Tuesday

The Daily WAR (11-18)

Reading between the lines, and thinking outside the box . . .
 
 
 
    George Weigel, Catholic thinker and biographer of Pope John Paul II, delivered a lecture on religion and world politics in which he argued that Pope Benedict XVI has provided a unique model for global understanding between Christianity, Western secularism and Islam.
    He said that Pope Benedict XVI was uniquely suited to addressing world conflicts grounded in religious differences.  Weigel believes that the Pope, especially in his 2006 Regensberg lecture, provides a "grammar" to world leaders that could help them understand and reform both the relativism of the secular West and the violence of Islamic extremism.
    Weigel argued that no one other than Pope Benedict could have framed the discussion in such a way.  "No president, prime minister, king, queen, or secretary general could put these questions in play at this level of sophistication before a world audience."
 
    Setting a clear agenda for dialogue that identifies the type of unity churches are looking for is 1 of the 4 priorities for ecumenism set out by Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard at a meeting of European religious leaders.
    Other priorities include the need to enlarge the experience of ecumenical fellowship, especially among youth; to be more present where "the humanity of the human being" is at stake; and to develop a spiritual ecumenism.
 
 
 
Press on Hamburg election
    Sunday's regional election in Hamburg may herald a revolution in German politics. It could lead to the first coalition between the straight-laced CDU and the pacifist Greens. It's time for a shake-up, say commentators.
    The emergence of the Left Party, now represented in 10 of Germany's 16 state parliaments as well as in the federal parliament, has shaken up Germany's staid political scene and is forcing the established parties to consider entering into new alliances to form governments.
    Meanwhile: nearly 4 weeks after an election in Hesse, it's still unclear who will end up ruling the state because the traditional camps didn't win enough votes to form coalitions on their own.
 
    The shadowy informant who blew the whistle on German tax cheats also sold data to US authorities. The man, who was paid almost €5 million for DVDs full of information, has now been given a new indentity by German intelligence.
 
 
 
    Last Wednesday, the German government officially recognized the independence of Kosovo. It did so despite the foreseeable political dangers: an impending conflict with Russia, the eruption of new conflicts in the Balkans, and the incitement of separatist tendencies in other crisis regions across the globe.
    A legal expert who is an advisor to the German Foreign Office warned that independence for Kosovo creates a precedent which can be directed "in other cases against the Western states." Warnings also came from inside the ranks of Germany's governing coalition.
    Leading political and business circles in Germany and the European Union are increasingly worried about the dependence of Europe on oil and gas imports from Russia. The Balkans serve as an important transit region for pipeline projects, whereby oil and gas from the Caspian Sea are to be pumped to Western Europe, circumventing Russia.
    Control of the Balkans and the lessening of Russian influence in the region are therefore of crucial importance and have become a major element in German and European foreign policy.
    German foreign policy has been actively working to separate Kosovo from Serbia for over a decade. Germany had hoped to secure this aim with the agreement of Russia. Now, however, German support for the secession of Kosovo at the behest of an alliance of Western powers has enraged Moscow and once again ignited the fuse of the Balkan powder keg.
 
    Europe's youngest nation already has problems. Violent Serbs in Belgrade are protesting Kosovo's independence, and the Serbian government has demanded €220 billion in damages. Can the little state last?
 
    There is evidence that the US administration in liason with its allies took the decision in the early 1980s to destabilise and dismantle Yugoslavia. The decsion to destroy Yugoslavia as a country and carve it up into a number of small proxy states was taken by the Reagan adminstration in the early 1980s.
    A "Secret Sensitive" National Security Decision Directive (NSDD 133) entitled "US Policy towards Yugoslavia" (declassified) set the foreign policy framework for the destabilization of Yugoslavia's model of market socialism and the establishment of a US sphere of influence in Southeastern Europe.
    The record of US-NATO war crimes is important in assessing recent developments in Kosovo. Since 1999, State terrorism in Kosovo has become an integral part of NATO's design.
    The present government of prime minister Hashim Thaci (a former KLA Commander), is an outgrowth of this reign of terror. It is not a government in the common sense of the word. It remains a terrorist organization linked to organised crime. It is instrument of the foreign occupation.
 
    Once again the world's great powers are manoeuvring over the political fate of the Balkans. Russia's Deputy Prime Minister and expected successor to President Putin has vowed to support Serbia's claim to Kosovo.
    He said Kosovo's declaration of independence is "absolutely at variance with international law." "We proceed from the assumption that Serbia is a united country, whose jurisdiction covers the whole of its territory, and we shall stick to this principled stand."
 
    The latest country to find its place on the map is sending shockwaves around the world. Kosovo's independence will inevitably lead to separatist efforts by other dissatisfied territories around the world. Many, many other would-be countries and terrorist groups have all gained a new lease on "independence" from this latest Balkan intrigue.
 
