Egypt In Crises:

Senator Leahy Acts To Block Military Aid To Egypt

(The Peace Process With Israel Died Long Before President Mubarak Was Ousted by Fanatics)

Security, Military Aid and The Peace Process

Excuses will be given by apologists for the newest terror and torture State in Africa -Egypt- as to why President Obama's funding package (totaling near to $1bn) should be approved on the grounds of U.S. Security interests in North Africa and the Middle East. With the Russian Federation eagerly eying Egypt to secure a new maritime foothold in the Mediterranean in anticipation of losing it's one base in Syria, can the U.S. really afford not to assist Egypt?
(I refer in this particular blog to Egypt as being a part of the Middle East because it defines itself in identity as an 'Arab' rather than 'African' country and because it's historical, political, religious and economic relations are governed more by it's ties with the Middle East than with the geographic continent of Africa on whose soil  the country is located.  I am unclear as to whether it identifies itself more with the torture regimes of Africa or the Middle East.) 

I would like to first address the peace process with Israel because to many in the West and indeed throughout the world it is very confusing why this process has not consolidated into anything more tangible than the Egyptian government shaking down successive Washington administrations with threats to withdraw from the peace process if more military and financial aid is not forthcoming.

The prospect of The Ukraine escalating into a more serious confrontation is likely to be a bigger factor influencing U.S. Policy toward the new torture and terror junta in Egypt than any threats with regard to peace with Israel. Israel did itself no justice by losing it's way in the corridors of the U.N. Building recently and not being able to get to vote with the U.S. on the motion of Ukraine.

On the matter of new Russian bases in the Mediterranean, Libya is so volatile, the situation in Turkey rapidly deteriorating, Tunisia and Algeria likely to see Al-Qaeda join forces with traditional local opposition militias as they bury their differences to oust both regimes, the U.S has plenty to lose by not shoring up this brutal regime in Egypt – a successor of the previous brutal regime – except this time they are, of course, murdering their opponents who previously held the country in a state of terror.

So what decent choice does the U.S. have in a jungle of predators?

I support Senator Leahy from an ethical and moral viewpoint. History will vindicate his principled stance against foreign aid to so brutal a regime as the one under army strongman and dictator Fattah al-Sisi  in Egypt.   But does President Obama have any choice when likewise held to ransom by torturers, murderers and terrorists?

Local 'terrorists' recently shut down the Federal Administration in the United States until their demands were met – and this was on sovereign U.S. home soil. (I covered that issue in previous blogs.)

How much leverage does the President have when this is happening thousands of kilometers away with the threat to the Southern Mediterranean (Southern Europe) if Russian naval forces 'retake' North Africa? (that is to say, are granted Naval facilities to operate.)

After the loss of Crimea, to further be faced with the prospect of Russian naval forces in the Mediterranean at a time when tensions are heightened would be a matter of great alarm.

The U.S. and it's allies regard the Mediterranean the same way China looks at the South China Seas – and for the same reasons.  Sadly the only leverage the President has in this context is a moral one  to save the lives of those unfortunate Egyptian individuals (mainly Muslim Brotherhood activists) recently condemned to death or to long prison sentences in likely conditions of regular torture,  inhumane and degrading  treatment. I hope that President Obama will insist a halt to show trials which make a mockery of justice and due process, and urge the military junta to halt all actions causing any more suffering to the Egyptian people, because if he cannot do this, then no amount of aid will stop Egypt descending into further violence and revenge killings. On another note I personally believe that he should also intervene to demand the immediate release of ex-President Mohamed Morsi into U.S. or U.N. protection and his (and his family's) safe passage out of Egypt to a country of his own choosing.

So even with yet another junta firmly ensconced in the Middle East, Egypt, will peace with Israel survive?

Lost Opportunities

My take is that peace with Israel died a very long time ago.   It just remained unburied.

Many years ago I was invited by a prestigious but low profile Jewish organization as guest speaker to discuss my experiences in war zones and how I had survived, alone and unarmed.  Now considering the fact that this group usually has some really important VIPs as guest speakers (including the Israeli Ambassador) I was probably just filling a gap for someone who 'got lost' -  in a building similar to U.N. H.Q., famous for it's lack of proper signage - and  where the Israeli delegation probably lost their way and missed the Ukraine vote two weeks ago(!)

The year of my talk was a time before Israeli forces withdrew from the Gaza and West Bank.

During question time I was asked if I thought the peace process would succeed now that a withdrawal was being negotiated. I said that I did not – but did not have the time allocated to go into depth as to why. I would now like to do this because it is more complicated than just withdrawing Israeli forces from 'occupied territories' and assuming the Palestinians and their supporters will just 'see the light of day' and talk turkey.

The Roots Of Modern Anti-Semitism

What I would like to do is to look at the roots of Anti-Semitism in the Middle East – with a particular emphasis on Egypt – but I could be equally talking about Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq or Iran – and indeed I am including the Christian minorities in Syria, Iraq and Egypt within this broad frame of Anti-Semitic perception as they (in the main) share these same attitudes with their fellow-Muslim citizens.

It's only when you understand this can you appreciate why peace in the Middle East between Arab and Jew is a journey which could take another 500-1000 years – if at all within this time frame - as the process itself has not even started.

The Jewish 'Conspiracy'

Before I discuss this I would like to explore where the seeds of part of this conspiracy theory came from and how they have permeated Egyptian culture (with a vengeance) for over half a century.

I would like to borrow from an excellent article by Samuel Tadros to briefly summarize the origins of modern Egyptian Anti-Semitism and how such deep rooted beliefs have made any peace process an impossibility.

The Dreyfus Affair⁶ (1894)

The first is the introduction of Anti-Semitic programming by French Catholic missionaries in the Levant during the 1920s.  Indeed I am familiar with the Anti-Semitic sentiments of many Catholic Orders which were prevalent (some might even say widespread) in European countries and in the U.S. during the 1960s,70s and 80s.   As the power of the Church over secular society was brought into check this correlated with a decline in the public (and School) indoctrination of Anti-Semitic ideology by religious Orders within local communities. As new generations were not being indoctrinated into the ideology of hate one finds today the strongest Anti-Semitic viewpoints being expressed and promulgated amongst communities which have voluntarily chosen to isolate themselves from Christian 'revisionists' and 'collaborators' and who explain to their brethren the decline in Anti-Semitism as part of a national (and international) Jewish conspiracy to undermine 'pure' Christian values in the world.  This very same viewpoint is both exchanged with and shared by Egyptian society – but it exists in mainstream and not amongst fringe elements and is subscribed to by both Muslims and Arab Christians.

Protocols of The Elders of Zion and 'Mein Kampf' (Adolf Hitler)

The second phase of modern Anti-Semitism in the Arab world took place between the late 1920s and 1945 – when French racism was replaced by Nazi ideology in the Arab World.

