Shutdown:DOMESTIC TERRORISM: The SHUTDOWN OF THE U.S. GOVERNMENT

If there was ever a case for recall of House of Representatives and Senators it would be any man or woman who voted for the ceasing of Government administration and delivery of services to those who cannot afford alternative private sector hospitals,schools,social service facilities,leisure and recreational facilities for the very young and elderly.
The fact that they have made 'exceptions' to the shutdown cuts no ice with me.

The essence of the vote is to ensure a cessation of Federal services to fracture the American nation and have it turn upon itself  to find scapegoats in a frenzied blame game.
This is the objective of terrorists and not of democratically elected representatives of the American people.

Above The Law
Steven Seagal once starred in a film of the same name,this, and another similar, more true to aspects of  American life than one might imagine.
This particular issue is an argument between two Americas: one of privilege and one of poverty.
Between both is a very strong, but not so vibrant as in previous centuries, middle-class base. Middle America or silent America, which is rare to include itself,in majority and actively, in the debate between the two extremes.
So this America, majority America, is largely 'invisible'- except when it gets angry and motivated.
A historical example of it (young and educated Middle America) getting angry was when the Draft was introduced during the Vietnam War-meaning that the sons of Middle America,elite America and poor America would be equally subject to dying on the battlefield-a lesson never forgotten by successor Presidents and administrations. 
Playing God With The Lives of The Weak and The Helpless
Those of privilege and wealth believe they have a right to play God with the very existence of those who hold no power, no wealth and are totally dependent, for their very existence, on the whims of the former, who also believe that the lame, crippled, blind, homeless, unemployed,elderly,single parents dependent on welfare, should just 'disappear' from the State payroll check-since they regard welfare support as the epitome of evil
in this world.
The essence of their argument is this:
If you are not prepared to work for a slave wage then you don't deserve to exist.
If you can't motivate yourself to be independent of the State you don't deserve it's support.
The role of the State is only to support you when you have proved you are independent of it.
Again readers should not think that this viewpoint represents majority America.
It is a very powerful minority of politicians within the Republican Party and of very wealthy individuals and lobby groups in Washington which bankroll them to ensure votes in favor of the shutdown of government-and who hide behind these Senators and Representatives to avoid the consequences of their actions ever appearing in the public domain.   Readers should not think that these individuals, lobby groups individuals and private corporations represent the majority of average middle and fair America.  They do not.  They are a powerful minority which, laden with explosives, have hijacked Congress, put  guns to it's head and  threatened to pull the trigger-if they don't get what they want.  I do of course speak metaphorically, but this is in essence what they are doing.      Be in no doubt, this is exactly what these minority but very powerful - and well-supported financially- Senators (a few)  and House of Representative Members (39 hard-core) are doing today.                        [Of the 39, 9-11 represent areas which are so extreme in politics, they would make Adolf  Hitler look like a moderate-and are therefore very unlikely to be subject to recall.]                                                                                                                                    The very fact that nobody will actually say this (that the media is restrained in it's fair and balanced coverage
of this issue by it's private owners) on Fox, CNN, MSNBC, NBC or CBS should not just tell you something about mainstream media in America today but also what power this hidden group wield in the background, either as corporate owners or majority shareholders of major national and local media services.

Another thing which a few of you might have missed:
On the very day of the Shutdown,Obamacare, the greatest victory for health uninsured (or uninsurable) individuals in the history of the United States, became law.
By a very cruel trick, major media networks diverted preplanned U.S. Government coverage and information about this historic service (actually booked by the Government in slots on their networks from months ago) from this issue to the news about the actual shutdown of Government.
The explanation the producers of major networks concocted for not inviting Government Public Relations Officers to explain Obamacare on to their networks was their uncertainty about 'legal issues'-since the Shutdown-on the very day Obamacare became law 'confused' the legal issue (sic. of whether they could invite public servants on air during the Shutdown.)   In actual fact the real reason was that the media was scared of the consequences of offending  powerful corporate and individual owners  by inviting government officers to inform the public how to access the new insurance and care structure.  (I do of course exclude networks which, traditionally, have a disdain for everything the Obama administration produces.)

