Geopolitical thread

[abhischekcc]

Perkins' work is good and resonates with what a lot of other people have said.

Interestingl, I read confessions during the economic crisis, and I could see disturbing parallels between the way third world countries were ripped off and how the American poor were ripped off.

For example, loans in both cases were made while the lender was fully concious of the fact that they will not be able to pay back the amount. The whole idea was to put them in a debt trap and enslave them.

[Philip]

Pentagon purchases and burns memoir written by ex-officer

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/2 ... z4xBoZGgu8

The U.S. Pentagon has purchased almost 10,000 copies of Operation Dark Heart, the memoirs penned by a former US military officer who served in Afghanistan.
The books were burned by the Pentagon, because they contain "state secrets." Amazon reports the following on its website:
"Important Message for Customers: On Friday, August 13, 2010, just as St. Martin’s Press was readying its initial shipment of Operation Dark Heart, the Department of Defense expressed concern that its publication could cause damage to U.S. national security. The publication of the initial edition was canceled. However, after consulting with the author, Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, St. Martin's Press agreed to incorporate some of the government’s changes, which includes redacting classified text, into a revised edition."
The AFP reported on September 17 that a last minute deal had been reached between St. Martin's Press and the Pentagon to "remove intelligence details." The Defence Department had offered to pay for the first publication of the book, which was originally printed in August.
The Daily Mail, the Pentagon paid $250,000 for the books already printed. CNN reported Saturday that the Pentagon supervised the destruction of 9,500 of those books on September 20th. The Pentagon had initially approved the book, then revoked its permission.
Author Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer only learned about the Pentagon's decision Friday. Schaffer told CNN
"The whole premise smacks of retaliation. Someone buying 10,000 books to suppress a story in this digital age is ludicrous."
MacMillan, which owns St. Martin's Press, had issued an undated statement saying
"On Friday, August 13, 2010, just as St. Martin’s Press was readying its initial shipment of this book, the Department of Defense contacted us to express its concern that our publication of Operation Dark Heart could cause damage to U.S. national security. After consulting with our author, we agreed to incorporate some of the government’s changes into a revised edition of his book while redacting other text he was told was classified. The newly revised book keeps our national interests secure, but this highly qualified warrior's story is still intact. Shaffer's assessment of successes and failures in Afghanistan remains dramatic, shocking, and crucial reading for anyone concerned about the outcome of the war.
“While I do not agree with the edits in many ways, the DoD redactions enhance the reader’s understanding by drawing attention to the flawed results created by a disorganized and heavy handed military intelligence bureaucracy." —Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer."


Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/2 ... z4xBoOOXAj

[Prem]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 29820.html

China Row Fuels Japan's Right Wing

TOKYO—A bitter confrontation with China following a ship collision in the East China Sea is fueling nationalism among Japan's conservative politicians and right-wing activists, energizing them in their attacks on Prime Minister Naoto Kan's center-left government.As the dispute over the collision continues unabated, conservative lawmakers like former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara have harshly criticized the government's decision to release a captured sea captain under pressure from China, saying Japan needs to stand firm to defend its territory.

[Hari Seldon]

^^^Some aggressive moves by cheena on our borders would (hopefully) also spur some kinda right-wingism, nationalism and righteousness in our own netaship, perhaps. Who knows? Cheena as a neighbor isn't all bad news apparently, if taken with a what-if perspective...

[Neshant]

Personally I much rather their attention be directed elsewhere.

Clearly the Chicom govt is trying to divert the attention of its people from the (coming?) economic woes by stirring up the pot with Japan.

[Philip]

"Onward Christian soldiers,marching as to war,
with the flag of America leading on before,
Obama the royal Messiah,leads against the foe,
forward into battle,see his bazookas go!"

Refrain:
Onward Christain teenagers,marching as to war,
With the flag of America going on before.

(Sung to the tune of the same hymn.)

I mentioned many moons ago,that following the US army intio Iraq,poised was another army of "Christian soldiers",all-a-ready tio convert the good Iraqis,weaning them away from their heathen idol Saddam and the ancient religion of the Shiites and the Sunnis.The Iraqi insurgents put paid to that second invasion force!

However,now that Iraq has been "sanitised",the Florida force of teenage evangelists are ready to go into "battle" and convert the good Iraqis Shiite or Sunni,without distinction.What the mullahs of the holy sites of Shiite Islam think about the coming invasion one has no immediate idea,but if the teen "soldiers" do arrive and start their latter-day "Crusade",one can expect ths sparks to fly and Iraq will inevitably explode again.The thousands upon thousands of mercenary troops left in Iraq,the US army not in uniform represented by holy joes like Balckwater,are expected to provide security for the Crusaders.IT looks like being a most interesting future

'Just remember, the best philanthropist in the world doesn’t qualify for eternal life. That includes Gandhi and, what’s her name, Mother Teresa. Not good enough.’ Wow. What chance do the rest of us have?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstop ... -Iraq.html

Teen evangelists: next stop Iraq
In the scorching wilds of Florida, children as young as nine are learning to mix cement, swim treacherous waters and – most importantly – spread Christianity around the world. Next stop for these would-be missionaries: Iraq

By Alex Hannaford
28 Sep 2010

Some of the children at Teen Missions International affectionately known as the Lord's Boot Camp in Florida. Photo: MATTHEW RAINWATERS

It’s just after 6am and the sun is not yet up. Two hundred children stand in a clearing, surrounded by a dense jungle of palm trees on an island off the Florida coast. A girl of about 15 climbs a stepladder in the middle of the group and everyone bows their heads. 'We pray the Lord will keep us safe today,’ she says.

