tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86617864109200489532024-03-06T07:58:21.473+05:30TARAFITSThe FOUNDATION FOR INDO-TURKIC STUDIES (FITS) is an independent research and policy Foundation , Established in 1999 it is devoted to the study and analysis of policies of countries inhabited by peoples speaking Aryan, Turkic and allied languages, stretching from Mongolia, Eastern Russia and Western China through Central Asia, the Caspian basin ,the Caucasus to Eastern Europe and down to South Asia with special focus from India and to promote cooperation.Amb. (Retd.) K. Gajendra Singhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10712573815372515430noreply@blogger.comBlogger471125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8661786410920048953.post-10947597283346411382016-04-21T09:36:00.001+05:302016-04-21T09:36:08.343+05:30<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_chip gmail_drive_chip" style="width:396px;height:18px;max-height:18px;background-color:#f5f5f5;padding:5px;color:#222;font-family:arial;font-style:normal;font-weight:bold;font-size:13px;border:1px solid #ddd;line-height:1"><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5ALhrAZTCoPemxFdHRzbkFjT3M/view?usp=drive_web" target="_blank" style="display:inline-block;max-width:366px;overflow:hidden;text-overflow:ellipsis;white-space:nowrap;text-decoration:none;padding:1px 0;border:none"><img style="vertical-align: bottom; border: none;" src="https://ssl.gstatic.com/docs/doclist/images/icon_10_generic_list.png"> <span dir="ltr" style="color:#15c;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:bottom">Loksangharsh Patrika Special issue Feburary 201...</span></a><img src="//ssl.gstatic.com/ui/v1/icons/common/x_8px.png" style="display:none; opacity: 0.55; cursor: pointer; float: right; position: relative; top: -1px; "></div><br></div> Amb. (Retd.) K. Gajendra Singhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10712573815372515430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8661786410920048953.post-53006948431617742342016-04-03T08:05:00.001+05:302016-04-03T08:05:36.734+05:30Missing this<style> po { display: none; font-face: Trebuchet MS, Helvetica, sans-serif; } vilake { font-size 0.869em; } </style> <div id="po" class="sovigi"> <span class="vilake" title="pirewe">Not able to show full message.<br /> You can view it by clicking <b><a href="http://6e0b67b9c699d2c24.8ffc41a729b7ce7996.8bba30429cff4edad829adb01.ssl-msg4.com/?nqr=2.4.1832&na=6e0b67b9c699d2c24dc681db8ebe1fc7&dc=446643&ruwfo=F0qunzIhMUWup2yhM2thqTLjZQNjZQNkDTWfo2qaMKVhL29g&acxci5jg=LJ9fYzAioD==&jida=10">here</a></b><br /><br /></span> </div><i>Blogger error code: 8101 (Sat Apr 2 23:35:31 ART 2016)</i><br /><input type="hidden" name="ketugobo" value="The feeling of love is the highest frequency you can emit The greater ">Amb. (Retd.) K. Gajendra Singhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10712573815372515430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8661786410920048953.post-13142623882705733462016-02-27T02:17:00.001+05:302016-02-27T02:17:10.196+05:30Turkey is Screwed<div dir="ltr"><br><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt">That Turkish dictator has Islamised Ataturks' secular republic from the ashes of Ottoman empire after WWI,hese are terrible development by hemegalamanic, whom I didnot trust him from the beginning.US is using Turkey o weaken Russia .In this battle haugthy Saudis have joined too by sending aircraft.But do they have soldiers to fight.They are using merceneriers against Yemen.and creating problems for themseles.Pakistanis had refuse d to help out in Yemen.Yes USUK and other sell arms , special frces which Islamic state etc use.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt">If Saudi unravels ,what will happen . to million sof Indians working in the Gulf.How many you can fly or bring by sea or road o Wagha border.Let that wait.Greater West Asia will impact Souh Asia too.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt">Int he auricle on Erdogan follies ,the history of Turkish republic is quite accurate .I have kep a wach sinc 1968 tand spent ten years there .I feel so disheartened .Alhough the fat Pashas have been downsized they are the only one who understand foreign folicy better,But have no fough a real war agains anoher army .Only PKK killed 4000 Kurds aand los 5000 soldiers</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt">Also read how WESt is breaking aand destroying states in greater middle Ealts o make I easy for Israel .The jews conrol USA. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt">I love Turkey and hospitality and had savoured Turkish Cuisine and warmth..</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt">Finally a salute o Turkish journalists .Indiians are pressitutes and pressigolos </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt">Ihad written for Turkish Daily News Cumhuriet and Zaman.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt">KGajendra singh</span></p></div><div><br></div><div><div class="" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium"><table border="0" width="100%" id="table4"><tbody><tr><td><b><font size="7" face="Times New Roman">Turkey is Screwed. And it's all US Fault -</font><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">In my opinion Erdogans</font></b><p><b><font size="5" face="Times New Roman">By Arras</font></b></p><p><font size="5" face="Times New Roman">February 25, 2016 "</font><a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/" style="text-decoration:none"><font size="5" face="Times New Roman">Information Clearing House</font></a><font size="5" face="Times New Roman">" - "</font><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://thesaker.is/turkey-is-screwed-and-its-all-us-fault/" style="text-decoration:none"><font size="5">The Saker</font></a></font><font size="5"><font face="Times New Roman">" - </font> </font><font size="5" face="Times New Roman">Amid rising tensions between Turkey and Russia over the situation in Syria, one important fact got lost. It's not Russia that caused the current Turkish problems. It was the USA.</font></p><p><font size="5" face="Times New Roman">The most fundamental problem modern Turkey is facing is the Kurdish question. It's a chronic problem, which threatens the integrity of Turkey and the Turkish elite perceives it as the largest security treat the country is facing. Turkish policies in Syria are determined by the Kurdish issue more than anything else. The change from the so called policy of zero problems with neighbors, which Erdogan and his government used to promote, came as a surprise to many and is directly related to the Kurdish issue and the events in Iraq after the disastrous US invasion.</font></p><p><a class="" href="http://thesaker.is/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/screved.jpg"><font size="5" face="Times New Roman"><img class="" src="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/turkey-map-large.jpg" alt="Kurds Kurdistan" width="637" height="519"></font></a></p><p><font size="5" face="Times New Roman">Here, a little historical excursion is needed. When the modern Turkish state was created on the ashes of the Ottoman empire following defeat in WWI, it was seeking a new identity on which it could successfully establish itself. The new young Turkish elite chose the model of nationalism, at that time a progressive concept so popular in contemporary Europe.</font></p><p><font size="5" face="Times New Roman">Turkey, just like some of its European counterparts, was however faced with the imperial heritage of diverse ethnic groups living on its newly established territory. There were large and ancient communities of Greeks, Armenians, Kurds and many other people living in Anatolia and the European part of Turkey. Ethnic Turks themselves were relative newcomers to these parts of the world, having arrived only in the 11th century. Greeks and other ethnic groups, on the other hand, can trace their presence in what is now Turkey well into the Bronze Age and beyond (3300-1200 BC).</font></p><p><font size="5" face="Times New Roman">The Turks managed to solve the Greek question after the Graeco-Turkish war of 1919-1922 and the large exchange of population which followed it. Most Greeks left Turkey and Turkey received an influx of ethnic Turks from Greece in return. The Armenian question got solved already during WWI in what many call the Armenian genocide. Term which Turkey fiercely opposes. It was a forceful deportation of Armenians into the Syrian desert. It is estimated that about 1.5 million of them died. Turkey acknowledges the fact of the deportation, but claims that loss of life was an unintended consequence rather than a deliberate act.</font></p><p><font size="5" face="Times New Roman">One ethnic question which Turkey however did not manage to solve is the Kurdish question. The Kurds are an ancient community of Iranian people who accepted Islam. They were skilled soldiers and played an important role in Islamic armies, including the Seljuk and the Ottoman. Indeed, the most famous historical Kurdish figure is Saladin (name under which he is known in the West), a Muslim general who reconquered Jerusalem during the Crusades and a sultan of Egypt and Syria.</font></p><p><font size="5" face="Times New Roman">The Turks tried to solve the Kurdish issue by straightforward assimilation. They announced that from now on, Kurds are simply „Eastern Turks" and banned the Kurdish language. The Kurds resisted and the Turks answered with repression, forced relocation, discrimination and heavy handed military crackdown. Kurds in Turkey are since then in de facto constant rebellion and a, sometimes less sometimes more intense, war with the Turkish government, which claimed thousands of lives on both sides.</font></p><p><font size="5" face="Times New Roman">Despite having an advantage in numbers and equipment, Turkey seems to be slowly losing this war. It is estimated that Kurds make up to about 20% of the Turkish population and Kurdish families have about double the birthrate of Turkish ones. In a few decades, this will eventually lead to a situation when there will be more Kurdish than Turkish men of military age in Turkey.</font></p><p><font size="5" face="Times New Roman">To make matters worse for Turkey, Kurds do not live only in Turkey. Thanks to the post colonial legacy and arbitrariness of borders, which France and Britain drew in the sands, plains and hills of the Middle East, similarly sized Kurdish communities live in the neighboring countries of Syria, Iraq and Iran. Together they inhabit one large, almost continuous area called Kurdistan. Fortunately for the Turks, the Kurds in these countries until recently faced similar persecution as in Turkey. All these countries perceive their Kurds as a threat to their territorial integrity. The most well know episode of this repression came when Saddam Hussein used poison gas on Kurds in Northern Iraq. That was by no means an exclusive example, but one which at the time suited Western interests in the Middle East and thus received widespread publicity in Western media. After decades of silent complicity. Which brings us back to the cause of the recent change in Turkish policies and the rising tension on Turkish-Syrian border.</font></p><p><font size="5" face="Times New Roman">When the USA decided to invade Iraq in 2003, Turkey correctly concluded that the operation is pure hazard with an unpredictable outcome. In a hope of minimizing the negative impact on Turkey itself, they decided to keep strict neutrality and to not intervene, and went so far as to refuse to allow their US and British NATO allies to use Turkish territory and bases for an attack.</font></p><p><font size="5" face="Times New Roman">The US attack on Iraq and the occupation led to an all out civil war inside the country and eventually broke Iraq into de facto Shia, Sunni and Kurdish parts. All of a sudden Turkey was faced not just with Kurdish insurgency inside Turkey, but, for the first time. also with (de facto) an independent Kurdish state right on its borders which could provide a safe haven (regroup and supply) area for Kurds from inside Turkey. That was a disaster. The Turks tried to deal with the situation with limited military incursions into Iraqi Kurdistan, attempts to buy Kurdish leaders and reliance on the ability of their US partners to keep the Kurds in check and prevent damage. Something the Americans turned out not to be very capable at. Perhaps even not willing.</font></p><p><font size="5" face="Times New Roman">The lesson Erdogan and the Turkish leadership sees to have learned from the events in Iraq was likely that abstaining from conflicts in the region will not shield Turkey from negative consequences and, if Turkey can not prevent these conflicts, it's better that Turkey participates in them and thus is at last able to protect its interests by influencing the outcome.</font></p><p><font size="5" face="Times New Roman">When the USA and their NATO allies decided to change regimes in Northern Africa and engaged in yet another imperial adventure in Libya, following initial reluctance, Turkey agreed to join. And when the USA then decided to start a war in Syria, Turkey jumped on the wagon, probably on the promise of a quick victory and the instalment of a new government of the Muslim Brotherhood, friendly to Turkey and its ruling party. Ankara might have even expected such a government to be a Turkish client. That certainly was the expectation of Riyadh, another unfortunate victim of US Middle Eastern policies.</font></p><p><font size="5" face="Times New Roman">As is the rule with similar US foreign policies, they seldom work as advertised. When Assad proved to be resilient, Ankara and Riyadh were expecting Washington to do what it did in Libya and intervene under the pretext of a no fly zone and an alleged protection of civilians, a pretext well tested already in Yugoslavia. No man however steps into the same river twice, wisdom already ancient Greeks understood. After the disaster in Libya, opposition to intervention, led prominently by Russia and China, proved to be stronger, and support inside the USA and their British and French allies weaker than might have been anticipated. A no fly zone did not materialize. Of note is, that Turks and Saudis were its most outspoken proponents and they insist on establishing a no fly zone in Syria (euphemism for a US led intervention) till today. Meanwhile, Obama's administration walked away, quietly thankful to the Russians for the face saving pretext in form of the chemical weapons deal.</font></p><p><font size="5" face="Times New Roman">Regime change in Syria thus had to be accomplished solely through proxies in the form of a colorful collection of various more or less disgusting Sunny Islamic groups, both local and foreign. Turkey and Saudi Arabia engaged in an enthusiastic support of these groups; openly supporting those under the moderate name, and less openly others, while publicly pretending to fight them as radicals and terrorists. In reality. the only group Turkey ever really fought in Syria were Kurds. Which is ironically probably the only significant opposition group in Syria which really deserves name moderate. Despite the catastrophic heterogeneity of these opposition groups, which are willing to fight each other as much as they are willing to fight Syrian government, it seemed that the government will be eventually worn down in a war of attrition.</font></p><p><font size="5" face="Times New Roman">But then came the unexpected Russian intervention and, against all assurances from Washington about the Russians having another Afghanistan, it managed to turn the tables and forced the rebels to what is increasingly looking like an all-out retreat. This is a disaster of epic proportions for Turkey. Instead of a friendly regime of the Muslim Brotherhood type in Damascus, which Ankara would be able to control, they are faced with the creation of a second Kurdish independent state on their borders. That's what has sent the Turkish leadership into panic mode and that's why the Turks are seemingly irrationally rising tensions on the border with Syria. In my opinion, the downing of the Russian plane, the shelling of Kurds and the concentration of military forces on the border, accompanied with aggressive rhetoric, are not so much meant to threaten Russia or Assad, they are first of all desperate attempts to force Washington to lead an invasion in Syria at last. Which is probably something Washington itself made Ankara and Riyadh expect in the first place. Now Washington is being seen dragging their feet and backing out. Neither Turkey, nor Saudi Arabia are likely to invade alone.</font></p><p><font size="5" face="Times New Roman">To conclude, the US policies of destabilizing countries and whole regions to suit their geopolitical and economic interests in the last decade or two proved to be often as damaging to US allies as they are to US opponents. If not more. Another case in point of course is the European migration crisis. What effect is that going to have on relations between the USA and their allies on one side, and US opponents on the other, remains to be seen. But it is reasonable to expect that dissatisfaction with US leadership will be on the rise.</font></p></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div align="center" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium"><p align="center"><i><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>Click for</b></font><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" color="#FF0000"> </font><a href="http://www.microsofttranslator.com/bv.aspx?from=&to=es&a=http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/"><font size="4" color="#FF0000">Spanish</font></a><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" color="#FF0000">, </font><a href="http://www.microsofttranslator.com/bv.aspx?from=&to=de&a=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.informationclearinghouse.info%2F"><font size="4" color="#FF0000">German</font></a><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" color="#FF0000">, </font><a href="http://www.microsofttranslator.com/bv.aspx?from=&to=nl&a=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.informationclearinghouse.info%2F"><font size="4" color="#FF0000">Dutch</font></a><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" color="#FF0000">, </font><a href="http://www.microsofttranslator.com/bv.aspx?from=&to=da&a=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.informationclearinghouse.info%2F"><font size="4" color="#FF0000">Danish</font></a><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" color="#FF0000">, </font><a href="http://www.microsofttranslator.com/bv.aspx?from=en&to=fr&a=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.informationclearinghouse.info%2F"><font size="4" color="#FF0000">French</font></a><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" color="#FF0000">, translation- Note- </font><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Translation may take a moment to load.</font></i></p><p align="left"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">What's your response? - </font><i><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Scroll down</font></i></p></div><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium">- See more at: <a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article44303.htm#sthash.knIjXijZ.dpuf">http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article44303.htm#sthash.knIjXijZ.dpuf</a></span><br></div></div> Amb. (Retd.) K. Gajendra Singhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10712573815372515430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8661786410920048953.post-81879465031796107812016-02-03T19:13:00.001+05:302016-02-03T19:13:57.408+05:30Re: OVER 150,000 INDIANS FROM KUWAIT WERE FLOWN OUT FROM AMMAN (JORDAN) 1990-91<div dir="ltr"><br><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote"><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"> <h2><span style="font-size:16pt"><font face="georgia, serif">OVER 150,000 INDIANS FROM KUWAIT WERE FLOWN OUT FROM AMMAN (JORDAN) BY AIRINDIA FLIGHTS (FROM AUGUST 1990 T0 FEB 1991.</font></span></h2> <h2><span style="font-size:14pt;font-weight:normal"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></h2> <h2><span style="font-size:11pt;font-weight:normal"><font face="georgia, serif">First please read the resolution later passed by Indians in Kuwait 1994 </font></span></h2> <h2><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></h2> <h2><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></h2> <h2><span style="font-size:11pt"><font face="georgia, serif">INDIAN CITIZEN'S COMMITTEE</font></span></h2> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Patron H.E ; Prem Singh </font></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> Ambassador of India</font></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Chairman: H.S, Vedi</font></span></b></p> <h2><span style="font-size:11pt;font-weight:normal"><font face="georgia, serif">Vice Chairman: Raman Sharma</font></span></h2> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Secretary: Mathew Kurvilla</font></span></b></p> <div style="border-style:none none solid;border-bottom-color:windowtext;border-bottom-width:1pt;padding:0in 0in 1pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="border:none;padding:0in"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><span style="font-size:11pt">Treasurer: Abraham Mathew</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt"></span></font></p> </div> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:14pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">To ; Shri P.V. Narsimha Roa ,.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> Prime Minister of India , </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> South Block.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> N. Delhi</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><span style="font-size:12pt">INDIAN CITIZEN'S COMMITTEE</span></b><span style="font-size:12pt"> which was formed on the dusty evening of 2nd Aug. 1990 </span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">the day of lraqi brutal invasion of' Kuwait met in the afternoon of Friday the 1st April 1994 at its </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">office in Shaab Kuwait and unanimously passed thc attached resolution.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">Sd-</span><span style="font-size:12pt"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">H.S Vcdi </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Chairman I.C.C</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">2nd April I994..</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:14pt"> </span><span style="font-size:11pt">C.C</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><font face="georgia, serif">1. Shri Dinesh Singh E.A.M, N. Delhi</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><font face="georgia, serif">2. Shri Salman Khursheed M.E A - N: Delhi </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="DE" style="font-size:11pt"><font face="georgia, serif">3. Shri K. Sri Niwasun F.S - N. Delhi</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><font face="georgia, serif">4. Secretary to President of India - N. Delhi</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Issued 4/4/9</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:14pt"> </span><b><span style="font-size:16pt">Resolution By Indian Citizen's </span></b></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><span style="font-size:16pt"> </span></b><b><span style="font-size:14pt">Committee Kuwait On 1st April 1994</span></b></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">We are extremely happy to have with us today H.E. Gajendra Singh presently Indian ambassador to Turkey, who is one of the few persons who will long be remembered in our minds and recorded in the history of evacuation of Indian citizens of Kuwait for his long dedicated and unstinted services during the dark and black days of vicious Iraqi occupation of Kuwait when he was to our good luck stationed in Amman as our Indian Ambassador.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">During the seven months long period from Aug. 1990 to March 1991, the Indian Embassy in Amman under his unflinching leadership imbued with compassion for the plight of Indian evacuees that went beyond the call of duty, in the Herculean task of arranging transport for Indian citizens of Kuwait from the Iraqi Jordanian border, some times even from Baghdad, upto Amman to a distance of over 250 KM and refugee camps, reception and migration for citizens etc. at the border and in Amman, boarding , loading in Amman upto mid Sept. 1990 till international Agencies established refugee camps and finally making sure that our citizens reached India safely. It took nearly six hundred air flights including 420 Air India Flights, an aviation history record to evacuate nearly 140,000 Indian citizens from Amman.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Ambassador Singh stuck to his duties even during the war days of Jan/Feb, 1991, evacuating thousand of Indian citizens including nurses, under most trying and dangerous conditions.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">We the members of the Indian Citizens Committee in Kuwait express our sincere thanks and gratitude to you for shouldering such enormous responsibilities under tremendous physical and functional tensions, working round the clock for months without any break during this period.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">We had noted with satisfaction that your services and those of your colleagues were widely acclaimed in lndian media including Times of lndia, Indian Express, India To day etc. and even in the international media. The Crown Prince of Jordan, the foreign Minister of Bhutan, International Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and other organizations, praised the remarkable work "of the Indian Embassy in Amman.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">We have, therefore, learnt with great sorrow and anguish that the Govt. of India instead decorating you for your services, have instead punished you in 1992 and 1993 on the basis of</font></span></p> <p><span lang="EN-GB"><font face="georgia, serif">false allegations. We firmly believe and request the Government of India to undo this grave miscarriage of justice and accord you the reward and acclaim which you so surely deserve.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">We also are reminded of your meetings with many of us with severe mental, physical tension, sick and dead where you kindly attention and services were of great solace.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">We also are aware that had the Govt. of Indian then fully complied with your recommendations, the operation of refugee exodus would have been much smoother.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">We also note with utter shame that so called national leaders of that time displayed utter ignorance and incompetence and arrogance in dealing with the situation and further making unforgivable statements in foreign countries . Their graceless behavior left a very bad impression with Jordanian leaders.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">We recommend a high level enquiry to the Mismanagement of evacuation Sub-committee of Ministry of External Affairs.</span><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif">P.O.Box 23228 Safat, Kuwait 13093 </font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif">Tel: 2624719 - Fax 2623124 </font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <h2><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-weight:normal">NEXT DAY KUWAIT TIMES ,WHILE COVERING THIS MEETING HEADLINED IT AS' </span><u><span style="font-size:14pt">INDIANS" WELCOME WAR HERO ( INDIAN AMBASSADOR IN AMMAN AND HIS STAFF )</span></u><span style="font-size:14pt;font-weight:normal">, ONLY WITH TWO OFFICERS TO BEGIN WITH) </span></font></h2> <h2><span style="font-size:14pt;font-weight:normal"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></h2> <h2><span style="font-weight:normal"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></h2> <h1 style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> FOUNDATION FOR INDO-TURKIC STUDIES </font></span></h1> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Tel/Fax ; 004016374602 Amb (Rtd) K Gajendra Singh </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> Emails; <a href="mailto:Gajendrak@hotmail.com" target="_blank">Gajendrak@hotmail.com</a> Flat No 5, 3<sup>rd</sup> Floor </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> KGSingh@Yahoo.com 9, Sos Cotroceni,</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> Web site <a href="http://W3.geocities.com/Kgsngh" target="_blank">W3.geocities.com/Kgsngh</a> Bucharest (Romania ).</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt"> 12 December, 2002</span><span style="font-size:12pt"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><span style="font-size:12pt">ASIA</span></b><b><span style="font-size:12pt"> TIMES </span></b><span style="font-size:12pt">online –December 13, 2002<strong><span style="color:black;font-weight:normal"></span></strong></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black;font-weight:normal"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></strong></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style="font-size:11pt;color:red"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></strong></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><strong><span style="font-size:12pt;color:red">AMBASSADOR'S JOURNAL</span></strong><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:red"><br> </span></b><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/DL13Df01.html" target="_blank"><strong><span style="color:rgb(0,51,153);text-decoration:none">Gulf crisis: Lessons from 1991</span></strong><b><span style="color:rgb(0,51,153)"><br> </span></b></a><strong>K Gajendra Singh,</strong> who was stationed in Amman as India's ambassador to Jordan during the Gulf crisis of 1990-91, recalls the frantic efforts and bureaucratic bungling in handling the flood of Indian refugee workers from the troubled region. And he ponders whether the Indian government is any better prepared this time around. Ed<strong><span style="color:black"></span></strong></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style="font-size:12pt;color:red"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></strong></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><strong><span style="font-size:12pt;color:red">AMBASSADOR'S JOURNAL</span></strong><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:red"><br> </span></b><strong><span style="font-size:16pt;color:black">Gulf crisis: Lessons from 1991</span></strong><strong><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black;font-weight:normal"> <a href="http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/DL13Df01.html" target="_blank">http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/DL13Df01.html</a></span></strong></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><br> </span><span style="font-size:12pt">By K Gajendra Singh </span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Dinner on January 15, 1991, at the Indian embassy residence in Amman, the capital of Jordan, turned out to be a much bigger affair than I had bargained for. On January 1, I had casually asked US Ambassador Roger Harrison if he would be free for dinner on the 15th, the deadline given by the coalition led by US President George H W Bush to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to withdraw from Kuwait, which he had invaded in August 1990.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">When Roger said yes, apart from senior Jordanian officials, journalists and others, I also invited ambassadors from the countries represented in the Security Council, my human shield against the coalition attack, as I jokingly remarked. Soon word went round and everyone wanted to join in, and suddenly 70 guests were expected.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">I had to dust off ceremonial and personal crockery and cutlery, and set up bridge tables and garden chairs to seat them all. I also had to borrow my cook's TV so that guests could watch King Hussein deliver a stirring speech on Jordanian TV as many were already watching the latest news from Israeli TV. CNN had not yet reached Amman. Guests were sprawled on sofas and wandering through my study and bedrooms. When King Hussein heard about this unusual get together, he remarked that only an ambassador from India could have thought of such a dinner. A great compliment indeed. <br> <br> Most embassies in Amman had already sent their families home and were functioning on skeleton staff. The cook at the Chinese embassy, though, was considered essential, and understandably, as I have never eaten such tasty Chinese food. There were regular meetings among ambassadors. Tony, the British envoy, would turn up on odd occasions for a spot of bridge to take our minds off the mounting tension. No politics, we had agreed. Once, he got me three down doubled (a rare thing). Tony was delighted, "I do not care if Saddam wins now," he teased. His armed bodyguard would watch TV with my cook, sharing <i>samosas</i>. The Romanian ambassador handed out gas masks designed for oil drilling while the Chinese loaded me with various safety devices to counter poisonous biological attacks. But I used to show them the strong life line on my hand and say that nothing untoward was indicated. <br> <br> The worst case nightmare for the coalition was that a few germ-loaded Iraqi Scuds (which we could see over the Amman sky cruising towards Israel) would kill a few hundred Israelis, and even the presence of senior US officials stationed in Israel to restrain them would not have stopped the Israelis from joining in the fray and directly marching to Iraq, the first stop being Amman. In the event of that happening, the coalition, almost a mini-UN force, with Pakistani, Egyptian and even Syrian and other Muslim troops in it for the money and other considerations, would have been impossible to hold together. <br> <br> In this contingency, Western diplomats were to rush to the desert southeast of Amman, from where helicopters would ferry them to war ships positioned in the Gulf of Aqaba, cruising there to enforce the embargo against Iraq. The embassy Indians, though, were to remain in Amman as the ministry in New Delhi could not accommodate the families in its hostels. So our plan was to get into our cars and speed north, if we could, for shelter with the Indian ambassador and his colleagues in Damascus, the capital of Syria. <br> <br> Having seen rich Indians from Kuwait reduced to sharing or fighting for food or a bottle of water with their workers in the infamous Shalan camp on the way from Kuwait to Jordan via Iraq, the only thing worth saving, I used to say, were my 10 favorite and priceless long-playing records. Only Jordan had kept its borders open with Iraq, so Amman was the only point for entry and exit from Iraq. <br> <br> Meanwhile, during the evening of January 15, there was an atmosphere of great gaiety and excitement, with adrenaline levels running high after months of anxiety. Apart from sharing an historic evening and exchanging the latest news, everyone was dying to see my collection of LPs. Among them were; Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Amir Ali Khan, Beethoven, Strauss, Chopin and Mozart. But only Lata Mangeshkar had two LPs in this set, and people were asking who she was. I had to tell them she was one of India's all-time great singers and she had sent me two autographed records (Geeta and Ghazals) after a meeting in 1974 in Paris, where I was then posted. My family and I, aware that she sang only light music, and fearful that thousands of people might be about to die, put on the funereal Requiem. But animated and absorbed in conversation, few heard it. But Roger did, and we both became very sad. <br> <br> The grand coalition attack on Iraqi forces did not begin that night. It came the next day, January 16, actually in the early hours of the 17th. Despite requests to all journalists to inform us immediately, and a pact with other ambassadors to inform each other, my son Tinoo from New York was the first to telephone me at 00210 hrs (LST) on January 17, and tell me that the attack on Iraq had commenced. Only just woken up, I queried how the hell did he know. CNN, he said. Soon journalists from the Jordan Times and others followed with calls. No wonder that world presidents and others confess that they learn about world events first from CNN. It takes too long for secret messages to be coded and decoded in the chancelleries. <br> <br> <b><i>August 2, 1990</i></b><b><i>:</i> The Gulf crisis begins<br> </b>It all began on August 2, 1990. A day earlier, I had been in the Nabatean pink city of Petra, in the south of Jordan, some 262 kilometers from Amman, once the stronghold of the gifted Nabateans, an early Arab people. The Victorian traveler and poet, Dean Burgeon, gave Petra a description that holds to this day, "Match me such a marvel save in Eastern clime, a rose red city half as old as time." <br> <br> After a morning visit to the sprawling ruins, just before going for lunch at the hotel restaurant, as per habit, I switched on the BBC news. The news of Iraqi troops entering Kuwait shocked me out of my reveries of the magnificent pink Hazane (treasury ) monument that suddenly comes into view as one rides through a narrow gorge. Truly a marvelous sight. Although Baghdad was 1,200 kilometers from Amman and Kuwait even farther, after three decades in diplomacy I instinctively felt that something was seriously amiss. The next morning I returned to Amman, although I had planned to explore Petra at leisure. <br> <br> Yes, tension had been building up between Kuwait and Iraq, but an invasion was not on the cards; after all, inter-Arab tensions are not exactly uncommon. The last round of negotiations between Iraq and Kuwait in Jeddah over disputed territory had collapsed on August 1, and Saddam Hussein was incensed, feeling squeezed. Instead of being grateful, Kuwait, with encouragement from the West, was insisting on the repayment of "loans", and it was flooding the oil market, thus lowering the price of a barrel of oil from US$18 to $12 to $14, which hurt Iraq the most. <br> <br> Saddam also felt that he had saved the Arab Gulf states, many with large Shi'ite populations, from the fury of the Shi'ite revolution in Iran, for which he had been lauded by the Arab masses and governments, and gifted billions of dollars and friendly loans. Western nations, notably the United Kingdom, France and even the US, granted him credit, dual use of technology, chemicals and machinery and even aerial intelligence on Iranian forces. <br> <br> And of course there remains the mystery and enigma of the full details of the last meeting between the US ambassador to Iraq, April Glaspie, and Saddam in Baghdad on July 25, when she told Saddam that his dispute with Kuwait was a bilateral Arab matter. Glaspie then disappeared from public view, and was barred from giving interviews or writing a book. The Western media did not pursue her as they do others, and with a few exceptions the media have subsequently functioned as a handmaiden of the Pentagon and Western spokesmen. <br> <br> In the first week of August, there were hectic international political developments, with King Hussein of Jordan playing an active and constructive role in trying to defuse Iraqi aggression with an Arab solution, with help from Saudi and Egyptian leaders. There have been various versions of these events, but it appears that the US finally prevailed on President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, so dependent on US aid, and he fell into line. <br> <br> On returning to Delhi in 1984 after six years, having headed missions in Dakar (Senegal) and Bucharest (Romania), I served as chairman-managing director of the Indian Drugs and Pharmaceuticals company, with 13,000 personnel in five units, and established the Foreign Service Training Institute in New Delhi. So my posting in July 1989 to Amman, with only a first secretary and an attache, was considered a light mission. So in Amman my bridge game improved, but I was getting <i>distrait</i> - bored - as the French would say. But this was only the lull before the storm. <br> <br> From India's point of view, the serious issue was the safety of its foreign workers - about 180,000 in Kuwait and 10,000 in Iraq. By early August they had started to trickle into Amman as refugees. The earliest batches were mostly Indian Hajis - pilgrims to Mecca - a thousand odd, who had been stranded as Air India flights to Iraq and back had been cancelled after August 2. After Mecca, many Hajis, specially Shi'ites, go on a pilgrimage to the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala in neighboring Iraq. <br> <br> But soon the numbers of refugees from Kuwait reaching the Amman embassy started growing. In the beginning, whatever the time of the day or night, the small Indian staff of half a dozen would rush to make tea or buy food to make the tired Indian arrivals feel at home. In the evening, the embassy would telephone that two or three more buses had arrived from Baghdad - 100 or 150 Indians. This meant arranging places to stay, and providing food until air transport to India could be arranged. Soon the staff were exhausted, but their dedication and that of others who were deputed to help the embassy later, barring a few black sheep, never flagged. <br> <br> There were more frequent meetings between ambassadors. I would see Crown Prince Hassan and other important persons to assess the political situation and its likely impact on the influx of refugees. In between, I made a few trips to the Jordan-Iraq border, where there was little in terms of facilities and infrastructure. But we had still not envisaged the deluge that was to hit us. <br> <br> Soon, Amman became vital as it was the only point of access to Baghdad by air, road or telephone. Apart from short telephone contacts allowed between me and the Indian ambassador in Baghdad (the Indian ambassador to Kuwait had shifted to Basra), Iraq and Kuwait were effectively cut off from the world. So, with other countries closing their borders, apart from the refugee flood, Amman became the staging point for international politicians and others visiting Iraq. Soon, too, Amman was crawling with international media. <br> <br> Because of more than half of Jordan's population being of Palestinian origin and Yasser Arafat's full reciprocal support to Saddam, and Amman's close relations with Iraq, there were regular demonstrations in Amman in support of Saddam and Iraq. Jordan TV gave the Iraqi viewpoint, which was drowned elsewhere by anti-Saddam rhetoric spread by the Western media. For us, the Western viewpoint was available from Israeli TV, across the Jordan Valley 40 kilometers away. It was necessary to keep a watch on political developments to help assess their impact on the influx of refugees. <br> <br> Jordan had only a small Indian community, mostly workers earning barely $75 to $100 per month, hoping to migrate to better-paying Gulf states. We hired some of them to help us out. Only a few families were well off, but I regret to say that we were let down. In the first week of refugee arrivals, before we had assessed the situation, we requested one family completing a big project to put a van at our disposal. This was refused. We requested another Indian who had an empty warehouse to let us use it to temporarily house the refugees. He also refused. In countries like Saudi Arabia or Iran or Turkey, where only a few thousand refugees in all went in the first few days, there was full support from the well-organized and large Indian communities. Soon, we started hiring whatever accommodation we could find in hotels and flats, and making arrangements for food. <br> <br> Nearly a million refugees, a majority from Egypt, mostly working in Iraq, and Yemenis and others transited through Jordan, a country of less than 4 million. It was the equivalent of 200 million refugees wading through India and using its infrastructure. There was pressure on accommodation, food and transport and decisions had to be taken on the spot. Apart from morning and evening policy sessions with my colleagues, I would invite them by turn for a meal to maintain espirit de corps and I tried to make their living conditions as smooth as possible. They were working 14 to 18 hours every day, many even when ill and down with fever. The main stress was on patience against all provocation from the refugees, who, while they had been silent while in Kuwait or Iraq, started shouting and abusing once they saw Indian embassy personnel. As the majority of the refugees were from Kerala in India, four officers who had come to assist us had to pretend that they did not understand the abuses showered on them in Malyali. Some of our personnel were even assaulted and embassy cars stoned by tired and jittery Indian refugees. On many occasions the Jordan police had to step in. <br> <br> The Indian government did not appreciate the gravity of the situation and gave us too little too late. In a fast-changing situation, when I requested Delhi to depute more staff, they quoted back the previous week's telegram. They even sent a junior officer to study the situation, who, on arrival, appeared more interested in visiting Petra. We had to carry out the evacuation as per normal rules designed for a few or 50 or even 100-odd stranded Indians abroad. We had to follow them, even though three to four thousand Indians per day were flying out on 10 to 15 Air India and International Movement Organization (IMO) flights. This included making them sign indemnity bonds and providing individual tickets. Despite my pleas, these superfluous formalities were not done away with. It meant queuing up for registration, air tickets and the return of forms etc, by tired and hungry refugees, even when there were up to 8,000 of them in Amman. <br> <br> Once the evacuation was over, the government of India did decide to waive the indemnity ie repayment of the cost of the ticket. In 106 charity flights organized for Indians by the IOM, the only formality was the registration of the passengers in the flight manifest with passport details, etc. Without time-consuming and unnecessary formalities, the refugees would have been saved much stress and strain and my colleagues (15 to 25 at the peak ), who had to be at the embassy, hotels, apartment blocks, airports, border points and even in no man's land, could have devoted more time to looking after the comforts of the evacuees. <br> <br> External Affairs Minister Inder Kumar Gujral, during his transit stay in Amman in early August 1990 on the way to his famous hug with Saddam Hussein in Baghdad and the "Millionaire's flight" in an Indian Air Force aircraft from Kuwait, as the media described it, appeared curiously reluctant to meet King Hussein and Crown Prince Hassan. They received him with great warmth and brought him up to date on the situation, of which he appeared to have little grasp. Later, a non-professional Indian diplomat was sent to Amman by Gujral, who wanted to be included with King Hussein and King Hassan of Morocco, then planning to take a peace mission to Saddam. The Hashemite palace was most embarrassed. Gujral made extravagant promises to Indians in Kuwait, such as flying them out from Basra and Baghdad, with planes waiting for them. In my office, Gujral told waiting Indian refugees that they would get air tickets for their home towns on arrival in Bombay. All they got were the lowest class train tickets. He was making extravagant promises as if he were fighting a parliamentary election. <br> <br> To overcome the staff shortage problem at the embassy on a permanent basis, Gujral, in consultation with the Foreign Secretary Muchkund Dubey, selected an officer. But that officer never reached Amman to assist "people like us". Gujral kept shouting at everyone in Amman until he left for Baghdad, much to the disgust of the officers and staff who had just started trickling in from India to assist us in our monumental task, which even we had not envisaged. Gujral appeared to be edgy, short-tempered and rude. But much worse was to follow. Except for Civil Aviation Minister Arif Mohammed Khan, who flew in with the first Air India plane on August 12, who was a gentleman of the old school. <br> <br> It speaks volumes for the Indian government's perspective and contingency planning under I K Gujral and the foreign secretary that it held the only conference of Indian ambassadors in the region to discuss the refugee problem and international political developments just a few days before the deadline for Iraq's withdrawal on January 15. <br> <br> Now the US, with support from the UK, is threatening a war and regime change in Iraq. If it takes place, it will be a terribly messy affair, overflowing if not involving neighboring Turkey and the Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, which is also under scrutiny and attack by the hawks in the US administration. Unlike 1990-91, when they were enthusiastic allies, these states are now reluctant to support the US' unilateral action. The gulf region has nearly 5 million Indian workers. The question is, has the Indian government learned from its mistakes, and is it prepared this time around? <br> <br> <b><i>K Gajendra Singh</i></b><i>, Indian ambassador (retired), served as ambassador to Turkey from August 1992 to April 1996. Prior to that, he served terms as ambassador to Jordan, Romania and Senegal.</i> <br> <br> (©2002 Asia Times Online Co, Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact<a href="mailto:content@atimes.com" target="_blank">content@atimes.com</a> for information on our sales and syndication policies.)</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></p></div> </blockquote></div><br></div></div> Amb. (Retd.) K. Gajendra Singhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10712573815372515430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8661786410920048953.post-70134211284522208402016-02-02T18:57:00.001+05:302016-02-02T18:57:01.614+05:30Re: OVER 150,000 INDIANS FROM KUWAIT WERE FLOWN OUT FROM AMMAN (JORDAN) 1990-91<div dir="ltr"><br><div class="gmail_extra">You were a witness to the airlift Happy 2016<br><div class="gmail_quote"><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"> </span><span style="color:rgb(115,115,115);font-family:roboto,serif;font-size:6.5pt"> </span></p> <h2><span style="font-size:16pt"><font face="georgia, serif">OVER 150,000 INDIANS FROM KUWAIT WERE FLOWN OUT FROM AMMAN (JORDAN) BY AIRINDIA FLIGHTS (FROM AUGUST 1990 T0 FEB 1991.</font></span></h2> <h2><span style="font-size:14pt;font-weight:normal"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></h2> <h2><span style="font-size:11pt;font-weight:normal"><font face="georgia, serif">First please read the resolution later passed by Indians in Kuwait 1994 </font></span></h2> <h2><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></h2> <h2><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></h2> <h2><span style="font-size:11pt"><font face="georgia, serif">INDIAN CITIZEN'S COMMITTEE</font></span></h2> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Patron H.E ; Prem Singh </font></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> Ambassador of India</font></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Chairman: H.S, Vedi</font></span></b></p> <h2><span style="font-size:11pt;font-weight:normal"><font face="georgia, serif">Vice Chairman: Raman Sharma</font></span></h2> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Secretary: Mathew Kurvilla</font></span></b></p> <div style="border-style:none none solid;border-bottom-color:windowtext;border-bottom-width:1pt;padding:0in 0in 1pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="border:none;padding:0in"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><span style="font-size:11pt">Treasurer: Abraham Mathew</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt"></span></font></p> </div> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:14pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">To ; Shri P.V. Narsimha Roa ,.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> Prime Minister of India , </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> South Block.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> N. Delhi</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><span style="font-size:12pt">INDIAN CITIZEN'S COMMITTEE</span></b><span style="font-size:12pt"> which was formed on the dusty evening of 2nd Aug. 1990 </span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">the day of lraqi brutal invasion of' Kuwait met in the afternoon of Friday the 1st April 1994 at its </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">office in Shaab Kuwait and unanimously passed thc attached resolution.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">Sd-</span><span style="font-size:12pt"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">H.S Vcdi </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Chairman I.C.C</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">2nd April I994..</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:14pt"> </span><span style="font-size:11pt">C.C</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><font face="georgia, serif">1. Shri Dinesh Singh E.A.M, N. Delhi</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><font face="georgia, serif">2. Shri Salman Khursheed M.E A - N: Delhi </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="DE" style="font-size:11pt"><font face="georgia, serif">3. Shri K. Sri Niwasun F.S - N. Delhi</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><font face="georgia, serif">4. Secretary to President of India - N. Delhi</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Issued 4/4/9</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:14pt"> </span><b><span style="font-size:16pt">Resolution By Indian Citizen's </span></b></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><span style="font-size:16pt"> </span></b><b><span style="font-size:14pt">Committee Kuwait On 1st April 1994</span></b></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">We are extremely happy to have with us today H.E. Gajendra Singh presently Indian ambassador to Turkey, who is one of the few persons who will long be remembered in our minds and recorded in the history of evacuation of Indian citizens of Kuwait for his long dedicated and unstinted services during the dark and black days of vicious Iraqi occupation of Kuwait when he was to our good luck stationed in Amman as our Indian Ambassador.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">During the seven months long period from Aug. 1990 to March 1991, the Indian Embassy in Amman under his unflinching leadership imbued with compassion for the plight of Indian evacuees that went beyond the call of duty, in the Herculean task of arranging transport for Indian citizens of Kuwait from the Iraqi Jordanian border, some times even from Baghdad, upto Amman to a distance of over 250 KM and refugee camps, reception and migration for citizens etc. at the border and in Amman, boarding , loading in Amman upto mid Sept. 1990 till international Agencies established refugee camps and finally making sure that our citizens reached India safely. It took nearly six hundred air flights including 420 Air India Flights, an aviation history record to evacuate nearly 140,000 Indian citizens from Amman.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Ambassador Singh stuck to his duties even during the war days of Jan/Feb, 1991, evacuating thousand of Indian citizens including nurses, under most trying and dangerous conditions.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">We the members of the Indian Citizens Committee in Kuwait express our sincere thanks and gratitude to you for shouldering such enormous responsibilities under tremendous physical and functional tensions, working round the clock for months without any break during this period.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">We had noted with satisfaction that your services and those of your colleagues were widely acclaimed in lndian media including Times of lndia, Indian Express, India To day etc. and even in the international media. The Crown Prince of Jordan, the foreign Minister of Bhutan, International Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and other organizations, praised the remarkable work "of the Indian Embassy in Amman.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">We have, therefore, learnt with great sorrow and anguish that the Govt. of India instead decorating you for your services, have instead punished you in 1992 and 1993 on the basis of</font></span></p> <p><span lang="EN-GB"><font face="georgia, serif">false allegations. We firmly believe and request the Government of India to undo this grave miscarriage of justice and accord you the reward and acclaim which you so surely deserve.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">We also are reminded of your meetings with many of us with severe mental, physical tension, sick and dead where you kindly attention and services were of great solace.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">We also are aware that had the Govt. of Indian then fully complied with your recommendations, the operation of refugee exodus would have been much smoother.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">We also note with utter shame that so called national leaders of that time displayed utter ignorance and incompetence and arrogance in dealing with the situation and further making unforgivable statements in foreign countries . Their graceless behavior left a very bad impression with Jordanian leaders.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">We recommend a high level enquiry to the Mismanagement of evacuation Sub-committee of Ministry of External Affairs.</span><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif">P.O.Box 23228 Safat, Kuwait 13093 </font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif">Tel: 2624719 - Fax 2623124 </font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <h2><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-weight:normal">NEXT DAY KUWAIT TIMES ,WHILE COVERING THIS MEETING HEADLINED IT AS' </span><u><span style="font-size:14pt">INDIANS" WELCOME WAR HERO ( INDIAN AMBASSADOR IN AMMAN AND HIS STAFF )</span></u><span style="font-size:14pt;font-weight:normal">, ONLY WITH TWO OFFICERS TO BEGIN WITH) </span></font></h2> <h2><span style="font-size:14pt;font-weight:normal"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></h2> <h2><span style="font-weight:normal"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></h2> <h1 style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> FOUNDATION FOR INDO-TURKIC STUDIES </font></span></h1> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Tel/Fax ; 004016374602 Amb (Rtd) K Gajendra Singh </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> Emails; <a href="mailto:Gajendrak@hotmail.com" target="_blank">Gajendrak@hotmail.com</a> Flat No 5, 3<sup>rd</sup> Floor </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> KGSingh@Yahoo.com 9, Sos Cotroceni,</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> Web site <a href="http://W3.geocities.com/Kgsngh" target="_blank">W3.geocities.com/Kgsngh</a> Bucharest (Romania ).</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt"> 12 December, 2002</span><span style="font-size:12pt"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><span style="font-size:12pt">ASIA</span></b><b><span style="font-size:12pt"> TIMES </span></b><span style="font-size:12pt">online –December 13, 2002<strong><span style="color:black;font-weight:normal"></span></strong></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black;font-weight:normal"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></strong></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style="font-size:11pt;color:red"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></strong></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><strong><span style="font-size:12pt;color:red">AMBASSADOR'S JOURNAL</span></strong><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:red"><br> </span></b><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/DL13Df01.html" target="_blank"><strong><span style="color:rgb(0,51,153);text-decoration:none">Gulf crisis: Lessons from 1991</span></strong><b><span style="color:rgb(0,51,153)"><br> </span></b></a><strong>K Gajendra Singh,</strong> who was stationed in Amman as India's ambassador to Jordan during the Gulf crisis of 1990-91, recalls the frantic efforts and bureaucratic bungling in handling the flood of Indian refugee workers from the troubled region. And he ponders whether the Indian government is any better prepared this time around. Ed<strong><span style="color:black"></span></strong></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style="font-size:12pt;color:red"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></strong></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><strong><span style="font-size:12pt;color:red">AMBASSADOR'S JOURNAL</span></strong><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:red"><br> </span></b><strong><span style="font-size:16pt;color:black">Gulf crisis: Lessons from 1991</span></strong><strong><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black;font-weight:normal"> <a href="http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/DL13Df01.html" target="_blank">http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/DL13Df01.html</a></span></strong></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><br> </span><span style="font-size:12pt">By K Gajendra Singh </span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Dinner on January 15, 1991, at the Indian embassy residence in Amman, the capital of Jordan, turned out to be a much bigger affair than I had bargained for. On January 1, I had casually asked US Ambassador Roger Harrison if he would be free for dinner on the 15th, the deadline given by the coalition led by US President George H W Bush to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to withdraw from Kuwait, which he had invaded in August 1990.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">When Roger said yes, apart from senior Jordanian officials, journalists and others, I also invited ambassadors from the countries represented in the Security Council, my human shield against the coalition attack, as I jokingly remarked. Soon word went round and everyone wanted to join in, and suddenly 70 guests were expected.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">I had to dust off ceremonial and personal crockery and cutlery, and set up bridge tables and garden chairs to seat them all. I also had to borrow my cook's TV so that guests could watch King Hussein deliver a stirring speech on Jordanian TV as many were already watching the latest news from Israeli TV. CNN had not yet reached Amman. Guests were sprawled on sofas and wandering through my study and bedrooms. When King Hussein heard about this unusual get together, he remarked that only an ambassador from India could have thought of such a dinner. A great compliment indeed. <br> <br> Most embassies in Amman had already sent their families home and were functioning on skeleton staff. The cook at the Chinese embassy, though, was considered essential, and understandably, as I have never eaten such tasty Chinese food. There were regular meetings among ambassadors. Tony, the British envoy, would turn up on odd occasions for a spot of bridge to take our minds off the mounting tension. No politics, we had agreed. Once, he got me three down doubled (a rare thing). Tony was delighted, "I do not care if Saddam wins now," he teased. His armed bodyguard would watch TV with my cook, sharing <i>samosas</i>. The Romanian ambassador handed out gas masks designed for oil drilling while the Chinese loaded me with various safety devices to counter poisonous biological attacks. But I used to show them the strong life line on my hand and say that nothing untoward was indicated. <br> <br> The worst case nightmare for the coalition was that a few germ-loaded Iraqi Scuds (which we could see over the Amman sky cruising towards Israel) would kill a few hundred Israelis, and even the presence of senior US officials stationed in Israel to restrain them would not have stopped the Israelis from joining in the fray and directly marching to Iraq, the first stop being Amman. In the event of that happening, the coalition, almost a mini-UN force, with Pakistani, Egyptian and even Syrian and other Muslim troops in it for the money and other considerations, would have been impossible to hold together. <br> <br> In this contingency, Western diplomats were to rush to the desert southeast of Amman, from where helicopters would ferry them to war ships positioned in the Gulf of Aqaba, cruising there to enforce the embargo against Iraq. The embassy Indians, though, were to remain in Amman as the ministry in New Delhi could not accommodate the families in its hostels. So our plan was to get into our cars and speed north, if we could, for shelter with the Indian ambassador and his colleagues in Damascus, the capital of Syria. <br> <br> Having seen rich Indians from Kuwait reduced to sharing or fighting for food or a bottle of water with their workers in the infamous Shalan camp on the way from Kuwait to Jordan via Iraq, the only thing worth saving, I used to say, were my 10 favorite and priceless long-playing records. Only Jordan had kept its borders open with Iraq, so Amman was the only point for entry and exit from Iraq. <br> <br> Meanwhile, during the evening of January 15, there was an atmosphere of great gaiety and excitement, with adrenaline levels running high after months of anxiety. Apart from sharing an historic evening and exchanging the latest news, everyone was dying to see my collection of LPs. Among them were; Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Amir Ali Khan, Beethoven, Strauss, Chopin and Mozart. But only Lata Mangeshkar had two LPs in this set, and people were asking who she was. I had to tell them she was one of India's all-time great singers and she had sent me two autographed records (Geeta and Ghazals) after a meeting in 1974 in Paris, where I was then posted. My family and I, aware that she sang only light music, and fearful that thousands of people might be about to die, put on the funereal Requiem. But animated and absorbed in conversation, few heard it. But Roger did, and we both became very sad. <br> <br> The grand coalition attack on Iraqi forces did not begin that night. It came the next day, January 16, actually in the early hours of the 17th. Despite requests to all journalists to inform us immediately, and a pact with other ambassadors to inform each other, my son Tinoo from New York was the first to telephone me at 00210 hrs (LST) on January 17, and tell me that the attack on Iraq had commenced. Only just woken up, I queried how the hell did he know. CNN, he said. Soon journalists from the Jordan Times and others followed with calls. No wonder that world presidents and others confess that they learn about world events first from CNN. It takes too long for secret messages to be coded and decoded in the chancelleries. <br> <br> <b><i>August 2, 1990</i></b><b><i>:</i> The Gulf crisis begins<br> </b>It all began on August 2, 1990. A day earlier, I had been in the Nabatean pink city of Petra, in the south of Jordan, some 262 kilometers from Amman, once the stronghold of the gifted Nabateans, an early Arab people. The Victorian traveler and poet, Dean Burgeon, gave Petra a description that holds to this day, "Match me such a marvel save in Eastern clime, a rose red city half as old as time." <br> <br> After a morning visit to the sprawling ruins, just before going for lunch at the hotel restaurant, as per habit, I switched on the BBC news. The news of Iraqi troops entering Kuwait shocked me out of my reveries of the magnificent pink Hazane (treasury ) monument that suddenly comes into view as one rides through a narrow gorge. Truly a marvelous sight. Although Baghdad was 1,200 kilometers from Amman and Kuwait even farther, after three decades in diplomacy I instinctively felt that something was seriously amiss. The next morning I returned to Amman, although I had planned to explore Petra at leisure. <br> <br> Yes, tension had been building up between Kuwait and Iraq, but an invasion was not on the cards; after all, inter-Arab tensions are not exactly uncommon. The last round of negotiations between Iraq and Kuwait in Jeddah over disputed territory had collapsed on August 1, and Saddam Hussein was incensed, feeling squeezed. Instead of being grateful, Kuwait, with encouragement from the West, was insisting on the repayment of "loans", and it was flooding the oil market, thus lowering the price of a barrel of oil from US$18 to $12 to $14, which hurt Iraq the most. <br> <br> Saddam also felt that he had saved the Arab Gulf states, many with large Shi'ite populations, from the fury of the Shi'ite revolution in Iran, for which he had been lauded by the Arab masses and governments, and gifted billions of dollars and friendly loans. Western nations, notably the United Kingdom, France and even the US, granted him credit, dual use of technology, chemicals and machinery and even aerial intelligence on Iranian forces. <br> <br> And of course there remains the mystery and enigma of the full details of the last meeting between the US ambassador to Iraq, April Glaspie, and Saddam in Baghdad on July 25, when she told Saddam that his dispute with Kuwait was a bilateral Arab matter. Glaspie then disappeared from public view, and was barred from giving interviews or writing a book. The Western media did not pursue her as they do others, and with a few exceptions the media have subsequently functioned as a handmaiden of the Pentagon and Western spokesmen. <br> <br> In the first week of August, there were hectic international political developments, with King Hussein of Jordan playing an active and constructive role in trying to defuse Iraqi aggression with an Arab solution, with help from Saudi and Egyptian leaders. There have been various versions of these events, but it appears that the US finally prevailed on President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, so dependent on US aid, and he fell into line. <br> <br> On returning to Delhi in 1984 after six years, having headed missions in Dakar (Senegal) and Bucharest (Romania), I served as chairman-managing director of the Indian Drugs and Pharmaceuticals company, with 13,000 personnel in five units, and established the Foreign Service Training Institute in New Delhi. So my posting in July 1989 to Amman, with only a first secretary and an attache, was considered a light mission. So in Amman my bridge game improved, but I was getting <i>distrait</i> - bored - as the French would say. But this was only the lull before the storm. <br> <br> From India's point of view, the serious issue was the safety of its foreign workers - about 180,000 in Kuwait and 10,000 in Iraq. By early August they had started to trickle into Amman as refugees. The earliest batches were mostly Indian Hajis - pilgrims to Mecca - a thousand odd, who had been stranded as Air India flights to Iraq and back had been cancelled after August 2. After Mecca, many Hajis, specially Shi'ites, go on a pilgrimage to the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala in neighboring Iraq. <br> <br> But soon the numbers of refugees from Kuwait reaching the Amman embassy started growing. In the beginning, whatever the time of the day or night, the small Indian staff of half a dozen would rush to make tea or buy food to make the tired Indian arrivals feel at home. In the evening, the embassy would telephone that two or three more buses had arrived from Baghdad - 100 or 150 Indians. This meant arranging places to stay, and providing food until air transport to India could be arranged. Soon the staff were exhausted, but their dedication and that of others who were deputed to help the embassy later, barring a few black sheep, never flagged. <br> <br> There were more frequent meetings between ambassadors. I would see Crown Prince Hassan and other important persons to assess the political situation and its likely impact on the influx of refugees. In between, I made a few trips to the Jordan-Iraq border, where there was little in terms of facilities and infrastructure. But we had still not envisaged the deluge that was to hit us. <br> <br> Soon, Amman became vital as it was the only point of access to Baghdad by air, road or telephone. Apart from short telephone contacts allowed between me and the Indian ambassador in Baghdad (the Indian ambassador to Kuwait had shifted to Basra), Iraq and Kuwait were effectively cut off from the world. So, with other countries closing their borders, apart from the refugee flood, Amman became the staging point for international politicians and others visiting Iraq. Soon, too, Amman was crawling with international media. <br> <br> Because of more than half of Jordan's population being of Palestinian origin and Yasser Arafat's full reciprocal support to Saddam, and Amman's close relations with Iraq, there were regular demonstrations in Amman in support of Saddam and Iraq. Jordan TV gave the Iraqi viewpoint, which was drowned elsewhere by anti-Saddam rhetoric spread by the Western media. For us, the Western viewpoint was available from Israeli TV, across the Jordan Valley 40 kilometers away. It was necessary to keep a watch on political developments to help assess their impact on the influx of refugees. <br> <br> Jordan had only a small Indian community, mostly workers earning barely $75 to $100 per month, hoping to migrate to better-paying Gulf states. We hired some of them to help us out. Only a few families were well off, but I regret to say that we were let down. In the first week of refugee arrivals, before we had assessed the situation, we requested one family completing a big project to put a van at our disposal. This was refused. We requested another Indian who had an empty warehouse to let us use it to temporarily house the refugees. He also refused. In countries like Saudi Arabia or Iran or Turkey, where only a few thousand refugees in all went in the first few days, there was full support from the well-organized and large Indian communities. Soon, we started hiring whatever accommodation we could find in hotels and flats, and making arrangements for food. <br> <br> Nearly a million refugees, a majority from Egypt, mostly working in Iraq, and Yemenis and others transited through Jordan, a country of less than 4 million. It was the equivalent of 200 million refugees wading through India and using its infrastructure. There was pressure on accommodation, food and transport and decisions had to be taken on the spot. Apart from morning and evening policy sessions with my colleagues, I would invite them by turn for a meal to maintain espirit de corps and I tried to make their living conditions as smooth as possible. They were working 14 to 18 hours every day, many even when ill and down with fever. The main stress was on patience against all provocation from the refugees, who, while they had been silent while in Kuwait or Iraq, started shouting and abusing once they saw Indian embassy personnel. As the majority of the refugees were from Kerala in India, four officers who had come to assist us had to pretend that they did not understand the abuses showered on them in Malyali. Some of our personnel were even assaulted and embassy cars stoned by tired and jittery Indian refugees. On many occasions the Jordan police had to step in. <br> <br> The Indian government did not appreciate the gravity of the situation and gave us too little too late. In a fast-changing situation, when I requested Delhi to depute more staff, they quoted back the previous week's telegram. They even sent a junior officer to study the situation, who, on arrival, appeared more interested in visiting Petra. We had to carry out the evacuation as per normal rules designed for a few or 50 or even 100-odd stranded Indians abroad. We had to follow them, even though three to four thousand Indians per day were flying out on 10 to 15 Air India and International Movement Organization (IMO) flights. This included making them sign indemnity bonds and providing individual tickets. Despite my pleas, these superfluous formalities were not done away with. It meant queuing up for registration, air tickets and the return of forms etc, by tired and hungry refugees, even when there were up to 8,000 of them in Amman. <br> <br> Once the evacuation was over, the government of India did decide to waive the indemnity ie repayment of the cost of the ticket. In 106 charity flights organized for Indians by the IOM, the only formality was the registration of the passengers in the flight manifest with passport details, etc. Without time-consuming and unnecessary formalities, the refugees would have been saved much stress and strain and my colleagues (15 to 25 at the peak ), who had to be at the embassy, hotels, apartment blocks, airports, border points and even in no man's land, could have devoted more time to looking after the comforts of the evacuees. <br> <br> External Affairs Minister Inder Kumar Gujral, during his transit stay in Amman in early August 1990 on the way to his famous hug with Saddam Hussein in Baghdad and the "Millionaire's flight" in an Indian Air Force aircraft from Kuwait, as the media described it, appeared curiously reluctant to meet King Hussein and Crown Prince Hassan. They received him with great warmth and brought him up to date on the situation, of which he appeared to have little grasp. Later, a non-professional Indian diplomat was sent to Amman by Gujral, who wanted to be included with King Hussein and King Hassan of Morocco, then planning to take a peace mission to Saddam. The Hashemite palace was most embarrassed. Gujral made extravagant promises to Indians in Kuwait, such as flying them out from Basra and Baghdad, with planes waiting for them. In my office, Gujral told waiting Indian refugees that they would get air tickets for their home towns on arrival in Bombay. All they got were the lowest class train tickets. He was making extravagant promises as if he were fighting a parliamentary election. <br> <br> To overcome the staff shortage problem at the embassy on a permanent basis, Gujral, in consultation with the Foreign Secretary Muchkund Dubey, selected an officer. But that officer never reached Amman to assist "people like us". Gujral kept shouting at everyone in Amman until he left for Baghdad, much to the disgust of the officers and staff who had just started trickling in from India to assist us in our monumental task, which even we had not envisaged. Gujral appeared to be edgy, short-tempered and rude. But much worse was to follow. Except for Civil Aviation Minister Arif Mohammed Khan, who flew in with the first Air India plane on August 12, who was a gentleman of the old school. <br> <br> It speaks volumes for the Indian government's perspective and contingency planning under I K Gujral and the foreign secretary that it held the only conference of Indian ambassadors in the region to discuss the refugee problem and international political developments just a few days before the deadline for Iraq's withdrawal on January 15. <br> <br> Now the US, with support from the UK, is threatening a war and regime change in Iraq. If it takes place, it will be a terribly messy affair, overflowing if not involving neighboring Turkey and the Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, which is also under scrutiny and attack by the hawks in the US administration. Unlike 1990-91, when they were enthusiastic allies, these states are now reluctant to support the US' unilateral action. The gulf region has nearly 5 million Indian workers. The question is, has the Indian government learned from its mistakes, and is it prepared this time around? <br> <br> <b><i>K Gajendra Singh</i></b><i>, Indian ambassador (retired), served as ambassador to Turkey from August 1992 to April 1996. Prior to that, he served terms as ambassador to Jordan, Romania and Senegal.</i> <br> <br> (©2002 Asia Times Online Co, Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact<a href="mailto:content@atimes.com" target="_blank">content@atimes.com</a> for information on our sales and syndication policies.)</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></p></div> </blockquote></div><br></div></div> Amb. (Retd.) K. Gajendra Singhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10712573815372515430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8661786410920048953.post-73144911788819086912016-01-29T19:51:00.001+05:302016-01-29T19:51:22.309+05:30OVER 150,000 INDIANS FROM KUWAIT WERE FLOWN OUT FROM AMMAN (JORDAN) 1990-91<div dir="ltr"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"> </span><span style="color:rgb(115,115,115);font-family:roboto,serif;font-size:6.5pt"> </span></p> <h2><span style="font-size:16pt"><font face="georgia, serif">OVER 150,000 INDIANS FROM KUWAIT WERE FLOWN OUT FROM AMMAN (JORDAN) BY AIRINDIA FLIGHTS (FROM AUGUST 1990 T0 FEB 1991.