Showing posts with label China. Show all posts
Showing posts with label China. Show all posts

Saturday, August 23, 2014

Answer to the ISIS dilemma

Western governments are in denial.

Right now they know that there is no appetite for any kind of 'boots on the ground' nor for any tie-up with the odious Assad regime. 

So what can they do to address this very significant threat? 

They are no doubt counting on ISIS' fifth columns within the USA, UK and France to commit bombing atrocities such that a groundswell of opinion for military intervention builds.  They must calculate how many bombings are needed.  Another Boston or maybe a spectacular like 9/11 or another Fusilier Lee Rigby or 7/7 in London?  Or maybe this time in Paris, which has a very special concern about its growing and self-alienated Muslim minority?

We should be alarmed because these atrocities will occur.  There is an inevitability about this that has escaped the media.

Islam is a religion of dominance.  Its adherents allow for no 'non-believers'.  You are either a Muslim and follower of Mohammed or you are an infidel.  Simply put, ones that doesn't follow Islam.  It will come as no comfort to Christians, Jews, Hindus, Taoists, Buddhists, Atheists or those that follow the Jedi tradition, that their long and  often deeply held beliefs, count for nothing.  They are infidels and they must either convert to Islam or be punished.

The punishment is now being meted out on a daily basis in Iraq, to Christians and to Yazidis.  Also now, we hear, to Shiite Muslims.  The punishment is death.  There is no concept of co-existence, no 'my way or the highway'.  It's the Muslim way or death! Nothing extreme about this Sunni Muslim religion!  Think about this when you next hear some liberal fool tell you that Islam is the religion of peace!   Look twice and listen thrice at the 'moderate' Islamist that says that these fanatics don't represent the true face of Islam.  Simply put, these fanatics do represent Islam.

Catholics and Protestants fought many wars and caused countless deaths in furtherance of the schism in Christianity but the numbers have the potential to fade into insignificance compared to the deaths that will flow from the conflict between the two strands of Islam.  The 8 year long Iraq/Iran war cost the lives of an estimated million souls but that can be viewed as an appetizer for the multi-course banquet of death that awaits.  The 200,000 deaths in the proxy war being fought in Syria is also barely a taste of things to come. 

Right now, Sunni Saudi Arabia, with its extreme (though that term is relative) Wahabi sect, is at war with Shiite Iran and, in Syria and Iraq, the Saudis are in the ascendancy.  I say this, not to seek support for Iran, who are as likely to be as murderous as are the Saudi and Qatari backed ISIS fanatics.   Rather, this is a statement of the current state of play, however, should as seems ever more likely, Iran complete its quest for nuclear weapons, then the whole dynamic changes. 

In this goal of achieving a nuclear capability,  the Iranians are being aided by the inept policies of the Obama administration and a resurgent Russia (also a beneficiary of Obama's failed policies) as well as a feeble European Union foreign affairs effort.

The civilised world faces an existential battle. 

Communist China is feeling the effects of this.  India has seen this in the recent past, so has , Argentina, France, Nigeria and the aforementioned USA and UK to name just some of the countries.  Even the peacefully neutral Swedes and Norwegians are experiencing the conflict between their open societies and those of their Islamic migrant communities.  Denmark too has seen the illiberal consequences of allowing a cartoonist to publish his works.  Indeed Russia too, has tragic experience of trying to co-exist with the 'religion of peace' but Putin, having, some in the West say 'brutally dealt' with Islamic dissidents and terrorists, is currently playing a different game to secure Russia's borders and to poke America and the EU, in the eye at every opportunity.

So the solution?

First some history. 

When the Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, invaded Kuwait in 1990, Margaret Thatcher was reported as telling the American President, George H Bush, not to go 'wobbly' and to have 'stiffened his spine' on the issue of confronting Saddam.  She saw the threat posed by Saddam and so too did Bush #1 quickly come to this realisation.

With, ISIS, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, the civilised world faces a similar choice - either we fight now, in the sands of Arabia and Persia or we fight soon on the streets of London, Paris, New York, Beijing and Dehli.

