The final cheers!

A man called Michael Jackson has died yesterday. No, not his more famous namesake the pop singer. This Michael Jackson was a famous beer writer, who published many books about the world's beers. He also wrote a book about Belgian beers, which helped make them famous all over the world. He was also called "the beer hunter", the title of a popular television series he produced. (CNN: “Famed 'beer hunter' dies”)

Michael jackson was always on the look-out to taste new beers and to try to accurately describe their taste. He wanted something more than pils. When he tasted a beer brewed by Belgian monks he was hooked to discover more: Westmalle, Trappist, Geuze, Orval, Westvleteren, Duvel,... Sales of his books exceeded three million in 18 languages.

At 65 - much too early - he drank his last beer. But his descriptions of beers will continue to guide beer lovers for many years to come. Cheers!

China's happy mask

According to secretary general Giles Merritt of the think tank Friends of Europe , “China is mistakingly downplaying its own serious structural weaknesses”. He says the Chinese leaders fail to mention the country's problems because they don't want to lose face. (The Taipei Times: “Underneath China's happy mask”)

The Chinese indeed don't like losing face, but that's besides the point. Many Westerners see China as a rising power, exporting ever more goods, collecting giant foreign exchange reserves and even getting stronger militarily. Most foreign businessmen only go to the big coastal cities. They are mesmerized by the skyscrapers in Pudong and the Olympic village in Beijing. They hardly know anything about the countryside and the poor regions of the country. But you cannot say that the Chinese leaders themselves do not know this, as Wang Yong correctly points out in the Shanghai Daily. (“Western observer fails to see vigorous debate in China over problems”)

China is still a developing country and is certainly not hiding its problems. Some villages still don't have good roads or even electricity. China is developing fast, but it still needs several decades to become a developed country. To have a comprehensive understanding of China, you need to look at both the developed and the underdeveloped parts.

Poppyland

No, the Taliban are not a nice bunch of guys. Who would want to envelop the bodies of women in a burqa where not even the eyes are visible? Men who impose this requirement must be totally out of their minds. The Taliban wanted to establish a dark medieval society. But what can you expect after 200 years of meddling by the foreign powers: the British, the Russians, the Iranians, the Pakistanis, the U.S. and an assorted collection of NATO troops? But the Talibs scored two achievements: they defeated the warlords and brought some sort of justice. Cruel justice, chopping of hands, feet and penises. And they almost eradicated the opium production.

Today, Afghanistan is ruled by nobody. There is the puppet Karzai regime in the presidential palace in Kabul, the warlords, the resurgent Taliban and the NATO troops. And guess what: the opium production is soaring to record highs. (The Independent: “Record opium crop helps the Taliban fund its resistance”), (The Guardian: “UN horrified by surge in opium trade in Helmand”), (The New York Times: “Afghan Opium Crop at Record High”).

Opium production increased more than a third compared to last year. Helmand province is the biggest single opium producer in the world, right under the noses of the NATO armies. The head of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, Antonio Maria Costa had to admit: “The results are very bad, terrifyingly bad”. And who is to be held responsible for this? The foreign armies occupying Afghanistan today.

The mercenary army

It should surprise nobody that the U.S. military is facing ever more difficulties to sign up new recruits. Everybody with a few grams of brain matter knows that after signing up, Iraq is waiting. Either they will have to endure innumerable tours of duty, utterly exhausting even the most battle-hardened soldiers. Now the U.S. Army has found a way: bribery. (The Washington Post: “Many Take Army's 'Quick Ship' Bonus”)

Since late July, more than 90% of new recruits have accepted a 20,000 dollar “quick ship” bonus. For most of them, that's the equivalent of more than a year's pay. Sure, that comes in very handy. But the flipside is that the new recruits leave their homes within days of signing up for a short crash course leaving them unprepared and badly trained. Then it's onwards to the battlefields of Iraq. Many of them will never get the chance to spend their 20,000 dollar, but will instead quickly return to the homeland... in a body bag.

In the first three weeks of the program, which started on July 25, the army enlisted 3,814 new recruits using the bonus. The American people is tired of the war in Iraq and the only way the military can fill its ranks is bribery, wasting more of the taxpayers' money to send the sons and daughters of the country to commit crimes abroad. Some of them would indeed have joined up, perhaps in 2008, without the bonus. So the army may now have a supply of fresh recruits, but will face more difficulties next year. The flow of cannon fodder will dry up.

Meanwhile, Bush wants to launch another criminal war against Iran. That will break the back of the U.S. military and even lots of money will not be able to solve the personnel problem. You can have the best military hardware in the world, you can sow death and destruction on an unimaginable scale, but in the end it's the people who are the driving force. Equipped with the best hardware, bombers, fighter jets, helicopters, tanks, spy satellites... the U.S. is defeated every day by Kalashnikovs and roadside bombs.

So what about the Iraqi resistance? Do they have a problem finding new recruits? No, because the war crimes committed by the U.S. are turning each and every Iraqi into a dedicated resistance fighter,... free of charge.