Egypt was a country of transit and of welcome and refuge for many Nazis fleeing the collapse of the Third Reich.  It is historically documented how former German (Nazi) scientists developed Egypt's first ballistic missile program – the intention was to deliver deadly poison gas to destroy 'the Jewish State' from sites in Egypt.  In addition and linked to the latter, on the coming to power of the then popular Gamal Abdel Nasser, Egypt's Ministry of Information engaged one of Hitler's leading Anti-Semitic propagandists to consolidate an ideology based on an amalgam of Hitler's Anti-Semitic theory and that of the 'eternal' Jew as the reasons for all of Egypt's woes. As a propagandist he was very effective in his tasks, having learnt skills developed and perfected during the era of the Third Reich.

''Egypt's modern history is the story of continued failure:failure to modernize, failure to deliver the promised salvation to the masses, failure to better their miserable conditions, and above all the failure of a country to find the place it believes it deserves under the sun. Defeats, failures and disappointments have taken their toll on the people. Only the existence of a Jewish conspiracy against, Egypt, Arabs, and Islam can offer them solace. Only by believing that the Jews are responsible for their miserable conditions can they find comfort''¹;or so they are led to believe by the political and military elite who have squandered Egypt's financial resources and, like the Pharaohs of old, emptied the coffers of the country for the betterment of themselves and their families.

This blog is not meant as an exhaustive article about Arab-Israeli conflict (of which enough books, articles and research papers have now been written to fill 20 Libraries of Congress) but to give the layperson some start point of what ideologies and events are today being manipulated by extremists and hate mongers to shape Anti-Semitic thinking amongst the young generations in Egypt and the rest of the Middle East, Pakistan, Afghanistan and, of course, it almost goes without saying, inside countries considered the main instigators and financiers of hate, Saudi Arabia and Iran.

You cannot, however, understand the Middle East today without understanding the role of propaganda in shaping hatred against Jews throughout the region.

Haj Mohammed Effendi Amin el-Husseini,Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and Other Key Elements of Racism

Other elements which can be identified as in part responsible for Anti-Semitism are the writings of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Pan-Arab Nationalist and Nazi collaborator, Haj Mohammed Effendi Amin el-Husseini (1897-1974) ² ;the Damascus Blood Libel Affair of 1840³;The Protocols of The Elders of Zion (1903)⁴;and a shovel full (or more so, a truck load) of conspiracy theories have grown up around 9/11, all of which fuel Anti-Semitism in the Arab world⁵.
9/11-The Twin Towers Tragedy and Conspiracy Theories
The issue the racists have with 9/11 is that they could not believe that so few Jews would not  be working at one of New York's top financial centers - they expected most of the dead to be named Silver, Gold, Frank and Stein instead of  folk like Smith and Jones and thousands of other individuals (Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Muslims, Atheists) from the U.S. and all over the world who were just so unlucky to have turned up for work at the wrong place at the wrong time on the wrong day of the year and on the wrong floor level.  I have no doubt that people who happened to be Jewish lost their lives as did individuals from many other faiths and races and countries in the world.  Because of this a whole conspiracy industry has grown up to explain why such was (or indeed in their opinion was not) the case.

By the time you read through the references below, you may well begin to appreciate why and how both Christian and Arab schoolchildren are being indoctrinated with lessons of hate not just in the Middle East but also in Islamic schools, worldwide, making it impossible for a climate of rational dialog to exist between Muslim and Jew, Israeli and Palestinian.  For example, when you have prominent Muslim clerics and Muslim Rulers actually endorsing in the opening page  the authenticity of 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion'  (printed incidentally in Saudi Arabia and Iran and posted worldwide or available for download from religious and Jihadi Islamist sites) then you can understand why successive generations of Christian and Arabs in the Middle East and North Africa are programmed from childhood to hate.

The theme of this article is Egypt and the debate over U.S. military aid.

I have however broadened it to explain as to why, no matter how much money is provided, officially approved and endorsed hate literature, which is part of mainstream Muslim (and indeed Christian) societies in the Middle East, make the road toward long-term peace just that more difficult to find.

I could not put this into the context of a single question asked at my talk as I had to give an answer in less than one minute.
Missed Opportunities or Just Opportunistic Feudal Rulers?

Sometimes you really have to take risks or take the initiative in order for anything to change.
This is the case with peace in the Middle East.  The problem in the Middle East - with regard to a final border settlement between Palestine and Israel - is that none of the corrupt leaders in the Arab world actually want anything to change.   If the Palestinian issue was resolved tomorrow, the day after, most would be swept from power as their masses, having no other 'indoctrinated' 'common' enemy, would immediately realize the reasons for their impoverishment are the absence of good governance, the squandering of all the financial resources in favor of elite minorities, runaway levels of corrupt practices and patronage not reflective of  the 21st century nor of the talents and potentials of local individual citizens but a manipulation of all the wealth and resources of such countries and states and kingdoms both amongst  and in favor of  ruling elite tribes and clans with all justifications for status quos extracted from interpretations of the Koran, all tailored, adjusted and re-adjusted to suit local ruling dynastic tribal requirements.  In many respects, it's no different from the European medieval feudal concepts of the Kings and Queens divine (God-given) right to rule.
Where any one group in a society believe that they have a divine right to subjugate the impoverished majority with no checks and balances on the scope of their power and influence, then do not expect the disenfranchised to stand by, meekly, forever, regardless of the technologies of State control.  Empires with the most advanced State apparatus for their own day have crumbled when the impoverished masses could no longer take the punishment.   This is what history has taught us.  But we rarely learn from history.

So this is Egypt today. When you take the Israel-Palestine conflict out of the picture, the Emperor has no clothes⁷.

article amended 1st May
addendum May 3

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/sen-leahy-blocks-us-aid-to-egypt-to-protest-nations-appalling-abuse-of-justice-system/2014/04/29/4d5fe0fc-cfe3-11e3-937f-d3026234b51c_story.html

1.The American Interest:'The Sources of Egyptian Anti-Semitism; by Samuel Tadros

http://www-the-american-interest.com/articles/2014/04/21/the-sources-of-egyptian-anti-semitism
if you cannot reach the article at this website try    http://www.the-american-interest.com/
(then search for Samuel Tadros)

2.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_Amin_al-Husayni

3.http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/damascus.html

4.http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007058

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Protocols-Elders-Zion-Anonymous/dp/8562022225

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contemporary_imprints_of_The_Protocols_of_the_Elders_of_Zion

5.http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/the-jewish-thinker/jewish-conspiracy-theories-and-anti-semitism-1.463416

6. https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=A7x9Uk9hLGFT8jUAFzp3Bwx.;_ylu=X3oDMTBydXF0bjc3BHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDNQRjb2xvA2lyZAR2dGlkAw--?qid=20090405223006AAzTnZh

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreyfus_affair

7.The Emperor's New Clothes, by Hans Christian Andersen

http://www.andersen.sdu.dk/vaerk/hersholt/TheEmperorsNewClothes_e.html

The Ukraine:
Why Russia Will Act Sooner Rather Than Later

There are many practical considerations for the Russian Federation to take into account when looking at The Ukraine:

Proximity To Russia

The first, goes without saying, is the border proximity.  The Ukraine shares a vast border with Russia and any instability along it - or even nationalist Ukrainian border forces, with the tacit support of the European Union, would pose a threat not just to Russia but to the integrity of the Federation itself.

