Geopolitical thread

[Sanjay M]

Here's a Youtube video of the twin towers of US ColdWar foreign policy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=598o1tuYuPI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q66yvbzSaRg

Poor Henry, he's looking increasingly impaired by age.
I remember watching ABC's David Brinkley on TV as he got older, and it feels sad to see the great minds showing the effects of time. Brzezinski still seems relatively sharp. He's still not quite what he was during the 70s/80s:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJTv2nFjMBk

But anyway, you can see how both men differ on the Gulf policy.
It's Kissinger who is more pragmatic out of the two, recognizing that the US can't just pull out and allow a total collapse of the stability of the region.
But Brzezinski is more zealous in just getting out, come what may, without worrying about the consequences. Brzezinski is much more ethnically motivated/biased than Kissinger is.

Here's another with Kissinger some years earlier, where he looks much better:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfYg6WjlTyg

[Sanjay M]

Westhphalianism / Treaty of Westphalia only came into being due to Europeans' needs to keep themselves safe from the predations of one another.
With the advent of EU, that has now overtaken and obsoleted the old Westphalian dynamics. They don't care about breaking up states on their frontiers, to reshape them according to the needs of EU. Hence Yugoslavia, and also Chechnya. Even Ukraine is being pitched close to civil war, with radically different political positions between its eastern and western parts.

The Russians, rather than just absorbing blow after blow against their sphere of influence, should fight back by turning their gaze on Turkey. That's what I would do.
They should ratchet up the arms flow to the Kurds/PKK/Mosul/etc, and destabilize Turkey's southern frontiers. Just draw the Turks farther and farther south, to overextend their lines, and spread them thin. Then wear them out.

I prefer the Westphalian model, as it's safer, gives greater clarity, as well as more stability, obviously.
But if someone isn't going to practice Westphalianism towards me, then I'm not going to practice it towards them.

[ShauryaT]

Westhphalianism / Treaty of Westphalia only came into being due to Europeans' needs to keep themselves safe from the predations of one another.
With the advent of EU, that has now overtaken and obsoleted the old Westphalian dynamics. They don't care about breaking up states on their frontiers, to reshape them according to the needs of EU. Hence Yugoslavia, and also Chechnya. Even Ukraine is being pitched close to civil war, with radically different political positions between its eastern and western parts.

Was Yugoslavia ever a natural nation-state to qualify the Westphalian model? EU supported a split precisely because, the artificial state does not fit the EU model, was breaking down after cold war and EU supported Croatia's independence, which is Catholic.

EU will be happy to incorporate Croatia. Serbs will have trouble, with their Slavic and Orthodox hereditary and may continue to be in the Russian zone, in a sea surrounded by EU and Muslim states. Albanians will face the same issue as Turkey. Greece is the only loner "orthodox" in EU and will welcome Serbian integration.

Underlying EU, although not officially acknowledged, is the Protestant-Catholic union. Some want to extend this hand to the Orthodox too, but Russia resists.

[Raju]

x-Post

U.S. can attack Russia in 2012-2015 - Russian military analyst

MOSCOW. Feb 23 (Interfax-AVN) - After 2012-2015, the U.S. will be able to annihilate Russian strategic nuclear forces by a non-nuclear preemptive strike, said Konstantin Sivkov, the first vice president of the Russian Academy of Geopolitical Problems.

"I declare that the likelihood of a military threat is great as never before now," Sivkov told Interfax on Saturday.

Western military experts have recently started to talk about the possibility of attacking Russia and annexing its territory, Sivkov said. "Russia is supposed to be dismembered into three parts, with the Western part going to the European Union, the central part and Siberia to the U.S., and the eastern to China. This is a rough scenario," he said.

Russian armed forces will be unable to successfully counter an aggression, Sivkov said. "At the present time, the conventional armed forces cannot properly perform their duties in a regional war, like the Great Patriotic War, even in theory. Even if fully deployed, their potential is limited even in local wars. The only factor that deters [the U.S.] now is the nuclear arsenal," he said.

http://www.interfax.ru/e/B/politics/28. ... e=11975866

[Sanjay M]

Was Yugosalvia ever a natural nation-state to qualify the Wesphalian model? EU supported a split preceisely beause, the artificial state does not fit the EU model, was breaking down after cold war and EU supported Croatia's independence, which is Catholic.

EU will be happy to incoporate Croatia. Serbs will have trouble, with their Slavic and Orthodox hereditary and may continue to be in the Russian zone, in a sea surrounded by EU and muslim states. Albaninans will face the same issue as Turkey. Greece is the only loner "orthodox" in EU and will welcome Serbian integration.

Underlying EU, although not officially acknowledged, is the Protestant-Catholic union. Some want to extend this hand to the Orthodox too, but Russia resists.

Yugoslavia was obviously patched together by Communists/minorities. Note that Tito was a minority Croat, just like Stalin was a minority Georgian.
In both cases, the majority were out-maneuvered by Communists/minorities and their police-state tactics.

Greece doesn't have the power to get Serbia through the EU gates. Albania might get through, even if only as as substitute for Turkey, which will easily be rejected.
But EU's old powers aren't too anxious to expand the membership at this point, when they are barely able to get policy consensus among the existing flock.

In my opinion, the best thing is to simply let EU collapse from its own internal contradictions, which are no less than Yugoslavia's. Let the Atlanticists' dreams be dashed on the rocks of reality.

The British and French are undercutting the Germans right now, and soon even the Poles will be, through their voting rights. Germany is the central load-bearing pillar of the EU, and the pillar is starting to show cracks.

Russian power and reassertiveness is on the rise, and they could tempt the Germans to side with them on certain issues, once Merkel is out. If economic pressures continue on the Germans, then Merkel will be forced out, and replaced with another left-wing Schroeder clone.

Turkey is right now looking to be the most isolated and vulnerable of all, especially as they foray into Kurdish Iraq. As the war widens, then soon Turkey will be playing dodgy games with the US, in the same manner that Pak has been doing with US over Afghanistan. As frictions start to rise over this Turkish invasion, US popularity among the Turkish public could suffer, just as it has among the Pak public due to War on Terror.
This could be exploited by Istanbul's Islamic-leaning govt, by stoking populist sentiments against the US. More "Yankee Go Home"

[Rye]

SanjayM wote:

In my opinion, the best thing is to simply let EU collapse from its own internal contradictions, which are no less than Yugoslavia's. Let the Atlanticists' dreams be dashed on the rocks of reality.

The British and French are undercutting the Germans right now, and soon even the Poles will be, through their voting rights. Germany is the central load-bearing pillar of the EU, and the pillar is starting to show cracks.

Countries in the EU benefit a lot from the EU's global clout, so the EU is not about to collapse any time soon. Currently, Euro is stronger than the $....in the end, money talks and everything else walks.




In Turkey, The Army is still strongly anti-islamist/secular, and it remains to be seen if they will follow the orders of islamist Turkish govt., esp. after stepping in to remove earlier islamic govts. in power.

[Neshant]

The reason US has eagerly recognized Kosovo's independance is to set up a conflict between the EU and Russia.

France and Germany perhaps welcome this as it enables them to maintain control in the EU by keeping a running conflict with Russia. Kind of the way Pakjabis stay in power by keeping a conflict against India running.

Its the smaller EU members towards the east who have good trade relations with russia who will suffer. They don't want to be locked into the France/Germany power structure in the EU.

[Paul]

It probably works the other way. France and Germany since WWII had lukewarm to warm relations with Russia.

Historically, it is the East European countries that suffer when the central European powers come close to Russia. The Brits as the offshore power used this offshore balncing tactic to keep the Russians on the backfoot. These tricks of the trade were passed on to the AmirKhans when George Keenan learned the abacus sitting on Churchill's knees.

[Sanjay M]

Countries in the EU benefit a lot from the EU's global clout, so the EU is not about to collapse any time soon. Currently, Euro is stronger than the $....in the end, money talks and everything else walks.

In Turkey, The Army is still strongly anti-islamist/secular, and it remains to be seen if they will follow the orders of islamist Turkish govt., esp. after stepping in to remove earlier islamic govts. in power.

It seems that Islamists are learning to adapt their tactics in dealing with the Turkish military. Just as Zardari and Nawaz have backed off from calling for Mushy's immediate ouster, likewise Turkey's Islamist politicians understand where and when they have to tread lightly. Their game is to then inflict "death by a thousand cuts" against the Ataturkist establishment that constrains them.

If Turkish army gets bogged down in warfare against the Kurds, it could eventually find itself considerably weakened, not unlike how the Pak army has been considerably weakened in their war on the neo-Taliban.
A weakened army could eventually be forced to cede ground to the elected politicians, just as has been the case in Pak.

Turkey's secular establishment have nowhere to go. They can't go into Europe, as they've long dreamed of doing, because the ethnically exclusivist Europeans won't let them in. Turkey isn't oil-rich enough like some of its neighbors, to go it alone. The Kurds aren't sitting idly by, but intend to reclaim their homeland. It's only a matter of time before Turkish institutions are eroded. If I was Putin, facing EU encroachment on the western borders(eg. Ukraine, Kosovo), I would strike back in the most vulnerable place, for greatest effect. That place would be Turkey's southern borders, with the arming of the Kurds. And that may yet happen.

Wouldn't the Western recognition of Kosovo set a precedent for recognition of Kurdistan? I think Russia may have to first bring Georgia to heel, though.