</font></span></h2> <h2><span style="font-size:14pt;font-weight:normal"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></h2> <h2><span style="font-size:11pt;font-weight:normal"><font face="georgia, serif">First please read the resolution later passed by Indians in Kuwait 1994 </font></span></h2> <h2><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></h2> <h2><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></h2> <h2><span style="font-size:11pt"><font face="georgia, serif">INDIAN CITIZEN'S COMMITTEE</font></span></h2> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Patron H.E ; Prem Singh </font></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> Ambassador of India</font></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Chairman: H.S, Vedi</font></span></b></p> <h2><span style="font-size:11pt;font-weight:normal"><font face="georgia, serif">Vice Chairman: Raman Sharma</font></span></h2> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Secretary: Mathew Kurvilla</font></span></b></p> <div style="border-style:none none solid;border-bottom-color:windowtext;border-bottom-width:1pt;padding:0in 0in 1pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="border:none;padding:0in"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><span style="font-size:11pt">Treasurer: Abraham Mathew</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt"></span></font></p> </div> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:14pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">To ; Shri P.V. Narsimha Roa ,.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> Prime Minister of India , </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> South Block.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> N. Delhi</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><span style="font-size:12pt">INDIAN CITIZEN'S COMMITTEE</span></b><span style="font-size:12pt"> which was formed on the dusty evening of 2nd Aug. 1990 </span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">the day of lraqi brutal invasion of' Kuwait met in the afternoon of Friday the 1st April 1994 at its </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">office in Shaab Kuwait and unanimously passed thc attached resolution.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">Sd-</span><span style="font-size:12pt"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">H.S Vcdi </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Chairman I.C.C</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">2nd April I994..</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:14pt"> </span><span style="font-size:11pt">C.C</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><font face="georgia, serif">1. Shri Dinesh Singh E.A.M, N. Delhi</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><font face="georgia, serif">2. Shri Salman Khursheed M.E A - N: Delhi </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="DE" style="font-size:11pt"><font face="georgia, serif">3. Shri K. Sri Niwasun F.S - N. Delhi</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><font face="georgia, serif">4. Secretary to President of India - N. Delhi</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Issued 4/4/9</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:14pt"> </span><b><span style="font-size:16pt">Resolution By Indian Citizen's </span></b></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><span style="font-size:16pt"> </span></b><b><span style="font-size:14pt">Committee Kuwait On 1st April 1994</span></b></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">We are extremely happy to have with us today H.E. Gajendra Singh presently Indian ambassador to Turkey, who is one of the few persons who will long be remembered in our minds and recorded in the history of evacuation of Indian citizens of Kuwait for his long dedicated and unstinted services during the dark and black days of vicious Iraqi occupation of Kuwait when he was to our good luck stationed in Amman as our Indian Ambassador.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">During the seven months long period from Aug. 1990 to March 1991, the Indian Embassy in Amman under his unflinching leadership imbued with compassion for the plight of Indian evacuees that went beyond the call of duty, in the Herculean task of arranging transport for Indian citizens of Kuwait from the Iraqi Jordanian border, some times even from Baghdad, upto Amman to a distance of over 250 KM and refugee camps, reception and migration for citizens etc. at the border and in Amman, boarding , loading in Amman upto mid Sept. 1990 till international Agencies established refugee camps and finally making sure that our citizens reached India safely. It took nearly six hundred air flights including 420 Air India Flights, an aviation history record to evacuate nearly 140,000 Indian citizens from Amman.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Ambassador Singh stuck to his duties even during the war days of Jan/Feb, 1991, evacuating thousand of Indian citizens including nurses, under most trying and dangerous conditions.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">We the members of the Indian Citizens Committee in Kuwait express our sincere thanks and gratitude to you for shouldering such enormous responsibilities under tremendous physical and functional tensions, working round the clock for months without any break during this period.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">We had noted with satisfaction that your services and those of your colleagues were widely acclaimed in lndian media including Times of lndia, Indian Express, India To day etc. and even in the international media. The Crown Prince of Jordan, the foreign Minister of Bhutan, International Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and other organizations, praised the remarkable work "of the Indian Embassy in Amman.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">We have, therefore, learnt with great sorrow and anguish that the Govt. of India instead decorating you for your services, have instead punished you in 1992 and 1993 on the basis of</font></span></p> <p class=""><span lang="EN-GB"><font face="georgia, serif">false allegations. We firmly believe and request the Government of India to undo this grave miscarriage of justice and accord you the reward and acclaim which you so surely deserve.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">We also are reminded of your meetings with many of us with severe mental, physical tension, sick and dead where you kindly attention and services were of great solace.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">We also are aware that had the Govt. of Indian then fully complied with your recommendations, the operation of refugee exodus would have been much smoother.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">We also note with utter shame that so called national leaders of that time displayed utter ignorance and incompetence and arrogance in dealing with the situation and further making unforgivable statements in foreign countries . Their graceless behavior left a very bad impression with Jordanian leaders.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">We recommend a high level enquiry to the Mismanagement of evacuation Sub-committee of Ministry of External Affairs.</span><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif">P.O.Box 23228 Safat, Kuwait 13093 </font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif">Tel: 2624719 - Fax 2623124 </font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <h2><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-weight:normal">NEXT DAY KUWAIT TIMES ,WHILE COVERING THIS MEETING HEADLINED IT AS' </span><u><span style="font-size:14pt">INDIANS" WELCOME WAR HERO ( INDIAN AMBASSADOR IN AMMAN AND HIS STAFF )</span></u><span style="font-size:14pt;font-weight:normal">, ONLY WITH TWO OFFICERS TO BEGIN WITH) </span></font></h2> <h2><span style="font-size:14pt;font-weight:normal"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></h2> <h2><span style="font-weight:normal"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></h2> <h1 style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> FOUNDATION FOR INDO-TURKIC STUDIES </font></span></h1> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Tel/Fax ; 004016374602 Amb (Rtd) K Gajendra Singh </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> Emails; <a href="mailto:Gajendrak@hotmail.com">Gajendrak@hotmail.com</a> Flat No 5, 3<sup>rd</sup> Floor </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> KGSingh@Yahoo.com 9, Sos Cotroceni,</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> Web site <a href="http://W3.geocities.com/Kgsngh">W3.geocities.com/Kgsngh</a> Bucharest (Romania ).</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt"> 12 December, 2002</span><span style="font-size:12pt"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><span style="font-size:12pt">ASIA</span></b><b><span style="font-size:12pt"> TIMES </span></b><span style="font-size:12pt">online –December 13, 2002<strong><span style="color:black;font-weight:normal"></span></strong></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black;font-weight:normal"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></strong></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style="font-size:11pt;color:red"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></strong></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><strong><span style="font-size:12pt;color:red">AMBASSADOR'S JOURNAL</span></strong><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:red"><br> </span></b><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/DL13Df01.html"><strong><span style="color:rgb(0,51,153);text-decoration:none">Gulf crisis: Lessons from 1991</span></strong><b><span style="color:rgb(0,51,153)"><br> </span></b></a><strong>K Gajendra Singh,</strong> who was stationed in Amman as India's ambassador to Jordan during the Gulf crisis of 1990-91, recalls the frantic efforts and bureaucratic bungling in handling the flood of Indian refugee workers from the troubled region. And he ponders whether the Indian government is any better prepared this time around. Ed<strong><span style="color:black"></span></strong></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style="font-size:12pt;color:red"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></strong></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><strong><span style="font-size:12pt;color:red">AMBASSADOR'S JOURNAL</span></strong><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:red"><br> </span></b><strong><span style="font-size:16pt;color:black">Gulf crisis: Lessons from 1991</span></strong><strong><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black;font-weight:normal"> <a href="http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/DL13Df01.html">http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/DL13Df01.html</a></span></strong></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><br> </span><span style="font-size:12pt">By K Gajendra Singh </span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Dinner on January 15, 1991, at the Indian embassy residence in Amman, the capital of Jordan, turned out to be a much bigger affair than I had bargained for. On January 1, I had casually asked US Ambassador Roger Harrison if he would be free for dinner on the 15th, the deadline given by the coalition led by US President George H W Bush to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to withdraw from Kuwait, which he had invaded in August 1990.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">When Roger said yes, apart from senior Jordanian officials, journalists and others, I also invited ambassadors from the countries represented in the Security Council, my human shield against the coalition attack, as I jokingly remarked. Soon word went round and everyone wanted to join in, and suddenly 70 guests were expected.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">I had to dust off ceremonial and personal crockery and cutlery, and set up bridge tables and garden chairs to seat them all. I also had to borrow my cook's TV so that guests could watch King Hussein deliver a stirring speech on Jordanian TV as many were already watching the latest news from Israeli TV. CNN had not yet reached Amman. Guests were sprawled on sofas and wandering through my study and bedrooms. When King Hussein heard about this unusual get together, he remarked that only an ambassador from India could have thought of such a dinner. A great compliment indeed. <br> <br> Most embassies in Amman had already sent their families home and were functioning on skeleton staff. The cook at the Chinese embassy, though, was considered essential, and understandably, as I have never eaten such tasty Chinese food. There were regular meetings among ambassadors. Tony, the British envoy, would turn up on odd occasions for a spot of bridge to take our minds off the mounting tension. No politics, we had agreed. Once, he got me three down doubled (a rare thing). Tony was delighted, "I do not care if Saddam wins now," he teased. His armed bodyguard would watch TV with my cook, sharing <i>samosas</i>. The Romanian ambassador handed out gas masks designed for oil drilling while the Chinese loaded me with various safety devices to counter poisonous biological attacks. But I used to show them the strong life line on my hand and say that nothing untoward was indicated. <br> <br> The worst case nightmare for the coalition was that a few germ-loaded Iraqi Scuds (which we could see over the Amman sky cruising towards Israel) would kill a few hundred Israelis, and even the presence of senior US officials stationed in Israel to restrain them would not have stopped the Israelis from joining in the fray and directly marching to Iraq, the first stop being Amman. In the event of that happening, the coalition, almost a mini-UN force, with Pakistani, Egyptian and even Syrian and other Muslim troops in it for the money and other considerations, would have been impossible to hold together. <br> <br> In this contingency, Western diplomats were to rush to the desert southeast of Amman, from where helicopters would ferry them to war ships positioned in the Gulf of Aqaba, cruising there to enforce the embargo against Iraq. The embassy Indians, though, were to remain in Amman as the ministry in New Delhi could not accommodate the families in its hostels. So our plan was to get into our cars and speed north, if we could, for shelter with the Indian ambassador and his colleagues in Damascus, the capital of Syria. <br> <br> Having seen rich Indians from Kuwait reduced to sharing or fighting for food or a bottle of water with their workers in the infamous Shalan camp on the way from Kuwait to Jordan via Iraq, the only thing worth saving, I used to say, were my 10 favorite and priceless long-playing records. Only Jordan had kept its borders open with Iraq, so Amman was the only point for entry and exit from Iraq. <br> <br> Meanwhile, during the evening of January 15, there was an atmosphere of great gaiety and excitement, with adrenaline levels running high after months of anxiety. Apart from sharing an historic evening and exchanging the latest news, everyone was dying to see my collection of LPs. Among them were; Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Amir Ali Khan, Beethoven, Strauss, Chopin and Mozart. But only Lata Mangeshkar had two LPs in this set, and people were asking who she was. I had to tell them she was one of India's all-time great singers and she had sent me two autographed records (Geeta and Ghazals) after a meeting in 1974 in Paris, where I was then posted. My family and I, aware that she sang only light music, and fearful that thousands of people might be about to die, put on the funereal Requiem. But animated and absorbed in conversation, few heard it. But Roger did, and we both became very sad. <br> <br> The grand coalition attack on Iraqi forces did not begin that night. It came the next day, January 16, actually in the early hours of the 17th. Despite requests to all journalists to inform us immediately, and a pact with other ambassadors to inform each other, my son Tinoo from New York was the first to telephone me at 00210 hrs (LST) on January 17, and tell me that the attack on Iraq had commenced. Only just woken up, I queried how the hell did he know. CNN, he said. Soon journalists from the Jordan Times and others followed with calls. No wonder that world presidents and others confess that they learn about world events first from CNN. It takes too long for secret messages to be coded and decoded in the chancelleries. <br> <br> <b><i>August 2, 1990</i></b><b><i>:</i> The Gulf crisis begins<br> </b>It all began on August 2, 1990. A day earlier, I had been in the Nabatean pink city of Petra, in the south of Jordan, some 262 kilometers from Amman, once the stronghold of the gifted Nabateans, an early Arab people. The Victorian traveler and poet, Dean Burgeon, gave Petra a description that holds to this day, "Match me such a marvel save in Eastern clime, a rose red city half as old as time." <br> <br> After a morning visit to the sprawling ruins, just before going for lunch at the hotel restaurant, as per habit, I switched on the BBC news. The news of Iraqi troops entering Kuwait shocked me out of my reveries of the magnificent pink Hazane (treasury ) monument that suddenly comes into view as one rides through a narrow gorge. Truly a marvelous sight. Although Baghdad was 1,200 kilometers from Amman and Kuwait even farther, after three decades in diplomacy I instinctively felt that something was seriously amiss. The next morning I returned to Amman, although I had planned to explore Petra at leisure. <br> <br> Yes, tension had been building up between Kuwait and Iraq, but an invasion was not on the cards; after all, inter-Arab tensions are not exactly uncommon. The last round of negotiations between Iraq and Kuwait in Jeddah over disputed territory had collapsed on August 1, and Saddam Hussein was incensed, feeling squeezed. Instead of being grateful, Kuwait, with encouragement from the West, was insisting on the repayment of "loans", and it was flooding the oil market, thus lowering the price of a barrel of oil from US$18 to $12 to $14, which hurt Iraq the most. <br> <br> Saddam also felt that he had saved the Arab Gulf states, many with large Shi'ite populations, from the fury of the Shi'ite revolution in Iran, for which he had been lauded by the Arab masses and governments, and gifted billions of dollars and friendly loans. Western nations, notably the United Kingdom, France and even the US, granted him credit, dual use of technology, chemicals and machinery and even aerial intelligence on Iranian forces. <br> <br> And of course there remains the mystery and enigma of the full details of the last meeting between the US ambassador to Iraq, April Glaspie, and Saddam in Baghdad on July 25, when she told Saddam that his dispute with Kuwait was a bilateral Arab matter. Glaspie then disappeared from public view, and was barred from giving interviews or writing a book. The Western media did not pursue her as they do others, and with a few exceptions the media have subsequently functioned as a handmaiden of the Pentagon and Western spokesmen. <br> <br> In the first week of August, there were hectic international political developments, with King Hussein of Jordan playing an active and constructive role in trying to defuse Iraqi aggression with an Arab solution, with help from Saudi and Egyptian leaders. There have been various versions of these events, but it appears that the US finally prevailed on President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, so dependent on US aid, and he fell into line. <br> <br> On returning to Delhi in 1984 after six years, having headed missions in Dakar (Senegal) and Bucharest (Romania), I served as chairman-managing director of the Indian Drugs and Pharmaceuticals company, with 13,000 personnel in five units, and established the Foreign Service Training Institute in New Delhi. So my posting in July 1989 to Amman, with only a first secretary and an attache, was considered a light mission. So in Amman my bridge game improved, but I was getting <i>distrait</i> - bored - as the French would say. But this was only the lull before the storm. <br> <br> From India's point of view, the serious issue was the safety of its foreign workers - about 180,000 in Kuwait and 10,000 in Iraq. By early August they had started to trickle into Amman as refugees. The earliest batches were mostly Indian Hajis - pilgrims to Mecca - a thousand odd, who had been stranded as Air India flights to Iraq and back had been cancelled after August 2. After Mecca, many Hajis, specially Shi'ites, go on a pilgrimage to the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala in neighboring Iraq. <br> <br> But soon the numbers of refugees from Kuwait reaching the Amman embassy started growing. In the beginning, whatever the time of the day or night, the small Indian staff of half a dozen would rush to make tea or buy food to make the tired Indian arrivals feel at home. In the evening, the embassy would telephone that two or three more buses had arrived from Baghdad - 100 or 150 Indians. This meant arranging places to stay, and providing food until air transport to India could be arranged. Soon the staff were exhausted, but their dedication and that of others who were deputed to help the embassy later, barring a few black sheep, never flagged. <br> <br> There were more frequent meetings between ambassadors. I would see Crown Prince Hassan and other important persons to assess the political situation and its likely impact on the influx of refugees. In between, I made a few trips to the Jordan-Iraq border, where there was little in terms of facilities and infrastructure. But we had still not envisaged the deluge that was to hit us. <br> <br> Soon, Amman became vital as it was the only point of access to Baghdad by air, road or telephone. Apart from short telephone contacts allowed between me and the Indian ambassador in Baghdad (the Indian ambassador to Kuwait had shifted to Basra), Iraq and Kuwait were effectively cut off from the world. So, with other countries closing their borders, apart from the refugee flood, Amman became the staging point for international politicians and others visiting Iraq. Soon, too, Amman was crawling with international media. <br> <br> Because of more than half of Jordan's population being of Palestinian origin and Yasser Arafat's full reciprocal support to Saddam, and Amman's close relations with Iraq, there were regular demonstrations in Amman in support of Saddam and Iraq. Jordan TV gave the Iraqi viewpoint, which was drowned elsewhere by anti-Saddam rhetoric spread by the Western media. For us, the Western viewpoint was available from Israeli TV, across the Jordan Valley 40 kilometers away. It was necessary to keep a watch on political developments to help assess their impact on the influx of refugees. <br> <br> Jordan had only a small Indian community, mostly workers earning barely $75 to $100 per month, hoping to migrate to better-paying Gulf states. We hired some of them to help us out. Only a few families were well off, but I regret to say that we were let down. In the first week of refugee arrivals, before we had assessed the situation, we requested one family completing a big project to put a van at our disposal. This was refused. We requested another Indian who had an empty warehouse to let us use it to temporarily house the refugees. He also refused. In countries like Saudi Arabia or Iran or Turkey, where only a few thousand refugees in all went in the first few days, there was full support from the well-organized and large Indian communities. Soon, we started hiring whatever accommodation we could find in hotels and flats, and making arrangements for food. <br> <br> Nearly a million refugees, a majority from Egypt, mostly working in Iraq, and Yemenis and others transited through Jordan, a country of less than 4 million. It was the equivalent of 200 million refugees wading through India and using its infrastructure. There was pressure on accommodation, food and transport and decisions had to be taken on the spot. Apart from morning and evening policy sessions with my colleagues, I would invite them by turn for a meal to maintain espirit de corps and I tried to make their living conditions as smooth as possible. They were working 14 to 18 hours every day, many even when ill and down with fever. The main stress was on patience against all provocation from the refugees, who, while they had been silent while in Kuwait or Iraq, started shouting and abusing once they saw Indian embassy personnel. As the majority of the refugees were from Kerala in India, four officers who had come to assist us had to pretend that they did not understand the abuses showered on them in Malyali. Some of our personnel were even assaulted and embassy cars stoned by tired and jittery Indian refugees. On many occasions the Jordan police had to step in. <br> <br> The Indian government did not appreciate the gravity of the situation and gave us too little too late. In a fast-changing situation, when I requested Delhi to depute more staff, they quoted back the previous week's telegram. They even sent a junior officer to study the situation, who, on arrival, appeared more interested in visiting Petra. We had to carry out the evacuation as per normal rules designed for a few or 50 or even 100-odd stranded Indians abroad. We had to follow them, even though three to four thousand Indians per day were flying out on 10 to 15 Air India and International Movement Organization (IMO) flights. This included making them sign indemnity bonds and providing individual tickets. Despite my pleas, these superfluous formalities were not done away with. It meant queuing up for registration, air tickets and the return of forms etc, by tired and hungry refugees, even when there were up to 8,000 of them in Amman. <br> <br> Once the evacuation was over, the government of India did decide to waive the indemnity ie repayment of the cost of the ticket. In 106 charity flights organized for Indians by the IOM, the only formality was the registration of the passengers in the flight manifest with passport details, etc. Without time-consuming and unnecessary formalities, the refugees would have been saved much stress and strain and my colleagues (15 to 25 at the peak ), who had to be at the embassy, hotels, apartment blocks, airports, border points and even in no man's land, could have devoted more time to looking after the comforts of the evacuees. <br> <br> External Affairs Minister Inder Kumar Gujral, during his transit stay in Amman in early August 1990 on the way to his famous hug with Saddam Hussein in Baghdad and the "Millionaire's flight" in an Indian Air Force aircraft from Kuwait, as the media described it, appeared curiously reluctant to meet King Hussein and Crown Prince Hassan. They received him with great warmth and brought him up to date on the situation, of which he appeared to have little grasp. Later, a non-professional Indian diplomat was sent to Amman by Gujral, who wanted to be included with King Hussein and King Hassan of Morocco, then planning to take a peace mission to Saddam. The Hashemite palace was most embarrassed. Gujral made extravagant promises to Indians in Kuwait, such as flying them out from Basra and Baghdad, with planes waiting for them. In my office, Gujral told waiting Indian refugees that they would get air tickets for their home towns on arrival in Bombay. All they got were the lowest class train tickets. He was making extravagant promises as if he were fighting a parliamentary election. <br> <br> To overcome the staff shortage problem at the embassy on a permanent basis, Gujral, in consultation with the Foreign Secretary Muchkund Dubey, selected an officer. But that officer never reached Amman to assist "people like us". Gujral kept shouting at everyone in Amman until he left for Baghdad, much to the disgust of the officers and staff who had just started trickling in from India to assist us in our monumental task, which even we had not envisaged. Gujral appeared to be edgy, short-tempered and rude. But much worse was to follow. Except for Civil Aviation Minister Arif Mohammed Khan, who flew in with the first Air India plane on August 12, who was a gentleman of the old school. <br> <br> It speaks volumes for the Indian government's perspective and contingency planning under I K Gujral and the foreign secretary that it held the only conference of Indian ambassadors in the region to discuss the refugee problem and international political developments just a few days before the deadline for Iraq's withdrawal on January 15. <br> <br> Now the US, with support from the UK, is threatening a war and regime change in Iraq. If it takes place, it will be a terribly messy affair, overflowing if not involving neighboring Turkey and the Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, which is also under scrutiny and attack by the hawks in the US administration. Unlike 1990-91, when they were enthusiastic allies, these states are now reluctant to support the US' unilateral action. The gulf region has nearly 5 million Indian workers. The question is, has the Indian government learned from its mistakes, and is it prepared this time around? <br> <br> <b><i>K Gajendra Singh</i></b><i>, Indian ambassador (retired), served as ambassador to Turkey from August 1992 to April 1996. Prior to that, he served terms as ambassador to Jordan, Romania and Senegal.</i> <br> <br> (©2002 Asia Times Online Co, Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact<a href="mailto:content@atimes.com">content@atimes.com</a> for information on our sales and syndication policies.)</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></p></div> Amb. (Retd.) K. Gajendra Singhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10712573815372515430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8661786410920048953.post-56077347714695767072016-01-29T11:13:00.001+05:302016-01-29T11:13:46.635+05:30Re: Akshay Kumar’s Bollywood Great Airlift of 160,000 Indians, not from Kuwait but Amman(Jordan)<div dir="ltr"><br><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><h1 style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:15.8pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><span style="font-size:14.5pt;color:rgb(54,54,54)">Akshay Kumar's Bollywood Great Airlift of 160,000 Indians, not from Kuwait but Amman(Jordan) </span></h1> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <h1 style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:15.8pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><span style="font-size:14.5pt;color:rgb(54,54,54)">Akshay Kumar on Airlift: What India had done in 1990 is not a matter of joke</span></h1> <h2 style="margin-bottom:4.15pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><span style="font-family:roboto,serif">Directed by Raja Menon, Airlift is about those 1,70,000 Indians stranded in Kuwait when Saddam Hussein invaded the country in 1990, and kick-started the Gulf War.</span><span style="font-size:18pt;font-family:roboto,serif"></span></h2> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/bollywood/news/Akshay-Kumar-Felt-pain-of-refugees-during-Airlift-shooting/articleshow/50562870.cms" target="_blank"><span><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;text-decoration:none">Akshay Kumar: Felt pain of refugees during 'Airlift' shooting</span></span></a></span></p> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tbody><tr> <td nowrap style="padding:0in"> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(153,153,153)">Times of India</span></span><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(153,153,153)"></span></p> </td> <td nowrap style="padding:0in 2.5pt 0in 0in"> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(153,153,153)"> -</span></span><span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(153,153,153)"> </span></span><span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(153,153,153)">34 minutes ago</span></span><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(153,153,153)"></span></p> </td> <td style="padding:0in 2.5pt 0in 0in"> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="margin-left:3.35pt"> <tbody><tr style="height:6.65pt"> <td width="12" style="width:7.1pt;padding:0in 0.4pt;height:6.65pt"></td> <td width="12" style="width:7.1pt;padding:0in 0.4pt;height:6.65pt"></td> <td width="12" style="width:7.1pt;padding:0in 0.4pt;height:6.65pt"></td> <td width="12" style="width:7.1pt;padding:0in 0.4pt;height:6.65pt"></td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt">Actor Akshay Kumar says he felt the pain that refugees went through during the filming of his forthcoming movie 'Airlift', based on evacuation of Indians from Kuwait during the Iraq-Kuwait war.----</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">At the Delhi press conference of the film, Akshay Kumar had a snippet or two to share about his latest patriotic venture, Airlift. Talking about the ideology behind the film, Akshay told reporters,</span><span><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:roboto,serif;color:rgb(115,115,115);background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"> </span></span><i><span style="font-size:12pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">"Is film ka nazariya yeh hai ki hum dikahana chahte hai - dikhana kya, yeh hakikat mein hai</span></i><span><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:roboto,serif;color:rgb(115,115,115);background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">- India is the greatest country in the world. This is a real story of what happened to 1,70,000 Indians who were in Kuwait when Saddam Hussein had attacked the country in 1990. They didn't know where to go, what to do and had only one hope: calling out to their nation for help. And</span><span><i><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:roboto,serif;color:rgb(115,115,115);background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"> </span></i></span><i><span style="font-size:12pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">aapko yeh jaanke khushi hogi ki hamare jo Air India ke pilots hai unhone uss time risk uthaya and 488 flights (Kuwait ke) andar lekar gaye aur sabko bachake le aaye</span></i><span style="font-size:12pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">. This is why I chose to do this film."</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"> </span></p> <h2><span style="font-size:6.5pt;font-family:roboto,serif;color:rgb(115,115,115);background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"> </span></h2> <h2>INDIAN CITIZEN'S COMMITTEE</h2> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b>Patron H.E ; Prem Singh </b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b> Ambassador of India</b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b>Chairman: H.S, Vedi</b></p> <h2><span style="font-weight:normal">Vice Chairman: Raman Sharma</span></h2> <p class="MsoNormal"><b>Secretary: Mathew Kurvilla</b></p> <div style="border-style:none none solid;border-bottom-color:windowtext;border-bottom-width:1pt;padding:0in 0in 1pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="border:none;padding:0in"><b>Treasurer: Abraham Mathew</b><span lang="EN-GB"></span></p> </div> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12pt"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt">To ; Shri P.V. Narsimha Roa ,.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"> Prime Minister of India , </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"> South Block.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"> N. Delhi</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11pt">INDIAN CITIZEN'S COMMITTEE</span></b><span style="font-size:11pt"> which was formed on the dusty evening of 2nd Aug. 1990 </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt">the day of lraqi brutal invasion of' Kuwait met in the afternoon of Friday the 1st April 1994 at its </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt">office in Shaab Kuwait and unanimously passed thc attached resolution.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt">Sd-</span><span style="font-size:11pt"></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt">H.S Vcdi </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt">Chairman I.C.C</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt">2nd April I994..</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span>C.C</p> <p class="MsoNormal">1. Shri Dinesh Singh E.A.M, N. Delhi</p> <p class="MsoNormal">2. Shri Salman Khursheed M.E A - N: Delhi </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="DE">3. Shri K. Sri Niwasun F.S - N. Delhi</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">4. Secretary to President of India - N. Delhi</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt">Issued 4/4/9</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span><b><span style="font-size:14pt">Resolution By Indian Citizen's </span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:14pt"> Committee Kuwait On 1st April 1994</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt">We are extremely happy to have with us today H.E. Gajendra Singh presently Indian ambassador to Turkey, who is one of the few persons who will long be remembered in our minds and recorded in the history of evacuation of Indian citizens of Kuwait for his long dedicated and unstinted services during the dark and black days of vicious Iraqi occupation of Kuwait when he was to our good luck stationed in Amman as our Indian Ambassador.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt">During the seven months long period from Aug. 1990 to March 1991, the Indian Embassy in Amman under his unflinching leadership imbued with compassion for the plight of Indian evacuees that went beyond the call of duty, in the Herculean task of arranging transport for Indian citizens of Kuwait from the Iraqi Jordanian border, some times even from Baghdad, upto Amman to a distance of over 250 KM and refugee camps, reception and migration for citizens etc. at the border and in Amman, boarding , loading in Amman upto mid Sept. 1990 till international Agencies established refugee camps and finally making sure that our citizens reached India safely. It took nearly six hundred air flights including 420 Air India Flights, an aviation history record to evacuate nearly 140,000 Indian citizens from Amman.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt">Ambassador Singh stuck to his duties even during the war days of Jan/Feb, 1991, evacuating thousand of Indian citizens including nurses, under most trying and dangerous conditions.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt">We the members of the Indian Citizens Committee in Kuwait express our sincere thanks and gratitude to you for shouldering such enormous responsibilities under tremendous physical and functional tensions, working round the clock for months without any break during this period.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt">We had noted with satisfaction that your services and those of your colleagues were widely acclaimed in lndian media including Times of lndia, Indian Express, India To day etc. and even in the international media. The Crown Prince of Jordan, the foreign Minister of Bhutan, International Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and other organizations, praised the remarkable work "of the Indian Embassy in Amman.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt">We have, therefore, learnt with great sorrow and anguish that the Govt. of India instead decorating you for your services, have instead punished you in 1992 and 1993 on the basis of</span></p> <p><span lang="EN-GB">false allegations. We firmly believe and request the Government of India to undo this grave miscarriage of justice and accord you the reward and acclaim which you so surely deserve.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt">We also are reminded of your meetings with many of us with severe mental, physical tension, sick and dead where you kindly attention and services were of great solace.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt">We also are aware that had the Govt. of Indian then fully complied with your recommendations, the operation of refugee exodus would have been much smoother.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt">We also note with utter shame that so called national leaders of that time displayed utter ignorance and incompetence and arrogance in dealing with the situation and further making unforgivable statements in foreign countries . Their graceless behavior left a very bad impression with Jordanian leaders.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt">We recommend a high level enquiry to the Mismanagement of evacuation Sub-committee of Ministry of External Affairs.</span><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt">----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">P.O.Box 23228 Safat, Kuwait 13093 </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Tel: 2624719 - Fax 2623124 </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></p> <h2><span style="font-size:14pt;font-weight:normal">NEXT DAY KUWAIT TIMES ,WHILE COVERING THIS MEETING HEADLINED IT AS' </span><u><span style="font-size:14pt">INDIANS" WELCOME WAR HERO ( INDIAN AMBASSADOR IN AMMAN AND HIS STAFF )</span></u><span style="font-size:14pt;font-weight:normal">, ONLY WITH TWO OFFICERS TO BEGIN WITH) </span></h2> <h2><span style="font-size:14pt;font-weight:normal"> </span></h2> <h2><span style="font-weight:normal"> </span></h2> <h1 style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"> FOUNDATION FOR INDO-TURKIC STUDIES </span></h1> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12pt">Tel/Fax ; 004016374602 Amb (Rtd) K Gajendra Singh </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12pt"> Emails; <a href="mailto:Gajendrak@hotmail.com" target="_blank">Gajendrak@hotmail.com</a> Flat No 5, 3<sup>rd</sup> Floor </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12pt"> KGSingh@Yahoo.com 9, Sos Cotroceni,</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"> Web site <a href="http://W3.geocities.com/Kgsngh" target="_blank">W3.geocities.com/Kgsngh</a> Bucharest (Romania ).</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"> 12 December, 2002</span><span style="font-size:12pt"></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12pt">ASIA</span></b><b><span style="font-size:12pt"> TIMES </span></b><span style="font-size:12pt">online –December 13, 2002<strong><span style="color:black;font-weight:normal"></span></strong></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black;font-weight:normal"> </span></strong></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style="font-size:11pt;color:red"> </span></strong></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style="font-size:12pt;color:red">AMBASSADOR'S JOURNAL</span></strong><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:red"><br> </span></b><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/DL13Df01.html" target="_blank"><strong><span style="color:rgb(0,51,153);text-decoration:none">Gulf crisis: Lessons from 1991</span></strong><b><span style="color:rgb(0,51,153)"><br> </span></b></a><strong>K Gajendra Singh,</strong> who was stationed in Amman as India's ambassador to Jordan during the Gulf crisis of 1990-91, recalls the frantic efforts and bureaucratic bungling in handling the flood of Indian refugee workers from the troubled region. And he ponders whether the Indian government is any better prepared this time around. Ed<strong><span style="color:black"></span></strong></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style="font-size:12pt;color:red"> </span></strong></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style="font-size:12pt;color:red">AMBASSADOR'S JOURNAL</span></strong><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:red"><br> </span></b><strong><span style="font-size:16pt;color:black">Gulf crisis: Lessons from 1991</span></strong><strong><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black;font-weight:normal"> <a href="http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/DL13Df01.html" target="_blank">http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/DL13Df01.html</a></span></strong></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><br> </span><span style="font-size:12pt">By K Gajendra Singh </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt">Dinner on January 15, 1991, at the Indian embassy residence in Amman, the capital of Jordan, turned out to be a much bigger affair than I had bargained for. On January 1, I had casually asked US Ambassador Roger Harrison if he would be free for dinner on the 15th, the deadline given by the coalition led by US President George H W Bush to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to withdraw from Kuwait, which he had invaded in August 1990.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt">When Roger said yes, apart from senior Jordanian officials, journalists and others, I also invited ambassadors from the countries represented in the Security Council, my human shield against the coalition attack, as I jokingly remarked. Soon word went round and everyone wanted to join in, and suddenly 70 guests were expected.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt">I had to dust off ceremonial and personal crockery and cutlery, and set up bridge tables and garden chairs to seat them all. I also had to borrow my cook's TV so that guests could watch King Hussein deliver a stirring speech on Jordanian TV as many were already watching the latest news from Israeli TV. CNN had not yet reached Amman. Guests were sprawled on sofas and wandering through my study and bedrooms. When King Hussein heard about this unusual get together, he remarked that only an ambassador from India could have thought of such a dinner. A great compliment indeed. <br> <br> Most embassies in Amman had already sent their families home and were functioning on skeleton staff. The cook at the Chinese embassy, though, was considered essential, and understandably, as I have never eaten such tasty Chinese food. There were regular meetings among ambassadors. Tony, the British envoy, would turn up on odd occasions for a spot of bridge to take our minds off the mounting tension. No politics, we had agreed. Once, he got me three down doubled (a rare thing). Tony was delighted, "I do not care if Saddam wins now," he teased. His armed bodyguard would watch TV with my cook, sharing <i>samosas</i>. The Romanian ambassador handed out gas masks designed for oil drilling while the Chinese loaded me with various safety devices to counter poisonous biological attacks. But I used to show them the strong life line on my hand and say that nothing untoward was indicated. <br> <br> The worst case nightmare for the coalition was that a few germ-loaded Iraqi Scuds (which we could see over the Amman sky cruising towards Israel) would kill a few hundred Israelis, and even the presence of senior US officials stationed in Israel to restrain them would not have stopped the Israelis from joining in the fray and directly marching to Iraq, the first stop being Amman. In the event of that happening, the coalition, almost a mini-UN force, with Pakistani, Egyptian and even Syrian and other Muslim troops in it for the money and other considerations, would have been impossible to hold together. <br> <br> In this contingency, Western diplomats were to rush to the desert southeast of Amman, from where helicopters would ferry them to war ships positioned in the Gulf of Aqaba, cruising there to enforce the embargo against Iraq. The embassy Indians, though, were to remain in Amman as the ministry in New Delhi could not accommodate the families in its hostels. So our plan was to get into our cars and speed north, if we could, for shelter with the Indian ambassador and his colleagues in Damascus, the capital of Syria. <br> <br> Having seen rich Indians from Kuwait reduced to sharing or fighting for food or a bottle of water with their workers in the infamous Shalan camp on the way from Kuwait to Jordan via Iraq, the only thing worth saving, I used to say, were my 10 favorite and priceless long-playing records. Only Jordan had kept its borders open with Iraq, so Amman was the only point for entry and exit from Iraq. <br> <br> Meanwhile, during the evening of January 15, there was an atmosphere of great gaiety and excitement, with adrenaline levels running high after months of anxiety. Apart from sharing an historic evening and exchanging the latest news, everyone was dying to see my collection of LPs. Among them were; Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Amir Ali Khan, Beethoven, Strauss, Chopin and Mozart. But only Lata Mangeshkar had two LPs in this set, and people were asking who she was. I had to tell them she was one of India's all-time great singers and she had sent me two autographed records (Geeta and Ghazals) after a meeting in 1974 in Paris, where I was then posted. My family and I, aware that she sang only light music, and fearful that thousands of people might be about to die, put on the funereal Requiem. But animated and absorbed in conversation, few heard it. But Roger did, and we both became very sad. <br> <br> The grand coalition attack on Iraqi forces did not begin that night. It came the next day, January 16, actually in the early hours of the 17th. Despite requests to all journalists to inform us immediately, and a pact with other ambassadors to inform each other, my son Tinoo from New York was the first to telephone me at 00210 hrs (LST) on January 17, and tell me that the attack on Iraq had commenced. Only just woken up, I queried how the hell did he know. CNN, he said. Soon journalists from the Jordan Times and others followed with calls. No wonder that world presidents and others confess that they learn about world events first from CNN. It takes too long for secret messages to be coded and decoded in the chancelleries. <br> <br> <b><i>August 2, 1990</i></b><b><i>:</i> The Gulf crisis begins<br> </b>It all began on August 2, 1990. A day earlier, I had been in the Nabatean pink city of Petra, in the south of Jordan, some 262 kilometers from Amman, once the stronghold of the gifted Nabateans, an early Arab people. The Victorian traveler and poet, Dean Burgeon, gave Petra a description that holds to this day, "Match me such a marvel save in Eastern clime, a rose red city half as old as time." <br> <br> After a morning visit to the sprawling ruins, just before going for lunch at the hotel restaurant, as per habit, I switched on the BBC news. The news of Iraqi troops entering Kuwait shocked me out of my reveries of the magnificent pink Hazane (treasury ) monument that suddenly comes into view as one rides through a narrow gorge. Truly a marvelous sight. Although Baghdad was 1,200 kilometers from Amman and Kuwait even farther, after three decades in diplomacy I instinctively felt that something was seriously amiss. The next morning I returned to Amman, although I had planned to explore Petra at leisure. <br> <br> Yes, tension had been building up between Kuwait and Iraq, but an invasion was not on the cards; after all, inter-Arab tensions are not exactly uncommon. The last round of negotiations between Iraq and Kuwait in Jeddah over disputed territory had collapsed on August 1, and Saddam Hussein was incensed, feeling squeezed. Instead of being grateful, Kuwait, with encouragement from the West, was insisting on the repayment of "loans", and it was flooding the oil market, thus lowering the price of a barrel of oil from US$18 to $12 to $14, which hurt Iraq the most. <br> <br> Saddam also felt that he had saved the Arab Gulf states, many with large Shi'ite populations, from the fury of the Shi'ite revolution in Iran, for which he had been lauded by the Arab masses and governments, and gifted billions of dollars and friendly loans. Western nations, notably the United Kingdom, France and even the US, granted him credit, dual use of technology, chemicals and machinery and even aerial intelligence on Iranian forces. <br> <br> And of course there remains the mystery and enigma of the full details of the last meeting between the US ambassador to Iraq, April Glaspie, and Saddam in Baghdad on July 25, when she told Saddam that his dispute with Kuwait was a bilateral Arab matter. Glaspie then disappeared from public view, and was barred from giving interviews or writing a book. The Western media did not pursue her as they do others, and with a few exceptions the media have subsequently functioned as a handmaiden of the Pentagon and Western spokesmen. <br> <br> In the first week of August, there were hectic international political developments, with King Hussein of Jordan playing an active and constructive role in trying to defuse Iraqi aggression with an Arab solution, with help from Saudi and Egyptian leaders. There have been various versions of these events, but it appears that the US finally prevailed on President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, so dependent on US aid, and he fell into line. <br> <br> On returning to Delhi in 1984 after six years, having headed missions in Dakar (Senegal) and Bucharest (Romania), I served as chairman-managing director of the Indian Drugs and Pharmaceuticals company, with 13,000 personnel in five units, and established the Foreign Service Training Institute in New Delhi. So my posting in July 1989 to Amman, with only a first secretary and an attache, was considered a light mission. So in Amman my bridge game improved, but I was getting <i>distrait</i> - bored - as the French would say. But this was only the lull before the storm. <br> <br> From India's point of view, the serious issue was the safety of its foreign workers - about 180,000 in Kuwait and 10,000 in Iraq. By early August they had started to trickle into Amman as refugees. The earliest batches were mostly Indian Hajis - pilgrims to Mecca - a thousand odd, who had been stranded as Air India flights to Iraq and back had been cancelled after August 2. After Mecca, many Hajis, specially Shi'ites, go on a pilgrimage to the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala in neighboring Iraq. <br> <br> But soon the numbers of refugees from Kuwait reaching the Amman embassy started growing. In the beginning, whatever the time of the day or night, the small Indian staff of half a dozen would rush to make tea or buy food to make the tired Indian arrivals feel at home. In the evening, the embassy would telephone that two or three more buses had arrived from Baghdad - 100 or 150 Indians. This meant arranging places to stay, and providing food until air transport to India could be arranged. Soon the staff were exhausted, but their dedication and that of others who were deputed to help the embassy later, barring a few black sheep, never flagged. <br> <br> There were more frequent meetings between ambassadors. I would see Crown Prince Hassan and other important persons to assess the political situation and its likely impact on the influx of refugees. In between, I made a few trips to the Jordan-Iraq border, where there was little in terms of facilities and infrastructure. But we had still not envisaged the deluge that was to hit us. <br> <br> Soon, Amman became vital as it was the only point of access to Baghdad by air, road or telephone. Apart from short telephone contacts allowed between me and the Indian ambassador in Baghdad (the Indian ambassador to Kuwait had shifted to Basra), Iraq and Kuwait were effectively cut off from the world. So, with other countries closing their borders, apart from the refugee flood, Amman became the staging point for international politicians and others visiting Iraq. Soon, too, Amman was crawling with international media. <br> <br> Because of more than half of Jordan's population being of Palestinian origin and Yasser Arafat's full reciprocal support to Saddam, and Amman's close relations with Iraq, there were regular demonstrations in Amman in support of Saddam and Iraq. Jordan TV gave the Iraqi viewpoint, which was drowned elsewhere by anti-Saddam rhetoric spread by the Western media. For us, the Western viewpoint was available from Israeli TV, across the Jordan Valley 40 kilometers away. It was necessary to keep a watch on political developments to help assess their impact on the influx of refugees. <br> <br> Jordan had only a small Indian community, mostly workers earning barely $75 to $100 per month, hoping to migrate to better-paying Gulf states. We hired some of them to help us out. Only a few families were well off, but I regret to say that we were let down. In the first week of refugee arrivals, before we had assessed the situation, we requested one family completing a big project to put a van at our disposal. This was refused. We requested another Indian who had an empty warehouse to let us use it to temporarily house the refugees. He also refused. In countries like Saudi Arabia or Iran or Turkey, where only a few thousand refugees in all went in the first few days, there was full support from the well-organized and large Indian communities. Soon, we started hiring whatever accommodation we could find in hotels and flats, and making arrangements for food. <br> <br> Nearly a million refugees, a majority from Egypt, mostly working in Iraq, and Yemenis and others transited through Jordan, a country of less than 4 million. It was the equivalent of 200 million refugees wading through India and using its infrastructure. There was pressure on accommodation, food and transport and decisions had to be taken on the spot. Apart from morning and evening policy sessions with my colleagues, I would invite them by turn for a meal to maintain espirit de corps and I tried to make their living conditions as smooth as possible. They were working 14 to 18 hours every day, many even when ill and down with fever. The main stress was on patience against all provocation from the refugees, who, while they had been silent while in Kuwait or Iraq, started shouting and abusing once they saw Indian embassy personnel. As the majority of the refugees were from Kerala in India, four officers who had come to assist us had to pretend that they did not understand the abuses showered on them in Malyali. Some of our personnel were even assaulted and embassy cars stoned by tired and jittery Indian refugees. On many occasions the Jordan police had to step in. <br> <br> The Indian government did not appreciate the gravity of the situation and gave us too little too late. In a fast-changing situation, when I requested Delhi to depute more staff, they quoted back the previous week's telegram. They even sent a junior officer to study the situation, who, on arrival, appeared more interested in visiting Petra. We had to carry out the evacuation as per normal rules designed for a few or 50 or even 100-odd stranded Indians abroad. We had to follow them, even though three to four thousand Indians per day were flying out on 10 to 15 Air India and International Movement Organization (IMO) flights. This included making them sign indemnity bonds and providing individual tickets. Despite my pleas, these superfluous formalities were not done away with. It meant queuing up for registration, air tickets and the return of forms etc, by tired and hungry refugees, even when there were up to 8,000 of them in Amman. <br> <br> Once the evacuation was over, the government of India did decide to waive the indemnity ie repayment of the cost of the ticket. In 106 charity flights organized for Indians by the IOM, the only formality was the registration of the passengers in the flight manifest with passport details, etc. Without time-consuming and unnecessary formalities, the refugees would have been saved much stress and strain and my colleagues (15 to 25 at the peak ), who had to be at the embassy, hotels, apartment blocks, airports, border points and even in no man's land, could have devoted more time to looking after the comforts of the evacuees. <br> <br> External Affairs Minister Inder Kumar Gujral, during his transit stay in Amman in early August 1990 on the way to his famous hug with Saddam Hussein in Baghdad and the "Millionaire's flight" in an Indian Air Force aircraft from Kuwait, as the media described it, appeared curiously reluctant to meet King Hussein and Crown Prince Hassan. They received him with great warmth and brought him up to date on the situation, of which he appeared to have little grasp. Later, a non-professional Indian diplomat was sent to Amman by Gujral, who wanted to be included with King Hussein and King Hassan of Morocco, then planning to take a peace mission to Saddam. The Hashemite palace was most embarrassed. Gujral made extravagant promises to Indians in Kuwait, such as flying them out from Basra and Baghdad, with planes waiting for them. In my office, Gujral told waiting Indian refugees that they would get air tickets for their home towns on arrival in Bombay. All they got were the lowest class train tickets. He was making extravagant promises as if he were fighting a parliamentary election. <br> <br> To overcome the staff shortage problem at the embassy on a permanent basis, Gujral, in consultation with the Foreign Secretary Muchkund Dubey, selected an officer. But that officer never reached Amman to assist "people like us". Gujral kept shouting at everyone in Amman until he left for Baghdad, much to the disgust of the officers and staff who had just started trickling in from India to assist us in our monumental task, which even we had not envisaged. Gujral appeared to be edgy, short-tempered and rude. But much worse was to follow. Except for Civil Aviation Minister Arif Mohammed Khan, who flew in with the first Air India plane on August 12, who was a gentleman of the old school. <br> <br> It speaks volumes for the Indian government's perspective and contingency planning under I K Gujral and the foreign secretary that it held the only conference of Indian ambassadors in the region to discuss the refugee problem and international political developments just a few days before the deadline for Iraq's withdrawal on January 15. <br> <br> Now the US, with support from the UK, is threatening a war and regime change in Iraq. If it takes place, it will be a terribly messy affair, overflowing if not involving neighboring Turkey and the Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, which is also under scrutiny and attack by the hawks in the US administration. Unlike 1990-91, when they were enthusiastic allies, these states are now reluctant to support the US' unilateral action. The gulf region has nearly 5 million Indian workers. The question is, has the Indian government learned from its mistakes, and is it prepared this time around? <br> <br> <b><i>K Gajendra Singh</i></b><i>, Indian ambassador (retired), served as ambassador to Turkey from August 1992 to April 1996. Prior to that, he served terms as ambassador to Jordan, Romania and Senegal.</i> <br> <br> (©2002 Asia Times Online Co, Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact<a href="mailto:content@atimes.com" target="_blank">content@atimes.com</a> for information on our sales and syndication policies.)</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></p></div> </blockquote></div><br></div></div> Amb. (Retd.) K. Gajendra Singhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10712573815372515430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8661786410920048953.post-77425815296667884362015-12-08T21:33:00.001+05:302015-12-08T21:33:21.850+05:30End of Road for Homo sapiens! Slow death or Armageddon<div dir="ltr"><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:22pt"><font face="georgia, serif">End of Road for Homo sapiens! Slow death or Armageddon </font></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:16pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Part1) Apocalyptic Capitalism </font></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:16pt"><font face="georgia, serif">PartII ) World War III: Why Russia will bury the West</font></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Limits to Growth, a study about the future of our planet, on behalf of the Club of Rome, worked on systems analysis at Jay W. Forrester's institute at MIT. They created a computing model which took into account the relations between various global developments and produced computer simulations for alternative scenarios. </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Most scenarios resulted in an ongoing growth of population and of the economy until to a turning point around 2030. Only drastic measures for environmental protection proved to be suitable to change this systems behaviour, and only under these circumstances, scenarios could be calculated in which both world population and wealth could remain at a constant level. However, so far the necessary political measures were not taken.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">This is not likely to happen.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Major cities like Beijing, Delhi, Paris and others are more or less gas chambers. </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Of course West wants others ie East and South to make sacrifices? Both China and India want to catch up with the West. Why not.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">The situation can only get worse.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">The world was saved by Russian Naval officer from minor Armageddon in Cuban water in 1962.Since then there have been many misses.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">In both the scenarios US led west are the Culprits. Destruction is US DNA ever since Europeans arrived there.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">I have come to this sad and depressing conclusion based on study of international situation, for 35 years as a diplomat and then as a journalist and have written over three hundred articles, which have been translated into 12 major languages of the world.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"><a href="http://tarafits.blogspot.in/2014/02/amb-rtd-k-gajendra-singh-cv-post.html">http://tarafits.blogspot.in/2014/02/amb-rtd-k-gajendra-singh-cv-post.html</a></font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:18pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><span style="font-size:18pt;color:black">Apocalyptic Capitalism<br> <br> </span></b><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">By Chris Hedges</span></b><span style="font-size:12pt"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif"><a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article43636.htm">http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article43636.htm</a></font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">December 08, 2015 "<a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/"><span style="text-decoration:none">Information Clearing House</span></a>" - "<a href="http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/apocalyptic_capitalism_20151206"><span style="text-decoration:none">Truthdig</span></a>" - The charade of the <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-34953626" target="_blank">21st United Nations climate summit</a> will end, as past climate summits have ended, with lofty rhetoric and ineffectual cosmetic reforms. Since the first summit more than 20 years ago, carbon dioxide emissions have soared. Placing faith in our political and economic elites, who have mastered the arts of duplicity and propaganda on behalf of corporate power, is the triumph of hope over experience. There are only a few ways left to deal honestly with climate change: sustained civil disobedience that disrupts the machinery of exploitation; preparing for the inevitable dislocations and catastrophes that will come from irreversible rising temperatures; and cutting our personal carbon footprints, which means drastically reducing our consumption, particularly of animal products.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">"Our civilization," <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Richard-A.-Oppenlander/e/B0081KQ3E8" target="_blank">Dr. Richard Oppenlander</a> writes in "Food Choice and Sustainability, "displays a curious instinct when confronted with a problem related to overconsumption—we simply find a way to produce more of what it is we are consuming, instead of limiting or stopping that consumption."</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">The global elites have no intention of interfering with the profits, or ending government subsidies, for the fossil fuel industry and the extraction industries. They will not curtail extraction or impose hefty carbon taxes to keep fossil fuels in the ground. They will not limit the overconsumption that is the engine of global capitalism. They act as if the greatest contributor of greenhouse gases—the animal agriculture industry—does not exist. They siphon off trillions of dollars and employ scientific and technical expertise—expertise that should be directed toward preparing for environmental catastrophe and investing in renewable energy—to wage endless wars in the Middle East. What they airily hold out as a distant solution to the crisis—wind turbines and solar panels—is, as the scientist <a href="http://www.jameslovelock.org/key1.html" target="_blank">James Lovelock</a> says, the equivalent of 18th-century doctors attempting to cure serious diseases with leeches and mercury. And as the elites mouth platitudes about saving the climate they are shoving still another trade agreement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), down our throats. The TPP permits corporations to ignore nonbinding climate accords made at conferences such as the one in Paris, and it allows them, in secret trade tribunals, to defy environmental regulations imposed by individual states.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">New technology—fracking, fuel-efficient vehicles or genetically modified food—is not about curbing overconsumption or conserving resources. It is about ensuring that consumption continues at unsustainable levels. Technological innovation, employed to build systems of greater and greater complexity, has fragmented society into cadres of specialists. The expertise of each of these specialists is limited to a small section of the elaborate technological, scientific and bureaucratic machinery that drives corporate capitalism forward—much as in the specialized bureaucratic machinery that defined the genocide carried out by the Nazis. These technocrats are part of the massive, unthinking hive that makes any system work, even a system of death. They lack the intellectual and moral capacity to question the doomsday machine spawned by global capitalism. And they are in control.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Civilizations careening toward collapse create ever more complex structures, and more intricate specialization, to exploit diminishing resources. But eventually the resources are destroyed or exhausted. The systems and technologies designed to exploit these resources become useless. Economists call such a phenomenon the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox" target="_blank">"Jevons paradox."</a> The result is systems collapse.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">In the wake of collapses, as evidenced throughout history, societies fragment politically, culturally and socially. They become failed states, bleak and desolate outposts where law and order break down, and there is a mad and often violent scramble for the basic necessities of life. Barbarism reigns.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">"Only the strong survive; the weak are victimized, robbed, and killed," the anthropologist Joseph Tainter writes in "The Collapse of Complex Societies." "There is fighting for food and fuel. Whatever central authority remains lacks the resources to reimpose order. Bands of pitiful, maimed survivors scavenge among the ruins of grandeur. Grass grows in the streets. There is no higher goal than survival."</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">The elites, trained in business schools and managerial programs not to solve real problems but to maintain at any cost the systems of global capitalism, profit personally from the assault. They amass inconceivable sums of wealth while their victims, the underclasses around the globe, are thrust into increasing distress from global warming, poverty and societal breakdown. The apparatus of government, seized by this corporate cabal, is hostile to genuine change. It passes laws, as it did for Denton, Texas, after <a href="http://www.star-telegram.com/news/business/barnett-shale/article24627469.html" target="_blank">residents voted to outlaw fracking</a> in their city, to overturn the ability of local communities to control their own resources. It persecutes dissidents, along with environmental and animal rights activists, who try to halt the insanity. The elites don't work for us. They don't work for the planet. They orchestrate the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia_hypothesis" target="_blank">gaiacide</a>. And they are well paid for it.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">The Anthropocene Age—the age of humans, which has caused mass extinctions of plant and animal species and the pollution of the soil, air and oceans—is upon us. The pace of destruction is accelerating. Climate scientists say that sea levels, for example, are rising three times faster than predicted and that the Arctic ice is vanishing at rates that were unforeseen. "If carbon dioxide concentrations reach 550 ppm," writes Clive Hamilton in "Requiem for a Species," "after which emissions fell to zero, the global temperature would continue to rise for at least another century." We have already passed 400 parts per million, a figure not seen on earth for 3 million to 5 million years. We are on track to reach at least 550 ppm by 2100.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">The breakdown of the planet, many predict, will be nonlinear, meaning that various systems that sustain life—as Tainter chronicles in his study of collapsed civilizations—will disintegrate simultaneously. The infrastructures that distribute food, supply our energy, ensure our security, produce and transport our baffling array of products, and maintain law and order will crumble at once. It won't be much fun: Soaring temperatures. Submerged island states and coastal cities. Mass migrations. Species extinction. Monster storms. Droughts. Famines. Declining crop yields. And a security and surveillance apparatus, along with militarized police, that will employ harsher and harsher methods to cope with the chaos. </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">We have to let go of our relentless positivism, our absurd mania for hope, and face the bleakness of reality before us. To resist means to acknowledge that we are living in a world already heavily damaged by global warming. It means refusing to participate in the destruction of the planet. It means noncooperation with authority. It means defying in every way possible consumer capitalism, militarism and imperialism. It means adjusting our lifestyle, including what we eat, to thwart the forces bent upon our annihilation.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">The animal agriculture industry has, in a staggering act of near total censorship, managed to stifle public discussion about the industry's complicity in global warming. It is barely mentioned in climate summits. Yet livestock and their byproducts, as Kip Andersen and Keegan Kuhn point out in their book, "The Sustainability Secret," and their documentary, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3302820/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1" target="_blank">"Cowspiracy,"</a> account for at least 32,000 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO<sub>2</sub>) per year, or 51 percent of all worldwide greenhouse gas emissions. Methane and nitrous oxide are rarely mentioned in climate talks, although those two greenhouse gases are, as the authors point out, respectively, 86 times and 296 times more destructive than carbon dioxide. Cattle, worldwide, they write, produce 150 billion gallons of methane daily. And 65 percent of the nitrous oxide produced by human-related activities is caused by the animal agriculture industry. Water used in fracking, they write, ranges from 70 billion to 140 billion gallons annually. Animal agriculture water consumption, the book notes, ranges from 34 trillion to 76 trillion gallons annually. Raising animals for human consumption takes up to 45 percent of the planet's land. Ninety-one percent of the deforestation of the Amazon rain forest and up to 80 percent of global rain forest loss are caused by clearing land for the grazing of livestock and growing feed crops for meat and dairy animals. As more and more rain forest disappears, the planet loses one of its primary means to safely sequester carbon dioxide. The animal agriculture industry is, as Andersen and Kuhn write, also a principal cause of species extinction and the creation of more than 95,000 square miles of nitrogen-flooded dead zones in the oceans.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">A person who eats a vegan diet, they point out, a diet free of meat, dairy and eggs, saves 1,100 gallons of water, 45 pounds of grain, 30 square feet of forested land, 20 pounds CO<sub>2</sub> equivalent, and one animal's life every day.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">The animal agriculture industry has pushed through <a href="https://www.aspca.org/animal-cruelty/factory-farms/what-ag-gag-legislation" target="_blank">"Ag-Gag" laws</a> in many states that criminalize protests, critiques of the industry, and whistleblowing attempts to bring the public's attention to the staggering destruction wrought on the environment by the business of raising 70 billion land animals every year worldwide to be exploited and consumed by humans. And they have done so, I presume, because defying the animal agriculture industry is as easy as deciding not to put animal products—which have tremendous, scientifically proven health risks—into your mouth.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">We have little time left. Those who are despoiling the earth do so for personal gain, believing they can use their privilege to escape the fate that will befall the human species. We may not be able to stop the assault. But we can refuse to abet it. The idols of power and greed, as the biblical prophets warned us, threaten to doom the human race.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Timothy Pachirat recounts in his book, "Every Twelve Seconds: Industrialized Slaughter and the Politics of Sight," an Aug. 5, 2004, story in the Omaha World-Herald. An "old-timer" who lived five miles from the Omaha slaughterhouses recalled the wind carrying the stench of the almost six and a half million cattle, sheep and hogs killed each year in south Omaha. The sickly odor permeated buildings throughout the area.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">"It was the smell of money," the old-timer said. "It was the smell of money."</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">Chris Hedges previously spent nearly two decades as a foreign correspondent in Central America, the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. He has reported from more than 50 countries and has worked for The Christian Science Monitor, National Public Radio, The Dallas Morning News and The New York Times, for which he was a foreign correspondent for 15 years.</span></i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">"The Sustainability Secret," a book quoted in this column, has an introduction by Truthdig columnist Chris Hedges and was ghostwritten by Truthdig's books editor, Eunice Wong.</span></i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:18pt"><font face="georgia, serif">World War III: Why Russia will bury the West</font></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span class=""><b><span style="color:rgb(85,85,85);border:1pt none windowtext;padding:0in">30 November 2015</span></b></span><span class=""><span style="color:rgb(85,85,85)"> </span></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class=""><span style="color:rgb(85,85,85)"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><span style="font-size:14pt"> If a global war breaks out, here are the key factors that could decide the outcome in Russia's favour</span></b><i><span style="font-size:18pt;color:rgb(85,85,85)">.</span></i></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><a href="http://in.rbth.com/blogs/stranger_than_fiction/2015/11/30/world-war-iii-why-rusia-will-bury-the-west_545807">http://in.rbth.com/blogs/stranger_than_fiction/2015/11/30/world-war-iii-why-rusia-will-bury-the-west_545807</a></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">In June 2014, the Pentagon conducted a "table top" exercise – a sort of war game between Russia and NATO. The scenario was Russian pressure on NATO member Estonia and Latvia. Would NATO be able to defend those countries?</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">"The results were dispiriting," Julia Ioffe</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/09/18/exclusive-the-pentagon-is-preparing-new-war-plans-for-a-baltic-battle-against-russia/" target="_blank">writes</a></span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt">in Foreign Policy. Even if all US and NATO troops stationed in Europe were dispatched to the Baltics – including the 82nd Airborne, which is supposed to be ready to go on 24 hours' notice – the US would lose.</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">"We just don't have those forces in Europe," explains a senior US general. "Then there's the fact that the Russians have the world's best surface-to-air missiles and are not afraid to use heavy artillery."</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">The Russian 'victory' was not a one-off. The Americans conducted the exercise as many as 16 times, under various scenarios, all favourable to NATO, always with the same conclusion. The Russians were simply invincible.