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A deadly miscalculation in Lebanon
As a test of strength, the Lebanese government and its Saudi Arabian backers
received a bloody nose in the confrontation with Hezbollah in Beirut. The
government woefully underestimated Hezbollah's reaction to having its
communications - spy - system interfered with. And the Iranian-backed
Hezbollah, with its convincing display of military superiority, made another
clear statement: leave our arms alone. - Sami Moubayed
(May 13, '08)
Renewed fighting erupts (AFP)
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Hezbollah's shots ring in Bush's
ears
Just about everything the George W Bush administration has tried in the Middle
East over the past few years has undermined United States standing and
influence in the region, even as it has enhanced Tehran's. Yet as Bush visits
Saudi Arabia and Egypt this week, he might be able to turn Hezbollah's stunning
show of strength in Lebanon to his advantage. - Jim Lobe
(May 13, '08)
US misses Iran opportunity
In a busy week for Iran, key nations negotiating with it over its nuclear
program will present an incentive package for the Iranians to consider. At the
same time, International Atomic Energy Agency officials will thrash out the
last remaining issues on the Iran-IAEA agenda. US President George W Bush will
also be in the region, but he won't be dropping by, even though Tehran has
indicated they might be willing to talk. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi
(May 13, '08)
Why Myanmar's junta steals
foreign aid
To the Myanmar junta's top generals in their bunkers in the secluded capital
Naypyidaw, far away from the devastated Irrawaddy Delta, their aid
distribution policy is one of political survival at all costs. With rice crops
destroyed, bases wiped out and soldiers running out of food, the military
leadership is scrambling to preserve control by commandeering relief supplies
to channel to its own members. - Brian McCartan
(May 13, '08)
China counts earthquake costs
After initially underestimating the effects of the earthquake that has claimed
the lives of more than 10,000 people, Chinese authorities have appealed for
help in the stricken southwestern region. With the full scale of the tragedy
yet to be known, the economic impact, too, is only slowly emerging. - John Ng
(May 13, '08)
Tens of thousands dead (AFP)
Koreas not eye-to-eye on Vision 3000
South Korea's no-nonsense new president, Lee Myong-bak, has released his
alternative to the Sunshine policy of his predecessor towards the North.
"Vision 3000, Denuclearization, Openness" is a carrot-and-stick plan that
promises a windfall of assistance should North Korea surrender its nuclear
weapons. But its feasibility is likely to remain academic: Vision 3000 has not
the slightest chance of being accepted by Pyongyang. - Andrei Lankov
(May 13, '08)
Parsis may be silenced by success
The population of India's small but prominent Parsi community is not only
aging, it is dying out. Low birth rates and conservative taboos against outside
marriages have fueled fears the ancient Zoroastrian community may not survive
the century. The very success of the Parsis - exemplified by the likes of
the giant industrialist Tata family and rock star Freddie Mercury - appears to
be a threat to its survival. - Sudha Ramachandran
(May 13, '08) |
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)
 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)
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)
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. (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)
ASIA
HAND: The
case for invading Myanmar
(May 9, '08)
NOTE: These images may upset some viewers |
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)
THE MOGAMBO GURU
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? (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)
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)
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 SUN
WUKONG
'Devalue' call undermines
yuan true faith
China for two years has let its currency steadily appreciate against the US
dollar, all the time berated by the US and other leading trade partners who
insist the yuan should strengthen even faster. Now a Bank of China analyst
argues that Beijing should throw its currency policy into reverse and devalue.
What gives? - Wu Zhong
Sears: From majesty
to hedge-fund dust
The life and near death of one store charts the rise and decline of
the American economy, from frontier innovation to the present crisis of
overconsumption. The great US money-creation machine of the past few years has
shut down. As the dust settles, we see that very little of real worth remains.
- Julian Delasantellis
THE BEAR'S LAIR
Productivity's poisoned legacy
The Wall Street welcome to improved US labor productivity may be short-lived,
with the prospects far less positive. Among other factors, capital will
probably become more expensive in the years ahead, trade protectionism will
intensify and more regulation will burden manufacturing. The next US president
will not be responsible, but will take the blame. - Martin Hutchinson
Food bill comes in
for liberalization
Two decades of liberalization in international agriculture have seen poor
countries open up to cheap food imports and their farming infrastructure
underdeveloped or turned over to growing products for export. That has left
them ill-prepared for the present surge in prices. The "experts" now urge more
of what got them into this mess.
'Unemployed' now a valid job description
Not only are close to a quarter of a million more people on the US government
payroll than a year ago, the number on that payroll is more than the folk out
there making real things - not even counting the thousands so utterly jobless
they have signed up to government programs. And don't even think about
that "hospitality" headcount. This is inflation hell!
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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? (May 12, '08)
Doug Noland reviews the previous week's events each Monday.
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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[Re Iran woos
Farsi-speaking nations, May 10] ... To use Farsi in the context of his
argument is self-defeating in that [the writer] should know that the
intentional differentiation between Farsi, Dari and Tajiki is another Western
ploy to weaken the territorial impact and literary influence of one of the
world's richest languages, ie, Persian, which was once the literary and
administrative language of a large part of Asia, from Istanbul to Delhi ...
Fatema Soudavar Farmanfarmaian
Tehran
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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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