Bharat Rakshak

Clinton and Gates Visit Koreas’ Dividing Line

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/22/world ... itary.html

Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary, said that the United Nations command tried to officially inform the North Koreans on Tuesday about the exercises, but they refused, he said, to accept the communication. The United Nations command at the DMZ then resorted to shouting the message by bullhorn across the border.

ICJ to rule on legality of Kosovo's independence

The International Court of Justice is due to rule on the legality of Kosovo's unilateral secession from Serbia.

Two articles on India and Central Asia in the current issue of chinaeurasia.org. This site as the name suggest has treasure trove of info on china and central asia


http://www.chinaeurasia.org/images/stor ... f17-22.pdf

Reassessing a “New Great Game” between India and China in Central Asia by Jen-kun Fu

Jen-kun Fu is Professor and Director of the Graduate Institute of Central Asian Studies, Ching Yun University, Taiwan.



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http://www.chinaeurasia.org/images/stor ... 95-110.pdf

Great Power Politics: India’s Absence from Ideological Energy Diplomacy in Central Asia by Simon Shen

Simon Shen is Associate Professor, Department of Social Sciences, Hong Kong Institute of Education and
Visiting Fellow, Brookings Institution, USA.

Sanjay M wrote:ICJ to rule on legality of Kosovo's independence

The International Court of Justice is due to rule on the legality of Kosovo's unilateral secession from Serbia.

Yeah, and all and sundry (sunwet?) can expect fairness, truth and justice to overflow outta the ICJ in geopol disputes...LOL

The uncomfortable truth about America's cafeteria Democrats (with a small 'd')

http://rothkopf.foreignpolicy.com/posts ... _a_small_d

But even as we try to persuade the world -- sometimes even at the point of a gun -- that democracy, giving a voice to each individual, governments who derive their legitimacy from the consent of the governed, is the best of all political systems, we clearly don't mean it. Because if you ask an American whether they believe in concepts like "one man, one vote", they nod vigorously in assent. But ask them if they think that if China has four or five times as many people as America they should have four or five times as a great a say on global issues and they will recoil. Ask them if they think that because America has only four percent of the earth's population that we should only have four percent of the "voice," they would rebel and immediately argue that our status, our standing, our history, our armies, our economy, something justifies a greater say.

Which is saying, of course, that we are not actually "small 'd' democrats," but rather that we don't actually believe in democracy. Like cafeteria catholics, we choose to believe in democracy to the degree to which it suits us and to believe in special interests, the power of the buck, or the power of the nuclear arsenal when they better fit our ambitions. The distinction mattered less when the affairs of nations were contained primarily within their borders. It matters more with every day that critical decisions need to be made on issue of truly global scope, consequence and causes -- be they environmental, related to health, associated with proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the spread of culture, the sharing of intellectual property.

On North Korea and More, China Flexes Its Muscles
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/ ... z0uXPrazvv

On Sunday, 20 U.S. and South Korean ships, more than 100 aircraft and some 8,000 personnel will take part in a four-day series of war games in waters off the Korean peninsula. There's little ambiguity about the purpose of these exercises, which are taking place in the shadow of a hostile North Korea that's allegedly responsible for the March sinking of the Cheonan, a South Korean warship. "[The war games] are designed to send a clear message to North Korea that its aggressive behavior must stop," said U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates at an American base outside Seoul on July 20. In turn, the North Koreans issued a statement decrying what they deemed "very dangerous saber-rattling."
(See pictures of the U.S. military in the Pacific.)
But Pyongyang is not alone in voicing its discontent. In recent weeks, a growing chorus of protest has come from Beijing, stoked in part by nationalist sentiment at home. A July 8 editorial in the Global Times, a Chinese state-run English-language newspaper, said the exercises could be interpreted as "a direct threat to [Beijing's] territorial waters and coastline." China reportedly completed its own coastal-defense drill, dubbed "Warfare 2010," on July 20. Government officials, both civilian and military, have issued a series of statements expressing a thinly veiled opposition to the planned U.S.–South Korean mobilization and have warned against any interference in China's backyard. Earlier in June, tempers flared at a high-level regional defense summit in Singapore that was attended by Gates and counterparts from the Chinese top brass; American frustration with China's coddling of the North Koreans was met with rhetoric condemning U.S. meddling elsewhere in the region. An invitation for Gates to visit Beijing was rescinded.

