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Another Pakistani D-Day over militants
The peace deals between the Pakistani government and militants in the tribal
areas have been exposed for what they were, a delaying tactic for the Taliban
to send fresh fighters into Afghanistan. The new government in Islamabad,
provided it staves off a political crisis, and its United States ally now have
to make the hard decision whether to fight fire with fire or risk losing the
battle against militancy. - Syed Saleem Shahzad
(May 12, '08)
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Hezbollah's street fight just a
first step
Hezbollah, in taking its political grievances to the streets, was able to take
military control of Beirut in less than 48 hours, while the Lebanese army
looked on. The display of force by the opposition Shi'ite group does not leave
the government much margin for maneuvering. (May 12,
'08)
Arab ministers bid to end crisis (AFP)
 SPENGLER
Why Israel is the world's happiest
country
At the 60th anniversary of its founding, it could be said that Israel is the
happiest nation on Earth. It is one of the wealthiest, freest and
best-educated; and it enjoys high fertility and life expectancy rates. The
light heart of the Israelis in face of continuous danger is a singularity
worthy of a closer look. (May 12, '08)
COMMENT
The problem with dictators and
disasters
The Myanmar junta's botching of cyclone relief efforts is part of a larger
trend of authoritarian regimes mismanaging disaster response. The long-term
"NGO-ization" that occurred in Indonesia after the 2004 tsunami has the
fiddling Neros in Naypyidaw afraid that the United Nations, not to mention the
United States, might use the occasion to promote grassroots democracy in
Myanmar. - Sreeram Chaulia (May 12, '08)
Parts
of nation still cut off (AFP)
ASIA
HAND: The
case for invading Myanmar
(May 9, '08)
NOTE: These images may upset some viewers |
North Korea gives a lot, expects more
Washington is likely to decide that North Korea's delivery of 18,000 documents
on its nuclear program suffices to ask the US Congress to remove Pyongyang from
an international terrorist list and lift sanctions. Yet the papers are not
expected to reveal anything new, and the US's response risks cutting South
Korea out of the loop of negotiations with the North. - Donald Kirk
(May 12, '08)
Negroponte in China for N Korea talks (AFP)
China and Japan tiptoe into a 'warm
spring'
Chinese President Hu Jintao's five-day visit to Japan
was an important step towards stabilizing relations between the two powers.
Clearly, a positive Sino-Japanese relationship serves the interests of the
region - and the United States - but territorial disputes, food safety issues
and rising nationalism in both countries remain unresolved. - Jing-dong
Yuan (May 12, '08)
 ASIA
HAND
The case for
invading Myanmar
If ever there was an opportunity for the United States to take out an "outpost
of tyranny", as Washington likes to call Myanmar, it is now. The tardy response
of the junta in allowing in foreign aid for its cyclone-devastated population
provides a strong moral case for a United Nations-approved, US-led humanitarian
intervention. Such a move would also allow President George W Bush to burnish
his legacy, which to date will be judged harshly due to his pre-emptive
military policies waged exclusively in the name of fighting terror. - Shawn
W Crispin (May 9, '08)
'All we can do is drink whisky'
Myanmar's people have again been forced to weather a catastrophe on their own,
banding together with little help from the government. Food and water supplies
are growing scarce, disease looms and power is expected to be out for months.
The whisky, too, will soon run out. - Zao Noam
(May 9, '08) |
 CHAN
AKYA
Cyclone
cowards
fear ultimate market
Curbs by cyclone-hit Myanmar on overseas help for its devastated population is
merely an extreme example of a government cowering in fear of information. At a
more prosaic level, Asian authorities concerned with improving their citizens'
well-being should let markets with their abundance of information act in their
favor. They should start with currencies, and then laugh all the way to the
bank. (May 9, '08)
An oil-addicted ex-superpower
The United States' brief reign as the world's sole superpower is over, its
status crumbling as surely as the unlamented Berlin Wall. Last month's NATO
summit is merely recent evidence of the decline. America's utter addiction to
oil, which once powered its climb to might, is its undoing, and an aid to
Russia's resumption of power. - Michael T Klare
(May 9, '08)
US tightens its grip on Pakistan
It is no coincidence that US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte chose
the National Endowment for Democracy to deliver a key-note speech on Pakistan.