[Sanjay M]

Elections in Germany Show Shift Towards Left

So the steady economic pressure on Germany, due to its EU obligations, the cavalier attitudes of its British and French partners, and most particularly the rising trans-Atlantic rivalry, are gradually beginning to take their toll.
The high value of the Euro relative to the dollar isn't helping their balance of trade.
The fiscally-tough German govt have steadfastly opposed any intervention from the European Central Bank, to bring a little buffering relief to the masses.

Now the German masses are clamouring for some respite through socialist welfare policies.
This will lead to Merkel being turfed out, and put the socialist politicians back in the driver's seat.
They in turn will be more sympathetic to Russia, as per Putin's previous cultivation of Schroeder and his Social Democrats.
A re-engaged Putin may reward Germany with some energy concessions, to reinforce the relationship.

A coalition of SocialDemocrats+Greens could then leave Merkel's Christian Democrats as the odd ones out. Sort of like how Uncle/Mushy are left as the odd man out in Pak's new budding coalition.

[satya]

Sanjay

Ur post on Germany's current politics and its socio-economic conditions is far off from reality . German economy has gone through its hard time of downsizing .Only way is up for German economy. As for social welfare , it still has one of the most generous welfare system in whole EU. For a change try to visit some former east German provinces and u will find how almost half of work age people are happy living off welfare than work and become gud at internet poker ! which by the way is one of the biggest money making enterprise in former E.German provinces.

As for your Greens in Germany , i havent seen more staunch capitalists in Germany than the current leadership of Greens. In Germany , it doesnt matter if SDP or CDU comes to power , policies will remain more or less same , dont get mistaken by an odd article in English Press.

[Sanjay M]

satya, I think that Germany's traditional social compact between business, govt and labour is showing cracks. Germany managed to avoid union activism during the previous decades due to its proactive engagement policy. But now, given the budgetary strains of absorbing East Germany, financing the EU, economic downsizing and layoffs, and oil-driven inflation, it seems that unions are now deciding they're getting the short end of the stick, and are starting to show a more activist mentality.

Germans are among the more hard-working Europeans, but their French and other European neighbors certainly aren't. Europeans want to preserve their 35-hour workweeks. That's why they formed the protectionist EU bloc, so that they don't have to compete head-on with the Asian "worker ants".
But failing EU protectionist efforts, Europeans might even resort to undercutting each other, OPEC-style, in order to preserve their local country's advantages. As the Germans are undercut by the British and the French, they're going to feel the strain.

A generous welfare system is inconsistent with a competitive economy.
Each is done at the cost of the other.
And the more generous the welfare system is, the more people see it as an entitlement rather than a privilege.

As more Europeans come under pressure from fast-growing Asian competitors, and the low-dollar-surfing American competitors, then something will have to give way.

[svinayak]

http://www.wired.com/science/planeteart ... f_seedbank
In the Event of Global Disaster, the Ultimate Crop Backup System

[Neshant]

They collected the money for the reactors, now they turn around to back sanctions.

Its one of the many reasons India should be wary of 'allies'.

-----------------

Russia threatens to back sanctions on Iran

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080227/wl_ ... nuclear_dc

[ShauryaT]

As easy as Kosovo: Pratap Bhanu Mehta

[quote]It is difficult to shake off the feeling that the birth of Kosovo is really the culmination of a series of old and unhealthy trends in global politics. Major powers of Europe seem to relish the fact that for the first time a small Muslim majority state has been carved out in Europe, thus testifying to Europe’s progress. But the truth is that the birth of Kosovo is also a profound testament of the failure of the nation state form in Europe to accommodate ethnic diversity. As Michael Mann, in an important article on the “Dark Side of Democracyâ€

[Manu]

It appears certain now that Dmitry Medvedev is the new President of Russia.
* Well, he is very young - 42 (Sallu's age!)
* He is a A technocrat and political appointee, Medvedev has never held elective office before.
* Is only 5'4" -
* Is fond of Yoga


Besides the above, not much is known about him, at least I don't.

PS: Raj Singh (Brussels wale) was correct in saying that a Bald Man and a Man with a full-head of hair always alternate as the supremo in Russia.

[satya]

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/JC01Ag01.html

Commentary on Medvedev's views on Govt. in Russia althpugh with a bit over-optimism in him following a different chart than Putin from a US PoV.

[ShauryaT]

PS: Raj Singh (Brussels wale) was correct in saying that a Bald Man and a Man with a full-head of hair always alternate as the supremo in Russia.

That is about the only thing, I was concered of. Will the bald/hair flip/flop hold !

[Tilak]

US Rules Out Kosovo Partition
By BARRY SCHWEID – 1 day ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Bush administration notified Serbia on Thursday it was "absolutely opposed" to any attempt to partition Kosovo so that the Serbian minority could have its own homeland.

"We will not support any form of partition," Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said at a news conference. And, he said, "the great majority of countries would not stand for that."

Kosovo, which has declared independence with strong U.S. support and over the anger of Belgrade, has a majority ethnic Albanian population. Many Serbs view Kosovo as the cradle of their culture and Orthodox Christian faith.

There are some 100,000 Serbs living in Kosovo, most of them in the north, with several enclaves in southeastern Kosovo. They have ignored Kosovo's declaration and threatened to set up their own institutions.

In Belgrade on Wednesday, Serbia's Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica demanded that the United States reverse its recognition of Kosovo. Russia also is strongly opposed to an independent Kosovo.

"As a nation and a state, we will put up resistance every day until the United States is convinced that the rule of international law must be re-established in the Balkans and the illegal declaration of the fake state (of Kosovo) is annulled," Kostunica said.

Burns said most countries support an independent Kosovo. In contrast, Serbia's foreign minister, Vuk Jeremic, writing in The New York Times on Wednesday, said it will not be recognized by a vast majority of U.N. nations. He called the unilateral declaration of independence an illegal act and a "historical injustice" to Serbia.

Burns, asked about the article, fired back that the Serbs were forgetting the history of the 1990s when the Serbs were accused of ethnic cleansing of ethnic Albanians in the Balkans.

"It is hypocritical for the Serb foreign minister to go to our newspapers and our media and act as if nothing happened in 1998 and 1999, when those terrible injustices were suffered by the Kosovar Albanian Muslim population," Burns said.

Serbia tried to force one million ethnic Albanians out of the country, and because of that history the United Nations took Kosovo away from Serbia {UN ?? Mr. Burns ??}, Burns said. "We have not forgotten," he said.

Rioters, protesting U.S. support for Kosovo independence, set fire to the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade last week. Burns said the United States would hold Serbia responsible for "what happens in the streets of Belgrade."

[Tilak]

US Rules Out Kosovo Partition
By BARRY SCHWEID – 1 day ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Bush administration notified Serbia on Thursday it was "absolutely opposed" to any attempt to partition Kosovo so that the Serbian minority could have its own homeland.

"We will not support any form of partition," Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said at a news conference. And, he said, "the great majority of countries would not stand for that."

Kosovo, which has declared independence with strong U.S. support and over the anger of Belgrade, has a majority ethnic Albanian population. Many Serbs view Kosovo as the cradle of their culture and Orthodox Christian faith.

There are some 100,000 Serbs living in Kosovo, most of them in the north, with several enclaves in southeastern Kosovo. They have ignored Kosovo's declaration and threatened to set up their own institutions.

In Belgrade on Wednesday, Serbia's Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica demanded that the United States reverse its recognition of Kosovo. Russia also is strongly opposed to an independent Kosovo.

"As a nation and a state, we will put up resistance every day until the United States is convinced that the rule of international law must be re-established in the Balkans and the illegal declaration of the fake state (of Kosovo) is annulled," Kostunica said.

Burns said most countries support an independent Kosovo. In contrast, Serbia's foreign minister, Vuk Jeremic, writing in The New York Times on Wednesday, said it will not be recognized by a vast majority of U.N. nations. He called the unilateral declaration of independence an illegal act and a "historical injustice" to Serbia.

Burns, asked about the article, fired back that the Serbs were forgetting the history of the 1990s when the Serbs were accused of ethnic cleansing of ethnic Albanians in the Balkans.

"It is hypocritical for the Serb foreign minister to go to our newspapers and our media and act as if nothing happened in 1998 and 1999, when those terrible injustices were suffered by the Kosovar Albanian Muslim population," Burns said.

Serbia tried to force one million ethnic Albanians out of the country, and because of that history the United Nations "took Kosovo" away from Serbia {UN ?? Mr. Burns ??}, Burns said. "We have not forgotten," he said.

Rioters, protesting U.S. support for Kosovo independence, set fire to the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade last week. Burns said the United States would hold Serbia responsible for "what happens in the streets of Belgrade."

[Gerard]

A long road from Kosovo to Kurdistan

The ongoing saga revolves around two crucial, interrelated facts on the ground: Pipelineistan and the empire of 737 (and counting) US military bases in 130 countries operated by 350,000-plus Americans. In short: it revolves around the trans-Balkan AMBO pipeline and Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo, the the largest US base built in Europe in a generation.