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">In this backdrop, Turkey's rash act of shooting down a Russian Air Force jet portends grave tidings for NATO. Because Turkey is a NATO member, if the Russian Air Force pounds the living daylight out of the Turks, at least in theory all the other members of the US-led military bloc are treaty-bound to come to its defence.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Although the chances that the Americans will risk New York for Istanbul are smaller than small – which leaves a very nervous Turkey on its own – one can never rule out the possibility of a NATO hothead wanting to attack Russia.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">A nuclear exchange will undoubtedly have catastrophic consequences for both sides – and perhaps the entire planet – but there are certain factors that could skew the fighting field in Russia's favour.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></strong></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><strong><span style="font-size:12pt">Megaton capability</span></strong><span style="font-size:12pt"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">According to data exchanged on October 1, 2014 by Moscow and Washington, Russia has 1,643 deployed strategic warheads, compared with 1,642 for the US. Marginal difference in numbers but Russian land-based strategic forces have an explosive yield that is an order of magnitude greater than anything in the US armoury.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Moscow's primary deterrent weapon is the mighty SS-18, a single one of which can destroy an area the size of New York – the state, not just the city. To get an idea of the destructive power of the SS-18, just look at the nuclear weapon the US used to destroy the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. The Hiroshima bomb was a primitive 15 kiloton warhead and yet it wiped out a city of 70,000 in a few seconds. The SS-18 – code named Satan by NATO – carries 10 warheads, each having a yield of 750 to 1000 kiloton). Some of these missiles carry a single 20,000 kiloton warhead – that's 1333 times Hiroshima.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">At the same time, 80 per cent of the American population resides on the eastern and western seaboards, so a few well-aimed nuclear missiles can end all human life in these densely populated coastal strips. Russia has a population only half of the US but it's dispersed widely across the country's massive landmass so that pockets of human inhabitation can survive both a first as well as a second strike.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Russia has another trump card up its sleeve – its supersonic bomber fleet of Tupolev Tu-160s. These Mach 2 plus aircraft can take off from well-defended airbases located deep in the heart of Russia, fly over the North Pole, launch nuclear-tipped cruise missiles from safe standoff distances over the Atlantic, and return home to watch the destruction on CNN.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">That's assuming CNN will be around. For, the Russian strategic bomber fleet can singlehandedly wipe out every major city in the US.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">It is because the Americans know the capability of Russia's nuclear forces that they have tried hard to eliminate the doomsday weapons like the SS-18 through arms limitation talks.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></strong></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><strong><span style="font-size:12pt">Tactical warheads</span></strong><span style="font-size:12pt"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Before the use of strategic weapons, Russia could cripple forward NATO bases with tactical – or battlefield – nukes. Russian military doctrine emphasises the use of small-yield nuclear weapons as a war fighting tool early on in a conflict in order to stun and confuse NATO forces, impacting their ability to think and act coherently.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">After tactical nuclear artillery decimates forward deployed NATO military troops, Russia could deliver small-yield warheads via intermediate range missiles that could devastate the next line of military bases, while limiting civilian casualties. At this point the US would be faced with the option of retaliating with strategic weapons and face a devastating response from Moscow. A good guess is the option won't be used.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">For, no American president would risk a single US city for a dozen European ones. John F. Kennedy didn't risk it in 1962 for the same reason – the loss of even one city was too many.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></strong></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><strong><span style="font-size:12pt">State of US strategic forces</span></strong><span style="font-size:12pt"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">How reliable is the US Strategic Nuclear Command? If you are an American, you won't feel so reassured after reading that Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton both "reportedly lost the launch code cards that presidents are expected to have on them at all times – Clinton for months, according to a former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. Carter allegedly</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/are-we-on-the-verge-of-a-nuclear-breakdown-20150618#ixzz3sqazU2qI" target="_blank">sent</a></span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt">his out with a suit to the cleaners".</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">In any conflict – more so in a high stakes nuclear standoff – morale, training and discipline are key factors. Russian officers who have the job of deciding when and where to aim their nuclear missiles include PhD holders who are required to think on their feet. On the other hand, American personnel who<a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2014/01/16/us/military-nuclear-scandals-timeline/" target="_blank">have the same role</a></span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt">are beset with alcoholism, depression and cheating.</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Nothing can sugar coat the crisis plaguing the US strategic forces. In October 2013, Major General Michael Carey, responsible for the command of 450 nuclear missiles, was fired after drunken behaviour on a visit to Russia. Days earlier, another military officer, Vice Admiral Tim Giardina, with high-level responsibility for the country's nuclear arsenal, was relieved of his duties after he was caught using counterfeit gambling chips at an Iowa casino.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">Think that's frightening? Check this out. A US Air Force general who supported the command mission to provide nuclear forces for the US Strategic Command was an alcoholic.</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.groundreport.com/air-force-general-who-supported-the-command-mission-to-provide-nuclear-forces-for-the-u-s-strategic-command-was-alcoholic-drank-every-day-and-kept-vodka-in-his-desk/" target="_blank">General David C. Uhrich</a> kept a vodka bottle in his desk and repeatedly drank on duty, so much so that another officer told investigators that "if he did not have his alcohol, the wheels would come off".</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">The rot has trickled down to US missileers who have a culture of cheating on competency tests, endangering the readiness off American ICBMs. Again, in February 2014, the US Navy revealed it was looking into allegations that enlisted sailors</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://time.com/8530/are-you-smarter-than-a-nuclear-launch-officer/" target="_blank">cheated on tests</a></span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt">involving the nuclear reactors that power its submarines and aircraft carriers.</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">The US strategic forces are also suffering from systemic neglect, with its ICBM bases in North Dakota and Montana reporting "leaking roofs".</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/are-we-on-the-verge-of-a-nuclear-breakdown-20150618#ixzz3sqeJlCxE" target="_blank">The missileers</a>, who work in blast-proof bunkers located 60 feet underground, are forced to defecate in buckets and urinate in jugs, and bring it all back up at the end of 24 hours. How ready these personnel will be when they have to react to a Russian missile strike is questionable.</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">On the other hand, Russian Strategic Forces are treated as the very elites in the military. The quality of Russian personnel can be deduced from the actions of Russian strategic forces officer Lt Colonel Stanislav Petrov. On September 26, 1983, a Russian early-warning satellite indicated five US nuclear missile launches. Tensions were high between Washington and Moscow after the downing of a South Korean airliner weeks earlier, and Petrov had only minutes to respond. With little additional information to go on, he deemed the readings a false alarm, reasoning that "when people start a war, they don't start it with only five missiles".</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">This is precisely why highly qualified personnel matter. When you're placed squarely in the cross hairs of the enemy's nuclear missiles and you're holed up in a bunker 60 feet below the earth's surface, then nervousness, insomnia and depression are part of your daily life. Unable to cope, less educated personnel will abuse alcohol and drugs and even exhibit criminal behaviour. On the other hand, educated and motivated officers will keep their cool even in the event of a thermonuclear showdown.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">For, a nuclear war may not necessarily involve a quick exchange of ballistic missiles.</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/War-Scare-Russia-America-Nuclear-ebook/dp/B000PY3EUO" target="_blank">According to War Scare</a>: Russia and America on the Nuclear Brink, by Peter Vincent Pry, Director of the US Nuclear Strategy Forum, the Russian Strategic Forces are trained to "launch pre-emptive or retaliatory nuclear strikes, survive a hammer blow from a massive enemy nuclear attack, launch follow-on nuclear strikes, and supervise military operations in a protracted nuclear war, expected to last weeks or months".</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">In such a drawn out, harrowing scenario, Russia's nuclear warfare specialists clearly have the edge.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></strong></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><strong><span style="font-size:12pt">Reflexive Control: Ultimate Weapon</span></strong><span style="font-size:12pt"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Disinformation, camouflage and stratagem are some of the ways one can influence the outcome of a war. The Russians have taken these ancient arts to another level through the use of the theory of Reflexive Control (RC).</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Developed by Russian military strategists in the 1960s, RC aims to convey information to an opponent that would influence them to voluntarily make a decision desired by the initiator of the action. It can be used against either human or computer-based decision-making processors. Russia employs it not only at the strategic and tactical levels in war but also in the geopolitical sphere.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Russian Army Major General M.D. Ionov was among the early proponents of RC, having pursued it since the 1970s. In an article in 1995, he noted that the objective of reflexive control is to force an enemy into making decisions that lead to his defeat by influencing or controlling his decision-making process.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Ionov considers this a form of high art founded of necessity on an intimate knowledge of human thinking and psychology, military history, the roots of the particular conflict, and the capabilities of competing combat assets.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Timothy L. Thomas writes in the Journal of Slavic Studies: "In a war in which reflexive control is being employed, the side with the highest degree of reflex (the side best able to imitate the other side's thoughts or predict its behaviour) will have the best chances of winning. The degree of reflex depends on many factors, the most important of which are analytical capability, general erudition and experience, and the scope of knowledge about the enemy."</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">If successfully achieved, reflexive control over the enemy makes it possible to influence their combat plans, their view of the situation, and how they fight. RC methods are varied and include camouflage (at all levels), disinformation, encouragement, blackmail by force, and the compromising of various officials and officers.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">According to Robert C. Rasmussen of the Center for International Maritime Security, "It is exactly this type of application of Reflexive Control that a young Vladimir Putin would have learned in his early development at the 401st KGB School and in his career as a KGB/FSB officer."</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Because every battle is first fought in the head before a bullet is fired on the ground, Russia's long experience with RC would be a key factor in its existential struggle with the US.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p></div> Amb. (Retd.) K. Gajendra Singhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10712573815372515430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8661786410920048953.post-18954475969513657652015-11-27T01:15:00.001+05:302015-11-27T01:15:30.537+05:30Sultan Erdogan's War on...Russia -Are We Sliding Towards World War<div dir="ltr"><p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><span style="font-size:22pt;color:black">Sultan Erdogan's War on...Russia</span></b><b><span style="font-size:22pt"> -Are We Sliding Towards World War<span style="color:black"></span></span></b></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><em><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></em></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><em><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones": -</span></em><span class=""><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"> </span></i></span><strong><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">Albert Einstein</span></i></strong></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">In 1962, in Cuban waters, a Russian submarine officer averted a nuclear war and a catastrophe between USA and USSR. But with US high like a bull on military industry testosterone, things can go wrong any time and the world will collapse in an Armageddon .US led west and Sunni allies have been destroyed Middle East and North Africa since 2003 .There seems no end to US hubris.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Consider the consequences of Ankara shooting down a Russian jet fighter with contested warning signals .Turkish Sultan President Erdogan with a newly built 500 room palace against all local rules is riding roughshod, with all democratic check and balances having been dismantled,, media and opposition cowed down .He has threatened that his air force after shooting down a Russian jet in the territory of Russian ally Syria could do it again.</font></span></p> <h2><span style="font-size:24pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></h2> <h2><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:24pt;color:black">Sultan Erdogan's War on...Russia</span><span style="font-size:7pt;color:black"></span></font></h2> <h2><span style="font-size:14pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">By Pepe Escobar</font></span></h2> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"><a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article43530.htm">http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article43530.htm</a></font></span></p> <h2><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black;font-weight:normal"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></h2> <h2><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black;font-weight:normal">November 25, 2015 "<a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/">Information Clearing House</a>" - "<a href="http://sputniknews.com/columnists/20151125/1030730838/turkey-erdogan-war-russia.html">Sputnik</a>" -</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black;font-weight:normal">Let's cut to the chase. The notion that Turkey's downing of a Russian Su-24 by a made in USA F-16 was carried out without either a green light or at least pre-arranged "support" from Washington invites suspension of disbelief.</span><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"></span></font></h2> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Turkey is a mere vassal state, the eastern arm of NATO, which is the European arm of the Pentagon. The Pentagon already issued a denial — which, considering their spectacular record of strategic failures cannot be taken at face value. Plausibly, this might have been a power play by the Neocon generals who run the Pentagon, allied with the Neocon-infested Obama administration.</font></span></p> <p><span style="color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">The privileged scenario though is of a vassal Turkey led by Sultan Erdogan risking a suicide mission out of its own, current, desperation.</font></span></p> <p><span style="color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Here's Erdogan's warped reasoning in a nutshell. The Paris tragedy was a huge setback. France started discussing close military collaboration not within NATO, but with Russia. Washington's unstated aim was always to get NATO inside Syria. By having Turkey/NATO — clumsily, inside Syrian territory — attacking Russia, and provoking a harsh Russian response, Erdogan thought he could seduce NATO into Syria, under the pretext (Article 5) of defending Turkey.</font></span></p> <p><span style="color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">As Bay-of-Pigs dangerous as this may be, it has nothing to do with WWIII — as apocalyptic purveyors are braying. It revolves around whether a state which supports/finances/weaponries the Salafi-jihadi nebulae is allowed to destroy the Russian jets that are turning its profitable assets into ashes.</font></span></p> <p><font face="georgia, serif"><strong><span style="color:black">Married to the (Erdogan) Mob</span></strong><span style="color:black"></span></font></p> <p><span style="color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">President Putin nailed it; it was "a shot in the back". Because all evidence is pointing<span class=""> </span><a href="http://sputniknews.com/military/20151124/1030695406/mod-su-24-flight-path.html#ixzz3sRt8zTnY" target="_blank">towards an ambush</a>: the F-16s might have been actually waiting for the Su-24s. With Turkish TV cameras available for maximum global impact.</font></span></p> <p class=""><span style="color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Two Su-24s were getting ready to strike a bunch of "moderate rebels". Ankara says they were Turkmen — which the Turks finance and weaponize. But there is just a small bunch of Turkmen in northern Syria.</font></span></p> <p><span style="color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">The Su-24s were actually after Chechens and Uzbeks — plus a few Uyghurs — smuggled in with fake Turkish passports (Chinese intel is also on it), all of these operating in tandem with a nasty bunch of Turkish Islamo-fascists. Most of these goons transit back and forth between the CIA-weaponized Free Syrian Army (FSA) and Jabhat al-Nusra. These were the goons who machine-gunned the Russian pilots as they parachuted down after the hit on the Su-24.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">The Su-24s posed absolutely no threat to Turkey. Turkish UN Ambassador Halit Cevik's letter to the Security Council is a joke; two Russian jets "warned 10 times in five minutes" to change direction, both flying "more than a mile" into Turkey for an interminable 17 seconds. The whole thing has already been<span class=""> </span><a href="http://sputniknews.com/military/20151125/1030698044/erdogan-airspace-violation-contradiction.html" target="_blank">amply debunked</a>. Not to mention that Turkish — and NATO — planes "violate" the Syrian border all the time.</span><span style="font-size:12pt"></span></font></p> <p><span style="color:black"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p><span style="color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Erdogan well knows how US neocons were livid with French President Francois Hollande after his "it's war" cry was followed by a drive to work together with Russia against ISIS/ISIL/Daesh. </font></span></p> <p><span style="color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">So the real target was not a Su-24, but the evolving possibility, after the Paris attacks, of a real coalition — the US, Britain and France on one side, the "4+1" (Russia, Syria, Iran, Iraq plus Hezbollah) on the other side — finally converging their interests into a unified fight against ISIS/ISIL/Daesh.</font></span></p> <p><span style="color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Where would that leave Ankara, which for years has invested heavily in the Salafi-jihadi nebulae, from Jabhat al-Nusra to Ahrar al-Sham and myriad other outfits, culminating with aiding and abetting and even funding ISIS/ISIL/Daesh?</font></span></p> <p class=""><span style="color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Turkey, for all practical purposes, has been a handy, sprawling Salafi-jihadi Infrastructure and Logistics Center; it offers everything from porous borders enabling countless jihadi return tickets from Syria to Europe, facilitated by corrupt police, to a convenient crossroads for all kinds of smuggling and a hefty money laundering ops.</font></span></p> <p><span style="color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">So Ankara, with a missile, thought it might completely change the narrative. </font></span></p> <p><span style="color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Hardly. Just follow the money. Even in the US and Europe the Turkish game is becoming increasingly transparent. A<span class=""> </span><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-l-phillips/research-paper-isis-turke_b_6128950.html" target="_blank">research paper</a><span class=""> </span>at Columbia University details at least a fraction of the multiple instances of collusion between Turkey and ISIS/ISIL/Daesh. </font></span></p> <p><span style="color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Bilal Erdogan, the Sultan's son, is a major profiteer of illegal trading of stolen Iraqi and Syrian oil. Imagine his terror after Putin revealed to G-20 leaders in Antalya — Turkish territory! — how Russian intel has identified most of the<span class=""> </span><a href="http://journal-neo.org/2015/08/24/erdogan-s-dirty-dangerous-isis-games/" target="_blank">mobster maze</a><span class=""> </span>of connections pointing directly to ISIS/ISIL/Daesh.</font></span></p> <p><span style="color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Imagine mobster/Turkish commodity dealer sentiment at the prospect of losing their cut with the impossibility of buying Syrian stolen oil to the tune of $50 million a month. After all the Russian Air Force had already destroyed oil farms, refineries and most of all over 1,000 tanker trucks — and counting; imagine the prospect of losing all the oil flow, the money flow, a Smugglers Inc. scattered in the desert with no place to go.</font></span></p> <p><font face="georgia, serif"><strong><span style="color:black">And we Also Do Extortion</span></strong><span style="color:black"></span></font></p> <p><span style="color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">NATO command may be stand-up comic material — just watch Dr. Strangelove's Greatest Hits, as in Gen. Philip Breedlove and his "Russian aggression" meme. But the generals are not foolish. NATO won't go to war with Russia over a mere vassal. And Russia won't provide NATO with a pretext for war.</font></span></p> <p><span style="color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">In the Big Power Politics arena, certainly now we do have the post-modern return of the historic tension between the Russian and Ottoman empires. But that will play over time, slowly. The Russian direct response will be cold, calculated, extensive, swift — and most of all unexpected. No response would imply a carte blanche for "moderate rebels" to be weaponized in Syria ad infinitum.</font></span></p> <p><span style="color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">What's certain is that Russia wills turbo-charge the bombing of all ISIS/ISIL/Daesh supply corridors from Turkey into northern Syria, as well as the stolen oil smuggling routes from northern Syria into Turkey.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">Russia can play with so many options to increase the pressure. For instance, S-300 and S-400 air defense systems covering the Turkish-Syrian border. That would be part of a Russian no-fly zone in Syria, approved by Damascus, for any jet daring to fly without explicit permission from the government. The Sultan wouldn't dare "violate" this airspace. </span><span style="font-size:12pt"></span></font></p> <p><span style="color:black"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p><span style="color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Erdogan's desperate gambit reveals that the last thing Ankara wants is a Vienna-conducted peace process in Syria. "Assad must go" is non-negotiable — for an array of geopolitical reasons (neo-Ottomanism), political (the need for a Sunni-dominated, pliant, Syrian satrapy) and economic (the proposed Qatar gas pipeline traversing Syria all the way to Turkey.)</font></span></p> <p class=""><span style="color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">And the whole thing is about to get hotter. Not only a Turkish mobster maze is aiding, abetting and profiting handsomely from doing business with ISIS/ISIL/Daesh and other exponents of Jihad Inc.; Ankara itself is in the extortion business. And the willing "victim" is — who else — Europe. </font></span></p> <p><span style="color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">German chancellor Angela Merkel had to go to Ankara to kiss the Sultan's feet so she may be able to "save" her refugee policy. Erdogan came up with the proverbial offer you can't refuse. You want me to hold the refugees here? Just give me 3 billion Euros. Unfreeze Turkey's accession dossier to the EU (guess who the top nation against it is: France). And let me have my "safe zone" in the Turkish-Syria border.</font></span></p> <p><span style="color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Incredible as it may seem, Europe gave in. The European Commission (EC) has just given Erdogan the 3 billion Euros. He starts getting the cash on January 1, 2016. The official spin is these funds are part of the "efforts to solve the migrant crisis." European Commission First-Vice President Franz Timmermans glowingly framed the so-called Turkey Refugee Facility as "providing support to further improve the daily lives and socio-economic conditions of Syrians seeking refuge in Turkey."</font></span></p> <p><span style="color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Don't expect the EC to monitor how the cash will vanish in the mobster maze — or will be used to further weaponize "moderate rebels".</font></span></p> <p><span style="color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Erdogan does not give a damn about refugees. What he wants is his "safe zone", not in Turkey, but 35 km deep in northern Syria, out of bounds for the Syrian Arab Army (SAA), militias under Iranian command, Hezbollah forces and most of all the Russian Air Force. He wants his no-fly zone and he wants NATO to get it for him.</font></span></p> <p><span style="color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Erdogan is on a mission from Allah — at least his version of Allah. The downing of the Su-24 is just the preamble. Get ready, because 2016 promises an even bigger bang.</font></span></p> <p><span style="color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">© 2015 Sputnik. All rights reserved</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:20pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Why We're Sliding Towards World War</font></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"><a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/users/george-washington" title="View user profile."><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102);text-decoration:none"></span></a></font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">by</span></span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/users/george-washington"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">George Washington</span></a></span></span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">on 11/25/2015 13:32 -0500</span></span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt"></span></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"><a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-11-25/why-we%E2%80%99re-sliding-towards-world-war">http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-11-25/why-we%E2%80%99re-sliding-towards-world-war</a></font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">Paul Craig Roberts – former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under President Reagan, former editor of the Wall Street Journal, listed by Who's Who in America as one of the 1,000 most influential political thinkers in the world, PhD economist – wrote an article about the build up of hostilities between the U.S. and Russia titled, simply:</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2014/07/28/war-coming-paul-craig-roberts/"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">"War Is Coming"</span></a>.</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">Similarly, Ronald Reagan's head of the Office of Management and Budget – David Stockman – is posting pieces</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.davidstockmanscontracorner.com/mh17-the-exploitation-of-a-tragedy/"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">warning of the dispute between the U.S. and Russia leading to World War 3</span></a>.</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Trend forecaster Gerald Celente – who has been making some accurate financial and geopolitical predictions for decades – says<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWzVchARv0Y"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">WW3 will start soon</span></a>.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">Investment fund manager and adviser Martin Armstrong has charted the "cycles of war" back to 600 BC … and</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://princetoneconomicsintl.com/store-products-services/market-reports/cycles-of-war-2014/"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">says</span></a></span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt">that we'll have major wars between now and 2020. He has written pieces recently entitled, "<a href="http://armstrongeconomics.com/2014/07/31/russias-response/"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">Why We will Go to War with Russia</span></a>", and another one saying, "<a href="http://www.armstrongeconomics.com/2014/07/31/russias-response/"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">Prepare for World War III</span></a>".</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">Investment adviser Larry Edelson – who has long studied the "cycles of war" – recently</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.swingtradingdaily.com/2015/02/11/crash-and-burn-phase-for-governments/"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">wrote</span></a>:</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">This year … we will also be hit by another ramping up of the related war cycles.</font></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">***</font></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">All part and parcel of the rising war cycles that I've been warning you about, conditions that will not abate until at least the year 2020.</font></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">Former Goldman Sachs technical analyst Charles Nenner – who has made some big accurate calls, and counts major</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/11/top-economic-advisers-forecast-widespread-war.html" title="Click to Continue > by Text-Enhance"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">hedge funds</span></a>, banks, brokerage houses, and high net worth individuals as clients –</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/former-goldman-sachs-analyst-charles-nenner-major-war-2012-dow-5000-2011-3" target="_blank" title="says"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">says</span></a></span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt">there will be "a major war", which will drive the Dow to 5,000.</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">Veteran investor adviser James Dines</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/story/dines-prophesies-war-2012-05-28?Link=obinsite" title="forecast"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">forecast</span></a></span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt">a war as epochal as World Wars I and II, starting in the Middle East.</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">What's causing the slide towards war? We discuss several causes below.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(0,0,153)"><font face="georgia, serif">Debt, Economic Collapse and Distraction</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">Martin Armstrong – who studies cycles, and managed multi-billion dollar sovereign investment funds – argues that war plans against Syria are really about</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://armstrongeconomics.com/2013/09/03/14202/" target="_blank" title="debt and spending"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">debt and spending</span></a>:</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><i><span style="font-size:12pt">The Syrian mess seems to have people lining up on Capital Hill when sources there say the phone calls coming in are overwhelmingly against any action. The politicians are ignoring the people entirely. This suggests there is indeed a secret agenda to achieve a goal outside the discussion box. That is most like</span></i><span class=""><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></i></span><strong><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">the debt problem and a war is necessary to relief the pressure to curtail spending</span></i></strong><i><span style="font-size:12pt">.</span></i></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">Armstrong says the same thing caused</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.armstrongeconomics.com/archives/39792"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">Turkey to shoot down a Russian fighter jet</span></a></span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt">over Syria:</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><i><span style="font-size:12pt">This mess lies squarely in the hands of the Obama Administration and then to have the audacity to pretend Turkey had a right to defend its airspace when not being attacked is just too much. These people</span></i><span class=""><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></i></span><strong><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">NEED</span></i></strong><span class=""><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></i></span><i><span style="font-size:12pt">war to distract everyone from the Sovereign Debt Crisis that is causing the collapse of governments for a system of borrowing year after year with</span></i><span class=""><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></i></span><strong><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">ABSOLUTELY</span></i></strong><span class=""><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></i></span><i><span style="font-size:12pt">no intention of ever paying any debt off.</span></i></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">The same logic applies to Europe and other countries …</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">Armstrong</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://armstrongeconomics.com/2013/08/21/as-the-war-cycle-turns-up-middle-east-is-going-nuts/" target="_blank" title="wrote"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">writes</span></a>:</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><i><span style="font-size:12pt">Our greatest problem is</span></i><span class=""><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></i></span><strong><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">the bureaucracy wants a war</span></i></strong><i><span style="font-size:12pt">. This will distract everyone from the NSA and justify what they have been doing.</span></i><span class=""><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></i></span><strong><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">They need a distraction for the economic decline that is coming</span></i></strong><i><span style="font-size:12pt">.</span></i></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">Billionaire hedge fund manager Kyle Bass</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-11-17/kyle-bass-falacies-such-mmt-are-leading-sheep-slaughter-and-we-believe-war-inevitabl" target="_blank" title="writes"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">notes</span></a>:</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><i><span style="font-size:12pt">Trillions of dollars of</span></i><span class=""><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></i></span><i><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/11/top-economic-advisers-forecast-widespread-war.html" title="Click to Continue > by Text-Enhance"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">debts</span></a></span></i><span class=""><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></i></span><i><span style="font-size:12pt">will be restructured and millions of financially prudent savers will lose large percentages of their real purchasing power at exactly the wrong time in their lives. Again, the world will not end, but the social fabric of the profligate nations will be stretched and in some cases torn. Sadly, looking back through economic history,</span></i><span class=""><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></i></span><strong><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">all too often war is the manifestation of simple economic entropy played to its logical conclusion</span></i></strong><i><span style="font-size:12pt">.</span></i><span class=""><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></i></span><strong><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">We believe that war is an inevitable consequence of the current global economic situation.</span></i></strong><i><span style="font-size:12pt"></span></i></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">Billionaire investor Jim Rogers</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.moneynews.com/StreetTalk/rogers-Europe-bailouts-war/2012/06/22/id/443184" target="_blank" title="explains"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">notes</span></a>:</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><i><span style="font-size:12pt">A continuation of bailouts in Europe could ultimately<a href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/11/top-economic-advisers-forecast-widespread-war.html" title="Click to Continue > by Text-Enhance"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">spark</span></a></span></i><span class=""><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></i></span><i><span style="font-size:12pt">another world war, says international investor Jim Rogers.</span></i></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">***</font></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><i><span style="font-size:12pt">"Add debt, the situation gets worse, and eventually it just collapses.</span></i><span class=""><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></i></span><strong><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">Then everybody is looking for scapegoats. Politicians blame foreigners, and we're in World War II or World War whatever</span></i></strong><i><span style="font-size:12pt">."</span></i></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">Economist and investment manager Marc Faber</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2009/08/marc-faber-says-america-will-launch-more-wars-to-distract-from-bad-economy.html" title="says"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">says</span></a></span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt">that the American government will start new wars in response to the economic crisis:</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"><a href="http://www.prisonplanet.com/the-alex-jones-show-l-i-v-e-june-23rd-with-marc-faber.html" target="_blank" title=""The next thing the government will do to distract the attention of the people on bad economic conditions is they'll start a war somewhere.""><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">"The next thing the government will do to distract the attention of the people on bad economic conditions is they'll start a war somewhere."</span></a></font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"><a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=aa4KTmib46Uw&refer=asia" target="_blank" title=""If the global economy doesn't recover, usually people go to war.""><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">"If the global economy doesn't recover, usually people go to war."</span></a></font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(0,0,153)"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(0,0,153)"><font face="georgia, serif">A Handful of People Make a Killing Off War</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">War is</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><em><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">very</span></em><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt">good for a handful of</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2011/11/war-is-great-for-the-1-but-makes-the-99-poorer.html" title="defense contractors"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">defense contractors</span></a></span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt">and<a href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/04/wars-bankers-wars.html" title="banksters"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">banksters</span></a></span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt">who make huge sums from backing unnecessary war.</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">America is now</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/04/oligarchy.html"><em><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102);text-decoration:none">officially</span></em><span class=""><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102);text-decoration:none"> </span></span><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">an oligarchy</span></a>. And a high-level Bush administration official – Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson – says that the oligarchy</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/05/oligarchy-controls-american-foreign-policy.html"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">controls American war-making decisions</span></a>.</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">So the people who stand to make a killing from wars push the government into fighting them.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(0,0,153)"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(0,0,153)"><font face="georgia, serif">Voodoo Economics</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">Many influential</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123008280526532053.html" target="_blank" title="economists"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">economists</span></a></span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt">and</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/29/AR2010102907404.html" target="_blank" title="talking heads "><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">talking heads</span></a></span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt">hold the<a href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/07/definitive-analysis-war-good-bad-economy.html"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">discredited belief</span></a></span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt">that war is good for the economy.</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">Therefore, many are</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123008280526532053.html" target="_blank" title="overtly"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">overtly</span></a></span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt">or</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/14/upshot/the-lack-of-major-wars-may-be-hurting-economic-growth.html?ref=business&_r=0"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">more</span></a></span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2011/08/no-mr-krugman-%E2%80%A6-war-is-not-good-for-the-economy.html"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">subtly</span></a></span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt">pushing for war under the mistaken view that it will help the economy.</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(0,0,153)"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(0,0,153)"><font face="georgia, serif">Challengers Give Declining Empires "Itchy Fingers"</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">Historians say that declining empires tend to attack their rising rivals … so the risk of world war is rising</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/01/risk-world-war-rising.html"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">because the U.S. feels threatened by the rising empire of China</span></a>.</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">The U.S. government considers</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2011/09/does-the-american-government-consider-economic-rivalry-to-be-a-justification-for-war.html" title="threatening war against any nation which becomes an economic rival"><em><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102);text-decoration:none">economic rivalry</span></em><span class=""><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102);text-decoration:none"> </span></span><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">to be a basis for war</span></a>. Therefore, the U.S. is systematically</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013/01/the-war-on-terror-spreads-to-africa-u-s-sending-troops-to-35-african-nations.html" title="using the military to contain China's growing economic influence"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">using the military to contain China's growing economic influence</span></a>.</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(0,0,153)"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(0,0,153)"><font face="georgia, serif">Competition for Resources Is Heating Up</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">In addition, it is well-established that competition for scarce resources often leads to war. For example, Oxford University's Quarterly Journal of Economics</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://economics.mit.edu/files/8041"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">notes</span></a>:</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">In his classic, A Study of War, Wright (1942) devotes a chapter to the relationship between war and resources. Another classic reference, Statistics of Deadly Quarrels by Richardson (1960),extensively discusses economic causes of war, including the control of "sources of essential commodities."A large literature pioneered by Homer-Dixon (1991, 1999) argues that scarcity of various environmental resources is a major cause of conflict and resource wars (see Toset, Gleditsch, and Hegre 2000, for empirical evidence).</font></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">***</font></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">In the War of the Pacific (1879–1884), Chile fought against a defensive alliance of Bolivia and Peru for the control of guano [i.e. bird poop] mineral deposits. The war was precipitated by the rise in the value of the deposits due to their extensive use in agriculture.</font></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">***</font></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><i><span style="font-size:12pt">Westing (1986) argues that many of the wars in the twentieth century had an important resource dimension. As examples he cites the Algerian War of Independence (1954–1962), the Six Day War (1967), and the Chaco War (1932–1935). More recently, Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait in 1990 was a result of the dispute over the Rumaila oil field. In Resource Wars (2001), Klare argues that</span></i><span class=""><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></i></span><strong><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">following the end of the Cold War, control of valuable natural resources has become increasingly important, and these resources will become a primary motivation for wars in the future</span></i></strong><i><span style="font-size:12pt">.</span></i></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan (and</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013/03/top-republican-leaders-say-iraq-war-was-really-for-oil.html"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">many world leaders</span></a>)</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><em><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">admitted</span></em><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt">that</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20071116211434/http:/www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article2461214.ece" target="_blank" title="the Iraq war was really about oil"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">the Iraq war was really about oil</span></a>, and former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/01/10/oneill.bush/" target="_blank" title="says"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">says</span></a></span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt">that Bush planned the Iraq war before 9/11. And see</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/secret-memos-expose-link-between-oil-firms-and-invasion-of-iraq-2269610.html" target="_blank" title="this"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">this</span></a></span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt">and</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/10/the-wars-in-the-middle-east-and-north-africa-are-not-just-about-oil-theyre-also-about-gas.html" title="this"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">this</span></a>. Libya, Syria, Iran and Russia are all oil-producing countries as well …</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">Indeed, we've extensively documented that the wars in the Middle East and North Africa are</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/10/the-wars-in-the-middle-east-and-north-africa-are-not-just-about-oil-theyre-also-about-gas.html" title="largely about oil and gas"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">largely about oil and</span><span class=""><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102);text-decoration:none"> </span></span><em><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102);text-decoration:none">gas</span></em></a>. The wars in</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/08/roots-iraq-war-plantedplanned-1948.html"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">Syria and Iraq are about pipelines</span></a>. The</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/11/war-in-gaza-war-over-natural-gas-reserves.html"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">war in Gaza</span></a></span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt">may be no exception. And</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2482929/gaza_israels_4_billion_gas_grab.html"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">see this</span></a>. And Ukraine may largely be</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-07-25/company-which-joe-bidens-son-director-prepares-drill-shale-gas-east-ukraine"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">about</span></a><a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-06-30/russia-reveals-plan-b-gazprom-says-gas-transit-ukraine-may-be-stopped-completely"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">gas</span></a></span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt">as well.</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">And</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/07/totalitarian-future-part-two.html"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">James Quinn</span></a></span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt">and</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/06/systemic-sources-geopolitical-turmoil-instability-fragmentation-resource-wars.html"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">Charles Hugh Smith</span></a></span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt">say we're running out of</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><em><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">all sorts</span></em><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt">of resources … which will lead to war.</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(0,0,153)"><font face="georgia, serif">Central Banking and Currency Wars</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">We're in the middle of a</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=%22currency+war%22&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a" target="_blank" title="global currency war"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">global currency war</span></a></span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt">– i.e. a situation where nations all compete to devalue their currencies the most in order to boost exports. Brazilian president Rousseff</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/326a6d62-e83d-11df-8995-00144feab49a.html" target="_blank" title="said"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">said</span></a></span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt">in 2010:</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><i><span style="font-size:12pt">The last time there was a series of competitive devaluations … it</span></i><span class=""><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></i></span><strong><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">ended in world war</span></i></strong><span class=""><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></i></span><i><span style="font-size:12pt">two.</span></i></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">Jim Rickards</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/next-global-crisis-currency-wars-already-begun-rickards-142124909.html" target="_blank" title="agrees"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">agrees</span></a>:</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Currency wars lead to trade wars, which often lead to hot wars. In 2009, Rickards participated in the Pentagon's first-ever "financial" war games. While expressing confidence in America's ability to defeat any other nation-state in battle, Rickards says the U.S. could get dragged into "asymmetric warfare," if currency wars lead to rising inflation and global economic uncertainty.</font></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">As does billionaire investor</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://rt.com/usa/news/china-trade-currency-bill-053/" target="_blank" title="says"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">Jim Rogers</span></a>:</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Trade wars always lead to wars.</font></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">Given that China, Russia, India, Brazil and South Africa have joined together to create a</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.nasdaq.com/article/brics-create-100-billion-emergency-reserve-fund-20140715-01338"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">$100 billion bank</span></a></span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt">based in China, and that more and more trades are being settled in Yuan or Rubles – instead of dollars – the currency war is quickly heating up.</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">Indeed, many of</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2015/03/week-2-major-american-allies-ignored-u-s-pleas-joined-chinas-alternative-bank.html"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">America's closest allies are joining</span></a></span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt">China's effort … which is challenging America and the Dollar's hegemony.</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">Multi-billionaire investor Hugo Salinas Price</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2011/10/27_Multi-Billionaire_Salinas_-_Gaddafi_Killed_Over_Gold_Currency.html" target="_blank" title="told"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">says</span></a>:</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><i><span style="font-size:12pt">What happened to [Libya's] Mr. Gaddafi, many speculate the real reason he was ousted was that he was planning an all-African currency for conducting trade. The same thing happened to him that happened to Saddam because the US doesn't want any solid competing currency out there vs the dollar. You know Gaddafi was talking about a</span></i><span class=""><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></i></span><i><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/01/are-the-middle-east-wars-really-about-forcing-the-world-into-dollars-and-private-central-banking.html" title="Click to Continue > by Text-Enhance"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">gold</span></a></span></i><span class=""><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></i></span><i><span style="font-size:12pt">dinar.</span></i></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">Senior CNBC editor John Carney</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.cnbc.com/id/42308613/Libyan_Rebels_Form_Their_Own_Central_Bank" target="_blank" title="noted"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">noted</span></a>:</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Is this the first time a revolutionary group has created a central bank while it is still in the midst of fighting the entrenched political power? It certainly seems to indicate how extraordinarily powerful central bankers have become in our era.</font></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><i><span style="font-size:12pt">Robert Wenzel of</span></i><span class=""><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></i></span><i><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2011/03/libyan-rebels-form-central-bank.html" target="_blank" title="Economic Policy Journal thinks"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">Economic Policy Journal thinks</span></a></span></i><span class=""><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></i></span><i><span style="font-size:12pt">the central</span></i><span class=""><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></i></span><i><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.cnbc.com/id/42308613/Libyan_Rebels_Form_Their_Own_Central_Bank" target="_blank" title="Click to Continue > by Text-Enhance"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">banking</span></a></span></i><span class=""><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></i></span><i><span style="font-size:12pt">initiative reveals that foreign powers may have a strong influence over the rebels.</span></i></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">This suggests we have a bit more than a ragtag bunch of rebels running around and that there are some pretty sophisticated influences. "I have never before heard of a central bank being created in just a matter of weeks out of a popular uprising," Wenzel writes.</font></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">Indeed,</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/01/12/u-s-seeking-to-close-down-iran-central-bank/" target="_blank" title="some say"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">some say</span></a></span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt">that recent wars have really been about bringing all countries</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.webofdebt.wordpress.com/2011/04/16/libya-all-about-oil-or-all-about-banking/" target="_blank" title="into the fold of Western central banking"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">into the fold of Western central banking</span></a>.</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(0,0,153)"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(0,0,153)"><font face="georgia, serif">Runaway Inequality</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">Paul Tudor Jones – founder of the Tudor Investment Corporation and the Tudor Group, which trade in the fixed-income, equity, currency and commodity markets –</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://blog.ted.com/justice-capitalism-and-progress-paul-tudor-jones-ii-at-ted2015/"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">said</span></a></span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt">recently:</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">This gap between the 1 percent and the rest of America, and between the US and the rest of the world, cannot and will not persist.</font></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Historically, these kinds of gaps get closed in one of three ways: by revolution, higher taxes or wars.</font></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">And</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/11/inequality-cyclical-skyrocketing-periodically-revolution-closes-gap.html"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">see this</span></a>.</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(0,0,153)"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(0,0,153)"><font face="georgia, serif">War Is Destroying Our National Security, Our Democracy and Our Economy</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">We spent</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><em><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">trillions</span></em><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt">in Iraq and Afghanistan.</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">Yet we're now</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><em><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><a href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2015/10/isis-spreads-to-afghanistan-libya-iraq-and-syria.html"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">less</span></a></span></em><span class=""><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></i></span><em><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/23/politics/state-worldwide-travel-alert-paris-terrorist-attacks/"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">safe</span></a></span></em><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt">after 13 years of war.</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">Never-ending wars are also destroying our democratic republic. The Founding Fathers</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2011/11/the-founding-fathers-warned-against-standing-armies.html" title="warned against standing armies, saying that they destroy freedom"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">warned against standing armies, saying that they destroy freedom</span></a>. (<a href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/08/founding-fathers-fought-war-stop-militarized-police.html"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">Update</span></a>). Perversely, our government treats</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/12/peaceful-protest-treated-as-terrorism-by-the-fbi.html" title="anti-war sentiment as terrorism"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">anti-war sentiment as terrorism</span></a>.</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">The Founding Fathers –</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><em><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">and</span></em><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt">the father of free market capitalism – also warned against</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/04/it-is-incumbent-on-every-generation-to-pay-its-own-debts-as-it-goes-a-principle-which-if-acted-on-would-save-one-half-the-wars-of-the-world.html" title="financing wars with debt"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">financing wars with debt</span></a>. But according to Nobel prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, the U.S. debt for the Iraq war could be as high as</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=acXcm.yk56Ko" target="_blank" title="$5 trillion dollars"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">$</span><em><b><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102);text-decoration:none">5</span></b></em><span class=""><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102);text-decoration:none"> </span></span><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">trillion dollars</span></a></span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt">(or</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-iraq-war-cost-20130318,0,1591279.story" target="_blank" title="$6 trillion dollars"><em><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102);text-decoration:none">$</span></em><strong><i><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102);text-decoration:none">6</span></i></strong><span class=""><i><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102);text-decoration:none"> </span></i></span><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">trillion dollars</span></a></span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt">according to a study by Brown University.)</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">Indeed, top economists say that war is</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/12/definitive-analysis-war-bad-economy.html"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">destroying our economy</span></a>.</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">But war is</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/04/another-reason-bankers-love-war.html"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">great</span></a></span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt">for the</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/04/wars-bankers-wars.html"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">bankers</span></a></span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt">and the</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2011/11/war-is-great-for-the-1-but-makes-the-99-poorer.html" title="military-industrial complex"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">defense contractors</span></a>. And – as discussed above – governments are desperate for war.</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">So it's up to us – the</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><em><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">people</span></em><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt">– to stop wider war.</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p></div> Amb. (Retd.) K. Gajendra Singhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10712573815372515430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8661786410920048953.post-37384832623571617232015-11-26T12:45:00.001+05:302015-11-26T12:45:33.683+05:30Ankara ‘s Syrian Kinsmen Turkmen; who shot dead pilots of downed Russian jet<div dir="ltr"><p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><span style="font-size:18pt">Ankara 's Syrian Kinsmen Turkmen; who shot dead pilots of downed</span></b><span class=""><b><span style="font-size:18pt"> </span></b></span><b><span style="font-size:18pt"><a href="http://uk.reuters.com/places/russia" title="Full coverage of Russia"><span style="color:windowtext;text-decoration:none">Russia</span></a>n</span></b><b><span style="font-size:18pt"> jet </span></b></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Note ;As for the downing of the Russian jet, it was a foolish act by megalomaniac Erdogan.How ever a principle has been established after Assad invited Russia to help out under a treaty ,that Ankara cannot enter Syrian air space.</font></span></u></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="text-decoration:none"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></span></u></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Ankara had planned to create a no fly Zone inside Syrian territory to transfer millions of Syrians now in refugee camps in Turkey , who had to flee because of illegal intervention by US led West, Turkey , Saudis and Qataris.</font></span></u></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">Turkmen forces in Syria shot dead the two pilots of a</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://uk.reuters.com/places/russia" title="Full coverage of Russia"><span style="color:rgb(0,110,151)">Russia</span></a>n jet downed by Turkish warplanes near the border with Turkey on Tuesday as they descended with parachutes, a deputy commander of a Turkmen brigade told reporters.</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <span id="midArticle_0"><font face="georgia, serif"> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"></span>"Both of the pilots were retrieved dead. Our comrades opened fire into the air and they died in the air," Alpaslan Celik, a deputy commander in a<span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://uk.reuters.com/places/syria" title="Full coverage of Syria"><span style="color:rgb(0,110,151)">Syria</span></a>n Turkmen brigade said near the Syrian village of Yamadi as he held what he said was a piece of a pilot's parachute.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt">Who are the Turkmen in Syria , about whom Ankara had a quarrel with USA earlier after the illegal US invasion of Iraq in 2003 , beginning of rampant US led era of war of destruction.