The children divide into smaller groups and disappear into the forest where, one at a time, they embark on an army-style obstacle course that involves crawling through painted steel tunnels, scrambling over a 20ft mountain of tyres, climbing over huge wooden walls emblazoned with the words 'doubt’, 'anxiety’ and 'confusion’, and then attempting to put large wooden boxes, painted with the books of the Bible, in chronological order.

'The Lord's Boot Camp’, a sprawling 250-acre slice of jungle on Merritt Island, 45 minutes east of Orlando. Each summer, hundreds of children between the ages of four and 18 descend on this place to sleep in tents, wash themselves and their clothes in muddy lake water (there is no running water or electricity), endure swarms of bloodthirsty mosquitoes, tackle obstacle courses, and – most importantly – learn to evangelise.

Once boot camp is over, the children are flown to far-flung corners of the globe to begin their work as Christian missionaries where they will help build schools and churches, and attempt to convert the people who live there. 'This is not pamper camp,’ Teen Missions’ 82-year-old founder Bob Bland once told an American television crew. 'If you’re looking for pamper camp, that’s down the road.’

Bland set up Teen Missions 40 years ago and in that time 40,000 youngsters have come through here. At the end of this week, the teams will head to places like the Amazon rainforest, Belize, Uganda and Malawi to begin evangelising, work with Aids orphans or expand existing mission buildings.

Eighty million Americans identify themselves as Evangelical Christians, making them the largest religious group in the United States, and while some say missionaries have been a force for good, providing much-needed medical care and education as well as championing the rights of indigenous people, others say the spread of Christianity reeks of colonialism and has obliterated native traditions. But that hasn’t stopped the Teenvangelists – this new breed of young, passionate American bent on spreading their old-time religion.

Bland is unapologetic about the potentially thorny issue of trying to convert people. Evangelism is the underpinning of everything that happens at Teen Missions, although he says there is more than one way to preach the gospel: it’s not just bible thumping, he insists. 'They show by example; by helping people.’

Occasionally, though, spreading the word can be met with hostility: at one of the first boot camps in Indonesia, Bland says the team had rocks thrown at them. 'Some people are anti-whatever,’ he says. 'But now we are operating six Bible schools there, so in time they see you’re real and doing something good. You can’t force anyone to be anything.’

Bland and his team will certainly have their work cut out for them next year, when they plan to visit what could be their most hostile country yet: Iraq.

Back at boot camp, a group is attempting to cross the Slough – a stagnant man-made swamp. 'Praise the Lord,’ one boy yells as he swings across and emerges, wet and muddy, from the smelly water. A girl, Ashley, looks apprehensive as she gets to the edge, grabs hold of the rope and swings but slips, emerging a second later from the water, crying.

'Whoa, you walked across the water,’ another boy yells to his friend as he makes it across.

The Lord’s Boot Camp is nothing if not authentic: on more than one occasion I’m told that if the children can survive this they can survive anything the developing world can throw at them. It’s hot (a scorching 97F/36C while I’m there), humid and a 13ft alligator was removed from the lake that doubles as the children’s swimming pool last summer (there are rumours that smaller ones still lurk under the water). The snapping turtles, however, are still very much there.

Home for the two weeks they’re here is in tents, pitched on wooden pallets and covered with pegged-down sheets of black tarpaulin. There are makeshift washing lines suspended between trees and each child is issued with a five-gallon bucket to collect lake water to flush the lavatories, clean their clothes and themselves.

Teams are given points each day depending on how clean their camp site is: the group that wins the most gets to swim in a bona fide swimming pool (not the lake). Those that lose have to wear placards that say 'I live like a pig’ around their necks and clean the lavatories.

The main gathering area is a huge 'big top’ tent where rallies are held each evening, at which the children sing, pray and listen to sermons. Overlooking that is the 30ft-high prayer tower, which looks not unlike a prison watchtower. Here, for 12 hours each day, children spend one-hour shifts sitting in the top, praying over photos of their fellow missionaries.

The main purpose of boot camp, though, is to learn evangelism techniques to employ in the field. Classes take place daily in an office building near the estate entrance. It’s seen better days – there are damp brown patches on the ceiling and peeling paper on the walls. It is, however, the only chance during camp that the children get a break from the intense heat.

Before they begin, a girl leads the group in prayer. 'Please Lord, help us turn the world more Christian,’ she says, before they pair off and practise evangelising.

Sixteen-year-old John Givens says his tactic is usually to sit down and talk to someone as if he’s getting to know them. 'We’re taught to ask big questions,’ he says, 'like: “Do you think you’re a good person?” Then you say: “Good people can’t get into heaven.”’

According to Teen Missions, they’re not good enough.

'I then pull the Ten Commandments on them,’ continues John. 'I tell them that if they tell a lie it’s the same thing as murder in God’s eyes.’

The instructor asks the class if it’s getting easier to articulate their faith. 'Are you fumbling for the right words or the right verses?’ he says. 'Just remember, the best philanthropist in the world doesn’t qualify for eternal life. That includes Gandhi and, what’s her name, Mother Teresa. Not good enough.’ Wow. What chance do the rest of us have?

Tuttle first heard about Teen Missions in a Christian radio broadcast when she was 11. Three years later she went on her first camp – to Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula. 'Two miles from where we were staying was poverty like I’d never seen,’ she says. 'The church was literally made of twigs and cardboard, and we tore it down and built a concrete block church.’

Tuttle met Brian on another mission trip – to Canada – in 1990, they married and now have three children: Wes, 15, Seth, 13 and Emily, 11. In 2008, the couple decided they wanted to become full-time missionaries. They sold their home and moved into a trailer down the road from the base on Merritt Island, and asked family, friends and their local church to sponsor them. They receive around $2,000 a month to live on.

