of self-worth; inevitably, the coup
d'grace follows soon afterwards. Hmm ... somehow this all sounds familiar.
Though analogies with history are always risky propositions, one must ponder
the reversal of roles today. America now represents the aged, decaying,
delusional power, with a currency that relies on massive interventions from the
new superpower, China. In a desperate attempt to keep its illusion of control
intact and punish an uncooperative Iran, the Paper Kitten that is
bombast-and-bluster Wonderland is making noises about nuking, attacking,
undermining the Islamic Republic, in cahoots with its racist masters in Israel.
Significantly, both China and Russia have shown great reluctance to endorse
anything other than diplomatic measures to resolve this manufactured crisis
over Iran's right to protect itself from its mad-dog enemies, much as "Ike" did
with regards to Nasser's nationalization of the Suez Canal. They will not be
pleased with unilateral actions against a country that figures large in future
growth prospects, nor with an even more reckless and irresponsible direction in
American foreign policy.
If an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities occurs, it will be interesting to see
what China does to prop up a country that is already in dire financial straits
but would be in freefall in the event of such aggression. They could simply
stop purchasing US Treasury bills and let the dollar collapse in Ikesonian
fashion, or take measures themselves against Taiwan that the US would find
impossible to counter.
We shall see, but whoever fashions tombstones for countries should be getting
their chisel ready.
Hardy Campbell
United States (Nov 7, '11)
There is an unnecessary hullabaloo all over the media about the three
cricketers sentenced to various terms of imprisonment by a British Judge. To be
honest, they have been let off rather lightly, for, from their very looks –
long unkempt hair, unshaven chins, open shirt buttons down to the navel and
hands in trousers pockets walking nonchalantly into the court room in a manner
bordering disrespect for the court - they deserved more than what they got.
What is still more surprising is that Mr Justice Cook did not adhere to old
adage, "When in Rome do as the Roman do" (When dealing with the Pakistanis do
as the Pakistanis do). He could have ''settled'' the matter amicably to the
satisfaction of all including his posterity too. But I suppose the Brit could
not think of it, not used to the practices found in the Land of the Pure!
Col Riaz Jafri (Retd)
Pakistan (Nov 7, '11)
[Re US's post-2014
Afghan agenda exposed, Nov 3, '11] I am Wondering just how the
Wondermedia will describe the US withdrawal from Afghanistan when it inevitably
comes. I'm betting serious money that they'll parrot the Pentagon's
rationalization, which will go something like this: "The North Atlantic Treaty
Organization's (NATO) mission is accomplished. The Taliban have won no military
victories, have no legitimacy with the Afghan people, and can only survive
through the use of terrorist acts intended to intimidate their compatriots, who
only wish to live in peace and have their basic civil rights guaranteed by
their newly acquired democratic institutions. But we trust the Afghan security
forces to be now able to secure this peace on their own." Logically, one could
ask the question of how a poorly motivated, underpaid and terrified Afghan
security force, infiltrated and riddled with Taliban, would be expected to
defeat the same mujahideen foes that the techno-giants of NATO could not
suppress after 10 years of incredible financial expenditure and blood.
But that obvious conundrum aside, one must ponder how a similar withdrawal of
Soviet forces was depicted by the US media in 1989 and ever after. "Soviets
Defeated," "Soviet Humiliation," "Victory of Afghans over Tottering Superpower"
are just some examples of how the whore media in this zombified nation
describes what happened when the last Russian tank rolled over the Oxus River.
Of course, the truth is far different from that ridiculous Reaganaut propaganda
and indeed mirrors almost exactly what will happen to the US and its NATO
stooges.
The truth that we have known for 20 years is that the Soviets started thinking
of withdrawal almost immediately after their ill-taken decision in 1979 to
intervene in the Afghan civil war, and that it was US intervention more than
anything else that prevented the stubborn Politburo from biting the bullet
sooner than they did. When that last tank did depart, the Soviet army, just
like its US counterpart, justifiably claimed that it had never lost a set-piece
battle to the CIA financed proto-Taliban that we called freedom-fighting
mujahideen (warriors of God), but in a guerilla war, that fact is irrelevant.