Make no mistake, this is a fight that isn't going to go away.  It takes a certain type of fanaticism to hack-off the heads of people that don't follow your brand of religion.  The same kind of fanaticism that causes people to fly planes into buildings or walk into a hotel and randomly shoot people or to strap on a suicide bomb vest and detonate the bomb in a crowded market place.  Does it sound like these are people that can be reasoned with?  The lure of the 72 virgins is just too great for these people.  So since death is what they most want, death should be visited upon them and their supporters.

The solutions are not pretty but there is nothing nice about the aftermath of a suicide bombing or the beheading of innocents.

The world needs to decide where it stands and then back-up their declared position.  Russia needs to say if they are with the West or against it.  There can be no fence-sitting or neutrality.  Why?  Well this is about all-out war.  And it will be bloody and terrible.  ISIS and similar intolerant organisations need to be destroyed, not neutered, annihilated completely. 

Similarly Saudi Arabia and Qatar need to be brought to heel.  They cannot enjoy the fruits of western civilisation and industry while at the same time seeking the destruction of those societies.  The leadership of these countries need to be changed to reflect the required new direction that these countries must take.

Iran must immediately cease funding its proxies in Lebanon and Palestine and completely destroy its nuclear programme.  Again, regime change is needed.

Pakistan must give-up its nuclear weapons.  At this time the state is too unstable to be trusted with such weapons.  Its security services operate as a 'state within a state' and must be brought under democratic control before they decide to pass on enriched uranium to Islamic terrorists.

In Iraq and Syria, the allies - those that are 'with us' - need to impose a very heavy and brutally ruthless, military solution.  Any opposition, any, must be crushed and crushed completely.  There can be no hand-wringing in the media or from liberals in the West.  The consequences of a softly-softly approach can already be seen on the streets of our cities where ISIS fellow-travelers become ever more bold in pushing their murderous ideologies.  Where Islamsists kill a British soldier , on the streets of the capital and try to hack-off his head.  Where Islamists explode bombs at the finish-line of a marathon race.  Unfeeling brutality and force must be met with the a multiplied version of the same.  Make no mistake though, this will mean bombs dropped by planes and so called civilian casualties but we will also require to put 'boots on the ground'.  We will also need to impose economic sanctions against these people - starve them of the goods and yes, foods,  that their people need.  Frankly faced with pictures of the victims of ISIS or the pictures of starving ISIS followers, I would always be moved by the former and never by the latter.

The approach to Iraq and Syria must also be applied in North Africa and Nigeria.

In the home countries, Islamists must also make a decision.  Are they with their home country, in the existential fight against radical Islam or are they with the enemy?  If the latter, then they must be imprisoned - yes whole families interred.  You, as an Islamist, cannot live in the USA, UK or France etc., and burn the flags of those countries or spit on its soldiers.  You cannot declare certain areas as alcohol-free or forbid people to have dogs or women to walk around without a hijab.  These home countries and their traditions existed ever before you did.

Immediately, the oxygen of publicity must be deprived to Islamic organisations, the Muslim Council in the UK and CAIR in the USA are at best, just apologists for their murderous co-religionists.  They place an equivalence on the actions of these barbarians with those of the West  They insist on applying the laws of the host countries when it suits them, while all the time trying to impose Sharia law.

Immediately, any of the ISIS fighters, from western countries, that return 'home', must be imprisoned.  They must be taken out of circulation.

Immediately, the 'hate' legislation that exists in so many countries must be applied against these people that would threaten our very existence.  They may not all be prepared to be front-line 'fighters' but they support, with their hate-filled words, the elimination of Western ways.    There is a 'hands-off' policy linked to the failed  multi-culturalist policies that the West has adopted, which exempts Muslims from the application of law.  This has to stop.

Immediately, the Palestinian boil needs to be lanced.  The Abbas regime in the West Bank must be issued with an ultimatum.  Either you accept the right of Israel to exist or we (the West) will immediately cease all aid and impose a blockade to starve you into submission and we will fund opposition to Fatah, that does want peace.