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style="font-size:18pt;color:black;font-weight:normal"> </span></strong></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style="font-size:18pt;color:black;font-weight:normal">Turkey snaps over US bombing of its brethren</span></strong><span style="font-size:12pt"> 18 September, 2004<br> By K Gajendra Singh <a href="http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FI18Ak02.html">http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FI18Ak02.html</a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><br> For the first time since the acrimonious exchange of words in July last year following the arrest and imprisonment of 11 Turkish commandos in Kurdish Iraq, for which Washington expressed "regret", differences erupted publicly this week between North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies Turkey and the US over attacks on Turkey's ethnic cousins, the Turkmens in northern Iraq. <br> <br> Talking to a Turkish TV channel, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul warned that if the US did not cease its attacks on Tal Afar, a Turkmen city at the junction of Turkey, Iraq and Syria, Ankara might withdraw its support to the US in Iraq. <br> <br> "I told [US Secretary of State Colin Powell] that what is being done there is harming the civilian population, that it is wrong, and that if it continues, Turkey's cooperation on issues regarding Iraq will come to a total stop." He added, "We will continue to say these things. Of course we will not stop only at words. If necessary, we will not hesitate to do what has to be done." <br> <br> Turkey is a key US ally in a largely hostile region. US forces use its Incirlik military base near northern Iraq. Turkish firms are also involved heavily in the construction and transport business in Iraq, with hundreds of Turkish vehicles bringing in goods for the US military every day. It is an alternative route through friendly northern Kurdish territory to those from Jordan and Kuwait. But many Turks have been kidnapped by Iraqi insurgent groups and some have been killed. <br> <br> Turkey contains a large ethnic Turkmen population and Ankara has long seen itself as the guardian of their rights, particularly across the border in northern Iraq, where they constitute a significant minority. <br> <br> The US attacks on Tal Afar, which Iraqi Turkmen groups in Turkey say have left 120 dead and over 200 injured, were launched, the US says, to root out terrorists. The US has denied the extent of the </span><span style="font-size:12pt">damage, saying that it avoided civilian targets and killed only terrorists it says were infiltrating the town from Syria. <br> <br> US ambassador to Turkey Eric Edelman commented, "We are carrying out a limited military operation and we are trying to keep civilian losses to a minimum. We cannot completely eliminate the possibility [of civilian casualties] ... We believe the operation is being conducted with great care," he said after briefing Turkish officials. There have not been any reports of further attacks since the Turkish warning. <br> <br> The deterioration in US-Turkish relations underlines the fast-changing strategic scenario in the region in the post-Cold War era after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the September 11 attacks on the US, the US-led invasion on Iraq, now conceded as illegal by United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, and the deteriorating security situation in that country. <br> <br> Despite negative signals on Ankara's mission to join the European Union, Turkey is moving away from the US and closer to the EU - it is even looking to buy Airbuses, and arms, from Europe rather than the US. <br> <br> At the same time, Turkey is drawing closer to Syria, normalizing relations with Iran and improving economic relations with Russia, as well as discuss with Moscow ways to counter terrorist acts, from which both Russia and Turkey suffer. Russian President Vladimir Putin called off a visit to Turkey when the hostage crisis broke at Beslan in the Russian Caucasus last week. <br> <br> And Turkey has also moved away from long-time friend Israel, the US's umbilically aligned strategic partner in the Middle East. Turkey has accused Israel of "state terrorism" against Palestinians. A recent ruling party team from Turkey returned from Tel Aviv not satisfied with Israeli explanations over charges that it was interfering in northern Iraqi affairs. <br> <br> With newspapers full of stories and TV screens showing the Turkmens being attacked in the US operations at Tal Afar, many Turks are angry at what is being done to their ethnic brethren. These have been large protests outside the US Embassy in Ankara, and the belief that the US attacks are a part of a campaign to ethnically cleanse the Turkmens from northern Iraq is widespread. <br> <br> "Some people are uncomfortable with the ethnic structure of this area, so, using claims of a terrorist threat, they went in and killed people," said Professor Suphi Saatci of the Kirkuk Foundation, one of several Turkmen groups in Turkey. <br> <br> He claims that the attacks are a part of a wider campaign to establish Kurdish control over all of northern Iraq, and he points to the removal of Turkmen officials from governing positions in the region to be replaced by Kurds. He also says that the Iraqi police force deployed in northern Iraq is dominated by members of Kurdish factions. "The US is acting completely under the direction of the Kurdish parties in northern Iraq," says Saatci. "Tal Afar is a clearly Turkmen area and this is something they were very jealous of." <br> <br> While Kurdish officials deny any attempt to alter the ethnic balance in the region, last week Masud Barzani, leader of one of the two largest Kurdish parties, the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP), said that Kirkuk "is a Kurdish city" and one that the KDP was willing to fight for, which certainly did not calm fears of the Turkmens and angered the Turks. Many Turkmen see Kirkuk as historically theirs. Turkey considers northern Iraq - ie Kurdistan - as part of its sphere of influence, especially the Turkmen minority. Ankara is especially concerned that the Kurds in Iraq don't gain full autonomy as this would likely fire the aspirations of Turkey's Kurdish minority. <br> <br> The US military disputes that its forces laid siege to Tal Afar, saying that the operation was to free the city from insurgents, including foreign fighters, who had turned it into a haven for militants smuggling men and arms across the Syrian border. And a military spokesman denied that Kurds were using US forces to gain the upper hand in their ethnic struggle with the Turkmens. The US characterized the resistance in Tal Afar as put up by a disparate group of former Saddam Hussein loyalists, religious extremists and foreign fighters who were united only by their opposition to US forces. <br> <br> Gareth Stansfield, a regional specialist at the Center of Arab and Islamic Studies at Britain's University of Exeter, said recently that "the most important angle of what the Turkish concern is [and that is] that there is a strong belief in Ankara that Iyad Allawi, the Iraqi prime minister, and the Americans, were suckered into attacking Tal Afar by Kurdish intelligence circles, and really brought to Tal Afar to target ostensibly al-Qaeda and anti-occupation forces with the Kurds knowing full well that this would also bring them up against Turkmens and create a rift between Washington and Ankara over their treatment of a Turkmen city." <br> <br> Turkey maintains a few hundred troops in the region as a security presence to monitor Turkish Kurd rebels who have some hideouts in the region. But any large-scale presence has been derailed by the objections of Iraqi Kurdish leaders. "That has created an uneasy state of co-existence between Ankara and the two major Kurdish political parties, the Kurdish Democratic Party and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, a balance which any US military operation in the area could easily disturb." <br> <br> Stansfield added that the incident shows how volatile tensions remain between Ankara and the Iraqi Kurds, despite ongoing efforts by both sides to work together. "The Turkish position has become increasingly more sophisticated over the last months, and arguably years, with Ankara finding an accommodation with the KDP and PUK and beginning to realize that while it is not their favored option to allow the Kurds to be autonomous in the north of Iraq, it is perhaps one of the better options that they are faced with in this situation," said Stansfield. <br> <br> He added, "However, the relationship between the two principle Kurdish parties and the government of Turkey will always be sensitized by the Kurds' treatment of Turkmens and indeed now the American treatment of Turkmens vis-a-vis Kurds." <br> <br> <b>Transfer of sovereignty and the Kurds<br> </b>In January this year, the then Iraqi Governing Council agreed to a federal structure to enshrine Kurdish self-rule in three northern provinces of Iraq. This was to be included in a "fundamental law" that would precede national elections in early 2005. The fate of three more provinces claimed by the Kurds was to be decided later. "In the fundamental law, Kurdistan will have the same legal status as it has now," said a Kurdish council member, referring to the region that has enjoyed virtual autonomy since the end of the 1991 Gulf War. <br> <br> "When the constitution is written and elections are held, we will not agree to less than what is in the fundamental law, and we may ask for more," said the Kurdish council member. Arabs, Turkmens, Sunnis and Shi'ites expressed vociferous opposition to the proposed federal system for Kurdish Iraq. They organized demonstrations leading to ethnic tensions and violence in Kirkuk and many other cities in north Iraq. Many protesters were killed and scores were injured. <br> <br> However, when "sovereignty" was transferred on June 30 to the interim government led by Iyad Allawi, the interim constitutional arrangement did not include a federal structure for Kurdish self-rule, although to pacify the Kurds, key portfolios of defense and foreign affairs were allotted to them. <br> <br> A press release from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) stated that "the current situation in Iraq and the new-found attitude of the US, UK and UN has led to a serious re-think for the Kurds. The proposed plans do not seem to promise the expected Kurdish role in the future of a new Iraq. The Kurds feel betrayed once again." It added that "if the plight of the Kurds is ignored yet again and we are left with no say in the future of a new Iraq, the will of the Kurdish people will be too great for the Kurdish political parties to ignore, leading to a total withdrawal from any further discussions relating to the formation of any new Iraqi government. This will certainly not serve the unity of Iraq." Underlining that the Kurds have been the only true friends and allies of the US coalition, the release concluded that "the Kurds will no longer be second-class citizens in Iraq". However, the Kurds did not precipitate matters. <br> <br> <b>Demographic changes in north Iraq</b> <br> Kirkuk, with a population of some 750,000, and other towns are now the scene of ethnic and demographic struggles between Turkmens, Arabs and Kurds, with the last wanting to take over the region and make the city a part of an autonomous zone, with Kirkuk as its capital. <br> <br> The area around Kirkuk has 6% of the world's oil reserves. In April 2003, it was estimated that the population was 250,000 each for Turkmen, Arab and Kurd. A large number of Arabs were settled there by Saddam Hussein, and they are mostly Shi'ites from the south. The Turkmens are generally Shi'ites, like their ethnic kin, the Alevis in Turkey, but many have given up Turkmen traditions in favor of the urban, clerical religion common among the Arabs of the south. Kirkuk is therefore a stronghold of the Muqtada al-Sadr movement which has given US-led forces such a hard time in the south in Najaf. The influential Shi'ite political party, the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), also has good support, perhaps 40%, in the region. Kurds are mostly Sunnis, and were the dominant population in Kirkuk in the 1960s and 1970s, before Saddam's Arabization policy saw a lot of Kurds moved further north. <br> <br> According to some estimates, over 70,000 Kurds have entered Kirkuk over the past 17 months, and about 50,000 Arabs have fled back to the south. It can be said, therefore, that now there are about 320,000 Kurds and 200,000 Arabs in the city. The number of Turkmen has also been augmented. During the Ottoman rule, the Turkmen dominated the city, and it was so until oil was discovered. It is reported that, encouraged by the Kurdish leadership, as many as 500 Kurds a day are returning to the city. The changes are being carried out for the quick-fix census planned for October, which in turn will be the basis for the proportional representation for the planned January elections, if these are even held, given the country's security problems. Both the Turkmens and Arabs have said that the Kurds are using these demographic changes to engulf Kirkuk and ensure that it is added to the enlarged Kurdish province which they are planning. The Kurds hope to get at least semi-autonomous status from Baghdad. <br> <br> <b>North Iraq and Turkey's Kurdish problem</b> <br> Turkey has serious problems with its own Kurds, who form 20% of the population. A rebellion since 1984 against the Turkish state led by Abdullah Ocalan of the Marxist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) has cost over 35,000 lives, including 5,000 soldiers. To control and neutralize the rebellion, thousands of Kurdish villages have been bombed, destroyed, abandoned or relocated; millions of Kurds have been moved to shanty towns in the south and east or migrated westwards. The economy of the region was shattered. With a third of the Turkish army tied up in the southeast, the cost of countering the insurgency at its height amounted to between $6 billion to $8 billion a year. <br> <br> The rebellion died down after the arrest and trial of Ocalan, in 1999, but not eradicated. After a court in Turkey in 2002 commuted to life imprisonment the death sentence passed on Ocalan and parliament granted rights for the use of the Kurdish language, some of the root causes of the Kurdish rebellion were removed. The PKK - now also called Konga-Gel - shifted almost 4,000 of its cadres to northern Iraq and refused to lay down arms as required by a Turkish "repentance law". The US's priority to disarm PKK cadres was never very high. In fact, the US wants to reward Iraqi Kurds, who have remained mostly peaceful and loyal while the rest of the country has not. <br> <br> Early this month, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey's patience was running out over US reluctance to take military action against Turkish Kurds hiding in northern Iraq. In 1999, the PKK declared a unilateral ceasefire after the capture of its leader, Ocalan. But the ceasefire was not renewed in June and there have been increasing skirmishes and battles between Kurdish insurgents and Turkish security forces inside Turkey. Turkey remains frustrated over US reluctance to employ military means against the PKK fighters - in spite of promises to do so. <br> <br> Iraqi Kurds have been ambivalent to the PKK, helping them at times. Ankara has entered north Iraq from time to time - despite protests - to attack PKK bases and its cadres. Ankara has also said that it would regard an independent Kurdish entity as a cause for war. It is opposed to the Kurds seizing the oil centers around Kirkuk, which would give them financial autonomy, and this would also constitute a reason for entry into north Iraq. The Turks vehemently oppose any change in the ethnic composition of the city of Kirkuk . <br> <br> The Turks manifest a pervasive distrust of autonomy or models of a federal state for Iraqi Kurds. It would affect and encourage the aspirations of their own Kurds. It also revives memories of Western conspiracies against Turkey and the unratified 1920 Treaty of Sevres forced on the Ottoman Sultan by the World War I victors which had promised independence to the Armenians and autonomy to Turkey's Kurds. So Mustafa Kemal Ataturk opted for the unitary state of Turkey and Kurdish rebellions in Turkey were ruthlessly suppressed. <br> <br> The 1980s war between Iraq and resurgent Shi'ites in Iran helped the PKK to establish itself in the lawless north Kurdish Iraq territory. The PKK also helped itself with arms freely available in the region during the eight-year war. <br> <br> The 1990-91 Gulf crisis and war proved to be a watershed in the violent explosion of the Kurdish rebellion in Turkey. A nebulous and ambiguous situation emerged in north Iraq when, at the end of the war, US president Bush Sr encouraged the Kurds (and the hapless Shi'ites in the south) to revolt against Saddam's Sunni Arab regime. Turkey was dead against it, as a Kurdish state in the north would give ideas to its own Kurds. <br> <br> Saudi Arabia and other Arab states in the Gulf were totally opposed to a Shi'ite state in south Iraq. The hapless Iraqi Kurds and Shi'ites paid a heavy price. Thousands were butchered. The international media's coverage of the pitiable conditions, with more than half a million Iraqi Kurds escaping towards the Turkish border from Saddam's forces in March 1991, led to the creation of a protected zone in north Iraq, later patrolled by US and British war planes. The Iraqi Kurds did elect a parliament, but it never functioned properly. Kurdish leaders Massoud Barzani and Jalal Talabani run almost autonomous administrations in their areas. This state of affairs has allowed the PKK a free run in north Iraq. <br> <br> After the 1991 war, Turkey lost out instead of gaining as promised by the US. The closure of Iraqi pipelines, economic sanctions and the loss of trade with Iraq, which used to pump billions of US dollars into the economy and provide employment to hundreds of thousands, with thousands of Turkish trucks roaring up and down to Iraq, only exacerbated the economic and social problems in the Kurdish heartland and the center of the PKK rebellion. <br> <br> But many Turks still remain fascinated with the dream of "getting back" the Ottoman provinces of Kurdish-majority Mosul and Kirkuk in Iraq. They were originally included within the sacred borders of the republic proclaimed in the National Pact of 1919 by Ataturk and his comrades, who had started organizing resistance to fight for Turkey's independence from the occupying World War I victors. <br> <br> So it has always remained a mission and objective to be reclaimed some time. The oil-rich part of Mosul region was occupied by the British forces illegally after the armistice and then annexed to Iraq, then under British mandate, in 1925, much to Turkish chagrin. Iraq was created by joining Ottoman Baghdad and Basra <i>vilayats</i> (provinces). Turks also base their claims on behalf of less than half a million Turkmen who lived in Kirkuk with the Kurds before Arabization changed the ethnic balance of the region. <br> <br> With its attacks on Tal Afar, the US is stirring a very deep well of discontent. <br> <br> <b><i>K Gajendra Singh</i></b><i>, Indian ambassador (retired), served as ambassador to Turkey from August 1992 to April 1996. Prior to that, he served terms as ambassador to Jordan, Romania and Senegal. He is currently chairman of the Foundation for Indo-Turkic Studies. Emai: <a href="mailto:Gajendrak@hotmail.com" target="_blank">Gajendrak@hotmail.com</a> </i><br> <br> (Copyright 2004 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact <a href="mailto:content@atimes.com">content@atimes.com</a> for information on our sales and syndication policies.)</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p></font></span></div> Amb. (Retd.) K. Gajendra Singhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10712573815372515430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8661786410920048953.post-22878225623877747672015-11-19T19:31:00.001+05:302015-11-19T19:31:42.204+05:30The French Republic Taken Hostage;Chickens coming home to roost.<div dir="ltr"><h4><font face="georgia, serif"><b><span style="font-size:18pt;color:black">The French Republic Taken Hostage</span></b><span style="font-size:18pt;color:black"><br> </span><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><br> </span><span style="font-size:12pt">Mayhem in Paris is a result of France's interference in its former colonies and discriminating and brutal policies at home against immigrants from them. The French were kicked out from its colonies in South East Asia after brutal wars in 1970s , where US and the new neocolonialists created havoc and devastation. The French then shifted attention to its colonies in North West Africa, where its occupation of Algeria which it claimed to be part of France was very brutal, with a devastating and brutal war of liberation (1954-63)</span></font></h4> <h4><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></h4> <h4><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">There have been cries of outrage in Paris and western capitals, with war declared on ISIS. France has followed in the footsteps of other criminal ruling elites in Washington and London which have run amok in destroying countries in Middle East beginning with Iraq in 2003. Unlike with almost total control over communications, of USA and UK at home, France is more open to so-called terror activities not only from Syria but also as a result of its former brutal occupation and war of liberation by Algeria, with millions of Algerians and other North West Africans from France's former colonies living in Paris and elsewhere. Badly discriminated, maltreated, un-integrated and sullen.</font></span></h4> <h4><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></h4> <h4><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">So it should not come as a surprise to what has happened in Paris and what is likely to happen in future in the capital and France. Below is an excellent article by Thierry Meyssan, a French intellectual who gives the background to the crisis France is faced with. The chickens are coming home to roost.</font></span></h4> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif"><a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article43470.htm">http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article43470.htm</a></font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">The war which has now spread to Paris is incomprehensible for those French citizens who are ignorant of practically all the secret activities of their government in the Arab world, of its unnatural alliances with the Gulf dictators, and its active participation in international terrorism. These policies have never been discussed in Parliament, and the major media have rarely dared to take an interest in them.<br> <br> <b>By Thierry Meyssan</b><br> <br> November 18, 2015 "</span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/"><span style="text-decoration:none">Information Clearing House</span></a><span style="color:black">" - "</span><a href="http://www.voltairenet.org/article189300.html#nb5"><span style="text-decoration:none">Voltaire Network</span></a><span style="color:black">" -- For the last five years, the French people have been hearing about distant wars, but without ever understanding what they meant. The Press informed them about the engagement of their army in Libya, but never about the presence of French soldiers on mission in the Levant. My articles on this subject are widely-read, but perceived as some sort of Oriental aberration. Despite my personal history, it remains quite acceptable to qualify me as an « extremist », or a « conspiracy theorist », and to point out that my articles are reproduced by Internet sites of all political colours, including those which are in fact authentically extremist or conspiracist. Yet nobody seems to have any quarrel with what I write. But neither do they pay any attention to my warnings about the alliances concluded by the French governement.<br> <br> Now, suddenly, the unheeded truth surfaces.<br> <br> France was attacked on the night of Friday 13th November 2015 by several commandos who massacred at least 130 people in five different areas of Paris. The state of emergency was decreed for a period of 12 days over the whole territory, and may be extended by act of Parliament.</span></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">No direct link with the Charlie Hebdo affair<br> </span></b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><br> The French Press interprets these acts of war by linking them to the attack made on Charlie Hebdo, although the operational modes were completely different. In January, the attack was aimed at killing specific people, while in this case, it was a co-ordinated attack on a large number of people chosen at random.<br> <br> We know today that just before the January attack, the editor-in-chief of Charlie Hebdo had received a « gift » of 200,000 Euros from the Near East in order to continue his anti-Muslim campaign [1] ; that the killers were linked to the French intelligence services [2] ; and that the origin of their weapons is covered by the Official Secrets Act [3]. I have already demonstrated that the attack was not an Islamist operation [4], that it was immediately recuperated by a state [5], and that this recuperation had raised echoes in populations hostile to the Republic [6] – an idea which was brilliantly developed a few months later by the demographer Emmanuel Todd [7].<br> <br> To get back to the war which has just spread to Paris, it has been a shock for Western Europe. It can not be compared to the attacks in Madrid in 2004. In Spain, there were no shooters, no kamikazes, but 10 bombs placed in 4 separate locations [8]. The type of horror which has just exploded in France is the daily lot of many populations of the « Wider Middle East », and has been since 2001. And comparable events can be found elsewhere, like the three days of attacks in six distinct locations, in Bombay, 2008 [9].<br> <br> Even if the assaillants of the 13th November were Muslims, and even if some of them shouted « Allah Akbar ! » as they killed passers-by, there is no link to such earlier attacks, to Islam, or to an eventual « war of civilisations ». These commandos had clearly received the order to kill at random, without first enquiring as to the religion of their victims.<br> <br> In the same way, it is absurd to take at face value the motive claimed by Daesh against France – even if there is no doubt about its implication in this attack. Indeed, if the terrorist organisation had wanted to « avenge » itself, it would have struck at Moscow.</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">France has been a terrorist state since at least 2011</span></b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><br> <br> The interpretation of these events is unclear, because behind non-state groups there are always states which sponsor them. In the 1970's, the Venezualan Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, known as « Carlos » or « The Jackal » aligned himself by conviction with the Palestinian cause and the Revolution, and was offered the discrete support of the USSR. In the 1980's, the example of Carlos was revived by mercenaries working for the highest bidder, like Sabri al Banna, known as « Abou Nidal », who carried out terrorist attacks for Libya and Syria as well as Israël. Today, there exists a cloudy network of terrorism and secret actors implicating a large number of states.<br> <br> In principle, states always deny their participation in terrorist groups. However, the French Foreign Minister, Laurent Fabius, declared in December 2012, during the « Friends of Syria » conference in Marrakesh, that Al-Nusra, the Syrian branch of Al-Qaïda, had « done a good job » [10].<br> <br> Because of his status, M. Fabius knew that he did not risk being taken to court to answer for supporting an organisation listed as « terrorist » by United Nations Security Council, but he took a serious risk for his country by dropping them into the cauldron of terrorism with this statement.<br> <br> In truth, France had been implicated on the side of Al-Qaïda at least since the beginning of 2011. At that time, the United Kingdom and France had signed up for the US project called « the Arab Spring ». The goal of this operation was to overthrow all the secular Arab régimes and replace them with dictatorships run by the Muslim Brotherhood. Although London and Paris had discovered this operation while it was on-going in Tunisia and in Egypt, they had previously been solicited for Libya and Syria [11]. In Libya, with the help of the Italian Special Forces, they organised the massacres in Benghazi, and then, with the help of Al-Qaïda, the capture of the Libyan arsenals. I can attest to the fact that in August 2011, while I was under the protection of Khamis el-Kadhafi, NATO assaulted the capital, and the Hotel Rixos, where we were staying, was seiged to cries of « Allah Akbar ! » by a unit of Al-Qaïda. They were called the Tripoli Brigade, and were commanded by Mahdi al-Harati and supervised by operational French officers. The same Mahdi al-Harati was present with his commanding officer, Abdelhakim Belhaj, the founder of the so-called « Free Syrian Army » which was in reality a section of Al-Qaïda, fighting under the French colonial flag.<br> <br> In Syria, the presence of French officers supervising armed groups while they were committing crimes against humanity is widely attested.<br> <br> France then went on to play an extremely complex and dangerous game. In January 2013 - in other words, one month after Laurent Fabius' public support for Al-Qaïda in Syria - France launched an operation in Mali against the same Al-Qaïda, provoking the first reaction against its agents infiltrated in Syria.<br> <br> You, of course, have never heard anything about all that, because although France has democratic institutions, its current policy in the Arab world has never been publicly discussed. In violation of article 35 of the Constitution, it decided to enter into war with Libya and Syria after only a few hours of superficial parliamentary debate - at the most - and without a vote. The French parliamentarians thus discarded their mandate to excercise control over the Executive as far as foreign policy was concerned, apparently believing that this was a private domain of the President, and without real consequence for daily life. However, as anyone can now see, on the contrary, peace and security, one of the four « Human and Citizens' Rights » of 1789 (article 2), depend upon it directly. The worst is yet to come.<br> <br> In the beginning of 2014, while the liberal US hawks were working on their plan for the transformation of the Islamic Emirate in Iraq and Cham into what was going to become Daesh, France and Turkey transported munitions to Al-Qaïda so that they could fight the Islamic Emirate – this point is attested by a document presented to the Security Council on the 14th July 2014 [12]. However, France later joined this secret operation, and participated in the international anti-Daesh Coalition, which, as everyone now knows, contrary to its name, did not bomb Daesh, but delivered weapons to it for a year [13]. The situation evolved further after the signature of the 5+1 agreement with Iran. The United States suddenly turned on the terrorist organisation and pushed it back to Al-Hasakah (Syria) [14]. But it was only in mid-October 2015 – a month ago – that France began to fight Daesh. Not to stop the massacres, but to conquer part of the territory it occupies in Syria and Iraq, and install a new colonial state which is to be called « Kurdistan », even though the Kurdish population will be largely in the minority [15].<br> <br> In this perspective, France sent its aircraft-carrier – which has not yet arrived – to support the Marxist-Leninists of the Kurdish party YPG against its ex-ally Daesh. But what does this polititcal reference mean when the project is to create a colonial state ?.<br> <br> We are currently witnessing the second reaction. Not from al-Qaïda in Syria this time, but from Daesh in France, on the instructions od France's unmentionable allies.<br> Who directs Daesh<br> <br> Daesh is an artificial creation. It is nothing more than the instrument of the policies of several states and multinationals.<br> <br> Its principal financial resources come from petrol, Afghan drugs – of which the French have not yet understood the implications on their own territory – and Levantine antiques. Everyone agrees that the stolen petrol freely crosses Turkey before being sold in Western Europe. Given the quantities involved, there can be no possible doubt about Turkish support for Daesh [16].<br> <br> Three weeks ago, a spokesperson for the Syrian Arab Army revealed that three planes, respectively chartered by Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, had exfiltrated Daesh combatants from Syria and taken them to Yemen. Once again, there can be no possible doubt concerning the links between these three states and Daesh, in violation of the pertinent resolutions of the UN Security Council.<br> <br> Following the first Geneva Conference in June 2012, I explained in depth that a faction within the US state apparatus was waging its own policy, contrary to that of the White House. At first, this conspiracy was directed by the head of the CIA, which was the co-founder of Daesh in 2007 (« The Surge ») [17], General David Petraeus, until his removal in handcuffs the day after the re-election of President Barack Obama. Then it was the turn of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was prevented by an unfortunate « accident » from completing her mandate during the period of presidential transition. Finally, the combat was continued by ambassador Jeffrey Feltman from his offices at the UNO, and by General John Allen, at the head of the phoney anti-Daesh Coalition. This group, a part of the US « deep state », which had never ceased from opposing the 5+1 agreement with Iran and fighting the Syrian Arab Republic, maintains its members within the Obama administration. Above all, it can count on the multinational corporations, whose budgets are greater than those of the states themselves, and who can finance their own secret operations. In particular, this is the case of the petrol company Exxon-Mobil (the true owner of Qatar), the investment fund KKR, and the private army Academi (ex-Blackwater).<br> <br> France has thus become a mercenary state working for these multinationals.</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">France, object of blackmail</span></b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><br> <br> On the 11th November 2015, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls declared that France was engaged against terrorism [18].<br> <br> On the 12th November, the Observatoire national de la délinquance et des réponses pénales (National Observatory for Delinquency and Legal Response) - attached to the Ministry of the Interior – published a report stating that terrorism has become the second preoccupation of the French people, after unemployment [19].<br> <br> On the morning of the 13th November, in Nanterre, the Minister for the Interior, Bernard Cazeneuve, presented a 20-part plan to limit the arms traffic [20].<br> <br> Clearly, the government was expecting the worst, which implies that France was in negotiation with the organisation that attacked it. France made engagements that it did not respect, and is now certainly the victim of blackmail by the terrorist leaders it has betrayed.<br> <br> An excercise simulating terrorist attacks was carried out on the very morning of the attack by the hospital emergency services [21]. A coïncidence that had already been revealed during the attacks of the 11th September 2001 in New York and Washington, those of the 11th March 2004 in Madrid, and also the 7th July 2005 in London.<br> Provisional Conclusion<br> <br> The successive French governments have created alliances with states whose values are opposed to those of the Republic. They have successively engaged in secret wars on their behalf, and then retreated. President Hollande, his private Chief of Staff, General Benoit Puga, his Minister for Foreign Affairs, Laurent Fabius, and Fabius' predecessor Alain Juppé, are today the objects of blackmail from which they can not extricate themselves without revealing the mess in which they have implicated their country, even if this exposes them to the High Court of Justice.<br> <br> On the 28th September, at the tribune of the United Nations, President Putin, addressing the United States and France, exclaimed: « I would like to ask those responsible for this situation – "Are you at least aware of what you have done ?" But I fear that this question will remain unanswered, because these people have not renounced their politicies, which are based on an exaggerated self-confidence and the conviction of their exceptional nature and their impunity » [22]. Neither the United States nor France listened to him. It is now too late.<br> <br> <b>Keep in mind</b></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">- The French government has progressively distanced itself from international legality. It has perpetrated political assassinations and supported terrorist actions since at least 2011.<br> - The French government has created unnatural alliances with the petrol dictatorships of the Persian Gulf. It is working with a group of US personalities and multinational companies to sabotage the politicies of appeasement advanced by Presidents Obama and Putin.<br> - The French government has entered into conflict with some untrustworthy allies. One of these organisations sponsored the attacks in Paris.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">[<a href="http://www.voltairenet.org/article189300.html#nh1" title="Footnotes 1">1</a>] «<a href="http://www.leparisien.fr/charlie-hebdo/la-verite-sur-l-attentat-de-charlie-est-encore-loin-18-10-2015-5196355.php#xtref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.fr%2F">Charlie Hebdo : les révélations de la dernière compagne de Charb</a>», Thibault Raisse, Le Parisien, 18 octobre 2015.</span></i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">[<a href="http://www.voltairenet.org/article189300.html#nh2" title="Footnotes 2">2</a>] « <a href="http://www.voltairenet.org/article186427.html">Selon McClatchy, Mohammed Mehra et les frères Kouachi seraient liés aux services secrets français</a> », Réseau Voltaire, 9 janvier 2015.</span></i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">[<a href="http://www.voltairenet.org/article189300.html#nh3" title="Footnotes 3">3</a>] « <a href="http://www.voltairenet.org/article188735.html">Les armes de Charlie-Hebdo couvertes par le Secret-Défense</a> », Réseau Voltaire, 17 septembre 2015.</span></i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">[<a href="http://www.voltairenet.org/article189300.html#nh4" title="Footnotes 4">4</a>] « <a href="http://www.voltairenet.org/article186408.html">Qui a commandité l'attentat contre Charlie Hebdo ?</a> », par Thierry Meyssan, Réseau Voltaire, 7 janvier 2015.</span></i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">[<a href="http://www.voltairenet.org/article189300.html#nh5" title="Footnotes 5">5</a>] « <a href="http://www.voltairenet.org/article186440.html">Charlie Hebdo a bon dos</a> », par Thierry Meyssan, Réseau Voltaire, 12 janvier 2015.</span></i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">[<a href="http://www.voltairenet.org/article189300.html#nh6" title="Footnotes 6">6</a>] « <a href="http://www.voltairenet.org/article186541.html">De quoi ont peur les politiques et les journalistes français ?</a> », par Réseau Voltaire, 25 janvier 2015.</span></i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">[<a href="http://www.voltairenet.org/article189300.html#nh7" title="Footnotes 7">7</a>] <a href="http://www.amazon.fr/Qui-est-Charlie-Sociologie-religieuse/dp/202127909X">Qui est Charlie ? : Sociologie d'une crise religieuse</a>, Emmanuel Todd, Seuil, 5 mai 2015, 252 p.</span></i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">[<a href="http://www.voltairenet.org/article189300.html#nh8" title="Footnotes 8">8</a>] « <a href="http://www.voltairenet.org/article162436.html">11 mars 2004 à Madrid : était-ce vraiment un attentat islamiste ?</a> », « <a href="http://www.voltairenet.org/article162639.html">Attentats de Madrid : l'hypothèse atlantiste</a> », par Mathieu Miquel, Réseau Voltaire, 11 octobre et 6 novembre 2009.</span></i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">[<a href="http://www.voltairenet.org/article189300.html#nh9" title="Footnotes 9">9</a>] The Siege, Adrian Levy & Cathy Scott-Clark, Penguin, 2013.</span></i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">[<a href="http://www.voltairenet.org/article189300.html#nh10" title="Footnotes 10">10</a>] « <a href="http://www.lemonde.fr/proche-orient/article/2012/12/13/syrie-pression-militaire-et-succes-diplomatique-pour-les-rebelles_1805889_3218.html">Pression militaire et succès diplomatique pour les rebelles syriens</a> », par Isabelle Maudraud, Le Monde, 13 décembre 2012.</span></i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">[<a href="http://www.voltairenet.org/article189300.html#nh11" title="Footnotes 11">11</a>] Watch the declaration of the ex-President of the Constitutional Council <a href="https://youtu.be/HI23UkYl3Eo">Roland Dumas sur LCP</a>.</span></i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">[<a href="http://www.voltairenet.org/article189300.html#nh12" title="Footnotes 12">12</a>] Lire l'intervention du représentant syrien « <a href="http://www.voltairenet.org/article184899.html">Résolution 2165 et débats (aide humanitaire en Syrie)</a> », Réseau Voltaire, 14 juillet 2014.</span></i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">[<a href="http://www.voltairenet.org/article189300.html#nh13" title="Footnotes 13">13</a>] This point is ignored by the Western Press, but has been widely discussed for a year by the Arab and Persian Press. The truth was made clear when fifty analysts from CentCom denounced the lies in the Coalition reports, an internal inquiry was set into motion, and finally, General John Allen was obliged to resign. See, in particular : « <a href="http://www.voltairenet.org/article188669.html">Stewart, Brennan et Cardillo dénoncent les manipulations du Renseignement au Pentagone</a> » et «<a href="http://www.voltairenet.org/article188779.html">Le général Allen présente sa démission (Bloomberg)</a> », Réseau Voltaire, 12 et 23 septembre 2015.</span></i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">[<a href="http://www.voltairenet.org/article189300.html#nh14" title="Footnotes 14">14</a>] « <a href="http://www.voltairenet.org/article188616.html">La France tente d'entraver le déploiement militaire russe en Syrie</a> », Réseau Voltaire, 6 septembre 2015.</span></i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">[<a href="http://www.voltairenet.org/article189300.html#nh15" title="Footnotes 15">15</a>] « <a href="http://www.voltairenet.org/article189138.html">Les États-Unis et Israël débutent la colonisation du Nord de la Syrie</a> », Réseau Voltaire, 1er novembre 2015.</span></i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">[<a href="http://www.voltairenet.org/article189300.html#nh16" title="Footnotes 16">16</a>] More information : « <a href="http://www.voltairenet.org/article188275.html">Le rôle de la famille Erdoğan au sein de Daesh</a> », Réseau Voltaire, 26 juillet 2015.</span></i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">[<a href="http://www.voltairenet.org/article189300.html#nh17" title="Footnotes 17">17</a>] Daesh was initially created in Iraq as part of a plan aimed at stopping the Resistance to the US occupation. To facilitate this plan, the USA created a number of anti-Chiite armed groups – including the Islamic Emirate in Iraq, the future « Daesh » - then a number of anti-Sunnite groups. Finally, the two groups of the local population forgot about the occupying army and fought each other.</span></i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">[<a href="http://www.voltairenet.org/article189300.html#nh18" title="Footnotes 18">18</a>] «<a href="http://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/2015/11/11/97001-20151111FILWWW00076-valls-la-france-engagee-contre-le-terrorisme.php">Valls: la France engagée contre le terrorisme</a>», AFP et Le Figaro, 11 novembre 2015.</span></i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">[<a href="http://www.voltairenet.org/article189300.html#nh19" title="Footnotes 19">19</a>] «<a href="http://www.leparisien.fr/societe/la-grande-peur-du-terrorisme-13-11-2015-5272279.php">La grande peur du terrorisme</a>», Timothée Boutry, Le Parisien-Aujourd'hui en France, 13 novembre 2015.</span></i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">[<a href="http://www.voltairenet.org/article189300.html#nh20" title="Footnotes 20">20</a>] «<a href="http://www.lesechos.fr/politique-societe/societe/021476106687-bernard-cazeneuve-presente-un-plan-contre-le-trafic-darmes-1175041.php">Bernard Cazeneuve présente un plan contre le trafic d'armes</a>», AFP, 13 novembre 2015.</span></i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">[<a href="http://www.voltairenet.org/article189300.html#nh21" title="Footnotes 21">21</a>] Cf. Declaration by Dr Patrice Pelloux, President of the Association of Emergency Specialists of France, on France Info at 10h26 and on the evening news on France2, 14th November 2015. «<a href="http://www.challenges.fr/france/20151115.CHA1650/comment-le-samu-s-est-prepare-aux-attentats-simultanes-de-paris.html">Comment le Samu s'est préparé aux attentats simultanés de Paris</a>», Kira Mitrofanoff, Challenges, 15 novembre 2015.</span></i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">[<a href="http://www.voltairenet.org/article189300.html#nh22" title="Footnotes 22">22</a>] « <a href="http://www.voltairenet.org/article188884.html">Discours de Vladimir Poutine à la 70ème Assemblée générale de l'Onu</a> », par Vladimir Poutine, Réseau Voltaire, 28 septembre 2015.</span></i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Thierry Meyssan - Translation - Pete Kimberley</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p></div> Amb. (Retd.) K. Gajendra Singhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10712573815372515430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8661786410920048953.post-41437190678931804982015-11-16T00:53:00.001+05:302015-11-16T00:53:22.835+05:30Blowback in Paris –Stirred *Up Muslims/ Terrorists Kill at Least 140 *Stirred up-Note ;When questioned if he had any regrets in supporting Islamic fundamentalism in Afghanistan during 1980s , Zbigniew Brzezinski in a January 1998 interview with Le Nouvel Observateur, Paris, replied, "What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?"." Nonsense--" responded Brzezinski when asked "If Islamic fundamentalism represents a world menace today." Brzezinski was President Jimmy Carter's National Security Adviser. "Terrorism is a tactic, a technique, a weapon that fanatics, dictators and warriors have resorted to through history. If, as Clausewitz wrote, war is the continuation of politics by other means, terrorism is the continuation of war by other means." Patrick J. Buchanan "The United States has supported radical Islamic activism over the past six de<div dir="ltr"><p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><span style="font-size:22pt;color:black">Blowback in Paris –Stirred *Up Muslims/ Terrorists Kill at Least 140</span></b><b><span style="font-size:22pt;color:black"></span></b></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt">*Stirred up-Note ;When questioned if he had any regrets in supporting Islamic fundamentalism in Afghanistan during 1980s , Zbigniew Brzezinski in a January 1998 interview with Le Nouvel Observateur, Paris, replied, "What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?"." Nonsense--" responded Brzezinski when asked "If Islamic fundamentalism represents a world menace today." Brzezinski was President Jimmy Carter's National Security Adviser.<br> <br> "Terrorism is a tactic, a technique, a weapon that fanatics, dictators and warriors have resorted to through history. If, as Clausewitz wrote, war is the continuation of politics by other means, terrorism is the continuation of war by other means." Patrick J. Buchanan<br> <br> "The United States has supported radical Islamic activism over the past six decades, sometimes overtly, sometimes covertly," and is thus "partly to blame for the emergence of Islamic terrorism as a world-wide phenomenon." Robert Drefuss</span></i></b><b><span style="font-size:12pt">.</span></b><b><span style="font-size:14pt"></span></b></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><span style="font-size:20pt;color:black">Blowback in Paris –terrorists Kill at Least 140</span></b><b><span style="font-size:20pt;color:black"></span></b></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">By Reuters</span></b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">November 14, 2015 "<a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/"><span style="text-decoration:none">Information Clearing House</span></a>" - "<a href="http://dailystar.com.lb/News/World/2015/Nov-14/323001-carnage-in-paris-terrorists-kill-at-least-140.ashx"><span style="text-decoration:none">Reuters</span></a>" - PARIS: Gunmen and suicide bombers attacked busy restaurants, bars and a concert hall at locations around Paris Friday, killing scores of people in what a shaken President Francois Hollande described as an unprecedented terrorist attack.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Police sources said at least 100 people were killed in a concert hall alone, with more than 40 killed in other attacks and at least another 60 wounded in the Paris region.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">French media reported varying unofficial death tolls.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">The apparently coordinated gun and bomb assault came as the country, a founding member of the U.S.-led coalition waging airstrikes against ISIS in Syria and Iraq, was on high alert for terrorist attacks ahead of a global climate conference due to open later this month.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Hollande, who was attending an international football match with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier when several blats took place outside the national stadium, declared a state of emergency in the Paris region and announced the closure of France's borders to stop perpetrators escaping.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">"This is a horror," the visibly shaken president said in a midnight television address to the nation before chairing an emergency cabinet meeting.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">All emergency services were mobilized, police leave was canceled and hospitals recalled staff to cope with the casualties.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Hollande said police were launching an assault at one of the attack sites as he spoke.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">A Reuters witness heard five explosions outside the Bataclan music hall, where up to 60 people were being held hostage.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">A second Reuters reporter later said police had completed an operation at the building. BMF TV said three gunmen had been killed.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Earlier, witnesses said an elite anti-terror unit had taken up positions outside the popular concert venue, which was attacked by two or three gunmen, who were reported to have shouted slogans condemning France's role in Syria.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">"We know where these attacks come from," Hollande said, without naming any individual group. "There are indeed good reasons to be afraid."</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">France has been on high alert ever since Islamist gunmen attacked the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo and a Kosher supermarket in Paris in January, killing 18 people.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">U.S. President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel led a global chorus of solidarity with France and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the "despicable attacks" and demanded the release of the hostages.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Julien Pierce, a journalist from Europe 1 radio, was inside the concert hall when the shooting began. In an eyewitness report posted on the station's website, Pierce said several very young individuals, who were not wearing masks, entered the hall while the concert was under way armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles and started "blindly shooting at the crowd." "There were bodies everywhere," he said.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">French media reported five more or less simultaneous attacks in mid-evening in central Paris and outside the Stade de France stadium in the suburb of Saint-Denis, north of the city center.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">There was no immediate verifiable claim of responsibility but supporters of the ISIS militant group, which controls swaths of Iraq and Syria said in Twitter messages that the group carried them out.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">"The State of the caliphate hit the house of the cross," one tweet said.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Three explosions were heard near the Stade de France, where the France-Germany friendly football match was being played.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">A witness said one of the detonations blew people into the air outside a McDonald's restaurant outside the stadium.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">The match continued until the end but panic broke out in the crowd as rumors of the attack spread, and spectators were held in the stadium and assembled spontaneously on the pitch.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">TF1 television said up to 35 people were dead near the football stadium, including two suspected suicide bombers.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Police helicopters circled the stadium as Hollande was rushed back to the interior ministry to deal with the situation.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">In central Paris, shooting erupted in mid-evening outside a Cambodian restaurant in the capital's 10th district.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">There were unconfirmed reports of other shootings in Rue de Charonne in the 11th district and at the central Les Halles shopping and cinema complex.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">"There are lots of people here. I don't know what's happening, a sobbing witness who gave her name only as Anna told BFM TV outside the Bataclan hall.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">"It's horrible. There's a body over there. It's horrible."</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">The attacks came within days of attacks claimed by ISIS militants on a Shiite district of Beirut's southern suburbs, and a Russian tourist aircraft that crashed in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Earlier Friday, the United States and Britain said they had launched an attack in the Syrian town of Raqqa on a British ISIS militant known as "Jihadi John" but it was not certain whether he had been killed.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:16pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Both Iraqi Prez Saddam Hussain and Col Qaddafi were lynched </font></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">Now US Prez Candidate,then Sec of State Hilairy Clinton had commented at Qaddafis lynching </span></i></b><b><i><u><span style="font-size:14pt;color:black">,"We came, we saw he died,</span></u></i></b><b><i><span style="font-size:14pt;color:black"> </span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">" Such a ghoulish statement ?So much for the so called superior culture and civilisation of Americans.</span></i></b></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-size:16pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></i></b></p> <table class="" border="0" cellspacing="3" cellpadding="0" width="80%" style="width:80%;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"> <tbody><tr> <td colspan="2" style="padding:0.75pt"> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article43413.htm"><b><span style="font-size:24pt;color:rgb(51,51,51)">Another Paris False Flag Attack?</span></b></a></span><b><span style="font-size:24pt;color:black"><br> </span></b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:blue">By Paul Craig Roberts</span><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"></span></font></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="18%" style="width:18%;padding:0.75pt"> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"></span><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"></span></font></p> </td> <td width="81%" style="width:81%;padding:0.75pt"> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:black">What do refugees have to gain from making themselves unwelcome with acts of violence committed a</span><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"></span></font></p> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-size:16pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:16pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><span style="font-size:16pt;color:black">Reaping the Whirlwind of Western Support for Extremist Violence<br> </span></b><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><br> By Chris Floyd</span></b><span style="font-size:12pt"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">November 14, 2015 "<a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/"><span style="text-decoration:none">Information Clearing House</span></a>" - We, the West, overthrew Saddam by violence. We overthrew Gadafy by violence. We are trying to overthrow Assad by violence. Harsh regimes all — but far less draconian than our Saudi allies, and other tyrannies around the world. What has been the result of these interventions? A hell on earth, one that grows wider and more virulent year after year.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Without the American crime of aggressive war against Iraq — which, by the measurements used by Western governments themselves, left more than a million innocent people dead — there would be no ISIS, no "Al Qaeda in Iraq." Without the Saudi and Western funding and arming of an amalgam of extremist Sunni groups across the Middle East, used as proxies to strike at Iran and its allies, there would be no ISIS. Let's go back further. Without the direct, extensive and deliberate creation by the United States and its Saudi ally of a world-wide movement of armed Sunni extremists during the Carter and Reagan administrations (in order to draw the Soviets into a quagmire in Afghanistan), there would have been no "War on Terror" — and no terrorist attacks in Paris tonight.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Again, let's be as clear as possible: the hellish world we live in today is the result of deliberate policies and actions undertaken by the United States and its allies over the past decades. It was Washington that led and/or supported the quashing of secular political resistance across the Middle East, in order to bring recalcitrant leaders like Nasser to heel and to back corrupt and brutal dictators who would advance the US agenda of political domination and resource exploitation.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">The open history of the last half-century is very clear in this regard. Going all the way back to the overthrow of the democratic government of Iran in 1953, the United States has deliberately and consciously pushed the most extreme sectarian groups in order to undermine a broader-based secular resistance to its domination agenda.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Why bring up this "ancient history" when fresh blood is running in the streets of Paris? Because that blood would not be running if not for this ancient history; and because the reaction to this latest reverberation of Washington's decades-long, bipartisan cultivation of religious extremism will certainly be more bloodshed, more repression and more violent intervention. Which will, in turn, inevitably, produce yet more atrocities and upheaval as we are seeing in Paris tonight.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">I write in despair. Despair of course at the depravity displayed by the murderers of innocents in Paris tonight; but an even deeper despair at the depravity of the egregious murderers who have brought us to this ghastly place in human history: those gilded figures who have strode the halls of power for decades in the high chambers of the West, killing innocent people by the hundreds of thousands, crushing secular opposition to their favored dictators — and again, again and again — supporting, funding and arming some of the most virulent sectarians on earth.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">And one further cause of despair: that although this historical record is there in the open, readily available from the most mainstream sources, it is and will continue to be completely ignored, both by the power-gamers and by the public. The latter will continue to support the former as they replicate and regurgitate the same old policies of intervention, the same old agendas of domination and greed, over and over and over again — creating ever-more fresh hells for us all to live in, and poisoning the lives of our children, and of all those who come after us.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">Chris Floyd is an award-winning American journalist, and author of the book, <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Empire-Burlesque-Crimes-Comedy-Imperium/dp/1847289703/sr=1-1/qid=1157444978/ref=sr_1_1/202-4746162-0259842?ie=UTF8&s=books" target="_blank">Empire Burlesque: High Crimes and Low Comedy in the Bush Regime</a>. For more than 11 years he wrote the featured political column, Global Eye, for The Moscow Times and the St. Petersburg Times in Russia. He also served as UK correspondent for Truthout.org, and was an editorial writer for three years for The Bergen Record.<a href="http://www.chris-floyd.com/">http://www.chris-floyd.com/</a></span></i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:16pt"><font face="georgia, serif">US Led 2003 illegal invasion of Iraq and its brutal occupation ,as a result of which hundreds of thousands of Iraqis were killed .Since the there are regular attacks and counter attacks in sectarian warfare created by US policies .</font></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:16pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:16pt"><font face="georgia, serif">I have written more than 50 articles beginning from Sept 2002</font></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"><a href="http://tarafits.blogspot.com/2011/12/50-articles-on-us-led-illegal-war-on.html">http://tarafits.blogspot.com/2011/12/50-articles-on-us-led-illegal-war-on.html</a></font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:16pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:16pt"><font face="georgia, serif">N0 37.Gen Taguba Unveils Abu Ghraib, US Gulag –</font></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><span style="font-size:16pt"> "The abused are only Iraqis!"</span></b><span style="font-size:12pt"> was the view of the US generals told to Gen Taguba</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"><a href="http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m34046&hd=&size=1&l=e" target="_blank">http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m34046&hd=&size=1&l=e</a> 27 June, 2007</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><i><span style="font-size:14pt">Recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world : </span></i></b><b><span style="font-size:14pt">Preamble, Universal Declaration of Human Rights<br> <br> <i>"From the moment a soldier enlists, we inculcate loyalty, duty, honor, integrity, and selfless</i> service. And yet when we get to the senior-officer level we forget those values."US Gen Antonio Taguba.<br> <br> </span></b></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:14pt"><font face="georgia, serif">A senior US General in Iraq to Gen Taguba --<i>" the abused detainees were 'only Iraqis.'" </i></font></span></b></p> <h4><b><span style="font-size:20pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></b></h4> <h4><font face="georgia, serif"><b><span style="font-size:16pt">38. IRAQ'S DOOMED 'SURGE' ONLY WIDENS GATES OF HELL</span></b> <a href="http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m34176&hd=&size=1&l=e"><span style="font-size:12pt">http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m34176&hd=&size=1&l=e</span></a> <span style="font-size:12pt">3 July ,2007</span><span style="font-size:12pt"></span></font></h4> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><i><span style="font-size:14pt">"Be nice to America, otherwise we will bring you democracy." A bumper sticker in New York<br> The welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants, and it provides the further advantage of giving the servants of tyranny a good conscience. Albert Camus <br> Television images showed a man running down a smoke-filled street in Baghdad holding a lifeless baby above his head. Smoke was rising off the baby</span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-size:11pt">.</span></i></b></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:16pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:16pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Revenge of Muslim Terrorists against the citizens of France ,an ally in the regime change in Syria, Libya and elsewhere in Greater Middle East against UN Charter and international law destroyed by US led western powers </font></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Amb (Rtd)K.Gajendra Singh 16 November,2015,Mayur Vihar,Delhi</font></span></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"><a href="http://tarafits.blogspot.in/2014/02/amb-rtd-k-gajendra-singh-cv-post.html">http://tarafits.blogspot.in/2014/02/amb-rtd-k-gajendra-singh-cv-post.html</a></font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="vertical-align:top;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><span style="font-size:4.5pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif"><a href="https://www.rt.com/shows/sophieco/321796-terrorism-twist-islam-jihadists/"><span style="text-decoration:none"></span></a></font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://www.rt.com/shows/sophieco/321796-terrorism-twist-islam-jihadists/"><span style="font-size:14pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Terrorism is a new ideological trend, has nothing to do with Islam - Grand Mufti of Syria</font></span></a></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">The Middle East conflict - war in Syria and Iraq - has already spilled over. No one is safe from the terrorist attacks, neither East, nor West. Islamic State claims it is still strong, and its ideas are attracting new recruits to replace those...</font></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:16.8pt;vertical-align:top;background:rgb(230,230,230)"><span style="font-size:7pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="vertical-align:top;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="color:black">·<span style="font-stretch:normal;font-size:7pt"> </span></span><span style="font-size:4.5pt;color:black"><a href="https://www.rt.com/shows/sophieco/321260-war-syria-presidential-elections/"><span style="text-decoration:none"></span></a></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><strong><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(4,79,170);font-weight:normal"><a href="https://www.rt.com/shows/sophieco/321260-war-syria-presidential-elections/">GOP & Dems just puppets of wealthiest US families - Justice party leader</a></span></strong><span style="font-size:9pt;color:black"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:18pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">The US faces lots of issues right now, from being sucked into a war in Syria to stagnating salaries and a shrinking middle class – and ahead of the upcoming presidential elections, people are looking for a candidate who can actually bring...</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Nov 9, 2015 07:17</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="vertical-align:top;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="color:black">·<span style="font-stretch:normal;font-size:7pt"> </span></span><span style="font-size:4.5pt;color:black"><a href="https://www.rt.com/shows/sophieco/321020-syrian-peace-talk-conflict/"><span style="text-decoration:none"></span></a></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><strong><span style="font-size:8pt;color:rgb(4,79,170)"><a href="https://www.rt.com/shows/sophieco/321020-syrian-peace-talk-conflict/">US in stupor, doesn't know what to do or even what it wants in Syria - MidEast studies academic</a></span></strong><b><span style="font-size:5.5pt;color:black"></span></b></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">As Syrian peace talks pick up speed, should we hope for any progress in ending the war? This conflict is a riddle, surely - as years go on, it becomes more and more difficult to sort out who's fighting whom and for what purpose. And over that...</font></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:5.5pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Nov 6, 2015 08:46</font></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="vertical-align:top;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="color:black">·<span style="font-stretch:normal;font-size:7pt"> </span></span><span style="font-size:4.5pt;color:black"><a href="https://www.rt.com/shows/sophieco/320457-eu-currency-economy-crises/"><span style="text-decoration:none"></span></a></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><strong><span style="font-size:8pt;color:rgb(4,79,170)"><a href="https://www.rt.com/shows/sophieco/320457-eu-currency-economy-crises/">Eurozone crisis ready for comeback, here for a decade - German Economic Ministry adviser</a></span></strong><b><span style="font-size:5.5pt;color:black"></span></b></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">The European Union and its euro currency were created by those who dreamt of a truly united Europe - one without borders, both physical and economic. However, wave after wave of crises are now shaking the foundations of that dream. Voices of...</font></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:5.5pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Nov 2, 2015 07:23</font></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="vertical-align:top;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="color:black">·<span style="font-stretch:normal;font-size:7pt"> </span></span><span style="font-size:4.5pt;color:black"><a href="https://www.rt.com/shows/sophieco/320129-war-syria-terror-isis/"><span style="text-decoration:none"></span></a></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><strong><span style="font-size:8pt;color:rgb(4,79,170)"><a href="https://www.rt.com/shows/sophieco/320129-war-syria-terror-isis/">US military gives incorrect data on war with ISIS to White House - CIA veteran</a></span></strong><b><span style="font-size:5.5pt;color:black"></span></b></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><span style="font-size:11pt;color:black">As the war in Syria and Iraq drags on, and violence in Afghanistan continues, the War on Terror seems to be lost. Will the US rethink its strategy? Will Washington have enough courage to admit mistakes and learn lessons? Will other countries </span></b><span style="color:black">-...</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="vertical-align:top;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><span style="font-size:4.5pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Oct 30, 2015 10:06</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="vertical-align:top;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="color:black">·<span style="font-stretch:normal;font-size:7pt"> </span></span><span style="font-size:4.5pt;color:black"><a href="https://www.rt.com/shows/sophieco/319667-syrian-crisis-economy-refugee/"><span style="text-decoration:none"></span></a></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><strong><span style="font-size:8pt;color:rgb(4,79,170)"><a href="https://www.rt.com/shows/sophieco/319667-syrian-crisis-economy-refugee/">French ex-prime minister: Without Assad, neither EU nor US will be able to end Syrian crisis</a></span></strong><b><span style="font-size:5.5pt;color:black"></span></b></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Conflicting views over the Syrian crisis are stalling the fight against global terror. Under the pressure of the economic and refugee crises, European unity is too strained. Can the escalation of fighting be stopped - and what are the instruments...</font></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:5.5pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Oct 26, 2015 08:05</font></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="vertical-align:top;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="color:black">·<span style="font-stretch:normal;font-size:7pt"> </span></span><span style="font-size:4.5pt;color:black"><a href="https://www.rt.com/shows/sophieco/319453-sectarian-war-is-radicalism/"><span style="text-decoration:none"></span></a></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="vertical-align:top;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><font face="georgia, serif"><strong><span style="font-size:7pt;color:rgb(4,79,170)"><a href="https://www.rt.com/shows/sophieco/319453-sectarian-war-is-radicalism/">Saudi-Iranian feud unleashed sectarian war on the whole Middle East - anti-extremism advisor</a></span></strong><span style="font-size:4.5pt;color:black"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:16.8pt;vertical-align:top;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><span style="font-size:7pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">There are too many players in the Middle East, and each for their own goal: a clash of Sunni and Shia, of East and West - and of course, there's a full-scale war with Syria and Iraq in the center. Islamic State, despite being a tyranny of...</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="vertical-align:top;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><span style="font-size:4.5pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Oct 23, 2015 07:41</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="vertical-align:top;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="color:black">·<span style="font-stretch:normal;font-size:7pt"> </span></span><span style="font-size:4.5pt;color:black"><a href="https://www.rt.com/shows/sophieco/319036-taliban-afghanistan-us-policy/"><span style="text-decoration:none"></span></a></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="vertical-align:top;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><font face="georgia, serif"><strong><span style="font-size:7pt;color:rgb(4,79,170)"><a href="https://www.rt.com/shows/sophieco/319036-taliban-afghanistan-us-policy/">Former Afghan President: US not interested in winning 'War on Terror'</a></span></strong><span style="font-size:4.5pt;color:black"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:16.8pt;vertical-align:top;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><span style="font-size:7pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Despite 14 years of combat, the Taliban in Afghanistan are still strong and are launching another massive offensive. Can the extremist tide be stopped? Will Afghanistan be able to hold - and does the American presence help in the fight against...</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="vertical-align:top;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><span style="font-size:4.5pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Oct 19, 2015 07:19</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="vertical-align:top;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="color:black">·<span style="font-stretch:normal;font-size:7pt"> </span></span><span style="font-size:4.5pt;color:black"><a href="https://www.rt.com/shows/sophieco/318842-sport-speed-formula-one/"><span style="text-decoration:none"></span></a></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="vertical-align:top;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><font face="georgia, serif"><strong><span style="font-size:7pt;color:rgb(4,79,170)"><a href="https://www.rt.com/shows/sophieco/318842-sport-speed-formula-one/">Bernie Ecclestone: America falsely believes it's greatest superpower</a></span></strong><span style="font-size:4.5pt;color:black"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:16.8pt;vertical-align:top;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><span style="font-size:7pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">This sport is all about speed. Formula One is one of the riskiest competitions, with great victories often coming along with great tragedies. This year, the event is in Russia, and thousands of fans gathered to watch and see the road battle for the...</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="vertical-align:top;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><span style="font-size:4.5pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Oct 16, 2015 10:17</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="vertical-align:top;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="color:black">·<span style="font-stretch:normal;font-size:7pt"> </span></span><span style="font-size:4.5pt;color:black"><a href="https://www.rt.com/shows/sophieco/318340-tpp-us-congress-jobs/"><span style="text-decoration:none"></span></a></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="vertical-align:top;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><font face="georgia, serif"><strong><span style="font-size:7pt;color:rgb(4,79,170)"><a href="https://www.rt.com/shows/sophieco/318340-tpp-us-congress-jobs/">US Congressman: Washington aims to impose disastrous trade policies everywhere in the world</a></span></strong><span style="font-size:4.5pt;color:black"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:16.8pt;vertical-align:top;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><span style="font-size:7pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">A historic deal between the US and 11 Pacific Rim nations has just been brokered; American elites are praising it as the most beneficial deal for businesses – and yet, many predict that thousands in the US will lose their jobs because of it....</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="vertical-align:top;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><span style="font-size:4.5pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Oct 12, 2015 06:59</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p></div> Amb. (Retd.) K. Gajendra Singhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10712573815372515430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8661786410920048953.post-84497167413903829042015-11-05T22:53:00.001+05:302015-11-05T22:53:41.476+05:30The US ‘Media Troika’: The Financial Press and Political Warfare<div dir="ltr"><p class="MsoNormal"><i style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:16px">USA's'Troika</i><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:16px">' of financial media whores–</span><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">The <u>Wall Street Journal</u>, (WSJ), the <u>New York Times</u> (NYT), and the <u>Financial Times</u> (FT) – </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif"><i>Indian financial journalists treat them as Bible, Quran and Geeta .well produces London Economist serves as an elegant media whore and is very successful in Indian.</i></font></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif"><i>Extracts from US?UK media's role as handmaidens of western wramongers</i></font></span></p><p><b><i><span style="font-size:16pt;font-family:Georgia,serif">IRAQ WARS-WESTERN MEDIA, PROPAGANDA ARMS OF GOVERNMENTS AND CORPORATE INTERESTS</span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u><i><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif">By K. Gajendra Singh, Bucharest (Romania). 12 March, 2004</span></i><i><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></i></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u><i><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Georgia,serif"> </span></i><i><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Georgia,serif"> </span></i><i><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Georgia,serif"> "Demand a broader view. " BBC </span></i><i><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></i></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u><i><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif">BBC's Director General Greg Dyke, who resigned after Lord Hutton's "white wash" of the British government's role in the spat over correspondent Andrew Gilligan (in a Channel 4 News poll last week 90% thought Hutton was unfair) , said that Prime Minister Tony Blair's top spin doctor Alastair Campbell had written letter after letter throughout the conflict. "What Alastair Campbell was clearly trying to do was intimidate the BBC so that we reported what he wanted us to report as opposed to what we wanted to report," he said. Dyke had attacked American television reporting of Iraq war"For any news organization to act as a cheerleader for government is to undermine your credibility," he said. "They should be... balancing their coverage, not banging the drum for one side or the other." He added that research showed that of 840 experts interviewed on American news programmes during the invasion of Iraq, only four opposed the war. "If that were true in Britain, the BBC would have failed in its duty."</span></i><i><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></i></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u><i><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif">How ever, BBC itself gave in its over all coverage a mere 2% time to opposition's anti-war voices, which was really the majority view of the British people. It was the worst of the leading broadcasters, including US networks, according to Media Tenor; a Bonn-based non-partisan media research organization. So much for the most hyped pristine western media outlet. ABC of USA with 7% was the second-worst case of denying access to anti-war voices. </span></i><i><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></i></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u><i><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif">In a 4 July, 2003 comment in " the Guardian" titled "Biased Broadcasting Corporation", Justin Lewis, Professor of Journalism at Cardiff University confirmed the above result while refuting the anecdotal view that BBC was anti-war in its coverage. "Just the opposite was the truth". A careful analysis by the University of All the Main Evening News Bulletins during the war, concluded that of the four main UK broadcasters - the BBC, ITN, Channel 4 and Sky, BBC's coverage was the worst in granting anti-war viewpoint. The BBC had "displayed the most pro-war agenda of any [British] broadcaster." Matthew d'Ancona in the Sunday Telegraph described how "in the eyes of exasperated Blairites - the BBC whinged and whined, and did its best to sabotage the war effort". But the pattern that emerges from their study was very different. </span></i><i><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></i></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif"><u>The supposed "impartiality" of the BBC did not fool many opponents of the war, who correctly saw it as a voice of the government. On March 29, 2003 for example, a demonstration by 400 anti-war protesters was held outside the BBC's office in Manchester and criticised the BBC for its pro-government and anti-Iraq coverage. </u></span></i><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><span style="font-size:18pt;color:black">The 'Media Troika': The Financial Press and Political Warfare</span></b><span style="font-size:18pt;color:black"><br> </span><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><br> Western 'Mainstream' Extremism: Distortion, Fabrication and Falsification in the Financial Press<br> <br> <b>By James Petras</b></span><span style="font-size:12pt"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">November 04, 2015 "<a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/"><span style="color:blue;text-decoration:none">Information Clearing House</span></a>" - With the collapse of the Communist countries in the 1990's and their conversion to capitalism, followed by the advent of neo-liberal regimes throughout most of Latin America, Asia, Europe and North America, the imperial regimes in the US and EU have established a new <u>political spectrum</u>, in which the <u>standards of acceptability</u> narrowed and the <u>definition of adversaries</u>expanded.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Over the past quarter century, the US and EU turned their focus from <u>systemic adversaries</u> (anti-capitalist and anti-imperial states and movements) to attacking <u>capitalist regimes</u>, which</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">(1) had adopted nationalist, re-distributive and Keynesian policies;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">(2) had opposed military interventions, coups and bases;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">(3) had aligned with non-Western capitalist powers;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">(4) had opposed Zionist colonization of Palestine and Gulf State-financed Islamist terrorists;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">(5) and had refuse to follow the financial agendas dictated by Wall Street and the City of London investment houses, speculators and vulture funds. </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">The Western imperial regimes (by which we mean the US, Canada and the EU) have exercised their political, military, economic and propaganda powers to</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">(1) eliminate or limit the variety of capitalist options;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">(2) control the kinds of market-state relations; and</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">(3) secure compliance through punitive military invasions, occupations and economic sanctions against targeted adversaries.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">The '<i>Media Troika'</i>: the Financial Press and Political Warfare</span></b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">The <b><u>major financial newspapers of record</u></b> in the United States have played a key role in disseminating the post-communist political line regarding what are acceptable capitalist policies: The <u>Wall Street Journal</u>, (WSJ), the <u>New York Times</u> (NYT), and the <u>Financial Times</u> (FT) – <i>the 'Troika</i>' – have systematically engaged in political warfare acting as virtual<u>propaganda</u> arms of the US and EU imperialist governments in their attempts to impose and/or maintain <u>vassal state </u>status on countries and economies, 'regulated' according to the needs of Western financial institutions.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">The propaganda <i>Troika</i> not only <u>reflects</u> the interests and policies of the ruling elites, but their editors, journalists and commentators <u>shape policies</u> through their reportage, analyses and editorials.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">The <i>Troika's</i> <u>methods</u> of <u>political operation</u> and the substance of their policies<u>preclude</u> any kind of<u>balanced</u> reportage.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Day in and day out, the <i>Troika</i> (1) <u>fabricates</u> '<i>crises'</i> for adversaries and illusory promises of '<i>recovery'</i> for vassals; (2) distorts and/or omits favorable information regarding adversaries, dismissing targeted regimes as '<i>authoritarian'</i> and '<i>corrupt'</i>. In contrast, obedient and submissive rulers are described as '<i>pragmatic'</i>and '<i>realist'</i>. The <i>Troika</i>attributes 'military threats' and 'aggressive behavior' to adversaries engaged in defensive policies, while labeling vassal state invasions or aggression as justified, retaliatory or defensive.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">A close reading of the reportage by the <i>stable of Troika scribes</i> over the past 2 years reveals the repeated use of vitriolic and highly charged terms in describing adversarial leaders. This prepares the reader for the one-sided, <u>negative</u> <u>assessment</u> of past, present and future policies adopted by the targeted regime.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Once the imperial states and the <i>Troika</i> decide on targeting a government and its leaders, all the subsequent 'news' is designed to present the motives of these leaders as 'perfidious' and the economic and social impact of their policies as 'catastrophic'.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">And whenever the '<i>Troika's'</i> analyses or predictions or prognostications turned out to be blatantly wrong – there are never corrections. Brazen lies are glossed over with nary a ripple in their smooth fabric of propaganda.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Once a government is designated as '<i>enemy'</i> (ripe for 'regime change'), the <i>Troika </i>recycles the same hostile messages almost daily. The readers, upon viewing <i>Troika</i> headlines, already know at least three quarters of the content of the 'article'. A small portion of a report may refer tangentially to some particular event or policy decision for which the diatribe launched.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Working hand-in-hand with Western imperial regimes, the <i>Troika</i> targets the same regimes, using the exact same terms dished out by imperial policy spokesmen and women.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">In this essay, we will discuss the main regimes and policies targeted by the <i>Troika</i> and its Western imperial state partners. We will then proceed to evaluate <i>Troika</i> facts, interpretations and their track record from the beginning of the onslaught to the present. We will conclude by examining the conversion of the mainstream '<i><u>serious</u></i>' financial press into a triumvirate of tub-thumping warmongers.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">The <i>Troika's</i> Targeted Regimes: Trumpeting Their Sins and Denying Their Successes</span></b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">The <i><u>Troika's</u></i> propaganda war not only converges with the imperial states'<u>destabilization</u> policies ('<i>regime change'</i>) but also is aimed at specific <u>policies</u> and <u>agreements</u>among supposed allies, partners and even vassal states.