It is really a pity that the financial bill for this terrorist act cannot be extracted from these individuals and the corporations backing them.

I hope the American people do the right thing either before or at the forthcoming (and not too distant) elections by recalling all Congressmen and Women  guilty of the betrayal of democratic trust of the people, as a whole, whose interests they swore to equally uphold and defend.  They have now broken their oath of loyalty to the American people in an act of betrayal so cruel and so lacking in mercy, that the only recourse of Middle America is to now stand up as a united front, regardless of differences, to sweep the stable clean, clear the suffocating and overwhelming stench, and start afresh.   Those elected Public Representatives and Senators should now answer to the American people as a whole.
Perhaps the new intake will end up doing the same-ultimately.  This we do not know for certain.  What we do know without a doubt is that if there is no unity by the silent majority, to judge this betrayal, then America is just steps away from a political coup by  privileged, elite, super-rich who don't care if your neck is red or black, it's hanging material if you are not one of them.
Americans are privileged to still live in  country where the people can still express their anger in the proper way, through the ballot box, and consign this form of domestic terrorism, at the highest levels, to the back pages of history.
I hope the silent majority will all work together and contain their frustrations for the proper place and time.
If they do, the will of the people will most certainly triumph as day follows night.

If you find yourself locked out of your Federal building, welfare establishment, public park, library,public zoo or other State provision main or ancillary service this morning, with  little else to do, can access the internet, and if you might want to view the legislation for the recall of Congress Members, go to

http://www.senate.gov/CRSReports/crs-publish.cfm?pid='0E%2C*PL[%3A%230  %0A

The message of the Administration appears garbled in this whole debate.

The media appears to portray the shutdown as an equal argument between two sides rather than what it really is-a hijack of the Federal government - with clearly defined and stated political objectives by the hijackers.


You can find information about the effects of this hijack - and who will be affected - at:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/09/30/heres-how-government-shutdown-hurts-american-people?utm_source=email&utm_medium

Are you considered a 'non-essential' Federal Officer or a recipient of Federal Services affected
by this Shutdown?  (I know that all Federal Officers are essential, but the 39 Republicans responsible for this Shutdown will only allow,what they call and consider to be 'essential' Officers to work during this Shutdown.  This is their definition, not mine.)
If you are a 'non-essential' or 'essential' Federal Officer,w hy not let the White House know how the Shutdown has affected your life?
You can do so at:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/shutdown-story?utm_source=email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=email243-text1&utm_campaign=shutdown#content_top


God Bless America!


Patrick Emek
October 2013

9/11 Revisited

                                         9/11 Revisited

                          (A Terrible Beauty Is Born)

