Friday

The Daily WAR (13-21)

Reading between the lines, and thinking outside the box . . .
 
 
 
Tutto è tranquillo nella Casa di prostituzione...
 
 
 
 
    Germans are looking to the prospect of the last major Nazi trial, that of accused death camp guard John Demjanjuk, with weary resignation more than 60 years after a war few experienced first hand.
    "There's a widely held view we should draw a line under this chapter of the past," said Bernd Wagner from Berlin's Center for Democratic Culture.
    "The share of Germans who, in the 3rd generation, want to draw a line under the past and not deal with the guilt question all the time has increased massively over past years," said Klaus-Peter Schoeppner, head of pollsters Emnid.
 
    Germany's Social Democrats will launch their election campaign Sunday. By steering to the left and attacking Angela Merkel, the party wants to score big with voters.
    Its strategy will also force the conservatives to inch leftward. In the midst of a global downturn in which stimulus is the buzzword of the day, economic prudence could take a backseat.
 
    German feelings for the American president have oscillated from love to hate down the years.
    But is Obamamania just as dangerous as animosity towards Bush?
    It's time for Germany to step off its collective and primal emotions and engage in a sober friendship with Washington.
 
    The leadership of the far-Right Alliance for the Future of Austria has picked Josef Bucher as the new head of the party, whose leader died in a car crash last year.
 
 
 
Back to the future!...
    Is Europe headed for a new Middle Ages (characterized by international political instability and endless wars)? On the basis of some disquieting signs, I should say it is indeed.
    Politically, it seems to be in the midst of a process of further disintegration.
    What we see happening in Europe is the inexorable breakdown of national states, the unstoppable erosion of the legitimacy of the state (that cannot even protect its own citizens), and the citizens voting with their feet.
    The only thing we are waiting for is the return of chivalry and the power and influence of the Church.
    I am afraid Europe will be an unsafe place for many, many years to come. The New Middle Ages have arrived!
 
    Nicholas Sarkozy, the talkative and not infrequently tactless French president, has once again been robustly, awkwardly blunt.
    This time those whom he has insulted are some of his most important international allies, and they might have a different sense of humour to the politically incorrect man on the street.
 
    Russia could face economic chaos and even revolution unless the government acts swiftly to reform and relax political restrictions, former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov said on Thursday.
    "It will happen in reality in a period of one year, but if the financial crisis races, it will be in a shorter period. This scenario would lead to social crisis. We are against any revolutions, but this situation, this policy would lead Russia to such a development as revolution."
 
    Russian special services disclosed monstrous designs of international terrorist network al-Qaeda.
    The organization intended to conduct a series of terrorist attacks in Russia during the celebration of the Orthodox Easter.
 
 
 
    Obama's visit to Turkey confirmed that the US plans to build up Turkey as a regional outpost, to play the role of policeman to secure US interests in the Caucasus, the Middle East and Central Asia.
    The US policy poses grave dangers to the masses in Turkey and the surrounding region.
 
    Mark Weber critically examines Zionism as an ideology and social-political movement.
    He reviews its origins and history, including the little-known story of Zionist collaboration with Third Reich Germany during the 1930s.
 
    Police beefed up security in Jerusalem's Old City on Thursday following reports that Jewish extremists planned to rally on the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound as Muslims holds prayers there.
    Over recent days, Jewish extremists have urged Jews to gather at the site which they claimed is being "desecrated" by Muslims, Israeli media reported.
    The Islamic Movement in Israel responded with a call on Muslims to rally in defence of Al-Aqsa Mosque.
 
    Israel's foreign minister has given clear signals to the US that their plans for peace with Palestinians will not include making concessions to create a new state.
    Avigdor Lieberman told the US Middle East envoy Thursday that trade-offs had, in the past, caused wars and said Israel needed to find a "new approach."
 
