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'Cronies and warlords' wait in the wings
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has pulled no punches in saying that
"cronies and warlords" should have no place in the future of a democratic
Afghanistan. But the point is, cabinet and provincial governor appointments are
a part of a complex political contract in Kabul and it is extremely doubtful
that Karzai is in a position to oblige Britain, or any other country, even if
he wanted to. - M K Bhadrakumar (Nov 9, '09)
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It's payback time in Kabul
In return for their pledges to guarantee huge majorities for Hamid Karzai in
the August 20 election, the Afghan president had to make promises to a number
of power brokers and warlords in the provinces of key ministries in the next
government. Now Karzai has to deliver. - Gareth Porter
(Nov 9, '09)
Dalai Lama at apex of Sino-Indian
tensions
Along with the tension created by the Dalai Lama's visit to the disputed Indian
state of Arunachal Pradesh, shifts within the Tibetan movement, India's
evolving geopolitical stature and the United States' growing economic ties with
China are converging to create dangerous instability in Sino-Indian relations.
- Peter Lee (Nov 9, '09)
'Undeployables' sent to the Afghan
front
As the United States debates whether to send tens of thousands of extra troops
to Afghanistan, an already overstretched military is struggling to meet its
deployment numbers. One place it is targeting is military personnel who go
absent without leave, and who then are caught or turn themselves in. Many of
these soldiers are already "damaged or even broken". - Dahr Jamail and Sarah
Lazare (Nov 9, '09)
When war comes home
The massive 
Fort Hood military base in Texas, where a major last week gunned down 13
people, is one of the most heavily deployed facilities for the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan. Fort Hood soldiers have also accounted for more suicides than any
other army post since the invasion of Iraq in 2003; this year alone, the base
is averaging over 10 suicides a month. - Dahr Jamail
(Nov 9, '09)
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Cambodia rattles Thailand's
chain
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen's appointment of former Thai premier Thaksin
Shinawatra as an economic advisor has riled Bangkok. Hun Sen must have known
that his cozying up to Thaksin, who lives in exile and has been convicted on
corruption charges, would have this effect. But the long-serving Cambodian
leader more likely has other reasons in mind. - Craig Guthrie
(Nov 9, '09)
Turkey runs hot and cold
When it comes to national security, Turkey will choose the path on which it
feels most secure - whether this means getting friendly with Iran or dragging
its heels on Cyprus. This route, though, takes Turkey away from the United
States, the European Union and the NATO alliance, burning the very bridges
Ankara struggled for years to build. - Andrew Novo
(Nov 9, '09)
UNDER THE AFPAK VOLCANO, Part 2
Breaking up is (not) hard to do
The Pentagon well knows that AfPak is the key land bridge between Iran to the
west and China and India to the east; and that Iran has all the energy that
both China and India need. The balkanization of AfPak would neutralize China's
drive for land access from Xinjiang across Pakistan to the Arabian Sea, via the
port of Gwadar in Balochistan province. - Pepe Escobar
(Nov 6, '09)
This is the concluding article in a two-part report.
 PART 1:
Welcome to Pashtunistan
Israel up in arms over weapons
seizure
Israel has spared no effort in bringing the world's attention to its seizure of
a ship carrying tonnes of apparently Iranian-supplied weapons bound for
Hezbollah in Lebanon, via Egypt and Syria. If history is any guide, the
incident could be used as a pretext for waging another war on Hezbollah, or
even a strike against Iran. - Sami Moubayed (Nov
6, '09)
 CHAN
AKYA
Leverage not level
The picture is familiar - higher oil prices, a lower US dollar, and rising US
stocks. Missing from the picture is the leverage taken in China and related to
monetary expansion there - and what happens once that expansion is removed.
(Nov 6, '09)
BOOK REVIEW
China according to the Chinese
The Origin, Process, and Outcome of China's Reforms in the Past One Hundred Years
by Enbao Wang
Much of the English-language discourse on China's unpredicted rise is divided
between those who are fascinated and those who are frightened. The author makes
a useful attempt to bridge a growing gap between what has happened in China in
the past 30 years on the one hand, and persistent Western cultural-political
solipsism on the other. - Yu Bin (Nov 6, '09)
<IT WORLD>
Apple not so sweet in China
Not quite the end of the world for Apple, but the introduction of the iPhone to
China turned sour for the United States-based company and its mainland partner,
China Unicom, with initial sales falling well short of forecasts. Doomsday,
however, may be closer for the rest of the world, with the restart of Europe's
Large Hadron Collider.