Many people remember exactly what they were doing at certain monumental times.   I can recall the day I heard that The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated, where exactly I was when I heard that Robert Kennedy has died from mortal wounds.   I even remember the tabloid 'In Memoriam' supplements which the media had produced following the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy and which my Mom had hung on the wall in the kitchen, near to the picture of Pope John  XXIII.        So too with 9/11.                                                                     It was something after 2 in the afternoon.  I  was doing my mundane household chores of laying a carpet in the rooms my Mom and Aunt occupied.   My mobile phone rang.   It was R, a Scientific Adviser to a Government Department who kept me regularly up to date on many issues.    R has now sadly passed away but I must thank him for alerting me to a multiple of possible terrorist scenarios well in advance of 9/11.     I cannot recall that we ever discussed this particular one - but we did discuss other possibilities and the need for continuing vigilance.     At one point, in the 1990s, R invited me to visit a security-vulnerable installation so that I could grasp the enormity of the problems first hand.    R told me that there was a terrorist attack in progress on the Twin Towers in New York.    As we were good friends and always joking at first I thought he was just kidding - and I laughed it off with a rhetorical joke.   After a few seconds it was clear that this was no joke and something monumental was in progress.    Like many people I was transfixed by the events unfolding.    It seemed almost like a dream.     Something surreal which surely could not really be happening.      I would wake up any minute and realize it was all a dream.    I simply found it difficult to believe the events unfolding before my very eyes.  I was stunned.    Feeling quite helpless with a world of sympathy for those who would rather take a leap of fate than be consumed to cinders in the ensuing inferno and thinking how merciful God had been to those who were erased in an instant.    That evening I had prearranged a get together with friends I had not seen for several years,staying over for the week.    It was meant to be a happy occasion but beneath all the smiles and laughter we could all sense each others nervousness and premonitions of fear and uncertainty for the future.    There was a lot of speculation but no answers.     I had previously been on the Advisory Board of The European Review with, amongst others, Dr. Anthony Verrier, (Through the Looking Glass: British Foreign Policy in an Age) who was at that time also a Senior Adviser at St. Anthony's College, Oxford.     I looked at back copy issues  of The Review, at the many interviews the journal had published with, for example, the (then) Director of The CIA, George Tenet,'Security Threats To the U.S.';an interview with the then Director of the FBI, Louis J. Freeh; a rather reassuring article by Richard N. Haass entitled 'The Biggest Islamic Threat isn't Terrorism' and others, just to try to make some sense of what was happening and possibly gauge exactly what direction we should be focused on to understand the fateful distorted events.    I felt I had to keep our despondent spirits high, whatever the cost to good taste.   Fortunately they were Welsh and of Irish stock so they understood what I was saying, no offense meant nor taken with my jocular interjections.    I did get a despairing utterance (in laughter) of  'shut the f*** up will you Pat!' from one who had already found all the answers at the bottom of Paddy's Single Malt.    But apart from that, there was a glum silence all around.     I think that, with hindsight, my sense of humor at such an awkward moment just might well have taken us all through that sinister evening.   What I do remember was that outside in the warmth of that September evening, there was an unusual silence.    Many people who would have their back kitchen lights on, were switched off.      It was eerily dark.     There was a deathly silence coming from the garden and all the neighboring gardens.     It screamed a pregnant pause, before something, something unknown, but momentous and ominous, had crossed over from the dark side and cometh this way.    Little did any of us appreciate, at that moment in time, that things had changed, changed utterly, and a terrible, terrible beauty was about to be born.

 

 

Patrick Emek

 

September 2013

          Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff Tells It As It Is?                                  

          ( United Nations General Assembly  2013 )

                             

In a speech delivered a few hours ago President Rousseff blasts the U.S. for it's 'spying' activities.

This is very rich coming from the President of a a country where  99.9% of it's 75%+  (Black) Brazilian-African population are economically disenfranchised and hold absolutely no economic power in big business,trade,commerce and industry.   Not to mention the fact that more African- Brazilians die at the hands of Police 'death squads' each year than all the deaths in police custody (White and Black) in the United States.

                   A Few Little Known Facts About Brazil

Did you know.......................most Black Brazilians cannot get to University because of racial discrimination in the School system and by the Universities themselves...............

Did you know.......there have even been Black Brazilian student protests against apartheid inside Universities and against University boards decisions to exclude Black Brazilians............on racial grounds.......The University Admission Boards citing other reasons for exclusions of course................Brazil is not an advancing civilization where,as with J.F.K., the Attorney General, Robert Kennedy and even more so by their successor,President Lyndon B. Johnson (born at Stonewall,Texas) ,the U.S. National Guard is sent into States to enforce desegregation.  In Brazil the Police and army are sent in to enforce segregation and support the segregators - using prejudicial violence while breaking up these peaceful student protests with the pro-apartheid media services (press,television,radio) quite willingly suppressing these stories (or as Bob Dylan might have said-if Brazil had a Bob Dylan and a counterculture -which it doesn't - the media services 'going along for the ride.')                   These civil rights stories are only covered by (usually minority) sections of the foreign media. 

 ........Did you know...............The Government does not encourage it's Black Brazilian population to learn the English Language.................. I  wonder why? ......what will they learn through the medium of  English civilization and democracy,civil rights struggles and civil society not available in the Portuguese nor Hispanic worlds?.................................................

 Did you know...........more (native) Brazilian journalists have been murdered in Brazil by (contract) death squads in recent years....for telling the truth and investigative reporting..... than any other country in South America......the highest in the world at one point within the last 6 years....and  95% of all these political murders are unsolved...............

...............Did you know.......if you are Black in Brazil it's impossible to get a bank loan to start up a business or buy realty?.............................Banks simply don't lend to African-Brazilians to set up enterprises..........................