In respect of Gaza, a similar ultimatum.  Either give-up the ISIS like Hamas terrorists or face the brutal consequences of your continued intransigence.  You have to decide if you want war or peace but know that war will be total and Gaza flattened!

The UK Prime Minister, David Cameron has talked of a generational struggle against this poisonous ideology and other politicians are coming to realise the battles that must be fought.  As said earlier though, this isn't about the traditional 'West'  This struggle affects India, China, Latin America, Africa and indeed, all of the world.

Who are you with?

Friday, March 7, 2014

Obama's friends

If you are not a Ukranian, consider yourself very lucky, as you wake up, this morning. 

Ukranians have President Obama as a friend and ally.  They know how lucky that is, because you can always count on a friend, right?

Except........

When that friend is President Obama.

Germany counted the USA and most particularly President Obama, as a friend.  Remember that big Obama love-fest before he was elected as President?  The one where he had the rock-star stage?  That was in Germany. 

So how does Obama repay this adulation?  Well his security services, in the relentless pursuit of America's terrorist enemies, bug the phone of German Chancellor Merkel.  Now Merkel, having grown-up in the old East Germany, probably knows a thing or two about being bugged, so she is unlikely to have said too much that was incriminating, on any of the calls that Obama's spies listened-in to.  Or maybe she did.  Maybe she thought, friends don't spy on friends.  Hmm!

So to Ukraine.  President Obama and his ineffectual Secretary of State, John Kerry, are threatening all sorts of sanctions against Russia.  Now call me naive but what was the result of ever increasing sanctions against Iran?  Oh yes!  Iran is currently enjoying a sanctions vacation, courtesy of the Obama administration and still able to pursue its goal of obtaining a nuclear capability.  Iran's number one enemy after the USA?  Israel, another friend of the USA that is being treated to Obama's own, very special, interpretation of friendship.

President Hosni Mubarak also thought of America and Obama as a friend and then his friend 'threw him under a Muslim Brotherhood bus!

Take it closer to home.  Christopher Stevens was appointed US Ambassador to Libya by President Obama and the then Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.  It would be wrong to question the naivete of a person that cannot defend themselves, but surely Stevens could have done some homework on Clinton.  She was thrown off of the Watergate inquiry because of her having a very loose affiliation with the truth - that should have made him wary.  However, in Stevens' defence he probably thought that he could rely on his friends in Washington and the White House.  That didn't work out so well though! 

The US consulate in Benghazi was attacked by well-armed militants and Stevens and three other  US personnel were brutally killed.  Even in death though, Obama and Clinton's special notion  of what friendship means, had to be played out.  So the airwaves rang-out with stories of a spontaneous mob that were protesting about a video.  This mob were so spontaneous, they came very well armed, including carrying Rocket Propelled Grenades because that's kind of spontaneous, right?  Then Obama and Clinton go through the public expressions of sympathy that is called for, when 'friends' are taken from us.  Except, we have since learned, this was for show.  As said this was no spontaneous demonstration.  This was a well-planned attack and it was sustained but in a stunning display of friendship, Obama ordered the military to stand down and not to go to the aid of the beleaguered consulate.  Indeed, if the twittersphere is to be believed, the US General in charge, in that theatre of operations, was relieved of his command when he indicated an intention to send military personnel to rescue Americans that were in danger. 

I don't know about you but Obama's idea of friendship doesn't match anything that I recognise.

So back to the poor Ukranians.  If you believe in karma and that sort of stuff, then Ukraine must have been really bad in a former life.  In addition to having the highly dubious honour of the friendship of Obama they also have the European Union as an ally.  Now if you want to know how the European Union treats its friends, consider how it treated Greece, Ireland, Spain, Portugal and Italy during the recent economic crisis.  Ask the people of Cyprus, that saw their life savings stolen at the whim of the EU, if they think this was the act of a friend. 