[Tilak]

US (And UK) Backed Islamic Terrorism in the Balkans

Left: Hashim Thaci, Head of the KLA - a State Department designated terrorist organisation, closely linked to Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda
Right: US General Wesley Clark, NATO Supreme Commander


Above: Madeleine Albright, US Secretary of State, greets KLA Hashim Thaci

"... the Albanian security situation reflects the volatility of the clan-based rivalries and the related narco-trafficking and criminal activities which are linked with global terrorism. But by admitting this as the basis for the need to move [US] facilities out of Albania, the US would then have to admit that this terrorism-related criminal activity, and particularly narco-trafficking, is intrinsically linked into the al-Qaida and Iranian-backed terrorist infrastructure of the region, and into the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), which now, under new names, controls the Serbian province of Kosovo.... no-one in the State Department or Defense Department is willing to admit that US support for this terrorist and narco-trafficking base of Albanians in 1999 -- when the US led NATO into attacks on Serbia in order to assist the KLA -- was wrong. This is part of the distortion of US foreign and strategic policy: no-one will admit that they made a mistake. There are many Congressmen on Capitol Hill who understand that this distortion exists with regard to Balkan policy. But equally, there are politicians in both major parties who supported the KLA during the 1990s, so that today it is impossible for a Republican-controlled Bush White House and Congress to attack the logic and merit of the 1999 war, waged against Serbia by the then-Democratic Party-controlled Clinton White House. It is difficult for the White House, for example, to criticize the 1990s support by the Clinton Administration for the al-Qaida -linked KLA without also opening up to criticism some senior members of the Republican Party..... The fact that the US has been forced to remove its assets from Albania, despite the quiet manner in which this has been undertaken, is just one indication of the ongoing degradation of the situation there. And yet the US still refuses to acknowledge that this is integrally linked with the Albanian-based terrorism underway in the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia, or that it is at the very heart of the creation of what is already a criminal sub-state in Kosovo, which is directly under the control of the KLA...."
Special Report; US Policy in the Balkans and the Eastern Mediterranean: Time to Stop Choosing Sides, and to Start Choosing Strategic Interests
Defense & Foreign Affairs Special Analysis, 13 April 2005

"The Clinton administration followed up by providing strong support to the KLA, even though it was known that the KLA supported the Muslim mujahadeen. Despite that knowledge, then Secretary of State Madeleine Albright had the KLA removed from the State Department list of terrorists. This action paved the way for the United States to provide the KLA with needed logistical support. At the same time, the KLA also received support from Iran and Usama bin Laden, along with 'Islamic holy warriors' who were jihad veterans from Bosnia, Chechnya and Afghanistan. Swiss journalist Richard Labeviere, in his book, 'Dollars for Terror,' said that the international Islamic networks linked to bin Laden received help from U.S. intelligence community. Indeed, Chechen sources claim that U.S. intelligence also aided them in their opposition to Russia. Given that U.S. policy in the post-Cold War period has not only been anti-Russian but anti-Iranian, the United States worked closely with Pakistan's predominantly Sunni Inter-Services Intelligence organization. Through ISI, the United States recruited Sunni mujahadeen by staging them in Chechnya to fight in Bosnia and later in Kosovo."
F.Michael Maloof, former Pentagon Counterterrorism Adviser
Iran subversion in Balkans
G2 Bulletin, 25 September 2006
(Who is Michael Maloof? - Click Here)

Omar Sheikh And British Covert Terrorist Operations In The Balkans

"Pakistani intelligence chiefs are concerned that General Musharraf may jeopardise their relationship with British intelligence agencies after claiming that a convicted terrorist was once an MI6 informer. The President outlines the role played by a former London public schoolboy, Omar Sheikh, in the kidnap and murder of Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter, in February 2002. General Musharraf says that Sheikh, who orchestrated the abduction, was recruited by MI6 while he was studying at the London School of Economics and sent to the Balkans to take part in jihad operations there. He alleges that Sheikh later double-crossed British intelligence. 'At some point he probably became a rogue or double agent,' General Musharraf says."
'America paid us to hand over al-Qaeda suspects'
London Times, 25 September 2006

[Tilak]

A long road from Kosovo to Kurdistan

The ongoing saga revolves around two crucial, interrelated facts on the ground: Pipelineistan and the empire of 737 (and counting) US military bases in 130 countries operated by 350,000-plus Americans. In short: it revolves around the trans-Balkan AMBO pipeline and Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo, the the largest US base built in Europe in a generation.

Oil and US Geopolitical Objectives in the Balkans

"This is about America's energy security. It's also about preventing strategic inroads by those who don't share our values. We're trying to move these newly independent countries toward the west. We would like to see them reliant on western commercial and political interests rather than going another way. We've made a substantial political investment in the Caspian, and it's very important to us that both the pipeline map and the politics come out right."
Bill Richardson 1998, US energy secretary, on US policy on the extraction and transport of Caspian oil
'A discreet deal in the pipeline - Nato mocked those who claimed there was a plan for Caspian oil'
Guardian, 15 February 2001



BBC Simplified Map of Yugoslav Oil Pipelines
At The Time Of The NATO Bombing
Click here for location of US Camp Bondsteel, Kosovo
More detailed map (go to bottom of linked page)




"During the 1999 Balkans war, some of the critics of Nato's intervention alleged that the western powers were seeking to secure a passage for oil from the Caspian sea. This claim was widely mocked.... [However] For the past few weeks, a freelance researcher called Keith Fisher has been doggedly documenting a project which has, as far as I can discover, has been little-reported in any British, European or American newspaper. It is called the Trans-Balkan pipeline, and it's due for approval at the end of next month. Its purpose is to secure a passage for oil from the Caspian sea. The line will run from the Black sea port of Burgas to the Adriatic at Vlore, passing through Bulgaria, Macedonia and Albania. It is likely to become the main route to the west for the oil and gas now being extracted in central Asia. It will carry 750,000 barrels a day: a throughput, at current prices, of some $600m a month. The project is necessary, according to a paper published by the US Trade and Development Agency last May, because the oil coming from the Caspian sea 'will quickly surpass the safe capacity of the Bosphorus as a shipping lane'. The scheme, the agency notes, will 'provide a consistent source of crude oil to American refineries', 'provide American companies with a key role in developing the vital east-west corridor', 'advance the privatisation aspirations of the US government in the region' and 'facilitate rapid integration' of the Balkans 'with western Europe'...."
'A discreet deal in the pipeline - Nato mocked those who claimed there was a plan for Caspian oil'
Guardian, 15 February 2001



"Albania, Bulgaria and Macedonia have given the go ahead for the construction of a $1.2bn oil pipeline that will pass through the Balkan peninsula. The project aims to allow alternative ports for the shipping of Russian and Caspian oil, that normally goes through the Bosphorus straits. It aims to transport 750,000 daily barrels of oil. The pipeline will be built by the US-registered Albanian Macedonian Bulgarian Oil Corporation (AMBO). The pipeline will run for nearly 900 kilometres from the Bulgarian port of Burgas, over the Black Sea to the Albanian city of Vlore on the Adriatic coast, crossing Macedonia.... According to AMBO president Edward Ferguson, work on the pipeline will begin in 2005 and it is expected to be ready in three or four years. He added that the company had already raised about $900m from the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) - a US development agency - the Eximbank and Credit Suisse First Boston, among others."
Go-ahead for Balkan oil pipeline
BBC Online, 28 December 2004

"On June 2, the U.S. Trade and Development Agency announced it had awarded the $588,000 grant to Bulgaria to carry out a feasibility study for the pipeline. Under the proposed plan, Caspian oil would be shipped by tanker from the Black Sea ports of Novorossiysk in Russia and from Supsa in former Soviet Georgia and then pumped by overland pipeline across Bulgaria, Macedonia and Albania to waiting European consumers. 'The continuing conflicts in Yugoslavia have made [the proposed trans-Balkan line] appear impractical in past years. But the prospect that the U.S. government would guarantee security in the region ... now makes it a much more attractive proposition. This grant represents a significant step forward for this policy (of multiple pipeline routes) and for U.S. business interests in the Caspian region,' said TDA Director J. Joseph Grandmaison. The decision came shortly before NATO and Russia reached agreement on how to force an end to the Kosovo conflict. The decision has raised speculation among regional experts that it may be part of a larger economic development plan envisioned by the Clinton administration to stabilize the southern Balkans after the massive dislocations and infrastructure damage caused by the Serbian repression in Kosovo and the U.S.-led NATO bombing of Serbia. The new strategic importance of the trans-Balkans region to U.S. policy makers could now justify its designation as a Main Export Pipeline for Caspian oil. The continuing conflicts in Yugoslavia have made it appear impractical in past years. But the prospect that the U.S. government would guarantee security in the region and also provide financial guarantees now makes it a much more attractive proposition... The Bulgaria-Macedonia-Albania route has already won support in Moscow and from the Chevron-led Caspian Pipeline Consortium that is developing the Caspian-Kazakhstan oil deposits. The main export line for Caspian crude will run through Russian territory to the Black Sea deposit at Novorossiysk and then by oil tankers to consumers."
Looking at Balkans route for Caspian crude
United Press International, 23 June 1999

"The `AMBO' Corporation (Pound Ridge, NY) has announced, on 17th January 1997, that Mr. E.L. (Ted) Ferguson - formerly Director of Oil & Gas Development for Europe and Africa for `Brown & Root Energy Services' has joined `AMBO' as President & CEO.... The `AMBO' Corporation (an acronym for the `Albanian- Macedonian-Bulgarian Oil Corporation') is the project developer of the 826 million $ Trans-Balkan Oil Pipeline which will carry crude oil from the Bulgarian Black Sea port of Bourgas to the Albanian Adriatic Sea port of Vlor....The feasibility study for `AMBO's ` Trans-Balkan Oil Pipeline, conducted by the international engineering company of `Brown & Root Ltd.' in London.... The resulting pipeline will become a part of the region's critical East-West corridor infrastructure which includes highway, railway, gas and fiber optic telecommunications lines. This pipeline will bring oil directly to the European market by eliminating tanker traffic through the ecologically sensitive waters of the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas."
M I L S N E W S
Skopje, 23 January, 1997