Ethnic Cleansing, Ultra-Nationalism and the Origins of Ukrainian Anti-Russian Racism

Secondly, as I earlier mentioned, a humanitarian crisis where a people are perceived to have been deprived of their language, mediums of communications (broadcasting and the press) and, to take the Baltic provinces as an example, treated as second-class citizens, would be unacceptable to Russian nationalism.  What is little unserstood in the West is that if you were a Ukrainian (non-Russian extract) national seeking work in St Petersburg or Moscow or anywhere else inside Russia proper, you were/are effectively treated as a second class citizen coming from a Russian 'colony' and you did not 'enjoy' the same rights nor Police nor legal protection as a Russian citizen.  So for Russia to now complain about reverse discrimination from a people who have had to endure Russian 'imperial' domination, it is not at all evident to me that the Ukrainian nationalists did not learn their hatred and nationalism from being deprived of their own heritage for so long by Imperial Russia, the USSR and the existing Russian Federation. Yes of course I could (and have) argued that tribalism, nationalism, racism and religious intolerance are abhorrent, but Russia has never been a shining beacon (or even strived for racial justice and equality) of racial nor religious tolerance for any of it's satellites to emulate.  The only messages being sent to the colonies over the centuries were those of intolerance and bigotry.    Let's be very clear what I am saying.   I would not for one second justify the restrictions on the rights of Russian minorities within the Ukraine as the new Democrats in Kiev will have a herculean task in changing the mindset of an ultra-nationalist culture-which by the way has been allowed to thrive until recently (there is recent clampdown on far-right ultra-nationalist organisations since the Kiev Spring uprising) within the borders of Russia itself for reasons of political sentiment and nationalistic expediency.  What I am saying is that if Russia and past administrations through the centuries had set a better example, it would not have found so many units eager to volunteer to fight alongside the Nazis when Hitler invaded the Ukraine.  History will support my assertion in this regard.

Internally Displaced Refugees, Ethnic Russians In Flight As Refugees

Thirdly, a refugee crisis of an Ethiopian famine, Rwandan or Biafran Civil War scale will destroy the current Russian economy and could, potentially, cause the Federation itself to implode as such would have a dominoes effect throughout the entire region.

The effects within the Ukraine will be equally distortive as it is highly unlikely that West European countries (apart from the United States) will open their borders to millions of Ukrainian citizens fleeing for safety and protection for themselves and their families.

The Energy Crisis

Europe, far from being immune, would suffer greatly if the gas 'tap' is turned 'off'.

However, thanks to another invention called electricity and the fact that many homes in different parts of Europe have dual energy facilities, the hardship will not be uniform.

At this point in time, emergency contingency measures should be being made to prepare for such a crisis across a range of energy fronts in Western Europe.

The energy crisis, in this scenario, would be worst for the first 4-6 years, whereupon other options are likely to become available.

Diversification of The Russian Economy From Western Europe-Will This Save The Federation From Disintegration?

Russia will no doubt attempt to diversify it's energy and investment interests but it's earned resources will still be sinking into the black hole of a civil war in the Ukraine – so this is a hopelessly unwinnable situation - the prospect of fighting a protracted guerilla campaign across so vast a territory with, as Hitler and Napoleon found out, no end in sight.

Neither will the West come out unscathed. Denial to Russian markets for investment, raw materials and exports will most likely cause financial hardship in West European economies. It could be far worse than this.

Unfortunately even while Africa is developing, it is not fast enough for it to take up the 'slack' lost with the absence of high-value lucrative, organised , politically and financially sound Russian markets and bi-lateral investment opportunities.

So there are no immediate short-term visible winners from such a face-off in the Ukraine.

As Secretary of State John Kerry tried recently to achieve, what is needed is space for diplomacy with all sides refraining from escalating a volatile situation which could quickly slide out of control and use such space to give peace a chance.

Patrick Emek

The  Canonization of  Pope Saint John XXIII and of Pope Saint John Paul II

I am going to go off-script to briefly mention the Canonization of Pope Saint John XXIII and of Pope Saint John Paul II.

My deceased parents regarded John XXIII, during his Papacy, as a living saint.

His Vatican Reform Council and the changes which took place and those he anticipated were, for that time, revolutionary.   He was suspect, by some, of being a 'left-leaning' sympathiser (a euphemism for 'Communist') so radical were his views concerning the equality of man, the role of women in society and many other issues which have now become part of everyday mainstream life throughout the democratic Christian and parts of the non-Christian world where free speech and multifaith tolerance are practiced.

Don't believe the media hype - which will more focus and praise on John Paul II (whose canonization has been questioned as not meritorious and politically rather than spiritually rooted) rather than one who espoused the ideals of mankind and one who was truly striving for the poor, for equality, for human rights and justice for all, worldwide.

Albeit the fact that canonization of Pope John XXIII  is probably a political 'trade-off', I hope that the public and researchers will, in future decades, examine the lives of both in great detail, that the Vatican will open it's private vault files - hence the world can truly decide the merits of each case.

I don't know if John XXIII was a living saint but he was certainly a very decent human being – which is more than can be said for more than 99% of today's so-called 'spiritual' leaders.

Patrick Emek

typographical corrections on 28th September, 2014

Pope John XXIII - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_John_XXIII

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canonization

'Russia Today' – 'The Bullhorn' of President Putin (Secretary of State, John Kerry)

I was going to write this blog several months ago but hesitated for several reasons:

The first was my appreciation of the principles of good journalism and the first motto which is that the journalists or broadcasters or news networks should, themselves, never be 'making' the news.

Secondly the absence of good journalism and programming throughout Africa , Asia and the Middle East is so profound that it is almost tantamount to torture. But to raise the issues of why would be to open up a can of worms which most in broadcasting in the Arab world (for example) would not just not understand but grossly misinterpret to the point of lethal outcome.

Thirdly and most important of all, television still remains the greatest instrument of propaganda yet invented. Having said this, it is being challenged in the information crossover to multiple portable media devices – including the internet – which present opportunities for societal controls hitherto unrealised as such were never thought possible in other centuries.

To give just one hypothetical example and leave it at that:

Whoever thought in previous decades that it might be possible to identify, through satellite car tracking devices, the exact location of your enemy, through his car Navsat and to 'engineer' signals through his car to cause massive systems failure most likely resulting in a fatal crash on a treacherous mountain pass?

So the implications of the crossover from television to multiple streaming devices, and their amalgamations present profound implications.

Indeed we have gone even beyond this with the advent of molecular electronics and the ability to insert rudimentary systems as 'sleepers'. In the case of our hypothetical enemy target, systems developed for social interaction and communication can be turned into lethal devices at the flick of a switch. It's the same principle as saying that a sharp knife can be used to slice a loaf of bread or cause a fatal injury depending on how it is used.

Do you trust Dilma Vana Rousseff heading up an Apartheid regime in Brazil (where incidentally more journalists have been murdered over the past two decades than in almost any other part of the world – excluding war zones) or do you trust President Putin or even President Barack Obama to control the internet and not to use it, in the event of a national emergency as an instrument of war or for other purposes?;or perhaps you would prefer to trust North Korea or Iran or Saudi Arabia with such profound power?;or perhaps some other Gulf State where until 50 years ago they were happily living nomadic or semi-nomadic lives until black gold transformed their world – but not their appreciation of the history of the modern world and how it got to where it is? Perhaps The Congo or Rwanda or Nigeria could be trusted as developed enough to even understand the profound implications of what exactly they would have management of so as not to misuse it?