Puppet-on-a-string

Nouri al-Maliki is an American puppet, frequently traveling to Washington to receive instructions from his boss, George W. Bush. But as it goes with puppets, if they won't or can't fulfill their master's wishes, they are prone to be kicked aside and replaced. al-Maliki is coming under fire because he can't deliver on the “benchmarks” which emerged from neo-con fantasy land. Hillary Clinton said that al-Maliki should be replaced by a "less divisive and more unifying figure". The problem for the U.S. is: another puppet won't be able to deliver either. The Iraqi government is totally irrelevant outside the Green Zone. How can it accomplish anything?
(ZNet: “King George, al-Maliki, & the Press”) (CounterPunch: “Don't Carpool with Nouri al-Maliki”)

In 1963 the U.S. ambassador in Saigon and the C.I.A. supported (behind the scenes of course) the murder by South Vietnamese officers of president Ngo Dinh Diem, because he could not fulfill America's wishes. al-Maliki should watch his back or buy a one-way ticket to Tehran, where as a fellow Shia he is still welcome.

al-Maliki told his American critics to stop meddling in the affairs of his country and behave like colonial overlords. But that's exactly what Iraq is: a colony of the U.S. and al-Maliki is a puppet-on-a-string. Until the master cuts the string...

Freedom of immigration

Many people on the right as well as on the left of the political spectrum oppose free immigration. Foreigners – defined as people from less fortunate countries of course, not rich Americans and Saudis – are not allowed to stay if they don't have the proper papers. They are hunted by the police, locked up in closed centers akin to jails and sometimes forcefully expelled to their countries of origin. The right says they are a danger to “our values”, which of course are defined as being of higher quality than theirs. On the left, immigrants are feared because they supposedly drag down wage levels.

But Nick Clegg has an interesting observation to make. (The Guardian: “Ignoring immigration issue is not an option”) “Millions of Britons take up the freedom to live and work abroad; there are more Britons living abroad today than there are non-UK citizens living here. We should never lightly deny the freedom of movement to others that we so fully enjoy ourselves.” Well said! “We” claim the right to migrate to other countries, and most of “us” will certainly keep our “values” and perhaps not even learning the language of the country we are living in. But if “they” come to live among “us”, they have to “integrate”, that is learning “our” language, conforming to “our values” (no wearing of headscarves) and still “they” will be treated as a nuisance at best and sometimes much worse.

Clegg still calls for borders to be controlled more effectively. By the same logic, other countries should not allow so many Britons to immigrate. "We" keep "them" out, but "we" should still be able to go and live "there". There is only one correct policy: abolish the borders and let everybody travel and live where he or she pleases. Not only the rich Westerners, but everybody.

The Book of Faces

The Facebook networking application is getting really hot. I joined some time ago at the invitation of an ex-colleague. It's certainly nice to keep in touch with old friends all over the world. You get notified when they add new photos or favorite music. You can send them a message or poke them from within the Facebook page. You can show off a lot of private information: contact details, places you have visited, photos, books you have read, your favorite music. You name it and there is probably a way to put it in your profile.

It's a pity you can only join one country network. All the expats out there would love to join two or even more networks, because it allows you to send friends requests to people you don't know in other countries. The World Friends application is not up to scratch, because you get too many random requests from people you don't even want to be friends with, like a fat (nothing against fat people, my beer belly is also further developing) lady from California, Presbyterian, conservative, with the Bible listed as her favorite book. Ouch, not my piece of cake. I'd prefer to be friends with a Mongolian girl with a Genghis Khan necklace. But Facebook doesn't make it easy to find them.

Anyway, so many people are joining up these days, Facebook will develop further and it could still be a good help to find long-lost friends or find new ones.

One must however be careful not to spend too much time on Facebook. One more application to check several times a day, while we already have to keep an eye on e-mail, websites, blog,... And there are still only 24 hours in a day!

Facebook is also increasingly used to launch local or even worldwide protests. Maybe someday it will become not only a friendly tool, but a revolutionary tool.

On the balcony

The attempt by Yves Leterme to form a new Belgium government has crashed. The king had to be whisked back to Brussels in an airforce jet from his vacationing spot in the South of France to enable Leterme to give back his assignment. What was the king doing in the South of France when everybody with the slightest political feeling could predict the pending crisis? But that's a minor detail. When he returned to his Belvedere palace, he passed a banner proclaiming “Independence for Flanders!” That may very well be the long-term outcome of this vaudeville.

The bottom line is: the situation is completely blocked. Leterme has failed miserably, and he's partly to be blamed for the mess. So is Madame “Non” Joelle Milquet and everybody else around the negotiating table. Since the elections on June 10, 75 days have been wasted in useless chit-chat carefully avoiding the main topic: the future of the Belgian federal state. Leterme is now heading for the balcony and wait for others to find a way out of the mess.

The best was out would be to:
declare Brussels “District of Europe”, Brussels D.E., where all the major European institutions are located. Issue European passports to the inhabitants of Brussels.
Split Belgium along the “language frontier” into two autonomous regions: Flanders and Wallonia. Of course we get rid of the monarchy in the process.
Establish a Europe of the regions, abolishing the nation states set up in the 18th and 19th century. In each and every European state there are profound contradictions between regions: Amsterdam against Rotterdam, Munich against Hannover, Paris against Marseille, Madrid against Bilbao, London against Glasgow. Get rid of the decaying carcass of the nation states and establish a true Europe of the regions.