British deputy prime minister Clegg says U.S.-led invasion of Iraq was ‘illegal’

http://ricks.foreignpolicy.com/posts/20 ... as_illegal

Oh, but US-led invasion of Serbia was somehow more legal?

Atlanticist hypocrisy!

Jewish Group Opposes Ground Zero Mosque

As I recall, the Vatican wanted to build a Catholic church at one of the concentration camp sites, and Jewish groups rightly opposed it, due to the Vatican's less-than-stellar role in that period. Likewise it seems to me to be quite reasonable to oppose the construction of a mosque at Ground Zero.

more:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/31/nyreg ... osque.html

This time I fear that the Jews may well lose the case. Cause opposing the ROP will be seen as an intolerant step by the Liberal cabal. Leading to a support for a Mosque at that sight.

Actually, polls in the US show that the issue of no mosque at ground-zero is resonating well with the US public. Most feel that it's inappropriate for a mosque to be at ground-zero, which is why Republicans are quickly jumping onto that bandwagon.

Sanjay M wrote:Actually, polls in the US show that the issue of no mosque at ground-zero is resonating well with the US public. Most feel that it's inappropriate for a mosque to be at ground-zero, which is why Republicans are quickly jumping onto that bandwagon.

There is an action-reaction set of events happening in US and West as it has become apparent mollycoddling of extremists is not going anywhere.
A mosque at ground zero is equivalent to a Truman statue at Hiroshima or a Hitler museum at Tel Aviv.

Florida church plans to burn Quran on 9/11 anniversary
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/worl ... 242137.cms

MIAMI: A Florida church said it plans to publicly burn copies of the Quran on the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, prompting threats from Islamic groups and warnings the move will trigger a rise in hate crimes.

The Dove World Outreach Center of Gainesville, Florida said on its Facebook page it will hold an "International Burn a Koran Day" on September 11, asking other religious groups to join in standing "against the evil of Islam. Islam is of the devil!"

NATO and Russia
Trust, but make military plans
The allies reach out to the Kremlin, and start to think about the unthinkable

Our leader knows his place in the world

A British leader was at long last accepting the new world order, and Britain’s somewhat lowly place in it. After the posturing and warmongering of Tony Blair, and Gordon Brown’s attempts to be the economic saviour of the world, we appear to have a leader who is neither vainglorious nor puffed up.

Cameron was saying, in so many words: OK, we are going to face up to the facts that we are now a second-rate power in a second-rate continent and that the future belongs to the Far East. We understand that and we want to work with you, not in any spirit of post-imperial arrogance, but rather as a wee brother in a world where you are now the big boys

Now we find ourselves in a world where we have to understand that we are no longer the masters. Nor are the Americans, who are virtually bankrupt and in complete hock to China. On the other hand, India and, indeed, Turkey are about to be mighty economic powerhouses. Indeed, India is the next great superpower. China, already a superpower, has by far the biggest horde of foreign exchange reserves in the world today; most European countries have hardly any such reserves.

^^^
In other threads we have talked about old guard being cast aside by new guard.

For instance, VP Singh cultivating his low-caste protegé Lalu Prasad Yadav only to be eclipsed and marginalized by him when the Yadavs went directly for one of their own.
Clintons assiduously paying lip-service to AfAm causes, only to be told by them to sit at the back of the bus once their own man Obama had boarded.

Here we see Britain, the original Atlanticist power, the pioneer of Anglo-Americanism, now finding itself reduced to 2nd-rate status living on the fringes of Europe, overtaken by the rising younger Atlanticist upstarts.

So what's a has-been to do? Perhaps say "Far enough, and no farther"?
Break ranks and bolt from the Atlanticist flock, potentially?
We do suddenly see Cameron showing up in India to sign nuclear trade deals.
He is even calling a spade a space, and a terrorist nation a terrorist nation.

Cameron has a lot of work ahead of him to undo the ugly legacy of Labour and the Atlantic hegemony. He will then have to give no quarter and spare no opportunity in regaining lost ground.

Perhaps Britain's opportunity can be India's as well.

^^^^
Other reports say, Cameron could have joined Obama in a "pincer attack" on Pakistan. The wikileaks + Cameron's calling out of Pakistan are seen together and not as if Britain is breaking away to chart its own course.

Sanjay M wrote: Perhaps Britain's opportunity can be India's as well.