"Mediterranean refiners are suffering shortages of crude oil as Turkish security restrictions and bad weather cause a traffic jam of tankers carrying Russian oil through the straits of the Bosporus and Dardanelles... The congestion threatens a supply crunch similar to that experienced by European refiners during the Gulf war of 1991.... The jam has forced Russian producers to halt one pipeline sending oil to the Black Sea because storage tanks are full and tanker loadings are delayed. 'The Bosporus problem is hitting very hard,' said one refiner in Spain. The transit route of the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits, one of the most important export points for Russia, Europe's biggest supplier, is known for problems and delays. But the delays this year are compounded by the fact that refiners can no longer rely on the Iraqi substitute for Russian oil. Kirkuk oil, from Iraq's northern oilfields, resembles Russia's Urals oil. But Kirkuk, which is transported by pipeline to the Turkish port of Ceyhan, has not been available since March because of the sabotage of Iraq's section of the pipeline."
Bosporus tanker jam threatens shortage of oil
Financial Times, 11 January 2004

"Five countries are expected to sign in January an agreement to build an oil pipeline from Romania to Italy. The project, which includes rehabilitating Romania's Black Sea port Constanta, would cost at least $2.4bn (€2bn, £1.4bn), a feasibility study has found. People close to the project said two key oil companies, one international energy group and one state-owned energy company, had expressed interest. Henry Owen, a financial adviser to the project, said the pipeline would feed refineries in south-eastern Europe, Italy, Austria and Bavaria and would send oil to tankers via an existing pipeline from Trieste to the deepwater port at Genoa. It would reduce European dependence on Middle Eastern oil, would be outside Russian control and would help to alleviate some of the congestion in the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits, analysts said. But they warned that the pipeline faced several competitors and that an agreement could still be scuttled by one of the five states. If the signing ceremony proceeds, the next big hurdle will be reaching agreement on the pipeline tariffs. Ian Woollen, senior analyst at Wood Mackenzie, the UK-based consultants, said: 'It is a step forward, but there is still a long way to go. There are a lot of competing options that make more sense logistically and commercially.' Two pipelines that would originate in Burgas, Bulgaria, compete with the so-called Pan-European Pipeline from Constanta to Trieste. One would send oil to Alexandroupolis in Greece, the other to Vlore on Albania's Adriatic coast. Politics plays as much of a role as money. Russia's interest in controlling the region's oil flow, and the US opposing objective in diversifying the power away from Moscow, mix with the broader tug between Asia and Europe, both large markets keen to receive the oil. Meanwhile, Turkey wants to reduce the strain of shipping almost all the region's oil through the dangerously busy Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits, but does not want to lose control of the power and the income that comes with being such an important trading gateway. Altogether a dozen pipelines are proposed for the region. The most significant new pipeline is the BP-led Baku to Ceyhan line, expected to open this spring."
Five countries to build joint oil pipeline
Financial Times, 20 December 2005

PS : The below link has more information on dirty oil politics/terrorism in the Balkans..

Balkans - The Name of the Game is Oil!

[Sanjay M]

Chavez Threatens War with Columbia

Again, notice how the Atlanticist support for Leftists in India contrasts with their disdain for them in Latin America. And this is because Leftists in India hamper India's resistance to foreign colonial rule, while Leftists in Latin America are the main force resisting foreign colonial rule.

All the arguments of class warfare used to divide and attack Indians, are totally inverted and turned on their head when the Atlanticists discuss Latin America. Again, it's one of the ways to immediately identify their hypocrisy and ulterior motives.

Since when does Latin America not suffer from class disparities? Since when do they not have haves and have-nots? But the rhetoric in that regard is retracted, in order to show solidarity for Western-affiliated flunkies and cronies.

[Gerard]

The MEA vs navy drama

[Multatuli]

Madeleine Albright, then US secretary of state, pushed "The Serpent" into the limelight when she attributed to him "the brightest future" among those Kosovars who were "fighting for democracy". Albright is nowadays one of Hillary Clintons' top foreign policy advisers. The UCK was roughly a sort of Balkan al-Qaeda on heavy drugs - propped up enthusiastically by US and British intelligence. British special forces trained the UCK in northern Albania while Turkish and Afghan military instructors taught them guerrilla tactics. Even Osama bin Laden had been in Albania, in 1994; al-Qaeda had a solid UCK connection.

Here is again further evidence that the US and Britain ( actually all the main Western countries ) use terrorism/Jihadi´s as a tool to further their foreign policy objectives. The Russian can play this game too, Sanjay M. has frequently pointed out that Turkey has to be their focus : radicalise/islamise Turkey and the Atlaticists will run for cover.

[Philip]

Chavez and the Venzuelan anti-US revolution that has spread across S.America,is the major reason for this latest spat between Colombia,the US's henchman in the region and Colombia's neighbours,including Venzuela.The CIA's dirty tricks dept. is back at work in Latin America,as it was in the days of Allende in Chile,El Salvador and Nicaragua ,etc.,trying desperately to baring back independent nations into conflict and back into the fold of Uncle Sam if possible.It is strengthening its hold on Colombia,seeing ti as a bastion against Chavez,who has become the 21sr century's Castro of S.America.It is also a historic fact that the CIA itself has been heavily involved in drug production and smuggling,using drug profits during the Cold War to overthrow difficult regimes across the globe.Another reason why the US is also on the ground in Afghanistan and under US watchfulness,Afghanistan is having a bumper production of opium!

The Big Question: Why has Colombia invaded Ecuador, and why is Venezuela joining the fight?

Colombia demands Chavez face trial for funding Farc rebels
By Paul Vallely
Wednesday, 5 March 2008
Why are we asking this now?

At the weekend the Colombian army crossed the border into Ecuador to kill a Colombian rebel leader, and 16 other guerrillas, who were sheltering there. The move outraged the government in Ecuador, which broke off diplomatic relations with its neighbour and helicoptered 3,000 of its own troops to the border area.

Colombia's other neighbour, Venezuela, also reacted. It also expelled Colombia's diplomats and ordered thousands of troops, tanks and fighter jets to the border. Venezuela's fiery president, Hugo Chavez, also warned that war could break out if Colombia crossed into Venezuelan soil. It is the worst diplomatic crisis in Latin America for many years.

So what really happened?

The Colombians say they first bombed a rebel camp on their own side of the border. They claim that rebels hiding across the border in Ecuador fired on them, so they crossed the border to fight back.

The Ecuadorean president, Rafael Correa, called that account an outright lie: "It was a massacre," he said. The Colombian troops were backed by military planes, suggesting the raid was pre-ordained. When Ecuadorean troops reached the rebel camp they found the rebels were killed in their sleep "in their pyjamas". The rebels were "bombed and massacred as they slept, using precision technology." Colombian military sources seemed to corroborate this by revealing that US intelligence helped target the rebels by disclosing that the rebel's deputy leader, Raul Reyes, was sporadically using a satellite telephone, whose signal could be pinpointed.

What's at the heart of the dispute?

In Colombia a left-wing group of rebels called the Farc – the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – has been fighting the government for more than four decades. Their declared aim is a fairer wealth distribution in the country, which has a huge divide between rich and poor. But they finance their armed struggle by trading in cocaine and political kidnapping. Their base is in the remote rural regions of the country but they also take shelter in Ecuador and Venezuela which each have a porous border over a thousand miles long with Colombia. The Colombians accused their neighbours of turning a blind eye to the rebels' presence – something Ecuador and Venezuela deny.

What's the position of the three leaders?

Colombia is ruled by a right-wing populist, Alvaro Uribe, a Harvard-educated lawyer who is a staunch ally of the Bush administration. Since coming to power in Colombia in 2002 he has maintained a hardline policy against the Farc rebels, who killed his father during a kidnap attempt. Washington has poured billions of dollars in American aid to support the Colombian military. The president in Ecuador is a young left-wing economist, Raphael Correa. He has not minced his words in the current crisis. Colombia, he said, has "a foul and lying government that doesn't want peace." In Venezuela the charismatic leftist president Hugo Chavez, backed by his country's vast oil reserves, is attempting direct the continent away from the influence of Washington. He called Colombia "a terrorist state" and described President Uribe as "a criminal," acting for "the United States empire". By contrast he called Raul Reyes a "good revolutionary".

What were the rebels doing?

The Colombians claim they have captured the computer of Raul Reyes, who was the rebels' main interlocutor with foreign governments. It reveals, they claim, growing ties between rebels and Venezuela and Ecuador. One document, it was said, showed that President Chavez had provided $300m to the FARC. In another letter the rebels offered military assistance to Venezuela in the event of a US attack. A third, it was claimed, showed that the rebels were in negotiations for 50 kilos of uranium to build a dirty bomb. Venezuela and Ecuador poured scorn on the Colombian claims. Journalists were not given copies of the alleged documents.

Why is the US involved?