One option is an independent Democratic People's Republic of Flanders. But creating new states in Europe is not the best solution. Another alternative is for Flanders to join the Netherlands. More than 60% of the Dutch people would welcome a union with Flanders, but more than 60% of the Flemish people doesn't like the idea. Moreover, getting rid of the Belgian dynasty of the Saksen-Coburgs, to be ruled by the Dutch dynasty of the Oranjes is not an appealing thought. A unified Dutch-Flemish country would be economically very strong, but it would have to be a republic. The monarchies should be buried together with Belgium.

The V-word

Not V from Victory, but V from Vietnam. In the past, George W. Bush stubbornly refused any comparison between Iraq and Vietnam. Now that his brain (Karl Rove) is on the way out, Bush's I.Q. is reaching new depths. In a speech to the Veterans of Foreign War in Kansas City, Bush did make a comparison, but of course a totally erroneous one. Look what happened in Vietnam after we left, goes his distorted logic, so we'd better stay in Iraq. The basic reason why Iraq is in such a bloody mess is precisely the American occupation. End the occupation, and it will still be a bloody mess for some time, but at the same time the first step will have been taken for Iraq to recover from the American invasion. (The Guardian: “This is a war for credibility”; “The Saigon syndrome”)

According to Bush, the mistake America made in Vietnam was not to have stayed there longer, a mistake he does not want to repeat in Iraq. The mistake (or more precisely war crime) America made in Vietnam as well as in Iraq was to commit aggression against those countries. The U.S. has learnt nothing; as Mao said “imperialism can only lift a rock to drop it on its own foot”. It will never learn. Bush also points out that a retreat would embolden the “terrorists”. But it is precisely the U.S. aggression that pushes them to act. Osama bin Laden was once a partner of the U.S. in the struggle against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. So why did he become America's deadly enemy? Because he believes in “Islamo-fascism”? Not at all! Because he objected to the stationing of American troops in Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries. Leave those Muslim countries alone, and al-Qaeda will no longer have the incentive to attack America. Bush is doing exactly the opposite. al-Qaeda did not have any activities in the Iraq of Saddam, it does now, right under the noses of the American troops.

Blackhawk down

Today, 14 U.S. soldiers died when their UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter crashed in Iraq. Apparently, the cause of the crash was mechanical failure, not hostile action. It is the worst single incident since January 2005. (The New York Times: "Black Hawk Fails and Crashes, Killing 14 U.S. Soldiers")

Boys everywhere like to play soldier. They want to show that there strong and brave. To learn to become a leader of men, or perhaps to impress the girls. Sometimes playing soldier causes cuts and bruises. But that about it. Boys should grow up and stop playing soldier. In the real world war kills. Another 14 coffins loaded on a C-130. 28 parents, 14 wives and how many children in mourning. Since the start of the war, 3,721 U.S. troops died in Iraq. Tens of thousands got severely wounded and will remember their “tour of duty” in Iraq forever. They didn't die or get maimed to defend “freedom and democracy” nor to help the Iraqi people. They went to a distant land most knew nothing about to topple its government and occupy it. There action caused more than 700,000 Iraqis to die and another 4 million to become refugees. They died to achieve this “glorious” goal. The people of Iraq despise them, the peoples of the world detest them. When the American people is no longer deluded by neocon claptrap, it will also stop to “support the troops”.

Grow up and stop playing soldier. Grown-up men make love...

Taiwan powder keg

Former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton has called on his country to resume diplomatic relations with Taiwan. He believes that relations with the U.S. are so important to China that it will have to accept diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Taiwan. Many neocons are completely out of touch with reality, but Bolton is one of the most brain-damaged.

Still, some people believe that in the not too distant future, a war between China and Taiwan is likely to break out. (see: Richard C. Bush and Michael E. O'Hanlon's “A War Like No Other: The Truth About China's Challenge to America”) Now, O'Hanlon is also the guy who said things were improving in Iraq, the U.S. can still win and Bush is a hero. (see my post of August 9 below)

Moreover, you would assume these guys have a crystal ball, knowing perfectly well what is going to happen. Well, nobody has, so they are just hallucinating from inhaling too much neocon nonsense. You could certainly piece together some possible scenarios for the future. But “A War Like No Other” goes too far. The authors say they don't want to see a war between China and Taiwan, but they secretly hope that China would be seriously damaged and the U.S. could remain the overlord of the world.

They write that “a process can begin that, if mismanaged, can escalate out of control. It should not. But it could.” Yes, it could. But it is also very well possible that the Chinese on both sides of the Taiwan Straight are clever enough to avoid it from happening. If war mongers like John Bolton would just shut up.

The King meddles

The creation of a new Belgian government is going nowhere. The country is irrevocably split between Dutch and French speakers. The Dutch speakers want to transfer more authority in almost all areas of governance from the federal level to the regional level. The federal government would only remain as a service-providing institution, whereas the regional governments would have the real power. The French-speakers want to move in exactly the opposite direction: more authority transferred back to the federal level.

The making of a new government always includes compromises: party A gives in one item, but gains on another and so on. Each party can blow up its gains and minimize its losses, thereby hoping to survive the next election. But if two groups are moving in exactly opposite directions, compromises are useless. Giving more authority to the regions in one area and taking it away in another doesn't solve anything and only achieves to make the whole construction of the state more complicated.

