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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
or two responses to a reader's letter, but will, at their discretion, direct
debaters away from the Letters page.
April 2012
[Re Steel lies behind
Pyongyang's war rhetoric, Apr 27] It does not take much digging to
discover the reason behind Pyongyang's harsh rhetoric: South Korea last week
successfully deployed a medium-range intercontinental missile, part of its
Hyun-moo series. It has a range of 930 miles (1,500 kilometers), which means it
is capable of hitting the North Korean capital, China and Russia's Far Eastern
territories. The US had no criticism for South Korea after weeks of condemning
North Korea's failed satellite launch. Seoul's Hyun-moo intercontinental
missile test has warlike implications which a satellite does not. So the North
reacted as it did. South Korea has thus increased tensions on an already tense
Korean peninsula. Yet, the US does not seem to care.
Nakamura Junzo
Guam (Apr 30, '12)
[Re The euro
must go, Apr 27] "Europe's infamous labor laws, which make layoffs
expensive and businesses reluctant to invest, have long impeded investment and
productivity growth.
During the expansion of the 2000s, the competitive core - Germany, other
northern economies and important parts of France - coped better and
accomplished stronger productivity. "
Peter Morici's claims about Europe's crisis are not well grounded and seem
uperstitiious
Germany's productivity increase is a consequence of faster labor cost
reduction, which coupled with a lower inflation rate put it out of competition
with other countries. The current fixed exchange rates regime is favourable
only to Germany, which has expanded its exports without any fear of
devaluation.
Frank Cannon
USA (Apr 30, '12)
[letters] [Re US
wades into China-Philippine standoff, Apr 23, 2012] To the government
of the Philippines: before any shooting starts with China regarding the Spratly
Islands, may I ask for whom exactly would we be fighting or dying for?
As a former serviceman in Vietnam (1969 US Navy-Construction Battalion
Maintenance Unit) I have seen men die in battle and understand what military
medals represent, and it is from this perspective I am writing.
But allow my apologies first of all to those I might inadvertently offend, but
the troubling circumstance we find ourselves today elicit many thoughts - none
of which breed warm feelings of either security or comfort.
Instinctively I wonder, growing up in Dampalit, Malabon, why is it that when it
comes to enforcing their will against their own citizens, in asserting what is
supposedly the right ideology or more particularly how to think, successive
leaders in government never fail to show firmness of determination and purpose.
Yet when confronted with a real test requiring reason and leadership, as it has
with a powerful adversary like China, it behaves with more compliance than one
with conviction?
If indeed the Spratlys are part of our country's [the Philippines'] domain,
which might require the most extreme of sacrifice for some if not for all of
its citizens, in particular the military and their families, it is not only
right but necessary to clarify what is exactly at stake besides the undefined
proclamation and emotional appeal of defending "sovereignty" over those
islands.
The much-touted Malampaya project, contrary to what in my view it deceptively
conveys, gives a 45% share to Shell Oil and another 45% to Chevron, with the
remaining 10% for the rest of the Filipinos for what ever oil and gas beneath
it are discovered.
Given such puny gain for the people of the Philippines, would it not be logical
to expect those who would benefit the most, to shoulder the heavy burden of
this crisis?
Not to be ignored for its paramount significance is the question of how that
unequal arrangement came about.
Who sold out the country and why aren't they prosecuted for essentially the
same principle the country is now facing in its stance against China? Perhaps
it might be worthwhile re-reading Albert Camus who has something to say about
that.
Equally important is how the Philippines in the year 2012 ended up with no
military capabilities to defend its shores when it always has the wherewithal
to use force against its own citizens?
We may have a treaty with America that might offer psychological relief to
some, believing it would give the Chinese pause for any belligerent act it is
contemplating, but to those who are more politically aware knows, America has a
duty and an obligation to Americans first and foremost.
The inexorable fact is , there is more money to be made doing business in China
than there is in the Philippines. Consequently, when it comes to treaties and
obligations, America will always and forever stand for the interest of its own
citizens first and last.
To believe differently and expect it would serve the interest of the Filipinos
in that equation, when the Philippine government by its history has repeatedly
shown willful neglect of its own responsibilities, is analogous to those who
believe that hope is a plan and intense praying will eventually bring divine
intervention.
Oni Sioson
Connecticut, USA (Apr 27, '12)
[Re Dangerous illusions
over North Korea, Apr 25] North Korea watcher Leon Sigal's observation
sharply underscores the point Yong Kwon is making: "whenever the US fails to
keep its side of a bargain (food aid), North Korea retaliates".
US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta's warning to North Korea to not go ahead
with another nuclear test simply is an admission that America's policy towards
North Korea is a "toothless tiger".