'We’ll see where the Lord leads us,’ Tuttle says. 'It was hard for Brian as the man. He had a good job, we were out of debt, we had a nice little home, a car, and it was hard to let go of that.’

Bob Bland can be seen most days during boot camp, riding around on his old bicycle. Dressed in a purple polo shirt and jeans, he is tanned, has smartly combed white hair and speaks with a strong Southern drawl. He also looks a lot younger than his 82 years.

Born in Ohio into a farming family, he initially trained as a plumber and carpenter before deciding to go to Bible college. He then worked at a youth ministry for six years, came up with the idea for Teen Missions and bought some land bordering Nasa's Cape Canaveral space centre from the Girl Scouts organisation.

'We didn’t have boot camp to begin with,’ Bland explains. 'We just took ’em into the field. But then the Peru trip happened and everything that could go wrong went wrong.’

'Peru’ has become legend at Teen Missions. Bland says the trip there in the early Seventies was a disaster that involved, among other things, rebellious campers, cancelled flights, getting stuck in the Amazon, near-drownings and deadly snakes. 'Kids could have lost their lives on that trip,’ he tells me. 'So many bad things happened. We needed some training and discipline.’

One major criticism levelled at short-term mission trips – let alone ones that involve children as young as nine – is that they really don’t make much impact in the places they go; that the trips are designed to help the missionaries, not the people native to those countries.

Take the Haiti trip next summer, for example. The promotional blurb reads: 'Looking for an unforgettable missions trip in one of the poorest countries in the world?’ That project involves working on a church building and clearing rubble from the pastor’s house.

Bland admits that although they do build schools, churches and orphanages, the main work of Teen Missions is to change the lives of the children that are going on these trips. 'In our leader training seminar, the first thing we tell them is we’re building kids, not buildings,’ he says.

'Are they helping? Yeah, they’re helping, but who are they helping? Are they helping the people there? No, not very much… If it’s a two-week deal it’s pretty much a touristy thing because you’ve got to see the sights and by the time you do that you’re gone. But it does help get them to see there’s another world they’ve never been to, especially if it’s a Third World country. They don’t forget that.’

What about the conflict between the spread of Christianity and local cultures? 'The missionary Marilyn Laszlo, a big name in Christian circles, was just here giving a talk to the kids,’ Bland says. 'She was along the Sepik river in New Guinea and the people there were burying people alive. Are we changing that culture? Yeah – you better believe it.’

I’d earlier asked a group of girls heading to Samoa if they knew much about the island. 'We’re not told much about the countries we go to unless we research it ourselves,’ they said.

Soon, Bland is flying to Iraqi Kurdistan to lay the foundations for a mission trip there next June. The person leading that expedition will be Margaret Watsa, a Canadian who used to teach in England. She’ll be teaching phonetics. 'God has made it very clear to me there is a plan and that I’m part of that plan,’ Watsa tells me. 'I think if I’m supposed to be doing this, he’ll either protect me from harm or it’s his plan that something should happen… I believe my life is in God’s hands.’ Two children have already signed up for the Iraq trip, but Bland says he won’t decide whether it’ll go ahead until he gets back from his recce.

The final evening at boot camp, before the teams fly off to their respective countries to begin the Lord’s work, is known as Commissioning Night. During the day there has been hammering, the clunking of metal and the roar of tractor engines as the children and their team leaders help take down their tents and dismantle the camp.

Several weeks’ worth of dust and forest debris is blown and swept from paths, and teams march around the site carrying buckets, shovels and bags. 'One more day, one more day,’ they shout as they gather in the big top for the final ceremony.

Just outside the marquee, the forest is alive with the shrill hum of crickets. Standing by the obstacle course, kicking dirt up against the 30ft-high boards that, earlier in the week, hundreds of children had leapt over at an ungodly hour, are two boys: Peter Vance, 16, from Massachusetts, and his new friend Austin Carver, 15, from Pennsylvania, are flying to Madagascar in the morning.

Neither of them has enjoyed his time here. Peter says his parents gave him an ultimatum: stay at state school and come to Teen Missions for the summer, or go to a tiny Christian school in the autumn. Teen Missions was the lesser of two evils. 'I grew up as a missionary kid in Uzbekistan for 14 years,’ he says. 'This isn’t such a bad place but the worst thing is not having any technology. I miss my iPod, logging on to Facebook, my Xbox. I miss playing and watching sports.’

Austin is less diplomatic. 'They try to force Jesus on you in every physical way,’ he says. 'We go to church every single day but they only call it church on Sunday. I won’t come back. I want to form a band – I play bass. The music sucks here. My parents paid $5,000 for me to do this.

'Dude, if Pete wasn’t here I don’t know what I’d have done – you’d have seen me hanging from the prayer tower.’

[D Roy]

Gorbachev's Op-ed
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/29/opini ... ref=global

[Prem]

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/201 ... ing-warns/
Don't award dissident with Nobel, Beijing warns
Says it could harm Norway-China ties
BEIJING | China has warned the Nobel committee against awarding its coveted peace prize to a jailed Chinese dissident, the head of the Norwegian Nobel Institute said Tuesday.

A Foreign Ministry spokeswoman denied that China has exerted pressure but said choosing dissident Liu Xiaobo would go against the prize's aims."The person you just mentioned was sentenced to jail by Chinese judicial authorities for violating Chinese law. I think his acts are completely contrary to the aspirations of the Nobel Peace Prize," said spokeswoman Jiang Yu.Mr. Liu, one of the country's most prominent activists, was the main author of a daring political manifesto that called for stronger human rights and an end to Communist Party dominance. He was detained in 2008 and found guilty of inciting to subvert state power. He was sentenced last December to 11 years in jail.
Geir Lund-estad, secretary of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said China's Deputy Foreign Minister Fu Ying warned that awarding the prize to Mr. Liu could harm ties between the two countries when she visited Norway in June.Mr. Fu said that giving the Nobel to Mr. Liu would be "an unfriendly action that would have negative consequences for the relationship between Norway and China," Mr. Lund-estad told Associated Press.
Mr. Lund-estad said the Nobel committee is independent and ignores pressure to influence its decisions. The peace prize winner will be announced on Oct. 8.