For years, the US government-funded NED has specialized as a handmaiden of US
policies by funding and supporting foreign politicians. Now it is Pakistan's
turn to get the full treatment, for as Negroponte says, US national security is
inextricably linked to the success, security and stability of that country. -
M K Bhadrakumar (May 9, '08)
Iran woos Farsi-speaking nations
Tehran has stepped up its initiative to forge closer links with the two other
Farsi-speaking nations in the region, Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Not only will
the move kick-start slow trade ties, it signals a greater degree of Iran's
integration into a region deemed important by the Shanghai Cooperation
Organization, to which Tehran is pressing its claims to join. - Kaveh L
Afrasiabi (May 9, '08)
 SEX
IN DEPTH
The young ones
In Japan, where the age of sexual consent can be as low as 13, the practice of
an older man hiring a teenage schoolgirl for a "date" is about as firmly
established as Mt Fuji. The time-honored custom of enjo kosai has for
years caused screams of outrage about innocence gone bad, but efforts to
regulate the practice are proving difficult. - William Sparrow
(May 9, '08)
China's submarine progress
alarms India
Reports of China building a massive strategic naval base capable of housing
nuclear-powered submarines on Hainan island in the South China Sea have India
on red alert. The fear is not so much that China will launch any offensive
against India, but that India is falling far behind in the race to dominate the
region's seas. - Siddharth Srivastava (May 8,
'08)
DISPATCHES FROM AMERICA
The US: Your masters of the universe
The US Air Force's new slogan, "Air Force - Above All" conveys the basic
precept that mastery of the air means mastery of the ground. Yet the air force
seeks more than that. It wants to extend its "mastery" to space and even to
cyberspace. This is a disturbing manifestation of the military's quest for
"full spectrum dominance", achieved at debilitating cost to the American
taxpayer - and a potentially destabilizing one to the planet. - William J Astore
(retired lieutenant colonel, USAF) (May 8, '08)
'My daughter, the terrorist'
A Norwegian documentary follows two elite female Tamil Tiger
soldiers as they train to join the Black Tigers - the female arm of the rebel
group known for carrying out suicide bombings. Within their ranks the women are
revered as heroes, but the film has been panned as glorifying suicide bombers.
Either way, the story is ultimately a tragic tale of loss and sacrifice in war.(May
8, '08)
US trains Pakistani killing
machine
United States Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, drawing on his
experience in the Philippines and Nicaragua, is behind an initiative for the US
to train up special Pakistani forces to go after high-level al-Qaeda and
Taliban targets in Pakistan's tribal areas. The move is an admission that
operations by massed Pakistani troops have failed, but it gives the US further
inroads into Pakistan. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (May
7, '08)
Yes, the Pentagon did want to hit
Iran
Since soon after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, it has been an open
secret that the George W Bush administration wanted to attack Iran. Now comes
further confirmation from a document quoted in then-under secretary of defense
for policy Douglas Feith's recently published account of Iraq war decisions. It
is confirmed, too, that this was part of a broader plan, explicitly supported
by the US's top military leaders, to also take out Syria, Libya, Sudan and
Somalia. - Gareth Porter. (May 6, '08)
 SUN
WUKONG
Blowing the whistle
on 'Big Brother'
Fundamental problems exist in China's railway system, not the least of which is
that the behemoth Ministry of Railways is both the monopoly operator and
industry regulator for all rail transport. If this system is not restructured,
nothing will change, and accidents such as the recent crash that claimed 70
lives will continue. - Wu Zhong (May 6, '08)
 CAMPAIGN
OUTSIDER
Democrats do have a nominee
No matter who wins this Tuesday's votes in Indiana and North Carolina, the
Democratic US presidential nomination remains a foregone conclusion. But it may
be a different foregone conclusion than the one of two weeks ago. - Muhammad
Cohen (May 5, '08)
Speculators knock OPEC off
oil-price perch
 The
bulk of price gains in oil is attributable not to supply problems but to
speculative activity by hedge funds and others with no direct use for the fuel
beyond profiting from its changing value. The door to much of this unregulated
trade was opened by the US energy futures regulator under the George W Bush
administration. - F William Engdahl (May 5, '08)
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Reality
challenge for India TV ratings
India's burgeoning TV industry attracts more than US$2.1 billion in annual
advertising revenue allocated largely on the basis of viewing figures produced
by two agencies whose survey methods are coming under scrutiny. The stakes are
high, with a government minister claiming that vested interests have threatened
him with "dire consequences" if he intervenes. - Raja M
China's weakness
the greater danger
Claims that China is an emerging superpower overlook the reality that the
ineffectually governed country will struggle for decades to get and stay beyond
subsistence. The West, rather than fearing China's expansion, should be
preparing for a dramatic setback in Chinese economic growth and resulting
breakdowns in domestic order.