Unfortunately, like many things awry in the US today, the Obama administration
has outsourced its North Korea policy to South Korea, which, under Lee
Myung-bak, is pursuing an aggressive program to push North Korea either to the
brink of collapse or war.
I do not know if Lind takes into account the endless attempts by Kim Jong-il,
for example, to enter direct talks with Washington.
Short of diplomatic engagement with Pyongyang, the US will be issuing hollow
warnings and keep running faster, like "Alice's" Red Queen to stay in place.
America's current policy towards North Korea is its own hellish version of
Sartre's "No Exit".
Nakamura Junzo
Guam (Apr 26, '12)
[Re Syria faces
neo-mujahideen struggle, Apr 25] An excellent analysis and I fully
agree that, once again, the United States is playing loose with unintended
consequences as it flounders internationally, flailing out with its
intelligence apparatus as well as militarily.
R Stephen Dorsey (Apr 26, '12)
[Re A real test for
North Korea-China relations, Apr 23 and
US plays a bit part in Pyongyang's parade, Apr 23] China has tactfully
explained to the Obama administration that it did not have a hand in selling
North Korea the missile launch vehicle that Pyongyang displayed during the
100th birthday celebrations of founder Kim Il-sung. In fact, major world media
stories ascribed the vehicle's sale to corrupt officials. Washington
"officially" bought the story.
Nonetheless, North Korea's ownership of mobile launcher offers the US a
face-saving way out of a situation over which it has little control. It is
doubtful that its display could and would ruffle Sino-North Korean relations.
Takahashi Kosuke raises an important issue: America's lack of control of its
technology outsourced to foreign sources. It is an old tale of woe: in the
early 1980s, a major US oil company through its Panamanian subsidiary sold an
oil exploration vessel through a Yugoslav intermediate to North Korea. The
Reagan administration tried to apply sanctions under the "Trading with the
Enemy Act", but couldn't since the sale was done by non-US entities.
A more troubling development in the divided Korean Peninsula is the deployment
of a middle-range Hyonmoo missile by South Korea capable of reaching Pyongyang.
North Korea has issued the Lee Myung-bak regime a stern warning in response to
Seoul's and Washington's praise of this launch. This matter is troubling
indeed, the more especially since the US and South Korea made a big stink about
the North's failed satellite launch.
To the observing eye, it seems that Washington and Seoul are pushing the
envelope to the edge.
Nakamura Junzo
Guam (Apr 24, '12)
Racism, the all-pervasive, nation-defining ideology of Wonderland, is a
reassuring and reliable constant, with the almost mathematical predictability
of the number pi. The latest manifestation is the skepticism of Anglo-Saxon
"experts" that Iran could simply never break the encrypted codes obtained from
Wonderland's latest technological failure, the capture of a drone.
This confidence should be compared to the same certitude that American
"experts" had that the USSR could never launch a rocket powerful enough to
orbit a satellite around earth, or when they predicted it would take decades
for Red China to develop nukes, or that Japanese automobiles would never
compete with 'merican gas guzzlers, or that any colored nation could accomplish
anything that "whites" could.
Needless to say, despite these racist balloons being popped on a regular basis,
WonderRacism remains unperturbed; it continues to underestimate or deny the
possibility that a non-Anglo-Saxon could fathom the whites-only domain of
science and technological progress. But I'm betting that the Pentagon's bombast
about Persian incapacity to decipher the drone codes speaks more to their
abject terror that its fore sworn ideological enemies have once again trumped
Amerikan techno-superiority (the sting of the bungled Operation Eagle Claw 32
years ago is still fresh).
The prospect that yellow China has shared its own considerable compromising of
American cybersecurity with the brown Persians leaves the Pentagon ands its
masters in Tel Aviv with few arrows left in their quiver and the very real
prospect that their own infrastructures are creakingly vulnerable. With the
sabers being rattled by the Jews (who are every bit as racist as any
Wonderlander) and their Washington stooges being made of wet straw and soggy
matzo, the options left to the Zionist-imperialist have dwindled to none but
the unthinkable; diplomacy and learning to live with non-whites who don't
kowtow to the arrogance of the white West.
Hardy Campbell
United States (Apr 24, '12)
[Re South Korea silences
pro-North voices, Apr 19, '12] South Korea has always had citizens who
admired North Korea. It is good to recall that the southern half of a divided
Korean peninsula harbored large and active leftist communities that the
US-backed Syngman Rhee government actively and brutally suppressed. The civil
war between the two Koreans simply hardened South Korea's anti Communist
standpoint. Laws punished any open admiration for the North and its founder Kim
Il-sung.
