If Iraq was George W. Bush's war, the Afghanistan war is surely Barack Hussein Obama's. Richard Holbroke is a well regarded diplomat, but he seems to have run out of ideas and in the process Obama and Holbroke have got the region enbroiled in a major war and the world does not seem to notice. Using Diego Garcia as a base from where war materiel is being ferried to Kandhahar in chartered Russian planes, the US war effort in Afghanistan stands poised for, yes, the infamous word once again, surg...
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 recent terror strikes in Mumbai have all the charecteristics of the al-qaeda and was carried out by nearly 20-25 well trained and armed men, probably of Pakistani or British origin. The purpose of the attacks was to cripple the financial center of India which is being seen by sections of the liberal establishment as abn "emergin power". The fact in that under the Congress regime presently in power India has become a soft state utterly incapable of responing to any kind of terrorism or chall...
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...
George Bush has done something that no true conservative would ever dream of doing. By using federal resources to buy up the bad debts of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the leading mortgage firm in the US, Bush and his Treasury Secretary have in effect nationalised the company, a policy that runs counter to the basic principles of fiscal conservatism. Yesterday that bailout was further extended with the 85 billion $ bailout of Lehman Brothers. Henry Paulson has set a very bad precedent and the US...
Politics is an unforgiving game. Barack Obama delivered a splendid sppech at Denver while accepting the nomination of his party to the Presidecy of the United States. He quite rightly laid out his domestic and foreign policy and set to rest the niggling doubts that some people had about his ability to lead the country in a time of war. It seems that the Republicans have forgotten that the US constitution makes the President the Commander-in- chief and not the other way around. Barack Obam...
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 campaign of Barack Obama is in trouble and everyone seems to understand it except the candidate and his team. Given the unpopularity of George II and the Iraq War, Obama should be poised for victory as the polls are less than 100 days away. Sure he enjoys a 5 point lead over Maccain but that lead is well within the margin of error and unless Barack Obama crosses the 8 to 10 point margin one cannot be sure of his victory. Of course, Barack Obama himself has not made any major faux p...
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 ...
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...