As much as 90 per cent of all cocaine on American streets comes from Colombia, the centre of the world cocaine trade. Since 2000, the US has spent more than $4bn giving Colombian forces training, equipment and intelligence to hunt down drug-traffickers and eradicate coca crops. Since 2002 the Bush administration has conceded that some aid is now being spent to tackle the insurgency, even though there is evidence that all sides in Colombia are involved in drug-trafficking. Venezuelan officials insist they have information about links between drug traffickers and top Colombian officials.

The Colombian government has also played into American paranoia about the "war on terror", characterising FARC not as an armed struggle to bring political change in a highly segregated society – split between rich families of Spanish descent and the vast majority of poor Colombians, many of whom are of mixed race – but as an arm of international terrorism.

What do other countries in theregion think?

They are worried. The big regional heavyweight, Brazil, which has mainly cordial relations with the three presidents involved, has demanded Colombia apologise to Ecuador. Brazil fears the conflict is beginning to destabilize regional relations. The president of Argentina is due to visit Venezuela tomorrow. Peru has urged restraint. Mexico and Chile have offered to mediate.

Could there befull-scale war?

Certainly the rhetoric is supercharged. Hugo Chavez has called Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe a "mob boss" and a liar. "If it occurs to you to do this in Venezuela, President Uribe, I'll send some Sukhois" – the 24 warplanes he recently bought from Russia. The President of Ecuador has said: "This is not a bilateral problem, it's a regional problem... Should this set a precedent, Latin America will become another Middle East."

But there is little appetite for armed conflict. The economic costs would be too high. Trade between Colombia and Ven-ezuela is worth $5bn a year, with food imports vital to Venezuelans suffering milk and meat shortages. Ecuador depends on some $1.8bn in trade with Colombia. Militarily Colombia is a formidable foe, thanks to $5bn in aid from Washington and US military advisers sprinkled throughout the Colombian army. The signs are of a climb-down. Colombia has indicated that it will not send more troops to its borders. And Washington, while backing Colombia's right to defend itself, has urged dialogue.

Was Colombia justified in crossing into Ecuador to kill rebels?

Yes...

* The FARC rebels are the chief drug traffickers in a country which produces most of the world's cocaine

* Rebels were being given covert support by both Ecuador and neighbouring Venezuela

* The rebels are major movers in international terrorism with plans to build a dirty radioactive 'dirty' bomb

No...

* It was a clear violation of the sovereignty of a neighbouring nation, and was bound to cause regional instability

* The rebels are not international terrorists, as Colombia claims, but leftists who want a fairer distribution of resources in the country.

* The real drug barons are not the rebel leaders but criminal gangs, many of whom have associations with the Colombian government

[Sanku]

Can't go with US on Kosovo

Can't go with US on Kosovo


Pluralistic states, still grappling with problems of strengthening national unity, while cherishing religious, ethnic and cultural diversities, are now confronted with the challenge of how to deal with the unilateral declaration of independence by the Muslim-majority Kosovo region of Serbia. Kosovo was an integral part of Serbia since the 12th century, with the invading Ottomans defeating the outnumbered Serbs in the epic battle of Kosovo in 1389, before it was eventually absorbed in the Ottoman Empire in 1455. Ottoman rule, which ended in 1912, resulted in a steady influx of Albanian Muslims, with Muslims becoming a majority during the 19th century.

Following the Nazi depredations of World War II, Kosovo became an autonomous region of the People's Republic of Serbia, as a member of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia. Throughout the 20th century the relationship between the Serbs and the Albanians in Kosovo remained tense and violent.

With the disintegration of Socialist Yugoslavia in the 1990s, tension rose in the Balkans. The Clinton Administration joined the European Union in dubbing Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic as a "new Hitler". Following 78 days of relentless bombing of Serbia by the US in 1999, Kosovo was placed under a transitional UN Administration, under UN Security Council Resolution 1244. The UN Resolution reaffirmed "the commitment of all member states to the sovereignty and territorial integrity" of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, of which the Federal Republic of Serbia was the Successor state. It also established a requirement that the post-conflict constitutional process must take full account of the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Serbia. In practical terms, however, Kosovo became a NATO-EU protectorate, with the deployment of NATO forces and EU administrators to run the region.

The danger of appointing politicians from monolithic Scandinavian countries, with no experience of problems of reconciling the imperatives of national unity with the demands of minorities, became evident when the UN appointed Mediator and former President of Finland Marti Ahtissari delivered a draft proposal to the UN for "supervised independence" for Kosovo in total disregard of UN Security Council Resolution 1244. This plan was considered by a three-member group comprising former US envoy to India Frank Wisner, Russian representative Alexander Khuchenko and EU envoy Wolfgang Ischinger. They failed to agree on the future status of Kosovo, with the Russians refusing to countenance any end to Serbian sovereignty.

The Russians believe, not without good reason, that the Americans and their NATO allies see developments in Kosovo as part of larger strategy of "containment" of Russia, through the expansion of NATO and even by tacitly backing separatism in Chechnya and elsewhere in Russia. Differences over Kosovo also reflect tension between Russia on the one hand and the EU and the US on the other over access to the oil resources of the former Soviet Union.

Despite its declaration of independence, Kosovo is set to remain a protectorate of the European Union, administered by more than 2,000 EU officials, with its security ensured by a large NATO troop presence. This is perhaps what Mr Ahtisarri envisaged when he spoke of "supervised independence". It has been noted that such 'independence' enables the Americans to maintain a strategic military base at Camp Bondsteel in the breakaway region - the largest American military base to come up in Europe over the last generation.

Moreover, the Americans appear to have plans through 'AMBO' -- the Albania, Macedonia, Bulgarian Oil Corporation, registered in the US -- to build a trans-Balkans oil pipeline. This pipeline, bypassing Russia, will bring oil from the Caspian Sea to terminals in Georgia and then by tanker through the Black Sea to the Bulgarian port of Burgas and then relay it through Macedonia to the Albanian port of Vlora, for shipment to refineries in Rotterdam and the US west coast.

An astute observer recently noted: "Clinton's war against Yugoslavia and pro-Albania (stance) was thus crucial to secure Vlora's strategic location." Both Mr Bill Clinton's Energy Secretary Bill Richardson and US Vice-President Dick Cheney reportedly have longstanding links with Halliburton, the company that prepared the AMBO feasibility study for the oil transport corridor.

Despite the haste with which the US and its NATO allies -- the UK, Germany and France -- have recognised Kosovo, there are serious differences within the EU about according recognition. Countries like Spain, Cyprus, Greece and Rumania have expressed reservations. Individual EU countries have, therefore, been given the freedom to choose their own course of action. Similarly, though the Organisation of Islamic Conference has welcomed the declaration of independence, only a few Islamic countries like Albania and Turkey have thus far recognised the separatist entity.

In Africa, South Africa has called for further negotiations for a settlement acceptable to both Serbs and Albanians. While Bangladesh has been cautious, Pakistan "supports the legitimate aspirations of the Kosovars" without yet according formal recognition. With the LTTE describing developments in Kosovo as a precedent for a 'Tamil Eelam', Sri Lanka has asserted that it will not recognise the separatist entity. Within ASEAN, with the exception of Malaysia, other members have varying degrees of concern about these developments in Kosovo, with Vietnam categorically opposing recognition.

Both India and China have reservations about events in Kosovo. New Delhi has spoken of the need to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all states and expressed the belief that the issue should have been resolved through consultations and dialogue between the concerned parties. Mr Manmohan Singh's Government seems to disregard the implications of such diplomatic obfuscation.

Separatists in Jammu & Kashmir are overjoyed, with Shabir Shah hailing 'Kosovo's independence struggle' and asserting that the day is "not far of when Kashmir will be free". His compatriot, Yasin Malik, has appealed to the "world community, especially the EU, to play a Kosovo-like role to get the dispute in Kashmir settled". The head of the US-based 'Khalistan Affairs Centre', Amarjit Singh, too, has welcomed developments in Kosovo and proclaimed that India's views are coloured by the "aspirations of a number of 'nations' like Kashmir, Assam and Nagalim in general and Khalistan in particular".

India is a pluralistic, secular country which barely a generation ago faced the trauma of partition, driven by religion. It has no option but to join Russia and other like-minded countries in denying legitimacy to separatism in Kosovo.

[Raju]

Biofuel policy to starve world's poor has moved up a gear and is starting to show results. Kissinger in line to get another Nobel for orchestrating another genocide.

Food aid to poorest countries slashed as price of grain soars

UN warns of drastic crisis as relief workers urge donor countries to help beat shortages by switching to giving cash or vouchers

Jamie Doward and Paul Harris New York
The Observer, Sunday March 2 2008

Britain's leading international aid agencies yesterday called for emergency food programmes to be overhauled as the soaring price of grain and other staple crops threatens to bring further misery to many parts of the developing world.

The call came after it emerged that the United States is to slash the amount of food aid it gives to some of the poorest countries in the world. The US Agency for International Development (USAID) said rapidly rising prices of basic commodities, especially grains, have devoured an increasingly large part of its budget and left it with a $120m black hole. (what a convenient excuse for aiding genocide.)

The past six months has seen a 41 per cent surge in prices for wheat, corn, rice and other cereals. In the face of the spike in its costs, the US is now drafting plans to cut the number of poor countries it gives emergency aid to and also scale down the amount of food it gives.

