In the bad old days of the Roman Empire, there was a territory that the Romans tried to conquer for nearly 200 years, but never quite succeded. Known as Parthia, this territory roughly corresponds to south western Afghanistan and parts of the Iranian plateau. USA is meeting stiff resistance in exactly the same region and surprisingly for the same reason--imperial overstretch. While Iraq is getting all the attention, the original war on terror centred on Afghanistan is not receiving adequa...
One of the more attractive features of the USA is the great institutions of higher learning that flourish all over the USA. It can be said that the USA has the world's best Universities and the largest number of Nobel Prize winners and a tradition of fearless criticism. The faculty teaching in the Universities are undoubtedly the most talented and on the whole involved in their research and teaching. A open society that respects dissent is cultivated in the classrooms and lecture halls. Unfo...
A few days back I got a bitter lesson in how divicive Jack Murtha has become to some conservatives. The fact remains that Rep Jacj Murtha has a track record of being pro military and is a ranking member of the Armed Forces Committee. Rep Murtha has served as the former chairman of the Defence Appropriations Sub Committee. He voted in favor of the War and when he realized that the war is only putting US soldiers to needless risk, Murtha has changed his mind. He is not a peacenik as some r...
The embedded journalists from the USA and UK are doing a great disservice to their own people by consciously hiding the untold suffering of the people of Iraq in the face of American occupation. The impact of the war and the insurgency have been devastating on women and children. It is really sickening to see fat well fed Iraqi men, Quislings all of them, appear on Western TV and mouth innanities about the great job that is being done by the coalition. The pictures from Basra put paid to such...
More tham 45 years ago Dr Henry Kissenger wrote a book which is more relevant today than it was in 1958 when Harvatrd University published it. Entitled [I ]Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy[/I ]this book argued the provocative thesis that the Westphalia System of having the State with its monopoly on the coercive power represented by the army and the like will not be the sole determinant of foreign policy in the nuclear age. Any state attempting to change the international status quo will pe...
The third Chife of Staff has taken charge at the White House. Josh Bolten, an old Texas hand, has worked as a policy analyst with George W Bush even when the junoir Buish was a Governor. His brief seems to be simple: make sure all the scandals of "Scooter Libby, Karl Rove and the CIA leajk case, are all pushed under the carpet and ensure a smooth sailing for the present President.. The Republicans are scared that come November they would lose control over Congress and with a Democratic House ...
A powerful neoconservative voice has risen against the prophet of neoconservatism--George Bush. Francis Fukuyama, known all over the world for his provocative and yes, celebratory thesis about the end of history, has written a withering attack on Bush and the betrayal of the neoconservative agenda. The carapace of ideas such as preventive war,benevolent hegemony, war against terror are analysed and critiqued in great detail in thois booik. When the Iraq Qar was attacked on humanitarian and s...
The Chairman of the House International Relations Committee, a ranking member of the Republican Party has in a recent speech made the following observations: Our Power, then has the grave liability of rendering our theories about the world immune from failure. But by becoming deaf to easily discerned warning signs, we may ignore the long term costs that result from our actions and dismiss reve...
The situation in Iraq is nowhere near normal. Three years after the Bush Admionistration launched its invasion of Iraq the country has been reduced to shambles. Electricity is supplies for only 4 to 6 hoiurs, schools and hospitals are virtually closed down, essential suppl\ies are to be had at an exhorbitant price and a proud and civilised nation reduced to sectarian and civil strife. The US invasion is the sole cause for this unfolding trgedy. The regular readers of our blog would kno...
In his extremely perceptive bvook India's Nuclear Bomb, George Perkovitich has documented in telling detail the long and covert road to nuclearization in India. Right fro the start of her nuclear research in the early i950,s the civillian uses of nuclear technology has only been a fascade for carrying out a covert programme of weaponisation. The sanctimonious humbug that a developing country needs nuclear energy for meeting its ever increasing demands for electricity was first trotted out by ...
Even those of us who are extremely critical of the policies and programs of the current Administration in Washington DC have always belieded the there is conviction behing the arrogant and misplaced policies so relentlessly pursued by George W Bush. However we are sorel;y disappointed by the fact that George Bush has given the Nucleatr Non Proliferation Treaty, the corner stone of the non proliferation regime presently in place, a quiet and furtive burial during his visit to South Asia. The n...
The victory of the Hamas in the elections to the Palestinian Assembly has sent shock waves through the Western capitals. Of the Quartet only Russia has been pragmatic enough to invite the Hamas leadership. Since the government of Israel is unlikely to allow the leaders in Palestine to travel, the leadership currently based in Syria will meet Putin and the members of the Russian government. What does the victory of Hamas portend for the peace process envisaged by the two state solution firmed ...
A few weeks back a Danish newspaper published a picture of Prophet Momammad, peace be on his name. The cartoon showed the Prophet wearing a bomb in his turban. The Moslem world was just aghast at this irreverential portrayal of the Prophet. Since then the fires have been raging in Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Pakistan and Afghanistan. The Western embedded media says that it is a clash between Freedom of Expression and an increasingly intolerant Islam. This view is wrong because there are laws in al...
George Bush is an impressive speaker. Unfortunately politcs and statecraft require more than eloquence. The ability of a politician to connect with his people is important. The American people have got sick and tired of the war in Iraq and more than 60% of them want the troops to return home. More than 2,340 young mebn and women have been killed in Iraq and there is no set up in the violence. Bush had nothing new to say. He does not have a plan to disengage from Iraq. The mush promised Iraqi ...
The junior senator from New York is agusty lady. She is known to be an aggressive speaker and a good orator.. Yet she made a remark about the House Republican Leadership running like a "plantation". This remark on Martin Luther King Day has been considered inappropriate and has stirred a lot of dust. She added: You know what I mean. I think this remark is being twisted out of shape. Leaving aside the appropriateness or otherwise of this remark, the fact is that the REPUBLICANS not Democrat...