Totally agreed. India should grab this opportunity. Britain is in pain right now. This relationship can be a win-win. Maybe we can get britain's focus away from north atlantic to the commonwealth and India.

I certainly hope that we do not carry the past baggage, Gordon Brown/Labours policy, etc, around. It will be to our loss.

Whatever we do must be in India's intersts only. The ending of the holier then thou attitude from Camaroon(SP??) is refreshing and one hopes that it will continue for the mutual benefit of both India and the UK.

If not then India must not hesitate telling lay off to UK

Muslim commentators Raheel Raza and Tarek Fateh argue that as a mosque is necessarily a place of exclusion of nonMuslims, then it shouldn't be built near Ground Zero:

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Misch ... story.html

After all, Ground Zero was itself created by those who wanted to eliminate nonMuslims from that area, and therefore it would be wrong to create another nonMuslim-exclusion zone near Ground Zero.

Protests against mosques spread far beyond NYC:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/08/us/08mosque.html

I suppose too many Americans are allergic to building a Babri Masjid at the site of their destroyed relic, the WTC.

It's a repugnant thought that $100 million would be brought into the United States rather than be directed at dying and needy Muslims in Darfur or Pakistan.

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Misch ... z0w3Etox8B


That's swift kick to the H&D.

US carrier sits off Vietnam shadowed by the Chinese


Clinton wades into troubled waters
The U.S administration has been drawn into the dispute over the South China Sea at the urging of Vietnam

from Taipei Times:

Lessons on dealing with China

Not only did it signed the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) even vowed that he will “never ask the US to defend Taiwan.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIwZsbBXpNQ

STRATFOR http://www.stratfor.com

STRATFOR's CEO, Dr. George Friedman, discusses his new book - a forecast of The Next 100 Years.
He has good items on how in 1980 the Pacific trade overtook Atlantic trade.
He talks about How US allowed immigration from south asia and east asia to integrate seemlessly to add to the GDP. Also Canada, Australia, New Zealand are good at it for they have to survive. They knew about the demographic shift and these countries are taking action.

I read next 100 years, India has been mentioned like twice in the whole 350 pages. With all due respect for Friedman, I don't think he has even given India sufficient thought. When it comes to western affairs, he dwells deeply into all the nuances but only skims those of Asian countries accept China and Japan. And lastly, he uses certain standard economic indicators but does not analyse economy as deeply as he does military and diplomacy, even though economy is the basis for the other two.

I bought Friedman's book The Next 100 Years, in it there is not one word about India. He never mentions India, obviously he doesn't rate India. "India Shining" has morphed into India Fading.

Listen to Friedman's latest predictions:



Sounds pretty nutty to me

I read the book too. Two words:

Largely Crap.

Several key countries, including India, are not factored in. Plainly ridiculous.

Don't pay for it.

JE Menon wrote:
Several key countries, including India, are not factored in. Plainly ridiculous.

There is a reason for not including India. India will either become a target of a large international group or India will be sucked into a long term global war of attrition/trade war and demographic culling never seen in history. India is also setup for thier version of fragmentation

Most of the info in withheld just so that Indian dont figure it out. Many comments in OTHER Youtube/forums gives away lot of details.

Note: Check many youtube/forums and blogs to understand this.

^^^ So what is the solution? How do we circumvent this?

I can't see any details in this youtube video

Finally I put face to the Stratfor dude. Well, his patronizing smirk is a give away that his prediction is as good as mine.

>>There is a reason for not including India. India will either become a target of a large international group or India will be sucked into a long term global war of attrition/trade war and demographic culling never seen in history.

Sounds ominous. Especially the demographic culling bit. But I would have thought that if this was indeed an articulated objective (in limited circles no doubt) of any power, or a large international group, then they would have ensured (a) that either Friedman included India extensively in his book to deceive us, or (b) that he did not know about it at all.

Doesn't compute that he knew about it, and yet did not mention India at all.

>>India is also setup for thier version of fragmentation..

It may be taken for granted that the emergence of India as a significant power and peer competitor to superpowers can only be reversed by its controlled fragmentation, such that there are no long-term economic implications for the area that used to be India (the objective of the architects of this fragmentation being their own economic gain, of course).

My feeling though is that we can take care of ourselves without having to lose what makes us unique in the process.

JEM garu,

I noticed this pattern in all western strat-e-getic literature. Very little mention/projection of India, its capabilities and its future.