Last week the UN's World Food Programme held an emergency meeting after a sudden 25 per cent jump in the price of wheat in a single day. The WFP warned that the planet's poorest people were facing a drastic food crisis. It said it would have to cut some of its own programmes unless it received a $500m cash boost this year.

British charities reacted to the news by saying it was time to rethink the approach to humanitarian relief efforts. Oxfam said the major international food aid programmes should expand their focus beyond buying and shipping largely US-produced food to distributing more cash to countries in need.

'A key assumption of US trade policy is that its farmers can sell any excess production abroad,' said Amy Barry, trade spokesperson for Oxfam. 'But food aid can have a negative impact. Food ends up being shipped much too late and it can end up displacing local agricultural production. Often it's not necessarily a shortage of food that causes the crisis; it's whether people can afford the food that's there.'

Grain and cereal prices are rising because the booming market in biofuels has diverted production away from feeding people and into the energy sector. There has also been a 'perfect storm' of bad weather conditions and a rise in the price of oil - which has led to increased transport costs. At the same time, fast-emerging markets in China and India are using up food supplies at the expense of much poorer nations. (yep yep .. it's all em asians to blame)

Fluctuating prices have also led financial speculators to enter the grain markets, again forcing up prices.

USAID officials have said they are now looking at all of the countries that emergency food is supplied to and will have to see what cuts can be made. The organisation helps some 40 countries and regions, including some of the most famine-struck parts of the world, like Somalia and Sudan.

The programme's budget hole is expected to grow to $200m by the end of the year. 'We're in the process now of going country by country and analysing the commodity price increase on each country. Then we're going to have to prioritise,' Jeff Borns, director of USAID's Food for Peace programme told the Washington Post newspaper.

The cuts will have a particular impact on food relief efforts in Latin America, Central Asia and Africa. The US supplies about half the world's food aid and any change to its operations could seriously threaten millions of lives. Currently some 800 million people worldwide receive some kind of help with food. Charities have estimated that US food aid may fall from 2.6m tonnes last year to 2.2m tonnes this year. (wow .. wonder why their Iraq billions or any other operations are never affected by any 'sudden' shortages)

Oxfam and other famine relief charities, such as Save the Children, have increasingly come to the view that with food prices set to rise further, solving future humanitarian crises would be better approached by switching to cash or food vouchers. 'More and more people are going to be facing food shortages in the future,' Barry said. 'Given what is happening due to rising food prices we need to think about the impact this will have on people [in the developing world] who are spending up to 80 per cent of their incomes on food.'

There is little doubt over the massive implications the rise in basic food prices can have for international security. Last week three cities in the West African nation of Burkina Faso were hit by serious rioting after grain prices went up. Mobs burnt government buildings and looted stores. That incident followed on similar riots earlier this year in Senegal and Mauritania.

Last October there were food riots in India when hundreds of empty food ration stores were attacked by hungry crowds after supplies ran out.

[Sanjay M]

We should have some dedicated threads on Latin America, and also Africa.

Anyway, I think that the brewing trouble in South America between Venezuela, Ecuador and Columbia should be noticed by India. They are a potentially lucrative arms market for us which we should not ignore.

However, I tend to be more sympathetic to Venezuela and Ecuador, since they are opposed to European colonial dominance of their continent.

[svinayak]

The Political Planet

A Magazine on National and International Relations: World Politics, Homeland Security and Strategic Affairs


http://www.politicalplanet.webs.com/
Monotapash Mukherjee welcomes you to his personal journal The Political Planet. It is an independent journal created by the writer who analyses the political phenomena of the world, specially of India and its neighbouring countries. The idea is to interpret the contemporary political and strategic affairs in terms of homeland security and prosperity, a right which every nation should have. Thus the writer recognises every nation's right to development and happiness.

The Articles

* India's Soft Power
* The Study of Anthropology
* India's Nuclearisation Programme: A Scrutiny
* Indo-US Relationship: Is America Friend or Foe
* The Mother of the Indo-US Nuclear Agreement
* Why the USA Wanted the Nuclear Deal with India
* The Indo-US Nuclear Deal (123 Agreement)
* Indo-US Nuclear Deal: the Ripples So Far
* Space Militarisation--India in Double Dilemma

* India Russia Relationship:

[Philip]

The so-called "merchant of death",actually the delivery man who ran the arms industry's equivaleny of FedEx for all sides,including Halliburton!
Now why should such a well known man be caught by US spooks,the very ones who used his servcies? The answer is because he was delivering shipments to the Farc,enemies of the US's puppet regime in S.America,Colombia! Colombia is being used by the US/CIA in a full frontal attack against its anti-US neighbours like Chavez in Venezuela.The ramifications of US intrigue in S.Ameria has resulted in delivery boy Bout,falling from favour of Uncle Sam.

'Merchant of Death' arrested in Thailand
By Thomas Bell in Bangkok
Last Updated: 2:50am GMT 07/03/2008

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jh ... rms107.xml

The world's most notorious arms dealer has been arrested in Thailand, after fuelling many of the most deadly recent conflicts and running rings around investigators for nearly two decades.


Bout handcuffed in a police station in Bangkok
He is variously known as Vadim Aminov, Victor Balukin, Viktor Butt, "The Embargo Buster," and "The Merchant of Death," but the real name of the burly 41-year-old Russian, briefly paraded in handcuffs, is Viktor Bout.

He was seized by Thai police acting for United States Justice Department agents in a Bangkok hotel room. He was allegedly attempting "to procure weapons for Colombia's Farc rebels".

Justice Department officials announced that he had been charged with conspiring to sell millions of dollars in illegal arms to Farc. They will seek his extradition.

Bout built his extraordinary business empire on elaborate obfuscation, the ability to get anything to anywhere and complete immorality.

According to Lee Wolosky, formerly of the United States National Security Council: "He had a logistics network, the best in the world.

"There are lot of people who can deliver arms to Africa or Afghanistan, but you can count on one hand those who can deliver major weapons systems rapidly. Viktor Bout is at the top of that list."

Bout was probably born in the Soviet Union in 1967, although it is not clear where. He trained in the military - some have suggested in the KGB - and speaks at least six languages fluently.

He cut his first deal aged 25 when the Soviet Union collapsed and he spotted a business opportunity, buying three dilapidated Antonov cargo planes from the air force for £60,000.

He found plenty of buyers in Africa for the huge surplus of weaponry left over by the Soviet army.

By constantly reregistering his ever-growing fleet of planes in different jurisdictions and under different names, he evaded Western intelligence agencies for years.

Among Bout's clients was Charles Taylor, the Liberian dictator now on trial for war crimes in Sierra Leone, where he allegedly sowed chaos to control the supply of blood diamonds he used to buy the guns.

In their book Merchant of Death, the American journalists Douglas Farah and Stephen Braun laid bare much of Bout's operation. It was not just guns Bout delivered. He flew frozen chickens from South Africa to Nigeria and Belgian peace keepers to Somalia.

His planes delivered French soldiers to Rwanda after the genocide and United Nations food aid to some of the crises his weapons had helped to create.

One of his most profitable operations, he told an interviewer in 2003, was shipping fresh-cut gladioli from South Africa, where he bought them for £1 each, to Dubai, where he sold them for £50. He shifted them 20 tons at a time.

In 1997 his planes flew Mobutu Sese Seko, the dictator of the Congo, to safety as rebels closed in on him. Bout had armed the rebels.

He supplied Afghanistan's Northern Alliance, and then added their enemies in the Taliban to his client list.

By the end of the 1990s Western intelligence had realised that the common factor in many of Africa's wars was Viktor Bout and his fleet of Antonovs. He retreated to a luxury apartment in Moscow where he was safe from extradition.

In an interview with the New York Times he explained his love of Africa and the life he led on its jungle airstrips.

"In the middle of nowhere you feel alive, you feel part of nature," he said. What I really want to do now is take one of my helicopters to the Russian arctic and make wildlife films for National Geographic and the Discovery Channel."

He claimed to make contributions to the children's charity Unicef. Guns don't kill people, he explained, it is the people who use them.

The subject of American arrest warrants and a freeze on his assets, he continued to run rings around his pursuers.

After America invaded Iraq in 2003 there was a great demand for airfreight companies. In the confusion, Bout's airlines won contracts. "By the summer," wrote Farah and Braun, "Antanovs were roaring into Bagdhad's cratered airport carrying everything from tents and video players to armoured cars and refurbished Kalashnikovs."

Bout got a contract with Federal Express, the courier company. Before long - to intense official embarrassment later - he was carrying equipment for the US air force and army, and personnel and machinery for Halliburton, the American multi-national corporation

Just as when a drug baron is removed, experts believe that there are many more ready to fill his shoes.

[rsingh]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7286028.stm

Why China would do the followings?
- Acknowledge the existence of separatist movements inside China
- Acknowledge internal threat to its security
- Create impression that Olympics may not be incident free
- Ask for help from FBI.....to solve internal problems

My take is
- An all out crackdown on Muslims in western areas is imminent
- Wants sympathy from Unkil and Aunty. Begging "understanding" of Sudan Policy etc
- Something big is going to happen and Chinis have no clue
One thing is clear, Chini have never advertised internal problems in this way.....why now ?
JMT

[Rudradev]

However, I tend to be more sympathetic to Venezuela and Ecuador, since they are opposed to European colonial dominance of their continent.

Before you waste your sympathies on Ecuador, consider their history with respect to India. Ecuador was the first and only foreign government, in 1985, to officially recognize "Khalistan" as a legitimate state with a legitimate government-in-exile.