In this, South Korea was not different from West Germany, which not only banned
the communist party but took measures to quiet pro-East German feelings among
its citizens.
Today South Korea takes pride in being a democracy, yet puts a check on freedom
of expression when it comes to North Korea- a draconian law remains in place to
punish "free thoughts" of Pyongyang, with threat of imprisonment.
But what does an economically vibrant South Korea with a large standing army,
backed up by 28,000 American troops have to fear from a tiny minority of its
citizens who have positive feelings towards the DPRK?
Admiration of the North is symptomatic of flaws within South Korea's brand of
democracy, which, if we believe the rationale of the anti-North Korea
legislation, is so shaky that even a mere message of praise, say, of Kim Jong
eun on the Internet can shake the government in Seoul to its very foundations.
How absurd the logic!
Nakamura Junzo
Guam (Apr 20, '12)
[Re China tests
the will of the Philippines, Apr 19, '12] George Amurao lays
Philippines' claim on Scarborough(Huangyan) shoal based on United Nations
Convention on the Law of the Sea' creation of 200 nautical mile-wide exclusive
economic zones. UNCLOS does not grant the Philippines or other claimants the
rights to undermine the inherent historical territories and sovereignty of
other countries. Philippines' maps of 1984 do not indicate Huangyan as being
part of its territory. Some Filipinos even said to me why China did not claim
Palawan or other islands of the Philippines. Precisely based on this argument,
if China was a land grabber, it would have grabbed Palawan instead of the tiny
shoals (paraphrasing Amurao's statement).
Again, access of sea lanes is not the issue. Like other writers before him,
Amurao is muddling the issue by throwing in sea lane accessibility. China has
stressed enough in the past that sea lanes will not be obstructed. China only
wants the integrity of its territories in Xisha and Nansha.
Wendy Cai
United States (Apr 20, '12)
Yvonne Su's analysis in [Free
thinker takes on China's neo-Maoists, Apr 19, '12] is sloppy and filled
with wishful thinking. Her description of Mao Yushi is not that of a
free-thinker at all, but merely that of someone who has latched onto liberal
dogma after having been disappointed by Communist dogma.
First, about the whole Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)-Ford Foundation issue.
It is well established historical fact that the CIA used and continues to use
institutions like the Ford Foundation to disguise its support of different
groups around the world, both during the Cold War and into contemporary times
with the agitations in Serbia, Ukraine, Georgia, and so forth. The whole
purpose of using such intermediaries is to allow the recipients of such support
to remain ignorant (or at least to plausibly claim that they are ignorant) of
their association with the CIA. Therefore, Unirule's denial means absolutely
nothing. A real journalist would not bother asking Unirule if the allegation of
CIA support is true, but would instead pose this question to the Ford
Foundation itself.
Second, how is a micro-loan program any kind of private charity? Could Su
please inform us how many of those 10,000 loans made have been paid back and
with how much interest? Were these loans made on compound interest as most
loans are? If so, then there would be a huge problem because accessible water,
medical services and the like, while important social priorities, are (by
definition) rather unprofitable ventures since, had they really been
profitable, then bigger players would have already invested in them.
Third, how does training farmers to be domestic servants help alleviate
poverty? A farmer, however poor, is still self-sufficient and exists in a
close-knit network of mutual support. An urban domestic servant, on the other
hand, lives paycheck-to-paycheck on the whims of his or her employer while
existing as an alienated individual surrounded by strangers. The quote from the
Gansu student about how such training "changed her life" is beyond belief. Now
she can look after someone else's children and clean someone's home in addition
to looking after her own children and cleaning her own home. What progress! In
all seriousness though, encouraging poor farmers to move to the cities where
they can form an urban underclass is a recipe for a social disaster.
Fourth, Su also informs us that Mao Yushi is concerned about the decline of
morality in China and that he proposes that the first step in arresting that
decline is to curb the privileges of officials. More rubbish. The decline of
morality in China has little to do with bureaucratic privileges and everything
to do with the elevation of money and the pursuit of money to the status of the
highest values. The liberal reforms that Mao Yushi and his fellows propose
would only deepen contemporary China's moral confusion. This is because under
liberal capitalism, privilege does not disappear, instead privilege becomes
synonymous with money. Money, not birth, or titles, or even personal merits,
determines one's social standing. Under such a system, morality is promoted
only insofar as it does not become too expensive. Such an approach inverts the
classical approach where morality existed for its own sake because of its
alignment with the best elements of human nature and all other priorities were
priorities insofar as they did not conflict with morality.