Or indeed is the information revolution placing potential 'nuclear bombs' in the hands of 'children'?
With the ability of media services of countries such as China, Russia and The United States to reach into the very pocket of our hypothetical enemy target, to synergize and integrate information data, propaganda, electronic engineering and, with Space-based systems able to materialize and coalesce, all to become very real and very deadly.

Even before the battles commence, the war has already been lost if the total integration of systems (as pre-planned for decades to deny an opponent operational capability at the very least) has been successfully activated and the objectives achieved.

So do we really have anything to fear from 'Russia Today'?  In an era of peacetime, absolutely nothing.
In the event of a major world crisis which potentially could pit two global superpowers against each other, the answer is most certainly we do - but only to the extent of any networks' foreign correspondents operating, albeit legitimately, 'behind enemy lines' to cover the conflict 'from the other side'.
But was John Kerry wise to highlight 'Russia Today'?

In my opinion, there are very special times when, in today's interconnected world, one might seek to 'outlaw' specific media elements.

The first is if a country is on the verge of war with an opponent which matches it's own military capabilities.

It's inconceivable to have a successful propaganda medium operating from within your midst if you are on the brink of war with a country which equals your own potential in military capabilities.

In my opinion, 'Russia Today' is the most intelligent, successful, and capable of all propaganda broadcasting networks in the developed world at this present point in time.  For this reason alone it would be the first I would seek to isolate from within the United States if I thought the prospect of  (unconventional) war with Russia was more likely a possibility  than not.

This would not of course stop worldwide broadcasting but would result in a situation where compatriots were led to believe that it would be 'unpatriotic' for most (except approved government sources) to be 'taking feed' from a 'hostile' 'enemy' propaganda network. The 'doomsday' solution would be a legal ban on it's availability – but there is a clear risk here that the United States would be perceived in the same light as North Korea and Iran- two notorious countries which jam and ban, imprison and execute their citizens who listen to and watch foreign broadcasts deemed 'Satanic'.  Apart from being first and foremost unconstitutional, it would be unwise and nonsensical in today's interconnected global information village.   So under this very special pre-war condition (and only for national security reasons) would it be justified to highlight a foreign broadcasting network – such as 'Russia Today' – in your midst in order to (voluntarily and patriotically) deny local access.  It's a very dangerous step because of the implications and repercussions on U.S. Media networks likewise operating abroad (which provide their listeners and viewers with information, of course, and not reckless propaganda) can also be equally profound.
So it does appear that the Ukraine could be going  in the direction which all the indicators would suggest.

Perhaps history is more understanding of the 'triggers' which spark world wars than those 'caught up in the moment'?
I still to this day cannot understand (apart from imperialism, political intrigue, nationalism and all of the other factors Machiavelli understood all too well) why the First and Second world wars started. I have some difficulty understanding the characters of Pol Pot, Hitler, Josef Stalin, Khomeini in Iran; the tribalism, nationalism and racism which tore Yugoslavia apart and, as with Rwanda, Europe reverted to it's dark past - with a world-wide audience in network attendance.
The Ukraine is a very special case and is an identifiable trigger for a potential global conflict for the reasons mentioned in earlier blogs.
A phrase which I always remember reading in a book about history as child, written in, I believe, The Times of London, England, in the late 1800s and which has forever since been popularly quoted and misquoted: 'The fate of Serbia is not worth the dead bones of a single British Grenadier' [ a misquote of Otto von Bismarck, the 19th Century German Chancellor at the time of the Congress of Berlin (1878), who dismissed the Balkans as “not worth the bones of a single Pomeranian Grenadier” ]

There are indeed parts of the world which have unique qualities and attributes, not as special in themselves, but special in their profound abilities to influence world events with a reach far beyond their own military and financial and cultural capabilities.

One fascinating fact is that we might not even be 'officially'  informed if an unconventional Third World War had actually begun. We might see all indications of world wide policy shifts and military deployments but no formal endorsement by any world leader.   Indeed military deployments could well be cosmetic – with the real war taking place across the full range of the electromagnetic spectrum – with not a single regular force deployment for adversarial conflict in the zone of action by either superpower.  Not that conventional forces are, as yet, outdated, but, as with the horse in The Great War, their presence today is more symbolic to consolidate security and gain on the ground than actually required to win a war – at least between superpowers.

Patrick Emek

www.colorado.edu/IBS/PEC/johno/pub/lboro.pdf 

revised with an amendment on both  26th and 27thApril 

The Ukraine: A  Bridge Too Far ?

I said in a previous blog that the actions of Russia could push the Ukraine into an economic abyss.

Beyond that, ethnic cleansing will create refugees fleeing into Russia in numbers and tragic scenes we normally associate with Africa and the Middle East.

What does the future now hold in store for the European Union, The Ukraine, America and Russia?

The above assumes that Russia will just 'stand by' while 'over-motivated' Ukrainian nationalist forces

supported by the Ukrainian Air Force overrun the 'terrorists' in the Eastern Ukraine.

The likelihood is that Russia will, sooner rather than later, either directly or indirectly (utilizing

'contracted' special units) intervene before such a refugee catastrophe and mayhem takes shape on and over it's border with The Ukraine.  The key question is will NATO join the fray or just let Russian forces 'fight it out' – perhaps with years of guerrilla warfare as both sides attempt to wrest control of the country caught up in the vortex of civil war. We could well have a scenario similar to that of the historic Civil War in  Spain (The Spanish Civil War, July 1936-April 1939) – with fighting brigades from the four corners of the globe being encouraged to show support for the legitimate government in Kiev.   Likewise Russia will also mobilize patriotic fervor amongst it's citizens throughout the Federation so as to ensure that a proxy war takes shape with years (perhaps decades) of instability ensuing.

Lets be clear about why the Soviet Union lost the Cold War: it was outspent by the West to such an extent that standards of living were actually going backwards as the USSR desperately struggled to keep pace with military innovations, nuclear arms and the SDI program and last but not least, the economic aspirations and expectations of it's own people.  Likewise there is some confidence that if push comes to shove, the West can 'outspend' Russia, ultimately, on a proxy war in the Ukraine.  And what about the plight of all of the Ukrainian people during years or decades of  future conflict?

As I said earlier, without the East and Crimea the Ukraine literally reverts to being just a breadbasket (not a basket case – at least not yet).

I remember at my childhood school being taught the history of this vast territory and I imagined the vast expanses of wheat lands stretching across the plains until ultimately meeting the border of Russia. (My history teachers also wrote history books, had studied such areas in very great detail, so I had an appreciation of history from people who knew what they were talking about.)

The immediate future for all of the people living in this region – whose ancestors have seen so much terror, brutality and hardship throughout the centuries - looks very bleak.

The lessons of history which existing superpowers have learnt is that the Russian people are (historically) very resilient to pain and suffering and hardship and are in 'for the long-haul'.   In a nuclear age, the thought of direct conflict between superpowers, even using conventional tactics, with the potential for escalation, is unthinkable.   The only other options are therefore unconventional – and there is a toolbox full of unconventional scenarios – which the people of the Ukraine will, sadly, because of recklessness, feel unleashed with maximum and merciless efficiency - by all sides.