The Soviets left the puppet communist government in Kabul in power when they
left, just as we will leave the puppet, President Hamid Karzai in "control".
The Americans even mimicked the communist education and health programs for
children and women that were intended to drag the primitive society into the
20th century, but that instead served to further polarize traditional versus
modern Afghans in bitter internecine conflict. In virtually every aspect of
nation-building that the Soviets attempted, the US's copycatting has proven not
only futile but counterproductive, since anything tainted by foreign heathens
is automatically beyond the Afghan Pale, regardless of how "civilizing" or
"modern" those well-intentioned paving stones to Progress Hell were. But none
of that will matter to Americans who still can't find Afghanistan on a map of
Afghanistan.
Though we will carbon copy the Soviet debacle in every detail, the
WonderParrots at Fox, CNN, NBC, et al, will paint the tail-between-our-legs
retreat as another shining victory for 'merican democracy, capitalism and
delusion. The telecast videos will no doubt show hordes of Afghans holding up
signs saying "Thank You for Everything" and "We Owe So Much to You Dear
Soldiers" as the last GI boards a troop transport plane out of Kabul. Not to be
outdone, I expect President Barack Obama will greet the returning troops
beneath an infamous banner donated to him by his clone-origin predecessor.
Hardy Campbell
Texas (Nov 4, '11)
[Re US stares
down occupying forces, Nov 2] When the authorities use force against
peaceful demonstrators, they act against constitutional protections. That is
bad enough. Even worse is the escalation process they initiate. In a social
atmosphere of economic stress and distrust of all levels of government it is a
dangerous thing to initiate use of force.
Consider this scenario: The Great Recession turns into the Greater Depression;
The middle class shrivels away to fragile remnants; the authorities repress
free speech to tiny pieces; those who now have nothing to lose meet force with
force. Something like the Arab Spring happens in the United States of America.
However, it is much more violent because a much larger percentage of US
citizens own guns and know how to use them. I speak not only of the returned,
discharged troops, but of the general population.
Thus begins the Second American Revolution.
Lou Vignates
United States (Nov 3, '11)
With the arrival of earth's 7th billion in the Philippines this week, another
milestone in human development has been reached. Ever since Malthus developed
his theories about populations being checked by disease and famine, experts of
all stripes have weighed in on the prospects of our planet being overburdened
with too many souls competing for too few resources. That this issue has
concerned world leaders in the past as well as today is common knowledge. Less
well known is the extent to which this concern manifested itself.
Henry Kissinger, national security adviser to Nixon, secretary of state under
president Gerald Ford and Nobel "Peace" Prize winner, opined in a 1974 memo to
Ford that the US had to find some way of controlling what he predicted would be
explosive growth on the Third World in order to protect its national security
interests.
Coincidentally or not, Kissinger was responsible for approving biological
warfare directives in the late 60s, which included development of a new
generation of immunosuppressive pathogens. Coincidentally or not, in 1975
Kissinger decided to begin a surreptitious proxy war in Angola that ultimately
involved most of the central and southern African states.
Coincidentally or not, in 1975, massive hepatitis B vaccine trial inoculations,
using cell lines cultivated from monkeys now known to harbor simian SIV, were
conducted by American doctors on Central Africans, as well as North American
gay men. Coincidentally or not, the first significant cases of immune-system
suppressing HIV/AIDS in Central Africa and North American gays were recorded in
the late seventies. Coincidentally or not, mysterious outbreaks of the horrific
Ebola virus occurred in 1976 in neighboring Zaire. Coincidentally or not, today
AIDS is primarily a Third World pandemic, in the very group Kissinger indicated
needed "control".