    Obama will move to create a Palestinian state "more quickly than anybody could imagine." At least that's the message the Palestinian Authority claims it received from the US.
    "They (the US team) told us: 'We don't mind who is the government in Israel. Things will be closed (for a Palestinian state) and more quickly than anybody could imagine.'"
 
    Prime Minister Netanyahu told visiting US envoy George Mitchell that his government would condition talks over Palestinian statehood on the Palestinians first recognizing Israel as a Jewish state.
    "Israel expects the Palestinians to first recognize Israel as a Jewish state before talking about two states for 2 peoples."
 
    The Obama administration has decided to base its approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on an Arab "peace" initiative, according to a source in Prime Minister Netanyahu's government.
    Defenders of Israel warn the so-called "Arab Peace Initiative" in its full form would leave the Jewish state with truncated, difficult-to-defend borders and could threaten Israel's Jewish character by compelling it to accept millions of foreign Arabs.
 
    A senior Saudi Arabian al Qaeda operative has called on Somali jihadists to step up their attacks on "crusader" forces at sea in the pirate-infested Gulf of Aden, and on land in neighboring Djibouti, which hosts France's largest military base in Africa.
    "The crusaders, the Jews and the traitorous rulers did not come to the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Aden except to wage war against you in Somalia and abolish your newly established emirate, and by Allah, they shall be defeated. They shall bring a curse upon their people."
 
    One of the best kept secrets in the international media these days is the link between the US, Ethiopia and the Somali pirates.
 
    Warships from several countries have been sent to patrol the Indian Ocean, as the pirates are threatening some of the world's busiest shipping lanes.
 
    In the 2 1/2 months since that piece appeared, Obama and his advisors have, in fact, doubled-down on what is increasingly the Af-Pak War — with the expanding fighting in Pakistan's tribal borderlands helping to destabilize that regional nuclear power.
    As a result, it would hardly be surprising if "Obama's Vietnam" became an ever more common refrain in the year ahead.
 
    Pakistan came perilously close last month to a political breakdown that could have triggered a military coup, the Washington Post has claimed.
 
    A growing number of US intelligence, defense and diplomatic officials have concluded that there's little hope of preventing nuclear-armed Pakistan from disintegrating into fiefdoms controlled by Islamist warlords and terrorists.
    "Pakistan has 173 million people and 100 nuclear weapons, an army which is bigger than the American army, and the headquarters of al-Qaida sitting in two-thirds of the country which the government does not control. The implications of this are disastrous for the US."
 
    While the insurgents often get labeled as the "Taliban," in reality there are several groups fighting the Afghan government and Western forces, and they often act independently of one another and have distinct command structures, ideologies, and strategies.
 
 
    Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak asked Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Saltanov yesterday to prevent his country from selling advanced anti-aircraft missiles to Iran.
 
    These outrageous threats of resorting to criminal and terrorist acts against a sovereign country and a Member of the United Nations, not only display the aggressive and warmongering nature of the Zionist regime, but also constitute blatant violations of international law and the most fundamental principles of the Charter of the United Nations, and require a clear and resolute response on the part of the United Nations, particularly the Security Council.
 
 
 
    America has never been a Christian nation. It is a semantical, theological impossibility for a nation to be "Christian."
    Without a doubt America was founded on biblical principles, but lacking a New Testament mandate, and given its manmade origin, the nation our founders created can never be called "Christian."
 
    An estimated 1 million Americans participated in at least 1,000 tea parties, according to reports by organizers tabulating the nationwide numbers, with documented protests held in 50 states.
(Cartoons: TEA PARTIES)
 
    The Department of Homeland Security is warning "law enforcement officials" about a rise in "rightwing extremist activity," but a footnote in this report by the Homeland Security Office of Intelligence and Analysis defines rightwing extremism as "including not just racist or hate groups, but also groups that (don't miss this part) reject federal authority in favor of state or local authority."
    If I'm interpreting this correctly, this report is going after anyone who dares to question federal authority.
    In addition, this report was sent to police and sheriff's departments all over the country. This is after thousands of combat troops have taken up permanent residence as domestic police, with thousands more on the way.
    This sounds like nothing more than a recipe for tyranny.
 