Say what you like about the United Kingdom but when Ireland needed help, the UK provided it - because that's how friends treat friends!  Of course there was likely some self-interest involved but still!

If I was a political leader in any of the current hot-spots, I would be seriously reconsidering my country's friendship with the USA.  If I was the president if the Philippines, would I really believe that my American 'friends' would come to my aid, if the Chinese continued their South China Sea expansionist activity?

In closing, I need to bring some balance to this piece.  Plainly the foregoing is somewhat slanted against Obama and just shows how he mis-treats his friends.  In truth though it isn't always that way.  The successful investor, Warren Buffet is a big supporter of Obama.  This is one friend that Obama does consider or so it would seem.  The Keystone Pipeline Phase 4 has been awaiting US government approval for all of Obama's presidency but this can has been repeatedly kicked down the road and no decision made.  One  has to wonder if the fact that Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway group owns the rail company called Burlington Northern, has anything to do with it.  Is it a coincidence that BN rail cars are currently transporting the oil that would otherwise flow through the pipeline?  If I was on 'Who wants to be a millionaire' I would have to 'ask a friend' but I would make sure that it wasn't America's president!

Yes, if I was a Ukranian, I would be seriously considering what friendship means!

 





   




Saturday, November 2, 2013

America and Drugs

Why is it, do you think, that America spends so much money and effort fighting drugs that it has declared illegal, such as cocaine, marijuana and heroin and yet the two most dangerous drugs are ignored?

The two most dangerous drugs?  Sugar and debt.

Americans consume vast quantities of both.  Indeed the abuse of the former, because it leads to great obesity and a strain on medical systems, inevitably increase the need for the latter - a vicious circle of addiction.

I suppose that there might be something to be said for de-criminalising  the currently illegal drugs and taxing them, so that tax dollars on prevention could be saved and revenue raised.  I am not really sure where I stand on the argument - the 'war on drugs' seems to be a guerrilla-type one where the US gains some occasional small victories but the 'enemy' is too entrenched to actually be defeated.  All I have managed to come to know of the effects of drug use clearly demonstrate the very negative side-effects of such abuse but........

 Anyway back to America's drugs of choice.

Americans now consume, on a per capita basis, more than 34 Kg (75lbs)  of sugar in one form or another, each year.  The number 34 might be some kind of 'mystical' one as that is also the percentage of adult Americans that are classed as obese!  It seems that much of this consumption comes via so called,'soft drinks' - fizzy colas and such - rather than through refined sugar being ladled onto breakfast cereal or stirred into coffee or tea.  What's the common denominator when eating out in the US?  Some restaurants will have steak and other meats on the menu, some will just have vegetables, some pizza but not pasta etc., but all will offer soft fizzy drinks, which are loaded with sugar.  

Oh and don't think I am excusing the Europeans from this addiction, like with the other drug of choice, debt, the European Union members are mimicking the abuse seen in America but today's topic is America.

Think of what that level of sugar intake is doing to America's health and consequently it's economy.  All those emergency room visits for heart attacks - that isn't cocaine or heroin, that's sugar and it's consequential obesity.  All those large gas guzzling cars - that's the size vehicle that is needed to transport these larger people around.  Here's a visual for you.  Think of a small compact car - a Mini or a Micra or a Fiat 500.  Now think of trying to fit four average Americans inside.  Not working?  Brain can't get there?  Try two average Americans, maybe now you get a fuzzy outline of a picture?  You get my point, anyway.

 Now we move on to the other addiction - debt.  Quick pop quiz for you.  How many zeros in a trillion?  Don't know or can't guess?  Go on try, there's 6 in  million and 9 in a (US) billion so.......  You got it, 12.

Another question, what was the US debt level in 1980?  Less than $1T (I can't be bothered with all those zeros!).  2006 level?  $8T.  Currently it is north of $17T.  Think about that for a moment.  By 1980, America had accumulated, in its 204 years of independence, debt of $1T, 15 years later it had 8 times that level of debt, then during the Obama presidency, the amount has more than doubled again!  Think of that in an addicts frame of mind.  In 1980 you were smoking one joint or doing one line of cocaine a day but now you are smoking 17 joints or doing 17 lines of coke, a day! 