Martin J Young surveys the week's developments in computing, science,
gaming and gizmos. (Nov 6, '09)
Passing the buck on North Korea
Bilateral talks scheduled between Stephen Bosworth, the United States point man
on North Korea, and the leadership in Pyongyang - purportedly over coaxing the
North back into six-party talks on its nuclear weapons program - may just be a
smokescreen to force China back into action. Even if Bosworth's mission is
fruitless, Beijing could no longer accuse the US of not showing its hand. - Donald
Kirk (Nov 6, '09)
Tennis diplomacy on the table in
Bali
If the Mohammedans won't come to the mountain, then the mountain - or at least
a stone from it - can come to the Mohammedans - or their closest neighboring
compatriots. The visit of a female Israeli tennis player to Bali, a resort
island of Muslim-majority Indonesia, has echoes of the sports diplomacy trail
famously blazed by American and Chinese ping-pong players. - Muhammad Cohen
(Nov 6, '09)
US puts its faith in Pakistan's
military
A deal hatched between the Pakistani military and United States Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton cleared the path for Hamid Karzai to be re-elected for a
second term as Afghanistan's president. With Karzai's challenger, Abdullah
Abdullah, now out of the picture, Pakistan's military will actively mediate
between Washington and the Taliban. Along with Abdullah, the big loser is
Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari. - Syed Saleem Shahzad
(Nov 5, '09)
Iran looks to Argentina for nuclear
fuel
Iran hopes to revive nuclear ties with Argentina that have been stalled since
Tehran was accused of involvement in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish center in
Buenos Aires. Suspicious of a United Nations-backed proposal that its uranium
be processed in France, Iran prefers the Argentina option as it would shut out
Europe and see the United States become a more central player. - Kaveh L
Afrasiabi (Nov 5, '09)
Is Obama's Iran policy doomed?
China has a massive investment in Iranian energy and is willing to supply
gasoline to that country in the face of United States threats of sanctions. The
attitude of China - and Russia - towards Tehran's nuclear plans also varies
radically from Washington's. In the face of this, US President Barack Obama's
current Iran policy is unlikely to work. - Dilip Hiro
(Nov 5, '09)
India on brink of Maoist offensive
More than 70,000 paramilitary troops are poised to begin Operation Green Hunt,
a massive offensive against Maoist rebels in India's northeast "Red Corridor",
should a final appeal to the Maoists to sit down with the government for talks
fail. - Ranjit Devraj (Nov 5, '09)
China's sleepy Hengqin wakes up
A relatively undeveloped corner of the Pearl River Delta immediately west of
Macau is being lined up for an extensive makeover. Hengqin island, part of the
mainland city of Zhuhai, is to be transformed into a resort paradise featuring
golf courses and theme parks. In the process, Macau and Hong Kong will be more
intimately integrated into the mainland delta, tricky legal relationships
permitting. - Kent Ewing (Nov 5, '09)
Russia, India and China go their
ways
Despite its best efforts, Russia failed at a recent trilateral summit to get
India and China to agree to a common regional initiative regarding Afghanistan.
This failure ensures that the United States can now press ahead with its own
strategy of striking grand bargains individually with these key players. - M K
Bhadrakumar (Nov 4, '09)
Little Laos relishes its big
moment
 For
the first time, Laos will host the Southeast Asian Games, with the 25th edition
of the 11-country sporting fest taking place next month. The tiny landlocked
country has had to rely on massive foreign aid - notably from China - to stage
the event, arousing considerable scorn in some circles. Yet, the enduring theme
of Laos' history has been its engagement with and dependence on foreign powers.