I remember a NATO-sponsored visit to the Ardennes Forest many decades ago.  It was a beautiful summer's day.   I recall there was a well-mannered and convivial gentleman, probably African in origin, selling trinkets nearby at the side of a road where we disembarked.  I cheerfully greeted him and we briefly conversed and agreed about the glorious weather surrounding us.  As I looked across the vineyards so beautiful and placid in the sweltering afternoon, with just a very gentle breeze wafting through the trees, and I looked into the rich brown soil, I could not but help reflect on the millions who had perished over the centuries amid such and similar fields of tranquility throughout Europe – men, women, children, babies (born and unborn), who were just obliterated and never had the chance to know what it was all about.

Their epitaph should read 'they died for a cause' – but most would have preferred to have lived happily with their families and loved ones, if they had not been ordered (or influenced) to hate.

This is the Russia, this is The Ukraine, this is the Europe those fortunate enough having escaped to the 'Promised Land', America, left behind, forever; and believe me, if you were caught up in tribalism, famine, clan and civil warfare, racialism, Apartheid, Pogroms in Moscow, Saint Petersburg and elsewhere in Europe, America is, or should I say, was, the Promised Land.

Lets just hope (and if you are religious, you might pray) that it never comes to this again in Europe and that all will step back from the brink of the abyss, reflect, and take shelter from the coming storm.

Patrick Emek

typographical corrections on 25th April 2014

Brother Ali:

Mourning In America

(and Dreaming In Color)

Brother Ali is a Hip Hop artist who follows in a long line of U.S. conscientious objectors (COs).

This article seeks to explore why Brother Ali's message resonates amongst lost and forgotten sectors and generations of American society today.

His message and philosophy can be encapsulated as follows:

The Philosophy

1.Brother Ali opposes violence by the State, on behalf of corporate America, against it's own people.

2.Brother Ali opposes U.S. Foreign policy -especially the War on Terrorism.

3.Brother Ali presents reasons – including rendition and torture of Muslim prisoners – to justify opposition to such practices through Jihad (or Holy War.)

4.Brother Ali gives support to those who oppose with 'force of arms' and using their weapons-and all means permitted under Islam in Jihad when they, as Muslims, are being oppressed and denied their right to religious practice.

5.Brother Ali opposes corporate enslavement – which his music suggests is rooted in the military-industrial complex and responsible for the chaos in today's world - economic, political, racial, religious, social and monetary.

6.Brother Ali presents Islam and it's followers as innocent victim's of aggression and encourages resistance using violent and non-violent methods.

7.Brother Ali suggests that non-violence is just as powerful a tool as is violence to oppose and provoke further oppression from the 'Police State'. [The underlying basis for this being, if you can demonstrate to the mass population the oppression of the (reactionary) Police State, supporting the economic-military-industrial complex, you destroy confidence in it's institutions-and provide the basis for mass insurgency by the general populace.]

8.Brother Ali [will not say this but it is apparent] presents himself as a voice for the voiceless.

It is often said that the youth of today are less politically motivated to oppose political and corporate injustice than they were, say, forty years ago. Many reasons are given for this but the enduring one is their fear of 'blacklisting' should they publicly evocate a 'hostile' position to corporatism, the military-industrial complex or the War against terror. In other words, they will find it impossible to get a 'good' job after High School or University if they engage in political opposition activities - so powerful is the reach of corporate globalism into the lives of the youth of today.

9.If you are a Black or White inner city child or youth in corporate-controlled America today, from an early age you are criminalized by 'the Police State' (arrested or detained on some trumped-up charge, DNA fingerprinted etc.) in the belief that such will make you docile and subservient (the 'system' not understanding that the very opposite will more likely be the result), your places of recreation and social assembly are considered of no financial value so you have no option for protection other than joining street gangs where drugs, guns and violence replace normal childhood dreams and adolescence while at the same time corporate America profits from the sale of drugs, guns and murders in the inner city ghettos – by pouring additional resources into law enforcement and terminal incarceration of this abandoned youth with no hope nor resources allocated for rehabilitation but only a steady spiral downwards until they, the abandoned generation, are forced to live and behave like animals in a jungle where the only rules are violence, survival and the power of the gun to get your daily bread and maintain your dignity and respect as a human being not the grovelling insect corporate America desires that you become.

In a nutshell, this is Brother Ali's philosophy and belief, as spoken through his music.

Brother Ali presents himself, as he believes himself to be, as the 'voice' for this 'voiceless' generation.

What are the realities of Brother Ali's Claim To Represent the 'Oppressed' or, at the Very Least, that his 'Jihad' as an American is to Non-Violently Oppose Oppression with all of his Capabilities as an Artist?

The first of the beliefs of Brother Ali I want to debunk is that the youth of today are frightened of not being hired by corporate America or the globalized Western world if they oppose government and global corporatism.

This assumes that everybody wants to be hired by global corporatism or indeed subscribes into it.

This is certainly not the case with the youth of today. If anything global corporatism represents 'the Angel of Death' or 'Grim Reaper' to a not insignificant proportion today's educated American youth.

They have a different toolkit than previous generations did to oppose oppression but those who feel strongly are no less motivated than my generation. Of this I am 100% absolutely certain. But the numbers who are motivated to oppose are no different a minority than they were during my generation of youth. But there are fewer who have that aura of leadership and evocate the highest principles of the movement which majority fair and just youth of America can 'see' as a visionary way forward – and are prepared to even (lay) down their lives to peacefully, without recourse to violence and use of weapons, bring about such change.
[The most powerful philosophy for change is the 'Boycott' and Non-Violence.
'Boycott' by the way, is named after a tyrant in Ireland, Captain Boycott, who tried to brow-beat impoverished people at times of great hardship and famine.  They simply refused to buy anything or work on anything or associate with anyone associated with his name; hence the term 'boycotting' or 'boycott'.]

Herein lies the pathos of my argument against Brother Ali.

I am not questioning the sincerity nor bravery of Brother Ali nor his fortitude in the face of oppression and injustice nor his personal suffering because of his beliefs and what he advocates.

What I am questioning is his inability to capture the imagination of the youth of America not because of their 'enslavement' to corporatism (which by the way, is very real, worldwide) but the fact that those who will, decades from now, determine the destiny of America, the silent (youth) majority, are not just not motivated by Brother Ali but they 'turn off' when he speaks.

Where Is the Youth Opposition If Not On YouTube?

There are growing movements which oppose universal corporatism, injustice and unjust wars on behalf of corporate America, who oppose (what is perceived as) enforced enslavement to GM foods and everything else scientists wish to incorporate, or, at the very least, hold the impoverished in the world to ransom with unfair trade and management practices which are no better than slavery on plantations – be they urban plantations in 3^rd world city sweatshops or 'managed' plantations where the workers live and tend their master's (global multinational) crops, buy their own foods from shops on the plantation with a range of modern services provided to ensure their 'domestication' on that reservation.