Chinese liberals need to stop imagining the capitalist class (and its
intellectual promoters) as the rightful successor of the Confucian
scholar-gentry and instead recognize that the former is the very antithesis of
a legitimate natural elite (and yes, these liberals all believe in elitism…they
really do, all the democracy-talk notwithstanding). A real aristocracy's
legitimacy would be based on the extent to which it fostered an organic,
mutually-supporting society. Yet the capitalist ruling class's legitimacy is
based on how much resources it can extract from that society for its own
benefit.
Jonathan X (Apr 20, '12)
[Re: Confessions of a
former police chief, April 18]. Yes, Bo Xilai could have had it all -
in fact, he could've become one of the most powerful men on Earth and possibly
changed the course of Chinese/world history. In the end, though, the Icarian degringolade
of his political career merely furnished us with yet another chapter in the
age-old tale of flaming demise driven by unbounded hubris. The fault, as the
Bard would say, lies not in the stars but in ourselves.
John Chen
United States (Apr 19, '12)
[Re: How Pakistan
makes US pay for Afghan war, Apr 19, '12] The author of this article,
Dilip Hiro, calls the US State Department's bounty on Hafiz M Saeed's head
"nothing less than an implied declaration of Washington's lack of confidence in
the executive and judicial organs of Pakistan." Hiro fails to realize that the
very reason the US placed that bounty was that no evidence exists against this
man that could secure a conviction in any court of law, as the US State
Department Spokesperson Mark Toner clearly admitted during a briefing on April
4, 2012. See http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2012/04/187407.htm#PAKISTAN. I
would highly recommend reading the transcript of this briefing because it leads
to only one conclusion: that the bounty is most certainly not a no-confidence
vote on Pakistan's government and justice system; on the contrary, it is
Pakistan's position that stands vindicated. This is probably the first time in
history that a bounty is placed just for evidence, and against someone who is
not in hiding. Every other person in the United State's Reward for Justice
program is a convicted fugitive with unknown whereabouts. On the other hand
Hafiz M Saeed has not only been justly acquitted after several hearings, he has
even declared willingness to stand trial in any American court. Making
comparisons with the case of the blasphemy killer Mumtaz Qadri is frankly
ridiculous.
Also one has to question what the need was for placing a bounty for evidence
admissible in a court of law when India's government has claimed for over three
years that it has already given Pakistan all the evidence it needs to convict
and punish Hafiz M Saeed for the Mumbai attacks. A journalist in fact asked
that question of Toner during the aforementioned briefing, which he simply
dodged. India and the US's positions both contradict one another; which of
these two is telling the truth?
Hiro also conveniently left out mentioning that India, after much resistance,
finally and just recently admitted a Pakistani judicial commission sent to
investigate the Mumbai attacks. The Indian authorities not only denied that
commission access to the scene of the crime or the sole surviving assailant but
also didn't let it question authorities on the many holes in India's version of
how the attack took place. Hiro also didn't tell his readers that David
Headley, whom India's media praised as the one whistleblower who would spill
all the beans there were on the Inter-Services Intelligence's (ISI's) role in
the Mumbai attacks, told a court in Chicago that the ISI's leaders were unaware
of any plot to attack Mumbai, let alone had a hand in it. Ever since then the
Indian media has run content questioning this man's credibility as a witness.
Hiro should also have mentioned that New Delhi for four years blamed the
torching of the Samjhauta Express train (which killed almost 50 Pakistanis) on
Islamabad, all based on evidence it claimed it had - until the member of an
Indian state-backed Hindu terrorist outfit RSS, Veenaswamy, came forward
claiming responsibility for that attack, and further investigations implicated
a serving Indian army officer, Colonel Purohit Shrikant, as well as other
people in India's military and intelligence. Now when Pakistan asked India to
produce the investigative report on whose basis it held Islamabad responsible
for that atrocity, India replied that that investigative report had not yet
been written - even four years after the event. Also in 2011, India withdrew
its list of 50 most wanted terrorists that it insisted were in Pakistan when a
few of them turned up inside India (one of them in a jail at a Mumbai police
station) even while it took no action on the 50 most-wanted list it had also
received from Pakistan, all the while pressuring Islamabad to release a spy
named Sarabhjit Singh, who has already confessed to launching terrorist
bombings in Pakistan.
These incidences lead to the one conclusion that the US' bounty on Hafiz M
Saeed confirms: that India's case simply lacks credibility and Pakistan was
right all along when it said there is no actionable evidence against that man.
I am curious as to how all the above facts missed Hiro's attention.
Shayne Wilson (Apr 19, '12)
Ah, a new week in WonderBlunderDunderHeadland, a new scandal. And what a
scandal! Sex (a prerequisite for any scandal here worth its salt), secret
agents (invoking memories of James Bond, Mata Hari and KGB "honey traps"), the
President of these United SexStates of Amerika, Barack O'Bama (you heard it
here first, birthers; he's actually a Black Irish) and our favorite
coke-selling, Chavez-baiting, money-laundering Latin stooge-puppet country,
Colombia.