CREDIT BUBBLE BULLETIN
A new inflationary epoch
The world is awash in excess funds, large amounts of these in the form of
foreign currency reserves, available to bid up prices of critical tradable
resources. A key question is how much will China, India, Russia and others be
willing to pay to procure adequate supplies of food and energy for their
populations and economies?
Doug Noland reviews the previous week's events each Monday.
Pressure grows on
China's grain prices
Good harvests, subsidies and a mix of government controls have isolated China
from the worst of international grain price increases. That is unlikely to last
as farmland is lost to urbanization and impoverished farmers flee the land. - Sally
Wang
Stranger than fictional balance sheets
The US Federal Reserve is taking a whole lot of potentially dodgy assets from
banks as security against Treasury bonds. So far so horrible. Now, Standard
& Poor's has cut assumptions for how much will be recovered after defaults
on some of those assets. So where does that leave the value of the Fed's
"security"? Or put another way, how big is the hole in the Fed's balance sheet
now?
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MARKET RAP
Shadows lighten over Asia
The receding fear of an immediate downturn in the US has lightened the
shadows over Asian markets. National issues such as inflation or the attraction
of regional stocks to Chinese investors found room to assert themselves.
Confidence, however, remains in short supply. (May
9, '08) R M Cutler runs his eye over the ups and
downs in the week's markets.
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Grand Theft Auto rules, OK
Fast-action, grim and gritty Grand Theft Auto has kicked Microsoft's tedious
tussle for Yahoo into the gutter of public attention. The game looks guilty of
mugging mega-movie Iron Man at the box-office and has pumped some
testosterone into the bank account of its makers, who are responding to a
takeover bid by global games muscle-man Electronic Arts. And that's all before
you shoot the game up on your console. Whew! (May
9, '08)
Martin J Young surveys the week's developments in
computing, gaming and gizmos. |
|
[Re The case
for invading Myanmar, May 10] Surely you jest. We are despised around
the world for our aggression. Who would you have run it - Cheney?
Robert
Kentucky
Since American leaders like [Vice President Dick] Cheney are hell-bent on
shooting at something anyway, why not aim them in a useful direction?
- ATol
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| Go
to Letters to the Editor |
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ATol Specials
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The
Gates
Inheritance
By
Roger Morris
(June '07) |
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Syed Saleem Shahzad reports on
the Afghan war from the Taliban side
(Dec '06)
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How
Hezbollah defeated Israel
By
Mark Perry and
Alastair Crooke
(Oct '06)
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Mark
Perry and
Alastair Crooke
talk to the 'terrorists'
(Mar '06)
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China:
The
Impossible
Revolution
By
Francesco Sisci
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The Coming
Trade War
By Henry C K Liu
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A series
by Henry C K Liu
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Sinoroving
Pepe Escobar in China
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Money, Power
and
Modern Art
A series by Henry C K Liu
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Andre Gunder Frank on Uncle Sam and his
shrinking dollar
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By Pepe Escobar with
photographs by Kevin Nortz
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Nir Rosen goes inside the Iraqi
resistance
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Nir Rosen rides with the US 3rd
Armored Cavalry in western Iraq
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