They are the new age movements who are not fooled by the re-branding of products with logos such as 'Fairtrade' or 'Eco-Friendly' – such are seen simply as corporate America re-inventing itself. [I am not talking about those set up nor back-door funded by corporate enterprises.] Then there are movements opposing unjust and unfair trading blocks which are regarded by reputable economists as in part responsible for  impoverishment in the developing world.
This is where the educated (and visionary) youth of today (and tomorrow) is.

There are worldwide movements which want to make the world a fairer, better, environmentally cleaner and genetically (food) safer place for all of it's people to live and work. There are movements which believe that health care and education and food and decent housing, safe communities and parks and schools and social centers for the youth and, above all being able to work (if that is what one wants) are all basic human rights which should be universally enshrined by law and not the privilege of a few who can afford them or compete against other impoverished individuals to offer his or her labor at the lowest possible wage on the job (slave) market. There are such individuals and groups who are not part of corporate America nor branded by it and genuinely do want to create fairer and more just communities, societies and a genuinely better world for all. But Brother Ali most certainly does not represent any of them.

[The great F.D.R himself was the first visionary to advocate the right of every man and woman in America to a job, as a basic human right. It may yet be centuries before corporate America is ready to accept this principle.]

None of such movements will subscribe to Brother Ali's vision for America – because his vision does not ultimately include any of them – only the supremacy of Islam in America – with an ultimate Jihad against all 'non-believers' such as other ' moderate' Muslims not following the declared 'brand' of Islam, Atheists, Jews, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, and everyone else refusing to submit to Allah - effectively creating 'Jihad' in America, not to change the status quo, but to pulverize it into dust and start at Year Zero - with only the true [pure of heart] believers alive to create the New Order.

Who Resonates With This Message of Hate?

Brother Ali has more in common with The Nation of Islam and national socialism than he does with Middle America. I am including the majority of fair-minded moderate American Muslims within my 'majority' America.    Hell ! ; I would go so far as to say that even 'Redneck' America believes more in the principles equality and justice and would equally have little (if anything) in common with either Brother Ali nor any other of the organizations which would support his ideologies.

Vision For America

There are far too many ways I could show why Brother Ali fails to capture the educated mass youth culture. I could explain to him how they know Islam was built on slavery and oppression - which continues to this day with a horrific oppression of women you have to see to believe in these imprisoned Muslim countries of the Middle East and North Africa.   I do exclude Muslim countries beyond the Middle East and North Africa, especially those which have been little influenced by Saudi Arabia Imams and their hate agendas. (Brother Ali argues in his music that so too the United States was likewise built on slavery.)

You Can Only Vote Allah Into Political Office Once-and Forever

I could show how Islam is a 'One Way Street' in the Middle East, Iran and Afghanistan. You get one vote one time to vote Islam into political office. Unfortunately once you vote 'God ' [Allah] into office you can never get him out (the argument would be that nobody-except 'Satan'-would want to vote 'Allah' out of political office.)    So, in America, it would be one man, one woman, one vote, once, for Allah.   Then, let the Witch hunt (Kristallnacht) for non-believers begin - with the enslavement of women simultaneously taking place.

(I have seen up close and personal how Muslim and Christian shopkeepers in the Middle East and North Africa have their shops smashed by Islamic 'Storm Troopers' because they have served alcohol – and are too frightened to report it to the Police for fear of further reprisals against themselves and their families.)

Saudi Arabia, the instigator of such hatred, is Brother Ali's vision for America.    He will not say this openly but this is, what in effect, his vision want's to achieve.

This why the educated American youth of today are not 'buying into' Brother Ali's 'alternative' vision of Islamic Sharia law  as a better framework for America than it's existing Constitution.

It's not widely publicized but did you know that it is a crime punishable by death to build  a Christian Church in Saudi Arabia?   Some influential Imams are campaigning to make Christian worship in the Kingdom also a crime punishable by death. You didn't know these facts? You'd better get more informed about what your TV News Channels are not discussing.   So welcome to Brother Ali's vision for America.    Are you beginning to see why the educated youth of America (other than under pain of death or as 'hostages') will never buy into Brother Ali's vision for it's future?

Nirvana

Brother Ali is charismatic-but so too were many artists in ages of chaos, far too numerous to mention.

Adolf Hitler started life as a humble artist. Josef Stalin was once destined to become a Priest. Pol Pot once served in a Buddhist monastery.   Their 'Nirvana' were all built on the dead bones of millions of murdered men, women and children – hundreds of millions if it had needed to be.    But they never told their masses how exactly they would deliver Nirvana because to do so would be expose the horrors of what they really stood for - intolerance to everything in opposition to their vision.   Likewise this is Brother Ali's vision for the future of America.

Of course there are intolerant people who, as we see in Europe, easily achieve political power through the ballot box then set about implementing divisive policies which tear countries and continents apart and lead them into world wars – all to achieve a racial, political or religious ideal or all three combined.

Corporate Greed v Human and Community Need

Where government is perceived as being owned, lock, stock and two smoking barrels,by corporations, expect something else to fill the vacuum.   In this case it is the advocates of extreme national socialist, religious, political and financial alternative structures which demand a New Order.
When corporate America is perceived, because of it's actions, as 'Public Enemy' No. 1, worldwide; where trade unions are considered by multinationals as 'unfriendly' and 'hostile' to corporate America, expect something else to fill the vacuum.   It did  in pre-Bolshevik revolutionary Russia, in pre-Nazi Germany, so why should history be any different today?   We never learn from the lessons of history.    History teaches us that.   Where foreclosures and starvation in America can be attributed to outsourcing and corporate profit abroad – at the expense of starving and jobless local communities at home - expect something else to fill the vacuum.   Where civil disobedience and lawful peaceful non-violent assembly are met with overwhelming disproportionate use of police force (perceived as guardians of corporate America), expect something else to fill the vacuum for opposition.

As a sector of the isolated, disenfranchised, 'lost' generation of debt-shackled university graduates, denied their potential (most can't get a job, which pays their bills, allows them to live and also pays enough to pay off their debts) they too have nothing to loose-except their chains,expect something else to fill the vacuum; as a sector of the further 'lost generation' of the motivated intelligent youth of America 'switch off' from the mirage of Sitcoms all carefully manufactured by media and beyond communications (the perceived 'media conspiracy') to massage their brains into docile oblivion; show their anger and protest against the corporate 'owned', 'branded' and corporate-sponsored (product endorsed and endorsing all manufactured ) Hip Hop, Rap, Heavy Metal and other corporate-enslaved and 'branded' 'creative' artists, all (as they perceive) designed to produce apathy, quell direct community protest against lack of jobs, poverty, injustice, expect more of the extremes from where forth came Brother Ali - but don't for a moment think that most will follow in his footsteps towards his eternal salvation - nor share his vision of the new 'promised land'.

The above are just some of the reasons Brother Ali will never captivate the  (majority) youth of Middle America.   But that was never his intention.   By promoting hatred against everything the U.S. stands for, as it exists at present, as the cornerstone of his belief, it is also, sadly, all too apparent, exactly which groups of the population in America, are his target and most receptive audiences

Patrick Emek.