On Friday evening, prime minister-to-be Yves Leterme saw no way out anymore and called on king Albert II for help. What he could have done was to return his task of forming a government back to the king, who could have named somebody else – which wouldn't have solved much, because nobody can solve the problem – but that's what the constitution allows for. But no: the king called the party leaders to his palace to have private discussions. As Sp.A leader Vande Lanotte (a constitutional rights professor) pointed out: this is unconstitutional. The king may only consult the politicians at the start of the whole process to determine whom to name as an “informer” to gather more information or a “former” to write the next government's program and form the cabinet. Intervening in between is “not done”. The king is not neutral: he is a French-speaking aristocrat now giving his support to a coalition of Catholics and Liberals.

The King of the Belgians has overstepped his authority to save Leterme's skin and give a coalition government of his liking another try. It's not exactly a royal coup d'etat, but it's nevertheless impermissible. If he continues to meddle, he should be forced to abdicate the throne and the monarchy should be abolished. It'll save a cent or two for the already disastrous budget.

Local bullies

Last week a stone bridge under construction in Fenghuang county, Hunan province, collapsed killing dozens of people. The exact number is still unknown. The South China Morning Post reported on August 18 that officials attacked journalists who were investigating the disaster. Among the journalists were some from the communist party's mouthpiece People's Daily.

This is just incredible. Who do these local bullies think they are? Those corrupt criminals no doubt got bribes from the construction company, which used shoddy materials leading to the deaths of workers and bystanders. And they have the temerity to attack reporters form the People's Daily in Beijing because they want to hide the truth. They accused the Chinese reporters of "illegally conducting interviews". But this "crime" has already been abolished for foreign correspondents, who don't need any authorization and only need to obtain permission from the people they interview. How is it possible that reporters from the People's Daily - the newspaper of the Central Committee - are accused by local nobodies of "illegally conducting interviews"? One of the attackers was the director of Fenghuang's agricultural bureau.

These local bullies believe they are the boss in their local kingdom and can do whatever they like. Laws and courts are not going to solve the problem, because the local judges are the buddies of the local bullies.

Those local kingdoms all over China make live very difficult for the people. The profiteering local bosses and capitalists should be brought to justice. But what are the central authorities in Beijing going to do about it? They are too afraid to rely on the people and launch a mass movement.

Cars and blue skies

A year before the start of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, the Chinese organizers are worried that air pollution might seriously hinder the athletes' performances. By then, most polluting factories will have been relocated far away from the Olympic Green, all construction sites shut down and migrant laborers sent back home. But what about Beijing's ever increasing car population, growing at the rate of 1,000 a day?

The city government decided to try to find out. On August 17 and 19 only cars with odd-numbered license plates would be allowed on the roads; on August 18 and 20 their even-numbered brothers and sisters would take over.

A random check yesterday on a trip from home to my favorite restaurant Morel's showed that Beijing's drivers are overwhelmingly adhering to the ban, some no doubt disgruntingly, but they nevertheless kept there cars off the roads. Traffic went much more smoothly. But the smoggy sky didn't disappear. (The Times: “Traffic ban fails to beat city smog”)

Of course, four days is too short to have a big impact. Perhaps if the experiment would be extended for three months, the sky might turn blue again, but that would disrupt the normal life of the city too much.

Perhaps it would have been better to build the Olympic Green on the steppes of Inner Mongolia?

Another phantom - HEU

At last there is some progress on the North Korean nuclear issue. IAEA inspectors have verified that the North has shut down its nuclear reactor in Yongbyon. But that's only one part – although an important one – of North Korea's expected full declaration of its nuclear activities. Diplomats are now hammering out the next steps at a meeting in Shenyang, China. (The Financial Times: “Next step for N Korea nuclear disclosure”)

The American neocons can still sabotage the whole ongoing process by chasing the Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU) chimera. U.S. officials claim that in 2002, the DPRK's vice foreign minister Kang Sok-ju admitted that the country was making HEU. The DPRK government later retracted this statement, either because the U.S. were lying and it was never made, because Kang bluffed and shouldn't have, or because what he said was true but should have been kept secret.

It is difficult to know the truth. But let's assume for a minute that one of the first two possibilities is true, that the DPRK really does not has a HEU program, just like Saddam Hussein didn't have weapons of mass destruction (WMD). You can prove that you have something by showing it, but you can never convincingly prove that you don't have something. Maybe you do, but you have hidden it very well. The North Koreans could prove that they were busy with plutonium enrichment – because they were and that's why they could dismantle it. But HEU? If it was bluff, they cannot prove the program doesn't exist.

It's not excluded that the neocons will grab this ghost to claim that North Korea did not fully disclose its nuclear program – playing the same trick they played on Saddam as a pretext to invade Iraq.

The North Koreans may not be the world's most open jolly good fellows, but put before the hard choice of believing the North Koreans or the American neocons – in the absence of hard proof – I'd believe the former.