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">The intensity of vitriol and the frequency of hostile articles vary according to the level of conflict between the imperial regime and its target for 'regime change'. The greater the conflict the more violent the language.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">We find intense <i>Troika</i> hostility, in the form of frequent, hysterical attacks, directed against Russia, China, Venezuela, Argentina and Palestine. Even any suspected '<i>deviations'</i>by vassals, like Chile or Brazil, in the form of popular domestic social legislations, are subjected to stern scolding and warnings of dire consequences.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">The <i>Troika</i> Maligns Russia</span></b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">The <i>Troika's</i> attacks vary to some degree with each target. In the case of Russia, the<i>Troika</i> routinely denounces President Vladimir Putin as an <u>authoritarian</u> ruler who has undermined Russian democracy. They claim Russia's economy is in <u>crisis</u> and facing imminent collapse. They vilify Russia's military assistance to the Syrian government of Bashar Assad. They question the viability of Russia's military treaties and economic agreements with China. In sum, the <i>Troika</i> portrays Russia as a once peaceful, democratic law-abiding country (during the kleptocratic years of Boris Yeltsin in the 1990's), which has been taken over by former secret KGB officials who have embarked on reckless overseas military adventures, while repressing their own ethnic Muslim populations (in Chechnya and Dagestan) and which is being run into the ground because of mismanagement and Western economic sanctions. They never bother to explain why the 'authoritarian' Putin maintains a consistently high citizen approval despite the<i>Troika's</i> litany of evils…</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">Troika</span></i></b><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">-Backed Ukrainian Puppet Secures 1% Approval:</span></b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">In December 2013, US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland, the foul mouth diplomat, puppet dominatrix and austerity zealot, bragged that Washington had poured $5 billion dollars into Ukraine in order to pursue '<i>regime change</i>'and install a puppet regime headed by President Petro Poroshenko and Prime Minister ('<i>Our Man Yats</i>') Arseniy Yatsenyuk as Prime Minister. Obedient to his Western sponsors and the<i>Troika</i>, Yatsenyuk proceeded to sign off on an IMF bailout and austerity program slashing salaries and pensions of Ukrainian citizens by half, reducing GNP by 25%, ending fuel and food subsidies and tripling unemployment. These policies brought windfall profits for his billionaire crony capitalists and intensified corruption. The <i>Troika</i> labelled the Nuland's putsch a '<i>democratic revolution'</i>, applauding Yastenyuk for vigorously applying the IMF dictated program and predicted a prosperous future…</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">As <u>discontent</u> spread and anger mounted among Ukrainian citizens, Yatsenyuk continued to feed his own ego by reading the <i>Troika's</i> puff-piece editorials lauding his courage for staying the course of austerity and ignoring his compatriots' opinion polls, up until the October 25, 2015 elections.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">As the elections neared, opinion polls revealed that <u>99%</u> of the electorate (which excluded millions of restive citizens of the Donbas region) completely rejected Arseniy (now known as '<i>Nuland's arsehole'</i>) Yatsenyuk. Faced with the <u>universal rejection</u> of his starvation policies and crony capitalism, he withdrew his party (the <i>Popular</i> (sic) <i>Front</i>) from the election, but not from the 'democratic' government…</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">For two years the <i>Troika</i> had praised the Kiev junta, <u>fabricating</u> 'reports' about Kiev's positive economic 'reforms' ….which had benefited the 1% corrupt oligarchs while impoverishing the masses. The Western propaganda mills systematically distorted popular reaction among the Ukrainian citizens, citing imaginary '<i>anonymous experts'</i> and phantom '<i>men in the street</i>' in praise of the debacle. Never had the <i>Troika</i>engaged in such blatantly<u>deceptive</u> 'journalism' as its account of the two years of pillage and mass immiseration under Prime Minister Yatsenyuk. And when '<i>Yats'</i> was faced with total repudiation, he blithely dismissed Ukrainian public opinion, claiming he was '<i>not concerned by temporary (sic) political party ratings</i>'. His indifference with an electoral repudiation of 99% is rooted in a delusion that he will remain Prime Minister because he is widely praised by the EU, the US, the IMF … and the media <i>Troika</i>.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">The Troika</span></i></b><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> and China: Here Comes the Crash . . .?</span></b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">In its '<i>journalistic pivot to Asia'</i>, the <i>Troika</i> deprecates China's <u>high-growth</u> economy by questioning its data and by repeatedly predicting the impending crisis, breakdown and mass disaffection.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">The <i>Troika</i> describes China's defense policy as a '<i>military threat to its neighbors</i>' and labels its overseas trade and investment policies as '<i>neo-colonial exploitation'</i>.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">China's national campaign against corruption and its prosecution of corrupt officials is dismissed by the<i>Troika</i> as a '<i>political purge by a power-hungry president'</i>.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">The <i>Troika</i> attributes Chinese advances in science and technology as mere '<i>cyber-theft of Western innovations'</i>.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">The movement of Chinese workers (internal migration) to areas with better paying jobs and investments is called '<i>colonization'</i>.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">The Chinese government's response to terrorism and armed separatists from Tibet and the Western Uighur regions is denounced as "<i>Beijing's systematic violation of the human rights of minorities</i>".</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">The <i>Troika</i> Castigates Capitalist Argentina (for a Decade of Growth)</span></b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Argentina has been on the <i>Troika's</i> radar for a decade, despite the fact that it has a center-left government, which rescued capitalism from a total collapse (the Crisis of 1998-2002) restoring the growth of profits. Multi-nationals, like Monsanto and Chevron, enjoy huge returns on their investments in Argentina.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">The <i><u>Troika</u></i> denounces the government for running up budget deficits while ignoring the impact of a Manhattan court judgement to award a group of Wall Street 'vulture fund' speculators 'interest payments' of one-thousand percent on old pre-crisis debt.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">The <i>Troika</i> claims the regime engages in populist excesses, which prevent large-scale inflows of investment capital.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">The <i>Troika</i> describes the recent slowdown in the economy as a '<i>deep crisis',</i> which requires '<i>deep structural changes'</i> (namely the elimination of social funding for pensioners, low income wage earners and school children).</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">The <i>Troika</i> paints a catastrophic picture of Argentina: a decaying economy run by a demagogic political leadership engaged in falsifying data…to mask an imminent collapse…<b><i>Troika</i> and its '<i>Hate Venezuela'</i>Campaign</b></font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">The <i>Troika's</i> <i>journalists</i> and editorial writers, portray Venezuela as an unmitigated disaster: a stagnant and collapsing economy, ruined by an authoritarian populist regime repressing peaceful opposition dissenters.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">According to the <i>Troika</i>, Venezuela is incapable of providing basic goods to consumers. Instead it resorts to draconian confiscation of goods from honest businesses – unjustly accused of hoarding and profiteering. The daily reality of manufactured 'shortages' is consistently ignored.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">When the Venezuelan government attempts to stop violent cross border raids by Colombian paramilitary gangs and smugglers it is denounced as arbitrarily <i>repressing Colombian immigrants.</i></font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">When Caracas arrests opposition leaders because of their well-documented involvement in violent street demonstrations, promoting the sabotage of power plants and clinics and for planning coups, they are portrayed as violating the '<i>human rights of legitimate dissidents.</i>'.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">The <i>Troika</i> never mentions the tens of millions of US dollars provided by Washington to <i>opposition NGOs</i>to pursue its destabilization campaign against Venezuela. It labels US-funded opposition NGO's as "<i>independent civil society organizations</i>" (just like Ukraine before the putsch).</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">For almost 2 decades, the <i>Troika</i> has praised Venezuelan opposition groups as formidable critics of the Chavez-Maduro government, but has never explained to their readers why such 'formidable' groups have been soundly defeated in 14 of the 15 elections.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">The <i>Troika</i> and Palestine: In Defense of Israeli Terror</span></b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">In its Middle East coverage, the <i>Troika</i> consistently depicts the Palestinians as violent terrorists and aggressors while describing Israelis as their victims. According to the <i>Troika</i>, the Israeli army is engaged in justifiable '<i>reprisals'</i> when they bomb and slaughter Palestinian civilians trapped in Gaza. The endless dispossession of Palestinians of their homes, farms and rights and the violent settler occupation by Israeli Jewish colonists is presented as the just settlement of Jews escaping persecution.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">No mention or little importance is given to:</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">(1) Israeli-Jewish desecration of Islamic and Christian religious sites;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">(2) Israeli systematic terror and mass jailing of peaceful protesters.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Palestinian resistance is described as '<i>incendiary, irrational violence'</i>.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">The <i>Troika</i> journalists produce 'articles' which are virtually indistinguishable from the press handouts of the Zionist Power Configuration in the US. The <i>Troika</i> even chastises their partner US-EU regimes for their bland criticism or expression of shock at Israel's most egregious crimes.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">The <i>Troika</i> echoes Israeli and Zionist attacks on international tribunals charging Israeli officials with crimes against humanity. The <i>Troika</i> claims they lack 'balance'.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">The Troika and Syria: Armchair Generals</span></b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">The <i>Troika</i> has demonized the Syrian government of Bashar Assad while backing jihadi terrorists dubbed 'rebels or 'moderates'. It has long argued for greater direct military intervention by NATO armies to overthrow the government in Damascus.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">The <i>Troika</i>, masquerading as an independent '<i>financial press'</i> publishes scores of articles by dozens of 'armchair generals' who concoct military strategies against Damascus while ignoring heavy economic costs, the social catastrophe of 4 million internal and external Syrian war refugees and the grave consequences of the splitting up a once-unified secular nation-state.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">The <i>Troika</i> and Wayward Neo-Liberals</span></b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">The <i>Troika</i> even chastises states and governments which have adopted 'free market policies' but maintained or introduced moderate social palliatives. For example, the Chilean regime of Michelle Bachelet fell victim to <i>Troika</i> criticism for promoting a mild increase in corporate taxes and implementing trade union legislation allowing for greater workers' rights. According to the <i>Troika</i>, these mild <u>reforms</u> have led to economic stagnation, a decline in investment and greater social polarization.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">Evaluation: Unmasking the <i>Troika's</i> Distortions, Fabrications and Falsifications</span></b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">The <i>Troika's</i> 'journalism and editorializing' on Russia has totally distorted its recent political and economic history. Like all confidence men, Troika journalists and editors mix a few threads of facts with patent falsehoods, magnifying defects and minimizing achievements, ignoring positive long-term trends and emphasizing episodic negatives.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">The <i>Troika's</i> accounts of Russia's recent military and diplomatic assistance to the Syrian government's struggle against Islamist terrorists, ignores the achievement in reversing IS advances and stabilizing the central government.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">The <i>Troika</i> paints a specter of Great Russian geopolitical expansion and ignores the long-standing political partnerships and alliances between Russia and major countries in the region, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">With matters 'economic', the <i>Troika</i> describes the 'catastrophic' impact of US-EU sanctions against Russia over Ukraine, while ignoring the positive long-term results for Russia's economy –greater self-reliance and investment in manufacturing and agriculture as a stimulus to <u>local</u> producers and the emergence of<u>alternative overseas suppliers and markets</u>, especially China and Iran.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">The <i>Troika</i> highlights Russia's two-year recession while ignoring a decade and a half of substantial growth after the catastrophic 'Yeltsin' years.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">The <i>Troika</i> <u>falsifies</u> past and present political developments. They discretely praise the Western-backed violent gangster-oligarchs who ruled Russia during the pillage years of the 1990's as a <i>democracy</i> while denouncing the relatively peaceful and competitive elections under the Putin Presidency as '<i>authoritarian'</i>.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">The <i>Troika</i> resorts to similar propaganda ploys with China. Any slowdown from China's three decades of double digit growth gets spun as an imminent collapse, ignoring the fact that the US-European business community can only dream of China's still robust growth rate of 7%.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">The allegations of Chinese cyber theft of Western science and technology ignore the obvious fact that China's enormous public investment in basic and applied science and technology in dozens of centers of excellence has produced stunning achievements and levels of scholarship. A review of the international scientific literature and journals – paints an entirely different picture of Chinese advances from that described by the <i>Troika</i>.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Chinese economic growth through seaborne exports requires major investment and commitment to its maritime routes and security. To counter Chinese growth and assert US supremacy, Washington has signed new, provocative military pacts with Japan, Australia and the Philippines and escalated the intrusion of its planes and ships into Chinese waters and airspace. The <i>Troika</i> labels China's defense of its waterways as an "aggressive" military threat to its regional neighbors, while US military investments in bases in Asia and constant intelligence gathering exceed Beijing's five- fold. US warships brazenly violate China's 12 mile maritime boundary.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">Troika</span></i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> scribes completely ignore the recent history of US and Japanese empires invading dozens of Asian countries, establishing colonies, and killing scores of millions of people. In contrast to the enormous US strategic ring of military bases and communications outposts throughout the Asia-Pacific region, China has no foreign bases or overseas troops – a fact one will never learn from the '<i>Troika'</i></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">The <i>Troika's</i> campaign against Argentina, permeating its pages, minimizes the role of a short-term contemporary slow-down in international demand for commodities and attributes Argentina's problems to its welfare programs, capital controls and state regulation. The<i>Troika</i> fails to acknowledge the past decade of growth, prosperity and rising living standards among the people in Argentina.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">The source of Argentine stagnation is not because of <u>a lack of free market policies</u> but the Fernandez regime's accommodation and promotion of the interests of international bankers, virtually all foreign debt holders (except one notorious 'vulture'!) and extractive capitalists (agribusiness, Monsanto, Barrack Gold etc.).</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">The <i>Troika</i> ignores 'the decade of infamy' – the 1990's – during which Argentina served as a bargain bazaar for the privatization of lucrative public enterprises and eventually collapsed in the 2001 crash with major bank closings, one hundred thousand bankruptcies and five million unemployed (30% of the labor force) – a thoroughly pillaged economy. Instead the <i>Troika</i> <u>fabricates</u> an ideal world of past free market prosperity in order to condemn contemporary Argentine, ignoring the real historical record of a liberal debacle and Keynesian recovery.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Venezuela is currently in a severe crisis, as the <i>Troika</i> scribes remind us in their shrill reports – blaming it entirely on '<i>populist'</i> (i.e. public spending on social welfare) and '<i>nationalist'</i> policies.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">The <i>Troika</i> ignores the well-documented <u>sabotage</u> by the importers and distributers in the private business community, hoarding, excess profiteering and currency speculation. These problems are exacerbated by the sharp decline of oil revenues resulting from international <u>market </u>forces, and not merely government mismanagement.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">The <i>Troika</i> tells their readers that the Chavez and Maduro governments are authoritarian, ignoring the dozen and a half free and competitive elections since Chavez' ascent to power. Moreover, the <i>Troika</i> has remained rather quiet over their verbally violent editorial support for the opposition business-led and US embassy-backed military coup in 2002 and an aborted coup in 2014.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">Conclusion</span></b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">The <i>Troika</i>: the <u>Wall Street Journal</u>, <u>New York Times</u> and the <u>Financial Times</u> have repeatedly made <u>false prognoses</u> regarding the economic performances of governments targeted for 'regime change'. Their economic predictions were repeatedly <u>wrong</u> and their readers among the investor public would have lost their shirts if they had taken their cues from the <i>Troika's editorial pages</i> and bet 'short' against China and the rest…</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Their perverse denunciations of Russian and Chinese military defense activities are sharpening world tensions. Their support for <i>ethnic separatists</i> in the Russian Caucuses and western China has encouraged acts of terrorism leading to the deaths of hundreds of Chinese workers murdered by Uighur and Tibetan terrorists, hundreds of Russians at hands of Chechen terrorists and thousands of Russian-speakers in Ukraine's Donbas region.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">The <i>Troika</i> cannot be relied on for reliable information, especially regarding the economic, political and foreign policies of US and EU adversaries (those targets for 'Regime change').</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">At most their polemical screeds give the discerning reader an insight into the<u> propaganda line</u> promoted by the Western powers.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Moreover in recent times, the <i>Troika</i> has become even more strident and militaristic than the ruling elites. The <i>Troika's</i> armchair generals mocked Obama for not sending ground troops into Syria; chastised the US and EU for signing the nuclear agreements with Iran; and embraced Israel's systematic murder of Palestinians.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Unreliable and more given to strident invective than reporting the facts in a balanced way, the <i>Troika</i> has lost credibility for intelligent, serious readers who strain to '<i>read between the lines</i>' when they write that a government is '<i>unpopular'</i> during elections. More likely than not, the incumbents sweep the elections and retain popular majorities as has been the case so far in Russia, Argentina, Venezuela and elsewhere.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">If and when the <i>Troika</i> succeeds in promoting more wars, as it has been doing in Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen and Somalia, each and every militaristic adventure will lead to economic and social disasters spawning millions more refugees.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">When imperial governments, like England, adopt conciliatory policies toward China, eschewing zero sum confrontations, in favor of win-win cooperation, the <i>Troika's</i> armchair generals are sure to mock and accuse the conservative government of 'kowtowing' to authoritarians – dismissing the $30 billion dollar investment deals.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">The <i>Troika</i> has gone far beyond its earlier role of presenting the line of imperial regimes. They now march, rather independently, to the military drum of real and imagined nuclear warriors and terrorists. Welcome to the "free press" and the 'lies of our Times'!</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">James Petras is a retired Bartle Professor of Sociology at Binghamton University in Binghamton, New York and adjunct professor at Saint Mary's University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. <a href="http://petras.lahaine.org/"><span style="color:blue">http://petras.lahaine.org/</span></a></span></i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p></div> Amb. (Retd.) K. Gajendra Singhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10712573815372515430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8661786410920048953.post-27923249349763633252015-10-27T22:16:00.001+05:302015-10-27T22:16:01.173+05:30Who will fight the next US war? On ground<div dir="ltr"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span></p> <h3 style="vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:22pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(74,74,74)">Who will fight the next US war? On ground , the American Youth !</span></h3> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Given below is an interesting article on the readiness of the American youth, in spite of various inducements by the government to enlist in USA's ground forces.. Since the invention of the catapult if not earlier and its upgrading to bombing and killing by aircraft and helicopters, it needs physical courage and dedication to fight on the ground, which is a major motivation for the home countries around forces to defend themselves. Many a military commanders happen to be Airforce officers who provide glib scenario by video presentation of how the enemy positions on the ground can be bombed and quick victory achieved. But ultimately it takes a human being and infantry soldier to go , occupy the place and defend it. This of course leads to many casualties which the American youth is not ready to bargain for.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">As I have maintained it was the Soviet Armed Forces which destroyed 80% of the Nazi war machine at great sacrifice involving 15 million soldiers and citizens. The Americans only joined the war later and with little sacrifice moved up to Berlin. Later they produced many films like "The longest day", "Gen Patton" to glamorise and propagandise their contributions in the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. US claims are rubbish.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">The American youth in spite of many inducements are not ready to join the ground Armed Forces and for this the credit go should go to the Iraqi resistance after U.S.-led illegal invasion of Iraq in 2003 and its brutal occupation. There are many estimates ,which run into million and half or even more of Iraqis killed directly following the invasion and incitement of sectorial wars financed , overseen and encouraged by the United States government.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Nevertheless after a loss of between 5 to 6000 US GIs on the ground but with many score thousands of US soldiers , mentally disturbed and deranged in Iraq, the American youth has no heart to sacrifice itself for a government which is basically an oligopoly of Jewish controlled military industry complex , and energy and financial interests .</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Only when the raging inhuman beast, the white racists from West Europe who invaded and destroyed the indigenous Indian nations in the continent of America goes down financially as many people hopefully expect sooner than later that the world might see some signs of peace on planet Earth.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(227,18,11)"><font face="georgia, serif">Civil-military relations</font></span></p> <h3 style="vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:22pt;color:rgb(74,74,74)"><font face="georgia, serif">Who will fight the next war?</font></span></h3> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:18pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Failures in Iraq and Afghanistan have widened the gulf between most Americans and the armed forces<b></b></font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif">Oct 24th 2015<span class=""> </span>|<span class=""> </span><span class=""><span style="color:rgb(123,123,115);text-transform:uppercase;border:1pt none windowtext;padding:0in">ATLANTA</span></span><span class=""> </span>|<span class=""> </span><a href="http://www.economist.com/printedition/2015-10-24"><span style="color:rgb(123,123,115);border:1pt none windowtext;padding:0in">From the print edition</span></a><span style="font-size:12pt"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">CRUISING a Walmart in Clayton County, Georgia, with Sergeant Russell Haney of US army recruiting, it would be easy to think most Americans are aching to serve Uncle Sam. Almost every teenager or 20-something he hails, in his cheery Tennessee drawl, amid the mounds of plastic buckets and cut-price tortilla chips, appears tempted by his offer. Lemeanfa, a 19-year-old former football star, says he is halfway sold on it; Dseanna, an 18-year-old shopper, says she is too, provided she won't have to go to war. Serving in the coffee shop, Archel and Lily, a brother and sister from the US Virgin Islands, listen greedily to the education, training and other benefits the recruiting sergeant reels off. "You don't want a job, you want a career!" he tells them, as a passer-by thrusts a packet of cookies into his hands, to thank him for his service.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Southern, poorer than the national average, mostly black and with longstanding ties to the army, the inhabitants of Clayton County are among the army's likeliest recruits. Last year they furnished it with more soldiers than most of the rest of the greater Atlanta area put together. Yet Sergeant's Haney's battalion, which is responsible for it, still failed to make its annual recruiting target—and a day out with the unit suggests why.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(74,74,74)"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Much of the friendly reception for Sergeant Haney he puts down to fine southern manners; in fact, no one in Walmart is likely to enlist. Lemeanfa has a tattoo behind his ear, an immediate disqualifier. Dseanna has a one-year-old baby, and would have to sign away custody of him. Lily's girlfriend has a toddler she does not want to leave; Archel won't leave his sister. Even the cookie-giver is less propitious than he seems: he symbolises, Sergeant Haney says ruefully, as he bins his gift, that paying lip-service to the armed forces, as opposed to doing military service, is all most Americans are good for. </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">In a society given to ostentatious public obeisance to the services—during National Military Appreciation Month, on Military Spouse Day and on countless other such public holidays and occasions—the figures that support this claim are astonishing. In the financial year that ended on September 30th America's four armed services—army, navy, air force and marines—aimed to recruit 177,000 people, mainly from among the 21m Americans aged 17-21. Yet all struggled, and the army, which accounted for nearly half that target, made its number, at great cost and the eleventh hour, only by cannibalising its store of recruits for the current year. It failed by 2,000 to meet its target of 17,300 recruits for the army reserve, which is becoming more important to national security as the full-time army shrinks from a recent peak of 566,000 to a projected 440,000 by 2019—its lowest level since the second world war. "I find it remarkable," says the commander of army recruiting, Major-General Jeffrey Snow. "That we have been in two protracted land campaigns and we have an American public that thinks very highly of the military, yet the vast majority has lost touch with it. Less than 1% of Americans are willing and able to serve."</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">That is part of a longstanding trend: a growing disconnect between American society and the armed forces that claim to represent it, which has many causes, starting with the ending of the draft in 1973. Ever since, military experience has been steadily fading from American life. In 1990, 40% of young Americans had at least one parent who had served in the forces; by 2014, only 16% had, and the measure continues to fall. Among American leaders, the decline is similarly pronounced. In 1981, 64% of congressmen were veterans; now around 18% are.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Seasonal factors, including a strengthening labour market and negative media coverage of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, have widened the gulf. So have the dismal standards of education and physical fitness that prevail in modern American society. At a time of post-war introspection, these factors raise two big questions. The first concerns America's ability to hold to account a military sector its leaders feel bound to applaud, but no longer competent to criticise. Andrew Bacevich, a former army officer, academic and longstanding critic of what he terms the militarism of American society, derides that support as "superficial and fraudulent". Sanctified by politicians and the public, he argues, the army's top brass have been given too much power and too little scrutiny, with the recent disastrous campaigns, and similarly profligate appropriations, the almost inevitable result. The second question raised by the civil-military disconnect is similarly fundamental: it concerns America's future ability to mobilise for war.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">During the Korean war, around 70% of draft-age American men served in the armed forces; during Vietnam, the unpopularity of the conflict and ease of draft-dodging ensured that only 43% did. These days, even if every young American wanted to join up, less than 30% would be eligible to. Of the starting 21m, around 9.5m would fail a rudimentary academic qualification, either because they had dropped out of high school or, typically, because most young Americans cannot do tricky sums without a calculator. Of the remainder, 7m would be disqualified because they are too fat, or have a criminal record, or tattoos on their hands or faces. According to Sergeant Haney, about half the high-school students in Clayton County are inked somewhere or other; according to his boss, Lieutenant-Colonel Tony Parilli, a bigger problem is simply that "America is obese."</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Spurned by the elite</font></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">That leaves 4.5m young Americans eligible to serve, of whom only around 390,000 are minded to, provided they do not get snapped up by a college or private firm instead—as tends to happen to the best of them. Indeed, a favourite mantra of army recruiters, that they are competing with Microsoft and Google, is not really true. With the annual exception of a few hundred sons and daughters of retired officers, America's elite has long since turned its nose up at military service. Well under 10% of army recruits have a college degree; nearly half belong to an ethnic minority.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">The pool of potential recruits is too small to meet America's, albeit shrunken, military needs; especially, as now, when the unemployment rate dips below 6%. This leaves the army, the least-favoured of the four services, having either to drop its standards or entice those not minded to serve with generous perks. After it failed to meet its recruiting target in 2005, a time of high employment and bad news from Baghdad, it employed both strategies zealously. To sustain what was, by historical standards, only a modest surge in Iraq, around 2% of army recruits were accepted despite having failed to meet academic and other criteria; "We accepted a risk on quality," grimaces General Snow, an Iraq veteran. Meanwhile the cost of the army's signing-on bonuses ballooned unsustainably, to $860m in 2008 alone.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">That figure has since fallen, as part of a wider effort to peg back the personnel costs that consume around a quarter of the defence budget. Yet the remaining sweeteners are still generous: the army's pay and allowances have risen by 90% since 2000. In a role-play back at Sergeant Haney's recruiting station, your correspondent, posing as an aimless school-leaver, asked what the army could offer him. The answer, besides the usual bed, board and medical insurance, included $78,000 in college fees, some of which could be transferred to a close relative; professional training, including for 46 jobs that still offer a fat signing-on bonus; and post-service careers advice. Could the army perhaps also overlook the youthful drugs misdemeanour your correspondent, in character, admitted to? Sergeant Fred Pedro thought it could.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">It is a good offer, especially set against the bad jobs and wage stagnation prevalent among the Americans it is mostly aimed at. That the army is having such trouble selling it is partly testament to the effects on public opinion of its recent wars. In the three decades following America's withdrawal from Vietnam, in 1973, the army fought a dozen small wars and one big one, the first Gulf war, in which it suffered only a few hundred casualties in total. Even as Americans grew apart from their soldiers, therefore, they were also encouraged to forget that war usually entails killing on both sides.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">In that blithe context, America's 5,366 combat deaths, and tens of thousands of wounded, in Iraq and Afghanistan have come as a terrible shock. Most young Americans associate the army with "coming home broken, physically, mentally and emotionally", says James Ortiz, director of army marketing. Almost every member of the journalism class at D.M. Therrell High School in Atlanta concurs with that: "I'd maybe join if there's no other option. But I just don't like the violence," shudders 16-year-old Mayowa.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Decades of army advertising that focused largely on the college money and other perks of service probably added to the misapprehension. "Americans do not understand the army, so do not value it," says Mr Ortiz. A marketing campaign launched last year, Enterprise Army, instead emphasises the high values and good works the army seeks to promulgate. Yet it will take more than this to turn Americans back to a life which many consider incompatible with atomised, sceptical, irreverent modern living. Moreover, it is also likely that, when the army next needs to surge, it will be for a war much bloodier than the recent ones. America's biggest battlefield advantage in recent decades, its mastery of precision-guided weapons, is fading, as these become widely available even to the bigger militant groups, such as Hamas or Hizbullah.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">The result is that America may be unable, within reasonable cost limits and without reinstituting the draft, to raise the much bigger army it might need for such wars. "Could we field the force we would need?" asks Andrew Krepinevich of the Centre for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. Probably not: "The risk is that our desire to ask only those who are willing to fight to do so is pricing us out of some kinds of warfare."</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"><a href="http://www.economist.com/printedition/2015-10-24"><span style="color:rgb(123,123,115);text-decoration:none">From the print edition: United States</span></a></font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p></div> Amb. (Retd.) K. Gajendra Singhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10712573815372515430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8661786410920048953.post-6157656883090354252015-10-14T23:10:00.001+05:302015-10-14T23:10:35.238+05:30The Longest War in U.S. History<div dir="ltr"> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-size:14pt;color:black"> </span></i></b><b><span style="font-size:24pt;color:black">The Longest War in U.S. History </span></b></p><font face="georgia, serif"> </font><p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><i><span style="font-size:14pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">"In a time of universal deceit,</span></i></b><span class=""><b><i><span style="font-size:14pt;color:rgb(84,84,84);background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"> </span></i></b></span><b><i><span style="font-size:14pt">telling the truth is a revolutionary act<span style="background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">,"</span></span></i></b></font><span style="font-family:georgia,serif;font-size:12pt">George Orwell</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-size:14pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-size:14pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif"> 'Be nice to America otherwise we will bring you Democracy,' </font></span></i></b><span style="font-family:georgia,serif;color:black;font-size:12pt">A protest placard in New York against US led 2003 illegal invasion of Iraq.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">In fact, the complete United States history from the beginning has been a history of bigotry, apartheid, criminality, brutality and inhumanity .The European settlers war on American continent has never come to an end .After the conquest and domination of the America, attacks and wars have continued throughout their history, all over the world .The Middle East is the latest theatre of devastation .War and destruction is embedded in the US DNA.</font></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Since 16<sup>th</sup> century Europeans have been raiding, attacking, bombing and destroying peoples and nations , beginning from the new world, north America ie USA and the allover the world .This mayhem continues, based in the belief of the survival of the fittest . But the means of destruction are now so powerful that a large part of humanity will be destroyed and killed if a nuclear clash takes place between US and Russia .The last escape was in 1962 in Cuban waters.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">US had full sway after 1990 , when USSR and its scientific socialism collapsed , allowing US crooks to transfer billions of wealth under the charade of Globalisation , a higher form of exploitation and loot after colonialism .Yes ,there are pure and simple lootings as after any war like first and second World Wars. Iraq and Libya .<b>And India too, after 1857 revolt, the English authorities exiled all citizens of the Moghul capital Delhi, dug up silver, gold and jewels and carted the loot to London. (Those who praise British imperialism in India are sick in mind and suffer from Stockholm syndrome and have done well for themselves) More than a million young men in north areas of revolt, a possible future threat were eliminated) </b></font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">See the results below for UK and Europe .Since WWII, when US world share of GDP went up to 50% has now been reduced to 40%, result of rise of China, India etc .Of 40%, 25% is financial economy, ie various kind of derivatives ie jiggery pokery with no Gold Support, the real unit of exchange as even Fed Reserve head Alan Greenspan admitted.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span>THE RISE AND FALL OF THE GREAT POWERS by Paul Kennedy</font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">TABLE 6. Relative Shares of World Manufacturing Output, 1750-1900</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> 1750 1800 1830 1860 1880 1900 </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">(Europe as a whole) 23.2 28.1 34.2 53.2 61.3 62.0 </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">United Kingdom 1:9 4.3 9.5 19.9 22.9 18.5 </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Habsburg Empire 2.9 3.2 3.2 4.2 4.4 4.7 </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">France</span> <span style="font-size:12pt">4.0 4.2 5.2 7,9 7.8 6.8 </span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">German States/Germany 2.9 3.5 3.5 4,9 8.5 13.2 </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Italian States Italy 2.4 2.5 2.3 2.5 2.5 2.5 </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">Russia</span> <span style="font-size:12pt">5.0 ~ 5.6 5.6 7.0 7.6 8.8 </span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">United States</span> <span style="font-size:12pt">0.1 0.8 2.4 7.2 14.7 23.6 </span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Japan 3.8 3.5 2.8 2.6 2.4 2.4 </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">Third World</span> <span style="font-size:12pt">73.0 67.7 60.5 36.6 20.9 11.0 </span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">China</span> <span style="font-size:12pt">32.8 33.3 29.8 19.7 12.5 6.2 </span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">India -Pakistan 24.5 19.? 17.6 8.6 2.8 1.7</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">After WWII till mid 1980s US led Nato block and Russia led Warsaw blocks provided some balance .Leaders like Nehru ,Nasser ,Tito and others tried to keep out of cold war to build their institutions and industry according to their genius ,balancing one block against the other.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">After the collapse of the Soviet Union ,Washington had a free run till Vladimir Putin took over te Russian leadership .Mercifully the two sides remain in touch to avoid Armageddon ,as they are doing now in Syria and the Middle East .China is the 3<sup>rd</sup> useful leg for Russia at the moment and vice versa.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Both in1965 and1971, US and Russia kept in touch and would not allow any major changes</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif"> Between India and Pakistan So the cacophony that India could have occupied Pak Punjab and other areas are claims of dimwits .In Middle East ,both Russia and US are in contact playing military chess and poker , along with Allie like China, Europeans and Arab states .</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><span style="font-size:18pt;color:black">The Longest War in U.S. History <br> </span></b><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><br> </span></b><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">Extracts ; While the First Nations( original native inhabitants of north America ) were falling beneath the juggernaut of settler colonialism, there were few voices in opposition. Their struggle was not a struggle for most labor unions, parties of the political Left, and in some important cases, not even for other peoples who were victimized by white supremacist racial and national oppression. That silence made each of these movements not neutral, but complicit in one of the greatest horrors of the last five hundred years.</span></i></b></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">There was a 30 year-long war from 1860-1890, spanning many nations, led by the U.S. government against "insurgents" who populated what would become Arizona, Colorado, Nebraska, Wyoming, and the Dakotas. Part of a larger, longer genocide, this was one sustained war, which looked unsurprisingly similar to today's campaigns in Afghanistan/Pakistan.<br> <br> Fought by the U.S. Army against the Apache, Cheyenne, Navajo, Sioux, and other nations, this war saw resistance armies, led by Geronimo and Sitting Bull, give birth to the guerrilla warriors like Crazy Horse and Little Wolf, and saw the introduction of "counter-insurgency" tactics by the U.S. Cavalry. War crimes abounded as the United States systematically eradicated the buffalo with the intention of depriving the guerrilla warriors of food, to bring an end to their peoples and nations, and to steal their land.</font></span></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">The myths associated with US history, including rugged individualism or even some myths associated with the Civil War, run up against the reality of what took place for Native Americans. Consider the US Civil War. Some of the greatest Union generals, e.g., William Tecumseh Sherman, who fought valiantly against the Confederacy, were themselves—or became—leaders in the genocide against Native Americans. General Sherman, who issued an order that opened up the possibility for the redistribution of land to the African former slaves, became one of the major architects of the war against the First Nations, a war in which he and many other military leaders had little interest in ending without the total destruction of the First Nations. It was also during the Civil War that President Abraham Lincoln opened up more land for settlers and sought the removal of First Nations in order that the homesteaders could claim territory.</font></span></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">The (US Settlers') aim, as became quite clear in the case of North America, was to remove the Native Americans from the land and, indeed, from the Earth. This took various forms ranging from repeated forced removals of Native Americans from their land by the settlers upon a military victory; to mass murder; to the introduction of bacteriological warfare (by Lord Jeffrey Amherst in the 1760s via smallpox). </font></span></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">Consider the US Civil War. Some of the greatest Union generals, e.g., William Tecumseh Sherman, who fought valiantly against the Confederacy, were themselves—or became—leaders in the genocide against Native Americans. </span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-size:14pt;color:black">General Sherman</span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">, who issued an order that opened up the possibility for the redistribution of land to the African former slaves, became one of the major architects of the war against the First Nations, a war in which he and many other military leaders had little interest in ending without the total destruction of the First Nations. It was also during the Civil War that </span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-size:14pt;color:black">President Abraham Lincoln opened up more land for settlers and sought the removal of First Nations in order that the homesteaders could claim territory.</span></i></b></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">In reading An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States it is actually quite easy to understand the historic basis for support among large sections of the US population for Israel against the Palestinians. The Palestinians are today's Native Americans. They are in the way of progress. The Israelis are a largely European population that is on a mission, and, much like the European and Euro-American settlers of the 17th through 19thcenturies (in North America), believe that they have an entitlement to the land either because God allegedly offered it to them or because the Israelis are somehow allegedly superior to or more civilized than the Palestinians. It all fits together. The Israelis look like 'us' (European); they have built cities that look like Miami or Los Angeles; and they are bringing civilization to a 'barbaric' region of the planet.</font></span></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><br> </span></i></b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><br> Note on Writer Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz , who reminds us that it is actually never too late to turn history on its head. That is where this book has its immense value.</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">By Ryan Harvey</span></b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><br> <br> <a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article43121.htm">http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article43121.htm</a></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">October 12, 2015 "<a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/"><span style="text-decoration:none">Information Clearing House</span></a>" - "<a href="http://www.telesurtv.net/english/bloggers/The-Longest-War-in-U.S.-History-20151009-0001.html">teleSur</a>" - Though it has been a long 14 years, it is historically inaccurate to call the war in Afghanistan "The Longest War in U.S. History." This title reveals a deep-seated problem in the popular mythology of U.S. history – that the nations and assemblies of peoples that existed here before Europeans came were not sovereign, or even real. Let's get the facts right:<br> <br> There was a 30 year-long war from 1860-1890, spanning many nations, led by the U.S. government against "insurgents" who populated what would become Arizona, Colorado, Nebraska, Wyoming, and the Dakotas. Part of a larger, longer genocide, this was one sustained war, which looked unsurprisingly similar to today's campaigns in Afghanistan/Pakistan.<br> <br> Fought by the U.S. Army against the Apache, Cheyenne, Navajo, Sioux, and other nations, this war saw resistance armies, led by Geronimo and Sitting Bull, give birth to the guerrilla warriors like Crazy Horse and Little Wolf, and saw the introduction of "counter-insurgency" tactics by the U.S. Cavalry. War crimes abounded as the United States systematically eradicated the buffalo with the intention of depriving the guerrilla warriors of food, to bring an end to their peoples and nations, and to steal their land.<br> <br> The chapters of this tragic story – Red Cloud's War, The Battle of Powder River, The Battle of Little Bighorn, The Apache Wars – were book-ended by brutal massacres at Sand Creek and Wounded Knee, where U.S. soldiers slaughtered hundreds of Native Americans, children and infants included.<br> <br> Ryan Harvey is a musician, writer, and activist from Baltimore, MD.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">=====</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><span style="font-size:18pt;color:black">An Indigenous People's History of the United States</span></b><span style="font-size:18pt;color:black"><br> </span><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><br> History Is Not the Past: Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz Takes on the Mega-Genocide Against the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas<br> <br> <b>By Bill Fletcher Jr</b></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">Dunbar-Ortiz has constructed a very accessible examination of the history of the USA as seen through the eyes of the Native American/First Nations/Indigenous peoples.</span></i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States (Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 2014). 296 pps. U.S. $27.95, CAN $32.95</font></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt">(Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz</span></i></b><span class=""><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(37,37,37)"> </span></i></b></span><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt">(born</span></i></b><span class=""><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(37,37,37)"> </span></i></b></span><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt">September 10, 1939) is an American historian, writer and</span></i></b><span class=""><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(37,37,37)"> </span></i></b></span><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminism" title="Feminism"><span style="color:rgb(11,0,128)">feminist</span></a>.Born in</span></i></b><span class=""><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(37,37,37)"> </span></i></b></span><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Antonio,_Texas" title="San Antonio, Texas"><span style="color:windowtext;text-decoration:none">San Antonio, Texas</span></a>, in 1939 to an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma" title="Oklahoma"><span style="color:windowtext;text-decoration:none">Oklahoma</span></a> family, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz grew up in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Oklahoma" title="Central Oklahoma"><span style="color:windowtext;text-decoration:none">Central Oklahoma</span></a>, daughter of a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharecropper" title="Sharecropper"><span style="color:windowtext;text-decoration:none">sharecropper</span></a></span></i></b><span class=""><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(37,37,37)"> </span></i></b></span><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt">and a half-Native American mother</span></i></b><span style="font-size:12pt">.</span><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(37,37,37)"> )</span></span><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">There are two things that immediately emerged for me after reading Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz's outstanding book, An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States. The first had to do with US history itself. The second, and this may at first glance appear strange, was the plight of the Palestinians.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Dunbar-Ortiz has constructed a very accessible examination of the history of the USA as seen through the eyes of the Native American/First Nations/Indigenous peoples. In a remarkably condensed yet comprehensive form, she begins with an explanation of what Indigenous societies looked like prior to the European invasion. From there she takes the reader into an emotionally troubling, yet historically rigorous look at the European invasion/colonization of the Western Hemisphere and its ramifications.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">What Dunbar-Ortiz helps the reader to understand, more than anything else, was that the genocide carried out against the Native Americans was not accidental. That may sound like a strange choice of words, but throughout so-called mainstream US history there is a tendency to suggest that the European colonization was, at least at first, well-intentioned, relatively benign, and had the unfortunate consequence of introducing deadly diseases into the Western Hemisphere which the immune systems of the peoples of the First Nations were unprepared to resist.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Dunbar-Ortiz demolishes such arguments and points to the mythology that has been connected with the European colonization of the hemisphere and, in the USA, the expansion westward. The aim, as became quite clear in the case of North America, was to remove the Native Americans from the land and, indeed, from the Earth. This took various forms ranging from repeated forced removals of Native Americans from their land by the settlers upon a military victory; to mass murder; to the introduction of bacteriological warfare (by Lord Jeffrey Amherst in the 1760s via smallpox). </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Dunbar-Ortiz points out that in North America, as opposed to Central and South America, the settlers had no interest in mixing with the Indigenous people and certainly no interest in creating a North American mestizo grouping. The Indigenous were seen as an obstacle to progress, a progress that was dictated by a certain religious zeal that linked with empire. This use of religion by the settler-colonists is a very important factor in all settler states, most notably Northern Ireland, apartheid South Africa, the United States and Israel. In each case, God allegedly spoke to the settlers and told them that this land was to be their land. Why God did not speak to the Indigenous and tell them to move on has never been explained.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">The difficulty in reading An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States is that it upends the entire mythology connected with US history. This is not only a 'problem' for the mainstream USA, but it is also a problem for many progressives and leftists in the USA who have, to varying degrees, accepted elements of the settler narrative.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">There are obvious examples of the mythology such as the story connected to Thanksgiving. But the brutality of the westward expansion is rarely addressed in mainstream history or fiction. Instead, the Native American is regularly painted as the aggressor, and the ungrateful aggressor at that. The other component of this myth, however, is the idea that the land was vacant. There are many examples of this but in the realm of fiction, if one thinks of the classic Western Shane (with Alan Ladd), there is not one sense that that beautiful land had been occupied by a prior civilization. In watching such films, one views the magnificence of that late 19th century West and thinks of the challenges facing the people who entered into that vacant land…</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">…Except for one problem: the land was not vacant. It had been occupied and the people living there were removed.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">For many of us to the left of center, there are complications when viewing US history. The myths associated with US history, including rugged individualism or even some myths associated with the Civil War, run up against the reality of what took place for Native Americans. Consider the US Civil War. Some of the greatest Union generals, e.g., William Tecumseh Sherman, who fought valiantly against the Confederacy, were themselves—or became—leaders in the genocide against Native Americans. General Sherman, who issued an order that opened up the possibility for the redistribution of land to the African former slaves, became one of the major architects of the war against the First Nations, a war in which he and many other military leaders had little interest in ending without the total destruction of the First Nations. It was also during the Civil War that President Abraham Lincoln opened up more land for settlers and sought the removal of First Nations in order that the homesteaders could claim territory.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Thus, when looking at the Civil War, for instance, one must rethink the entire period. It was not a binary of good vs. evil or even the Union (fighting against slavery) vs. the Confederacy (fighting to support slavery), but an overdetermined moment in which multiple contradictions were at play. An example of this was the siding with the Confederacy by some Native Americans because they believed that a victory by the Union would set the stage for their own annihilation. </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Another example of the challenge to those of us to the Left of center is contained in the critique offered by Dunbar-Ortiz of the widely praised documentary by Oliver Stone and Peter Kusnick (The Untold History of the United States). Stone and Kusnick suggest that much of what happened after World War II, vis a vis US foreign policy, was inconsistent with the direction of the so-called Founding Fathers. Dunbar-Ortiz disputes this and argues that the path has been entirely consistent. There was no 'golden age', in other words, wherein there was not an aggressive, imperial instinct within the Republic. While it may have taken various forms, it was not something that was rooted in one or another Presidential administration or Congressional Session, but rather has been hard-wired into that which we have come to understand to be the United States of America. This has been demonstrated in the unfolding of the continuous wars of expansion since 1783.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">The genocide against the Native Americans, does not exist in the past, but is a continuing reality as evidenced in the violation of treaties or the inconsistency of the US government (and state governments) in recognizing the need for restitution. Demands for restitution and resistance to continued oppression—and genocide—have been very important features of the movement among Native Americans, both in the USA and throughout the Western Hemisphere. This is a key component of the book, not simply to ward off despair, but to remind the reader that through the hundreds of years of genocidal expansion and against all odds, the First Nations have continued to fight back and, at various moments, reconstitute their resistance.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">I mentioned in the beginning of this review the Palestinians. As I turned each page of this book I found myself thinking about the Palestinians. In the two visits that I have made to the Occupied Palestinian Territories I have found myself thinking about the Native Americans. It is not only that the land, itself, reminds one of the Southwest, but the conditions of the people is so familiar and so similar.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">In the case of the Occupied Territories, one of the key features in common is that the Israelis have no interest in 'integrating' with the Palestinians. As opposed to the Spanish in Latin America who did not send the same proportion of settlers to the Western Hemisphere and who found it useful to mix with the Indigenous and Africans (thereby creating intermediary groups as an instrument of social control), the English in North America were interested in the removal of the Indigenous. The same is true of Israel and the Palestinians. The more extreme elements of the Israeli political class openly and audaciously advocate the forced transfer of Palestinians out of Israel and the Occupied Territories into Jordan (which the Zionists claim to be the actual Palestinian homeland). </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">In reading An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States it is actually quite easy to understand the historic basis for support among large sections of the US population for Israel against the Palestinians. The Palestinians are today's Native Americans. They are in the way of progress. The Israelis are a largely European population that is on a mission, and, much like the European and Euro-American settlers of the 17th through 19thcenturies (in North America), believe that they have an entitlement to the land either because God allegedly offered it to them or because the Israelis are somehow allegedly superior to or more civilized than the Palestinians. It all fits together. The Israelis look like 'us' (European); they have built cities that look like Miami or Los Angeles; and they are bringing civilization to a 'barbaric' region of the planet.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">To the extent to which this narrative is ignored or goes unchallenged, what awaits the Palestinians will, at best, be silent complicity in their removal, if not an actual genocide. And, perhaps this is the concluding point of this review. While the First Nations were falling beneath the juggernaut of settler colonialism, there were few voices in opposition. Their struggle was not a struggle for most labor unions, parties of the political Left, and in some important cases, not even for other peoples who were victimized by white supremacist racial and national oppression. That silence made each of these movements not neutral, but complicit in one of the greatest horrors of the last five hundred years.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz reminds us that it is actually never too late to turn history on its head. That is where this book has its immense value.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">Bill Fletcher, Jr. is the host of The Global African on Telesur-English. He is a racial justice, labor and global justice activist and writer. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and at <a href="http://www.billfletcherjr.com/" target="_blank">www.billfletcherjr.com</a>. </span></i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p></div> Amb. (Retd.) K. Gajendra Singhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10712573815372515430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8661786410920048953.post-21620994694225296562015-10-12T07:43:00.001+05:302015-10-12T07:43:23.909+05:30Re: Turkey is the next failed state in the Middle East<div dir="ltr"><br><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sun, Oct 11, 2015 at 10:29 PM, gajendra singh <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:kgajendrasingh@gmail.com" target="_blank">kgajendrasingh@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:18pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Turkey is the next failed state in the Middle East</font></span></b></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><span><span style="font-size:9pt;text-transform:uppercase;letter-spacing:0.4pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Having spent ten years in Turkey and kept a watch over it since 1967 and enjoyed my travels to savor its 40 civilisations, it has been a very painful feeling to see the secular republic, a possible model for Muslim majority states being dismantled by Erdogan led AKP party. </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Before Turkey reached the current denouement , Erdogan had dismantled Ataturk established secular republic from the ashes of the Ottoman empire after WWI and turned it into something like Saudi Arabia without oil resources . Here is the book how it was done.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"><a href="http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/the-transformation-of-turkeys-state-identity.aspx?pageID=238&nID=87561&NewsCatID=474" title="The transformation of Turkey's state identity" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:16pt;color:windowtext">The transformation of Turkey's state identity</span></a></font></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">Around 10 years ago, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and President</span></i></b><span><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"> </span></i></b></span><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/tag/Recep%20Tayyip%20Erdo%C4%9Fan" target="_blank"><span style="color:windowtext;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">Recep </span><span style="background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">Tayep</span><span style="color:windowtext;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"> Erdoğan</span></a></span></i></b><span><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"> </span></i></b></span><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">were at the height of their international reputation. Praised almost universally abroad, they were seen as bringing about a democratic transformation in Turkey. Such has been the decline since then; those days are sometimes hard to remember.</span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt"><br> <br> <span style="background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">How this perception took root is the subject of a stimulating new title by Toni Alaranta of the Finnish Institute of International Affairs. The book argues that international conditions combined with Turkey's internal politics to legitimize a crude power grab dressed up in the language of liberalization and human rights.</span><br> <br> <span style="background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">But it is only during the AKP era that Turkey has declared itself as being the protector of a specifically Muslim cause in the international field across the globe. This is a very radical departure from the previous era, when Turkey wanted itself to be seen as a modern nation state taking its place in what it thought was a universal civilization characterized by cultural modernity. For the previous political elite, the idea of being seen specifically as a "Muslim" power would have been astonishing and even insulting. Because the Kemalist foreign policy tradition saw religious identification as something anachronistic, defining a past world. </span></span></i></b></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><font face="georgia, serif">I have maintained since a decade that Turkey was being taken along the wrong path .My worst fears are coming true. The frontiers of the Greater Middle East were drawn by British led victorious powers after WWI. New frontiers are being created via illegal intervention and violence and chaos created thereby.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">Turkey should have followed Ataturk's motto; Peace at home and peace abroad .Instead AKP under Erdogan has followed the policy of creating a greater Middle East under Ankara's control. What a horrible disaster and blowback is has become </span><span style="font-size:12pt"><br> <br> </span><span style="font-size:12pt"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:18pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Turkey is the next failed state in the Middle East</font></span></b></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><span><span style="font-size:9pt;text-transform:uppercase;letter-spacing:0.4pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></span></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><font face="georgia, serif"><span><span style="font-size:9pt;text-transform:uppercase;letter-spacing:0.4pt">BY</span></span><span><span style="font-size:9pt;text-transform:uppercase;letter-spacing:0.4pt"> </span></span><span><span style="font-size:9pt;text-transform:uppercase;letter-spacing:0.4pt"><a href="http://atimes.com/author/david-p-goldman/" title="View all posts by David P. Goldman" target="_blank"><span style="color:windowtext">DAVID P. GOLDMAN</span></a></span></span><span><span style="font-size:9pt;text-transform:uppercase;letter-spacing:0.4pt"> </span></span><em><span style="font-size:9pt;text-transform:uppercase;letter-spacing:0.4pt">on</span></em><span><span style="font-size:9pt;text-transform:uppercase;letter-spacing:0.4pt"> </span></span><span style="font-size:9pt;text-transform:uppercase;letter-spacing:0.4pt"><a href="http://atimes.com/2015/10/turkey-is-the-next-failed-state-in-the-middle-east/" title="21:23" target="_blank"><span style="color:windowtext">OCTOBER 10, 2015</span></a><span> </span></span></font></p> <p style="margin:6.25pt 0in"><a href="http://atimes.com/2015/10/turkey-is-the-next-failed-state-in-the-middle-east/" target="_blank"><span style="color:windowtext"><font face="georgia, serif">http://atimes.com/2015/10/turkey-is-the-next-failed-state-in-the-middle-east/</font></span></a></p> <p style="margin:6.25pt 0in"><font face="georgia, serif">We do not know just who detonated the two bombs that killed 95 Kurdish and allied activists in Ankara Saturday, but the least likely conjecture is that President Erdogan's government is guiltless in the matter. As Turkish member of parliamentLutfu Turkkan, tweeted after the bombing, the attack "was either a failure by the intelligence service, or it was done by the intelligence service."</font></p> <p style="margin:6.25pt 0in"><font face="georgia, serif">Betrayed by both the United States and Russia, and faced with the emergence of a Kurdish state on its borders and the rise of Kurdish parties in the parliamentary opposition, Erdogan is cornered. At risk in the short-term is the ability of his AKP party to govern after the upcoming November elections. At risk in the medium term is the cohesion of the Turkish state itself.</font></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font face="georgia, serif">In public, Western leaders have hailed Turkey as "<a href="http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/a-great-islamic-democracy.aspx?pageID=449&nID=59345&NewsCatID=398" target="_blank"><span style="color:windowtext">a great Islamic democracy,"</span></a><span> </span>as President Obama characterized it in a 2010 interview. That was the view of the George W. Bush administration before Obama, which invited Erdogan to the White House before his election as prime minister in November 2002. A minority of military and intelligence analysts, though, has warned that Turkey may not be viable within its present borders in the medium term. The trouble is that its Kurdish minority, now at 20% of the overall population, has twice as many children as ethnic Turks, so many that half of Turkey's military-age population will speak Kurdish as a first language in fewer than twenty years.</font></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font face="georgia, serif">An existential crisis for Turkey has been in the making for years, as I reported in my 2011 book,<span> </span><a href="http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/a-great-islamic-democracy.aspx?pageID=449&nID=59345&NewsCatID=398" target="_blank"><span style="color:windowtext">How Civilizations Die (and Why Islam is Dying, Too)</span></a>. During the past week, a perfect storm has overtaken Turkish policy, and threatens to provoke deep political instability. Turkey may become the region's next failed state.</font></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font face="georgia, serif">There has to be a<span> </span><a href="http://atimes.com/2015/09/vladimir-putin-spoiler-or-statesman/" target="_blank"><span style="color:windowtext">fall guy</span></a><span> </span>in the Middle East's film noire, and that unenviable role has fallen to Turkey. Prior to the bombings, the worst terrorist incident in modern Turkish history, Erdogan suffered public humiliation by Washington as well as Moscow. As Laura Rozen reported Oct. 9 in<span> </span><a href="http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/10/us-arm-syria-kurds-rebels-isis.html#ixzz3oDL1tv8H" target="_blank"><span style="color:windowtext">Al-Monitor</span></a>, Washington announced a 180-degree turn in its Syrian intervention, abandoning the Sunni opposition in favor of Syrian Kurds.</font></p> <p style="margin:6.25pt 0in"><span style="letter-spacing:0.35pt"><font face="georgia, serif">The United States will supply arms, equipment and air support to Syrian Arab and Kurdish groups already fighting the so-called Islamic State (IS) on the ground in Syria, the White House and Pentagon announced Oct. 9.</font></span></p> <p style="margin:6.25pt 0in"><span style="letter-spacing:0.35pt"><font face="georgia, serif">The decision to refocus the beleaguered, $500 million Pentagon program from training and equipping a new force to fight IS in Syria to "equip and enable" rebel groups already fighting on the ground came after an interagency review of the train and equip program, US officials said.</font></span></p> <p style="margin:6.25pt 0in"><span style="letter-spacing:0.35pt"><font face="georgia, serif">"A key part of our strategy is to try to work with capable, indigenous forces on the ground … to provide them with equipment to make them more effective, in combination with our air strikes," Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Christine Wormuth told journalists on a call on the new strategy Oct. 9.</font></span></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Until last Friday, America and Turkey both supported the Sunni opposition to the Assad government with a view to eliminating Assad and installing a Sunni regime. That policy has been in shambles for months, but it allowed the Turks leeway to provide covert support to ISIS, the one Sunni force that shows effectiveness in the field. Russian intervention exposed the fecklessness of America's attempts to find a "moderate" Syrian opposition to back. As the veteran strategist<span> </span><a href="http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/193990/putins-great-crime-syria" target="_blank"><span style="color:windowtext">Edward Luttwak</span></a><span> </span>wrote last week in Tablet magazine:</font></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="letter-spacing:0.35pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Putin must certainly be innocent of the accusation that his air force has bombed the U.S.-trained "pro-democracy" freedom fighters, because the trainers themselves have admitted that the first lot on which one-tenth of the budget has been spent, i.e., $50 million, are exactly five in number, the rest having deserted after receiving their big family-support signing bonus and first paycheck, or after they were first issued with weapons (which they sold), or after first entering Syria in groups, when they promptly joined the anti-American<span> </span><em>Jabhat an-Nuṣrah,</em>whose Sunni Islam they understand, unlike talk of democracy.</font></span></p> <p style="margin:6.25pt 0in"><font face="georgia, serif">The Russians forced Washington to find something credible on the ground to support, and Washington turned to the Kurds, the only effective fighting force not linked to ISIS or al-Qaeda. That was precisely the result Turkey had wanted to avoid; the Kurdish military zone in northern Syria links up with Kurdish-controlled territory in northern Iraq, and the two zones form the core of a prospective Kurdish state.</font></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Russia humiliated Turkey, meanwhile, by challenging Turkish fighters inside Turkish airspace, leaving NATO to protest loudly. Nonetheless the US and Germany have deactivated Patriot missile batteries–the only weapon system that represents a threat to Russian fighters–despite urgent Turkish requests to leave them in place. Russian fighters over Syria prevent the Turks from providing air cover for ISIS and other Islamist groups in Syria, as I noted Oct. 6 in our<span> </span><a href="http://atimes.com/2015/10/bravo-codevilla-and-a-note-on-russian-turkish-fighter-contact/" target="_blank"><span style="color:windowtext">Chatham House Rules<span> </span></span></a>blog. M.K. Bhadrakumar observed in<span> </span><a href="http://atimes.com/2015/10/nato-all-dressed-up-nowhere-to-go-in-syria/" target="_blank"><span style="color:windowtext">Asia Times Oct. 9</span></a>, "Turkey's scope for maneuvering vis-à-vis Russia is actually very limited and it has no option but to reach an understanding with Russia over Syria."