Back to the future...
    According to a compelling lead article in the new Foreign Affairs, "Us and Them: The Enduring Power of Ethnic Nationalism," we may be witnessing in the Third World a re-enactment of the ethnic wars that tore Europe to pieces in the 20th century.
    "Ethnonationalism," writes history professor Jerry Z. Muller of Catholic University, "has played a more profound role in modern history than is commonly understood, and the processes that led to the dominance of the ethnonational state and the separation of ethnic groups in Europe are likely to recur elsewhere."
    "A familiar and influential narrative of 20th-century European history argues that nationalism twice led to war, in 1914 and then again in 1939. Thereafter, the story goes, Europeans concluded that nationalism was a danger and gradually abandoned it. In the post-war decades, Western Europeans enmeshed themselves in a web of transnational institutions, culminating in the European Union."
 
 
 
    Interior ministers of Saudi Arabia and France have signed a security agreement to combat terrorism, the official news agency reported Monday, amid the European country's efforts to take a higher profile in the Middle East.
    France has long-standing military cooperation accords with other countries in the Persian Gulf region, and a little over a month ago become one of the first Western countries other than the US to have a base in the Persian Gulf region.
 
    There is no doubt that if Palestine unilaterally declared independence many nations would recognize it, says Russia's Foreign Minister.
    He said that Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia could spur Palestinians into following suit. "Voices are starting to be heard saying that after the unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo we would proceed in the same way with a Palestinian state."
 
    Palestinian Authority President Abbas urged the US on Monday to make good on its promise to work for a Middle East peace settlement by the end of the year, warning that there would not be any future chances.
    If the Bush administration didn't make good on its pledge to "make 2008 the year to broker peace, then there will never be any future chances to achieve this goal."
 
    Israel and Palestinians will not reach a peace deal by the end of this year, and a recent Mideast peace conference in Annapolis was only "an exercise in public relations," Syria's ambassador to the US said Monday.
    He said President Bush has no real desire to broker a peace deal and that there are powerful forces within his administration who believe "chaos is constructive" in the Middle East.
 
    For several months now, the media has been reporting that Israel is angry at Egypt's behavior. After President Mubarak announced that red lines had been crossed and Egypt's Foreign Minister threatened that Egypt could have a negative influence on Israel's interests, Israeli officials ceased speaking on the record, but continued to attack Egypt anonymously, via unnamed "government officials."
    The obvious question is, what would Israel gain by destroying its relationship with Egypt, of all countries, and now, of all times, when Egypt is mediating the release of kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit?
    Has Israel stopped seeing the largest Arab state as a partner that could effect change in the Middle East and lead it in the direction of a comprehensive peace and a historic reconciliation? Does Israel intend from now on to rely on the emirate of Qatar rather than Egypt?
 
    Israel is at risk of an earthquake, according to Lloyd's of London, the world's largest so-called insurance market. "Israel is at risk from earthquake," Lloyd's chairman said in an interview with The Jerusalem Post Monday. "Just 10 days ago we were reminded of this when the strongest earthquake in a decade was felt across the country."
 
    Turkey's incursion into northern Iraq in pursuit of Kurdish rebels may have far-reaching consequences. As well as destabilizing Iraq's one peaceful region, the offensive could impact the Middle East and Europe.
 
    Even as the soldiers believed they had won the support of the local population, the Taliban had secretly returned to reclaim the home district of the group's revered leader, Mohammad Omar. It took only a few months for the Taliban to undermine nearly 6 years of intelligence work by US forces and almost 2 years of goodwill efforts by Dutch soldiers.
    In the year and a half since NATO took over southern Afghanistan from US forces, its mission has changed dramatically. Dispatched to the region to maintain newly restored order and help local Afghans reconstruct their shattered communities, Dutch and other troops from the alliance now find themselves on the front lines of a renewed fight with a more cunning and aggressive Taliban.
 
    Britain and America are being accused of meddling in Pakistan's politics by pressing its election winners not to remove President Musharraf after his allies' crushing electoral defeat.
 
    US officials are quietly planning to expand their presence in and around the lawless tribal areas of Pakistan by creating special coordination centers on the Afghan side of the border where US, Afghan, and Pakistani officials can share intelligence about Al Qaeda and Taliban militants, according to State Department and Pentagon officials.
 
    America is attempting to forge a strategic alliance with India with a series of arms deals as the South Asian nation bolsters its defences against China. Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, will arrive in New Delhi to strike a common position on Beijing with the Indian government.
    His arrival comes as New Delhi decides whether the US firms Lockheed Martin and Boeing, or Russian and European rivals, will win a contract to supply the Indian air force with 126 combat aircraft in a £5 billion deal.
    But the wider battle is for influence in Asia, with America seeking to shore up a tentative and controversial alliance with what it sees as a democratic counterweight to China.
 