Did you know...that.....at the same time......The Brazilian Government actually encourages wealthy African-Americans to invest in Brazil saying (privately) that their own African-Brazilians are simply not motivated to start up businesses................................strange..........as most came originally from Nigeria,Senegal,the Gambia and Ghana........ cultures renowned in West Africa for enterprising self-motivated individuals...........................

.............You didn't know that at least 75 % of Brazil's population is African-Brazilian?  The government stopped keeping (honest) statistics on ethncicity some 10-20 years ago for fear of revolution if the glaring disparity was evidenced in Government statistics.                                     Lets face it....  if you don't have the stats you don't require any action...........................

You didn't know these facts?;..................perhaps YOU outta get better informed with  alternative media sources?......................

Perhaps President Rousseff might wish to address her forthcoming tsunamis of social, political and economic revolutions at home (against apartheid and economic disenfranchisement) before putting President Barack Hussein Obama, 44th President of the United States, in his place and be grateful for the fact that She has a place at the table in a real democratic forum;one which 75% of her fellow-citizens are denied back home?

( ...............Watch out for protests at the Brazilian Olympics as the dispossessed poor and underclasses show the world they are not just available for singing and dancing displays at Carnival time....................................)

 

Patrick Emek

 

September 25th  2013

Afghanistan-A Bleak Future As The Past Repeats Itself

Jack Devine Former CIA Deputy Director of Operations and Chief of the CIA Afghan Task Force (1986-87) and  Whitney Kassel  former Foreign Affairs Specialist for Counter-terrorism Policy in the Office of the Secretary of Defense and who has also worked in Pakistan and Afghanistan, have just published probably the best analysis you will get anywhere about where Afghanistan is heading.
The article is entitled 'Afghanistan:Withdrawal Issues'.
So as not to ruin their hard work and complex analysis, which, in my opinion, is spot on, I will just add several observations they have allured to in this article.
(What I say below about the direction of U.S.-Saudi-Pakistan foreign policy are entirely subjective and in no way do I ascribe them to the article 'Afghanistan,Withdrawal Issues'.  I draw on this article to speculate the motives of allowing Salafists,Wahhabists, Jihadi extremists and other fanatics, all affiliated to Saudi Arabia, to run riot in the Arab Muslim world destroying progressive secular Muslim societies in the supposed name of Islam.)

President Hamid Karzai is already a spent force.  He has (already) been 'discounted' as the civil war between the non-Pashtun security apparatus and the (Sunni) Pashtun-Taliban (Salafist)-Al Qaeda (Salafist/Wahhabist Jihadi fanatics)  alliance  will intensify as U.S. withdrawal draws closer.   The victor will of course be the Pakistani-backed Taliban-hence Pakistan.  So the emphasis must be in forging yet another alliance with a dubious ally.   Perhaps I should now refer to the Saudi-U.S.-Pakistan axis as that which I consider similar to the failed  Munich Agreement between Chamberlain and Hitler and Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact.
This axis cannot succeed for several reasons:
An assumption has already been made that Saudi Arabia can 'export' it's religious ideology to control the Muslim world, on our behalf.  To put it plainly, the Middle-East Muslim world becomes a rigid totalitarian Caliphate 'block' where the ignorant,tribal,uneducated and superstitious are ruled in fear of the Imams-and they all 'report' to Jeddah.    The argument is that the Muslim world is so diverse, so undemocratic (indeed nobody is really interested in Western democracy only their own tribal and ethnic group democracy) so steeped in religion and tribalism that someone has to take control and bring a sense of order and discipline into a chaotic environment.   At a time where the Muslim world yearns for leadership and direction Saudi Arabia is the only model which can provide both religious and social cohesion to so diverse a region.
I totally disagree with this analysis.  It's totally insane and the product of too much comparative analysis
and insight based on mirror-like comparisons with the psychology and technologies of societal control in Greek-based democratic societies (i.e. Western societies.)  Historians can no doubt demonstrate how totalitarianism can 'work' for hundreds if not thousands of years-offsetting 'popular' representation so that it need only evolve over centuries rather than decades.