Ecuador's financial institutions were used by Khalistanis like Jagjit Singh Chauhan through the early '80s, to finance terrorist operations.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/commen ... 632713.ece

Further, at the 1995 UN conference on disarmament (at which P.V. Narasimha Rao in a visionary and bipartisan move appointed A.B. Vajpayee to represent the country), Ecuador was the only non-Islamic country to support the Pakistani point of view. Peru, which had recently fought a border war with Ecuador, supported India.

Even in the current instance, why is Ecuador's harbouring of FARC and Raul Reyes any more justifiable than the Bangladeshis harbouring ULFA and Anup Chetia?

As for the Venezuelans, they are playing a role analogous to Pakistan in that instance; by serving as the Ecuadorian Correa regime's ideological sponsors, by tacitly supporting Quito's patronage of anti-Colombian terrorists, and once the Colombians retaliated with a cross-border strike, by rattling sabres on Colombia's Eastern border as well.

[Gerard]

http://meaindia.nic.in/foreignrelation/01fr01.htm

In July 1985, during the height of terrorism in the Punjab, Indo-Ecuadorian relations suffered a jolt when news about Ecuador granting recognition to the so- called ‘Khalistan’ came to light. A high level delegation from Ecuador which included a former President of the country who was also the chairman of the ruling party held intensive discussions in London with various self proclaimed ‘Khalistani’ leaders. Apparently the Ecuadorian delegation had offered to give agricultural land and settlement to ‘Khalistani refugees’ in exchange for substantial financial inducement. However, on account of diplomatic pressure from India, within a few days the administration of President León Febres Cordero formally announced that the team that had met with ‘Khalistani’ leaders was a private delegation and there was no official support to the idea. Relations since then have been normal.

It seems that Sikhs, irregardless of nationality, require a visa to enter Ecuador....

http://www.ecuadorexplorer.com/html/immigration.html

Nationals of the following countries require a visa to enter Ecuador for any reason and should approach the Consulate of Ecuador in their home country before traveling (list may change without notice): Afghanistan, Algeria Bangladesh, China, Costa Rica, Cuba, EL Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras India, Iraq, Iran, Jordan, North Korea, South Korea, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palestine, Syria, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Tunisia, Vietnam, Yemen, Members of the Sikh Sect.

[Tilak]

In Response to Sanctions, Belarus Seeks to Oust U.S. Envoy
Saturday, March 8, 2008

MOSCOW, March 7 -- Belarus said Friday that the U.S. ambassador should leave the country, a response to sanctions that the United States has imposed on the former Soviet republic because of the authoritarian rule of President Alexander Lukashenko.

"Belarus emphatically recommends that U.S. Ambassador Karen Stewart leave our country," the Belarusan Foreign Ministry said in a statement on its Web site Friday. Belarus recalled its own ambassador from Washington.

State Department spokesman Tom Casey said that Stewart was not being immediately withdrawn from the Belarusan capital. "She is in Minsk, and she'll remain in Minsk while we continue to review," he said. "It's important, we think, to have our embassy there in Minsk and to have high-level diplomatic representation there to engage with the Belarusian government on a number of concerns."

Belarus's moves were prompted by sanctions imposed last year on the state oil company, Belneftekhim, which the United States charges is personally controlled by Lukashenko. In November, the Treasury Department froze the company's U.S. assets and barred Americans from doing business with it.

After those actions, Lukashenko said that if there were any more sanctions, Stewart would be expelled.

The Reuters news agency quoted a source close to the Belarus government as saying that Friday's action followed a U.S. note on the November sanctions that "allowed for a broad interpretation of a list of firms linked to Belneftekhim. The Belarusan side viewed that as additional sanctions."

It was unclear Friday evening when Stewart would leave the country of almost 10 million, which is sandwiched between Russia and Poland. The Belarusan Foreign Ministry said Friday that the latest steps are only two of several "tough moves" that Belarus plans, according to the Russian news agency Interfax.

After flawed presidential elections in March 2006, the United States and the European Union barred Lukashenko and about 30 other Belarusan officials from their territories. The travel ban was widened last year to include directors and deputy directors of state-owned enterprises.

The 2006 vote was followed by a violent crackdown on people who protested Lukashenko's ostensibly huge victory. Some leading opposition figures, including presidential candidate Alexander Kozulin, were imprisoned.

After his relations with Moscow deteriorated last year over increases in the price of Russian energy, Lukashenko attempted to rebuild ties with the West by releasing a number of activists. But the United States said that Kozulin would have to be released before relations could be normalized.

Kozulin, who is serving a 5 1/2 -year sentence after being convicted of hooliganism and inciting mass disorder, was briefly released last month to attend his wife's funeral but was immediately returned to prison afterward.

[svinayak]

Europe and America: Sharing the Spoils of War
by Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya
August 19, 2007

Europe and America have been long-term partners as well as rivals. New spheres of influence between the European Union and the United States have unfolded. The Middle East and its peripheral geographic areas lie at the heart of this process.

In the wake of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, a unified stance has developed within both the E.U. and NATO in regards to this geopolitical re-division. This unified stance is a reflection of an unfolding political and strategic consensus between the U.S., Britain, France, and Germany.

While Iraq falls within the Anglo-American orbit, the Eastern Mediterranean and its gas resources have been set to fall into that of the Franco-German entente. In fact, the entire Mediterranean region, from Morocco and gas-rich Algeria to the Levant is coveted by Franco-German interests.

The Franco-German Entente and Anglo-American Alliance: Rivalry and Partnership

The Anglo-American alliance and Franco-German entente are economic, political, and military alliances that have been forged by historic and socio-cultural realities that gave rise to opportunities of great magnitude. The Franco-German entente is a continental European entity, whereas the Anglo-American alliance is the incarnation of maritime trade and the overseas legacy of Britain.

The Franco-German entente is based on the post-war partnership of France and the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) after the Second World War. After the unification of West Germany and East Germany the Franco-German partnership evolved, strengthened, and spawned the European Economic Community (EEC). France and a unified Germany were the basis for the evolving structure of the European common market and later the European Union.

European nations such as Belgium and Luxembourg are members of the Franco-German entente. These European countries are economically integrated with France and Germany. This is why Belgium and France have been aligned together in an economic face-off against the Anglo-American alliance in the African continent. Countries like Belgium, Luxembourg, and Austria also sided with Paris and Berlin against the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq. In February of 2003, Belgium even assisted France and Germany in obstructing Anglo-American plans involving the use of NATO in Iraq.

The Anglo-American alliance is formed from the remains of Britain’s overseas colonies and territories. Unlike the Franco-German entente, the base of the Anglo-American alliance is outside of Eurasia. This becomes apparent after one considers the island nature of Britain in addition to the geographic situation of America. This is additionally reflected in the naval strength of Britain and America.

Australia and Canada fall within the orbit of the Anglo-American alliance. English is also the official language of many of the nations within the alliance, which are also part of the Anglosphere (English-speaking World). This is a reflection of the historical roots of the Anglo-American alliance. The Anglo-American alliance also has an intimate relationship with Israel. Countries like the Philippines, Japan, South Korea, and Guam that have been under the military control of America in the past also fall within the orbit of the Anglo-American alliance.

America: The European Union’s Fourth Power

The E.U. is the creation of France and Germany, but it has become a shared body for the four most powerful nations of the so-called Western World. Without giving recognition to the fact that the E.U. is a creature of France, Germany, Britain, and America, it is hard to conceptualize Anglo-American foreign policy objectives being implemented through Europe. It should also be remembered that the E.U. is not the sole representative of the European continent or European civilization.

The three major powers in the E.U., the so-called “European Union-Three,â€

[Tilak]

Why India must oppose Kosovo's independence - Maloy Krishna Dhar
Wednesday, 05 March , 2008, 20:36

Maloy Krishna Dhar started life off as a junior reporter for Amrita Bazaar Patrika in Calcutta and a part-time lecturer. He joined the Indian Police Service in 1964 and was permanently seconded to the Intelligence Bureau.

During his long stint in the Bureau, Dhar saw action in almost all Northeastern states, Sikkim, Punjab and Kashmir. He also handled delicate internal political and several counterintelligence assignments. After retiring in 1996 as joint director, he took to freelance journalism and writing books. Titles credited to him are Open Secrets-India's Intelligence Unveiled, Fulcrum of Evil - ISI, CIA, al-Qaeda Nexus, and Mission to Pakistan. Maloy is considered a top security analyst and a social scientist who tries to portray Indian society through his writings.

I am not sowing a new idea. I am just sharing the concerns and apprehensions expressed in several world capitals over the unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo, a breakaway Albanian Muslim majority province of Serbia.

Normally a distant Muslim province of two million people of which 10 percent are Orthodox Christian Serbs should not bother us. So far, it has certainly not bothered the government of India and our Great Political Parties.

However, history has put the Balkan people, especially the Serbs, at the cruces of civilisations. The Turks finally defeated the patriotic Serbs at the battle of Kosovo in 1389 and began its advance into European heartland. The Serbs have never got over it, as most patriotic Indians cannot forget the dubious defeat of Prithwiraj Chauhan at the Second Battle of Tarain.