[Prem]

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2010/09/ ... .html?_r=1
Japan Urges Resolution on Nationals Held In China

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan urged China on Wednesday to quickly settle the case of four detained Japanese and said Beijing would also suffer from a worsening of ties in a bitter territorial feud between Asia's two biggest economies. Tokyo and Beijing have been bickering over Japan's detention of a Chinese fishing boat skipper whose trawler collided this month with two Japan Coast Guard ships near uninhabited islands in the East China Sea that both sides claim. The trawler captain was released on Saturday, but Beijing wants compensation and an apology, a demand Japan has rejected. In a sign that tensions might be easing, a Japanese trading firm source told Reuters China had ended a de facto ban on exports to Japan of rare earth minerals vital to many products. Japan's foreign minister called on Beijing to deal quickly with the case of four nationals held in China since last week on suspicion of violating a law protecting military facilities. Tokyo has said the incident was not linked to the islands row. "It is important to seek a smooth and swift resolution of this issue," Seiji Maehara said in an interview with Reuters and other media. The four, employees of a construction company, were in China in connection with a project to dispose of chemical weapons abandoned by the Japanese military at the end of World War Two. Chinese authorities are still questioning them and there is no prospect of their release, Kyodo news agency said, citing a source from the Japanese embassy in Beijing. Maehara also said it was important for the two sides to nurture a "win-win relationship," adding: "The Chinese side would lose greatly if ties with Japan do not go well." Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan is set to attend an October 4-5 Asia-Europe summit in Brussels but it is unclear whether he will meet Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao -- who snubbed the Japanese leader at the United Nations last week -- on the sidelines.

[Prem]

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2010/09/ ... lands.html
Medvedev Vows to Visit Islands Claimed By Japan
PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY, Russia (Reuters) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Wednesday he would soon visit a disputed island chain off Japan, focal point of a territorial row preventing signature of a post-World War Two peace treaty. Medvedev pointedly called the South Kurils "an important region of our country." He made his comments as Japan remained locked in a territorial dispute with China over islets in the East China Sea. Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku, asked about the comments, recalled that Russia had been asked not to take such a step. He told a news conference he believed Medvedev was not referring to any specific travel plan. Medvedev, speaking on the Kamchatka peninsula north of the islands on his return from a three-day visit to China, said plans to visit the Kurils this week had been thwarted by bad weather. "This is an important region of our country and we will certainly go there in the near future," he told reporters. Japan claims a string of islands just northwest of its main northern island of Hokkaido as its own and calls them the Northern Territories. The islands were occupied by Soviet troops in the dying days of World War Two and, despite numerous high-level diplomatic discussions, no

[abhishek_sharma]

Strategizing on Europe's foreign policy

http://bosco.foreignpolicy.com/posts/20 ... ign_policy

[G]iven that the EU is still building its network of ambassadors and has very limited funds (so much so that the External Action Service will not be moving into specially built offices in Brussels but will turf translators out of existing buildings) do you think it should be throwing its weight around on already controversial/difficult international issues like the Middle East and Darfur, rather than focusing on building up effectiveness in the bread and butter of international relations, particularly trade agreements (especially since the EU is above all about free trade)?

[abhishek_sharma]

European Union Starts Legal Proceedings Against France Over Roma Expulsion

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-2 ... lsion.html

[Hari Seldon]

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/201 ... ing-warns/
Don't award dissident with Nobel, Beijing warns
Says it could harm Norway-China ties
BEIJING | China has warned the Nobel committee against awarding its coveted peace prize to a jailed Chinese dissident, the head of the Norwegian Nobel Institute said Tuesday.

LOL. I'm loving it. The haughty Norwegians are in for a shock or what? Its lose-lose for them either way. And a tight jhaapad on Norway's pretensions was long overdue. Sri Lanka did a good job all by itself. Now it's cheena's turn. Hum bhi line mein khade hain, wonder we'll get a chance. ...

Pipsqeaks went overboard and overplayed their hand awarding nubile piss prizes to flagrantly fragrantly political causes - the arafat, carter, obama prizes were what else, exactly? And the carrot dangle on a prize to desi netas also is there. Praise the lord, MKG wasn't awarded one, else our media would've gone gaga for yrs about it.

Cheena doesn't care what the norwegians think anyway and will ensure western sanctimony and rightousness will get little if any airtime in cheena. Good. About time. Jai hu, jai hu.

[Pratyush]

I have mixed feeling about the chines warnings.

An award to a Chinies dissident will bring into focus the conditions in PRC. Telling the world the all is not well with PRC. It can help us in bringing PRC down a peg or two.

OTOH,

The west needs to understand that it dose not have a monopoly on defining what is acceptable behaviour and what is not. It cannot me the rule maker any more.

Just some Kanpujed thoughts on this matter.

[ramana]

No need for confusion. Sort out who poses the bigger threat and confusion turns to clarity.

[brihaspati]

We dont have permanent allies because we dont have cultural allies. Look at the others - they have basically linked up on certain ideological affiliations. Our long term cultural allies are now basically weak and on the run - like Tibet or Nepal. So for us, none of the "strong boots" around are allies even if they pretend to be so and we pretend to accept the same for the time being. So we should cheer when they bite each other and preferably bite the one we need to most devastate. Shout equally when they try the same thing with us. All the while sharpen the blade silently.