Such developments, if they come to pass, will also 'encourage' Christian societies to likewise prepare 'for battle' with (perceived)  'fanatical' Islam-as our own citizens are as equally ill-informed as their uneducated counterparts in the Middle-East Muslim world.
I do not believe that Saudi Arabia will be able to contain the forces of religious ignorance which it will unleash in it's 'quest' to Islamize or Caliphanize the Arab Muslim world.
The essence of the Devine-Kassel argument,cutting a deal with Pakistan, is not in doubt.
What I question is the willingness of Pakistan to bring,for example (and I quote the article) the Haqqani Network to task simply by throwing money at Pakistan's military apparatus and offering a few deals on trade and investment.   Nobody doubts the Government of Pakistan has a terrible dilemma with so volatile borders at Kashmir, India and Afghanistan.  But many of their problems are of their own making - furthering terrorism in India to gain leverage in Kashmir, destabilizing  (or at least weakening) Afghanistan to rule this region by proxy.

While I disagree with the conclusions, the article itself shows that there are at least elements of commonsense providing decision makers with material for debate.
As to whether Senators and Representatives take any heed-or indeed argue the issues point by point to avoid yet another failed state - only time will reveal.  (For my part, I doubt if many but a handful of the literate and semi-literate will even bother to read the article.)


Patrick Emek
September 24th 2013

Critique of article entitled 'Afghanistan:Withdrawal Issues',by
 Jack Devine and Whitney Kassel, from the Fall Issue of  World Policy Journal: 'Secrecy + Security', published by The World Policy Institute.
http://www.worldpolicy.org/

Why The Denial of Airspace To Heads of State Is Never A Good Idea

 A recent decision by the United States to deny airspace to the President of Venezuela on his trip to China should again raise serious concerns about the direction of U.S. foreign policy.  Actions which start out as one-sided often end up spinning wildly out of control.   What happens, for example, if a Head of State's plane on a U.S. 'blacklist' flying through a neutral corridor should veer significantly off-course because of instrument failure or bad weather?  What will happen if, because of communications failure, it fails to heed requests of U.S. intercept fighter planes?; will it be shot down?; what will be the profound implications of such an act-in the eyes of world public opinion-despite any excuses or denials of involvement by the United States?; what will be the implications if a Head of State's 'blacklist' plane is forced down and he or she is 'arrested' or 'taken' into U.S. custody?; or how will the world perceive the United States if, for example, China or Russia should publicly announce decisions to provide military fighter 'cover' to certain visiting dignitaries on the U.S. airspace blacklist as their planes fly through neutral corridors?(actually, China does not currently have logistical long-haul capability nor expertise but certainly Russia does); how will the world perceive this and will other countries react with their own airspace blacklists?; how will this affect ordinary Americans traveling abroad? (the very few who bother to travel abroad these days); are they too likely, through no fault of their own, to find themselves by virtue of their passport, on a country's retaliatory blacklist?; in the reverse,what happens if a plane carrying U.S. dignitaries (diplomatic or other senior representatives or senior executives on some countries 'blacklist') should veer off course for the same reasons given above?  These measures can start off as punitive and end up as something quite different - for the whole world.   I often think that today U.S. foreign policy is being made on the hoof with no depth of thought being given to long-term implications.   Policies appear to be very short-sighted with no discernible goal-orientated objective-other than, in this example, being punitive.     The President of Venezuela, for example, is not charismatic as was his predecessor, Hugo Chavez.   He is weak politically and more than likely will be replaced in the natural course of democratic process by a party which is favorable to U.S. foreign policy interests.   An incident like this, if Nicolás Maduro milks it, will only likely prolong his stay in Office as Venezuelans will see such action as an affront to their national sovereignty and anyone supporting the opposition branded as 'enemies' of the Venezuelan people.  Again there appears to be a thinking within the State Department that they have no 'rights' to 'national emotional feelings' of their own.   What I am saying is that policy makers are failing to perceive the world in anything other than short-termism - and through their own perceptions with no thought for anything other than very narrow very short-term and very selfish interests.   As with the recent cancellation of The President of Brazil's State visit to the United States (canceled by Brazil, for entirely different reasons), such denial of airspace to Venezuela will only deepen and intensify relations between opposition forces in Latin America and intensify their campaigns against American interests in the region.   This at a time when most socialist models are proving to be monumental failures in Latin America - with only time itself required before their total democratic collapse - no push required in any way from Washington - they will collapse of their own volition.   Brazil is the best example of this.   It is wrongly hailed as a resounding economic success by such business networks as CNN,CNBC.   None will dare to tell you that Brazil has been hovering on the brink of revolution and social chaos for a very long time (as was South Africa under apartheid) - as 99.9% of it's Black Brazilians (who form over 75%, perhaps much more of the population, as African-Brazilian race origin statistics ceased to be honestly documented for over two decades for fear of revolution) are economically disenfranchised and outrageously impoverished, reminiscent of South Africa under apartheid-but in a more subtle and glaringly dishonest manner.   Brazil is rife for revolution - it has been for a very long time.   When it happens, it will be on a monumental scale (ironically predicted for South Africa-but which never happened thanks to the then wisdom of British-U.S. foreign policy and lawmakers.)     Anybody who tells you Brazil or Venezuela or Ecuador are stable democracies is either being highly selective with information or are themselves ill-informed.      What actions like denying airspace will do will be to enable anti-democratic forces within these countries to capitalize on this unexpected 'political lifeline' thrown to them, inadvertently, by Washington.  