Brother Ali:

Mourning In America

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKHsGh-y8d8

Work Everyday

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwgwI_Inglo

Breakin' Dawn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUbWozgMf4M

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preah_Maha_Ghosananda

http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma/heaven.html

Afghanistan – Holy Wars Without End

Their Only Weapon Is Their Pen – And Some Pay the Ultimate Penalty

The brutal murder of the unarmed Associated Press Photographer, Anja Niedringhaus, and the critical wounding of the AP Television News Freelance Journalist, Kathy Gannon, as they both carried out their normal duties of reporting events in this war zone, should be evident that the war in Afghanistan is far from over.

President Obama's drone war policy, the only way of hitting back at so elusive and inaccessible an enemy (surrounding itself as it always does with innocent victims – the 'collateral' or 'unintentional' targets) only serves to amplify the hopelessness and futility of this conflict.

An Educated Woman With A Pen-The Most Dangerous Of All Threats To The Talibanization of Afghanistan

I want you to think of Niedringhaus and Gannon as examples of the thousands of innocent women, mainly Afghan, whom the Taliban and Al Qaeda regularly target for murder because they both represent everything they, the Taliban, hate – including the rights of women to have an active role in Afghan Society.

Afghanistan was a broken society even before the Russian forces arrived in the country.

A neglected country where human rights were ignored until Afghanistan became the focus of a strategic significance for transit oil and gas pipelines. A country forgotten until the strategic significance of having a physical presence after the Russians was too great to resist.

Then the media went along for the ride – human rights, the rights of children, child soldiers, the rights of  women, freedom of the press; suddenly the media had 'discovered' all these human rights and, being embedded, parachuted them into Afghanistan, a country whose customs and culture had hardly changed since Islam had arrived and, in this particular part of the world, entrenched itself as a one way street, no other minority religions permitted to exist and all had long since been extinguished by the time the Russians invaded the country.

Pogroms & Tribalism -The New World Order In Europe and The Middle East-But Why?

Ethnic cleansing appears to be the order of the day - in Afghanistan, Israel, Syria, the Lebanon, Libya, Egypt, Ukraine, and parts of the European Union as Israelis, Arabs and Christians (in The European Union) all assert their rights to rule as majority populations and create exclusively Jewish,Christian or Islamic States governed according to their historical or religious principles and in their own unique images. And if you don't like it, the door is always open.  Such practices are very familiar to the older generations - who sought sanctuary from such pogroms and persecution in America, 'The Promised Land', 'the land of the free and the hope of the brave' - in comparison with the horrors of racism, apartheid and discrimination-pogroms  (race, religions gender and ethnicity)  they had left behind in 18th 19th and 20th century  Europe.
(Many of the waves of immigrants to the United States in the 19th and 20th centuries were, of course, economic migrants fleeing impoverishment and starvation in Europe and in search of a better life for themselves and their families in the New World.)

This is the ultimate fallout from the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, The Ottoman Empire and (in Africa and the Far East) the British, German, Belgian, French and Italian Empires after World War II and, more recently, the unfreezing and shattering of nearly a century of Communist enforced tribal or ethnic co-existence with the collapse of the Soviet Union Empire.

[Strictly speaking France is the last 'old' colonial power in the world today.  It never relinquished it's colonies and rules them today as a part of French Overseas Departments and Territories or, as in the case of Africa, Françafrique.]3&4

It is the ultimate fallout because with the collapse of each Empire ethnic minorities were imprisoned within alien borders, often used as indigenous minority rulers in proxy by the departing Empires to give some semblance of their continued ability to intrigue local politics; something which suited the isolated minorities and their departing colonial powers.
In the case of Europe, the most recent major bout of ethnic cleansing took place during the Second World War when races considered sub-human -The Slavs, Jews, Gypsies, Communists, Jehovah Witnesses and other minorities- were 'cleansed' (or exterminated) to prepare 'Lebensraum' for what was to be the Fourth Reich, an era of re-colonization after the Third Reich.
The rise of Neo-Fascist movements today follow a long tradition since the sacking of Rome by the Visigoths which reflect Europe as a volatile collection of warring tribes more obsessed with local ethnicity than being ruled or legislated by a 'foreign' 'power'.  Today, the casus bellum is the European Union - which is forcing (by legislation) tribes to accept (integrate) others which, in past centuries would have resulted in pogroms, concentration camps, gas ovens for human extermination, and, going back a further few centuries, wholesale slaughter and putting to the sword of 'Infidels', the (Christian) sacking and putting to the sword of (Christian) men women and children  in towns, villages, cities and States refusing to accept, for example, the supremacy of the Holy Father throughout Christendom, and Holy Wars to retake Jerusalem for Christendom and the sacking of Constantinople⁵ (The Fourth Crusade.)
The European Union is, in effect, enforcing the compliance of tribes and powerful 'Warlords' (modern-day European politicians in countries which, historically, have fought to determine the economic, political and military direction of such countries on this continent - at least those having the authority to agree war or peace) to accept the supremacy of a higher authority and ideals which, as they perceive it, will 'dilute' their own (Warlord) ability to govern or rule individual 'tribes', rendering them as subjects (or Vassals) to this 'higher authority' outside the tribe, yet having the legislative authority to determine it's destiny.   This is Europe today.  That was Rwanda yesterday.  Afghanistan is no different.

'Faith'

I have just finished reading Barack Obama's book, 'The Audacity Of Hope' (I am probably the last person in the intellectual world to have read it.) I had it on my shelf for several years but only recently found the time to sit down and read it cover to cover. In Chapter 6 ('Faith') he describes the religious bookshelf (library) in his childhood homes in Kenya and Indonesia, which were not dissimilar from the ideals and values most reasonable people share.

He likewise comments on the beliefs of his father, mother and stepfather. But to have such an appreciation and respect for all faiths you have to live in a tolerant society – which Afghanistan most certainly is not now nor will it be in the immediate future.

For the Taliban and Al Qaeda, Anja Niedringhaus, for example, represented everything they fear their society has the potential to become, preferring instead the comfort of  8^th century Islam and the destruction of modernity – the latter being the agent of Satan as, in their eyes, personified by the United States, Britain and Israel. So everything the United States has put in place must be demolished before an Islamic Afghanistan can be rebuilt.    There is no room for both Allah and Satan to co-exist.

Herein lies the futility of the war in Afghanistan.

All of the institutions the West has 'created' in Afghanistan will be destroyed with a 'holy zeal' the world public has yet to appreciate – because our media does such a terrible job when it comes to the preparation for bad news.   For a Police Officer to calmly walk up to their car and empty his machine gun on helpless and unarmed civilians just doing a job of work, should tell you how this Police Force will be upholding law as the country fragments into it's more comfortable tribal and clan loyalties.

It's accepted today that journalists are 'fair' game for every terrorist group they encounter.

Embedding NGOs and Journalists

Embedding journalists (in many instances offering no other choice for coverage and safety in war zones) within armed forces has, in my opinion, made them more not less vulnerable as potential targets for murder, ransom and hostage taking.

The only rule when operating in a war zone is to stay alive – at least until after you get the story.

The last thing any journalist wants to do is to be a part of the news story itself.