India, based on its long term culture and not the mythical construction in the 20th century can take up leadership for most of the world - as oil goes, empires break down and short term adhoc solutions no longer work in statemanship. The first step for that would be to revive the cultural affinities of the the past in the immediate environs. Step by step.

[svinayak]

India, based on its long term culture and not the mythical construction in the 20th century can take up leadership for most of the world - as oil goes, empires break down and short term adhoc solutions no longer work in statemanship. The first step for that would be to revive the cultural affinities of the the past in the immediate environs. Step by step.

Can you put this more clearly. One step at a time. Lot of people do not understand this.

[brihaspati]

Step one. Revival of public festivals rooted in cultural life, something which large numbers can publicly join en masse. Both locational like the Kumbh, but also non-local - like Deepavali (autumn/harvest/advent of winter/light), Sankranti (spring/end of winter/promise of summer), Varshavaran/Kajari (welcome the rains), Vasant (spring fest). These are quite "secular" but Indic - and could be pushed for even in the "neighbourhood". Coordinate Buddha-purnima with the neighbourhood Buddhist countries. Coordinate the "other" festivals with Nepal and Sumatra, Bali, Java. The "structure based" thing is something I have proposed in GDF "RJB/M" thread for regional grassroots spread and building momentum.

The cultural thread is an important pull to revive the connections and activate them in and across the current boundaries.

[Prem]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101001/wl ... acydispute
Japan PM urges China to be 'responsible'

TOKYO (AFP) – Japan's prime minister on Friday urged China to act as a "responsible member of the international community" and voiced concern about Beijing's defence spending and maritime activities.
The comments by Naoto Kan came as the Asian economic giants are embroiled in their gravest row in years, sparked by a maritime incident near a disputed island chain in the East China Sea more than three weeks ago.
Amid the heightened tensions, China issued a travel warning for its citizens after Japanese right-wing nationalists harassed a busload of Chinese tourists this week, surrounding and kicking their bus and hurling insults

[Karna_A]

European Union Starts Legal Proceedings Against France Over Roma Expulsion

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-2 ... lsion.html

India should take all Roma refugees and settle them in one of un-inhabited Andaman islands while getting compensation from Europe for their resettling.

The reason is Romas are actually Jat Indians who were Indian soldiers but went to Europe after Islamic invasions of 12-13th centuries, and no one in the world wants them. Although they have now few Indic culture left, but it'll not be too difficult to reeducate them and bring them in Indic fold.
Their whole history is a very tragic history and India must help its lost sons and daughters.
Charlie Chaplin was a Roma and so he was actually a Jat.

[Prem]

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/1 ... nstructed/

New clues released this week show a possible link between Israel and sophisticated malware targeting industrial control systems in critical infrastructure systems, such as nuclear plants and oil pipelines.

Late Thursday, security firm Symantec released a detailed paper with analysis of the headline-making code (.pdf), which reveals two clues in the Stuxnet malware that adds to speculation that Israel may have authored the code to target Iran.Or, they could simply be red herrings planted in the code by programmers to point suspicion at Israel and away from other possible suspects.The malware, called Stuxnet, appears to be the first to effectively attack critical infrastructure and in a manner that produces physical results, although there’s no proof yet any real-world damage has been done by it. The malware’s sophistication and infection of thousands of machines in Iran has led some to speculate that the U.S. or Israeli government built the code to take out Iran’s nuclear program.

[svinayak]

South Asia’s Geography of Conflict
By Robert D. Kaplan
http://www.cnas.org/node/4952

India will emerge as the key Eurasian pivot state because of its effect on relations between the United States and China. To effectively deal with India, American policymakers must understand Indian geography and geopolitics throughout its long history. In particular, Indian geography is the story of invasions from a northwesterly direction, and India’s strategic challenges still inhere in this fact. Afghanistan, in Indian eyes, is not part of Central Asia but part of the Indian subcontinent. Afghanistan is linked organically to India on account of the record of empires past. This organic connection to India is also true of Central Asia and Iran. As for Pakistan, it is seen by Indians as the modern-day residue of medieval Muslim domination over India. As the India-Pakistan dispute attests, nationalism is young and vibrant in the subcontinent, as it was in early modern Europe. The India-China rivalry, unlike the India-Pakistan one, is far less emotional because it is not borne of historical grievances. India is quietly testing the United States in Afghanistan, to see to what extent America will remain as a great power in Eurasia.


As the United States and China become great power rivals, the direction in which India tilts could determine the course of geopolitics in Eurasia in the 21st century. India, in other words, looms as the ultimate pivot state. But even as the Indian political class understands at a very intimate level America’s own historical and geographical situation, the American political class has no such understanding of India’s. Yet, if Americans do not come to grasp India’s age-old, highly unstable geopolitics, especially as it concerns Pakistan, Afghanistan and China, they will badly mishandle the relationship.
Indeed, America has come to grief in the past by not understanding local histories. India is much too important for us to commit a similar mistake. In fact, India and South Asia in general have a dangerously misunderstood geography. Understanding that geography delivers one to the core of South

Asia’s political dilemma, which is about borders that can never be perfect or even acceptable to all sides, so that the map of South Asia resembles that of war-torn, early-modern Europe, made worse by nuclear weapons. Indian history and geography since early antiquity constitutes the genetic code for how the world looks from the vantage point of New Delhi.