People often ask 'is there intelligent life in Outer Space?'; I now ask, 'is there intelligent life anywhere in the U.S. State Department? '       Perhaps we can ask the NSA to direct their much-talented listening operations towards Washington, for signs of intelligent life?

 

Patrick Emek

September 20th 2013

 

 

Cyprus - EU: Gold Deposits Held For The Russian Federation

(How to Get Your Gold Out Of Cyprus Before The S**t  Hits The Fan If You Are The Russian Government)                                                                                                                                                                                                  or

How Not To Be Ripped Off By The EU If You Are The Russian Government                                                                                                                                                    

............................................................................................................................................

1.Send in 2 Antonovs,after sunset,with testing equipment, and
special forces armed for security.
2.Collect gold as prearranged.
3.Review checklist and sign off.
4.Fly out before sunrise.
.....................................Mission Accomplished...............................................


..................(Fact Is Often Much Stranger than Fiction)..................................

It Could Only Happen In The United Kingdom

Someone I new from his/her childhood told me this story decades ago.

 

Now seems as good a time as ever to tell it.

When he/she grew up, he/she ended up working in the Diplomatic Protection

Branch of the Police.

Now this person was of Greek-Cypriot origin.

The President of Turkey was on a State visit to The UK.

5 of the Officers assigned to protect him were of Greek/Cypriot origin;

that is to say, their parents or grandparents came to the UK as immigrants

from Greece or Cyprus.

Now they had a dilemma:

Some felt very strongly about the situation in Cyprus and they debated how to reconcile

their duty with their emotional,cultural and historical links.

In the end they took a vote on it.  3 voted to go ahead with their duties and 2 voted against.

They made their views known to the Commanding Officer and the 2 who felt too emotional

to reconcile were excused from the personal protection duties for this particular State visit.  

None ever suffered professionally because of this matter.

The Presidential State visit was regarded as a  resounding success by both Britain and Turkey.

I dread to contemplate what fate would have awaited them if they had been serving officers
in another country in the world.
I can think of many where doing the patriotic duty of taking a matter of conscience to a
senior officer or representative, as allowed in law, would have most certainly resulted in witch-hunts,dismissals and abandonment by the very system which should have offered support, confidence and protection and immunity from victimization.

I can't think of another country in the world where the outcome from such an incident would have been favorable to all parties.