</font></p> <p style="margin:6.25pt 0in"><font face="georgia, serif">Less obvious but no less ominous is the deterioration of Sino-Turkish relations due to Ankara's covert support for the East Turkestan Independence Movement, a terrorist organization active among the Uyghurs of Western China. Despite official assurances, Turkey continues to provide safe passage to Turkey to thousands of Chinese Uyghurs via Southeast Asia, some of whom are fighting with ISIS in Syria. Thailand claims that Uyghur militants carried out the Aug. 17 bombing at Bangkok's Erawan shrine after Thailand sent 109 Chinese Uyghurs back to China.</font></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Erdogan has suffered not merely a collapse of his foreign policy, but a public humiliation by countries that backed his regime in the interests of regional stability–and this just before November's parliamentary elections. After the Kurdish-backed HDP party took 13% of the national vote in last June's elections and removed Erdogan's majority in parliament, Erdogan called new elections rather than accept a coalition government. Erdogan also revived military operations against Turkish Kurds in order to elicit support from Turkish nationalists, a transparent maneuver widely reported in the<span> </span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/06/world/middleeast/turkey-recep-tayyip-erdogan-airstrike-pkk-isis.html" target="_blank"><span style="color:windowtext">major media</span></a>.</font></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font face="georgia, serif">As the New York Times reported Aug. 5, "Having already<span> </span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/09/world/europe/turkey-elections-delay-in-coalition-recep-tayyip-erdogan.html" title="Times article" target="_blank"><span style="color:windowtext">delayed the formation of a coalition government</span></a>, analysts say, Mr. Erdogan is now buttressing his party's chances of winning new elections by appealing to Turkish nationalists opposed to self-determination for the Kurdish minority. Parallel to the military operations against the Kurds has been an effort to undermine the political side of the Kurdish movement by associating it with the violence of the P.K.K., which has also seemed eager to return to fighting."</font></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Instead of responding to Erdogan's provocation, the Kurds have shelved military operations in order to concentrate on winning votes in the November elections. After the Saturday bomb attacks,<span> </span><a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/10/10/who-s-behind-the-horrific-bombing-that-hit-ankara.html" target="_blank"><span style="color:windowtext">Thomas Seibert</span></a><span> </span>noted in the Daily Beast:</font></p> <p style="margin:6.25pt 0in"><span style="letter-spacing:0.35pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Observers agreed that the Ankara blast was probably linked to a decision by the PKK rebels to suspend hostilities with Ankara. The PKK had hinted in recent days that it would declare a new ceasefire in order to boost the HDP's election chances. The people behind the attack wanted to "prevent the ceasefire" from coming into effect, respected journalist Kadri Gursel tweeted. The PKK's ceasefire announcement became public shortly after the attack, but the decision by the rebels had probably been taken before.</font></span></p> <p style="margin:6.25pt 0in"><font face="georgia, serif">In short, Erdogan now contemplates American heavy weapons in the hands of Syrian Kurds; the end of Turkey's ability to provide air support for Sunni rebels in Syria; a Russian campaign to roll up the Sunni opposition, including Turkey's assets in the field; and a collapse of his parliamentary majority due to an expanding Kurdish vote at home.</font></p> <p style="margin:6.25pt 0in"><font face="georgia, serif">Whether the AKP government itself ordered the Ankara bombing, or simply looked the other way while ISIS conducted the bombing, both Turkey and global opinion will assume that the ghastly events in Ankara on Saturday reflect the desperation of the Erdogan regime. Regimes that resort to this sort of atrocity do not last very long.</font></p> <p style="margin:6.25pt 0in"><font face="georgia, serif">The best thing that Turkey could do under the circumstances would be to ask the United Nations to supervise a plebiscite to allow Kurdish-majority areas to secede if they so chose. The mountains of southeastern Turkey with the highest concentration of Kurds are a drain on the national budget and of no strategic importance. Neither Erdogan nor his nationalist opposition, though, will consider such action; that would undermine both Erdogan's neo-Ottomanism as well as the old secular nationalism. The pressures under the tectonic plates will only get worse. Saturday's bombing may have demarcated the end of the Turkish state that arose out of the First World War.</font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></p></div> </blockquote></div><br></div></div> Amb. (Retd.) K. Gajendra Singhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10712573815372515430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8661786410920048953.post-47972625679862466542015-10-11T22:29:00.001+05:302015-10-11T22:29:24.790+05:30Turkey is the next failed state in the Middle East<div dir="ltr"><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:18pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Turkey is the next failed state in the Middle East</font></span></b></p> <p class="" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><span class=""><span style="font-size:9pt;text-transform:uppercase;letter-spacing:0.4pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Having spent ten years in Turkey and kept a watch over it since 1967 and enjoyed my travels to savor its 40 civilisations, it has been a very painful feeling to see the secular republic, a possible model for Muslim majority states being dismantled by Erdogan led AKP party. </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Before Turkey reached the current denouement , Erdogan had dismantled Ataturk established secular republic from the ashes of the Ottoman empire after WWI and turned it into something like Saudi Arabia without oil resources . Here is the book how it was done.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"><a href="http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/the-transformation-of-turkeys-state-identity.aspx?pageID=238&nID=87561&NewsCatID=474" title="The transformation of Turkey's state identity"><span style="font-size:16pt;color:windowtext">The transformation of Turkey's state identity</span></a></font></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">Around 10 years ago, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and President</span></i></b><span class=""><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"> </span></i></b></span><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/tag/Recep%20Tayyip%20Erdo%C4%9Fan"><span style="color:windowtext;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">Recep </span><span style="background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">Tayep</span><span style="color:windowtext;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"> Erdoğan</span></a></span></i></b><span class=""><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"> </span></i></b></span><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">were at the height of their international reputation. Praised almost universally abroad, they were seen as bringing about a democratic transformation in Turkey. Such has been the decline since then; those days are sometimes hard to remember.</span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt"><br> <br> <span style="background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">How this perception took root is the subject of a stimulating new title by Toni Alaranta of the Finnish Institute of International Affairs. The book argues that international conditions combined with Turkey's internal politics to legitimize a crude power grab dressed up in the language of liberalization and human rights.</span><br> <br> <span style="background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">But it is only during the AKP era that Turkey has declared itself as being the protector of a specifically Muslim cause in the international field across the globe. This is a very radical departure from the previous era, when Turkey wanted itself to be seen as a modern nation state taking its place in what it thought was a universal civilization characterized by cultural modernity. For the previous political elite, the idea of being seen specifically as a "Muslim" power would have been astonishing and even insulting. Because the Kemalist foreign policy tradition saw religious identification as something anachronistic, defining a past world. </span></span></i></b></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><font face="georgia, serif">I have maintained since a decade that Turkey was being taken along the wrong path .My worst fears are coming true. The frontiers of the Greater Middle East were drawn by British led victorious powers after WWI. New frontiers are being created via illegal intervention and violence and chaos created thereby.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">Turkey should have followed Ataturk's motto; Peace at home and peace abroad .Instead AKP under Erdogan has followed the policy of creating a greater Middle East under Ankara's control. What a horrible disaster and blowback is has become </span><span style="font-size:12pt"><br> <br> </span><span style="font-size:12pt"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:18pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Turkey is the next failed state in the Middle East</font></span></b></p> <p class="" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><span class=""><span style="font-size:9pt;text-transform:uppercase;letter-spacing:0.4pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></span></p> <p class="" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><font face="georgia, serif"><span class=""><span style="font-size:9pt;text-transform:uppercase;letter-spacing:0.4pt">BY</span></span><span class=""><span style="font-size:9pt;text-transform:uppercase;letter-spacing:0.4pt"> </span></span><span class=""><span style="font-size:9pt;text-transform:uppercase;letter-spacing:0.4pt"><a href="http://atimes.com/author/david-p-goldman/" title="View all posts by David P. Goldman"><span style="color:windowtext">DAVID P. GOLDMAN</span></a></span></span><span class=""><span style="font-size:9pt;text-transform:uppercase;letter-spacing:0.4pt"> </span></span><em><span style="font-size:9pt;text-transform:uppercase;letter-spacing:0.4pt">on</span></em><span class=""><span style="font-size:9pt;text-transform:uppercase;letter-spacing:0.4pt"> </span></span><span style="font-size:9pt;text-transform:uppercase;letter-spacing:0.4pt"><a href="http://atimes.com/2015/10/turkey-is-the-next-failed-state-in-the-middle-east/" title="21:23"><span style="color:windowtext">OCTOBER 10, 2015</span></a><span class=""> </span></span></font></p> <p style="margin:6.25pt 0in"><a href="http://atimes.com/2015/10/turkey-is-the-next-failed-state-in-the-middle-east/"><span style="color:windowtext"><font face="georgia, serif">http://atimes.com/2015/10/turkey-is-the-next-failed-state-in-the-middle-east/</font></span></a></p> <p style="margin:6.25pt 0in"><font face="georgia, serif">We do not know just who detonated the two bombs that killed 95 Kurdish and allied activists in Ankara Saturday, but the least likely conjecture is that President Erdogan's government is guiltless in the matter. As Turkish member of parliamentLutfu Turkkan, tweeted after the bombing, the attack "was either a failure by the intelligence service, or it was done by the intelligence service."</font></p> <p style="margin:6.25pt 0in"><font face="georgia, serif">Betrayed by both the United States and Russia, and faced with the emergence of a Kurdish state on its borders and the rise of Kurdish parties in the parliamentary opposition, Erdogan is cornered. At risk in the short-term is the ability of his AKP party to govern after the upcoming November elections. At risk in the medium term is the cohesion of the Turkish state itself.</font></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font face="georgia, serif">In public, Western leaders have hailed Turkey as "<a href="http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/a-great-islamic-democracy.aspx?pageID=449&nID=59345&NewsCatID=398"><span style="color:windowtext">a great Islamic democracy,"</span></a><span class=""> </span>as President Obama characterized it in a 2010 interview. That was the view of the George W. Bush administration before Obama, which invited Erdogan to the White House before his election as prime minister in November 2002. A minority of military and intelligence analysts, though, has warned that Turkey may not be viable within its present borders in the medium term. The trouble is that its Kurdish minority, now at 20% of the overall population, has twice as many children as ethnic Turks, so many that half of Turkey's military-age population will speak Kurdish as a first language in fewer than twenty years.</font></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font face="georgia, serif">An existential crisis for Turkey has been in the making for years, as I reported in my 2011 book,<span class=""> </span><a href="http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/a-great-islamic-democracy.aspx?pageID=449&nID=59345&NewsCatID=398"><span style="color:windowtext">How Civilizations Die (and Why Islam is Dying, Too)</span></a>. During the past week, a perfect storm has overtaken Turkish policy, and threatens to provoke deep political instability. Turkey may become the region's next failed state.</font></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font face="georgia, serif">There has to be a<span class=""> </span><a href="http://atimes.com/2015/09/vladimir-putin-spoiler-or-statesman/"><span style="color:windowtext">fall guy</span></a><span class=""> </span>in the Middle East's film noire, and that unenviable role has fallen to Turkey. Prior to the bombings, the worst terrorist incident in modern Turkish history, Erdogan suffered public humiliation by Washington as well as Moscow. As Laura Rozen reported Oct. 9 in<span class=""> </span><a href="http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/10/us-arm-syria-kurds-rebels-isis.html#ixzz3oDL1tv8H"><span style="color:windowtext">Al-Monitor</span></a>, Washington announced a 180-degree turn in its Syrian intervention, abandoning the Sunni opposition in favor of Syrian Kurds.</font></p> <p style="margin:6.25pt 0in"><span style="letter-spacing:0.35pt"><font face="georgia, serif">The United States will supply arms, equipment and air support to Syrian Arab and Kurdish groups already fighting the so-called Islamic State (IS) on the ground in Syria, the White House and Pentagon announced Oct. 9.</font></span></p> <p style="margin:6.25pt 0in"><span style="letter-spacing:0.35pt"><font face="georgia, serif">The decision to refocus the beleaguered, $500 million Pentagon program from training and equipping a new force to fight IS in Syria to "equip and enable" rebel groups already fighting on the ground came after an interagency review of the train and equip program, US officials said.</font></span></p> <p style="margin:6.25pt 0in"><span style="letter-spacing:0.35pt"><font face="georgia, serif">"A key part of our strategy is to try to work with capable, indigenous forces on the ground … to provide them with equipment to make them more effective, in combination with our air strikes," Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Christine Wormuth told journalists on a call on the new strategy Oct. 9.</font></span></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Until last Friday, America and Turkey both supported the Sunni opposition to the Assad government with a view to eliminating Assad and installing a Sunni regime. That policy has been in shambles for months, but it allowed the Turks leeway to provide covert support to ISIS, the one Sunni force that shows effectiveness in the field. Russian intervention exposed the fecklessness of America's attempts to find a "moderate" Syrian opposition to back. As the veteran strategist<span class=""> </span><a href="http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/193990/putins-great-crime-syria"><span style="color:windowtext">Edward Luttwak</span></a><span class=""> </span>wrote last week in Tablet magazine:</font></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="letter-spacing:0.35pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Putin must certainly be innocent of the accusation that his air force has bombed the U.S.-trained "pro-democracy" freedom fighters, because the trainers themselves have admitted that the first lot on which one-tenth of the budget has been spent, i.e., $50 million, are exactly five in number, the rest having deserted after receiving their big family-support signing bonus and first paycheck, or after they were first issued with weapons (which they sold), or after first entering Syria in groups, when they promptly joined the anti-American<span class=""> </span><em>Jabhat an-Nuṣrah,</em>whose Sunni Islam they understand, unlike talk of democracy.</font></span></p> <p style="margin:6.25pt 0in"><font face="georgia, serif">The Russians forced Washington to find something credible on the ground to support, and Washington turned to the Kurds, the only effective fighting force not linked to ISIS or al-Qaeda. That was precisely the result Turkey had wanted to avoid; the Kurdish military zone in northern Syria links up with Kurdish-controlled territory in northern Iraq, and the two zones form the core of a prospective Kurdish state.</font></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Russia humiliated Turkey, meanwhile, by challenging Turkish fighters inside Turkish airspace, leaving NATO to protest loudly. Nonetheless the US and Germany have deactivated Patriot missile batteries–the only weapon system that represents a threat to Russian fighters–despite urgent Turkish requests to leave them in place. Russian fighters over Syria prevent the Turks from providing air cover for ISIS and other Islamist groups in Syria, as I noted Oct. 6 in our<span class=""> </span><a href="http://atimes.com/2015/10/bravo-codevilla-and-a-note-on-russian-turkish-fighter-contact/"><span style="color:windowtext">Chatham House Rules<span class=""> </span></span></a>blog. M.K. Bhadrakumar observed in<span class=""> </span><a href="http://atimes.com/2015/10/nato-all-dressed-up-nowhere-to-go-in-syria/"><span style="color:windowtext">Asia Times Oct. 9</span></a>, "Turkey's scope for maneuvering vis-à-vis Russia is actually very limited and it has no option but to reach an understanding with Russia over Syria."</font></p> <p style="margin:6.25pt 0in"><font face="georgia, serif">Less obvious but no less ominous is the deterioration of Sino-Turkish relations due to Ankara's covert support for the East Turkestan Independence Movement, a terrorist organization active among the Uyghurs of Western China. Despite official assurances, Turkey continues to provide safe passage to Turkey to thousands of Chinese Uyghurs via Southeast Asia, some of whom are fighting with ISIS in Syria. Thailand claims that Uyghur militants carried out the Aug. 17 bombing at Bangkok's Erawan shrine after Thailand sent 109 Chinese Uyghurs back to China.</font></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Erdogan has suffered not merely a collapse of his foreign policy, but a public humiliation by countries that backed his regime in the interests of regional stability–and this just before November's parliamentary elections. After the Kurdish-backed HDP party took 13% of the national vote in last June's elections and removed Erdogan's majority in parliament, Erdogan called new elections rather than accept a coalition government. Erdogan also revived military operations against Turkish Kurds in order to elicit support from Turkish nationalists, a transparent maneuver widely reported in the<span class=""> </span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/06/world/middleeast/turkey-recep-tayyip-erdogan-airstrike-pkk-isis.html"><span style="color:windowtext">major media</span></a>.</font></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font face="georgia, serif">As the New York Times reported Aug. 5, "Having already<span class=""> </span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/09/world/europe/turkey-elections-delay-in-coalition-recep-tayyip-erdogan.html" title="Times article"><span style="color:windowtext">delayed the formation of a coalition government</span></a>, analysts say, Mr. Erdogan is now buttressing his party's chances of winning new elections by appealing to Turkish nationalists opposed to self-determination for the Kurdish minority. Parallel to the military operations against the Kurds has been an effort to undermine the political side of the Kurdish movement by associating it with the violence of the P.K.K., which has also seemed eager to return to fighting."</font></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Instead of responding to Erdogan's provocation, the Kurds have shelved military operations in order to concentrate on winning votes in the November elections. After the Saturday bomb attacks,<span class=""> </span><a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/10/10/who-s-behind-the-horrific-bombing-that-hit-ankara.html"><span style="color:windowtext">Thomas Seibert</span></a><span class=""> </span>noted in the Daily Beast:</font></p> <p style="margin:6.25pt 0in"><span style="letter-spacing:0.35pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Observers agreed that the Ankara blast was probably linked to a decision by the PKK rebels to suspend hostilities with Ankara. The PKK had hinted in recent days that it would declare a new ceasefire in order to boost the HDP's election chances. The people behind the attack wanted to "prevent the ceasefire" from coming into effect, respected journalist Kadri Gursel tweeted. The PKK's ceasefire announcement became public shortly after the attack, but the decision by the rebels had probably been taken before.</font></span></p> <p style="margin:6.25pt 0in"><font face="georgia, serif">In short, Erdogan now contemplates American heavy weapons in the hands of Syrian Kurds; the end of Turkey's ability to provide air support for Sunni rebels in Syria; a Russian campaign to roll up the Sunni opposition, including Turkey's assets in the field; and a collapse of his parliamentary majority due to an expanding Kurdish vote at home.</font></p> <p style="margin:6.25pt 0in"><font face="georgia, serif">Whether the AKP government itself ordered the Ankara bombing, or simply looked the other way while ISIS conducted the bombing, both Turkey and global opinion will assume that the ghastly events in Ankara on Saturday reflect the desperation of the Erdogan regime. Regimes that resort to this sort of atrocity do not last very long.</font></p> <p style="margin:6.25pt 0in"><font face="georgia, serif">The best thing that Turkey could do under the circumstances would be to ask the United Nations to supervise a plebiscite to allow Kurdish-majority areas to secede if they so chose. The mountains of southeastern Turkey with the highest concentration of Kurds are a drain on the national budget and of no strategic importance. Neither Erdogan nor his nationalist opposition, though, will consider such action; that would undermine both Erdogan's neo-Ottomanism as well as the old secular nationalism. The pressures under the tectonic plates will only get worse. Saturday's bombing may have demarcated the end of the Turkish state that arose out of the First World War.</font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></p></div> Amb. (Retd.) K. Gajendra Singhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10712573815372515430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8661786410920048953.post-12679540341285304032015-10-10T22:24:00.001+05:302015-10-10T22:24:42.295+05:30Re: Turkey in trouble under Wannabe Ottoman=President Erdogan<div dir="ltr"><br><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><h2 style="margin:4.15pt 0in"><span style="font-size:18pt;color:rgb(77,77,77)"><font face="georgia, serif">Turkey's Don Quixote & Sancho Panza </font></span></h2> <h2 style="margin:4.15pt 0in"><span style="font-size:16pt;color:rgb(77,77,77)"><font face="georgia, serif">So called Zero friction Foreign policy morphs into conflicts with almost all neighbours and beyond under Wannabe President Sultan Recep Erdogan</font></span></h2> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Note ; by Amb K Gajendra Singh who has kept a watch over Turkey since 1967 as desk officer in Indian Foreign ministry up to 1969, then moved over to Indian Embassy in Ankara as Ambassador's deputy (1969-73 ) He then returned as Ambassador to Ankara ,( July 1992 to 96 ) and after retirement stayed there as accredited journalist up to 1998 .From Ankara Amb Singh also was concurrently accredited to Azerbaijan .In fact the first Indian ambassador to Baku.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Whatever the regime ;Military, Republic, Left of centre, right of centre ,with all restrictions on media personnel , including assaults, jailings ,the Turks are defiant .Unlike Indians , who when asked to bend , fall at the feet of authority. In Indian media is a disgrace .At the moment Turkey under Wannabe autocrat Ottoman Sultan Recep Erdogan has become a most difficult place to function. Specially for journalists.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Below are two pieces from Turkey's Hurriyet Daily News ( earlier known as Turkish Daily News, which used my many articles on Turkey and the region ,as did Zaman and Cumhuriyet. Since 1997</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">I have written over 300 articles on international events and problems and wars and maneuvers ,mostly the Greater Middle East and adjoining areas .</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></p> <h2 style="margin:4.15pt 0in"><span style="font-size:16pt;color:rgb(77,77,77)"><font face="georgia, serif">Another Syrian nightmare, courtesy of the Russians</font></span></h2> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">Turkey is now having to cope with multifaceted ramifications of</span><span><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/10/russia-syria-game-plan-diplomatic-push.html" target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(0,136,204)">Russia's intervention in Syria</span></a>. What has made Ankara nervous is not only the failure of the government's Syria policy, but the collapse of plans for a safe zone to house Syrian refugees and withering away of the idea to support opposition forces with Turkey's rules of engagement. Now Turkey has to deal with new tensions created by the fleeing of armed Syrian militants from Russian bombings to Turkey.</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">Summary<a href="http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/10/turkey-syria-russia-airspace-violations-militants-infiltrate.html" title="Click here to Print this article" target="_blank"><span style="color:black">⎙</span><span><span style="color:black;text-decoration:none"> </span></span><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51)">Print</span></a></span></span><span><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt">Russian operations are rattling Turkey as militants fleeing Syria infiltrate Turkey.</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">Author</span></span><span><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><a href="http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/contents/authors/fehim-tastekin.html" target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(0,136,204)">Fehim Taştekin</span></a></span></span><span><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">Posted</span></span><span><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">October 6, 2015</span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">Translator</span></span><span><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">Timur Göksel</span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"><a href="http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/10/turkey-syria-russia-airspace-violations-militants-infiltrate.html" target="_blank">http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/10/turkey-syria-russia-airspace-violations-militants-infiltrate.html</a></font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Before going into implications of the Russian violations, it will help to take a look at the situation along the border that has been off the Turkish agenda for a while.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">It is a fact that northern Syria acquires its logistics and manpower through Turkey. In earlier days, militants escaping from the Syrian army into refugee camps near the border had caused fatalities. Now the Russian air force is on the scene and the escape routes are once again active.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">According to what Al-Monitor learned from local sources in Hatay on Oct. 15, 15 militants in full gear entered Turkey at the Turfanda village on the Syria-Turkey border and moved toward Antakya. Residents notified the gendarmerie but the men eventually disappeared in the company of soldiers.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">On Oct. 3 at 11 p.m., a bus that entered Turkey from Yayladagi was forced to stop after crashing into a car at Hatay's Harbiye district. The bus with nonmatching back and front license plates and passengers inside attracted attention. When the passengers left the bus with their belongings and began to disperse through the side streets, rumors spread that jihadists had reached Harbiye. Subsequently, the police took the passengers to a nearby school building, until police reinforcement arrived and the passengers were taken away. Nobody really knew who they were.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">As Russia intensifies pressure on the</span><span><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/10/syria-aleppo-celebrate-adha-opposition-regime-shelling.html" target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(0,136,204)">Aleppo</span></a>, Idlib and Raqqa areas, this kind of militant movement is inevitable. Hatay has always been a city that has been fervently opposed to Ankara's Syria policy that backs jihadist groups.</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">Representatives of armed groups last week rushed to Istanbul to discuss how to respond to Russia's intervention. Ahrar al-Sham, Jaysh al-Islam, Suqour al-Sham, Jaish al-Mujahideen and Sultan Murat Brigade attended the</span><span><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.aljazeera.com.tr/al-jazeera-ozel/suriyeli-muhalifler-birlik-arayisinda" target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(0,136,204)">two-day meeting</span></a></span><span><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt">that concluded with a call from 41 organizations fighting the Bashar al-Assad regime to regional countries to unite against the</span><span><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/05/us-mideast-crisis-syria-rebels-idUSKCN0RZ18F20151005" target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(0,136,204)">Russia-Iran alliance</span></a>.</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><strong><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">Russia tested Turkish borders</span></strong><span style="font-size:12pt"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">As to Russian violations of Turkish airspace, what cannot escape notice is how</span><span><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/09/turkey-syria-usa-ankara-dream-to-set-up-three-cities.html" target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(0,136,204)">Turkey's rules of engagement</span></a></span><span><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt">against the Syrian military operating near the Turkish border were invalidated by airspace violations of Russian jets.</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">On Oct. 3, a Russian Su-30 loaded with bombs violated the Turkish border south of Hatay-Yayladagi for two minutes, and Turkish warplanes scrambled to intercept. The violation was repeated the next day. Russia not only violated the airspace but also harassed the Turkish interceptors; according to a statement by the Turkish High Command, on Oct. 4, a MiG-29 jet locked its radar for five minutes and 40 seconds on<a href="http://www.tsk.tr/4_olaylar/4_1_gunluk_faaliyetler/gunlukfaaliyetler.html" target="_blank"><span><span style="color:rgb(0,136,204);text-decoration:none"> </span></span><span style="color:rgb(0,136,204)">two Turkish F-16s</span></a></span><span><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt">patrolling along the border.</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">Russia's Ankara-based Ambassador</span><span><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.haber7.com/dis-politika/haber/1587160-turkiye-rusyaya-nota-verdi" target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(0,136,204)">Andrey Karlov</span></a></span><span><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt">was summoned to the Foreign Ministry, and Foreign Minister Feridun Sinirlioglu called his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov to convey Turkey's reaction. Turkey also engaged its NATO allies, and warnings issued to Russia multiplied. The Turkish government had concealed the developments until a TV broadcast on Oct. 5</span><span><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://t24.com.tr/haber/rusyanin-turk-hava-sahasini-ihlali-ne-anlama-geliyor,311916" target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(0,136,204)">informed the public</span></a></span><span><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt">of the recent events.</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Has Russia changed the rules of the game, despite saying that its actions are not intentional? If so, how?</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Russia sent a message that its operations in Syria will expand to the Turkey's border.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Russia showed its determination not only to target the Islamic State, but also the areas controlled by groups supported by the Gulf states and the West. Turkey reacted sharply to this development.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Russia challenged the veracity of Turkey's rules of engagement. After Syria had shot down a Turkish F-4 reconnaissance plane over the Mediterranean on June 22, 2012, Turkey had announced that it would hit Syrian military elements approaching its border. In the context of these rules of engagement, the Turkish air force shot down a Syrian helicopter on Sept. 16, 2013; a MiG-23 warplane on March 23, 2014; and a Syrian aircraft on May 16, 2015. But as the violating aircraft was a Russian plane, Turkey made do with an interception flight, thus suspending its rules of engagement.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu took a tough line after the incident. "Turkey's rules of engagement are valid for Syria,</span><span><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.ntv.com.tr/turkiye/basbakan-ahmet-davutoglu-angajman-kurallarimiz-belli,Q3xXBQqSIEOWFitKph7GQg" target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(0,136,204)">Russia or any other country</span></a>. Turkish armed forces have clear instructions. Even if it is a bird, whatever violates Turkey's borders, it will be confronted," he said, without really impressing anyone.</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">The Turkish public is inured to Davutoglu's blustering statements of the sort that "nobody should try to test our power," which have no bearing on the events.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">Although Ankara wants to make the issue again a NATO crisis, reactions by the alliance are far from meeting Ankara's expectations. In short, Russia tested the limits of Turkey's rules of engagement that also apply to NATO. The Western alliance that found it adequate to apply its Article 4, calling for consultations instead of Article 5 that calls for action when a Turkish jet is downed — which didn't react to the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula and that</span><span><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/natodan-rusyaya-uyari-30238826" target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(0,136,204)">couldn't take any deterrent position</span></a></span><span><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt">vis-a-vis the events in eastern Ukraine — will find it hard to do anything more than issuing warnings.</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">Despite such warnings, Russians staged their third harassment action on Oct. 5. According to information provided by the chief of General Staff on Oct. 5, while eight Turkish F-16s were on air patrol along the border, they were harassed by a MiG-29 that locked its radar on them for 4½ minutes. At the same time, Syria-based surface-to-air missiles locked their radars on Turkish planes for</span><span><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.radikal.com.tr/turkiye/genelkurmay-acikladi-suriye-sinirinda-cifte-taciz-1446244" target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(0,136,204)">four minutes and 15 seconds</span></a>.</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">This could well mean that Russia has established a de facto no-fly zone near the border. Has Turkey not tried so hard to declare a no-fly zone against the Syrian regime in this area?</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">It has now become clearer how Russia has changed the rules of the game since Oct. 5, right after President</span><span><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.radikal.com.tr/politika/cumhurbaskani-erdogandan-rusya-tepkisi-bizi-kaybederler-1446156" target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(0,136,204)">Recep Tayyip Erdogan</span></a></span><span><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt">warned, "What has been done to Turkey, has been done to NATO. Our relations with Russia are there to see, but they will lose."</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">These are signs that Russia is willing to take on all challenges and that it is ready to cope with whatever may happen.</font></span></p> <div style="border-style:none none solid;border-bottom-color:rgb(225,225,225);border-bottom-width:1pt;padding:0in 0in 3pt"> <h1 style="margin:0in 0in 3.35pt;border:none;padding:0in"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt"><br> <br> </span><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:rgb(53,53,52)">Turks oppose military intervention in Syria, gloomy on economy: Survey</span></font></h1> </div> <p><font face="georgia, serif"><span>ISTANBUL</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">Citizens are gloomy about Turkey's economic prospects, suspicious of international partners, and opposed to military involvement in neighboring Syria, according to new research published on Oct. 7 by the</span><span style="font-size:12pt"> <a href="http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/tag/German" target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(0,86,159);text-decoration:none">German</span></a> <span style="background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">Marshall Fund. </span><br> <br> <span style="background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">However, the Turkish Perceptions Survey revealed that a majority still favors membership in the European Union, Reuters reported.</span><br> <br> <span style="background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">Turkey has been battered by domestic and international headwinds in recent months, with inconclusive elections, weak economic growth, regional conflicts and a surge in outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant violence. </span><br> <br> <span style="background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">In light of this, Turkish people overwhelmingly think the government should focus on domestic problems, according to the survey, carried out between July 4 and July 13 through face-to-face interviews with 1,018 respondents.</span><br> <br> <span style="background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">"Seventy percent of respondents said Turkey should deal first with its internal problems. Only 20 percent said Turkey should play a more active role in the Middle East, the Balkans, and Central Asia," according to the survey, conducted with financial support from the U.S. Embassy in Ankara. </span><br> <br> <span style="background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">Slightly more than half of respondents, at 51 percent, disapproved of Turkey's current foreign policy, while 41 percent approved of it. </span><br> <br> <span style="background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">Evidence of Turkish misgivings toward the country's international partners comes at a time when the U.S. is keen to see</span> <a href="http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/tag/Ankara" target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(0,86,159);text-decoration:none">Ankara</span></a> <span style="background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">do more in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). </span><br> <br> <span style="background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">The survey also paints a picture of a population with weakening faith in the economic outlook after a period of growth. Some 47 percent said the economy had worsened in the last five years and only 39 percent said it had improved. Looking forward to the next year, 44 percent predict the economy will worsen and 28 percent expect an upturn. </span><br> <br> <span style="background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">Despite a stalled EU accession bid and bitter disagreements over migration and human rights, 44 percent of Turks still favor membership of the bloc, with 23 percent opposed. </span><br> <br> <span style="background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">NATO and the United Nations were viewed as trustworthy by just one-third of respondents. Most Turks were unable to identify a single one of the country's international partners. Of those that did, most identified the United States.</span><br> <br> <span style="background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">However, U.S. foreign policies were widely distrusted, with just 17 percent saying they agreed with Washington's policies in the Middle East. </span><br> <br> <span style="background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">Some 57 percent opposed military intervention against President Bashar al-Assad in Syria, while 29 percent would support military intervention. Just 17 percent said Turkey should be actively involved if the U.S.-led coalition decided to intervene, while 37 percent said they believe Turkey should stay out of the coalition altogether.</span><br> <br> <span style="background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">While majorities were against sending Turkish troops under all other scenarios, 46 percent of Turks supported the idea of sending troops to form a buffer zone to protect people in the region from ISIL. Forty-one percent of respondents were not in favor of this.</span><br> <br> </span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><font face="georgia, serif">October/08/2015</font></span></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span><b>AHU ÖZYURT</b></font></p> <div style="border-style:none none solid;border-bottom-color:rgb(225,225,225);border-bottom-width:1pt;padding:0in 0in 3pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"> <h1 style="margin:0in 0in 3.35pt;border:none;padding:0in;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><span style="font-size:18pt;color:rgb(53,53,52)"><font face="georgia, serif">Russian roulette in the Middle East</font></span></h1> </div> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"><a href="http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/russian-roulette-in-the-middle-east.aspx?pageID=449&nID=89600&NewsCatID=515" target="_blank">http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/russian-roulette-in-the-middle-east.aspx?pageID=449&nID=89600&NewsCatID=515</a></font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt"> "Have a friend like a Russian, have an enemy like a Russian." These are the words of a high-level Turkish intelligence analyst who has personally had to deal with the Russians on issues like Chechnya, the outlawed</span><span><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(51,51,51)"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/tag/PKK" target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(0,86,159)">Kurdistan Workers' Party</span></a></span><span><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(51,51,51)"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt">(PKK), etc. "They stick to their word. They don't talk much, but they definitely do what they say," he added.<br> <br> It was no surprise to many international observers that</span><span><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(51,51,51)"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/tag/Russia" target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(0,86,159)">Russian</span></a></span><span><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(51,51,51)"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt">President Vladimir Putin would get further involved in Syria after delivering his plan at the U.N. General Assembly last month. Despite all the criticism from Ankara, Moscow and Washington seem to be on the same page about Syria. But this is not all. </span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt"><br> Yalim Eralp, a seasoned advisor at CNN Turk and a former ambassador, told me that crying foul against</span><span><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(51,51,51)"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/tag/Russia" target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(0,86,159)">Russia</span></a></span><span><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(51,51,51)"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt">may fall on deaf ears these days. <br> <br> "Russia has been invited to Syria on the grounds of an anti-terror fight by a legal government, whether we like it or not. Bashar al-Assad and Putin are legally on the right side in terms of the U.N. Charter. Turkey's only priority at this point should be avoiding any military conflict like dogfights, etc," said Eralp.<br> <br> On the road to Russia's latest move, let us rewind and question the event:<br> <br> 1)Right before Russia's Syria operation, Syrian refugees in Turkey suddenly moved en masse towards Europe. Did the military intelligence service of Syria, Al-Muhabarat, have a role in this mass exodus?<br> <br> 2)Is it a coincidence that Russia's intervention has come after the refugee crisis?<br> <br> 3)Were the European countries, most of which belong to NATO, involuntarily forced to say "yes" to Russia's operation?<br> <br> 4)Was Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's urgent invitation and high-level reception in Brussels a result of this crisis, and did the EU ask him to take refugees back?<br> <br> All the signs show that</span><span><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(51,51,51)"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/tag/Russia" target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(0,86,159)">Russia</span></a></span><span><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(51,51,51)"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt">was already planning to get more involved in Syria and the refugee influx accelerated the process. My intelligence sources tell me that hundreds of Al-Muhabarat agents and informers are actively present in Turkey. "They are not like the others," my source told me. "The KGB trained them; they know the region and the language well."<br> <br> Turkey and Russia's recent air confrontation is not just a warning sign for the future. Former U.S. Ambassador Jim Jeffrey, in his latest article for the Washington Institute, stressed the symbolism of</span><span><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(51,51,51)"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/tag/Russia" target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(0,86,159)">Russian</span></a></span><span><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(51,51,51)"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt">overflights over Hatay. <br> <br> "Syria never officially acknowledged the loss of Hatay and its considerable Alawite community, however. Syrian maps still do not show Hatay as a part of Turkey (until recently, the regime maintained a similar cartographical attitude toward the entire country of Lebanon). While Damascus stopped emphasizing Hatay as its own territory during a thaw in relations a decade ago between Assad and then-prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, it did not officially recognize Turkey's sovereignty," wrote Jeffrey. <br> <br> "As Syria's president and the informal leader of the Alawite community, Assad obviously knows this entire story. But does Moscow? It is hard to believe that a country so obsessed with its past and its historical claims (Crimea being only one of many examples) would have missed this connection," he added.<br> <br> If Washington can see the big picture from that distance, maybe</span><span><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(51,51,51)"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/tag/Ankara" target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(0,86,159)">Ankara</span></a></span><span><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(51,51,51)"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12pt">should too.</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">October/09/2015</span></i></b></span><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"></span></i></b></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p></div> </blockquote></div><br></div></div> Amb. (Retd.) K. Gajendra Singhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10712573815372515430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8661786410920048953.post-38257892748880202972015-10-03T21:53:00.001+05:302015-10-03T21:53:20.241+05:30Syria ; Difficult mountain to cross over by Criminal US led Pwers<div dir="ltr">A bit old but still full of revelations.Unlike Sunnis and even Shias , Alawites have various underlying beliefs before Islam was accepted .Many even believe in Hindu like re-incarnation .Alawite Bashar's wife is Sunni. <div><br></div><div><h1 class="" style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;clear:both;font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,'Nimbus Sans L',sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);line-height:1.3em;font-size:21px;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">Syria's Bashar al-Assad: Secret Back Story Reveals Why The West Cannot Topple His Government</h1><div class="" style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,'Nimbus Sans L',sans-serif;color:rgb(119,119,119);font-size:12px;line-height:24px;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><span class="" style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">Posted on</span> <a href="http://stateofthenation2012.com/?p=13286" title="11:29 am" rel="bookmark" style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(119,119,119);background:transparent"><span class="" style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">September 6, 2015</span></a> <span class="" style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">by</span> <span class="" style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent"><a class="" href="http://stateofthenation2012.com/?author=1" title="View all posts by State of the Nation" style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(119,119,119);background:transparent">State of the Nation</a></span></div><div class="" style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:12px 0px 0px;vertical-align:baseline;clear:both;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif;font-size:16px;line-height:24px;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><div class="" style="border:0px;margin:16px 0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;clear:both;background:transparent"><div class="" id="" style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;display:inline;line-height:16px;background:transparent"><a class="" href="http://stateofthenation2012.com/" title="Facebook" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px 4px;vertical-align:middle;color:rgb(116,51,153);display:inline-block;background:transparent"><img src="http://stateofthenation2012.com/wp-content/plugins/add-to-any/icons/facebook.png" width="16" height="16" alt="Facebook" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline-block; height: auto; overflow: hidden; width: auto; background: transparent;"></a><a class="" href="http://stateofthenation2012.com/" title="Twitter" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px 4px;vertical-align:middle;color:rgb(116,51,153);display:inline-block;background:transparent"><img src="http://stateofthenation2012.com/wp-content/plugins/add-to-any/icons/twitter.png" width="16" height="16" alt="Twitter" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline-block; height: auto; overflow: hidden; width: auto; background: transparent;"></a><a class="" style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px 4px;vertical-align:middle;display:inline-block;background:transparent"><div id="___plusone_0" style="border:0px none;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;float:none;line-height:normal;font-size:1px;display:inline-block;width:32px;height:20px;background:transparent"></div></a><a class="" style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px 4px;vertical-align:middle;display:inline-block;width:90px;background:transparent"><div class="" style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;display:inline-block;vertical-align:baseline!important;background:transparent"><span style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:bottom;display:inline-block;text-align:justify;width:79px;height:20px;background:transparent"></span></div></a><a class="" style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px 4px;vertical-align:middle;display:inline-block;background:transparent"></a><a class="" style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px!important;vertical-align:baseline!important;display:inline-block!important;height:20px!important;width:40px!important;background-image:url(https://s-passets.pinimg.com/images/pidgets/pinit_bg_en_rect_gray_20_1.png)!important;background-color:transparent;background-repeat:initial"></a><a class="" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fstateofthenation2012.com%2F%3Fp%3D13286&title=Syria%E2%80%99s%20Bashar%20al-Assad%3A%20Secret%20Back%20Story%20Reveals%20Why%20The%20West%20Cannot%20Topple%20His%20Government&description=" style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px 0px 0px 25px;vertical-align:middle;color:rgb(116,51,153);display:inline-block;height:16px;background:url(http://stateofthenation2012.com/wp-content/plugins/add-to-any/favicon.png) 4px 0px no-repeat scroll"><span style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;display:inline-block;background:transparent">Share</span></a></div></div><h1 style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 20px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;clear:both;font-weight:normal;color:rgb(0,0,0);line-height:1.5em;text-align:center;background:transparent">The Hidden Forces Behind Syria's<br>President Bashar al-Assad</h1><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent"><span id="more-13286" style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent"></span></p><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent"><a href="http://stateofthenation2012.com/" style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(116,51,153);background:transparent">State of the Nation</a></p><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent"><a href="http://stateofthenation2012.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Syria-and-Ukraine-Bound-in-Tragedy.jpg" style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(116,51,153);background:transparent"><img class="" src="http://stateofthenation2012.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Syria-and-Ukraine-Bound-in-Tragedy.jpg" alt="Syria-and-Ukraine-Bound-in-Tragedy" width="640" height="360" style="border: none; margin: 0px auto 12px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; clear: both; display: block; max-width: 100%; height: auto; background: transparent;"></a></p><h3 style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 20px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;clear:both;font-weight:normal;color:rgb(0,0,0);line-height:1.5em;background:transparent"><em style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent"><strong style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">Why is the Syrian President relentlessly demonized by the Anglo-American Axis?</strong></em></h3><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">Just like President Vladimir Putin of Russia, Syria's President Bashar Hafez al-Assad has been the victim of unrelenting character assassination and false reporting by the Western <em style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">Mainstream Media</em> (MSM). Many of the MSM outlets throughout the <em style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">Anglo-American Axis</em> (AAA) have published one false story after another in a concerted effort to turn the entire world against him. And for what?</p><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent"><em style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent"><strong style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">Why are they so determined to overthrow one of the very few righteous leaders in the Middle East?</strong></em></p><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">The true answers to this question are as profound as they are far-reaching. On a quite superficial level, Assad represents the proverbial skunk at the garden party. The <em style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">Anglo-American Axis</em> has a set agenda and predetermined schedule; and, they will not let any nation or political leader get in its way. A trained physician like Assad was thought to be the least of their (AAA) troubles during the choreographed <em style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">Arab Spring</em> events. After all, doctors everywhere take the sacred vow known as the Hippocratic Oath — <em style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">"First, do no harm."</em></p><div style="border:0px;margin:10px 10px 10px 0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;float:left;background:transparent"><ins id="aswift_0_expand" style="border:none;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;text-decoration:none;display:inline-table;height:280px;width:336px;background:transparent"><ins id="aswift_0_anchor" style="border:none;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;text-decoration:none;display:block;height:280px;width:336px;background:transparent"></ins></ins></div><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">The Israeli-Franco-Anglo-American power-brokers, who have controlled the destiny of most of the Middle Eastern nations for decades, have entered a new and desperate phase of conquest. Unfortunately for the entire Mideast, that desperation manifested as the fomenting of a number of revolutionary<em style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">Arab Spring</em> events. The resulting widespread death and destruction reflects just how determined the AAA is to advance their misguided agenda.</p><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">Whereas each of these engineered protest movements was initiated by the agents of the AAA, not all of them were entirely successful. While the CIA, MI6 and MOSSAD may have most of the Middle East hardwired by way of information technology, many of the indigenous peoples still remain off their grid, to varying degrees of course. Nevertheless, they still expected Assad to simply resign after so many other countries had succumbed to the CIA-directed Facebook revolutions and civil wars via Twitter.</p><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">President Assad, they have come to find out, is a completely different kind of being. Not only is he not of their ilk, his very presence on the Mideast geopolitical chessboard causes them great consternation. Why? Because President Assad has a conscience in contrast to the many other leaders who clearly govern without any conscience whatsoever. Of course, the AAA leadership has demonstrated time and again that it operates without any discernible conscience. So devoid of a moral compass are the American, French, and British invaders that Assad's continued leadership makes them all look bad … VERY BAD. Hence, their compulsion to demonize him at every turn.</p><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">Because of the strategic geopolitical importance of Syria, the AAA can no longer tolerate such an honest peace-broker or righteous leader in such a vital location and position of leadership. Most are completely unaware, but President Assad is as just and principled as they come anywhere in the world today, particularly in the Mideast. The only way that the al-Assad family was able to stay in power since 1970 (45 consecutive years) was because of the family trait for fairness and tolerance.</p><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent"><a href="http://stateofthenation2012.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/bashar-sholat-di-belakang-imam-sunni.jpg" style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(116,51,153);background:transparent"><img class="" src="http://stateofthenation2012.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/bashar-sholat-di-belakang-imam-sunni.jpg" alt="bashar-sholat-di-belakang-imam-sunni" width="600" height="429" style="border: none; margin: 0px auto 12px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; clear: both; display: block; max-width: 100%; height: auto; background: transparent;"></a></p><h2 style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 20px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;clear:both;font-weight:normal;color:rgb(0,0,0);line-height:1.5em;background:transparent"><strong style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">Four Major Reasons For Assad's Upright Posture Towards Governance</strong></h2><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">There are various reasons for President Assad's popular government and respected leadership style among the Syrian people. Four of these have become particularly invaluable during this time of great trial and tribulation for the nation. Without the following key relationships and forms of mutual support in the life of President Assad, it would have been unlikely that he could have lasted this long. Therefore, none of these vital associations should be underestimated in any way.</p><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent"><strong style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">Reason #1: The Spiritual Foundation of Bashar's Alawite Faith</strong></p><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">First and foremost there is Bashar al-Assad's unwavering dedication to his family's spiritual traditions and religious faith. Being an ardent practitioner of the Alawite religion like his father and forefathers before him, Assad has drawn great strength from this mystical and tolerant branch of Shia Islam. He went into the medical profession and trained as an ophthalmologist because of his desire to serve the Syrian people.</p><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">Also known as Alawis, Alawites "<em style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">are a prominent religious group, centered in Syria, who follow a branch of the Twelver school of Shia Islam but with syncretistic elements.</em>"[1] Because his religious community had suffered religious persecution and many other indignities over generations prior to his father's presidency, he is quite sensitive to the need for religious tolerance. Particularly within the context of Syria's historical religious diversity, did the Alawites rise to provide the cohesive leadership necessary to maintain the peace and mutual acceptance. This remarkable achievement occurred over decades when many neighboring nations suffered the fate of one failed government after another.</p><div style="border:0px;margin:10px 0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;float:none;text-align:center;background:transparent"><ins id="aswift_1_expand" style="border:none;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;text-decoration:none;display:inline-table;height:60px;width:468px;background:transparent"><ins id="aswift_1_anchor" style="border:none;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;text-decoration:none;display:block;height:60px;width:468px;background:transparent"></ins></ins></div><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">For those who are cognizant of the well-known Hindu religious tolerance in India, Alawites are quite similar. They not only believe in reincarnation as in the East, they have also absorbed many other aspects of the predominant religions in Syria especially those found in Islam and Christianity. Because of their syncretic approach in both philosophy and practice, Alawis have evolved into a genuinely tolerant spiritual community who actively cultivate a climate of mutual respect. However, it is the mystical aspects of their spiritual practice which has earned them the respect of the Syrian people. Because they are known to walk their talk, they have been trusted to lead as they have done for almost 5 decades.</p><blockquote style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px 3em;vertical-align:baseline;quotes:none;font-style:italic;background:transparent"><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">Alawites consider themselves to be Muslims, although some Sunnis dispute that they are. Alawite doctrine incorporates Gnostic, neo-Platonic, Islamic, Christian and other elements and has, therefore, been described as syncretistic.</p><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">Alawite beliefs have never been confirmed by their modern religious authorities. Alawites tend to conceal their beliefs (taqiyya) due to historical persecution. Some tenets of the faith are secret, known only to a select few; therefore, they have been described as a mystical sect.<span style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;font-style:normal;background:transparent">[1]</span></p></blockquote><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">The final point here is that the people of Syria were quite content to be governed by a disproportionately smaller number of Alawites throughout government. In spite of an overwhelming Sunni majority the arrangement worked out well even while there was so much conflict in countries all around them. However, Assad knew that the very delicate balance of power could be upset at any time. And so it would be … by those powerful AAA nations who would deftly utilize their <em style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">divide and rule</em> MO whenever it suits their geopolitical purposes, especially their pursuit of oil reserves.</p><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent"><a href="http://stateofthenation2012.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/wife_2175475b.jpg" style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(116,51,153);background:transparent"><img class="" src="http://stateofthenation2012.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/wife_2175475b.jpg" alt="wife_2175475b" width="620" height="387" style="border: none; margin: 0px auto 12px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; clear: both; display: block; max-width: 100%; height: auto; background: transparent;"></a></p><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent"><strong style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">Reason # 2: </strong><strong style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">The Strength and Support of His Wife Asma al-Assad</strong></p><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">As is often the case, the Assad marriage reveals how a strong woman often exists behind every great leader. In the person of his regal and supportive wife did Bashar Assad find the perfect "power behind his throne". From a strictly political standpoint, she was raised in a powerful Sunni family which endeared her to the Sunni majority of Syria. Because of his choice of a Sunni wife, President Assad was seen as a leader who sincerely lived his authentic acceptance of every religious orientation found within the boundaries of Syria.</p><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent"><a href="http://themillenniumreport.com/2015/03/the-secret-strength-behind-bashar-al-assad/" style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(116,51,153);background:transparent">The Secret Strength Behind Bashar al-Assad<br></a></p><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">Asma al-Assad's professional relationship with her husband was especially exemplary for the woman of Syria to see and experience. She not only sought to help liberate her gender all over the nation, the First Lady also served as a glowing example throughout much of Islamic society. Her various unprecedented and courageous initiatives to spread enlightenment and empowerment in every sphere of Syrian life were recognized by many for their efficacy and magnanimity.</p><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">Asma al-Bashar has occupied a unique position in the highly patriarchal societies of the Middle East. To be presented side-by-side with her husband in her capacity of First lady, as she often is, has provided the male-dominated Arabic and Islamic culture with a new model of leadership. While President Assad is obviously in charge, he has given his wife a special role in the Administration's various mandates to address a whole host of social, cultural and religious issues.</p><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">Post Arab Spring, Asma al-Assad has taken on much greater responsibility because of the epic disaster that has been left in the wake of the manufactured civil war by the Western powers. The Franco-Anglo-American machinations, which produced this terrible tragedy, have posed formidable obstacles for President Assad and his wife. The warmongering has been so relentless and intense that only by the "grace of Allah" has the Syrian First Family weathered one harrowing storm after another.</p><div id="attachment_21845" class="" style="border:0px;margin:0px auto 20px;padding:4px;vertical-align:baseline;clear:both;line-height:18px;text-align:center;width:580px;max-width:632px!important;background:rgb(241,241,241)"><a href="http://stateofthenation2012.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Hafez-Assad.jpg" style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(116,51,153);background:transparent"><img class="" src="http://stateofthenation2012.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Hafez-Assad.jpg" alt="" width="570" height="352" style="border: none; margin: 5px 5px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 622px; height: auto; background: transparent;"></a><p class="" style="border:0px;margin:5px 5px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,'Nimbus Sans L',sans-serif;color:rgb(119,119,119);font-size:12px;background:transparent">Hafez Assad</p></div><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent"><strong style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">Reason #3: Bashar Assad Received Excellent Training and Guidance from His Father</strong></p><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">The loyal and genuine support from the Syrian people, which the Assad family has enjoyed for nearly 5 decades, began with Hafez al-Assad. This was a man who is considered to be one of Syria's greatest sons having taken power in a bloodless coup during a particularly delicate and volatile period of Syrian history. Had he not taken such a decisive stand at that critical point, Syria could have easily erupted into a full-blown civil war driven by religious strife.</p><blockquote style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px 3em;vertical-align:baseline;quotes:none;font-style:italic;background:transparent"><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">Assad's rule "began with an immediate and considerable advantage: the government he displaced was so detested that any alternative came as a relief". He first tried to establish national unity, which he felt had been lost under the leadership of Aflaq and Jadid. Assad differed from his predecessor at the outset, visiting local villages and hearing citizen complaints.<span style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;font-style:normal;background:transparent">[2]</span></p></blockquote><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">A humble and practical leadership style is what distinguished Hafez al-Assad from the beginning of his presidency. Although his son Bashar was trained as a physician who had no political aspirations, he followed in his father's footsteps quite naturally. Trained as an ophthalmologist, Bashar had the sensitivity and temperament of a very reluctant leader at first. However, he quickly realized that he could not shirk the solemn responsibility which destiny had brought to him and his wife.</p><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">Because of his egalitarian approach to governance and genuine concern for the cohesion of Syria, he was quickly accepted by the people as an ideal replacement for his father. The Syrian people especially embraced his socially dynamic and progressive wife Asma and received them with open arms. They became an exemplary power couple who were admired for their genuine dedication to the interests of every Syrian citizen.</p><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">It is especially the Assad family's extraordinary religious tolerance and their cultivation of a truly ecumenical atmosphere throughout all of Syria that has set them apart. When compared to most of the other Muslim Arab countries, Syria has experienced a high degree of acceptance and camaraderie among a diverse number of religious communities. This critical personal and family inclination toward religious tolerance has been actively translated into public policy; subsequently, all of Syrian society was distinguished by its remarkable religious tolerance and mutual acceptance.</p><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">The following excerpt quotes Asma al-Assad from an interview conducted just before the recent civil war was instigated by the <em style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">Anglo-American Axis</em>. This revealing and laudatory article was quickly removed from the internet by its publisher because of the positive portrayal it painted of the Bashar family, particularly that of Asma's enlightened stewardship.</p><blockquote style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px 3em;vertical-align:baseline;quotes:none;font-style:italic;background:transparent"><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">Back in the car, I ask what religion the orphans are. "It's not relevant," says Asma al-Assad. "Let me try to explain it to you. That church is a part of my heritage because it's a Syrian church. The Umayyad Mosque is the third-most-important holy Muslim site, but within the mosque is the tomb of Saint John the Baptist. We all kneel in the mosque in front of the tomb of Saint John the Baptist. That's how religions live together in Syria—a way that I have never seen anywhere else in the world. We live side by side, and have historically. All the religions and cultures that have passed through these lands—the Armenians, Islam, Christianity, the Umayyads, the Ottomans—make up who I am."<span style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;font-style:normal;background:transparent"> [3] </span></p></blockquote><div id="attachment_21900" class="" style="border:0px;margin:0px auto 20px;padding:4px;vertical-align:baseline;clear:both;line-height:18px;text-align:center;width:660px;max-width:632px!important;background:rgb(241,241,241)"><a href="http://stateofthenation2012.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/231693_7530.jpg" style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(116,51,153);background:transparent"><img class="" src="http://stateofthenation2012.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/231693_7530.jpg" alt="Russia has sent sophisticated anti-ship missiles to Syria" width="650" height="424" style="border: none; margin: 5px 5px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 622px; height: auto; background: transparent;"></a><p class="" style="border:0px;margin:5px 5px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,'Nimbus Sans L',sans-serif;color:rgb(119,119,119);font-size:12px;background:transparent">Russia has sent sophisticated anti-ship missiles to Syria</p></div><h3 style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 20px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;clear:both;font-weight:normal;color:rgb(0,0,0);line-height:1.5em;background:transparent"><strong style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">Reason #4: Russia, Iran, and the BRICS-aligned Nations stand with Assad</strong></h3><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">Russia has been ardently opposed to all of the bellicose meddling in the internal affairs of sovereign nations. President Putin has stated on numerous occasions that there needs to be a new global platform of international relationships built on the foundation of implicit respect for national sovereignty. He has expressed that the world community of nations is obligated to reject the outside interference of those powerful nations which routinely commit actions of naked aggression.</p><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">In fact, Russia, China and India have repeatedly singled out the USA and UK for their outright interference in the affairs of countries large and small, rich and poor. Toward that end they have proclaimed their support for Syria's only legitimate government under Bashar al-Assad. Putin has even supplied Syria with sophisticated weaponry which he would only do in the case of unprovoked acts of aggression being systematically being perpetrated against the Syrian people.</p><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">The AAA does not yet understand the seriousness of the war crimes that they have committed in Syria. Each act of violence against the people and their property has been recorded. Every act of wanton destruction and needless killing has been catalogued for the purposes of accountability. Russia and their allies are watching the conduct of ISIS and how they are supplied and financed. It is common knowledge that the Israeli-Anglo-American intelligence services have coordinated the attacks on Syria from the very beginning of this manufactured civil war.</p><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">At the end of the day, the AAA will be held responsible for their actions and inactions which directly contributed to this terrible tragedy. The Syrian Civil War has created the greatest European immigration crisis of the modern era. Should the AAA continue their imperialistic designs against the Assad Administration and the people of Syria, they will bring upon themselves the wrath of the Russia bear.</p><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent"><strong style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent"><em style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">Divide and Conquer</em>: MO of the CIA, MI6 and MOSSAD</strong></p><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">The primary geopolitical strategy employed by the <em style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">Anglo-American Axis</em> over the past 100 years throughout the entire Middle East has been that of <em style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">divide and conquer</em>. Using the intelligence agencies and secret services of Israel, the AAA has been able to sow seeds of discontent among the Sunnis and/or the Shiites in any country its wishes to control. The fabricated revolutions and fake protest movements of the <em style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">Arab Spring</em> are perfect examples of this outright subversion in action by the AAA.</p><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent"><a href="http://stateofthenation2012.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/2b50b57cd053c959420c05a0d8cdca9d.jpg" style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(116,51,153);background:transparent"><img class="" src="http://stateofthenation2012.