The broad arc of territory from Afghanistan southeastward into northern India was for long periods under the embrace of a single polity, so that Afghanistan is linked organically to India, even as Afghanistan matters more crucially to Pakistan. Thus, giving up on Afghanistan would carry momentous geopolitical implications for the United States, as it would affect how elites in New Delhi and other Asian capitals henceforth perceive Washington. Afghanistan is a tipping point for the American projection of power in Eurasia. It will affect at a visceral level how not just Indian, but also Pakistani and Chinese elites, see the United States. And the direction that Afghanistan takes will affect how successful India is in overcoming the problems on its borders in order to emerge as a world-class power. To give readers a rich sense of this, I first delve into South Asian geography and history at some length.

India, thus, is both a subcontinent and a vital extremity of the greater Middle East, with a highly organic relationship to it.
The key to understanding India is the realization that while as a subcontinent India makes eminent geographic sense, its natural boundaries are, nevertheless, quite weak in places. The result has been various states throughout history that do not conform to our spatial idea of India, and in fact lie astride it. In fact, the present Indian state still does not conform to the borders of the subcontinent, and that is the heart of its dilemma: Pakistan, Bangladesh and (to a lesser extent) Nepal also lie within the subcontinent and pose significant security threats to India, robbing India of political energy that it would otherwise harness for power projection throughout much of Eurasia.

[abhishek_sharma]

Is Indonesia Outgrowing ASEAN?

http://www.eurasiareview.com/2010100487 ... asean.html

[svinayak]

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/americ ... 2010-09-28

Here’s the timeline:

Stage 1: The Dems just put the nail in their coffin by confirming they are wimps, refusing to force the GOP to filibuster the Bush tax cuts for America’s richest.

Stage 2: The GOP takes over the House, expanding its war to destroy Obama with its new policy of “complete gridlock,” even “shutting down government.”

Stage 3: Obama goes lame-duck.

Stage 4: The GOP wins back the White House and Senate in 2012. Health care returns to insurers. Free market financial deregulation returns.

Stage 5: Under the new president, Wall Street’s insatiable greed triggers the catastrophic third meltdown of the 21st century Shiller predicted, with defaults on dollar-denominated debt.

Stage 6: The Second American Revolution explodes into a brutal full-scale class war rebelling against the out-of-touch, out-of-control greedy conspiracy-of-the-rich now running America.

Stage 7: Domestic class warfare is compounded by Pentagon’s prediction that by 2020 “an ancient pattern of desperate, all-out wars over food, water, and energy supplies would emerge” worldwide and “warfare is defining human life.”

What’s behind our 2010-2020 countdown? It became obvious after reading the brilliant but bleak “Decadence of Election 2010” report by Prof. Peter Morici, former chief economist at the International Trade Commission. He sees no hope from America’s political parties, just a dark scenario ahead.

Here are the 10 points we see in his message:

[Philip]

Outsourcing of War,Blackwater,the unofficial arm of the CIA so that in doing any dirty work,"no fingerprints" of the US can be found.

http://sweetandsoursocialism.wordpress. ... he-nation/

Blackwater’s Black Ops [The Nation]
Great article about the documented global scope and corporate client resume of Blackwater’s (renamed “Xe Services”) mercenary killers, especially its CIA links. Most intriguing is the discovered connection between the infamous organization and Pakistan politician Benazir Bhutto just prior to her assassination, and also the fact that the organization’s CEO is living abroad in UAE where he cannot be extradited.

Excpt:

Jeremy Scahill

September 15, 2010

Over the past several years, entities closely linked to the private security firm Blackwater have provided intelligence, training and security services to US and foreign governments as well as several multinational corporations, including Monsanto, Chevron, the Walt Disney Company, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines and banking giants Deutsche Bank and Barclays, according to documents obtained by The Nation. Blackwater’s work for corporations and government agencies was contracted using two companies owned by Blackwater’s owner and founder, Erik Prince: Total Intelligence Solutions and the Terrorism Research Center (TRC). Prince is listed as the chairman of both companies in internal company documents, which show how the web of companies functions as a highly coordinated operation. Officials from Total Intelligence, TRC and Blackwater (which now calls itself Xe Services) did not respond to numerous requests for comment for this article.

One of the most incendiary details in the documents is that Blackwater, through Total Intelligence, sought to become the “intel arm” of Monsanto, offering to provide operatives to infiltrate activist groups organizing against the multinational biotech firm.

Governmental recipients of intelligence services and counterterrorism training from Prince’s companies include the Kingdom of Jordan, the Canadian military and the Netherlands police, as well as several US military bases, including Fort Bragg, home of the elite Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), and Fort Huachuca, where military interrogators are trained, according to the documents. In addition, Blackwater worked through the companies for the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency and the US European Command.

On September 3 the New York Times reported that Blackwater had “created a web of more than 30 shell companies or subsidiaries in part to obtain millions of dollars in American government contracts after the security company came under intense criticism for reckless conduct in Iraq.” The documents obtained by The Nation reveal previously unreported details of several such companies and open a rare window into the sensitive intelligence and security operations Blackwater performs for a range of powerful corporations and government agencies. The new evidence also sheds light on the key roles of several former top CIA officials who went on to work for Blackwater.

The coordinator of Blackwater’s covert CIA business, former CIA paramilitary officer Enrique “Ric” Prado, set up a global network of foreign operatives, offering their “deniability” as a “big plus” for potential Blackwater customers, according to company documents. The CIA has long used proxy forces to carry out extralegal actions or to shield US government involvement in unsavory operations from scrutiny. In some cases, these ”deniable” foreign forces don’t even know who they are working for. Prado and Prince built up a network of such foreigners while Blackwater was at the center of the CIA’s assassination program, beginning in 2004. They trained special missions units at one of Prince’s properties in Virginia with the intent of hunting terrorism suspects globally, often working with foreign operatives. A former senior CIA official said the benefit of using Blackwater’s foreign operatives in CIA operations was that “you wouldn’t want to have American fingerprints on it.”

