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Cameron and the Veto

15 Thursday Dec 2011

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What are we to make of David Cameron’s decision to use the veto in a proposed EU treaty change – a return to the days of spendid isolation, or just the latest reckless action of an inexperienced prime minister?

Polls suggest the British public are behind him, and he clearly has the Eurosceptics delighted – and some in Europe may have even seen the ghost of Margaret Thatcher in the room, there again I keep seeing a poster of Meryl Streep posing as her on the tube to Bayswater so they are not alone there.

When Cameron entered Downing Street, he made the country aware that the first phone call he took was from the US president – Europe, and India were to follow in that order.

India was not impressed with him during his visit to New Delhi, despite his verbal attack on Pakistan, she reminded him thatBritain was no longer her master and should adjust herself to this reality.

So, Cameron – along with another very vain figure namely that of Nicolas Sarkozy – launched a war against Libya, a sustained bombing campaign that led to the brutal execution of that country’s leader.

We still don’t know the long term consequences of that conflict, as we don’t know of how Britain’s verbal attacks on China will play out, any more than Cameron’s decision to stick his foot into those negotiations over a change in the European Union.

Either way, we all need to be consulted before he goes off and does something else.

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📢 Putin’s Russian Winter 🇷🇺

15 Thursday Dec 2011

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Clearly stung by the turnout of Saturday’s demonstration against the parliamentary elections, Vladimir Putin has accused outside forces of attempting to influence the outcome of who leads the country that he loves so much.

That the former KGB man has brought stability is without a shadow of doubt, one only has to look at the state of this former superpower when he came to power.

A decade of Boris Yeltsin had pushed Russia to bankruptcy, defeat in Chechnya – though that was seen by others, including myself, as a magnimous move by the President – and a culture of a gangster economy, now known as the reign of the oligarchs.

Putin set about reversing some of this – no one doubts that everything he did, he did so for the sake of the sacred state of Russia.

But how much of a difference has that made – on the surface Moscow appears properous, vibrant, young,  yet at what cost has all that come.

Chechnya has been rebulit, or Grozny at least, but at a horendous human cost – it said, and this is by no means a rumour, that Russian forces killed every young man or boy they could get their hands on, in a bid to pacify this rebellious republic.

The journalist Anna Politkovskaya lost her life telling the world what her country’s forces were doing to the people of Grozny.

Putin’s response was straightforward, he set up RussiaToday which gave the world the official line.

So, in amongst the daily news stories, entertainment and sports news, there comes a report from a young reporter of the latest terrorist operation in the Caucasus conducted by Russian security forces.

Max Keiser may talk about the downfall of western capitalism, but he has little to say about how Russia’s own economy has enriched the lives of her own citizens, how the young are so disillusioned that they either take to the bottle or inject heroin to get through each day.

How much the lives of ordinary Russians have been enhanched by a decade of Putin and perhaps a decade of more of this stability is the question that this fierce nationalist has to ask himself.

Unfortunately, if stability is all that he is offering, then he may be only delaying the inevitable, the eventual collapse of Russia.

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Pakistan’s Third Way

14 Wednesday Dec 2011

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ANALYSIS – If a recent rally is to be believed, the former cricketer Imran Khan is emerging as a serious challenger on the Pakistani political scene.

During an interview with ITV News last night,  Imran Khan said the current president Asif Ali Zardari was completely discredited and that his own appeal was among the young.

He was not concerned about his own safety, given the bloody nature of Pakistani politics – he was prepared to make any sacrifice to save his country.

The camera shots from the point of view of the reporter – Mark Austin – revealed a very agitated Imran.

There are clearly things he wanted to say and do, once he gets his chance.

Trouble is, Pakistan has had too many saviours, Zardari was also one such figure.

What this still young nation needs is someone  who will spread the wealth evenly to the rest of the population, so that everyone gets the chance – like Imran himself – to shine.

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Get Tougher on Iran, says Richard Perle

14 Wednesday Dec 2011

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One of the key figures of the Bush administration, and perhaps its strongest advocate for war in Iraq- apart from Dick Cheney and George Bush himself – has appeared on RussiaToday to push for a stronger American response to Iran.

What Richard Perle said of the need to combat the threat of a nuclear armed Iran is not surprising – given his recent history – however what was more telling were his admissions about other issues. He did admit that if a country had an atom bomb – say North Korea – the US would not attack it, though he went on to quantify that by adding that Kim Jong’s regime would also inflict immense damage on the South in any conflict.

As far as he was concerned, Iraq was a threat that had to be taken out, where America got it wrong was occupying the country which had then allowed an insurgency to develop.

He believed that America was not the only nation to be hated in the Muslim world, there was also Russia and the UK, and that the West was only defending itself in taking the actions it has done so far.

There was, he believed a struggle between people who wanted to impose their way of life on everyone and us.

He did not believe that was what America was doing.

America did not feel superior but rather proud of its way of life.

