All those who were enamoured of Barack Obama's magic with words, literrally spinning a gossamer web of dreams with his rhetoric,will of course welcome the announcement from Oslo. Unlike George W. Bush, who reached out to his gun instead of quiet diplomacy, Obama has so far shown restraint and has given primacy to statecraft. I think like Theodre Rooseveldt Obama believes in taliking softly while carrying a big stick. Let me first then congratulate President Barack Obama. I am happy with the choi...
The venue was carefully chosen and the words well crafted as well as only Barack Hussein Obama can. The US President's speech at the University of Cario will go down in history as the speech that marked the end of an era of hostility in the Middle East and is as important for peace in the region as the Fullton speech of Sir Winston Churchill was in staring the Cold War. If peace could be achieved by making pretty speeches there would be no need for statecraft and dipplomacy. Afterall Thucydides...
In today's world there is little sympathy for political struggles whose primary weapon is unmitigated and wanton attacks on civillians. In fact Islamic terrorism has undermined the sympathy many once had for the Palestenians and their dispalcement from Arab lands and even here one may probably make out a strong case that the Arab governments were as guilty as any other power. The breakdown of the cease fire was heralded by the rocket attacks from Gaza on Israeli civiliian targets. The HAM...
The 7oo billion $ suggested by the President of the US and his Treasury Secretary has been rejected by Congress and as I predicted in an earlier blog, the conservative Republicans voted against the bailout on the ground that state intervention in the economy would be a betrayal of the very creed of Burkeian conservatism represented in the strand of Reaganomics. There is no doubt that a bail out package will eventually be passed as the US economy cannot survive for long in the present state...
The Georgian President Mikhail Saakashivili, US educated and unabashedly pro-NATO has bitten more than he can chew. By ordering his troops into the breakaway provice of Osettia and encouraging them to indulge in wanton war crimes in that region, the state of Georgia has invited international condemnation. Even George Bush could only request a return to status quo ante and the US State Department understood that Georgia has invited trouble for itself in the hope that the Russia advance will resu...
The peace in the middle east seems to be extremely difficult because both Israel and Palestine are locked in a state of mutual recrimination: peace with justice means that the existing paradigm for ordering the relations between the two societies has to be reconsidered. The Ashkenazi elite from eastern Europe and Poland that is essentially the ruling aristocracy of Israel has dominated the politics of Israel since 1949 and given its long association with Zionism is unlikely to support the obvio...
It looked as though all was lost for Senator Barack Obama, just a few weeks back. How he faught back. He won very convincingly in North Carolina winning nealy 93% of the Afican-American vote and nearly 40% of the rest of the state. Those who said that Obama can win only small and inconsequential states will have to reassess their early opinions. Even in Indianna, the Lake County votes have still not been counted as I write and it is likely that Obama may even win there. Hillary Clinton has not w...
Race as a political issue exploded in a big way due to the indiscreet sermons of the pastor of the United Trinity Church, Rev Jermaiah Wright. The US media is aghast at the observation of the pastor that racism is alive and truly well in the USA. The liberal media that has thrived on the general atmosphere of political correctness is unable or unwilling to face up to the reality of racism in the social and political life of the USA. Senator Barack Obama gave a speech in Philadelphia in which he ...
In politics it does not always pay to play fair and square and by now the Illinois senator, Barack Obama, must have realised thatrunning a positive civilised campaign against the likes of Bil and Hillary Clinton does not yeild the desired results. The senator himself blames the "kitchen sink" campaign of Hillary and her surrogate number 1, Bill Clinton. I think the camapign was far far worse. Take the 3 a.m. telephone advert, for example, it insuniates that Obama does not have the necessa...
When we follow the American elections from across the world, we notice a strage sense of disconnect between what is "democratic" in the USA and the rest of the world. The election of the American president is surely one of the most complex and mind boggling political process anywhere in the world. As the 2000 election showed, though Al Gore won the majority of the popular votes, the rival candidate was able to steal the election as he won, not discounting help in Florida, the majority of the ...
It sound so cruel to say so soon after the horrific assasination of Benazir Bhutto that events appear twice in history, first time a tragedy second time a farce. The unfortunate death of a brave woman is now acquiring all the trappings of a South Asian dynastic soap opera. The immense groundswell of sympathy for the slain woman is being systematically squandered by the People's Party and its leadership, especialloy her husband, Mr Asif Ali Zardari. There seems to have been a concerted attemp...
The fundamental rule of civilised warfare is that civilians are not targetted in a war.. The logic of "collateral damage" leads to large scale violations of the rules of combat. I agree that the fact of terrorism has made some, not all, rules iirrelevant. In Iraq, the USA has been using baits to kill Iraqis. By planting "baits" and killing all those who bite the bait, USA has made a major tactical mistake, because this kind of unethical warfare will not discourage but only encourage counter t...
The Maliki regime was not known for prudence even in the best of times. The indecent haste with which the former president was hanged and the sordisd manner in which he was killed, no doubt, goes to show the uncivilised and barbaric face of the Maliki regime. It is well known that Blackwater was operating in Iraq in a brazen and cocky manner. The killing of 8 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad was just one of several such episodes in which this private security service was involved in. In fact the en...
In politics more harm is done by well intentioned do gooders than the cynical, power plays of the manipulative demagogue. Pakistan is now caught is the crosshairs of rising Islamic Terrorism and domestic instability engendered by the upsurge of democratic forces. USA in its policy of using Pakistan to fight insurgency in Afghanistan is tryint to run with the hare and hunt with the hound: as ususal US policy will only work against the long term goals USA has set for itself in the region. Now ...
Ever since George Bush talked about American "addiction to oil" there has been a flurry of policy statements about alternative fuels, particularly plant or cereal based organic extracts that can be blended with petrol to make alternate fuels. Like many of Bush's policy steaments and policies this quest for alternate fuel has been launched with cynical indifference to the dislocation this shift would cause to the world's food supply. The price of American corn has already begun to rise in the ...