The ever widening web of intrigue is now ensnaring military personnel as well
as the Secret Service, with the National Security Council, Drug Enforcement
Administration, Federal Bureau of Investigation and Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA) surely right behind them.
My ability to predict this rogues gallery's complicity is based on many things.
For one, the much ballyhooed "Plan Colombia" was an easy-to-predict American
inside job, allegedly initiated to suppress both Marxist guerillas and
narco-traffickers but in reality an attempt to institutionalize corruption,
optimize the police state and streamline the drug trade using the latest
WonderTechniques. In so doing, those infamous drug traffickers and
nation-underminers, the CIA, had to ensure compliance and acquiescence with the
other, lesser organs of American security. To do this, prostitutes, drugs,
payoffs, perks, Swiss bank accounts and blackmail were and are being used to
grease the skids, with the former an easy-to-understand temptation in a land
justly famous for its feminine beauties and in fact the immediate cause of this
scandal.
This whole incident (where a hooker supposedly protested a short-changing
Secret Service "John") smacks of an attempt by some agency to embarrass not
just the election-conscious Obaminator but his entire Plan Colombia
infrastructure and how that lucrative pie is being divvied up. That this
project has infiltrated Colombia's security apparatus and subverted that
country's sovereignty is beyond doubt, of course, but inevitably, as in all
criminal organizations, jealousy,greed and revenge play their roles in
instigating turf wars amongst the Amerikan gangs funded feebly by the US
taxpayer and much more generously by junkies, pushers and money-laundering
bankers. Anyone interested in seeing how these WonderMobsters operate need only
watch The Godfather or an episode of The Sopranos.
Hardy Campbell
Texas (Apr 19, '12)
[Re: Suspicion
falls on Haqqani network, Apr 18, '12] Interesting that the article's
title starts with the word "suspicion," then talks about the "finger of
suspicion" being pointed at the Haqqanis for the latest attack in Afghanistan
even though an arrested militant (according to this article) said that group
launched it. Then this article goes on to talk about how the Haqqanis are
"thought to have been complicit" in an attack on the Intercontinental Hotel in
Kabul.
If thorough investigations had been carried out and completed on all those
attacks we wouldn't have articles like this one basing themselves on
"suspicion" and "thoughts". Reading this article would make one conclude that
the Haqqanis don't need to bother launching any attack when they can get free
publicity without lifting a finger.
The author of this article also calls the Haqqanis a "Pakistan-based" group but
then quotes contradictory statements from [Defense Secretary Leon] Panetta
(that this group is behind the latest attack) and [Joint Chiefs of Staff
Chairman General Martin] Dempsey (that there's currently no indication the
attack was planned in Pakistan). The attack could not have come from a
"Pakistan-based" group without it being planned in that country. Clarity here
emerges when it's pointed out that the Haqqani network has complete writ over
three Afghan provinces and freely operates in four more; their base of
operations is no longer located in Pakistan. The author of this article should
not have neglected mentioning that.
Shayne Wilson
Dubai, UAE (Apr 18, '12)
[Re A fly in China's
Russian ointment, Apr 16, '12] Beijing should not at all have been
surprised by the Gazprom move since Moscow and Hanoi had been eyeing each other
rather intently for some time; and as the saying goes, where there's smoke
there's fire. That said, one can't help but wonder if the Bear has shown its
paw a bit too soon. After all, Russian economic and geopolitical ambitions are
largely predicated on oil prices remaining high, a condition that's far from
certain.
John Chen
USA (Apr 16, '12)
[Re Twist and shout, Kim
style, Apr 16, 12] Despite the setback of the satellite launch, Kim
Jong-eun has reminded his own people and the world that North Korea is a
nuclear power. His rhetoric on the imperialists having no monopoly on
technology now takes on its full meaning. Some might say that this give body to
Mao's old "epigram" that the US is a paper tiger, since it cannot risk war in
the Korean peninsula.
Kosuke Takahashi does provide useful information on the change of guard as Kim
consolidates his hold on power.
Nakamura Junzo
Guam (Apr 16, '12)
[Re Surrender now,
or we'll bomb you later, Apr 10,
Iran talks have right mix for history, Apr 12, and
Nuclear chess in Istanbul, Apr 13] These three articles are an astute
analysis of what is myth and what is reality concerning Iran's nuclear program.
