Right from the days of antiquity, an undercurrent of European unity lay simmering. In fact, one can even read the famous Histories of Heodotus as an argument for Eropean unity, a point Antony Paged argues very eloquently in his Worlds at War This idea of Europe was furtehr reinforced by the notion of Christendom and of course, the Holy Roman Empire. Christmas Day AD 800 was indeed a remarkable day well worth remembering even as we see that idea getting unstuck. The German war crimes of ...
India is presently ranked very high in the list of the most corrupt counties in the world. Only Nigeria and Burkina Faso rank a few places below. With such a d distinguished ranking, may I add that the leadership of that corrupt government headed by Sonia and ManMohan Singh even want a place at the high table of diplomacy and statecraft. I have said so several times on this blog and else where that India does not deserve a security council seat given its track record of governance. Havi...
On 29th April 2011, President Barack Obama signed an excecutive order that authorised the Navy Seals VI unit to seek and kill Osama Bin Laden, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks on the targets in USA. Are we to believe that the US president has the authority to order the execution of those deemed inimical to the US. Is this argument that USA can violate the sovereignty of a state, enter its territory, carry out a clandestine operation, pick up the evidence and leave, all actions done in accorda...
Fist things first. USA gave an accurate and truthful account of the mid night encounter in which Osama bin Laden was killed. Had the same event happened in my part of the world, the Government would have lied saying that the man was armed and was using women as human shield. A rifle or M-16 would have been placed next to him to make it appear that the truth has been said. I appreciate the Obama Administration and the Navy Seal VI unit for resisting the temptation to score brownie points. Second,...
Early this morning the US Special Forces acting on a tipoff launched an attack on a villa near Abbotsbad, a town 150 kilometers from the capital. The US attack was successful and without the loss of life the master mind on 9/11 was killed. It would have been foolish to take him prisoner as that would have encouraged hostages situations. So he was killed and no one can fault the US forces for this successful attack. I must say that there will be a sense of closure for a national trauma and...
Libya was the last major territory to be seized by the Roman empire and the first to escape from its clutches along with Parthia. The Libyans faught long and hard against the Italians when they conquered the desert land in the 1930's. The fact is that Col Qaddaffi who was recently rehabilitated in the affections of Western powers after spending more than 30 years as an international paraiah is not a military and political pushover. In spite of the Lokerbee bombing he was able to get the m...
Julian Assange has become thge very symbol of political freedom and one can say that in this day and age, if there is one individual who has literally created history, then it is he. Having said that we must also admit that having known the wiles of the security sate that he decries so much, he would be percecuted. Today he stands virtually alone. Abandoned even by the country of his birth--Australia. Britain and Sweden both countries that preach to the rest of the world the virtues of a ...
One one really likes the Col and he is an unsavory sort of fellow. A megalomaniac with vision of grandeur extending throughout North Africa. It appears that al-jazeera is extremely influential; in the Arabic world just as I pointed out in an earlier blog. However, this channel is successful against secular dictators and is making no headway in countries like Saudi Arabia in which repression is a way of life. Col Gadaffi is unlikely to give in to the US backed EU enforced no-fly zone. Benga...
The mainstream Ameican Press has been covering the Raymond Davis shooting episode from just one side. I would like to present the facts as they are on the ground. US presence in Pakistan is deeply resented as the unmitigated drone attacks (I have already written about it) has caused widespread collateral damage. Of course, there has been as odd success against a militant or two, but the vast amjority of those killed are just innocent women and children. In fact the state of Pakistan is lik...
More than 150 years ago, a correspondent for the New York Times, bearded and with a penchant for purple prose wrote: A spectre is haunting Europe and it is that of Revolution. Today we can say that the spewctre of political change is haunting the Middle East and the fall of Ben Ali who rule Tunisis for nearly 25 years the imminent regime change in Egypt shows that the people of the Middle East have got tired of the keptocarcies that have been in power thanks to Western backing. The demonstrati...
Judge Richard Bork, a conservative in his judicial pronouncements, said the the second ammendment guaranteed the "right of states to form militias, not for individual to bear arms". I want to share some statistics. Source: Time (international edition) Jan 24, 2011 p29. In one year 31,224 people die of gun related violence. 12,632 die of homicide by the use of a gun. 100,000 are shot in the USA every year in murders, assaults, suiicides, and police action. ...
The shooting at Tucson, Arizona, is shocking and I extend my sorrow to each one of the families of the victims. My hear goes out to the mother and father of the 9 year old child who was killed in that horrific incident. May God give the devastated parents the courage to face what ought not to have happened. Rep Gabrielle Giffords was targetted twice. Once by Sarah Palin who put her in the cross hairs of a gun sight on her website. I do not mean to suggest that there is a direct cause and e...
The recent arrest of Julian Assange in London and the denial of bail raises some interesting questions. Is his arrest related to the release of the 250,000 secret cables of the US Department of State and the allegation of rape a mere pretext to extridite him to Sweden from where he can be sent to US to face possible trial under US laws. First, the Espionage Act of 1917 can be involked only against US citizens and those arreseted on US soil like the case of the 2 German spies who landed in Newfou...
One of the fundamental values that USA and the West propounded in its sustained campaign against the erstwhile USSR was the fact that dissent and freedom of expression is regarded as sacrosant in Western society. Now the fact that the Chinese dissedent who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize this year is regarded as a hero by large sections of world public opinion is a tribute to the propaganda machinery that worked overtime to impress upon the world that dissent is not tolerated in the Peo...
The flurry of activity in the US State Department, with the Secretary of State Hilary Clinton making a brave attempt to explain to the world that US policy remains on course in spite of the free wheeling nature of the documents outed by Wikileaks. Though I have not gone through more than a small fraction of the documents, I cannot imagine any real probblem emanating from the publication of the embassy records. Of course there is that odd bit of political gossip, a carping comment, a biting sacr...