Likewise 'embedding' NGOs within the military-industrial complex in ways not previously undertaken, will, I believe, make them more not less vulnerable in zones of conflict throughout the world. Like journalists they will be seen as 'easy' targets – operating as they do without weapons and with very limited local protection.

So Where Will Afghanistan Go?

Afghanistan will regress to the 8^th century of tribal fanatical Islam in the absence of foreign armies 'of occupation' (as Al Qaeda and the Taliban perceive the coalition presence to be.)

The speed with which this happens will be either accelerated or slowed down depending on how fast all foreign forces exit the country

An unrelenting war of attrition will take place for so long as a single coalition ('Kafir', Kuffār or Infidel) foreign country continues to 'occupy' or has any presence in the country.

They Still Don't Get It On Capitol Hill (!)   -   Always Remote As Ever:-The Folks Who Live On The Hill

American lawmakers, even as yet, simply  'don't get it'. The United States, it's way of life, it's values, it;'s money, it's culture, it's technology are not wanted by the Taliban and Al Qaeda and for so long as a single NGO attempts to project America or the United Nations or parachute 'alien' values into Afghanistan, the war will continue.

It gets even worse. Those brave Afghan people (men and women) who trusted in what they were told about democracy, Women's  rights and free speech, the support of the United Nations and the United States for their evocation of such principles within and throughout Afghanistan will be the first to die at the hands of a merciless Taliban and Al Qaeda, after U.S. and coalition forces depart and their safety is entrusted to the Afghan State (or, to be more precise, Afghan warlords and tribal chiefs.)

As they are murdered one by one with increasing regularity and frequency, what will anger me will be that the international media will close it's eyes and ears to their plight – just as it did before it 'discovered' the absence of human rights in the country – coincidentally at the time of the Soviet invasion.

But What About The Recent Election?

Lets be clear what has just happened.   An umbrella of security was provided by foreign forces, with foreign international observers, supervising a Western-style Presidential election – none of which would have been possible in the absence of foreign forces and foreign international observers.

You simply cannot parachute 21^st century democracy into the 8^th century unless you intend to maintain a long-term (at least two hundred years) civil and military presence to support, model, re-brand, service and maintain democratic institutions as the foundations of  a new  modern, secular, civic society.

[We can see today in Turkey that even after one hundred years of support for the secular state from within, Islamists can, by stealth, legislate it's dismantling, almost overnight.]

So when foreign forces depart Afghanistan and you later read that a 'moderate' Taliban government or President and Prime Minister are 'elected' and news services' like CNN scramble to portray him as a 'moderate' don't believe a word of what they tell you. As the stoning of women, the abolition of 'Western' style schools for girls throughout the country and the enshrinement of Sharīʿah law, Taliban-Al Qaeda-style, all manifest, watch as the international media will struggle to explain to a very confused American and Western public the justification of these laws and how they are in keeping with 'traditional' Afghanistan and beneficial for the local people.

In my own opinion, an appalling betrayal of a people is taking place under the guise of leaving them, the Afghan people, with democracy – an even worse betrayal than the abandoning of our Allies in South Vietnam.   At least the victorious (atheistic) Communists showed some mercy.

The Afghan people can expect neither mercy nor forgiveness as the Taliban and their religious-military fanatical allies 'reassert ' 'Allah's Kingdom' over 'Satan'.

Patrick Emek

http://www.anjaniedringhaus.com/

http://www.worldpressphoto.org/anja-niedringhaus



3.    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overseas_departments_and_territories_of_France
4.    http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_colonial_empire

5.    http://latter-rain.com/crusade/curfor.htm

6.     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vassal

7.     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebensraum

http://www.habeeb.com/Fourth.of.July.Origins.4.html

http://www.ushistory.org/documents/banner.htm


updated April 8 
an addendum on April 9 to add a section about the European Union and composite several centuries of tribal wars in Europe - with a personal interpretation and comparative analysis

King Rama IX (Bhumibol Adulajev)

Reports have it that Thailand's much loved and revered King Bhumibol is again in ailing health.

Fortunately his premature expiration has been falsely predicted on many occasions and, for many years, he has managed to soldier on – and the country continues prosper as a beacon of economic success and development for South East Asia and rest of the world.

Most Thais would rejoice if the King's daughter succeeded her father to the throne.

She is (genuinely) much loved by the populace as a whole.

But the Royal line of succession precludes a Queen of Siam.

It is for this reason that millions of Thais are praying that the King will continue to live – for forever and a day.   We all know that such is not going to happen and talk in the country about the Royal succession, whilst strictly forbidden, is nonetheless the main event in every other Thai household.

The King's son, however, is the likely successor.

[Interestingly, there has been a Buddhist prophesy for centuries that after the IX Rama, the dynasty will end.   I am unclear as to whether this solely refers to the male lineage or the dynasty as a whole.   There are so many different versions and interpretations of this prophesy that it would just be too confusing to mention all of them - other than to say that some Thais give considerable weight and respect to prophesy.]

King Bhumibol has brought stability, economic prosperity and development for Thailand as a whole.

Yes, admittedly there are groups – political parties, farmers, local communities, trades union representatives who will tell you a different story - and there are genuine grievances about wealth distribution, corruption, intrigues for power and influence within the elite of the Armed Forces and the Royal Thai Police.

Then there are border disputes with Cambodia which, thanks to international mediation and restraint by both sides, rarely escalate beyond occasional skirmishes over temples.

In November of last year, much to the disappointment of Thailand, the U.N. Court ruled in favor of Cambodia in the area around Preah Vihear Temple and ordered Thai forces to withdraw from the immediate vicinity.  This area is likely to be the flashpoint for further future conflict between the two countries as Thai nationalists and their supporters in the armed forces will never accept this decision.

There is also the prospect of Islamic insurgency intensifying in the South of the country as Malaysia does little to bring the insurgents to heel - for fear that the Jihadi militias will turn their attention (guns and bombs) to waging a campaign to destabilize the peace and quiet of Malaysia proper and an even greater threat is that they will link across with Jihadi insurgents in the province of Sabah to create a unified front – which could have devastating consequences for economic and political stability in the region as a whole.
[The Malaysia authorities will argue that they work in cooperation with Thai security forces to prevent terrorist infiltration across both sides of the border and will also suggest that arms and explosives are reaching Islamic rebels not across the Thai-Malaya border but from other countries.]

Hence the successor to King Bhumibol  will require the continued unanimous support of the Police and Armed forces to ensure that peace on the Thai-Cambodia and Thai-Malaysia borders are maintained as these areas could quickly flare into all-out wars between both parties, if outstanding border and Islamic identity issues, are not resolved to the long-term satisfaction of protagonists, and continue to linger.

Patrick Emek



http://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2011/08/03/kings_failing_health_and_his_30b_fortune_puts_thailand_in_jeopardy.html


http://kanchanapisek.or.th/library/Tambiah-Thailand3.htm


http://madeinthai.wordpress.com/2011/04/20/the-nine-kings-of-the-chakri-dynasty-rama-i-%E2%80%93-the-founding-father-2/


http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887324906004578289220025564486


http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/12/world/asia/un-court-rules-for-cambodia-in-temple-dispute-with-thailand.html?_r=0


https://ca.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20130108213038AAciCU3

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.