Asia Times Online should be commended for printing them. And they should be
required reading for they counter the daily dose of speculative fiction,
outright misinformation and plain nonsense coming from the Western media,
think-tanks, and the Israel-can-do-no-wrong crowd in the United States
Congress.
Western powers including Israel have acknowledged that Iran has not decided to
build a bomb, does not have one, and is years away from having an effective
delivery system. In fact, the Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, said
last February that "the Iranian nation has never pursued and will never pursue
nuclear weapons." Deep mistrust and enmity have characterized America's
relations with Iran for over 30 years. As an example, during the Bush/Cheney
administration, US diplomats were not even allowed to speak with their Iranian
counterparts.
If there is to be any success in talks, statements that prejudice and inflame,
should stop. If both sides believe that the other side has no intention of
negotiating in good faith, then meeting is a sham. Negotiations should be just
that, negotiations. Neither side wins everything, but both sides win something.
"Demands," idle threats, are not the language of diplomacy. And domestic
intransigence on both sides, that would like to see the talks fail, should be
isolated from negotiations. With so much suspicion, confidence building
measures are desperately needed.
Two years ago, believing they had the blessing of America, Brazil and Turkey
negotiated a deal concerning Iran's nuclear program. A deal that, if accepted
by Western powers, had the potential to put an end to the constant threats and
hyperbole surrounding that program. With the president of Brazil, Dilma
Rousseff, visiting President Obama, and the talks pending in Turkey, why not
seize the moment and revive that deal? Brazil is trusted by the Iranians as an
even-handed friend. Iran wants recognition of its right under the
Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to a nuclear program. The US and its allies want
to make sure the program is not a weaponization program. Strict transparency is
the issue and Iran has publicly said it will provide more transparency if
Western powers show they are as serious about negotiations as they are about
sanctions. Is this not a good place to start by accentuating the positive and
eliminating the negative?
Fariborz S Fatemi
Former Professional Staff Member
House Foreign Affairs Committee
United States (Apr 13, '12)
Once upon a time a powerful Western country invaded the Middle East, claiming
that its aims were the liberation of the Muslim people from despotic tyranny,
the endowment of democracy and freedom and the development of the natives'
primitive society. Despite the sincere best efforts of these "liberators,"
despite all attempts to respect Islam and the local customs, despite building
canals, bridges, schools and hospitals, despite treating diseases and
preventing famine, the natives rose up in rebellion against these uninvited
Westerners, conducted guerilla warfare and eventually saw the invaders beat an
ignominious retreat back home. Do I speak of the WonderInvasion of Afghanistan
of 2001? No. Is this a description of the US attack on Iraq in 2003? Nope,
sorry.
This Western invasion was the attack on Ottoman Egypt by Napoleon Bonaparte's
French army in 1798. This famous adventure was yet another land mark on that
Corsican's itinerary of historical immortality, a futile attempt to carve out
an empire of Western civilization in the ignorant, feudal Islamic world of the
day. But as the Middle East struggles to confront the revolutionary forces
unleashed by the Arab Spring, it is worthwhile to note how difficult those same
ideas, born in the chaos and blood of the French Revolution, had in finding any
kind of fertile soil amidst a people whose religion and culture prided
themselves on ancient history and tradition.
Granted, Napoleon attempted to hoist these foreign ideals up on the tips of
bayonets, never a strong selling point (as Wonderland has discovered in
Afghanistan), but despite all the benefits he offered the Arabs, they chafed
not only under a foreign flag but also the uncertainties of a freedom they had
never experienced before. Whereas Enlightened Westerners found such freedom
inspirational, the Muslim world finds such liberation disquieting,
uncomfortable and threatening to the world order their religion finds
acceptable.
In the modern world, such trepidations would seem to be a relic of the
uninformed, communications-deficient past, but the wariness of the chaos
"freedom" promises should not be discounted. When the pitfalls offered by such
liberty become apparent, modern Middle Easterners will look with fondness back
on the "Bad Old Days." Little by little, they will massage, modify and
sometimes mutilate the Western ideals of democratic freedoms in order to
accommodate these uncomfortable feelings. They will find that turning the clock
back, just a tad, mind you, isn't such a bad thing after all.
The Little Corporal could justifiably blame Perfidious Albion (Britain) for his
adventure's ultimate failure, but the present day "democrats" need only look
amongst themselves for the seeds of The Revolution's premature demise.
Hardy Campbell
United States (Apr 13, '12)
[Re West launches
barrage of hot air, Apr 12] The imminent launch of North Korea's Unha-3
has left loose much blather, as Donald Kirk rightly remarks. Loose talk of
retaliation, imposition of more sanctions, and threats of North Korea will live
to regret its action, are a sure sign of the US and its allies' weaknesses.
