Those of you too young to remember the Cold War may not appreciate the subtleties of the dance involving North and South Korea, China and the United States. It’s a form of communication where superpowers express their positions through the actions of surrogates rather than diplomatic channels. If this is a return to Cold War communication, it would indicate that China used its proxy, North Korea, to send a message of discontent to the United States when they fired an artillery barrage on Yeonpyeong Island.
China’s unhappiness is understandable. After enjoying near double-digit GDP growth every year since 1994, there are signs that the Obama administration is intent on leveling the playing field. With its citizens demanding an ever higher standard of living, a cooling of China’s red-hot economy could galvanize its labor movement and lead to major and sustained political strife. It’s important to understand the dynamics that’s led to the expansion of the Chinese economy in order to appreciate what’s at stake.
The right war is what Barack Obama called Afghanistan in his 2008 campaign. He declared Iraq the wrong war, and that we should never have been there in the first place. In reality, Obama knew that America had to take care of business in Iraq before we could turn our attention elsewhere. First, it’s important to understand how America finds itself in this current situation.
Throughout the early 70s, members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) began nationalizing their respective oil industries. In 1968, Britain announced it would withdraw their military from Iran and the Middle East in 1971, and France was still smarting from its defeats in Indochina and Algeria. The American military was stretched to the limit and American public opinion had turned against the war in Vietnam, making further military action by the US unlikely. OPEC nations saw their opportunity.
While agreements had called for OPEC nations to receive as much as 55% of the price of a barrel of oil, no citizen of an OPEC country was allowed to be a director of any of these oil companies, nor were they allowed to see the books. Estimates are American oil companies paid these countries as little as 10%. By 1973, member countries owned as much as 60% of the oil industry in their respective nations, and they were effectively setting their own prices. A barrel of crude nearly quadrupled to over $11.
A five-year investigation by the Democratic Voice of Burma has revealed evidence suggesting the military regime in Myanmar (or Burma) is developing a nuclear weapon. After the defection of Major Sai Thein Win from Myanmar, hundreds of photographs and testimony were disclosed, showing high-level involvement from the Burmese military with the aid of North Korea. The below videos via Al Jazeera go in further depth to the expanding nuclear program:
Representatives from the nation’s leading flag producer claimed that as many as 143 million deaths in the past two centuries can be attributed directly to the faulty U.S. models, which have been utilized extensively since the 18th century in sectors as diverse as government, the military, and public education….
Millions of U.S. flag–related injuries and fatalities have been reported over a 230-year period in locations as far flung as Europe, Cuba, Korea, Gettysburg, PA, the Philippines, and Iraq. In addition, the company found that U.S. flag exports to Vietnam during the late 1960s and early 1970s resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths, a clear sign that there was something seriously wrong with its product.
In other news, PBH is becoming a Onion distributor.
In the Know: Situation In Nigeria Seems Pretty Complex:
If you’ve ever had a conversation with a semi-literate Westerner about foreign policy, development, or international relations who doesn’t want to admit they know nothing about the above subjects, the conversation typically will go like this:
A: What’s troubling is that development organizations had the chance to fund infrastructure projects in Haiti for several decades that would have minimized the impact of the earthquake and facilitated relief efforts.
B: It’s pretty complex.
A: ……
“It’s pretty complex” provides the blanket response for those outside critical knowledge or analysis of the subject, which is typically followed up by vacantly interjection on sectarian/ethnic/tribal/regional/gender/corruption/cultural divisions to explain their empty platitude:
A: The primary failure in the rebuilding of Iraq has been the failure to redistribute available resources and provide mass employment, thus leading to significant rent-seeking outside of traditional spheres.
B: It’s pretty complex, because Shiites and Sunnis have not liked each other for years and we got ourselves into this mess.
A: …..
Of course, it’s pretty complex is the ultimate trump card for the American “liberal” who doesn’t want to feel guilty about the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians, but also never wants to get into a serious discuss about the ramifications of a theocratic Jewish state:
A: The fundamental problem with a ‘Jewish’ state is that it is Jewish-only, meaning Palestinians who have rightful claims to property and livelihoods are being systematically cleansed from their own country.
B: Yes, I feel sort of bad, but it’s just so complex.
A: ……
If you want to see this in action, bring up any of the following topics with White People: Foreign aid, corruption in Africa, sources of resentment in the Middle East, globalization, socio-economic inequality, the Sudanese genocide, Israel/Palestine, the development of post-Soviet Eastern Europe, why poor people vote for Republicans, the brutish reality of capitalism, or the functionality of the United Nations. It’s guaranteed that within minutes of discussion, “it’s complex” will be made as a valid point.
“We are here to kick the Taliban out. Why are you not helping us?”
“What can we provide for you? You have planes, tanks and guns. What do we have? We’re simple people…. If you can’t win, how can we?”
If you don’t mind hearing dim-witted rednecks say “governance” and “violent Islamic jihadists” every 20 seconds, this Frontline video is an exceptional look into how very lost is the war in Afghanistan.
“It’s a boycott of Israeli institutions, it’s a boycott of the Israeli economy,” the Canadian writer told journalists as she joined a weekly demonstration against Israel’s controversial separation wall.
“Boycott is a tactic …we’re trying to create a dynamic which was the dynamic that ultimately ended apartheid in South Africa. It’s an extraordinarily important part of Israel’s identity to be able to have the illusion of Western normalcy,” the Canadian writer and activist said.
“When that is threatened, when the rock concerts don’t come, when the symphonies don’t come, when a film you really want to see doesn’t play at the Jerusalem film festival… then it starts to threaten the very idea of what the Israeli state is.”
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