All their games/models predict a sure fragmentation of India that too in near term (10-20 years). This has been happening since 1947. At the same time their models predict a strong and surging paquistan due to its religious glue. Their not correcting their models even after 60 yrs means only one thing -

"There is an active and ongoing effort to fragment India by these very models. And various pieces in the regional game are nothing but pieces to that singular objective."

Why is this western obsession with a fragmented India; one can only guess.

RamaY wrote:
"There is an active and ongoing effort to fragment India by these very models. And various pieces in the regional game are nothing but pieces to that singular objective."

Why is this western obsession with a fragmented India; one can only guess.

Very good observation. The media and the sense of the current world is part of the effort to create a false sense of reality. Suggest watch a movie - THE TRUEMAN SHOW

Colonial control gave them tremendous advantage to shape the way we think of this world and our relationship with the rest of the global population.

Rama garu: Can you point to those literature?

Added later: I was reading this blog and it stumps me why the author is actually so careful to attribute much +ve to India. Look at the tone & assumptions of the two paragraphs.

http://www.helium.com/items/1916456-chi ... wing-power

- Let's assume, and there is no reason to believe otherwise, that China continues to grow very quickly over the next forty years. If the Chinese are able to get their GDP to population ratio up to half of what the current U.S. ratio is, then the total size of the Chinese economy as measured by GDP (in today's dollars) would be over $34 trillion, almost two and half times the size of the U.S. economy.

- Let's do the same thing with India but assume that the ratio is so low that they can only get their ratio up to one quarter of what the current U.S. ratio is, then the total size of the Indian economy as measured by GDP (in today's dollars) would be over $21 trillion, 50% larger than the size of the U.S. economy.

Apart from trying to break up India strategy, it could be that India is not under the radar because of its problems, no?

SwamyG, Please go to Barnes and Nobles or Borders bookstore and pcikup any current book on geopolitics, International Relations etc and at a minimum check the index page. See how many times its listed and if listed in what context.

Once you do this we can move to other ways and means.

^^^^
I already have done that. My question would be clear if you notice my addition to the earlier post.

All their games/models predict a sure fragmentation of India that too in near term (10-20 years). This has been happening since 1947. At the same time their models predict a strong and surging paquistan due to its religious glue. Their not correcting their models even after 60 yrs means only one thing -

"There is an active and ongoing effort to fragment India by these very models. And various pieces in the regional game are nothing but pieces to that singular objective."

Why is this western obsession with a fragmented India; one can only guess.

IIRC having read regarding India and pakistan.
1) They maintain that India is an artificial entity and pakistan is a homogenous one.
2) India is a ungovernable area racked by internal dissensions amongst its populations with large numbers in abject poverty and malnutrition. This is suitable for revolution aka communist one (particularly few years of independence)
3) Hindu dharma is a not really a religion strong enough for modern times . it is ripe for harvesting souls. it will be battle between the abrahamic faiths.

I wonder all the downplaying about India must be stemmed from seeing India through western construct(/christian ethos) expecting its implosion anytime.
JMT.

RamaY,

>>I noticed this pattern in all western strat-e-getic literature. Very little mention/projection of India, its capabilities and its future.

Partly a fall-out of the cold war boss. In those days were were considered an appendage of USSR, and therefore no positive possibilities were considered (and a good dose of negative wishful thinking was added to the mix as well).

>>All their games/models predict a sure fragmentation of India that too in near term (10-20 years). This has been happening since 1947. At the same time their models predict a strong and surging paquistan due to its religious glue.

Same as above.

>>Their not correcting their models even after 60 yrs means only one thing -

Actually, this is not correct. They are correcting. Virtually any article these days about India refers primarily, but not only, to its great economic/strategic future. This is a problem of a different kind, by the way. If you look carefully at the number of positive articles written about India today (compared to, say, 25 yrs ago), the situation is incomparable.

>>"There is an active and ongoing effort to fragment India by these very models. And various pieces in the regional game are nothing but pieces to that singular objective."

Where did you get this quote from?

>>Why is this western obsession with a fragmented India; one can only guess.

It is not only India. It is any potential peer competitor, only the means are different. And, something we must never forget, it is not only a "western" obsession.

In these realities there is plenty of room for us to manoeuvre for advantage and secure it, bit by bit. We are doing it, maybe not optimally, and certainly it is not always a pretty sight (May 1998s don't come by that often )... but it's happening.