Serbia was the most advanced segment of Eastern Europe. The Turks patronised the pliable Bosnians and converted them to Islam and persecuted the Orthodox Christians in Serbia. The last gasps of the Cold War initiated the disintegration of Yugoslavia: Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia-1991; Bosnia-Herzegovina-1992; Montenegro-2006 and now the unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo on February 18, 2008, when the territory is still under UN administration.

The proud Serbs are yet to forget the bloody bites of history. European historiographers agree: the Serbs do not forget their history.

The US has probably seeded another poison-tree that might lead to the Third World War. Sarajevo in Bosnia had sparked off the First World War. Sarajevo was the scene of several important battles between Allied resistance fighters and the Germans in World War II

These new ethno-religious states are somewhat like the creation of Israel after unplanned withdrawal of British mandate in 1948, and the creation of Pakistan after their planned escape from India in 1747. Creation of new nations based on religion and redrawing national boundaries of several states had started after the First World War. After the Second World Order, the Big Powers assumed this task as a matter of international policing privilege.

Kosovo had been on the boil since 1989. The turmoil during the last decade in which the NATO assumed the role of Big Protector of Islamic minority in the Balkans paving the way for creation of Bosnia had encouraged the Kosovar Albanians to wage a jihad-type struggle with Turkish, Iranian, Pakistani and Al Qaeda backing. These very pro-jihad forces had also interfered in Bosnia.

Kosovo has not only committed a crime against Serbia by unilaterally breaking away; it has also committed a crime against the UN by flouting its mandate under transparent encouragement of the US and its major allies, France, Britain and Germany. These countries have already recognised the illegitimate country and its illegal government.

Serbia has lodged a complaint with the Security Council, where China and Russia are likely oppose the US and EU action. Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic has said Kosovo's declaration of independence was illegal and illegitimate. Speaking at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, he said those who had recognised Kosovo had set a dangerous precedent.

Condemning the positioning of a EU Mission in Kosovo as an act of flagrant violation international law, he said: By the actions of some European member-states, every would-be ethnic or religious separatist across Europe and around the world has been provided with a tool kit on how to achieve recognition.

It is clear that Pristina's declaration of independence has divided the world capitals. The UN has again been proved to be an ineffective international mechanism for conflict resolution.

Russia has reacted with reasonable alarm. It described Kosovo's proclamation of independence as a "gross violation" of international law and criticised the European Union's sending of a "Rule of Law Mission" intended to help stabilise Kosovo. The mission comprises some 2,000 people who would train and mentor police, judges and customs officials.

Kosovo's move appeared as a litmus test of attitudes in Asia and elsewhere toward secession from mother countries.

Russian concerns have been echoed by China, Indonesia and Sri Lanka. China criticised Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia while Taiwan welcomed it. China is worried about similar action by Taiwan, which has recognised Kosovo. China is also concerned about its western Xinziang area, where Uyghur Muslim rebels are fighting a "liberation war" for over three decades. The Tibet issue too has the potential of troubling Beijing again.

Sri Lanka has voiced concern out of fear that the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) might follow the Kosovo example and might even be recognised by some world capitals.

Indonesia has already lost East Timor and is worried about the Aceh province, where rebels want to secede from the mainland regime.

Thailand is involved in fighting the Muslim minorities in the three southern provinces. International Islamic Jihad is patronising the Thai Muslim rebels.

These are not the only areas where the seemingly affected ethno-religious groups can take Kosovo style action. Similar situations exist in Darfur region of Sudan and the Shan, Kachin and Rakhine (Arakan) provinces of Myanmar. What would the US and UN reaction be if these ethno-religious groups break away and declare independence? Would they come to their help, send an EU Mission, establish embassies and open up UN aid missions? This may sound filmy, but after Kosovo everything appears to be possible.

If this policy of the US and its allies is accepted as part of the new global political order, the Chechens, Dagestanis and Ingusetians should also have solid international support to breakaway from Russia. Russia has already indicated that the Kosovo principle can be applied to Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Nagorno-Karabakh of Georgia and Armenia. These regions are already trying to merge with Russia. They might as well declare unilateral independence.

Would the US and its allies now go for three separate nations in Iraq - Sunni, Shia and Kurdish? Would the UK agree to create a separate Northern Ireland and give full political rights to the Catholic Irish community?

Can the US and the EU recognise the unilateral declaration of sovereignty by Balochistan and Balawaristan (the Northern Areas of Pakistan-part of greater Kashmir)? If they do, what would remain of Pakistan? Washington should not aid Islamabad to suppress the Balochis and Balawaris while it abets secession by Kosovo.

India exists as a nation as all ethno-religious and linguistic subnationalities have mutually agreed to make it a nation-state, rising above narrow considerations. However, Pakistan continues to incite and abate sections of misdirected Kashmiri and mainland Muslims for seceding from India.

The Kashmir Media Service (February 20, 2008), a pro-separatist website, quoted the pro-liberation leaders like Syed Ali Gilani and Shabbir Ahmad Shah of the All Party Hurriyat Conference and chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front Muhammad Yasin Malik as saying that the sacrifices of the Kashmiris would not be allowed to go waste. They cited Kosovo as a ray of hope and urged the international community to resolve the Kashmir dispute.

Would the US and EU now accept a unilateral declaration of independence by the pro-Pakistani Kashmir leaders? Can New Delhi prevent them?

Western media like the International Herald Tribune, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Moscow Times, and The Jerusalem Times etc have highlighted that besides Kashmir, disaffected Sikh groups, ethnic and tribal groups in the northeast are also keen to secede from India.

Can India afford to cope with these insurgencies, separatist movements in addition to fighting the "proxy war" launched by Pakistan and the marauding guerrilla actions by the Maoist groups? Would the US and EU come forward to support the NSCN, ULFA and PREPAK etc in the northeast?

Why not? Kosovo has written new international laws for all the simmering separatist movements.

The government of India has so far remained silent about the Kosovo developments basically out of fear that any opposing statement would erode its "secular" image, annoy its targeted vote banks and displease its supposed friends in the comity of Muslim nations.

It is time for India to stridently oppose unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo, while under UN administration. India should openly support Russia and China in the UN and ask Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to explain to the world body as to how the US and allies could bury the UN mandate and agree to the creation of another nation on ethno-religious considerations.

Kosovo would not be the last, in case the Big Brothers are allowed to use the NATO as a mandated force of the neo-imperialists. Who could prevent the NATO to frog-leap to Kashmir from Afghanistan?

This new world order is likely to lead to greater world-disorder.

Bookmark : Read all Maloy Krishna Dhar columns here

[Keshav]

India should unilaterally oppose the independence of Kosovo, but under no pretenses and without using any ambiguous words. It should also be made clear that this has nothing to do with alliances to other countries such as Russia - clear, yet isolated.

Note:
I like the point Das makes about Prithiviraj Chauhan. I thought we Hindus (and other pagan groups) were the only ones who were tied to things to took place a bajillion (read "approximately 1000") years ago.

[svinayak]

Sat, March 8, 2008
Multiculturalism cannot survive

By SALIM MANSUR


Future historians of the phenomenon known as "multiculturalism" that the West bone-headedly adopted towards the end of the second millennium will note the precise time when it was dealt a mortal wound.

It was at 8:46 on Tuesday morning of Sept. 11, 2001, when the first of the four commercial airliners hijacked by Islamist terrorists -- all of Arab origin -- struck the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York City.

Since that time other western cities -- Madrid, London, Amsterdam, Los Angeles, Toronto, Paris, Washington --have been targets of successful or failed attempts by Islamist terrorists determined to spread random death and destruction.

Those involved in the planning and execution of such terror are immigrants or born of immigrant parents belonging to the rapidly growing Muslim population in the West over the past 40 years. I happen to be a part of this wave of immigration to the West.

This western Muslim population, with its ethnic diversity reflecting the vastness of the Arab-Muslim world -- stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from central Asia to sub-Saharan Africa -- could have given some timely ballast to multiculturalism by unambiguously and unapologetically defending the West against barbarity.

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MINIMUM OWED

This was the minimum Muslims in the West owed to the civilization where they sought refuge, and where they found security, prosperity, freedom and self-fulfillment of the like denied them in their native lands.

Instead Muslim-based organizations, at first having offered denial, followed with an unending volume of polemics condemning the West for past sins. By exploiting the West's post-colonial guilt they held it responsible for the conditions in the Arab-Muslim world that breeds the politics of terrorism.

These bald-faced polemics are sheer nonsense, and yet they resonated in much of the West that went limp with the anodyne of wishful multicultural thinking.

The idea that all cultures are equal in merit and deserving respect, an idea devoid of any historical perspective, could be seriously proposed and adopted only in western liberal democracies. And logically such an idea meant only one thing, the diminution of the West and its achievements in comparison to other cultures.

Multiculturalism institutionalized as a policy, run by self-perpetuating bureaucracies and sustained by entrepreneurs of a growing multicultural industry, became an easy ride for its proponents and clients.

Immigrants were not required to embrace the West's culture and complex history; and the West did not have to strain itself in instructing immigrants on the need or importance of embracing it, warts and all.

Multiculturalism worked so long as the illusion of cultural harmony could be maintained.

But once the sham of equality got exposed by the heat of Islamist violence -- once it became undeniable that a culture in which a woman, for instance, can assert her individual freedom without fear is not at par with a culture where a woman's worth is less than that of a man -- multiculturalism as an idea was dead.

Historians will note a period of confusion followed the death of multiculturalism before the West asserted its ideals of freedom and democracy, and moved on.