While the network was originally established for use in CIA operations, documents show that Prado viewed it as potentially valuable to other government agencies. In an e-mail in October 2007 with the subject line “Possible Opportunity in DEA—Read and Delete,” Prado wrote to a Total Intelligence executive with a pitch for the Drug Enforcement Administration. That executive was an eighteen-year DEA veteran with extensive government connections who had recently joined the firm. Prado explained that Blackwater had developed “a rapidly growing, worldwide network of folks that can do everything from surveillance to ground truth to disruption operations.” He added, “These are all foreign nationals (except for a few cases where US persons are the conduit but no longer ‘play’ on the street), so deniability is built in and should be a big plus.”

The Nation has previously reported on Blackwater’s work for the CIA and JSOC in Pakistan. New documents reveal a history of activity relating to Pakistan by Blackwater. Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto worked with the company when she returned to Pakistan to campaign for the 2008 elections, according to the documents. In October 2007, when media reports emerged that Bhutto had hired “American security,” senior Blackwater official Robert Richer wrote to company executives, “We need to watch this carefully from a number of angles. If our name surfaces, the Pakistani press reaction will be very important. How that plays through the Muslim world will also need tracking.” Richer wrote that “we should be prepared to [sic] a communique from an affiliate of Al-Qaida if our name surfaces (BW). That will impact the security profile.” Clearly a word is missing in the e-mail or there is a typo that leaves unclear what Richer meant when he mentioned the Al Qaeda communiqué. Bhutto was assassinated two months later. Blackwater officials subsequently scheduled a meeting with her family representatives in Washington, in January 2008.

[Jarita]

Amazing level of politics by reducing Indias claim on legitimate territory. Does anyone expect MMS to react?

Arunachal, J&K in FAO list of countries: ‘disputed areas

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/aruna ... es/694361/

A report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations on greenhouse gas emissions has listed Arunachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir as separate countries along with India.

[svinayak]

X post

My cautionary note was not to think that the "autonomy" issue had been shelved. It was merely postponed. All the pseudo-pro-independence pawns are being assembled - like Mushy being revived, Talebs entering the final phase of returning to eventual power in AFG, and Pakjab being turned over to the Paki side of the Talebs. In some sense perhaps calculations also involved the CWG, Ayodhya "case", Bihar elections etc. The pressure is on now the regime in power to deliver.

This coordination is absolutely spectacular.
The wide variety of actors to sync in to create pressures across nations is mind blowing. The news media are one one step with the events to create large scale rise of Islamic jihad against all the oppressor force including Indian state.

The Islamic ummah jihad across the different countries are well coordinated. They could form a Khilafate right now. Of course they will not have a country but they could in a short time create a religious order across the entire sections of the world and change the world forever.

This recreation of the religious state and super state is the real thing to watch out in the next 50 years.

Kashmir could be part of the large super state which they are working on. This could come up in 2012 or around that time.

Kashmir valley and the taliban in the Kashmir valley are opening up at the right time when this Ummah order is rising across nation. Watch for the statement on Kashmir from Iran, Turkey, OIC etc. The fall of the Pakistan will be beginning of the new Ummah order. The western world is helping all these countries on this. China is linking up to this super Islamic state to create a gigantic alliance across the entire asia.

Pakistan will form nation less state within the Islamic ummah which will keep defending Islam across the world.

[gpati]

India, based on its long term culture and not the mythical construction in the 20th century can take up leadership for most of the world - as oil goes, empires break down and short term adhoc solutions no longer work in statemanship. The first step for that would be to revive the cultural affinities of the the past in the immediate environs. Step by step.

Has India's cultural influence reached as far as Philippines in antiquity? My roommate is a Filipino. He was telling me the other day they avoid sweeping floor after sunset and if they do, they believe they would lose their wealth. My grandmother used to yell at us for very same reason, just for touching broom after sunset .

[svinayak]

Has India's cultural influence reached as far as Philippines in antiquity? My roommate is a Filipino. He was telling me the other day they avoid sweeping floor after sunset and if they do, they believe they would lose their wealth. My grandmother used to yell at us for very same reason, just for touching broom after sunset .

I work with filipino group very closely. They are very much into their pre - colonial culture. There is strong affinity to Indian culture.They ask me how we cook jack fruit, different veg etc. They have become Christians only in the last 200-400 years ago and recent American evengelical order has created a strong trend which keeps them away from Indian culture.

[Pranav]

Russia resets with U.S., sprints with China

http://www.hindu.com/2010/10/11/stories ... 601000.htm

M.K. Bhadrakumar

Despite the strong US-Israeli support for Georgia against Russia in the recent war over South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Russia refrained from supplying Iran with the S-300 system.

Therein lies a lesson for the Chinese (which they are probably aware of).

[RajeshA]

Published on Oct 07, 2010
By Kaveh L Afrasiabi
Tehran alarm grows at Russia's defection: Asia Times Online

Some Tehran analysts attribute the recent "green light" given by Washington for Russia's World Trade Organization entry to a behind-the-scenes bargain whereby Moscow is handsomely rewarded for its cooperation with the West against Iran. The Israeli press has been reporting a "secret US-Russia deal".

The Russian government adamantly denies any such bargain, and its envoy at the UN General Assembly last week threaded the fine line of exhorting Iran to enhance its nuclear transparency while lambasting the "unilateral sanctions" against Iran by US, Europe and others.

That is small comfort to Tehran; such diplomatic nuances on the part of Russian diplomats can barely compensate for Tehran's realistic fear that Russia may have been lost to the West. Fueling that fear are President Dmitry Medvedev's recent decision to ban any commercial sale to Iran related to uranium mining in Russia and, more important, a ban on the sale of the sophisticated S-300 air defense system, irrespective of Iran's dire reaction and warning that it will sue Moscow for breach of its contractual obligations.