"Terrorist" Guardians

The U.S. government is contemplating to put Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), also known as the Pasdaran, on its list of terrorist organizations, which already includes – among others – Hamas, Hizbollah, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command (DFLP-GC) and the Communist Party of the Philippines. The biggest terror organizations in the world – the C.I.A. and the Mossad – are of course not included. While the IRGC is separate from Iran's regular armed forces, it is nevertheless part of Iran's defense establishment. It is the first time part of a country's armed forces are put on the list.

The U.S. authorities are claiming – as usual without the slightest proof – that the IRGC is delivering all kinds of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) to Shiite groups in Iraq, which they use to kill American soldiers. (Mind you: according to international law, killing American soldiers in Iraq is perfectly legal, as an occupied people has the right to kill its occupiers) Indeed, a rising number of American soldiers is being killed by the Madhi Army, but that is because the U.S. itself is more and more targeting the Mahdi Army, which is only fighting back with the weapons they have, not because they get more deadly weapons from Iran. The U.S. government has never been bothered by the truth, whatever it can concoct together to justify a war of aggression will do.

By labeling the IRGC a terrorist organization, the U.S. is paving the way for air strikes on Pasdaran bases and installations. The war mongers in the White House – Dick Cheney first and foremost – are desperately trying to concoct a pretext to launch an aggression against Iran. The U.S. can start with bombing the Pasdaran, hoping that Iran will retaliate, so it could thereafter escalate the war. I am not the only one saying this. Democratic presidential hopeful Dennis Kucinich “accused the Bush Administration's labeling of Iran's Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization a prelude for war there.” (The Raw Story: “Kucinich: 'Belligerent' Bush Admin. trying to 'deceive' US into 'yet another war'”)

The IRGC also runs a vast business empire. Doing business with any companies associated with the Guard, would be declared illegal. The U.S. would thereby try to inflict an economic blow on Iran. Foreign banks will think twice about dealing with enterprises linked to the Guard. But the move is fraught with peril. Iran is perfectly capable of hitting American warships and commercial vessels in the Persian Gulf and even of completely disrupting tanker traffic and thereby the world's oil supply.

As usual, Washington is playing with fire while lighting a cigarette over an open oil barrel...

Japan's surrender

62 years ago, the Japanese imperial army unconditionally surrendered, finally bringing to an end the Second World War. Today, a delegation of the Japanese Mei Shin Kai group commemorated the end of the war together with the Chinese people in Nanjing – site of the Nanjing Massacre. The Chinese and Japanese peoples now live in peace, but the Japanese government still refuses to fully acknowledge and atone for the horrors its predecessors inflicted. In Germany, the Third Reich is dead and buried, but the Japanese leaders still maintain that the Imperial Japanese Army fought to liberate the Asian peoples and defend Japan. 62 years after the end of the war, the Japanese government should finally and irrevocably refute the Japanese Empire.

But the mood is changing. Today, only one member of Shinzo Abe's 16-member cabinet visited the Yasukuni Shrine. The number of members of parliament visiting the shrine declined from 62 last year to 46 this year.

Japanese schoolbooks should tell the truth about the war, instead of glorifying the Japanese Empire and instilling in young minds the repulsive idea that it may return in the future. Finally, to become a modern country, Japan should send the emperor into retirement and establish a republic. 62 years after the end of the war, 62 years after the emperor should have been deposed, he is still clinging to the Chrysanthemum Throne, driving his empress and his daughter-in-law-princess crazy.

Japan was only half liberated in 1945. The task remains unfinished.

The Mark of Rove

Bush's brain is gone. Since he doesn't have one of his own, he needed someone else's to hatch his criminal schemes. White House deputy chief of staff Karl Christian Rove will resign on August 31, leaving Bush brainless, 18 months before his term ends. His legacy: incompetence and duplicity. (The Guardian: “Not the legacy he had in mind”), (The Independent: “Bush's brain goes missing as Karl Rove retires”), (The Times: “End of ‘Bush’s brain’ will bring down the curtain on lame-duck President”).

In fact, without Rove, Bush wouldn't be president. Rove schemed and cheated to first make Bush governor of Texas in 1994 and in 2000 steal the elections from Al Gore, repeating the dirty trick in 2004 to overcome John Kerry. Bush was never elected by the American people. Twice he stole an election, and couldn't have done it without Rove. Bush is not up for re-election and Rove is not to become another Republican's brain. Primarily because none of the candidates wants him. Roping in Rove would be poison, his magic has expired and would only guarantee defeat. His devious role was coming to an end, becoming ever more exposed. Better cut and run before it becomes too hot.

In fact, everything Bush does has the Mark of Rove stamped all over it. Of course, criminals abound in the salons of the neo-cons: Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Bolton, Podoretz, Libby, the list is long. Rove isn't the only one, but he certainly is one of the major masterminds, although not as well known as many others. Read up on it in James Moore and Wayne Slater's eye-opening book “Bush's Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush Presidential”.

Now he will retire to Texas to write his memoirs and shoot pigeons. He says he wants to spend more time with his family. He shouldn't be allowed to. Bad guys like Rove commit crime after crime, get away with it and retire in peace, never mind the wars they have inflicted on the planet. Can the 650,000 murdered Iraqis (or is it 700,000 by now?) “spend more time with the family”? Unless perhaps in the company of Allah?