He was asked about one American mother who had lost her son in the Iraq war, to which he said he was sorry, however, there was no indication of any awareness that the invasion of Iraq had cost one million civilian lives, with millions more unable to return to their country for fear of the violence that that invasion had unleashed.

In fact, the well spoken Mr Perle gives the impression that he sleeps very easily at night.

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391 British Soldiers and counting..

09 Friday Dec 2011

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Yesterday, the Ministry of Defence announced the passing of another British soldier in the death trap that is Helmand Province.

If the bloodshed continues at its current rate,  the figure will by the end of the year reach the grim milestone of 400.

Even though the people of  Wootton Basset have made sure that the repatriations are not forgotten, there is a danger that this death and the ones leading up to the four hundredth may pass almost without notice, such is the depressing familiarity of news of each new life lost. That they are doing their duty, is without doubt, however, what those of us in ‘civi-street’ appear not to be asking is why the need – what is Britain doing deploying the second biggest contingent of troops to a war where her contribution is symbollic, just as it was in Iraq, where British soldiers openly said that this was ‘America’s show.’

And just as importantly, how much longer will it last and when will it all stop.

Until such hard questions are asked, we will continue to be passive observers, as the sad news is brought to the family of another fallen soldier.

And through our silence we will be as culpable in their deaths as those who said nothing during the carnage of the first and second world wars.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16100110

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The Downed Drone 🇮🇷

08 Thursday Dec 2011

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Iranian-owned PressTV has just broadcast the first pictures of the drone that it says was American and had violated her airspace.

At first sight, the downed drone which apparently passes with out detection by any radar system looks like something from a bad B-movie.

The drone had been used to monitor Osama bin Laden’s phonecalls, before he was assassinated.

And no doubt countries like Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen will be interested in taking a good look at this advanced stealth pilotless drone that has caused such carnage in their lands.

The Americans are reported to have said that they doubt whether the Iranians will be able to make much use of the sophisticated technology which they say is beyond their capabilities.

The use of drones has become a disturbing new trend in this war.

In a sense the first use of new technology for the purposes of state assassination came during Russia’s own war on terrorism, when the Chechen leader Dhokhar Dudayev was killed by a precision guided missile after making a mobile phone call.

It was disturbing then, and remains so with every new strike launched from an airbase in a foreign land.

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And here’s the news on two recent elections…

07 Wednesday Dec 2011

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The Muslim Brotherhood has emerged as the main force in Egyptian politics after the first round of the country’s first ever free elections.

The results mean that the military which has been in power since overthrowing the British appointed monarch in the fifties may be finally releasing its hold on power.

The large turn out indicates that many Egyptians think so.

As democracy appears to be winning in one part of the world it is failing in another, namely that of Russia, where Vladmir Putin’s United Russia party won the parliamentary elections with a scaled back majority.

State-run RussiaToday was trying to put a positive spin on the results which are seen as a test of Putin’s popularity ahead of next year’s presidential elections.

However, an angry crowd in Moscow – some of whom were attacked by Russian police – were clearly not impressed by reports of widespread vote rigging and a clampdown on any independent monitoring.

Despite a heavy police presence today, people were still out to voice their anger.

On the surface, there is a gulf between both elections.

However, a closer look at the outcomes reveal that perhaps the choices of the people are not that different though.

Egyptians have followed the lead in Tunisia and Iraq, by voting for Islamists.

Could Russians vent their frustrations through a return to Communism – the emergence of the Communist Party during the parlimentary elections suggests so.

Either way, this appears to be a victory for reactionaries, not progressives.

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Afghan Conference

05 Monday Dec 2011

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So, ten years after the first conference on the future of Afghanistan, Bonn plays host to the second.

Ten years ago, having ousted the Taliban the international community promised to create stability and a modern state.

Nothing like this has happened.

Instead, by overthrowing the status quo – and thus bringing to an end a period of safety and stability, if at times painful and controversial – they have plunged a country destroyed by the Soviet Union into the abyss.

Afghanistan is the centre for the world’s opium production – something the Taliban had actually stopped –  and the women actually fared better under the students of the madrassas, because they were not attacked.

When The US-led alliance took over Afghanistan they simply put back into power, the very warlords that had tore the country apart after the Soviet Union had left.

The takeover was bloody – remember the siege of the medieval fortress at Qal-i-Jhang – and ill-thought out.

Having left the country to get on with it, America simply moved on to its next target – Iraq, and arguably if that war had gone to plan would have invaded Iran.

There was a period when the international community could have succeeded – by 2005 though it was too late and the insurgency had gained momentum.

The Taliban have never been against rebuilding their country and if Isaf had spent more time and money doing that instead of behaving like a occupying, colonial power, perhaps we would be looking at a healthy stable country.

Instead, the Bonn conference is going to achieve little except rubberstamp Nato’s defeat, especially since the emerging power of the region will not even be there, namely that of Pakistan.

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