    The US ruling elite has important interests at stake in Africa. It is a continent that occupies a strategic position in relation to the Middle East and contains vital mineral resources.
    Sudan is a significant producer of oil, which straddles the strategic Red Sea, the Maghreb, Central Africa and the Horn of Africa.
    Moreover, it has become a continent in which US hegemony is being challenged by the rise of China. Bush's inability to advance key US interests, therefore, points to a major crisis in US foreign policy in the wake of the debacle in Iraq and Afghanistan.
    The fact that Bush was not invited to any major African country demonstrates in particular that none of these governments dared be publicly associated with him or his Africom plan, which amounts to a bid to reassert colonial power over Africa.
    Bush's visit has done nothing to stem the growth of Chinese influence in Africa. His failure to do so poses the US ruling elite with a serious problem that, in the absence of a diplomatic solution, they will increasingly look to resolve by military means, as they have already attempted to do in Somalia. The US will not accept the eclipse of its power in Africa peacefully.
 
 
 
    Iran will finally sign a contract with China National Offshore Oil Corp this week to develop its northern Pars gas field. The Oil Ministry's news website said the contract will be signed on Wednesday and was believed to be worth about $16 billion without giving further details.
    The contract will mark the latest move by a Chinese firm into the Iranian energy market when the US is seeking to isolate Iran. China has in recent years expanded commercial ties with the Islamic Republic and has been reluctant to impose tough economic sanctions on Tehran. Iran is China's 3rd largest supplier of oil.
 
Good job Ahmad...
    Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has hailed Iran's "great victory" over its nuclear programme. He praised President Ahmadinejad's handling of the issue.
    "One example of an advance by the Islamic system has been the nuclear issue, in which the Iranian nation has honestly and seriously achieved a great victory. Those people who used to say Iran's nuclear activity must be dismantled are now saying we are ready to accept your advances, on condition that it will not continue indefinitely. This is a great advance that would not have been realised except with perseverance."
 
    The UN's nuclear watchdog has been told Iran may have continued secret work on nuclear weapons after 2003, the date US intelligence suggested the work ceased. Iran's ambassador to the IAEA, angrily dismissed the documentats as "forgeries".
 
    Iran's ambassador warned France to back off its tough stance on Teheran's nuclear program - suggesting there could be economic consequences for French firms doing business in Iran if the Islamic Republic comes under new international sanctions. He said it would be "regrettable" if France continues its "very hard" line and its "alignment with the Americans" over Teheran's nuclear ambitions.
 
    The US Treasury's top sanctions official is traveling to major Middle East financial centers to push them for more sanctions against Iran. Stuart Levey, undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, will visit the financial centers in Qatar, Bahrain, and the UAE this week to call for their support in imposing new sanctions.
 
    An Iranian diplomat has warned against raising non-nuclear issues at the IAEA and its secretariat. He told reporters that raising new topics, including the issue of missiles and explosives would run counter to the agency's responsibilities as stipulated in its charter.
    "We warn all member states of the IAEA not to act in a way that would get the agency involved with issues which have nothing to do with its prime responsibility."
 
 
 
    Doubts about the official version of the events of September 11th grows. The circumstantial evidence and even the substantial evidence itself paints a clear picture. The responsibility for the terrible attacks seems to lie not with Islamic Terrorists but with several high-ranking members of the military and administration of the US Government.
    This documentary focuses on the inconsistencies in the official version of the events as well as on the evidence which has been suppressed regarding September 11th. In addition, it answers the questions of why we still know nothing about it to this day and why we are being deceived – also in Europe.
 
    Every Republican I've spoken to is mystified that John McCain has sewn up the Republican nomination. For his entire career, he has been more statist on both domestic and foreign policy than even the typical Republican.
    He has been considered a "liberal," and not in a good sense. He doesn't share any of the values that are said to make up the Republican consensus on economics or culture or religion. His personal baggage is heavy and a mile long. He had no dedicated constituency within the party.
    It comes down to one thing only: the simple-minded, unthinking impression that he is a war hero and, more than anyone else, has what it takes to smash the evil foreign peoples who want to kill us. In short, he appeals to the militaristic, nationalistic impulses of the base Republican base.
 
    Montana officials are warning that if the Supreme Court rules in the D.C. gun ban case that the right to keep and bear arms protects only state-run militias like the National Guard, then the federal government will have breached Montana's statehood contract.
    Nobody is raising flags for the Republic of Montana, but nobody is kidding, either. So far, 39 elected Montana officials have signed a resolution declaring that a court ruling of the 2nd Amendment is a right of states and not of individuals would violate Montana's compact.
    "The US would do well to keep its contractual promise to the states that the 2nd Amendment secures an individual right now as it did upon execution of the statehood contract."
    The dispute goes back more than a century. Back in 1889, the settlers of the Montana territory struck a deal with the federal government: They agreed to join the union, and the government agreed that individuals had the right to bear arms.
 