Rove should not be allowed to get away with it. Bush is getting weaker day by day and is not capable anymore of protecting his cronies. If the Democrats are worth more than a dime, they should pound Rove to pieces. There is enough evidence of his crimes to fill a whole library. Surely there must be a way to have him arrested? Let's wait and see what will happen to Bush's brain outside its White House skull.

He has been implicated in the theft of two elections, the leaking of the identity of CIA-agent Valerie Plame and the politically motivated sacking of 8 federal prosecutors. All domestic crimes. Isn't this enough to lock him up for the rest of his earthly days? In an interview with the Washington Post, Rove said he expected Bush's poll ratings and conditions in Iraq to improve. Now, that's not a very clever prediction for such a famous brain. For the Americans, the situation in Iraq will never, ever, improve. Bush's rating may go up – briefly – if he decides to attack Iran, because the brain-dead part of Americans will rally around their C-in-C. But the resulting catastrophe will seal Bush's fate.

The BBC concluded one of its dispatches: “To his critics he will always be an evil genius; to his intimates, an irreplaceable friend.” That may be not too far off the mark. But The Guardian adds that in the end Rove has failed to engineer “a paradigm shift towards hegemonic conservative government”, and that's why he's leaving. He wanted to leave behind a permanent Republican ruling majority, but today the Republican party's popularity is at its lowest point in two decades. And now, Bush's brain goes missing. It has failed. It is dead. The Rasputin of the White House, with a sinister Svengali-like power, is absconding to Texas. But he has not been brought to justice. There's still some unfinished business...

Tainted toys

Mattel continues to recall toys covered in paint with excessive lead levels and toys including small magnets that could pose a health hazard if ingested by children. By now, the large majority of toys are manufactured in China. The scandal gives the “Made in China” label a bad reputation. China correctly counters that more than 98% of export products meet international quality standards. But that doesn't make it right for 2% to be possibly lethally dangerous.

Toy manufacturers are blamed, but most of them have not knowingly used substandard materials. Zhang Shuhong, CEO of toy maker Lee Der Industrial in Foshan, committed suicide. His best friend had supplied him with the lead paint. Apparently unknowingly, because another factory had supplied lead ingredients which were mixed in the paint.

The bottom line is, Chinese factories' incoming inspection is weak to non-existent. Deals are made among friends, business partners gathered around the banquet table, toasting gan beis to merrily clinched deals. Nobody checks the quality of whatever is entering the factory gates. Used and mixed, when it leaves the gates, the managers are ignorant about what's in it. Exported it enters the labs of Mattel, where from now on everything coming out of China will be scrutinized endlessly.

To avoid tragedies – and loss of business – Chinese companies should set up incoming inspection departments, where they themselves can scrutinize what suppliers drop at the gates. Yes, it will add to the costs, but setting up a well-staffed lab will no doubt be much cheaper than the lost business as a result of exports bans that are now making up the headlines.

Oh, and before once again picking on the Chinese, it would be appropriate to remember that most of the companies vilified for exporting dangerous products do have capital if not managers from Hong Kong, Taiwan or abroad. They want to cut corners to make profits. Of course, Hong Kong and Taiwan are also part of China, but if bosses from those two territories are to blame, it should be duly pointed out, instead of blaming "the Chinese".

Anyway, the lead-and-magnets problem is a wake-up call for the Chinese government. Wild and unbridled capitalism leads to wild and unbridled problems. Abolishing capitalism is the best solution, but if that is a bridge too far for now, at least the government could reign-in its most abhorrent excesses.

IMAR celebrations

The Chinese Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (IMAR) is celebarting its 60th birthday. The region was set up in August 1947, more than two years before the establishment of the People's Republic of China.

China's vice president Zheng Qinghong flew to Hohhot to attend the celebrations. So what is there to celebrate? According to the Chinese government, the economic development and prosperity of the region. Its per capita GDP reached 20,047 yuan last year, ranking 10th nationwide, up from 16th in 2000. The region is also the home of a few strong brands, such as Mengniu and Yili dairy products and Erdos cashmere.

The Chinese leaders also claim that the Mongolian culture and language are protected, supported and flourishing. Some Mongolian nationalists dispute this. They say the use of the Mongol language is dying out because students are forced to use Mandarin Chinese.

However, there is a better explanation. Inner Mongolia is part of China. Unless students want to stay there whole lives on the grasslands, being able to speak the Chinese language is certainly a big advantage. It's the same like people in Western Europe learning English. People in Flanders speak Dutch, but apart from Holland, Suriname and the upper class of Indonesia, how far outside the border can you manage if you don't speak English? Even if Dutch and French-speaking Belgians get together, they use English to communicate. So, Inner Mongolians will want to learn Chinese and if they interact more and more with Chinese-speaking people, that is the language they will use most.

Mongolian is a beautiful language, people should cherish it and continue to use it. But people also need jobs. If speaking Chinese helps you get a better job, are you going to stick with Mongolia?. Are Chinese-speakers sticking exclusively toh Chinese? No, they are learning English. Because it gets them a better job. And the opportunity to communicate with more people. Does this mean that Washington is forcing the Chinese to learn English? The U.S. is doing many bad things, but this is not one of them. Likewise, people should not accuse the Chinese government of deliberately suppressing the use of Mongolian. Chinese, like English is a powerful magnet. But there will always be a proud place for Mongolian.