Americans are hooked on debt and as with most addicts (or at least how they are always portrayed), once hooked, just want evermore!

An American colleague tells me that when you add in the unfunded liabilities like Medicaid and pensions, then the debt level rises to $60T, even if that is only half right, that is truly scary.

Without concerted action to wean America off of it's debt addiction, Americans, for generations to come, will be paying the price for today's bingeing.

And please don't tell me that America is on the road to addiction-recovery.  The anemic spending reductions that have been put in place will still cause the debt to rise to $25T by 2023 - yes, in 10 years, the debt ceiling will increase by a further 50%.

And that is actually a conservative estimate.  Conservative because it pre-supposes that America can continue to export its inflation to the rest of the world and can continue to offload Treasury paper.  What happens though if over, say, the next ten years, the US Dollar starts to lose it's position as the world's reserve currency?  It isn't such a far-fetched idea.  China is starting to flex it's financial muscle.  Imagine if the Chinese, the world's largest producer and purchaser of gold, decided to back their Renminbi currency with gold and to make it freely tradeable.  The latter might be a way off but suppose you were a Middle Eastern government oil company and you were offered gold-backed currency rather than being paid in US$ which continue to lose value?  Not a difficult choice, is it? Can't happen?  Check out who are the largest investors in Iraq's oilfields.  Clue, it isn't those US oil companies that supposedly pushed Bush to go to war for oil, in 2003.  Nor is it the British oil companies that perhaps led Tony Blair and his Labour party to produce the so called 'dodgy dossier'. 

Maybe then, that's the solution.  Since America won't confront it's addiction problem, the rest of the world will need to do it for them.  To send America into 'rehab' by not buying it's debt or trading in it's devaluing currency and thereby forcing America to face the grim reality of a it's addiction.  Could be a win/win situation - America reduces government spending and, in the process the 'hardship' that ensues makes the average American reduce their soft drinks intake, simply because they cannot afford it.

Maybe but don't hold your breath.  There seem to be so few US politicians with the courage to hold-up a mirror and say, 'America take a good look, you are obese and you are getting worse and doing it on other people's money.  This cannot continue.'  There may be some honest politicians but I do not discern any with the courage required to deliver the needed message.

Oh, again!  the same applies to Europe though, as with so much in the 20th century, Europe lags behind the US but, is on the same downward spiral!

Apologies for being so depressing!  Who knows, maybe mirror manufacturing will lead to a revival of America's economy and prospects!


Tuesday, December 27, 2011

UK Foreign aid and Economic Performance.

According to a report on the (still biased) BBC, the economy of Brazil has overtaken that of the UK, during 2011.

As you will see from the table below, produced by the Centre for Economics and Business Research, Brazil has pushed the UK economy into being the seventh largest in the world.

And you would be right in assuming that the UK continues to give foreign aid to Brazil!  Also to India, which is seen to have the tenth largest economy in the world.  It is difficult to get data out of the Department for International Development but I would not be surprised to see China as a recipient of foreign aid, as well!

While we may think it laudable to provide overseas aid and some consider that the old adage 'charity begins at home' is too narrow minded, how can it make sense to provide aid to countries that have such thriving economies?

When might we stop providing aid to these and, if we must provide aid, give it to those countries that both need it and do not currently have an economy that helps them get up off of their knees?

We regularly hear from left-leaning news media, that 'child poverty' is a growing phenomenon in Britain and at the same time we send funds overseas to relieve 'child poverty' in other countries (something which the self-same left-leaning media, think we do not do enough of!)

I wish someone could tell me how this makes sense.


CEBR World Economic League Table

Rank 2011 2020 (forecast)
1 US US
2 China China
3 Japan Japan
4 Germany Russia
5 France India
6 Brazil Brazil
7 UK Germany
8 Italy UK
9 Russia France
10 India Italy