Patrick Emek

September 15th 2013

Syria: One Week To Disarm-The Cost of Warfare

At first glance giving Syria one week to disarm is totally ludicrous.
No doubt there is urgency in Syria's accession to the U.N. Chemical Weapons Ban
Treaty - but a week is just not viable.
There are a number of factors at work here.
One of them is the sheer cost of keeping U.S. forces in the Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf in a state
of readiness for a prolonged period of time.
It should be appreciated that there is a considerable cost to 'hi-gearing' resources and assets for imminent
action.   Military preparedness degrades over a prolonged period of inactivity as all other schedules (combat training, shore leave, etc etc) have been cancelled prior to imminent war and the military-industrial complex supporting a particular brief (from the 'shop floor' to 'systems delivery') have been re-positioned and readied to supply the mission tasks.
In view of this fact alone, significant progress must be verifiable or at least be evident to facilitate a stand down to a lower level of alertness.   It's effectively the equivalent of 'mission creep' if too long a period of
'inactivity' operates.
With significant progress and combat alert in decline, hopefully the diplomats can be given the space to do their jobs and bring about a favorable outcome for the world.

I often hear comments of eminent specialists who talk about the logic of what the Syrian rebels (Al Qaeda) will do in the interests of 'realpolitik'.   Sadly few (appear to have) any experience of dealing with religious fanatics and are simply looking at matters through the looking glass of their practical training and experience of the 'normal' world of political banter and compromise.
What they fail to appreciate is that in the 21st century, in some parts of the world,there are religious idealists
(such as Al Qaeda) who do not see the world through our prism.
You really must put yourself into a framework of medieval-or pre-medieval  thought-where Infidels are put to the sword for the glory of Allah or indeed for the glory of God, The Trinity and the prize of re-taking Jerusalem for Christendom) where unspeakable crimes against humanity are perfectly acceptable-as a matter of course-and will be forgiven (by Allah or God)-if it is to further Islam/Christianity in a 'Holy War'; where the sacking and putting to the sword (and I am talking May Lai Massacre and Pol Pot scale-big time-not just as 'one-off' actions of a disturbed captain or colonel or private but wholesale and as 'the norm') is perfectly justifiable and Allah will forgive as it is all done to further His cause (that of spreading the Koran/Bible by 'fire and the sword' to overcome the 'Infidels'.)
I often wonder if our politically correct versions of sanitized history, religious teachings, and other areas of curricula teachings in schools and colleges are producing generations of  wussies with no real appreciation of the past-thereby ensuring that yesterdays mistakes will be repeated tomorrow.
The general public and indeed  educated professionals  appears to have no real understanding of the mindset
of religious fanatics, who cannot simply be overcome with dialectical (discourse) alone but also with more rudimentary methods which will bring them 'down to earth'.
Let me give just one example.  This is a little know story dating back to the early days of the Lebanese Civil War.  It was a time when Western diplomats were being kidnapped and murdered with frightening regularity.
A faction of a terrorist group (with religious-political ideologies) decided to kidnap Russian diplomats.  The response was, through 'friendly' (pro-Soviet) assets within the terrorist organization, to identify the faction responsible for the kidnappings.   Russian special forces (already present) were deployed to work with friendly locals. The role of local (grass-roots) assets was absolutely critical and without them identification of the terrorist cell would have been extremely difficult.  They promptly kidnapped relatives of the kidnappers and started to send (surgically removed, on ice blocks) 'body parts' of the relatives to the kidnappers-with the message that if the Russian diplomats were not released, more vital parts and organs would follow shortly.)  The kidnappers promptly released their victims and the relatives of the kidnappers were also released, none the worse for wear and tear.   There were no more Russian diplomats kidnapped in Lebanon during the Civil War.

In the politically correct world we inhabit it is assumed that all logic follows the same route.
Not so.
Religious fanatics will often only talk turkey when you have something they regard of  precious value to sell to them.
The Russian 'initiative' did not of course bring about an end to the Lebanese Civil War-but it secured their own position and that of their diplomats.

So with U.S. military intervention temporarily on hold, lets hope that the work of diplomacy will at least marginalize the extremists, for the time being.


Patrick Emek
14th September  2013

Disaffection In the American Armed Forces

Should President Obama continue with his plan to deploy U.S. troops to fight alongside Al Qaeda he risks serious disaffection in branches of the services.

(At this moment a vigorous internal hunt is taking place to try to identify those whom, I would call patriots, who will, more likely, not follow orders to side with America's enemies.)

 This policy of engagement in Syria is ill-conceived,not thought through and the only beneficiaries will be Saudi Arabia and Islamic extremists.

 What Has Led To Disaffection Amongst Rank-and-File Personnel?