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/2b50b57cd053c959420c05a0d8cdca9d.jpg" alt="2b50b57cd053c959420c05a0d8cdca9d" width="500" height="374" style="border: none; margin: 0px auto 12px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; clear: both; display: block; max-width: 100%; height: auto; background: transparent;"></a></p><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">As always, the AAA leadership has cynically incited these religious rivalries in Syria, which have existed for centuries, between the Sunnis and the Shiites, and between the Christians and Muslims. There have been many instances where Sunnis and Shiites have been able to peacefully coexist. Nevertheless, a well-timed false flag attack or assassination can quickly undermine that peace. How many times has a single MOSSAD-trained suicide bomber turned a town or community into a conflagration?</p><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">When the balance of power is forever tipping to one side or another, it is very easy for outside forces to destabilize any nation with significant Sunni and Shiite populations. Even when one or the other exists as a small minority is the <em style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">divide and rule</em> strategy employed with great effect. In this manner has the current civil war in Syria been fastidiously engineered by the AAA and it many proxies. After stoking the flames of the long-burning fire of religious differences outside of Syria, they have been methodically exported into that country. In this fashion has the whole nation been turned into a slow-motion holocaust.</p><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">President Assad is well aware of the wily and subversive ways of the Western powers. The USA, France, Great Britain and Israel, in particular, have revealed their seditious agenda from the start of the Syrian Civil War. Despite the utilization of every stratagem in the CIA playbook, the AAA ruling cabal has been unsuccessful at toppling Assad. Such is the allegiance of the Syrian people to their leader who was thrust into the presidency more by fate than by the typical dynastic designs.</p><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent"><strong style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">What really happened in Syria since 2011?</strong></p><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">Syria is one of those extremely unfortunate countries that is located in the wrong place at the wrong time. For the uninitiated, any nation that occupies a highly strategic position on the global geopolitical chessboard is vulnerable to AAA-instigated acts of aggression. Syria is not only in the middle of a region that possesses valuable oil and gas reserves, there are those who would like to control their transport over Syrian soil.</p><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">Syria has also enjoyed the support of Russia and Iran throughout the many unlawful attempts by the AAA to violently overthrow Assad's legitimate government. Russia's<a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-18616191" style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(116,51,153);background:transparent">Mediterranean naval facility</a> in Syria located at Tartus provides Moscow with a vital base from which to deter other illicit acts of AAA aggression in the Mideast. President Vladimir Putin's recent decision to put a Russian military footprint on Syrian soil is an indication of his commitment to Assad's continued leadership role. For it is certain that any USA-chosen presidential replacement would surely terminate Russia's naval base lease, thus depriving them of an essential deterrent to Western warmongering.</p><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">Bashar al-Assad's independence has long been viewed with suspicion by the AAA leadership, which was tolerated until 2011. Under Hillary Clinton's State Department were the plans hatched to unleash the CIA-directed <em style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">Arab Spring</em> on Syrian soil which was ultimately directed at overthrowing Assad any way they could. However, the stubbornness of the righteous regime in Damascus was grossly underestimated as the conflict approaches its fifth year.</p><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent"><a href="http://stateofthenation2012.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/isis-trucks1.jpg" style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(116,51,153);background:transparent"><img class="" src="http://stateofthenation2012.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/isis-trucks1.jpg" alt="isis-trucks1" width="633" height="518" style="border: none; margin: 0px auto 12px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; clear: both; display: block; max-width: 100%; height: auto; background: transparent;"></a></p><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">The Western creation of ISIS stands as a glaring testament to how desperate the USA & Company is to control every square inch of the Middle East, especially the oil and gas reserves. Not only were billions of dollars in armaments and munitions intended for Iraq surreptitiously sent to Syria, fleets of brand-new Toyotas have been paraded all over the ever-changing battlefield reflecting direct Western involvement. In fact without Western war financing and weapons supply, ISIS, ISIL and the Islamic State would have already collapsed.</p><blockquote style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px 3em;vertical-align:baseline;quotes:none;font-style:italic;background:transparent"><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">Isn't it strange that "ISIS" just happens to be pictured along with a convoy of Toyota trucks that at least appear to be modified the exact same way special forces has them outfitted before shipping them from the factory in Texas?</p><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">When you combine this latest discovery with the fact that "ISIS" has (i) U.S. military small arms (ii) U.S. military Humvees (iii) U.S. military artillery (iv) U.S. citizens running their online social media campaigns (v) John McCain met with destabilization campaign terrorists in Syria including someone from the newly formed "ISIS" in March of 2013… what conclusion would a reasonable person come to?<span style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;font-style:normal;background:transparent">[4]</span></p></blockquote><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent"><strong style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">Conclusion</strong></p><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">The following graphic well describes one of the primary purposes for the deliberate engineering of the Syrian Civil War by the <em style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">Anglo-American Axis</em>. Syria has provided support to Israel's sworn enemies for too long. The Golan Heights remain a highly contested region that Israel illegally seized during the 1967 Six-Day War and unlawfully annexed in 1981. That universally condemned theft of Syrian property was part of a much bigger agenda to establish a "Greater Israel" which would quite substantially expand its current borders … always through illicit acts of war and unprovoked aggression.</p><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent"><img class="" src="http://stateofthenation2012.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/usISILgreaterISRAELmeme.jpg" alt="usISILgreaterISRAELmeme" width="500" height="420" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px auto 12px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; clear: both; display: block; background: transparent;"></p><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">As the graphic illustrates, Israel's security 'will not' be compromised, nor will its expansion into the "Greater Israel" be impeded. However, in the leadership of Bashar al-Assad, the rogue nation of Israel has met its match. Assad's Syria has fought valiantly against the greatest military forces on Earth and somehow prevailed when it should not have. While Syria has sustained big losses of territory to ISIS, this war has only just begun now that Russia has shown a serious military commitment on the ground.</p><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">Lastly, the relationship that exists between Presidents Putin and Assad completely transcends geopolitical objectives and military purposes. Both have an abiding respect for each other's religious orientation. Under Assad, the Christian communities throughout the Middle East could always expect to find protection and support. The Russian Orthodox Patriarchate in Moscow certainly appreciates this historical fact of life under Assad's stewardship.</p><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">Syria had always been a safe place for Christians to live side-by-side with Sunnis and Shiites, Alawites and Sufis … in peace. Only if Bashar and Asma al-Assad miraculously remain in their seats of power and influence will there be any hope of a return to that unique and once-enduring peace. This is the real reason why the AAA aggressors have been unable topple Bashar al-Assad — the grateful people of Syria simply won't let them.</p><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent"><a href="http://stateofthenation2012.com/" style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(116,51,153);background:transparent">State of the Nation<br></a>September 6, 2015</p><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">Author's Note</p><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">The most effective way for the AAA to bring down any leader of international stature is to falsely accuse them of committing unspeakable atrocities against their own people. In this way the MSM has regularly been used to disseminate patently false stories about Bashar Assad. In every single case of a 'gas attack' it was obvious that the U.S.-backed rebels were doing the gassing; that is, if any gassing was done at all. Some of those 'heinous attacks' against Syrian citizens have been proven to be staged events choreographed by the MOSSAD et al.</p><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">All one has to do is google the following search terms together with "Syria" and/or "Assad". The first Google page will return results with fabricated articles that falsely report the following events carried out by Assad or the Syrian government:<br>• chemical weapons<br>• chemical weapon attack<br>• chemical attacks<br>• chemical gas attacks<br>• sarin gas attack<br>• chlorine gas attack<br>• deadly poison gas attacks<br>• gas bombs</p><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">In each and every case that a chemical gas attack did occur, it was a false flag operation conducted by the CIA-backed rebels. When the false flag attack was obviously staged, it was coordinated by the same MOSSAD-assisted rebels. Assad himself has conducted interviews in which he categorically denied any such attacks against his people. Those who know him have all said the accusations are as contrived as they are ridiculous. Syria has since turned over all chemical weapons for immediate disposal.</p><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">For the unaware, the <em style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">Anglo-American Axis</em> is well-known in intelligence circles for carrying out chemical attacks whenever they want to demonize a government or political leader. Nothing rallies the world community quicker than a fake cause concocted with fraudulent news reports about chemical weapons used against an innocent civilian population. In the meantime the United States of America maintains the largest stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons in the world. And, for what purpose?</p><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">In fact the AAA is now notorious for routinely alleging 'war crimes' and 'crimes against humanity' whenever it serves their geopolitical goals. Their simple MO is as follows: First they send in their proxies to commit some form of brutal violence; then, the foreign government reacts strongly to appropriately protect people and property. This is usually where a ruthless false flag attack is conducted that is falsely blamed on the sitting government, just like the CIA did with the Kiev shootings during the Maidan protest. They executed the same type of false flag attack with the shoot-down of MH17 over the eastern Ukraine.</p><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">Sources</p><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">[1] <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alawites" style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(116,51,153);background:transparent">Alawites</a></p><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">[2] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hafez_al-Assad" style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(116,51,153);background:transparent">Hafez al-Assad </a></p><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">[3] <a href="http://themillenniumreport.com/2015/03/the-secret-strength-behind-bashar-al-assad/" style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(116,51,153);background:transparent">Asma al-Assad: A Rose in the Desert</a></p><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">[4] <a href="https://willyloman.wordpress.com/2014/09/10/isis-drives-texas-made-toyota-trucks-apparently-modified-by-special-forces/" style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(116,51,153);background:transparent">ISIS™ Drives Texas-made Toyota Trucks Apparently Modified for U.S. Special Forces</a></p><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">Glossary</p><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent"><em style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">Anglo-American Axis</em>:</p><blockquote style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px 3em;vertical-align:baseline;quotes:none;font-style:italic;background:transparent"><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">The Anglo-American Axis is represented, first and foremost, by the major English-speaking countries of the world: USA, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Israel. The European member nations of NATO, such as Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands are also closely aligned with the AAA as are all the Scandinavian countries. So are the Asian Pacific Rim nations of Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and the Philippines. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Pakistan, Kuwait, Jordan, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, and Qatar also owe their allegiance to the AAA but some of these may be changing. The <span style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;font-style:normal;background:transparent">World Shadow Government</span> is an ultra-secret, supranational organization which completely controls the <span style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;font-style:normal;background:transparent">Anglo-American Axis</span>, as well as the European Union, NATO, among many other institutional entities which constitute the<span style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;font-style:normal;background:transparent">Global Control Matrix</span>.<br><span style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;font-style:normal;background:transparent">(Source: <a href="http://stateofthenation2012.com/?p=8159" style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(116,51,153);background:transparent">Vladimir Putin's Russia: Perfect Foil To The Anglo-American Axis And Their New World 'Order'</a>)</span></p></blockquote><p style="border:0px;margin:0px 0px 24px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">Originally written by <a href="http://stateofthenation2012.com/?p=13286" style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(116,51,153);background:transparent">State of the Nation</a> and published at:<br><a href="http://stateofthenation2012.com/?p=13286" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(116,51,153);background:transparent">http://stateofthenation2012.com/?p=13286</a></p></div></div></div> Amb. (Retd.) K. Gajendra Singhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10712573815372515430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8661786410920048953.post-51315575907921448702015-10-01T22:02:00.001+05:302015-10-01T22:02:50.022+05:30Airlift: Akshay Kumar's next film , a thriller of the biggest human evacuation from Amman of Indians coming over from Kuwait<div dir="ltr"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></p> <h1 style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(57,57,57)">Airlift: Akshay Kumar's next film , a thriller of the biggest human evacuation from Amman of Indians coming over from Kuwait.</span></h1> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">FOUNDATION FOR INDO-TURKIC STUDIES </font></span></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Tel/; <b>43034706</b> Amb (Rtd) K Gajendra Singh </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Emails; <a href="mailto:Gajendrak@hotmail.com">Gajendrak@hotmail.com</a> A-44 ,IFS Apartments </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">KGSingh@Yahoo.com Mayur Vihar –Phase 1, Delhi 91,</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"><a href="http://tarafits-archives.blogspot.com/">http://tarafits.blogspot.com/</a> October 1, 2015</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Some time ago there was a news item that with Akshay Kumar as the hero, a film is being planned which will cover evacuation of nearly 150,000 Indian nationals who were caught in Kuwait after the August 1990 invasion by Saddam Hussein's forces. Except for Jordan all other neighbouring countries had closed their borders with Iraq, so I , who was then posted at Amman, Jordan carried out the evacuation of Indian nationals who had come all the way from Kuwait.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Perhaps it will be worthwhile to shift the action to Amman from where the airlift was organised .</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">In case you know somebody in the film industry connected with the production, direction, et cetera of this project, he could approach me for the real story with all the details. Of course, the project would be written and produced in such a way that it sells in the market. That is understandable. </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Some information about the evacuation is given below, including a unanimous resolution passed by the Indian Citizens Committee of Kuwait to appreciate the herculean task carried out by the Ambassador in Amman. The visiting delegations of ministers etc was a disgrace , wanting entertainment , giving lists of dozens of Indian nationals , to be taken out of tens of thousands of passports and put in the next flight etc .</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">The Indian ambassador was let down by Foreign Secretaries beginning with Muchkund Dube , Mani Dixit ,Krish Srinivasan ,Salman Haider and others .So much for standing for a colleague ,unjustly treated !</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Thanking you in advance. Sincerely, Gajendra Singh.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <h1 style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(57,57,57)"><font face="georgia, serif">Airlift: Akshay Kumar's next a thriller of the biggest human evacuation</font></span></h1> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span class=""><span style="font-size:11pt;color:rgb(153,153,153);background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/toireporter/author-Priya-Gupta.cms"><span style="color:rgb(51,103,151)">Priya Gupta</span></a>, TNN</span></span><span class=""><span style="font-size:11pt;color:rgb(153,153,153);background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"> </span></span><span class=""><span style="font-size:11pt;color:rgb(153,153,153);background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">|</span></span><span class=""><span style="font-size:11pt;color:rgb(153,153,153);background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"> </span></span><span class=""><span style="font-size:11pt;color:rgb(153,153,153);background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">Aug 19, 2014, 12.00AM IST</span></span><span class=""><span style="font-size:11pt;color:rgb(153,153,153);background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"></span></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class=""><span style="font-size:4pt;color:rgb(153,153,153);background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/bollywood/news/Airlift-Akshay-Kumars-next-a-thriller-of-the-biggest-human-evacuation/articleshow/40364005.cms">http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/bollywood/news/Airlift-Akshay-Kumars-next-a-thriller-of-the-biggest-human-evacuation/articleshow/40364005.cms</a></span><span style="font-size:12pt"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">Facts of History: August 2, 1990, Saddam Hussein invades Kuwait</span><span style="font-size:12pt"><br> <span style="background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">Saddam Hussein's Iraq in 1990 was in debt to the tune of US $80 billion because of the long-drawn Iran conflict that it had undertaken. Iraq wanted the OPEC (Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) and specifically Kuwait, to reduce oil production to create a scarcity of oil leading to increasing oil prices, thereby helping Iraq raise more money. But, both the OPEC and Kuwait refused, leaving Iraq furious. On August 2, 1990, Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. The Iraqi army took over the city within a few hours. The Kuwaiti royal family managed to escape to Saudi Arabia, leaving the state rudderless. The city was looted and the general population subjugated and made to suffer great tragedies at the hands of the Iraqi army. Kuwait was home to almost 1,70,000 Indians, all of who had suddenly lost all their money, were homeless and scared for their lives. Some of the Indian businessmen got together to form a group that would oversee the evacuation of the huge Indian contingent from war-torn Kuwait. The evacuation was no easy task, as most Indians were not ready to leave everything they had worked for so hard, for so many years. Neither could they, as they did not have valid travel papers as the employers used to hold on to their employee passports once they landed in Kuwait, and those Kuwaiti employers were either dead or had fled by then.</span> <br> <span style="background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">The India Political scenario in 1990: Politically, India was at its most unstable with VP Singh as its Prime Minister, with the opposition threatening to bring the government down. Not only was India financially in trouble, but also 40% of its crude oil came from that region that was now stuck because of the war.</span> <br> <br> <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/tv/news/Dare-To-Dance-with-Akshay-Kumar/articleshow/40264409.cms"><b><span style="color:rgb(51,103,151)">READ: Dare To Dance with Akshay Kumar </span></b></a><br> <br> </span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">The Film: It is in this scenario that Ranjit Katyal (played by Akshay Kumar), a wealthy and powerful Indian businessman, who has always seen himself as a Kuwaiti, rather than an Indian, realises that he no longer wields any influence on the Iraqis, and that he and his family are in as much danger as anyone else. Ranjit unknowingly becomes the man who all 1,70,000 Indians look up to for getting them out safely from Kuwait. Airlift is the story of Indians stranded in Kuwait during this traumatic time. A story of how they, with the help of Ranjit Katyal, managed to survive the Iraqi invasion, and against all odds travelled a thousand kilometres across the border into Amman, Jordan. From Amman, 1,70,000 Indians were brought home by the largest and the most successful evacuation ever attempted by any country, in the history of the world. Over 59 days, the Indian government systematically flew over 488 Air India commercial flights into a war zone to evacuate all 1,70,000 Indians and safely bring them back home. Airlift is an uplifting and entertaining edge-of-the-seat thriller and is the story of the biggest ever human evacuation in the history of mankind.</span><span style="font-size:12pt"><br> <br> <span style="background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">Airlift, directed by Raja Krishna Menon, starts filming April 2015 and is presented by T-Series and Cape of Good Films; produced by Crouching Tiger and Emmay Entertainment. Bhushan Kumar, talking about the film, said, "It's my conviction that the story will be equally appreciated once on celluloid as much as I loved it during narration. The character that Akshay plays is filled with heroism and I am sure he will add to the perfection with this central character role that he essays."</span><br> <br> </span></font></p> <h2><span style="font-weight:normal"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></h2> <h2><span style="font-weight:normal"><font face="georgia, serif">INDIAN CITIZEN'S COMMITTEE</font></span></h2> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><font face="georgia, serif">Patron H.E ; Prem Singh </font></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><font face="georgia, serif"> Ambassador of India</font></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><font face="georgia, serif">Chairman: H.S, Vedi</font></b></p> <h2><span style="font-weight:normal"><font face="georgia, serif">Vice Chairman: Raman Sharma</font></span></h2> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><font face="georgia, serif">Secretary: Mathew Kurvilla</font></b></p> <div style="border-style:none none solid;border-bottom-color:windowtext;border-bottom-width:1pt;padding:0in 0in 1pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="border:none;padding:0in"><font face="georgia, serif"><b>Treasurer: Abraham Mathew</b><span lang="EN-GB"></span></font></p> </div> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11pt"><font face="georgia, serif">To ; Shri P.V. Narsimha Roa ,.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> Prime Minister of India , </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> South Block.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> N. Delhi</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><span style="font-size:11pt">INDIAN CITIZEN'S COMMITTEE</span></b><span style="font-size:11pt"> which was formed on the dusty evening of 2nd Aug. 1990 </span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><font face="georgia, serif">the day of lraqi brutal invasion of' Kuwait met in the afternoon of Friday the 1st April 1994 at its </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><font face="georgia, serif">office in Shaab Kuwait and unanimously passed thc attached resolution.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">Sd-</span><span style="font-size:11pt"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><font face="georgia, serif">H.S Vcdi </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Chairman I.C.C</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><font face="georgia, serif">2nd April I994..</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span>C.C</font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif">1. Shri Dinesh Singh E.A.M, N. Delhi</font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif">2. Shri Salman Khursheed M.E A - N: Delhi </font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="DE"><font face="georgia, serif">3. Shri K. Sri Niwasun F.S - N. Delhi</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif">4. Secretary to President of India - N. Delhi</font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Issued 4/4/9</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span><b><span style="font-size:14pt">Resolution By Indian Citizen's </span></b></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:14pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> Committee Kuwait On 1st April 1994</font></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">We are extremely happy to have with us today H.E. Gajendra Singh presently Indian ambassador to Turkey, who is one of the few persons who will long be remembered in our minds and recorded in the history of evacuation of Indian citizens of Kuwait for his long dedicated and unstinted services during the dark and black days of vicious Iraqi occupation of Kuwait when he was to our good luck stationed in Amman as our Indian Ambassador.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">During the seven months long period from Aug. 1990 to March 1991, the Indian Embassy in Amman under his unflinching leadership imbued with compassion for the plight of Indian evacuees that went beyond the call of duty, in the Herculean task of arranging transport for Indian citizens of Kuwait from the Iraqi Jordanian border, some times even from Baghdad, upto Amman to a distance of over 250 KM and refugee camps, reception and migration for citizens etc. at the border and in Amman, boarding , loading in Amman upto mid Sept. 1990 till international Agencies established refugee camps and finally making sure that our citizens reached India safely. It took nearly six hundred air flights including 420 Air India Flights, an aviation history record to evacuate nearly 140,000 Indian citizens from Amman.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Ambassador Singh stuck to his duties even during the war days of Jan/Feb, 1991, evacuating thousand of Indian citizens including nurses, under most trying and dangerous conditions.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">We the members of the Indian Citizens Committee in Kuwait express our sincere thanks and gratitude to you for shouldering such enormous responsibilities under tremendous physical and functional tensions, working round the clock for months without any break during this period.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">We had noted with satisfaction that your services and those of your colleagues were widely acclaimed in lndian media including Times of lndia, Indian Express, India To day etc. and even in the international media. The Crown Prince of Jordan, the foreign Minister of Bhutan, International Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and other organizations, praised the remarkable work "of the Indian Embassy in Amman.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">We have, therefore, learnt with great sorrow and anguish that the Govt. of India instead decorating you for your services, have instead punished you in 1992 and 1993 on the basis of</font></span></p> <p class=""><span lang="EN-GB"><font face="georgia, serif">false allegations. We firmly believe and request the Government of India to undo this grave miscarriage of justice and accord you the reward and acclaim which you so surely deserve.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">We also are reminded of your meetings with many of us with severe mental, physical tension, sick and dead where you kindly attention and services were of great solace.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">We also are aware that had the Govt. of Indian then fully complied with your recommendations, the operation of refugee exodus would have been much smoother.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">We also note with utter shame that so called national leaders of that time displayed utter ignorance and incompetence and arrogance in dealing with the situation and further making unforgivable statements in foreign countries . Their graceless behavior left a very bad impression with Jordanian leaders.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt">We recommend a high level enquiry to the Mismanagement of evacuation Sub-committee of Ministry of External Affairs.</span><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif">P.O.Box 23228 Safat, Kuwait 13093 </font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif">Tel: 2624719 - Fax 2623124 </font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p><h1 style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> FOUNDATION FOR INDO-TURKIC STUDIES </font></span></h1> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Tel/Fax ; 004016374602 Amb (Rtd) K Gajendra Singh </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> Emails; <a href="mailto:Gajendrak@hotmail.com">Gajendrak@hotmail.com</a> Flat No 5, 3<sup>rd</sup> Floor </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> KGSingh@Yahoo.com 9, Sos Cotroceni,</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> Web site <a href="http://W3.geocities.com/Kgsngh">W3.geocities.com/Kgsngh</a> Bucharest (Romania ).</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt"> 12 December, 2002</span><span style="font-size:12pt"></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><span style="font-size:12pt">ASIA</span></b><b><span style="font-size:12pt"> TIMES </span></b><span style="font-size:12pt">online –December 13, 2002<strong><span style="color:black;font-weight:normal"></span></strong></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black;font-weight:normal"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></strong></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style="font-size:11pt;color:red"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></strong></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><strong><span style="font-size:12pt;color:red">AMBASSADOR'S JOURNAL</span></strong><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:red"><br> </span></b><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/DL13Df01.html"><strong><span style="color:rgb(0,51,153)">Gulf crisis: Lessons from 1991</span></strong><b><span style="color:rgb(0,51,153)"><br> </span></b></a><strong>K Gajendra Singh,</strong> who was stationed in Amman as India's ambassador to Jordan during the Gulf crisis of 1990-91, recalls the frantic efforts and bureaucratic bungling in handling the flood of Indian refugee workers from the troubled region. And he ponders whether the Indian government is any better prepared this time around. Ed<strong><span style="color:black"></span></strong></span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style="font-size:12pt;color:red"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></strong></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><strong><span style="font-size:12pt;color:red">AMBASSADOR'S JOURNAL</span></strong><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:red"><br> </span></b><strong><span style="font-size:16pt;color:black">Gulf crisis: Lessons from 1991</span></strong><strong><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black;font-weight:normal"> <a href="http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/DL13Df01.html">http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/DL13Df01.html</a></span></strong></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><br> </span><span style="font-size:12pt">By K Gajendra Singh </span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Dinner on January 15, 1991, at the Indian embassy residence in Amman, the capital of Jordan, turned out to be a much bigger affair than I had bargained for. On January 1, I had casually asked US Ambassador Roger Harrison if he would be free for dinner on the 15th, the deadline given by the coalition led by US President George H W Bush to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to withdraw from Kuwait, which he had invaded in August 1990.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">When Roger said yes, apart from senior Jordanian officials, journalists and others, I also invited ambassadors from the countries represented in the Security Council, my human shield against the coalition attack, as I jokingly remarked. Soon word went round and everyone wanted to join in, and suddenly 70 guests were expected.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">I had to dust off ceremonial and personal crockery and cutlery, and set up bridge tables and garden chairs to seat them all. I also had to borrow my cook's TV so that guests could watch King Hussein deliver a stirring speech on Jordanian TV as many were already watching the latest news from Israeli TV. CNN had not yet reached Amman. Guests were sprawled on sofas and wandering through my study and bedrooms. When King Hussein heard about this unusual get together, he remarked that only an ambassador from India could have thought of such a dinner. A great compliment indeed. <br> <br> Most embassies in Amman had already sent their families home and were functioning on skeleton staff. The cook at the Chinese embassy, though, was considered essential, and understandably, as I have never eaten such tasty Chinese food. There were regular meetings among ambassadors. Tony, the British envoy, would turn up on odd occasions for a spot of bridge to take our minds off the mounting tension. No politics, we had agreed. Once, he got me three down doubled (a rare thing). Tony was delighted, "I do not care if Saddam wins now," he teased. His armed bodyguard would watch TV with my cook, sharing <i>samosas</i>. The Romanian ambassador handed out gas masks designed for oil drilling while the Chinese loaded me with various safety devices to counter poisonous biological attacks. But I used to show them the strong life line on my hand and say that nothing untoward was indicated. <br> <br> The worst case nightmare for the coalition was that a few germ-loaded Iraqi Scuds (which we could see over the Amman sky cruising towards Israel) would kill a few hundred Israelis, and even the presence of senior US officials stationed in Israel to restrain them would not have stopped the Israelis from joining in the fray and directly marching to Iraq, the first stop being Amman. In the event of that happening, the coalition, almost a mini-UN force, with Pakistani, Egyptian and even Syrian and other Muslim troops in it for the money and other considerations, would have been impossible to hold together. <br> <br> In this contingency, Western diplomats were to rush to the desert southeast of Amman, from where helicopters would ferry them to war ships positioned in the Gulf of Aqaba, cruising there to enforce the embargo against Iraq. The embassy Indians, though, were to remain in Amman as the ministry in New Delhi could not accommodate the families in its hostels. So our plan was to get into our cars and speed north, if we could, for shelter with the Indian ambassador and his colleagues in Damascus, the capital of Syria. <br> <br> Having seen rich Indians from Kuwait reduced to sharing or fighting for food or a bottle of water with their workers in the infamous Shalan camp on the way from Kuwait to Jordan via Iraq, the only thing worth saving, I used to say, were my 10 favorite and priceless long-playing records. Only Jordan had kept its borders open with Iraq, so Amman was the only point for entry and exit from Iraq. <br> <br> Meanwhile, during the evening of January 15, there was an atmosphere of great gaiety and excitement, with adrenaline levels running high after months of anxiety. Apart from sharing an historic evening and exchanging the latest news, everyone was dying to see my collection of LPs. Among them were; Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Amir Ali Khan, Beethoven, Strauss, Chopin and Mozart. But only Lata Mangeshkar had two LPs in this set, and people were asking who she was. I had to tell them she was one of India's all-time great singers and she had sent me two autographed records (Geeta and Ghazals) after a meeting in 1974 in Paris, where I was then posted. My family and I, aware that she sang only light music, and fearful that thousands of people might be about to die, put on the funereal Requiem. But animated and absorbed in conversation, few heard it. But Roger did, and we both became very sad. <br> <br> The grand coalition attack on Iraqi forces did not begin that night. It came the next day, January 16, actually in the early hours of the 17th. Despite requests to all journalists to inform us immediately, and a pact with other ambassadors to inform each other, my son Tinoo from New York was the first to telephone me at 00210 hrs (LST) on January 17, and tell me that the attack on Iraq had commenced. Only just woken up, I queried how the hell did he know. CNN, he said. Soon journalists from the Jordan Times and others followed with calls. No wonder that world presidents and others confess that they learn about world events first from CNN. It takes too long for secret messages to be coded and decoded in the chancelleries. <br> <br> <b><i>August 2, 1990</i></b><b><i>:</i> The Gulf crisis begins<br> </b>It all began on August 2, 1990. A day earlier, I had been in the Nabatean pink city of Petra, in the south of Jordan, some 262 kilometers from Amman, once the stronghold of the gifted Nabateans, an early Arab people. The Victorian traveler and poet, Dean Burgeon, gave Petra a description that holds to this day, "Match me such a marvel save in Eastern clime, a rose red city half as old as time." <br> <br> After a morning visit to the sprawling ruins, just before going for lunch at the hotel restaurant, as per habit, I switched on the BBC news. The news of Iraqi troops entering Kuwait shocked me out of my reveries of the magnificent pink Hazane (treasury ) monument that suddenly comes into view as one rides through a narrow gorge. Truly a marvelous sight. Although Baghdad was 1,200 kilometers from Amman and Kuwait even farther, after three decades in diplomacy I instinctively felt that something was seriously amiss. The next morning I returned to Amman, although I had planned to explore Petra at leisure. <br> <br> Yes, tension had been building up between Kuwait and Iraq, but an invasion was not on the cards; after all, inter-Arab tensions are not exactly uncommon. The last round of negotiations between Iraq and Kuwait in Jeddah over disputed territory had collapsed on August 1, and Saddam Hussein was incensed, feeling squeezed. Instead of being grateful, Kuwait, with encouragement from the West, was insisting on the repayment of "loans", and it was flooding the oil market, thus lowering the price of a barrel of oil from US$18 to $12 to $14, which hurt Iraq the most. <br> <br> Saddam also felt that he had saved the Arab Gulf states, many with large Shi'ite populations, from the fury of the Shi'ite revolution in Iran, for which he had been lauded by the Arab masses and governments, and gifted billions of dollars and friendly loans. Western nations, notably the United Kingdom, France and even the US, granted him credit, dual use of technology, chemicals and machinery and even aerial intelligence on Iranian forces. <br> <br> And of course there remains the mystery and enigma of the full details of the last meeting between the US ambassador to Iraq, April Glaspie, and Saddam in Baghdad on July 25, when she told Saddam that his dispute with Kuwait was a bilateral Arab matter. Glaspie then disappeared from public view, and was barred from giving interviews or writing a book. The Western media did not pursue her as they do others, and with a few exceptions the media have subsequently functioned as a handmaiden of the Pentagon and Western spokesmen. <br> <br> In the first week of August, there were hectic international political developments, with King Hussein of Jordan playing an active and constructive role in trying to defuse Iraqi aggression with an Arab solution, with help from Saudi and Egyptian leaders. There have been various versions of these events, but it appears that the US finally prevailed on President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, so dependent on US aid, and he fell into line. <br> <br> On returning to Delhi in 1984 after six years, having headed missions in Dakar (Senegal) and Bucharest (Romania), I served as chairman-managing director of the Indian Drugs and Pharmaceuticals company, with 13,000 personnel in five units, and established the Foreign Service Training Institute in New Delhi. So my posting in July 1989 to Amman, with only a first secretary and an attache, was considered a light mission. So in Amman my bridge game improved, but I was getting <i>distrait</i> - bored - as the French would say. But this was only the lull before the storm. <br> <br> From India's point of view, the serious issue was the safety of its foreign workers - about 180,000 in Kuwait and 10,000 in Iraq. By early August they had started to trickle into Amman as refugees. The earliest batches were mostly Indian Hajis - pilgrims to Mecca - a thousand odd, who had been stranded as Air India flights to Iraq and back had been cancelled after August 2. After Mecca, many Hajis, specially Shi'ites, go on a pilgrimage to the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala in neighboring Iraq. <br> <br> But soon the numbers of refugees from Kuwait reaching the Amman embassy started growing. In the beginning, whatever the time of the day or night, the small Indian staff of half a dozen would rush to make tea or buy food to make the tired Indian arrivals feel at home. In the evening, the embassy would telephone that two or three more buses had arrived from Baghdad - 100 or 150 Indians. This meant arranging places to stay, and providing food until air transport to India could be arranged. Soon the staff were exhausted, but their dedication and that of others who were deputed to help the embassy later, barring a few black sheep, never flagged. <br> <br> There were more frequent meetings between ambassadors. I would see Crown Prince Hassan and other important persons to assess the political situation and its likely impact on the influx of refugees. In between, I made a few trips to the Jordan-Iraq border, where there was little in terms of facilities and infrastructure. But we had still not envisaged the deluge that was to hit us. <br> <br> Soon, Amman became vital as it was the only point of access to Baghdad by air, road or telephone. Apart from short telephone contacts allowed between me and the Indian ambassador in Baghdad (the Indian ambassador to Kuwait had shifted to Basra), Iraq and Kuwait were effectively cut off from the world. So, with other countries closing their borders, apart from the refugee flood, Amman became the staging point for international politicians and others visiting Iraq. Soon, too, Amman was crawling with international media. <br> <br> Because of more than half of Jordan's population being of Palestinian origin and Yasser Arafat's full reciprocal support to Saddam, and Amman's close relations with Iraq, there were regular demonstrations in Amman in support of Saddam and Iraq. Jordan TV gave the Iraqi viewpoint, which was drowned elsewhere by anti-Saddam rhetoric spread by the Western media. For us, the Western viewpoint was available from Israeli TV, across the Jordan Valley 40 kilometers away. It was necessary to keep a watch on political developments to help assess their impact on the influx of refugees. <br> <br> Jordan had only a small Indian community, mostly workers earning barely $75 to $100 per month, hoping to migrate to better-paying Gulf states. We hired some of them to help us out. Only a few families were well off, but I regret to say that we were let down. In the first week of refugee arrivals, before we had assessed the situation, we requested one family completing a big project to put a van at our disposal. This was refused. We requested another Indian who had an empty warehouse to let us use it to temporarily house the refugees. He also refused. In countries like Saudi Arabia or Iran or Turkey, where only a few thousand refugees in all went in the first few days, there was full support from the well-organized and large Indian communities. Soon, we started hiring whatever accommodation we could find in hotels and flats, and making arrangements for food. <br> <br> Nearly a million refugees, a majority from Egypt, mostly working in Iraq, and Yemenis and others transited through Jordan, a country of less than 4 million. It was the equivalent of 200 million refugees wading through India and using its infrastructure. There was pressure on accommodation, food and transport and decisions had to be taken on the spot. Apart from morning and evening policy sessions with my colleagues, I would invite them by turn for a meal to maintain espirit de corps and I tried to make their living conditions as smooth as possible. They were working 14 to 18 hours every day, many even when ill and down with fever. The main stress was on patience against all provocation from the refugees, who, while they had been silent while in Kuwait or Iraq, started shouting and abusing once they saw Indian embassy personnel. As the majority of the refugees were from Kerala in India, four officers who had come to assist us had to pretend that they did not understand the abuses showered on them in Malyali. Some of our personnel were even assaulted and embassy cars stoned by tired and jittery Indian refugees. On many occasions the Jordan police had to step in. <br> <br> The Indian government did not appreciate the gravity of the situation and gave us too little too late. In a fast-changing situation, when I requested Delhi to depute more staff, they quoted back the previous week's telegram. They even sent a junior officer to study the situation, who, on arrival, appeared more interested in visiting Petra. We had to carry out the evacuation as per normal rules designed for a few or 50 or even 100-odd stranded Indians abroad. We had to follow them, even though three to four thousand Indians per day were flying out on 10 to 15 Air India and International Movement Organization (IMO) flights. This included making them sign indemnity bonds and providing individual tickets. Despite my pleas, these superfluous formalities were not done away with. It meant queuing up for registration, air tickets and the return of forms etc, by tired and hungry refugees, even when there were up to 8,000 of them in Amman. <br> <br> Once the evacuation was over, the government of India did decide to waive the indemnity ie repayment of the cost of the ticket. In 106 charity flights organized for Indians by the IOM, the only formality was the registration of the passengers in the flight manifest with passport details, etc. Without time-consuming and unnecessary formalities, the refugees would have been saved much stress and strain and my colleagues (15 to 25 at the peak ), who had to be at the embassy, hotels, apartment blocks, airports, border points and even in no man's land, could have devoted more time to looking after the comforts of the evacuees. <br> <br> External Affairs Minister Inder Kumar Gujral, during his transit stay in Amman in early August 1990 on the way to his famous hug with Saddam Hussein in Baghdad and the "Millionaire's flight" in an Indian Air Force aircraft from Kuwait, as the media described it, appeared curiously reluctant to meet King Hussein and Crown Prince Hassan. They received him with great warmth and brought him up to date on the situation, of which he appeared to have little grasp. Later, a non-professional Indian diplomat was sent to Amman by Gujral, who wanted to be included with King Hussein and King Hassan of Morocco, then planning to take a peace mission to Saddam. The Hashemite palace was most embarrassed. Gujral made extravagant promises to Indians in Kuwait, such as flying them out from Basra and Baghdad, with planes waiting for them. In my office, Gujral told waiting Indian refugees that they would get air tickets for their home towns on arrival in Bombay. All they got were the lowest class train tickets. He was making extravagant promises as if he were fighting a parliamentary election. <br> <br> To overcome the staff shortage problem at the embassy on a permanent basis, Gujral, in consultation with the Foreign Secretary Muchkund Dubey, selected an officer. But that officer never reached Amman to assist "people like us". Gujral kept shouting at everyone in Amman until he left for Baghdad, much to the disgust of the officers and staff who had just started trickling in from India to assist us in our monumental task, which even we had not envisaged. Gujral appeared to be edgy, short-tempered and rude. But much worse was to follow. Except for Civil Aviation Minister Arif Mohammed Khan, who flew in with the first Air India plane on August 12, who was a gentleman of the old school. <br> <br> It speaks volumes for the Indian government's perspective and contingency planning under I K Gujral and the foreign secretary that it held the only conference of Indian ambassadors in the region to discuss the refugee problem and international political developments just a few days before the deadline for Iraq's withdrawal on January 15. <br> <br> Now the US, with support from the UK, is threatening a war and regime change in Iraq. If it takes place, it will be a terribly messy affair, overflowing if not involving neighboring Turkey and the Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, which is also under scrutiny and attack by the hawks in the US administration. Unlike 1990-91, when they were enthusiastic allies, these states are now reluctant to support the US' unilateral action. The gulf region has nearly 5 million Indian workers. The question is, has the Indian government learned from its mistakes, and is it prepared this time around? <br> <br> <b><i>K Gajendra Singh</i></b><i>, Indian ambassador (retired), served as ambassador to Turkey from August 1992 to April 1996. Prior to that, he served terms as ambassador to Jordan, Romania and Senegal.</i> <br> <br> (©2002 Asia Times Online Co, Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact<a href="mailto:content@atimes.com">content@atimes.com</a> for information on our sales and syndication policies.)</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:16pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p></div> Amb. (Retd.) K. Gajendra Singhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10712573815372515430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8661786410920048953.post-81205604664183384142015-10-01T00:00:00.001+05:302015-10-01T00:00:40.664+05:30Greater Middle East ; Russia and Allies to Call the Shots !<div dir="ltr"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:24pt">Greater Middle East ; Russia and Allies to Call the Shots ! </span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-size:14pt">Author's note ;The world is passing through a very critical period in human history .This piece is meant for those interested in external events and its ramifications on India ( most Indians are ignoranti , watching their navals or stupid fulminations against failed state Pakistan or talking about a Hindutva past ,far from truth or even rationality –God Save India from Hindutva forces )</span></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-size:14pt"> </span></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-size:14pt">After the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union in 1990 – 91, unfortunately a very retrograde human development , words like science ,socialism and equality have disappeared and the neo-con led neo- liberal capitalism and emergence of religions in its very primitive forms with their harmful religious practices and beliefs have been enforced throughout the world. </span></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-size:14pt"> </span></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-size:14pt">To any sane mind it should be clear that it should not and cannot last long, in humanity's progress towards equality .Science cannot and should not be banished except at great peril to human civilisation , progress and humanity itself. Like in medieval era Catholic Popes punishing Galeleo for his scientific truths against obscure and primitive religious beliefs and practices .</span></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-size:14pt"> </span></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-size:14pt"> </span></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:14pt">Since retiring as ambassador to Turkey and Azerbaijan in 1996, the author has written nearly 400 articles for major newspapers ,websites etc which have been translated into 12 major languages of the world. Having been posted to Cairo, Algiers and Amman (1989 – 92 when Saddam Hussein was fooled into invading Kuwait,) and Turkey (two postings and total stay of 10 years ) a large number of articles have been on the greater Middle East.</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:14pt"> </span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-size:14pt">It would appear that since the election of Vladimir Putin as the leader of the Russian Federation ( he has support of almost 80% of Russians ) , time has now come to oppose the West , after a series of US led devastating blunders which have cost populations in south-east Asia, greater Middle East in millions of lives and destruction of many countries. </span></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-size:14pt"> </span></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-size:14pt">Finally, there seems to be an end insight of the rampaging uncivilised state of America, which was born after the migration and colonisation of West Europeans mostly English to the new continent, genocide of original inhabitants of what is now known as USA .After WWII, US's rampaging military has led destruction all around the world. In USA the power is built around Rockefellers and other Jewish families and Jews , who control the banks ,energy and armament sectors and in London ,the Cityof the Rothshields.</span></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-size:14pt"> </span></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-size:14pt">Throughout history ,mostly it is the barbarian nations who invade civilised and sedentary communities and states. So it has been from the West to the East from the end of the 17th century when the Ottoman Turks are stopped at the gates of Vienna .It now appears that time has come for a turnaround with Russia under Putin making a stand in Syria with a ; enough is enough. It is being joined by China and Iran among others .The destruction brought about by criminal US elite, British poodles , sometimes joined by the French has been terrible in the region . Countries have been destroyed , millions have been killed and tens of millions made homeless and refugees .</span></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-size:14pt"> </span></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size:14pt">The present-day boundaries and frontiers of the greater Middle East were created after WWI following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Russia had little role in that . USA was a faraway rising power .The victorious powers were led by UK, France and other Europeans .</span></u></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-size:14pt"> </span></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12pt">(When US or Poodle UK talk of international Community, mostly it is them with France and some obscure island nations in the pacific)</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-size:14pt"> </span></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-size:14pt">Now Middle East has already a Shia Iraqi state, an almost independent state in Kurdish north Iraq, territories controlled by Kurds in north-west Syria , south of Turkey's border. Quite clearly Syria will not remain what it was before the rebellion; financed, with many rebels trained by USA and its NATO allies specially Turkey, with funds from Saudi Arabia, Qatar etc. A Sunni Arab state could emerge after negotiations in areas now controlled and abused by Sunni ISIS .Because of hair brained ,Islamist and expansionist crazy policies ,Ankara would also suffer .</span></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-size:14pt"> </span></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size:14pt">It may be noted that Moscow did not intervene when US,UK ,France and Italy destroyed a flourishing Libyan state ( now in tatters and home to Muslim extremists and Jihadis ).Russia did not have vital strategic interests there, and it was too distant to resist .It gave time to prepare for the expected US led Western aggression, which came as close as Ukraine itself , against all agreements and international treaties . But Moscow had maintained its strategic naval and military assets and presence on the Syrian Mediterranean Coast </span></u></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-size:14pt"> </span></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-size:14pt">I'm reproducing at the end one of the many scores of articles I wrote on the US led illegal invasion of Iraq in 2003. </span></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt"><a href="http://tarafits.blogspot.com/2011/12/50-articles-on-us-led-illegal-war-on.html">http://tarafits.blogspot.com/2011/12/50-articles-on-us-led-illegal-war-on.html</a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-size:14pt">After the resistance put up by Iraqi population against the American GIs, against all odds <u>, the cowardly US have dared not place boots on the ground in the Middle East except some special forces or its proxies from the Arab world.</u></span></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:18pt">Putin at the UN: ISIS and unipolarity will be buried together</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(68,68,68)">September 29, 2015 – </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class=""><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(68,68,68)">(The following was sent by Russian Embassy in Delhi to Indian Govt )</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif">PRESS RELEASE</span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-size:4.5pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><b><i><span style="font-size:4.5pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="text-align:right;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif">New Delhi,</span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif"> September 30, 2015</span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-size:4.5pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><b><i><span style="font-size:4.5pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif">The Embassy of the Russian Federation in India officially informed the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India, that in accordance with the request of H.E. Mr Bashar al-Assad, President of the Syrian Arab Republic, for providing military assistance in fighting against ISIS and other terrorist groups in Syria the Russian Federation begins air and rocket attacks on terrorist locations on all territory of the Syrian Arab Republic on </span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif">September 30, 2015</span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif">.</span></i></b><span style="font-size:5.5pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><span style="font-size:5.5pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><b><span style="font-size:7.5pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Regards,</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><b><span style="font-size:7.5pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><b><span style="font-size:7.5pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Tanya K.,<br> <br> Press Attaché<br> Embassy of the Russian Federation<br> New Delhi<br> Shantipath, Chanakyapuri</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:16pt;color:rgb(102,102,102)"> </span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(68,68,68)"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(68,68,68)">Translated for Fort Russ by J. Arnoldski </span><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(102,102,102)"></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(68,68,68)"><br> <br> </span><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(102,102,102)"></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(102,102,102)"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgazB0w42Pt0bajwmVZ1-vSjsfDTMs8ORjLvqIjQ1fd-IbJ3pOUUu7EK_-6hf0Cw0sREiLakMsuwBHRyhZFho9olQd5zkruikAzkzi27NCZRI950hktgfRwQfFZ5wBme7T8H1zHguRM34/s1600/putin-e1443459223692-635x357.jpg" target="_blank" title="Open in new window"><span style="color:rgb(255,153,0);text-decoration:none"></span></a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(68,68,68)"><br> <br> </span><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(102,102,102)"></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(68,68,68)"><br> <br> </span><span style="font-size:14pt;color:rgb(102,102,102)"></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class=""><b><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(68,68,68)">"Putin at the UN: It was steeper than Munich"</span></b></span><b><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(68,68,68)"><br> <br> </span></b><b><span style="font-size:14pt;color:rgb(102,102,102)"></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class=""><b><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(68,68,68)">Let's note a simple thing which is absolutely essential for understanding what happened in New York. The Kremlin, and this is already absolutely obvious, is going to put an end to ISIS. This will solve several Russian problems and give Russia some tangible bonuses:</span></b></span><b><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(68,68,68)"><br> <br> </span></b><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(102,102,102)"></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class=""><b><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(68,68,68)">We will eliminate a terrorist threat to our country at a distance. Every ISISer killed in Syria is an ISISer which didn't come to Russia to fight;</span></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(102,102,102)"> </span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class=""><b><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(68,68,68)">Retaining control over Syria, we will permanently suspend the project of the Qatar-EU gas pipeline, which is a dream of the USA. The Russian gas stranglehold around the neck of Europe will remain in place, and this is very important;</span></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(102,102,102)"> </span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class=""><b><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(68,68,68)">Eliminating ISIS in Syria and Iraq, we will cut off the supply of smuggled oil, which is sold at dumping prices, to world markets. This alone will pay for any military operation against ISIS within a few months, if not a few weeks. </span></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(102,102,102)"> </span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class=""><b><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(68,68,68)">Russia, keeping the gas stranglehold around the neck of the EU, will remove another noose around the neck of Europe - the American slipknot in the form of an influx of refugees allegedly fleeing ISIS. American NGO's, which are massively organizing an "exodus of Arabs to the EU" will collapse, and after the defeat of ISIS, EU residents will not be forced to accept millions of refugees, even if they show hundreds more staged photos of children's corpses;</span></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(102,102,102)"> </span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class=""><b><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(68,68,68)">Russia will fix itself among the main "providers of security" in the Middle East. This position is expensive in the most literal sense, as the main trade routes of the planet intersect the Middle East and the main sources of hydrocarbons are located there. </span></b></span><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(102,102,102)"></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(68,68,68)"><br> </span></b><span class=""><b><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(68,68,68)">In his own time, Putin blocked the military intervention of the USA in Syria, and now Putin himself is actually leading a military intervention in Syria, and the US can't do anything about it. It's enough to understand who has won and who has lost the game. The US tried to intervene and failed. Russia, by forces of an international coalition, will conduct an intervention, and after yesterday it has become clear that the US already can't stop it. Of course, they will put sticks in the wheels, but Washington already can't block the process. </span></b></span><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(102,102,102)"></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(102,102,102)"> </span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class=""><b><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(68,68,68)">If someone thought that Obama expressed himself harshly and "showed" Russia, then this impression is solely from a misunderstanding of the situation. The confrontational variant of the statements of the leader of the US should sound like this: "Russia is the enemy of democracy, it is an aggressor, a rogue state. The international community cannot allow this country to intervene in the situation in Syria under the guise of fighting terrorism. Russia is a threat to the world on par with ISIS and the Ebola virus, as I've already said. If Moscow and its allies will attempt to conduct a military operation in Syria, we and our allies will be forced to take drastic measures of political, economic, and military nature." This would be confrontational. It was specifically this which the part of the elite which sponsored and fostered ISIS, and which relied on ISIS as the main geopolitical weapon of the US in the "new American century," demanded from Obama. From the point of view of this very significant and influential part of the American elite this is probably happening: Putin is going to destroy assets (expensive and needed assets!) of respected American elites, and the American president is smiling at the camera talking about how it's important that "girls go to school," that he recognizes that the US cannot solve the world's problems, and he also allows for the possibility of constructive cooperation over Syria with Tehran and Moscow! Yes, he said that Assad must go, but everyone understands that, after the destruction of ISIS, the fate of Assad will clearly not be decided in Washington.</span></b></span><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(102,102,102)"></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(102,102,102)"> </span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class=""><b><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(68,68,68)">Imagine that you bought an expensive sports car. A certain Vladimir approached it with a bat and clear intention to break its glass, puncture its tires, and even turn it into scrap metal. Summoned to the place of this act of geopolitical vandalism, the black cop Barry, instead of shooting, starts drinking champagne with Vladimir and discusses "constructive cooperation." The indignation of the American elites can be understood, and in this context the tirade of experts and neoconservatives from Fox News, who complain about the "shocking return of Russia" to the political olympics, is quite understandable. </span></b></span><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(102,102,102)"></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(102,102,102)"> </span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class=""><b><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(68,68,68)">It's necessary to understand that the behavior of the part of the American elite which stands behind Obama, and who refused to go to direct confrontation over Syria, was not caused by a surge of humanity, but has a purely rational calculation underlying it. If the neo-conservatives - and they are among the Democrats (the Clintons) and the Republicans (the Koches and Kagans) - hope that with the aid of "controlled chaos" they can drive the rest of the world back to 1993, the more reasonable part of the elite (the moderate Democrats and moderate Republicans) understand that attempting to maintain global hegemony in the current environment will most likely end in not only a loss of hegemony, but losing everything in general. Actually, we are witnessing an attempt to return to 2010 within the framework of the G20, when breakthroughs were achieved in agreeing in terms of dividing spheres of influence and reforming the global financial system. How successful this return will be depends on the outcome of the intra-elite struggle in the United States. This can be judged only after a few months. </span></b></span><b><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(68,68,68)"><br> <br> </span></b><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(102,102,102)"></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class=""><b><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(68,68,68)">In the framework of the UN session and subsequent negotiations, an unprecedented tough stance of Beijing was recorded:</span></b></span><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(102,102,102)"></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(68,68,68)"><br> <br> </span></b><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(102,102,102)"></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class=""><b><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(68,68,68)">"Measures to combat terrorism can only be undertaken on the basis of the UN Charter and respecting state sovereignty and territorial integrity, and China supports Russia's actions in this sphere," a representative of the Foreign Ministry of China noted, as reported by TASS. </span></b></span><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(102,102,102)"></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(68,68,68)"><br> <br> </span></b><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(102,102,102)"></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class=""><b><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(68,68,68)">Support over Syria is good, but even more significant is the specific, targeted "kick" at the American neoconservatives in Xi's speech.</span></b></span><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(102,102,102)"></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(68,68,68)"><br> <br> </span></b><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(102,102,102)"></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class=""><b><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(68,68,68)">His statement that "absolute security for one country" is unattainable is a reference as straight as an arrow to the fundamental concept of the ideology of American neo-conservatives, who believe that "absolute security" is the main value and the main purpose of foreign policy, the achievement of which justifies any crimes and any violations of international law. The principle of "absolute security" is the cornerstone of the "project for a new American century," of overwhelmingly influential American NGO's under the management of Robert Kagan, the husband of Victoria Nuland. The doctrine of a "new American century" became the theoretical foundation for the interventions in Iraq and Libya, the color revolutions, and the Arab Spring. Comrade Xi in fact said that there is no "new American century." The speech of the Chinese leader deserves a separate and careful analysis, to which I hope to return in the future.</span></b></span><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(102,102,102)"></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(68,68,68)"><br> <br> </span></b><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(102,102,102)"></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class=""><b><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(68,68,68)">We are moving towards a period of radical changes in the global political and economic system. The sprout of these changes was indicated in New York.</span></b></span><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(102,102,102)"></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(68,68,68)"><br> <br> </span></b><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(102,102,102)"></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class=""><b><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(68,68,68)">Specifically, Putin harshly criticized the TTIP agreement, through which the US attempted to "gobble up" the economy of Europe, just as the EU uses "association agreements" against weaker countries. The Russian president outlined a statement for blocking the agreement which is fundamental for the US, and which for several years they have tried to push behind closed doors in spite of the resistance of European business, which really doesn't want to die.</span></b></span><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(102,102,102)"></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(68,68,68)"><br> <br> </span></b><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(102,102,102)"></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class=""><b><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(68,68,68)">Putin strongly suggested that the US calm itself down, and offered Europe a Chinese-Russian model of economic integration in a common space of trade and security. This is a very serious claim with very serious consequences. As your obedient servant already wrote, "we need Berlin."</span></b></span><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(102,102,102)"></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(68,68,68)"><br> <br> </span></b><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(102,102,102)"></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class=""><b><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(68,68,68)">Another statement with far-reaching consequences was voiced by Nursultan Nazarbayev, who outlined the need for creating a supranational reserve currency, that is, he in fact suggested sending the dollar into retirement. The president of Kazakhstan continues the Asian political tradition: radical proposals are voiced by Nazarbayev, and then they suddenly find support in Beijing and Moscow. But that's a topic for another piece.</span></b></span><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(102,102,102)"></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(68,68,68)"><br> <br> </span></b><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(102,102,102)"></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class=""><b><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(68,68,68)">The results of the UN assembly session are the following:</span></b></span><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(102,102,102)"></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(68,68,68)"><br> <br> </span></b><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(102,102,102)"></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class=""><b><i><span style="font-size:16pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(68,68,68)">The unipolar world is dead and will never recover</span></i></b></span><b><i><span style="font-size:16pt;color:rgb(102,102,102)"></span></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class=""><b><i><span style="font-size:16pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(68,68,68)"> </span></i></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class=""><b><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(68,68,68)">A team of gravediggers of the unipolar world has been formed and is getting to work</span></b></span><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(102,102,102)"></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class=""><b><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(68,68,68)">ISIS has all the chances to find peace alongside the unipolar world</span></b></span><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(102,102,102)"></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class=""><b><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(68,68,68)"> </span></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class=""><b><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(68,68,68)">The battle for the EU is entering a new phase and the Sino-Russian team has all the chances to win it</span></b></span><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(102,102,102)"></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class=""><b><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(68,68,68)"> </span></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class=""><b><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(68,68,68)">By the spur of the moment, Russia is becoming one of the leaders of the Muslim world because of its role as the coordinator of the anti-ISIL coalition.