Short of resorting to manu militari, there is little else Washington can
do but let off blasts of hot air.
The Asia Foundation's man in Seoul Peter Beck summed the humiliating situation
this way: "After various governments finish beating their chests, we have to
find a way to talk to North Korea."
As long as the Obama administration - nay, any US administration - refuses to
engage North Korea in negotiations, the longer America will continue its
masochistic exercise of diplomatic flagellation.
Nakamura Junzo
Guam (Apr 12, '12)
O Canada. What's it like to be the northern neighbor of Wonderland? They share
a common Anglo-Saxon ancestry with us "Yanks," they share the longest
undefended border on the planet with us, we're their biggest trading partner,
dozens of their finest actors, intellects and entrepreneurs reside and prosper
here, Canadian troops die alongside ours in merciless Afghanistan, in 2008 they
suffered the same mortgage meltdown as ...
Oh wait. That's right. They didn't. In fact, in contrast to plummeting
WonderProperty prices, Canadian real estate values have continued their
stratosphere-scrapping ascendancy, despite Canucks being in debt at an even
more prodigious rate than their southern brothers. And that exceptionalism is a
source of pride among them, a distinction from their economically strapped
brethren who were simply too arrogant and incompetent to handle real estate
bubbles with the same Maple Leaf panache and finesse. Now Wonderland is sinking
deeper in its mire, while frigid Canadian soil attracts money from all over,
especially those value-conscious Chinese.
With the 200th anniversary of the commencement of the War of 1812 upon us, a
war where American attempts to conquer Canada were repulsed, Canadians can be
excused a rare opportunity to once again rub American noses in their ignominy.
But they are nervous in their celebrations. For they know that despite their
best efforts to distance themselves culturally from Wonderlanders, the fact is,
blood, borders and business bide us too closely for The Wonderland Disease not
to eventually spread beyond that long porous border. And in their
frozen-tundra, hockey-loving heart-of-hearts, they know the Day of Canadian
Reckoning approacheth, and that their inevitable fall will be a long, painful
and humble one.
Doubtless when the unemployment numbers get too depressing, they will flock
south with the same migratory fervor as their tropics-bound fowl, seeking
comfort in the culturally barren, socially Darwinian, immigrant-phobic USA. And
I've got news for them. A little birdie told me those 'merican patriotic
paladins of border sanctity and defenders of all things WASP, the Republicans,
won't be erecting any electrified barbed wire fences along that border anytime
soon. Hardy Campbell
United States (Apr 12, '12)
As the 100th anniversary of RMS Titanic's sinking approaches, we should
all step back and consider the many lessons, analogies and subterfuges that
have surrounded this tragedy.
Most obviously, the hubris and overconfidence of the vessel's British owners
was rewarded with the vengeance of Poseidon, whose Olympian colleagues were
already planning that Empire's fatal weakening in two year's time. The euphoria
of technological superiority played its part, of course; His Majesty's navy
ruled the waves, so why would this mammoth cruise liner be any different? More
currently, we here in Wonderland are witnessing the latest folly of our
politics, which amounts to nothing more than arguments, debates and polarizing
vituperations over which party gets to re-arrange the deck chairs on the
Amerikan state's analogue of the Titanic. They all see the icebergs,
they all know what will happen very soon, but it just feels so good to remove
one's nose and thus infuriate their faces before those frigid waves drown them.
Finally, let us note that the discovery of the Titanic's ruins in 1985
by Bob Ballard was not accomplished because he found generous backers eager to
revel in the glory of resurrecting the memory of the fabled ship. No, his
sponsors were the US government, who wanted to use Ballard's subsea expertise
to locate two sunken US nuclear submarines before the Soviets did. But they
cleverly used the happenstance of the Titanic being in the same North Atlantic
vicinity to provide credible cover.
So all you Titanic fans, thank the Cold War and those godless commies;
otherwise, April 15, 2012, would be just another dreary day to hand over taxes
to an old and senile Uncle Sam. Hopefully someone in the future will do a deep
sea dive to find what remains of the USA Titanik after it submerges for
the last time.
Hardy Campbell
United States (Apr 10, '12)
[Re All of Kim
Jong-eun's men and
Japan sets sights on Pyongyang's launch, Apr 4] The impulse of North
Korean watchers to agonize over the complexity of North Korea's breaking its
given word in the February 29 agreement is being turned into a snuff film of
sorts.
The US and North Korea had been in long negotiations over the deal since July
2011. As Evans Revere revealed in a radio interview in March 2012, Pyongyang
had informed Washington during months of negotiations that in the framework of
the centenary celebrations of Kim Il-sung birth, the North was going to launch
a satellite. This satellite would being a jewel in the DPRK's crown of
achieving a level of development, alas, did not meet the "great expectations"
of its hype, but certainly would be a badge of honor and progress proudly worn
by its own people.