U.S. forces are amongst the most highly trained,professional and  reliable in the world.   U.S. Special Forces are,as I have said in BBC World TV interviews after 9/11, the best in the world.  They are noted for their unfaltering loyalty, whatever the situation of personal disapproval.   None, however, joined the armed services to serve nor fight alongside Al Qaeda, the sworn enemies of America, everything American and the Christian world as a whole.

President Obama's foreign policy has been a complete shambles from the beginning.  He switched from supporting friendly pro-West secular Muslim regimes,as dictatorial, undemocratic and oppressive as most were, to supporting religious fanatics.

All the above should not detract from the enormous foreign policy blunder he is about to engage in.

Syria is not Libya,nor Iraq nor Afghanistan.

President Obama is opening a can of worms which will engulf the entire region into decades of conflict and strife.              (Perhaps that's the objective?;again if it was, I will be the last person in the world to be told.)

Hezbollah is the most effective fighting force in that entire region of the Muslim world.  Technology notwithstanding, they can hold their own against the IDF and Special Forces-which they have shown on many occasions.   IDF personnel will tell you that the one force they do not desire to encounter, is Hezbollah.   They are a well-disciplined, seasoned, fighting force which have earned the respect-even of their enemies.

Taking on Syria is effectively taking on Hezbollah.  Once Hezbollah is fully committed in the Syrian civil war, so too is Iran.  So the fight over the future of Iran will take place in Syria, Jordan, Israel, Egypt, and Turkey with jihadi fanatics from the four corners of the Islamic world being beckoned to join in this 'Holy War'.                                     

A military coup in Turkey is also a not too remote possibility - so unpopular amongst the Turkish population as a whole - is the current (U.S. backed) Sunni (pro Salafist) leadership and their stance in the Syrian civil war.

The Turks,despite their partial and temporary truce with the PKK, will not be able to contain the spillover of this new conflict which will engulf their Kurdish borders. 

As a guest of the Turkish Ambassador in London I once had the opportunity (on a river trip) just after the PKK leader was captured, to urge moderation and suggest clemency from a possible death sentence for Mr Ocalan.   My reasoning was that he might be useful someday.  Thank goodness at that time a moderate secular (Atatürk) Turkish government was in power-and taking rational decisions.   I do not profess to have had one iota of influence but realpolitik was, at that time, in Turkey, the order of the day.   Today the religious fanatics have taken power in Turkey - by stealth.  Secular rationalism is today, in Turkey, secondary, to religious priorities.

Throw God and Allah into that arena of the Syrian conflict and you have an unholy mess.

Syria will not stand by and take 90 days of 'punishment' from the United States Congress.   There will be a response.

90 days from zero we may yet again see the President telling us why American (or a Turkish-Gulf coalition,NATO-backed) forces must now be committed to deal with Syria's 'response' to it's 'punishment'.  Neither do a significant number of U.S. serving troops want to see this scenario-because such will involve propping up Al Qaeda, the sworn enemy of everything American, to enable them to seize power from Assad,the secular President of Syria.

For Israel to take sides in this civil strife in Syria is a big mistake.  It will have to live with it's neighbors forever (notwithstanding ability to move the entire territory to Manhattan or Key West.) 

Only extremism can triumph in the current circumstances.

 

Patrick Emek

September 4th 2013

1st Anniversary of The Torture and Murder of Ambassador Christopher Stevens in Benghazi, Libya, by Saudi-backed Salafists:

A lot of effort has been made in the past year,through selective media leaks,by persons unknown, to portray Ambassador Stevens as 'an idealist' and someone who 'went off the reservation' ...the classic setup before justification for abandonment.
Ambassadors,even of Superpowers, are expendable.
Their blood is not as thick as oil.

We already know, from media open-sourced interviews, that unreleased documents of the Obama administration will show Ambassador Stevens could have been saved......but he was expendable.....the First Representative of the President of the most powerful country on earth.....was expendable...think about that.   The next time you and your family take up appointment in some God-forsaken outpost, remember the unsolved cold-blooded torture and murder of Ambassador Stevens ........and reflect......

Patrick Emek
September 3rd 2013
updated September 4th 2013