Roman paganism vs. Protesting paganism...
    The infusion of newcomers, especially Spanish-speaking immigrants, has kept the American Catholic Church from joining other mainline denominations in dramatic decline, according to a study released by the Pew Forum on Religion & American Life.
    Pew's US Religious Landscape Survey also found that the US is on the verge of becoming a minority Protestant country, or barely 51%. However, the nation is still an overwhelmingly Christian nation, with 78.4%.
 
 
 
    The economic bubble that lifted the stock market to dizzying heights was sustained as much by cheap oil as by cheap (often fraudulent) mortgages. Likewise, the collapse of the bubble was caused as much by costly (often imported) oil as by record defaults on those improvident mortgages.
    Oil, in fact, has played a critical, if little commented upon, role in America's current economic enfeeblement -- and it will continue to drain the economy of wealth and vigor for years to come.
 
    The surge in the price of oil is set to unleash a tsunami of petrodollars onto financial markets, according to Morgan Stanley. With the price of crude oil skirting the $100-a-barrel mark, strategists at the investment bank reckon as much as $2 trillion of petrodollars earned by the world's oil exporters will need to be invested this year.
 
    The US Federal Reserve Board last week cut its US economic growth forecast for 2008 and upped its estimate of inflation. The US central bank does not expect the US economy to normalize until 2011, according to the projections it released last Wednesday.
    The European Commission also cut its 2008 Eurozone growth forecast. The Commission's projection for Eurozone core inflation was revised upwards drastically.
    The parallel movement of economic variables in the US and the Eurozone refutes claims that Europe had been "decoupled" from US economic problems. It is becoming increasingly clear that no part of the world is immune from a deepening financial crisis that first erupted in the US last August.
    The US is the world's largest importer, and a collapse in US demand would create an overcapacity crisis in the rest of the world. Moreover, by some estimates, over half of US subprime-backed debt was exported.
    The US central bank is pumping liquidity into financial markets, despite the dangerous implications for inflation and the position of the US dollar on world currency markets, in an attempt to prevent a potentially catastrophic banking crisis.
 
    The dollar's depreciation against major currencies, then against all world currencies, imposes a burden on the world economy. It preoccupies the political and economic strategies in the developed world, in emerging nations, and in oil-exporting countries.
    Expectations by the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, major central banks, and other economic analysts indicate that the American currency will continue to depreciate, at least until the end of the current year.
 
     Alan Greenspan has said that inflation rates in Gulf states, which are reaching near record levels, would fall "significantly" if oil producers dropped their US dollar pegs. Speaking at an investment conference in Saudi Arabia, he said the pegs restrict the region's ability to control inflation by forcing them to duplicate US monetary policy at a time when the Fed is cutting rates to ward off an economic downturn.
 
    The US supports a plan for the International Monetary Fund to sell part of its gold reserves to shore up the multilateral institution's finances. The Bush administration sees the proposed sale of 12.9 million ounces of gold as "probably the most viable" option to ensure the long-term funding of the IMF. Proceeds would be used for an interest-bearing endowment.
 
    The European Union is taking a "softly-softly" approach this week to try and curb the power of sovereign wealth funds. But if these state-backed investment pools refuse to play nicely, the long arm of the law could be right around the corner.
    So why all the fuss? Part of it is down to old-fashioned politics. The funds currently making the headlines come from places like China, Russia and the Middle East, which are rather more opaque politically and have varying degrees of political closeness to Europe.
    According to a Global Insight analyst, this explains why Germany, in particular, is so concerned about sovereign wealth funds. "Merkel is especially suspicious of Russia's motives, given its geopolitical behavior and her own personal experience behind the Iron Curtain."
 
Lay-off the meat and gambling, damn it!...
    The world is only 10 weeks away from running out of wheat supplies after stocks fell to their lowest levels for 50 years. The crisis has pushed prices to an all-time high and could lead to further hikes in the price of bread, beer, biscuits and other basic foods.
    It could also exacerbate serious food shortages in developing countries especially in Africa. The crisis comes after 2 successive years of disastrous wheat harvests.
    Experts blame climate change as heatwaves caused a slump in harvests last year in eastern Europe, Canada, Morocco and Australia, all big wheat producers. Booming populations and a switch to a meat-rich diet in the developing world also mean that about 110m tons of the world's annual wheat crop is being diverted to feed livestock.
    Short term pressures have compounded the problem. Speculative buying by investors gambling on further price rises has further pushed up prices.
 
 
 
 
E-mail format for military: YAHOO! WARriors
Daily e-mail reminder: GOOGLE / YAHOO! / MSN
WAR fund: PayPal (payable to thedailywarrior@gmail.com)
 
 
Posted by at