The dollar bomb

According to The Telegraph of August 8, China could liquidate its vast holdings of U.S. treasuries if Washington imposes trade sanctions to force a yuan revaluation. (The Telegraph: “China threatens 'nuclear option' of dollar sales”)

Perhaps without too much exaggeration this is called the dollar “nuclear option”. Indeed, Beijing has gained a lot of leverage over the U.S. economy. It is holding huge amounts of U.S. treasuries. If it sells them, the dollar will certainly crash and the U.S. economy will descend into a severe recession.

But is such a scenario realistic? The Chinese government immediately denied that such plans exist. It reiterated that it is a responsible investor in the international capital markets and that it wouldn't take such reckless actions as suddenly selling dollar assets. So first of all, the Chinese government does not have the intention – at least for now. But if for example the U.S. would interfere in a conflict over Taiwan, China might also use economic weapons to coerce the U.S. to back off.

But there is a more fundamental problem. China cannot threaten to sell, because if it does, the value of its dollar assets will immediately start to plummet. The same will happen if it starts to sell them suddenly in significant quantities. Yes, China can bring the dollar down, but it would pay a high financial price. The question is, would it be worth it? Almost certainly not – in a non-war scenario.

If you drop a frog into a pot of boiling water, it will try to jump out. If you put it in cold water and slowly raise the temperature, it will boil before thinking of jumping out. China may opt to slowly sell dollar assets and diversify its foreign exchange holdings. That way, it will not lose too much by selling and the dollar will continue its downward slide. Before the U.S. knows it, the yuan will have become an important international reserve currency.

China isn't stupid. A dollar bomb doesn't work.

Peace Mission 2007

The armed forces of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) are holding a major military exercise in Urumqi in Xinjiang and subsequently in Chelyabinsk in Russia. For the first time, a large Chinese contingent of 1,600 troops is traveling to Russia for a joint drill. A total of 32 Chinese Mi-17 and Z-9 helicopters will also participate in “Peace Mission 2007”. China is quick to point out that the exercise is not targeting any third country. The enemies are terrorism, extremism and separatism, cleverly chosen so the U.S. can hardly object. But there is no doubt that the armies of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are strengthening their ability to cooperate. Nothing will stop them to counter U.S. aggression if it would materialize. The U.S. has its bases in Jordan, Qatar, Afghanistan and Iraq to the South, but the members of the SCO are forming a strong bloc, which the U.S. will find very hard to penetrate.

The presidents of the SCO members themselves will observe the military maneuvers in Chelyabinsk on August 17. Iran has observer status and its president is also joining the summit meeting. The U.S. should think twice before attacking Iran.

For better or worse

Some people are just incredible, claiming that something is white when almost everyone can clearly see it is black. And they still expect to convince some people to become color-blind. Michael O'Hanlon and Kenneth Pollack have the temerity to write in the New York Times: “Here is the most important thing Americans need to understand: We are finally getting somewhere in Iraq, at least in military terms.” (The New York Times: “A War We Just Might Win”)

Sure, didn't Bush himself say more than four years ago that the mission in Iraq was accomplished? “Today, morale is high,” write the two propagandists. Sure, that's why the suicide rate in the U.S. army is the highest in 26 years. Still, some naive souls will no doubt believe their claims. After all, they are just back from a visit to Iraq, they saw the glorious situation with their very own eyes. They strolled down Ramadi without body armor. Well, sometimes the wrong people are lucky. Anyway, they don't hide the purpose of all this happy hullabaloo at the end of their story: “There is enough good happening on the battlefields of Iraq today that Congress should plan on sustaining the effort at least into 2008.” The purpose of their lies: convince Congress to continue funding the occupation of Iraq, safeguarding the profits of the arms industry.

“The war in Iraq is about to get worse – much worse. [...] Iraq is in a state of anarchy. [...] The war was not doomed because Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz did not do sufficient planning for the occupation. The war was doomed, period. It never had a chance. [...] This anarchy could end with foreign forces, including Iran and Turkey, carving up the battered carcass of Iraq. No matter what happens, many, many Iraqis are going to die. And it is our fault.”

Now who is this Chris Hedges? The former Middle East bureau chief of ... The New York Times. O'Hanlon and Pollack visited Iraq on a tourist trip organized by the U.S. army. Hedges has lived in the Middle East for seven years. Chose yourself whom to believe at the New York Times.

Is it getting better or worse? Chris Hedges doesn't think it's getting better. (Truthout: “Beyond Disaster”)

The final countdown

The final one year countdown to the 2008 Beijing Olympics starts today with an evening gala in Tianmen Square. (Reuters: "WITNESS: Breathless in Beijing"), (CNN: “Coe: Games already shaping Beijing”)

Host cities of previous Olympics launched the one year countdown in a simple ceremony at the IOC headquarters in Lausanne. But Beijing had to do better, forcing hundreds of carefully selected dignitaries to sit outside in the heat, listen to meaningless speeches and watching a gala performance which had nothing to do with the Olympics. As a matter of fact, Olympic fatigue is already setting in, certainly among the foreign population of Beijing. The locals are still very proud that their city will host the Olympics, but will soon enough find out the drawbacks, with factories closing, cars ordered off the road and ever more strict security to guarantee that nothing untoward will happen in the run-up – or heaven forbids – during the Olympics.