    Speaking at one of many "tea party" protests held throughout the country, Texas Gov. Rick Perry touched on a theme that could, I believe, prefigure a growing trend in American politics – and, indeed, throughout the world.
    Regardless of whether one endorses or disdains the Governor's particular complaints against the federal government, the point is that bigness – in the world of nation-states, as well as finance – is out, and smallness is in.
    As much as the know-it-all pundits will mock Perry's raising of the Texas flag, a serious secession movement in the US, based on regionalist sentiment, is not all that hard to imagine.
    A nation is, after all, more than a state: it derives its identity from a common culture, one that is largely shared by all citizens, including not only language but a certain mindset rooted in custom and economic convenience.
    However, when this cohesion is lacking longstanding allegiances are called into question and old bonds begin to dissolve.
 
    The American foreign policy debate usually is about what the country should do, rather than what it can do.
    What it can do is usually assumed to be anything Washington wants to do, since we are the most powerful nation the world has even seen.
 
    With his trip to the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago, Obama is attempting to put a new face on American imperialism's pursuit of its strategic interests in Latin America, a region where the US once asserted unchallenged hegemony.
    Meanwhile, the European Union has emerged as the largest source of foreign direct investment in Latin America and has forged its own trade agreements with almost every country in the region.
    US imperialism, which got its start in Latin America, cannot accept such challenges without a fight.
    Obama's rhetoric about a "new day" in US-Latin American relations notwithstanding, the logic of economic interests points to the region becoming the arena for an ever more ferocious struggle between the major powers.
 
 
 
    It's going to be a real disaster.
    The current administration's economic strategy will create an unmitigated disaster – not only our country's worst financial calamity, but the greatest economic disaster in recorded history.
 
    The International Monetary Fund has warned of "worrisome parallels" between the current global crisis and the Great Depression, despite the unprecedented steps already taken by central banks and governments worldwide.
    The head of the IMF said millions of people risk being pushed back into poverty as the economic storm ravages the most vulnerable countries. "The human consequences could be absolutely devastating. This is a truly global crisis, and nobody is escaping."
 
    Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, sees "green shoots." President Obama sees "glimmers of hope." And the stock market has been on a tear.
    So is it time to sound the all clear? Here are 4 reasons to be cautious about the economic outlook.
 
    The number of people receiving jobless benefits exceeded 6 million for the first time, the government reported Thursday, and housing construction unexpectedly plunged to its 2nd-lowest level on record — fresh evidence that the recession is far from over.
 
    At a time when most retailers are begging for customers, 2nd-hand shops are thriving as the laid-off, and those worried they will be, turn to them for less expensive clothes, furniture and household items.
    But many thrift shops are also running low on merchandise as fewer people are able to donate.
 
 
 
    A new You Tube video getting a lot of attention highlights concerns that the "You" is being phased out of YouTube, as individual users are sidelined by regulation and censorship in favor of corporate domination of the popular video website, an eventuality that we first warned about years ago.
 
    Liberals have rarely understood the appeal of the western, nor have they understood the people who like westerns, i.e., most Americans.
 
    The first formation of 2009 has occurred once again in Wiltshire, not far from the Ancient Standing Stones of Avebury.
 
Calm before the storm?!...
    Last month, I posted an article about the current, highly unusual sunspot cycle after being alerted by a friend pursuing a PhD in solar physics.
    At that time, the sun had no sunspots ... and it still doesn't.
 
    Orthodox Christian clergymen and pilgrims are marking Good Friday in Jerusalem's Old City.
    Protestants and Roman Catholics marked Good Friday last week. But members of Orthodox Christian churches follow a different calendar.
 
 
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