For Laos, this is a glorious coming-out for the one-party state. - Simon Creak
(Nov 4, '09)
THE BEAR'S LAIR
Bernanke learns from the wrong
crash
United States Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, noted as a specialist on
the 1929 market crash and the Great Depression, would be better off looking at
other financial disasters over the centuries for lessons more pertinent to the
present crisis. - Martin Hutchinson (Nov 3,
'09)
SINOGRAPH
China no longer
a law unto itself
China and the West, in particular ancient Rome and Greece, followed markedly
different routes on the way to developing the legal systems in use today. The
West was notably influenced by the needs of merchants and the market place for
equitable regulation, while China saw this as a threat to central power. As
China steps onto the international stage, it will have to reconcile such
differences. - Francesco Sisci (Oct 22, '09)
 SUN
WUKONG
Insurers denied run of property
The Chinese government's decision to allow insurance companies to invest some
of their near US$500 billion in holdings directly in real estate has property
developers keenly anticipating a new inflow of cash. Yet the red tape with
which Beijing is tying up the reform should be sufficient to ensure no quick
bucks - or sharp losses - for anyone. - Wu Zhong
(Oct 26, '09)
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David P
Goldman
(Nov 8, '09)
Credit lines for small businesses ... will continue to shrink. [This does not
look like] any recovery at all
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Clock
winds
down on APEC
Twenty years after the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum was established,
its goal of moving toward free trade among the now 21 members looks
increasingly distant amid rising protectionism and a noodle soup of bilateral
deals - Megawati Wijaya
Sri Lanka in race
to keep trade pact
Thousands of Sri Lankan garment jobs are at risk as Colombo faces the loss of
European trade concessions if the country is found not to be implementing
numerous international conventions covering human and labor rights and other
issues.
Failure written into
'too big' policy
Even as Washington tries to ensure limited damage from any future collapse of
"too big to fail" financial institutions, its own policies are helping the top
US banks tighten their market dominance. Nor is Washington addressing the
inherent risk from small entities failing in large numbers. - Henry C K Liu
CREDIT BUBBLE BULLETIN
About a half paradigm
The shift in global financial power is increasingly evident, and when an
unchanging US Federal Reserve loses its already waning power over global
yields, the risks associated with its present course will manifest themselves
in a very problematic financial and economic crisis.
Doug Noland looks at the previous week's events each Monday.
FROM THE BLOG
Evidence lacking
Contrary to academic economist Nouriel Roubini's claims of a thriving US dollar
carry trade, there is NO evidence that the world is borrowing money to buy
equities. American assets have gotten cheaper. - David Goldman
MARKET RAP
Appearances can be deceiving
A volatile week saw exchanges trimming their losses, but absent an upbeat
Shanghai and a downbeat Tokyo the period is best described as nondescript, with
no clear engine to drive markets stronger in the immediate future.
R M Cutler runs his eye over the ups and downs in the week's markets.
(Nov 6, '09)
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[Re How Eurocentric is your day? (Nov 5)] "I am surprised! I learned all that
in junior high school 45 years ago. It was part of general knowledge. It was in
old Europe." - Dominik S
"... We in Asia should ban all reference to the Far East etc, and instead call
Europe the Middle West and America the Far West." - aquicke
"... I live in Australia. Over half a century ago our Prime Minister of the day
re-educated us to refer to what Brits still quaintly refer to as the Far East
as 'the Near North' - for viewed from here it is preposterous that lands like
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From Our Mailbox
[Re China according to
the Chinese, November 6] Enbao Wang's book about Chinese reforms is
indeed long overdue. The fact of the matter is that there never were any
Western models of "capitalist democracy" and "human rights" for China to
imitate in the first place.
Jonathan X
Canada
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to Letters to the Editor |
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ATol Specials
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By Syed Saleem Shahzad
(Jan '09) |
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VIDEO
Taliban's new breed of leader
(May '08) |
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The
Gates
Inheritance
By
Roger Morris
(June '07) |
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Syed Saleem Shahzad reports on
the Afghan war from the Taliban side
(Dec '06)
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How
Hezbollah defeated Israel
By
Mark Perry and
Alastair Crooke
(Oct '06)
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Mark
Perry and
Alastair Crooke
talk to the 'terrorists'
(Mar '06)
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China:
The
Impossible
Revolution
By
Francesco Sisci
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The Coming
Trade War
By Henry C K Liu
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A series
by Henry C K Liu
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Sinoroving
Pepe Escobar in China
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Money, Power
and
Modern Art
A series by Henry C K Liu
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Andre Gunder Frank on Uncle Sam and his
shrinking dollar
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By Pepe Escobar with
photographs by Kevin Nortz
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Nir Rosen goes inside the Iraqi
resistance
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Nir Rosen rides with the US 3rd
Armored Cavalry in western Iraq
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