Just for the record, despite the insistence from medical experts over the
decades of HIV and Ebola's origin in jungle animals, no creature has ever been
found to harbor human HIV or the Ebola virus in the wild, despite notably
racist suggestions that these diseases were doubtless transmitted via
human-monkey sex or by way of human consumption of raw animal meat. Yet another
inexplicable mystery of how these deadly infections made the so-called
"trans-species leap" into humans. Or maybe not.
I will not connect the dots for your readers, and, believe me, there are plenty
more out there (connect the Kissinger dot with the Nelson Rockefeller (VP under
Ford) dot with the Rockefeller Foundation's initiatives on population control
dot.) Suffice it to say that the real powers that be have evinced every
determination to correct population ills with a variety of methods short of
nuclear war.
I note with interest that as I write this determined efforts are underway to
eradicate polio in billion people plus India and some other Third World
nations. I have little doubt polio would be eliminated by such efforts, as has
been done around the world. At the same, consider how many new afflictions like
rare cancers and autoimmune diseases that heretofore have been limited in scope
and frequency but are now exploding in all populations around the globe. India
should beware of these Western med geeks bearing syringes.
Hardy Campbell
United States (Nov 3, '11)
[Re The
economics of polarization, Nov 1] There are probably still a few people
in the US, notably Spengler's fellow Mad Hatters in the Tea Party, who fall for
his worn-out neoliberal nonsense that America's economic ills are caused by the
“largesse” of pensions, that is, the desire of civilized people to take care of
their elders. But despite his dazzling “exhibits”, fewer and fewer of the rest
of us are fooled.
There are no charts in his piece showing how many billions of dollars are
wasted every year on the two wars his Republicans started in the last decade,
nor the many trillions more blown away by military spending overall. No charts
reveal how much money Spengler has made in dividends from the contractors that
have pilfered billions in American taxpayers' hard-earned money while failing
after eight years to bring Iraq's infrastructure anywhere near to pre-invasion
standards, or in Afghanistan after 10 years of wasted blood and treasure.
No fancy charts remind us how many billions in benefits corporations and their
top executives rake in every year from taxpayers because of deregulation and
gutting of federal oversight primarily at the hands of Republicans, or how many
pension plans have been defrauded by Spengler's buddies on Wall Street, or how
much the middle class he purports to empathize with has been ripped off by the
offshoring of their jobs and disempowering of their unions.
The budget woes of US states and municipalities are part of the overall malaise
in the US economy, as the incompetent and corporate-owned federal government
reneges more and more on its responsibilities to do its constitutional duty and
support ordinary Americans by fixing the country's broken infrastructure and
taking care of their health and their children's education. But of course
repairing broken bridges and filling in potholes, teaching kids and providing
medical care to old folk, are far less important to Wall Street than continuing
the existing system of fraud and tax evasion set up by the Republicans as the
Democrats looked the other way.
Spengler may well be right that President Barack Obama has thrown away his
chance at a second term, but this won't be because Republicans have any
answers. They have been singing the same sorry tune for decades, and it's just
as off-key as it has always been. If Obama loses it will be in a protest vote
or simply because his bitterly disappointed core supporters don't vote at all
in 2012. The Republicans might be the “beneficiaries” of such an eventuality,
but no one else – again, except for Spengler and his pals in the finance and
defense industries, and Asia Times Online as it is presented with more wars to
report on – will gain a thing.
David Simmons
Thailand (Nov 2, '11)
[Re: Money and
the eurozone crisis, Oct 31, and
The men without qualities, Oct 28] The former says ''China will want
assurances their European investments are safe….", while in the latter Chan
Akya asks "What is to stop a future European Union base camp from deciding on
implementing a "voluntary" restructuring of Italian or Spanish bonds…?"
The answer, of course, is nothing. And for that reason (among many others, such
as paradoxical European Sinophobia down the road for Chinese "meddling" in EU
affairs), China should not touch the Euroland mess with a 20-foot pole.
John Chen
United States (Nov 2, '11)
[Re Korea knows the West
lacks killer touch, Nov 1] Every now and then the strong defense Sunday
quarterbacks in the comfort of their own homes root for visions of Armageddon
visited on North Korea. Their collective cry rises out frustration; it is as
though these Cold Warriors were playing a video games to assuage bruised egos
and the ability to turn their fanciful dreams into reality.