Now the US, South Korea, and Japan have turned the satellite in dire and
sensational terms: let's consider two factors.
One, the trajectory as the North announced would be towards the Pacific and
would not violate South Korean and Japanese air space. This formal notice is no
different than South Korea's own missile launched from Cholla-do's path.
Two, North Korea's satellite launch has "unhinged" North Korea watchers. Scott
Synder of the Asia Society is advocating that the US bomb the missile site from
whence Pyongyang will put the satellite into space. Were that to happen, would
China stand by with arms crossed? To teach North Korea a lesson, Synder is
preaching Armageddon.
The reaction to the satellite, which would broadcast patriotic songs, is over
the top to say the least. It would seem that in the corridors of Washington,
Seoul, and Tokyo sanity and rationality have taken a vacation.
Nakamura Junzo
Guam (Apr 4, '12)
[Re Old rogues take
different trajectories, Apr 2, '12] Myanmar's relations with North
Korea will not suffer much because of recent elections. The Myanmar "spring"
has not been extended to its many ethnic minorities with which it is still at
war after more than 60 years. Saying this, "democracy" shall remain anemic,
contrary to US secretary of state Hillary Clinton's extravagant praise. It
seems strange that no comment is made of the obvious similarity with South
Korea. There, the generals put on business suits, which signaled the manner in
which South Korea evolved into a parliamentary democracy that functions more or
less well today. Will Myanmar take the same road? No one can say for sure.
On the other hand, it profits Western observers of North Korea little to
compare it to the South.
Fierce nationalism, as well as a staunch defense of its independence, strongly
motivates the North Korean leadership. Everyone tends to forget that
technically the country is at war with the US and South Korea, and thus, every
policy is determined by that historical fact. Yet, reform is not out of the
question; it is and will be done as Pyongyang sees fit. Already, as some
European political economists have long observed, there is movement on the
economic front to meet today's realities. Some American North Korean watchers
judge North Korea by its non observance of Prieto's principle. And yet, these
very same observers strongly criticize North Korea's corps elite for scanting
that very same economic "law" when the North in its own way mimics Prieto's
elitist assumptions.
Nakamura Junzo
Guam (Apr 3, '12)
There are, of course, numerous reasons for China to surmise that the 21st
century will be theirs much as the last one was Wonderland's. The Chinese
floating of America's perpetual, institutionalized debt, the
profitable-for-Wall-Street death of American manufacturing, the slow agonizing
death march of the middle class, all are landmarks on the road to the edge of
America's cliff. But, more fundamentally, China sees that, without one
essential and ultimately fatal flaw, all these road obstacles could be skirted
and the brakes applied before that precipice was crossed and the laws of
historical gravitation enacted to their gruesome conclusion.
All the Chinese have to do is look every day at America's cybernews and see
stories of students shooting students (such as the shootings on Monday at a
California religious school), or read about schools becoming virtual prisons
and drug dens, or hear about incessant bullying at school, or how "nerds" are
marginalized and threatened, or how teachers fake test results to boost their
salaries or learn how all attempts at fundamental and long-overdue reform is
always thwarted by teacher's unions, to understand that if a country allows its
educational system to decay, all hope for the future is an illusion.
In this regard, cultural norms on this subject reflect basic philosophies that
are symbolic of each country's history and values. America, always making the
individual ascendant, China sublimating the one to the many, the age-old
question of cultivating the talents of the singular versus those of the plural.
Many still hold out the hope that China's political system will stymie
collective efforts to replicate America's record of individual innovation, but
those delusions miss the point. China had innovations aplenty throughout its
long history, among them the first printing devices, paper and gunpowder, but
none of those prevented its divinely-mandated empire from succumbing to
foreigners who put their inventions to better use.
Similarly, Amerika has succumbed to the same imperial delusion of its own
manifest mandate being from heaven, supposedly making them immune to the
ironies of history. It's a lesson we should have learned, but, alas, not
lessons being learnt is the entire problem in a nutshell.
Hardy Campbell
Texas (Apr 3, '12)
[Re The North: It's one
big party,Mar 30, '12] A note of caution, please. One has to be weary
of stories published in the South Korean press on North Korea. I am reminded of
one such tale: a senior North Korean figure had mysteriously died in a motor
car accident, it was reported in the press in South Korea that this was a
matter of settling scores. Months later lo and behold, that very same gentleman
turned up not only alive and well but rehabilitated.
Nakamura Junzo
Guam (Apr 2, '12)
February, March Letters
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