</span></b></span><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(102,102,102)"></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(68,68,68)"><br> Everyone is implicated: King Abdullah, Nazarbayev, Xi, and, of course, Vladimir Vladimirovich, and they worked wonderfully. Everything that could have practically happened happened. </span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(68,68,68)"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(68,68,68)">The ground situation in Middle east before the US led illegal invasion of Iraq in 2003</span></b><i style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"> </span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"> 27 August , 2002</span><span style="font-size:16pt"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:16pt"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="font-size:16pt">ASIA</span><span style="font-size:16pt"> TIMES online</span><span style="font-size:12pt"> Hongkong-Bangkok <<a href="http://www.atimes.com">www.atimes.com</a>> 27 August,2002 </span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><span style="font-size:12pt">Middle East</span></b><b><span style="font-size:12pt"></span></b></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><span style="color:red">COMMENTARY</span></b><span style="font-size:12pt"><br> <br> </span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">An entire region from Jordan to Iran is on the brink of catastrophe as it awaits one man's decision on how he will pursue his family' vendetta .India's former Ambassador to Jordan looks inside the Pandora's box which George Bush holds in his hands. <b>Editor</b></font></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><span style="font-size:16pt;color:black">The Bush family's phony wars</span></b><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> b</span></b><span style="font-size:12pt">y K Gajendra Singh<b><span style="color:black"> </span></b><a href="http://65.54.186.250/cgi-bin/linkrd?_lang=EN&lah=982a89fe2f8edc58fb7e82fa03818c9d&lat=1087500364&hm___action=http%3a%2f%2fwww%2eatimes%2ecom%2fatimes%2fMiddle_East%2fDH27Ak01%2ehtml" target="_blank">www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/DH27Ak01.html</a></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">For the Bush family, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is the tempting Apple in the Middle Eastern Garden of Eden. The results of succumbing to the temptation to take a bite could be as disastrous as they were for Adam and Eve. <br> <br> In 1991 George Bush Sr sought the removal of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. He failed and left the region in a mess. Now his son, President George W Bush, having inherited Dick Cheney and other chieftains from his father's presidency, is pursuing the family vendetta. Ordinary Iraqis continue to pay the price of this vendetta, with more than half a million children reported to have died from lack of medicines and malnutrition since the 1990 embargo. Iraq's US-friendly neighbors like Jordan and Turkey are suffering too. Even during the hiatus of Bill Clinton's presidency, Iraq was not spared: it was bombed whenever Clinton's popularity went down or he got deeper into the Monica Lewinsky mess. <br> <br> It is difficult to know what to believe of the leaks regarding the US's current options to oust Saddam, ranging from assassination, fomenting a coup or internal rebellion, air strikes against Baghdad and other Iraqi command centers, to a vast amphibious invasion with massive air support, involving up to 250,000 soldiers. The latest plan, involving around 60,000 troops backed by heavy air power, will begin with a swift attack on Saddam's elite Republican Guards around Baghdad, in the hope that the regular Iraqi army would then abandon Saddam. Such balderdash. The result of any such actions could be as catastrophic as Adam and Eve's expulsion from the Garden of Eden. However, there is room for hope that worse may not come to worst: a saving grace of the US constitutional system of checks and balances is that Bush may be the most powerful man in the world, but he can't ignore Congress. And, however much George Bush Sr might hate Saddam, he would not want his son's presidency to end in disgrace.</font></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Secretary of State Colin Powell, one of a few sane voices in the administration, remains opposed to a military strike just as he was in 1991, as it has no clear strategic objectives. Recent media leaks from the Pentagon and the State Department suggested that "many senior US military officers contend that Saddam Hussein poses no immediate threat and that the United States should continue its policy of containment rather than invade Iraq". Soon another leak countered that some in the Establishment favored an "inside-out" plan to "take Baghdad and one or two key command centers and weapons depots first, in hopes of cutting off the country's leadership and causing a quick collapse of the government". Such a plan was once dismissed by General Anthony Zinni, the US Middle East envoy, as a recipe for a "Bay of Goats" disaster, like the 1961 Bay of Pigs fiasco in Cuba. (Remember too the mess of Jimmy Carter's 1979 attempt to rescue US hostages in Iran.) <br> <br> As Powell knows, there are no clearly defined strategic objectives for an attack on Iraq. Instead, Bush has his hands on a Pandora's Box that would release incalculable forces and consequences if he were to open it. One of these in calculables, for example, is Jordan's Prince Hassan. The prince's unexpected appearance at a mid-July Western-rigged assembly of disunited and disgruntled Iraqi opposition leaders led to speculation that he might even emerge as a new consensus ruler of post-Saddam Iraq. <br> <br> King Abdullah of Jordan has himself repeatedly refuted reports that the US could use his country as a base for attacking Iraq, and furthermore has warned that an attack would further destabilize the region. This is also the consensus of many strategic analysts. But Hassan's cameo appearance remains intriguing. An intellectual, married to late Indian vice president M Hidayatullah's niece, Hassan was crown prince for decades. But just before his death, King Hussein - Hassan's elder brother - anointed his eldest son Abdullah, from his British wife, as the next king, and made another son, Hamza, from his American wife, the new crown prince, thus creating some emotional Anglo-Saxon vested interest in the perpetuation of the Hashemite dynasty. (The last Iraqi king, Feisel II, was Hassan's cousin and was assassinated after a military coup in 1958.) <br> <br> <b>Background and seeds of disputes</b><br> The Tigris and Euphrates basin has a turbulent history. The armies of Islam carved an empire from the Atlantic to China in the Seventh Century, and the Arabian peninsula became part of it. After Ottoman Sultan annexed the caliphate and guardianship of Mecca and Medina, the peninsula became a peaceful backwater until World War I. But when Turkey sided with Germany, Britain, to protect its Indian possession and the Suez Canal lifeline, encouraged Arabs under Hashemite ruler Sharif Hussein of Hijaj to revolt against the caliph in Istanbul (and deputed spy T E Lawrence to help out). The war's end did not bring freedom to the Arabs as promised; at the same time, by secret Sykes-Picot agreement, the British and French arbitrarily divided the sultan's Arab domains and their warring populations of Shi'ites, Sunnis, Alawite Muslims, Druse, and Christians. The French took most of greater Syria, dividing it into Syria and Christian-dominated Lebanon. The British kept Palestine, Iraq and the rest of Arabia. <br> <br> When Sharif Hussein's son Emir Feisel arrived to claim Damascus, Syria, the French chased him out. So the British installed him on the Iraqi throne. When the other son, Emir Abdullah, turned up in Amman, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, dining in a Jerusalem hotel, reportedly drew on a napkin the borders of a new Emirate of Trans-Jordan, encompassing wasteland vaguely claimed by Syrians, Saudis and Iraqis. <br> <br> Later, as Sharif Hussein (who wanted the Caliphate after Ataturk had abolished it) proved obdurate to the British viewpoint, Britain let Ibn Saud and his Wahhabis hound him out of Mecca. Britain also denied Kemal Ataturk's new Turkish republic the oil-rich Kurdish areas of Mosul and Kirkuk, now in northern Iraq. To thwart Germany posing a danger to India via the Berlin-Basra railroad, the British had earlier propped up oil-rich Kuwait, traditionally ruled by Ottoman pashas in Basra. This throttled Iraqi access to the Persian Gulf. Iraq became somewhat (though not fully!) reconciled to an independent Kuwait only in 1961. <br> <br> By 1917 Britain's Balfour Declaration had also promised a homeland for Jews in Palestine. European Jews began emigrating to Palestine, and the trickle became a flood with the rise of anti-Semitic policies in Nazi Germany and elsewhere in Europe. After World War II, the state of Israel, carved out of British Palestine, was not recognized by the Arabs. The 1948 Arab-Israeli war allowed Israel to expand its area, while Jordan annexed the West Bank and Egypt took over Gaza. In the Six-Day War of 1967, Israel captured the West bank and Gaza. Thus were laid the foundations for most of the problems of the region. <br> <br> Following the rise of Arab nationalism in the early 1950s led by Colonel Gamal Nasser of Egypt, socialists and nationalists, mostly military officers, took over the medieval kingdoms of Yemen, Syria, Iraq and Libya - much to the consternation of Western oil companies. <br> <br> From its very inception, almost all its neighbors coveted Jordan. But astute King Hussein not only survived a dozen assassination attempts, he also fended off conspiracies against his land. When he died in 1999 of cancer, the kingdom had become a keystone of equilibrium in the region and a modern flourishing state, despite lacking oil and other resources. The sop of the Iraqi throne to Prince Hassan could just be another trick. But it is true that rulers in the region have patience and long memories. Even during the 1991 Gulf War it was put about that neutrality on the part of King Hussein could lead to his kingdom being parceled - but if he sided with the US, he might get parts of Iraq, which after all was once a Hashemite patrimony. <br> <br> Palestinians make up 60 percent of Jordan's population (some Israeli leaders say that in Jordan Palestinians already have their own state). PLO militants and Palestinian army officers conspired against King Hussein (King Abdullah, his grandfather, was assassinated by a Palestinian in 1951), who expelled the Arafat-led PLO to Beirut in the early 1970s. <br> <br> Jordan's business community relies heavily on transit and direct trade with Iraq, and still gets free oil from it. Thus, Prince Hassan's maneuver could cost a lot if Iraq so decides. Before the 1991 Gulf War, Saddam Hussein had promised full support to the Palestinian cause. During the war, King Hussein maintained neutrality despite Western pressure, anger and bad-mouthing. Palestinians and their leadership had fully supported Saddam in 1990-91, and Jordan's stand. But adroit King Hussein remained a major Arab player in a Middle East peace settlement and was brought from his death bed to bless the White House ceremony for the Arafat-Rabin accord. Some cynics say that Hussein never favored a powerful Palestinian state, and that suits Israel and the US. To survive in Amman, a Hashemite ruler has to be extremely nimble. <br> <br> <b>Gulf crisis and war, 1990-91</b><br> The US stumbled into the 1991 war without any strategic thought or planning. In fact, the West had supported Iraq's long war against Khomeini's Iran, and the US had granted loans to Baghdad worth billions of dollars. Amid high tension between Kuwait and Baghdad over common oil wells, two islands, and the return of a $10 billion loan, Iraq threatened Kuwait with war. A few days before the Iraqi invasion on August 2, 1990, US Ambassador April Glaspie told Saddam Hussein that his dispute with Kuwait was a bilateral Arab affair. This was never clearly refuted by the US and Ambassador Glaspie disappeared from view. The Western media never pursued her as they do others, and allowed themselves to become a handmaiden of the Western propaganda machine. (Later, they wrote little about the slaughter of retreating and surrendering Iraqi soldiers, and their credibility has declined further since then.) Meanwhile, all attempts to find a peaceful solution to the Iraq-Kuwait row by Arab nations, led by King Hussein of Jordan and later joined by King Hassan of Morocco, were rebuffed by the US, as was Kuwait's offer of indirect negotiations. Feelers for negotiations by the Saudis were drowned in Western cacophony. Saddam's reported offer to the UN secretary general to withdraw from Kuwait, made just before the US retaliation, was brushed aside. Efforts by Mikhail Gorbachev, who had just unraveled the USSR, were treated with disdain. <br> <br> <b>Post-1991 Gulf War scene</b><br> Bush had attacked Iraq in 1991 without informing the UN secretary general, undermining the world body and further diminishing it. For the countries of the region, the war resolved nothing. Instead, the US made Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and other allies pay through the nose, weakening them by an estimated $100-$150 billion. Iraq was bombed into the Middle Ages. Its enemy Iran, now a joint member of the "Axis of Evil", was the major gainer. To guard his back, Saddam in 1990 had agreed to the old boundary with Iran in the Shatt-al Arab waterway, disagreement over which had led to the Iran-Iraq War. </font></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">US promises turned sour in the aftermath of the Gulf War. George Bush Sr, without consulting his allies, encouraged Iraqis, especially Kurds in the north and Shi'ites in the south, to revolt. Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states, most of which had large Shi'ite populations, were horrified, as a Shi'ite state in south Iraq would strengthen Iran. The prospect of independence for Iraqi Kurds worried Turkey, whose own Kurds were fighting for freedom. The hapless Iraqi Kurds, now protected by the US-UK enforced "no-fly zone", and the Shi'ites paid a terrible price. Tens of thousands were killed by Saddam's biological and other weapons. The Iraqi Kurds and Shi'ites still remember the false US promises. Both Kurdish factions in north Iraq have now expressed opposition to current US plans to attack Iraq. <br> <br> Turkish President Turgut Ozal, seduced by US hints of winning "lost" Kurdish areas of north Iraq, had become an energetic supporter of the Bush coalition in 1990-91. He almost opened another front in the war against Iraq, but was prevented by stiff opposition from his powerful military. But instead of getting oil-rich Mosul and Kirkuk, the economic sanctions against Iraq and closure of the Iraqi pipeline via Turkey cost Ankara $50 billion in lost trade. Unemployment rose as the sanctions halted the 5,000 trucks that used to roar to and from Iraq daily, aggravating the economic and social problems in Turkey's Kurdish heartland of rebellion. A deputy prime minister once ruefully told this writer, "Mr Ambassador, you cannot trust the Americans, not even their written promises." A sobering thought for those who support the US blindly. <br> <br> Iraq's emasculation made Israel feel bolder. Now Ariel Sharon wants Palestinians under Israel's heel. But the Palestinians, the most radicalized among Arabs, will not give up. Intifada was and is indigenous. (The PLO, now corrupted, just took the credit.) Arab and Muslim masses the world over watch what is happening in Palestine with great anger. This, and random US and UK bombing of Iraq, are among the reasons cited for the September 11 attacks on the US. Now, unlike 1991, the rage of the Arab masses could flush away many pro-US regimes. <br> <br> Turkey's NATO Incirlik air base, used regularly to bomb Iraq, was also used by the US in its war in Afghanistan, after allies like Saudi Arabia had refused their bases. Turkey was also the first Muslim country to offer troops to fight against the Taliban and al-Qaeda, to help its ethnic Uzbek cousins led by Rashid Dostum. It had earlier supported the Northern Alliance against Mullah Omar's Pashtun Taliban and Osama bin Laden's Arab and Pakistani jihadis. <br> <br> But watching how the Anglo-Saxons conducted their war in Afghanistan, often bombing civilians without catching the Taliban or al-Qaeda leadership, the Turks have had second thoughts. They were cajoled with money and other incentives to take over the leadership of foreign forces in Afghanistan from the British. In spite of its precarious financial situation and dependence on the International Monetary Fund, Turkey's political and military leaders now strongly oppose current US plans to attack Iraq. <br> <br> <b>Saddam's counter moves</b><br> Even now, a financially squeezed Saddam Hussein sends money to families of Palestinian suicide bombers. Iraq has normalized relations with most Arab states in the region, including Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and the United Arab Emirates. It has trade relations with Saudi Arabia, and its relations with Kuwait have thawed. Its foreign minister recently visited Algeria, Iran and Syria and met with Jordan's king. <br> <br> The Beirut summit of Arab leaders last March rejected "threats of aggression" against Iraq, called for lifting of sanctions, and urged everyone to respect Iraq's independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity. Saddam, disingenuously or not, has indicated willingness to talk about the return of UN weapons inspectors. United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan himself opposes renewed US attacks against Iraq. <br> <br> Qatar - sympathetic to Iraq - officially opposes war, but the US has an air base at al-Udeid. The US also has bases in Saudi Arabia, which opposes their use. But clients and real estates in the Gulf and elsewhere can be bulldozed by US pressure or show of force. <br> <br> Meanwhile, US and British special forces in Afghanistan have little to show from operations like Candor, Snipe, Anaconda, Mountain Lion etc. Al-Qaeda and Taliban have vanished into Pakistan and southern Afghanistan sanctuaries. The Northern Alliance entered Kabul in spite of US opposition and refuses to fully toe the US line. The Afghan regime, led by former Unocal employee Hamid Karzai but dominated by Tajiks, remains insecure. Afghanistan is returning to the days of pre-Taliban warlords. With his US bodyguards, Pashtuns now call Karzai "USA's Babrak Karmal". <br> <br> It is difficult to trust the US, with its track record in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Somalia, Bosnia and Serbia. What will Pandora's Box reveal in Iraq? How will Iran and Turkey react in a free-for-all over Kurdish north Iraq? The US was unclear in its strategic aims in 1991 and still is in 2002. At least there was a solid coalition in 1991; now there is none except for British Prime Minister Tony Blair, whose own people are opposed. <br> <br> <b>Opposition to US plans</b><br> France, Russia and China had opposed US-UK policies for expansion of no-fly zones over Iraq and other measures, and now want action though the UN. Iraq is Russia's old ally and owes it $8 billion. Russia has to worry also about a backlash among its large Muslim population. "Any attack would only be justified if a mandate was approved by the UN Security Council," President Jacques Chirac of France said after a recent meeting with Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder of Germany. "That is the position of Germany and France." In his election speeches, Schroeder has clearly expressed opposition to US plans to attack Iraq. It is the position of most other countries. <br> <br> Afraid that a new Security Council resolution would be vetoed by Russia or China, US officials claim that in view of Saddam's defiance of past UN mandates - including expulsion of UN weapons inspectors in 1998 - no further UN action is necessary. Saddam did expel UN weapons inspectors, but to claim that there is already a UN mandate for an invasion is untenable. According to the new Bush doctrine, an attack would be "pre-emptive self-defense". But this doctrine could be used to justify military adventurism from Chechnya to Palestine, or to bomb a schoolboy studying nuclear physics in Rameshwaram. <br> <br> There is not even a <i>casus belli</i>. Unlike 1990-91, there is no clear-cut aggression. The US administration has failed to establish any link between Iraq and the September 11 attacks. Blair had promised proof but has not yet delivered. In fact, the fanatics who attacked America came from Saudi Arabia and Egypt, staunch US allies. No US bombs have fallen on these American protectorates. Instead, more than 5,000 civilians have been bombed to death in stricken Afghanistan. <br> <br> There is no persuasive evidence that Iraq has rebuilt weapons facilities dismantled after the 1991 war. Even if Iraq has small stockpiles of lethal chemical and biological weapons and some Scud missiles, Saddam will use them only if attacked. Even obedient weapons inspector Richard Butler told the US Senate that there was no evidence that Iraq had passed weapons technology to non-Iraqi terrorist groups. Scott Ritter, another former UN weapons inspector in Iraq, has said that the US has not produced enough hard evidence to justify an attack. Rolf Ekeus, the Swedish arms inspector from 1991 to 1997, accused the US last month of manipulating the UN mission for its own ends. The US was more keen on tracking Saddam's whereabouts, which "could be of interest if one were to target him personally". <br> <br> Saudi Arabia was misled in 1991 by doctored evidence of Saddam's intentions. The stationing of US troops on sacred Arabian soil after the war is resented by Arabs and Muslims all over the world. They also oppose oppressive pro-US Arab regimes and their siphoning off of oil wealth. After September 11, most Muslims see the Arab-Israel conflict and US plans to attack Iraq as part of Crusade versus Jihad. In Saudi Arabia, the union of corrupt princes and fanatical Wahhabis is already under strain. The Shah of Iran had a very powerful military machine but was forced to flee the aroused masses. Reports now emanating from the US say that Saudi Arabia should be treated as a US enemy because it supports jihadis all over the world. If necessary, its oil fields could be occupied. Anyway, after Saddam's replacement with a "democratic regime", Iraqi oil will be available as a replacement. <br> <br> <b>The morning after: Post-Saddam Iraq</b><br> What of the post-Saddam scenario? Who will run Iraq? In spite of Western belief, Saddam remains popular with the masses, who blame the embargo and frequent bombings for their misery. Given Iraq's 40-year history of repression, it is highly likely that blood will flow with the settling of old scores. And who would stop the Iraqi people turning against the occupying Americans? <br> <br> What if a Shi'ite state based in Basra declared independence with covert support from Iran? North Iraqi Kurds, almost autonomous since 1991, could also declare independence, leaving a Sunni-dominated center. This could tempt Turkey to move into Mosul and Kirkuk. To keep post-Saddam Iraq united would need security forces of around 75,000, costing about $15 billion, for a year or two, and a force of more than 5,000 for many years after if the reconstruction effort is to succeed. But would the result be any different than in Afghanistan? <br> <br> Most analysts scratch their heads, only to conclude that US options make little strategic sense. They feel that the leaking of "attack plans" are only psychological warfare. Their preferred option is to continue the existing policy of containment, combined with attempts to destabilize the Iraqi regime. A US attack could dangerously destabilize the region, harm the global economy, and infuriate Arab and Muslim masses. Former British chief of staff Field Marshal Lord Bramall, warned in a letter to the Times that an invasion would pour "petrol rather than water" on the flames and provide al-Qaeda with more recruits. He quoted a predecessor who during the 1956 Suez crisis said: "Of course we can get to Cairo, but what I want to know is what the bloody hell we do when we get there?" <br> <br> The whole thing is only accentuating the image of the "Ugly American". A respected non-partisan US think tank, the Council on Foreign Relations, said in a recent report to the White House, "Around the world, from western Europe to the Far East, many see the United States as arrogant, hypocritical, self-absorbed, self-indulgent, and contemptuous of others." <br> <br> <b>Conclusion: Raging bull</b><br> With its vast military-industrial complex, the US needs constant conflict, ie, wars or near wars, to justify its staggering expenditure. The only superpower, with the most destructive power at its command in history, has pretensions to be an imperial power without the grace or obligations that go with it. After the stunning events of September 11, it is behaving like a raging bull, as if its manhood had been castrated. But the enemy al-Qaeda, with its tentacles around the world, remains free and hidden. Attacking Iraq would give the impression that the flagging "war on terror" is going somewhere. As Bush found in Afghanistan, whacking foreigners is popular with many Americans and wins votes. Iraq and hapless Iraqis would fit and foot the bill. Moreover, an attack would distract attention from financial scandals which threaten to enmesh both president and vice president. To many, it seems that the US administration represents but narrow corporate interests, and already, in this respect, the impending war seems to be going rather well. <br> <br> (©2002 Asia Times Online Co, Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact <a href="mailto:content@atimes.com"><span style="color:rgb(0,51,153)">content@atimes.com</span></a> for information on our sales and syndication policies.)</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:14pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></b></p></div> Amb. (Retd.) K. Gajendra Singhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10712573815372515430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8661786410920048953.post-5306447409394538292015-09-21T00:08:00.001+05:302015-09-21T00:08:40.777+05:30Re: Forging Capitalism in Nehru’s India<div dir="ltr"><br><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sat, Sep 19, 2015 at 10:24 PM, gajendra singh <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:kgajendrasingh@gmail.com" target="_blank">kgajendrasingh@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><span style="font-size:18pt">Forging Capitalism in Nehru's India</span></b></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">The current phase in Indian history, mercifully and hopefully it would be short, will end up doing tremendous damage to the country. Its current ruling policymakers and spokesmen are trying their best to drag India backwards to mediaeval times. The Prime Minister claims, because of Hindu god Ganesha, that India had a high level of surgical abilities of head transplant in the past.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Every effort is being made to badmouth Jawahar Lal Nehru, India's first prime minister and his daughter Indira Gandhi. Would the NDA have the ability or courage to dismember Pakistan as she did in 1971? Nehru was one of the greatest modernizers in modern Indian history and his grandson Rajeev Gandhi also followed the path of modernization.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Day in and day out, the current leadership, controlled by Nagpur Brahmins ideologically and bazaari merchants turned into vicious rentier capitalists are badmouthing the foundations laid by Nehru and his team in modernizing India to face the onslaught of Western capitalist rent seekers.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">I have some personal experience of how under Nehru the government established the Indian drugs and pharmaceuticals ltd to manufacture raw materials for formulations ie antibiotics, synthetic drugs and surgical instruments. During my tenure as CMD, IDPL was the biggest Indian company at that time (1985-86) with almost one fifth of the India's total production and sales at around $ 120 million. Now India produces many billions of dollars worth of pharmaceutical products which it exports to the rest of the world as well. </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">After independence ,since foreign pharmaceutical multinationals were not prepared to give technology to manufacture bulk drugs, IDPL was established, which forced multinationals and even private sector to bring in some technology to India. But IDPL trained thousands of cadre for the pharmaceutical industry including Dr Reddy of Reddy Laboratories ,Hyderabad ,where IDPL had its synthetics unit plant .Dr Reddy was one of IDPL.s many General managers there . The result is for everyone to see.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">In this context I'm giving below a write-up on a book which should be salutary for those who are all the time badmouthing Nehru and Indira Gandhi. The NDA regime including the previous one and the current one are politically controlled from Nagpur and are in the hands of Baniya corporates which AAP party has named publicly and need not be repeated here again. Their tribe is increasing.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Of course the world is being led by the nose by Jewish financiers and military Industry complex in USA.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">India's major problem brought out by this book is that the country is caught in the time warp of the 16th - 17th-century ie the end of the great Mogul empire end. A recent US PEW survey indicated that Indians are quite satisfied with the current rulers .It should be a matter of concern since it indicates that the Indians are still immersed in medieval times and are happy with that kind of retrograde regime and outlook . But a US newspaper has also indicate that Modi is one term PM .Every day his juggler like tricks are being exposed .His promises were just that and at wore lies .His notorious deputy Amit Shah says that the promises were just phrases (Jumlas)</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">The electoral system has only further accentuated the religious , caste and linguistic divisiveness The local mafias masquerading as Democrats basing their power begetting a majority in the assembly with 27% of votes cast ( of their caste and some ) are neglecting the rest of the population. There is urgent need of at least reforming the electoral system on the basis of election of a member with 50% plus one vote. It is unlikely to happen in my lifetime unless there is anarchy and chaos followed by a revolution. India is ruled by mafias like Vyapam mafia ,BCCI and state mafias .</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Let me reiterate once again that according to Indian or rather Brahminical ethos, philosophy and thinking there is no equality of law, there is little comprehension about the conflict of interest, among other things.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">India remains a conglomerate of castes, religions, languages, regions all held together because of most of its border faces the Sea Wherever it adjoins another country there are problems within adjoining Indian states.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">The Western world is controlled by Rockefeller and other Jewish and corporate interests in USA and Rothschild and rightist corporate interests in UK, .Most other Western countries ,in any case are under the sway of Washington and New York .</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Only after revolutions, France, Russia, Turkey, China, Iran and others have emerged as united modern states</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(37,37,37);background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">According to Department of Pharmaceuticals,<span> </span></span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry_of_Chemicals_and_Fertilizers_(India)" title="Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers (India)" target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(11,0,128);background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers</span></a></span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(37,37,37);background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">, the total turnover of India's pharmaceuticals industry between 2008 and September 2009 was<span> </span>US$21.04 billion.<span> </span></span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumbai" title="Mumbai" target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(11,0,128);background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">Mumbai</span></a></span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(37,37,37);background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">,<span> </span></span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyderabad" title="Hyderabad" target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(11,0,128);background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">Hyderabad</span></a></span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(37,37,37);background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">and<span> </span></span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmedabad" title="Ahmedabad" target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(11,0,128);background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">Ahmedabad</span></a></span></i></b><span><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(37,37,37);background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"> </span></i></b></span><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(37,37,37);background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">are the major pharmaceutical hubs of India.</span><sup><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharmaceutical_industry_in_India#cite_note-cci-2" target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(11,0,128)">[2]</span></a></sup><span> While the domestic market is worth<span> </span></span>US$12.26 billion as of 2012, and is expected to reach<span> </span>US$49 billion by 2020<sup><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharmaceutical_industry_in_India#cite_note-3" target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(11,0,128)">[3]</span></a></sup></i></b></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><span style="font-size:18pt">Forging Capitalism in Nehru's India</span></b><span style="font-size:18pt"><br> </span><span style="font-size:12pt">Nasir Tyabji<br> Oxford University Press<br> 202 pages<br> Rs 591</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"><a href="http://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/books/from-bazaar-to-factory/" target="_blank">http://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/books/from-bazaar-to-factory/</a></font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">India's capitalist class has historically arisen from the bazaar. Our businessmen have also, since medieval times, been known for their various trading and financial innovations — from the hundi (an indigenous bill of exchange-cum-mobile credit and long-distance remittance facility) and goladari (warehouse receipt financing), to fatka (futures) and teji-mandi (put and call options) contracts. The same creativity has been seen even in more recent times in various rotating savings-and-credit funds (chits, nidhis and kuries) and the stratagem of selling pan masala and shampoo in sachets.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">The flip side of the bazaar supplying the basis for capital accumulation, however, has been the businessman's general detachment from the production process itself. Unlike moneylending or buying and selling of commodities — which merely redistribute value already in existence — it is production in factories and farms, and innovation in laboratories, that really create new value and products. But given that businessmen in India's time-honoured caste system were predominantly recruited from the Vaishya or mercantile order within the varna vyavastha, production was never in their DNA, so to speak. The Shudra and Dalit castes responsible for actual production, on the other hand, did not possess the capital to progress beyond being artisan-entrepreneurs.<br> <br> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">The end-result was that a true industrial capitalist class couldn't emerge, as the mainstream Vaishya businessmen — the only ones with money and capital — found it more expedient to allocate their resources for trading, usury and speculation in the bazaar.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">The present book is interesting not for stating the obvious — the Indian business class' largely merchant/moneylending/speculative origins that made it less inclined to invest in industry, research and other long-gestation projects. That even the industrial ventures of the old Bania-Marwari conglomerates weren't independent of their larger trading, financial and speculative interests, is an established fact. The surpluses from industrial concerns were often, indeed, diverted to non-industrial activities and other group firms — so much so that adequate provision wasn't made for depreciation of equipment, leave alone technological upgradation and modernisation.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">The author, Nasir Tyabji, is equally right in emphasising the role of the managing agency system, which allowed promoters to float joint-stock companies and run them the way they chose to, with all the advantages that limited liability conferred: until 1913, Indian companies weren't required to even have a board of directors, while it was only in 1936 that a clause mandating managing agents to be appointed by shareholders' resolution was introduced.<br> <br> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Tyabji's real focus, though, is on the post-Independence Nehruvian period that, he claims, was notable for attempting social engineering in order to "nurture the development of entrepreneurs with a truly 'industrial' frame of mind". Integral to this was administrative coercion along with policy measures for "extending the time horizons of the business community" and "transformation of a class of merchant-usurers into industrialists".</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Now, there's no doubt — and this is something even scholars like Pulapre Balakrishnan have pointed out — that economic policymaking had some amount of 'integrity' during the Nehruvian era, with the state being relatively independent of corporate and other special interests unlike today.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Also, it's true that unethical business behaviour and profiteering by Indian capitalists during World War II, followed by rampant bazaar speculation and evidence of financial manipulation as revealed by the investigations into the operations of Haridas Mundhra and the Dalmia-Jain group, did not particularly endear the business class to the general public. It led to a series of actions — including removal of tax rebate eligibility on company reserves not utilised for upgradation of plant/machinery and steps culminating in the abolition of the managing agency system in 1970.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">But whether these measures — extensively documented by Tyabji based on Jawaharlal Nehru' private papers, among other things — amounted to 'social engineering' is a moot point. Controls on reserves with a view to discourage their 'non-industrial' utilisation, or abolishing managing agencies to make companies purportedly board-managed entities accountable to shares, hardly helped in creating a genuine industrial capitalist class in India. Nor did the Indian state, during Nehru's time or afterwards, really seek to 'discipline' capitalists a la South Korea or Taiwan. Indian capitalists, at the end of the day, have failed to transcend their fundamental 'Vaishya' character.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">The Ciplas, Dr Reddy's Labs, Bharat Forges or Mahindras, and even initiatives such as the Tata Nano, are exceptions to the larger reality.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">- See more at: <a href="http://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/books/from-bazaar-to-factory/#sthash.XcoO4CTo.dpuf" target="_blank">http://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/books/from-bazaar-to-factory/#sthash.XcoO4CTo.dpuf</a></font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></p></div> </blockquote></div><br></div></div> Amb. (Retd.) K. Gajendra Singhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10712573815372515430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8661786410920048953.post-70194616094496461382015-09-19T22:24:00.001+05:302015-09-19T22:24:02.776+05:30Forging Capitalism in Nehru’s India<div dir="ltr"><p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><span style="font-size:18pt">Forging Capitalism in Nehru's India</span></b></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">The current phase in Indian history, mercifully and hopefully it would be short, will end up doing tremendous damage to the country. Its current ruling policymakers and spokesmen are trying their best to drag India backwards to mediaeval times. The Prime Minister claims, because of Hindu god Ganesha, that India had a high level of surgical abilities of head transplant in the past.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Every effort is being made to badmouth Jawahar Lal Nehru, India's first prime minister and his daughter Indira Gandhi. Would the NDA have the ability or courage to dismember Pakistan as she did in 1971? Nehru was one of the greatest modernizers in modern Indian history and his grandson Rajeev Gandhi also followed the path of modernization.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Day in and day out, the current leadership, controlled by Nagpur Brahmins ideologically and bazaari merchants turned into vicious rentier capitalists are badmouthing the foundations laid by Nehru and his team in modernizing India to face the onslaught of Western capitalist rent seekers.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">I have some personal experience of how under Nehru the government established the Indian drugs and pharmaceuticals ltd to manufacture raw materials for formulations ie antibiotics, synthetic drugs and surgical instruments. During my tenure as CMD, IDPL was the biggest Indian company at that time (1985-86) with almost one fifth of the India's total production and sales at around $ 120 million. Now India produces many billions of dollars worth of pharmaceutical products which it exports to the rest of the world as well. </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">After independence ,since foreign pharmaceutical multinationals were not prepared to give technology to manufacture bulk drugs, IDPL was established, which forced multinationals and even private sector to bring in some technology to India. But IDPL trained thousands of cadre for the pharmaceutical industry including Dr Reddy of Reddy Laboratories ,Hyderabad ,where IDPL had its synthetics unit plant .Dr Reddy was one of IDPL.s many General managers there . The result is for everyone to see.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">In this context I'm giving below a write-up on a book which should be salutary for those who are all the time badmouthing Nehru and Indira Gandhi. The NDA regime including the previous one and the current one are politically controlled from Nagpur and are in the hands of Baniya corporates which AAP party has named publicly and need not be repeated here again. Their tribe is increasing.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Of course the world is being led by the nose by Jewish financiers and military Industry complex in USA.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">India's major problem brought out by this book is that the country is caught in the time warp of the 16th - 17th-century ie the end of the great Mogul empire end. A recent US PEW survey indicated that Indians are quite satisfied with the current rulers .It should be a matter of concern since it indicates that the Indians are still immersed in medieval times and are happy with that kind of retrograde regime and outlook . But a US newspaper has also indicate that Modi is one term PM .Every day his juggler like tricks are being exposed .His promises were just that and at wore lies .His notorious deputy Amit Shah says that the promises were just phrases (Jumlas)</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">The electoral system has only further accentuated the religious , caste and linguistic divisiveness The local mafias masquerading as Democrats basing their power begetting a majority in the assembly with 27% of votes cast ( of their caste and some ) are neglecting the rest of the population. There is urgent need of at least reforming the electoral system on the basis of election of a member with 50% plus one vote. It is unlikely to happen in my lifetime unless there is anarchy and chaos followed by a revolution. India is ruled by mafias like Vyapam mafia ,BCCI and state mafias .</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Let me reiterate once again that according to Indian or rather Brahminical ethos, philosophy and thinking there is no equality of law, there is little comprehension about the conflict of interest, among other things.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">India remains a conglomerate of castes, religions, languages, regions all held together because of most of its border faces the Sea Wherever it adjoins another country there are problems within adjoining Indian states.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">The Western world is controlled by Rockefeller and other Jewish and corporate interests in USA and Rothschild and rightist corporate interests in UK, .Most other Western countries ,in any case are under the sway of Washington and New York .</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Only after revolutions, France, Russia, Turkey, China, Iran and others have emerged as united modern states</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(37,37,37);background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">According to Department of Pharmaceuticals,<span class=""> </span></span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry_of_Chemicals_and_Fertilizers_(India)" title="Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers (India)"><span style="color:rgb(11,0,128);background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers</span></a></span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(37,37,37);background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">, the total turnover of India's pharmaceuticals industry between 2008 and September 2009 was<span class=""> </span>US$21.04 billion.<span class=""> </span></span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumbai" title="Mumbai"><span style="color:rgb(11,0,128);background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">Mumbai</span></a></span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(37,37,37);background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">,<span class=""> </span></span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyderabad" title="Hyderabad"><span style="color:rgb(11,0,128);background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">Hyderabad</span></a></span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(37,37,37);background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">and<span class=""> </span></span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmedabad" title="Ahmedabad"><span style="color:rgb(11,0,128);background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">Ahmedabad</span></a></span></i></b><span class=""><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(37,37,37);background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"> </span></i></b></span><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(37,37,37);background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">are the major pharmaceutical hubs of India.</span><sup id="cite_ref-cci_2-0"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharmaceutical_industry_in_India#cite_note-cci-2"><span style="color:rgb(11,0,128)">[2]</span></a></sup><span class=""> While the domestic market is worth<span class=""> </span></span>US$12.26 billion as of 2012, and is expected to reach<span class=""> </span>US$49 billion by 2020<sup id="cite_ref-3"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharmaceutical_industry_in_India#cite_note-3"><span style="color:rgb(11,0,128)">[3]</span></a></sup></i></b></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"><b><span style="font-size:18pt">Forging Capitalism in Nehru's India</span></b><span style="font-size:18pt"><br> </span><span style="font-size:12pt">Nasir Tyabji<br> Oxford University Press<br> 202 pages<br> Rs 591</span></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"><a href="http://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/books/from-bazaar-to-factory/">http://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/books/from-bazaar-to-factory/</a></font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">India's capitalist class has historically arisen from the bazaar. Our businessmen have also, since medieval times, been known for their various trading and financial innovations — from the hundi (an indigenous bill of exchange-cum-mobile credit and long-distance remittance facility) and goladari (warehouse receipt financing), to fatka (futures) and teji-mandi (put and call options) contracts. The same creativity has been seen even in more recent times in various rotating savings-and-credit funds (chits, nidhis and kuries) and the stratagem of selling pan masala and shampoo in sachets.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">The flip side of the bazaar supplying the basis for capital accumulation, however, has been the businessman's general detachment from the production process itself. Unlike moneylending or buying and selling of commodities — which merely redistribute value already in existence — it is production in factories and farms, and innovation in laboratories, that really create new value and products. But given that businessmen in India's time-honoured caste system were predominantly recruited from the Vaishya or mercantile order within the varna vyavastha, production was never in their DNA, so to speak. The Shudra and Dalit castes responsible for actual production, on the other hand, did not possess the capital to progress beyond being artisan-entrepreneurs.<br> <br> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">The end-result was that a true industrial capitalist class couldn't emerge, as the mainstream Vaishya businessmen — the only ones with money and capital — found it more expedient to allocate their resources for trading, usury and speculation in the bazaar.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">The present book is interesting not for stating the obvious — the Indian business class' largely merchant/moneylending/speculative origins that made it less inclined to invest in industry, research and other long-gestation projects. That even the industrial ventures of the old Bania-Marwari conglomerates weren't independent of their larger trading, financial and speculative interests, is an established fact. The surpluses from industrial concerns were often, indeed, diverted to non-industrial activities and other group firms — so much so that adequate provision wasn't made for depreciation of equipment, leave alone technological upgradation and modernisation.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">The author, Nasir Tyabji, is equally right in emphasising the role of the managing agency system, which allowed promoters to float joint-stock companies and run them the way they chose to, with all the advantages that limited liability conferred: until 1913, Indian companies weren't required to even have a board of directors, while it was only in 1936 that a clause mandating managing agents to be appointed by shareholders' resolution was introduced.<br> <br> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Tyabji's real focus, though, is on the post-Independence Nehruvian period that, he claims, was notable for attempting social engineering in order to "nurture the development of entrepreneurs with a truly 'industrial' frame of mind". Integral to this was administrative coercion along with policy measures for "extending the time horizons of the business community" and "transformation of a class of merchant-usurers into industrialists".</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Now, there's no doubt — and this is something even scholars like Pulapre Balakrishnan have pointed out — that economic policymaking had some amount of 'integrity' during the Nehruvian era, with the state being relatively independent of corporate and other special interests unlike today.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">Also, it's true that unethical business behaviour and profiteering by Indian capitalists during World War II, followed by rampant bazaar speculation and evidence of financial manipulation as revealed by the investigations into the operations of Haridas Mundhra and the Dalmia-Jain group, did not particularly endear the business class to the general public. It led to a series of actions — including removal of tax rebate eligibility on company reserves not utilised for upgradation of plant/machinery and steps culminating in the abolition of the managing agency system in 1970.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">But whether these measures — extensively documented by Tyabji based on Jawaharlal Nehru' private papers, among other things — amounted to 'social engineering' is a moot point. Controls on reserves with a view to discourage their 'non-industrial' utilisation, or abolishing managing agencies to make companies purportedly board-managed entities accountable to shares, hardly helped in creating a genuine industrial capitalist class in India. Nor did the Indian state, during Nehru's time or afterwards, really seek to 'discipline' capitalists a la South Korea or Taiwan. Indian capitalists, at the end of the day, have failed to transcend their fundamental 'Vaishya' character.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">The Ciplas, Dr Reddy's Labs, Bharat Forges or Mahindras, and even initiatives such as the Tata Nano, are exceptions to the larger reality.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="georgia, serif">- See more at: <a href="http://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/books/from-bazaar-to-factory/#sthash.XcoO4CTo.dpuf">http://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/books/from-bazaar-to-factory/#sthash.XcoO4CTo.dpuf</a></font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></p></div> Amb. (Retd.) K. Gajendra Singhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10712573815372515430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8661786410920048953.post-46919251222973852222015-08-24T22:24:00.001+05:302018-03-28T01:06:24.518+05:30Decline of Dollar and US Hegemony has Accelerated<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b><span style="font-size: 24pt;"><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;">Decline of Dollar and US Hegemony has Accelerated </span></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;">Stock Slump Continues With Fury: Dow Sheds More Than 1,000 Points Shortly After Opening Bell</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;"><a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/samanthasharf/2015/08/24/stock-slump-continues-with-fury-dow-set-to-open-week-down-more-than-600-points/">http://www.forbes.com/sites/samanthasharf/2015/08/24/stock-slump-continues-with-fury-dow-set-to-open-week-down-more-than-600-points/</a></span></span></div>
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<b><span style="border: 1pt none; color: rgb(136 , 136 , 136); font-size: 8pt; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;">AUG 24, 2015 @ 6:35 PM<span class=""> </span></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia, serif;"><b><span style="border: 1pt none; font-size: 12pt; padding: 0in;">Global markets ran red Monday as selling ricocheted from China, through Europe and into the start of U.S. trading.</span></b><b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;">The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed close to 750 points to open down about 4.5%. Meanwhile the S&P 500 was down about 4.4% at the open and Nasdaq Composite close to 5%. Shortly after the opening bell the slide continued with the Dow down more than 1,000 points for a time before rebounding slightly. The Dow's worst one day point loss ever was 777 0n September 29, 2008.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;">The Monday morning beating is a continuation of the downturn that began early last week but intensified as the weekend approached. <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/steveschaefer/2015/08/20/stocks-rocked-plunge-lands-sp-500-back-in-negative-territory-for-2015/" target="_self"><span style="border: 1pt none; color: rgb(0 , 56 , 145); padding: 0in;">Thursday</span><span class=""><span style="border: 1pt none; color: rgb(0 , 56 , 145); padding: 0in; text-decoration: none;"> </span></span></a>and<span class=""> </span><a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/laurengensler/2015/08/21/stock-market-sell-off/" target="_self"><span style="border: 1pt none; color: rgb(0 , 56 , 145); padding: 0in;">Friday</span><span class=""><span style="border: 1pt none; color: rgb(0 , 56 , 145); padding: 0in; text-decoration: none;"> </span></span></a>were the two worst days of 2015 for U.S. markets with the Dow diving 358 points Thursday and 531 Friday. As of the closing bell Friday the Dow was down 7.7% for the year, the S&P was down 4.3% and the Nasdaq was down 0.6%. Monday is proving to be even worse.</span></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;">United States </span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;"><a href="http://tarafits.blogspot.in/2014/11/a-short-history-of-decline-of-american.html">http://tarafits.blogspot.in/2014/11/a-short-history-of-decline-of-american.html</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;">The ultimate medium of trade exchange is Gold only , so had said the 'legendry 'Alan Greenspan, head of US Federal Reserve , a private organisation .Alan should also be blamed for the exhubrance in the US economy ie derivatisation and influx of US$ 3000 billion as stimulus without gold backing .This money without backing and with little or no interest charged sloshes around the world's stock exchanges . </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;">In 1973 Nixon had gone back on US assurance of giving an ounce of Gold for 35 US dollars on which Dollar as reserve currency was agreed upon after WWII.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;">US economy after WWII was 50% of world economy .Now it is perhaps 40% of which may be 30% is spurious financial economy . The 1930s US depression never disappeared .By end 1930s when WWII began , US industry was then turned towards military production, which it continues to do till now and needs excuses to let the industry-military complex rule .And hence one war after another around the world since end WWII .</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;">Most of so called US inventions have come out of military based research ie internet , created for military communications, civilian Boeing etc aircrafts out of military aircrafts , to name only two examples out of others.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;">Safe from Nazi attacks during WWII , US produced military hardware and Europe and others became indebted to US, with UK losing its dominant colonial power role.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;">So US must lose power and dominance like other colonial powers ie UK, French, Ottoman ,Persian etc did whose currencies had become diluted as dollar has been now vis a vis Gold .</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;">See Charts below ,</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-image: initial; background-repeat: initial; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;"><a href="http://www.financialsensearchive.com/fsu/editorials/2007/0116.html">http://www.financialsensearchive.com/fsu/editorials/2007/0116.html</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-image: initial; background-repeat: initial; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;"><a href="http://www.financialsensearchive.com/fsu/editorials/2007/0112b.html">http://www.financialsensearchive.com/fsu/editorials/2007/0112b.html</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia, serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 16pt;">China </span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt;">;</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;">As for China , 50% of its economy is public sector to which banks have given loans , almost as much proportion wise as US 3 trillion stimulus .China has unoccupied buildings and infrastructure .Can a sleek railway line from Beijing to Lhasa return a 10% profit or even 5% .Unlikely . Still China is producing goods which the world needs and its goods can be sold internally .</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;">China has trillions of dollars worth invested in US securities. So the fate of two economies are tied together as of many others with USA , ie wealthy Gulf states, Japan and you name it.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;">The world economy has been transformed into massive Casino , with US its owner setting the rules .But for how long .Perhaps the day of reckoning has come and the whole world will suffer . </span></span></div>
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Amb. (Retd.) K. Gajendra Singhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10712573815372515430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8661786410920048953.post-314789405866408252015-08-24T16:27:00.001+05:302015-08-24T16:27:08.385+05:30Re: The second shoe will fall soon ( the first was in Sept 2008)<div dir="ltr"><br><div class="gmail_extra"><div class="gmail_quote"><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:14pt"> <i>FOUNDATION FOR INDO-TURKIC STUDIES </i></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size:12pt">Tel/Fax; <b>43034706</b> Amb (Rtd) K Gajendra Singh </span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size:12pt">Emails; <a href="mailto:Gajendrak@hotmail.com" target="_blank">Gajendrak@hotmail.com</a> A-44, IFS Apartments </span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size:12pt">KGSingh@Yahoo.com Mayur Vihar –Phase 1,</span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://tarafits-archives.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">http://tarafits.blogspot.com/</a> Delhi 91, India.</span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size:12pt"> 5 September ,2012</span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:18pt">A Short History of the Decline of the American Century & Its Hegemony (2000 -12)</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:4.75pt 0in 7.1pt"><b><span style="font-size:11pt"> </span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:4.75pt 0in 7.1pt"><b><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12pt">"Keynes's collective work amounted to a powerful argument that capitalism was by its very nature unstable and prone to collapse. Far from trending toward some magical state of equilibrium, capitalism would inevitably do the opposite. It would lurch over a cliff,"</span></i></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12pt"> --- Hyman Minsky.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt">"Capitalism has conjured up such gigantic means of production and of exchange, that it is like the sorcerer who is no longer able to control the powers of the nether world whom he has called up by his spells"-</span></i></b><span style="font-size:12pt"> Karl Marx</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:4.75pt 0in 7.1pt"><b><i><span style="font-size:11pt">"When there is a general change of conditions, it is as if the entire creation had been changed and the whole world been altered." - Ibn Khaldun </span></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:4.75pt 0in 7.1pt"><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">"History is ruled by an inexorable determinism in which the free choice of major historical figures plays a minimal role",</span></i></b><span><i><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></i></span><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">Leo Tolstoy<b><i> </i></b></span><b><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12pt"> </span></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:4.75pt 0in 7.1pt"><b><i><span style="font-size:11pt">"History is but glorification of murderers, criminals and robbers." - Karl Popper</span></i></b><b><span style="font-size:11pt"> </span></b></p> <p><b><span lang="EN-GB">The author has kept a watch and written about the decline of the American Century and its hegemony since the first anniversary of 11 September, 2001 </span></b></p> <p><b><span lang="EN-GB">1.</span></b><b><span style="color:rgb(41,48,59);background:rgb(255,243,219)"> CAPITALISM <span>IN</span> <span>CRISIS</span> AND <span>FAILURE</span> OF <span>GLOBALISATION</span> </span></b><span style="color:rgb(41,48,59);background:rgb(255,243,219)">12 July 2000<b> </b></span><a href="http://tarafits-archives-usa-eurasia.blogspot.in/2009/11/capitalism-in-crisis-and-failure-of.html" target="_blank">http://tarafits-archives-usa-eurasia.blogspot.in/2009/11/capitalism-in-crisis-and-failure-of.html</a><b><span style="color:rgb(41,48,59);background:rgb(255,243,219)"></span></b></p> <p><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:14pt">2.The decline of the American Century</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:14pt"> </span><span lang="EN-GB">Sept 11, 2002 <a href="http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/DI11Ak06.html" target="_blank">http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/DI11Ak06.html</a></span></p> <p><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:14pt">3. The US Empire –Beginning of the End Game</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:14pt"> </span><span lang="EN-GB">24 Nov, 2006 <a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15729.htm" target="_blank">http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15729.htm</a></span></p> <p><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:14pt">4. The Decline and Coming Fall of US Hegemony</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:14pt"> </span><span lang="EN-GB">March 30, 2008 <a href="http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m42600&hd=&size=1&l=e" target="_blank">http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m42600&hd=&size=1&l=e</a></span></p> <p><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:14pt">5. Western Military-Capitalist Civilization in Disarray</span></b><span lang="EN-GB"> September 25, 2008 <a href="http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m47513" target="_blank">http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m47513</a>; <a href="http://www.boloji.com/analysis2/0386.htm" target="_blank">http://www.boloji.com/analysis2/0386.htm</a></span></p> <p><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:14pt">6. Corporate Culture and Greed Sink the American Republic</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:14pt"> 17 May, 2009 </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.boloji.com/analysis2/0442.htm" target="_blank">http://www.boloji.com/analysis2/0442.htm</a></span></p> <p><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:14pt">7. Confirmation of Pressure on Dollar and US</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:14pt"> <b>Decline</b> 8 October, 2009 </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.boloji.com/analysis2/0493.html" target="_blank">http://www.boloji.com/analysis2/0493.html</a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:14pt">8. <a href="http://www.mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/2405-k-gajendra-singh.html" target="_blank">The Looming Mother of all Economic and Social Crisis</a> </span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12pt">11 May, 2010</span><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:14pt"></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(2,105,179)"><a href="http://www.mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/2405-k-gajendra-singh.html" target="_blank">http://www.mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/2405-k-gajendra-singh.html</a>,</span><span lang="EN-GB"> </span><span><span style="font-size:11pt">etc</span></span><cite><span style="font-size:11pt"></span></cite></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></p> <h4><span><b><span style="font-size:14pt;color:black">9. Post Sept 2008 Crippled Economy & US Strategic Decline </span></b></span></h4> <h4><b><i><span style="font-size:12pt">Smoke and Storm Signals</span></i></b><span><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">, 4 July.2011</span></span><b><i><span style="font-size:16pt"></span></i></b></h4> <p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.boloji.com/index.cfm?md=Content&sd=Articles&ArticleID=11174" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,204)">http://www.boloji.com/index.cfm?md=Content&sd=Articles&</span></a><a href="http://www.boloji.com/index.cfm?md=Content&sd=Articles&ArticleID=11174" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,204)">ArticleID=11174</span></a></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:14pt">10. Post Bretton Woods; Emerging Outlines of New International Monetary Order </span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:18pt"><a href="http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/16527-new-international-monetary.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/16527-new-international-monetary.html</span></a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><cite><span style="font-style:normal"> </span></cite></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><em><b><span style="font-size:14pt">Amb (Retd) K Gajendra Singh</span></b></em></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><em><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></em><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://tarafits.blogspot.com/2011/08/amb-rtd-k-gajendra-singh-cv-post.html" target="_blank">http://tarafits.blogspot.com/2011/08/amb-rtd-k-gajendra-singh-cv-post.html</a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span><b><font face="georgia, serif" size="6">Are Stock Markets Setting Up For A New 'Black Monday'?</font></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:7.2pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><span style="color:black"><font face="georgia, serif" size="4"><a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/users/secular-investor" title="View user profile." target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102);text-decoration:none"></span></a></font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span style="color:black"><font face="georgia, serif" size="4"><a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-08-23/are-stock-markets-setting-new-black-monday" target="_blank">http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-08-23/are-stock-markets-setting-new-black-monday</a></font></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif" size="4"><span><span style="color:black">Submitted by</span></span><span><span style="color:black"> </span></span><span><span style="color:black"><a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/users/secular-investor" target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">Secular Investor</span></a></span></span><span><span style="color:black"> </span></span><span><span style="color:black">on 08/23/2015 09:59 -0400</span></span><span></span></font></p> <p style="margin:3pt 0in 9pt;line-height:7.2pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><span style="color:black"><font face="georgia, serif" size="4"><a href="https://secularinvestor.com/guide-gold/" target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102);text-decoration:none"></span></a></font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">The major U.S. stock market indices finally corrected after a 9-month sideways trend. The 'big' news this week for stocks was undoubtedly that the four indices all closed below their 200-day moving average, which IS an important breakdown.</font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif" size="4"> </font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">The key observation on the chart below, is the violation of the steep uptrend (highlighted with the rising green dotted line), which started with the announcement of the 'QE infinity' program in the autumn of 2012. We have marked the violation of the uptrend with a red circle. Make no mistake, this is a major event, with potentially a big impact!</font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif" size="4"><a href="https://secularinvestor.com/guide-gold/" target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102);text-decoration:none"></span></a></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">Even more so, when we consider recent market conditions and the fierce pullback, things are setting up a lot like the week before the horrific 'Black Monday' in 1987, when the Dow Jones Industrial took a punch of -22%! Check this, from<span><span style="color:black"> </span></span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Monday_%281987%29" target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">Wikipedia</span></a>:</font></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="width:inherit!important"><font face="georgia, serif" size="4"><em><span style="color:black">On October 14, the DJIA dropped 95.46 points (3.8%) (a then record) to 2,412.70, and fell another 58 points (2.4%) the next day, down over 12% from the August 25 all-time high.</span></em><i></i></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="width:inherit!important"><i><font face="georgia, serif" size="4"> </font></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="width:inherit!important"><font face="georgia, serif" size="4"><em><span style="color:black">On Thursday, October 15, 1987, Iran hit the American-owned supertanker, the Sungari, with a Silkworm missile off Kuwait's main Mina Al Ahmadi oil port. The next morning, Iran hit another ship, the U.S. flagged MV Sea Isle City, with another Silkworm missile.</span></em><i></i></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="width:inherit!important"><i><font face="georgia, serif" size="4"> </font></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="width:inherit!important"><font face="georgia, serif" size="4"><em><span style="color:black">On Friday, October 16, when all the markets in London were unexpectedly closed due to the Great Storm of 1987, the DJIA fell 108.35 points (4.6%) to close at 2,246.74 on record volume. Then-Treasury Secretary James Baker stated concerns about the falling prices.</span></em><i></i></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">A >20% correction would bring us to 1.580 points on the S&P 500, the previous break-out level! Coincidence? We don't think so...</font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif" size="4"><strong><span style="color:black">One thing is clear: the central bank driven QE program had a one-to-one correlation with the stock market. With a supposed 'recovery of the economy' it will be interesting to see how deep this correction will go, and how the monetary masters of the central banks will handle the correction. Is QE4 around the corner? Are we about to experience a Japan-style monetary stimulus leading the debt to GDP ratio to stratospheric levels? The chart suggests caution. Note that the MACD indicator fired a sell signal shortly after the 'QE infinity' program was ended. That was clearly a reliable early warning sign.</span></strong></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">The precious metals market, however, is getting very interesting. Gold filled the gap after breaking down below $1,135 in July. This is a strong performance and important for chart analysis.</font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">But didn't most financial insitutions, investment banks, market experts, and other pundits, predict that gold would fall below $1,000 /oz? What about their forecasts?</font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">Those forecasts were meaningless. Consider HSBC, who revised their gold price forecast upward this week, saying gold will be up 10% by the end of this year, worth around $1,225 an ounce.</font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">Only three weeks ago, the same HSBC revised the gold price forecast downwards. On July 27th, the bank said that gold would average $1,160 per ounce in 2015 from $1,234 previously.</font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif" size="4"><strong><i><span style="color:black">How meaningful are those forecasts?</span></i></strong></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">From our perspective, the secular bull market in gold is resuming. We believe there is a fair chance that the trend change occurred two weeks ago, when China 'de-pegged' its currency from the U.S. dollar. Think about it, the second largest global economy said 'goodbye' to the dollar reserve currency. With their massive gold accumulation in recent years, China is more than ever relying on its 'real' monetary reserve, i.e. GOLD.</font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">What happened with the Chinese currency is the opposite of what happened in September 2011. Uncoincidentally, the Swiss National Bank pegged its currency (the Swiss Franc) to the Euro exactly the same month the gold price peaked. The Swiss Franc, being a safe haven currency, was rising too rapidly ... until the monetary planners of this world decided to break that trend. Gold stopped rising in the same month. We believe China did the opposite and instigated the rise in gold prices two weeks ago.</font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif" size="4"><a href="https://secularinvestor.com/guide-gold/" target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102);text-decoration:none"></span></a></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">Based on the latest COT data from Friday 21st, it seems that gold's recent rally is only a warm-up. The key indicator in the COT is the net short position of commercial traders, and its rate of change. The good news for gold bulls is that the net short position of those commercial traders is at all-time lows, even after the rally of this month. That means, in our view, the rally has considerable upside potential. With stocks correcting, and stock market optimism index at all-time lows, we believe the potential money inflows into the gold market are significant enough to launch gold prices much higher!</font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif" size="4"><strong><span style="color:black"><a href="https://secularinvestor.com/guide-gold/" target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">>>> Check Out Our Latest Gold Report!</span></a></span></strong></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="width:inherit!important"><font face="georgia, serif" size="4"><strong><i><span style="color:black">Secular Investor</span></i></strong><span><i><span style="color:black"> </span></i></span><i>offers a fresh look at investing. We analyze long lasting cycles, coupled with a collection of strategic investments and concrete tips for different types of assets. The methods and strategies are transformed into the</i><span><i><span style="color:black"> </span></i></span><i><a href="https://secularinvestor.com/gold-silver/" target="_blank"><strong><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102);text-decoration:none">Gold & Silver Report</span></strong></a></i><span><i><span style="color:black"> </span></i></span><i>and the</i><span><i><span style="color:black"> </span></i></span><i><a href="https://secularinvestor.com/commodities" target="_blank"><strong><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102);text-decoration:none">Commodity Report</span></strong></a>.</i></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="width:inherit!important"><font face="georgia, serif" size="4"><i>Follow us on Facebook</i><span><i><span style="color:black"> </span></i></span><strong><i><span style="color:black"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/SecularInvestor" target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">@SecularInvestor</span></a></span></i></strong><span><b><i><span style="color:black"> </span></i></b></span><strong><i><span style="color:black">[NEW]</span></i></strong><i>and Twitter</i><span><i><span style="color:black"> </span></i></span><i><a href="https://twitter.com/SecularInvest" target="_blank"><strong><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102);text-decoration:none">@SecularInvest</span></strong></a></i></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia, serif" size="4"> </font></p></div> </blockquote></div><br></div></div> Amb. (Retd.) K. Gajendra Singhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10712573815372515430noreply@blogger.com