Have they forgotten the shivers of fear that North Korea's riposte to South
Korean shells landing in the North's territorial waters during the reckless
live fire joint South Korea-US naval exercises along the Northern Limit Line in
November 2010? Suddenly visions of a renewed war in the divided Korean
peninsula sent the US military scrambling to stay South Korean president Lee
Myung-bak's hand to "provoke" Kim Jong-il into war.
The Obama administration, itself influenced by its own hawks on North Korea,
had little stomach for another war in Asia. Although the US still smarts from a
resounding check on its policy to roll back North Korea during the three year
Korean War, it does recall the back up of Chinese volunteers, along with North
Korean forces, who throw US led UN forces back to below the 38 parallel.
These Sunday quarterbacks have a poor feel for history and that what they wish
for belongs in the pages of Grimm Fairytales. As purveyors of fear, they, like
the dodgy military in "Fail Safe" and "Seven Days in May" entertain dreams of
perishing in a "Goetterdaemmerung" of wish fulfillment.
Nakamura Junzo
Guam (Nov 2, '11)
Is it my imagination or has Obama decided to switch from a Middle East-centric
foreign policy to an Afrocentric one? With US troops being partially withdrawn
from Iraq and and a drawdown inevitable in Whip-Your-Tail-istan, the
introduction of US combat personnel (oh, excuse me, I meant "advisers", Mr
JFKama) into Somalia and Uganda reflects the growing realization that our blood
and treasure has been wasted in the land of sand and camel.
All the while we were making the Middle East a paragon of democracy and peace,
Africa's resources were quietly being gobbled up by China, who oddly enough,
have decided to use peaceful methods to acquire what they want (how
un-Wonderland of them.) Since Amerika can't compete with China on a fair
financial or industrial basis, Obama and his plutocratic Wall and Fleet Street
bosses have evidently decided that armed intervention still has some credit on
a continent that has experienced ongoing civil strife for the last 50 years.
Of course, Obama, part-African that he is, will claim sentimental attachment to
that land, but, in truth, he's merely following in the footsteps of that
popular white boy, Bill Clinton, whose buddies in the mining industries had
more than a little to do with the Rwandan-Congan bloodbaths of the mid 90s. Oh,
you haven't heard about that, have you? Well, turns out that Billy Boy, when he
wasn't seducing interns, was climbing into bed with some other unsavory
corporate types, the ones that bribe, coerce and intimidate governments and
natives to allow them to clear cut forest, pollute waterways, abuse workers and
abscond with almost all the natural wealth.
Clinton arranged for our hand picked stooge, Rwandan Paul Kagame, to not only
obtain Hutu dominated power in so-called "genocide" stricken Rwanda but to
illegally invade and confiscate Congan diamond mines. Naturally, the CIA,
specialists in laundering money and playing elaborate hide-the-money shell
games, took their cuts of the deal, as well as numerous other international
plunderers. And that looting occurs as I write and you read this.
Yes, I know, Somalia hardly represents a figurative gold mine, but it's a
start. The US is having to play catch up with the Chinese, who have spent
billions building up infrastructures in Africa in order to transport vitally
needed minerals and oil to China.
But while we can't compete in the sphere of capitalism any more (something in
commie drinking water evidently makes them better at that than us), we still
churn out tons of brown-people-killing weapons every minute. No doubt Obama
figures the way to even the playing field is have Africans destroy that
infrastructure with those weapons, all under the guise of "fighting terrorism"
or "restoring civil order." The Africans will then beg us for our commitment of
"protective" troops. Obama knows the Chinese do not militarily intervene in
other country's affairs, so US intrusions will go unchallenged (for the time
being).
Get ready for major new "civil" wars breaking out all over Africa, but
especially in those places where China has massive investment interests. Let
the New Scramble for Africa begin.
H Campbell
United States (Nov 1, '11)
October Letters
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