The fear is that China would enter the fray and help Iran out, thus positioning itself as Iran's best friend. I am of the view, that India should do whatever we can to help Iran out to undermine the sanctions.

[Pranav]

The fear is that China would enter the fray and help Iran out, thus positioning itself as Iran's best friend. I am of the view, that India should do whatever we can to help Iran out to undermine the sanctions.

At a time when US-TSP relations are going downhill, India cannot afford to alienate any major power that could prop up TSP.

At the same time, India should make it clear to all parties that any support of TSP will be a hostile act. Possibly humanitarian aid routed through secular groups in TSP (such as the ANP or the Baloch parties) can be condoned, provided it is done in close consultation with India.

[RajeshA]

At a time when US-TSP relations are going downhill, India cannot afford to alienate any major power that could prop up TSP.

The US-TSP Relations on the AfPak front are independent of India. The Americans have a whole slew of problems with the Pakistanis, and our positioning on other unrelated international matters does not really influence the US-TSP decisions. The Americans know the degree of cooperation they can expect from India. They also know that India has strategic interests in good relations with Iran.

At the same time, India should make it clear to all parties that any support of TSP will be a hostile act. Possibly humanitarian aid routed through secular groups in TSP (such as the ANP or the Baloch parties) can be condoned, provided it is done in close consultation with India.

Saying this would cause all the big powers in the world to die due to laughter cramps in their bellies. India has hardly any history of putting pressure on countries due to their relations with India's enemies. That's just reality. Why threaten anybody when there is a vacuum of ideas on how to make good on those threats.

[Pranav]

At a time when US-TSP relations are going downhill, India cannot afford to alienate any major power that could prop up TSP.

The US-TSP Relations on the AfPak front are independent of India. The Americans have a whole slew of problems with the Pakistanis, and our positioning on other unrelated international matters does not really influence the US-TSP decisions. The Americans know the degree of cooperation they can expect from India. They also know that India has strategic interests in good relations with Iran.

No issue can be insulated from any other issue. I think relations with Iran to the extent required to maintain cooperation on Afghanistan will be understood ... any active undermining of sanctions is not advisable. But then this should be conditional on US-Nato powers respecting Indian concerns in the Af-Pak theater.

At the same time, India should make it clear to all parties that any support of TSP will be a hostile act. Possibly humanitarian aid routed through secular groups in TSP (such as the ANP or the Baloch parties) can be condoned, provided it is done in close consultation with India.

Saying this would cause all the big powers in the world to die due to laughter cramps in their bellies. India has hardly any history of putting pressure on countries due to their relations with India's enemies. That's just reality. Why threaten anybody when there is a vacuum of ideas on how to make good on those threats.

It's not that India does not have any leverage ... what is lacking is the will to use it.

[Johann]

The fear is that China would enter the fray and help Iran out, thus positioning itself as Iran's best friend. I am of the view, that India should do whatever we can to help Iran out to undermine the sanctions.

Not sure about this; China avoids risk that far from home. It generally only takes risks where it could project substantial forces; the Korean Peninsula, South China Sea, Burma, the Indian border, Pakistan all border it.

The PRC has in fact very substantially decreased its reliance on Iranian oil and gas over the last decade precisely because it didn't want its energy supplies to be held hostage to a Iranian crisis.

Any Chinese support to Iran is likely to be weak and opportunistic.

[RajeshA]

Any Chinese support to Iran is likely to be weak and opportunistic.

All the more reason for India to stay involved with Iran through the sanctions - the payoffs would be that much bigger.

[Pratyush]

X posting form the PAK - AF thread.



If the political will is astute then there is no reason why India should not go into Afghanistan. If TSP has been pacified. In that I agree with the "western experts". That the road to peace in Afgannistan runs through Islamabad. India must take down TSP and alter the political boundries of the Subcontinent once more. This was done in 71, it has to be done again. India simply has no choice any more.

If it allows the TSP to continue to exist then, it deserves what it gets from the TSP and the west / PRC. The currency of soft power is credible if it is backed up by hard power. There can be no better demonstration of hard power other then the demolition of the TSP.

How that can be accomplished can be debated. But the end result must be accepted. If India is to take a prominant position in the International relations.

Once the TSP is under controll. Controlling Afghanistan become easy.

More over, it also gives us unristricted access to the resource rich CAR. Along with the opportunity of re-establishing the Silk route.

JMT

[abhischekcc]

Given that both China and Iran are on a confrontational path with US, such weak and opportunistic support will matter more than India's approach of maintaining balance between countries, in the short term at least.

Moreover, such an opportunistic alliance has the potential to becoem a more long term and deeper alliance as well as the countries become comfortable with each other. Case in point - pak and China.

That is the reason that India needs to keep Iran engaged.

[Johann]

I just don't see China sticking its neck out for Iran - they haven't so far. They have backed off Iran if anything; The Chinese relationship with Iran was much, much stronger in the 1990s. Why haven't they used their veto to block even one of the four rounds of UN sanctions on Iran?

Chinese support for Sudan has been stronger and more consistent than its support for Iran. That is in part the Iran issue doesn't just involve the West and Israel. Its also a question of the Gulf states, Egypt, Jordan, etc. In the end the Sunni Arab world (which backs Sudan unhesitatingly) is worth more business to them.

Bordering client states like Pakistan, Burma and North Korea are in a very different category.

[kmkraoind]

Vietnam offers repair services for Indian warships

Probably a launching/landing platform for Indian ships venturing into Chinese sea.