Meanwhile, many foreigners are already planning an extended holiday next year in August in Bali or Phuket at a safe distance from the Olympic commotion.

Even some Chinese are also getting tired of the Olympic hype. Artist Ai Weiwei, who designed the bird's nest stadium together with Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron wants nothing to do with the propaganda and openly declares that he will not attend the opening ceremony.

Some opponents of China are clamoring for a boycott of the Olympics because of the human rights situation or Darfur or whatever they don't like about China. Their voices would have been much weaker if the Chinese government hadn't hyped the Olympics to extend they did. It may very well be the most important sporting event in four years, but it is still only that, a sporting event. There are many much more important things in the world, which deserve much more attention than the Olympics.

Argh, one more year and 17 days before this Olympic madness will die down.

To tell the world

The Times has published the story of Joe Darby, the American soldier who informed the world about the torture at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad. (The Times: “Why I had to tell the world what they’d done”)

“The photos bothered me,” he told The Times, “because morally they went against everything I knew to be right.” “I knew something had to be done. But I was afraid of retribution,” Darby continues. And retribution would follow. Ex-secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld deviously congratulated him by name, and now Joe Darby is on the run, his life in danger because the torturers in the U.S. army accuse him of betrayal. They don't want the truth to be known, so they can continue to torture and murder innocent Iraqi civilians and resistance fighters.

When Joe Darby arrived back in the U.S. a lieutenant-colonel told him: “No, you don't understand son, you can't go home. You'll never be able to go home.”

On the other hand, those who wantonly murder Iraqi civilians do go home. The majority will never even be reprimanded, some will be discharged from the army and get on with their lives and yes, a very few will even see the inside of a prison cell. Pfc. Jesse Spielman was sentenced to 110 years in prison for the rape of a 14-year old girl and the murder of her and her family, but ... could be paroled after ten years.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon has lost track of about 190,000 AK-47 assault rifles and pistols given to Iraqi security forces in 2004 and 2005. (The Guardian: “The US arsenal lost in Iraq”) That's during a period in time when General David Petraeus was responsible for security training, the same guy who is now leading the surge and is expected to report on its progress in September to war-criminal-in-chief George W. Bush. At a time when Washington is accusing Iran of arming the “bad guys” and seems ever more ready to strike Iran – perhaps even with nuclear weapons – the resistance's best arms supplier is the Pentagon itself.

And finally, a study shows that 8 million Iraqis – nearly a third of the population – need immediate emergency aid because of the humanitarian crisis caused by the war. (CounterPunch: “Still Getting It Wrong: The New York Times and Iraq”)

And some say the situation in Iraq is getting better...

Ban the bomb!

Today marks the 62nd anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hirsohima, one of the United States' major war crimes. The human toll, including deaths from radiation sickness, has now officially reached 253,008. That's more than 84 times the death toll of the attacks of September 11, 2001. Those who defend the bombing say it saved the lives of thousands of allied soldiers and speeded up the capitulation of Japan. Saving the lives of allied soldiers does not justify the cold-blooded murder of hundreds of thousands of civilians in enemy territory. (CNN: “Japan commemorates Hiroshima dead”)

OK, the U.S. had a new toy and wanted to show it to the world in a display of “shock and awe”. First of all, Japan was already prepared to negotiate a surrender if the U.S. would have agreed to Japan's request to keep its emperor or if the Soviet Union would have declared war on Japan a little earlier. Atomic pyrotechnics were not essential to speed up the process. Secondly, the U.S. could have exploded an atomic bomb over the ocean or in a sparsely populated area to demonstrate its might and warned that – in the absence of a speedy capitulation – large population centers would be targeted. Instead, Harry Truman decided to murder hundreds of thousands of civilians. What's even worse, not once, but twice. Following the horrors of Hiroshima, a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki three days later.

Dropping the bombs had very little to do with Japan. It was a show of strength to warn America's new enemy: the Soviet Union.

So what's the status today? By signing the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) in 1970, the nuclear powers promised to significantly reduce their nuclear arsenals. The main culprit remains the U.S. Three of the original Big Five powers – the U.K., France and China – only have small nuclear arsenals, forces de frappe to respond to a nuclear attack, but without the overwhelming force to take on the nuclear arsenals of the U.S. and Russia. Following the demise of the Soviet Union, much of Russia's nuclear assets have fallen into disrepair, neglect reducing its potency.

That leaves the U.S. with an arsenal capable to destroy the whole planet several times over. Washington doesn't take any option of the table, which means it remains ready to actually use once again the atom bomb, now much more devastating in its destructive power compared to the baby bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Moreover, the U.S. is still developing newer, more advanced, more destructive nuclear bombs. The average annual spending on nuclear weapons by the U.S. during the Cold War was 4.2 billion in current dollars. This year the figure is 6.4 billion.

Freedom of speech is a holy concept, but it's repulsive that some still have the criminal audacity to defend the use of nuclear weapons. (The Guardian: “Terrible, but not a crime”) This is unacceptable. Oliver Kamm should be prosecuted for advocating war crimes.

Those who want to read more about the horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki can turn to Gar Alperovitz's masterpiece “The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb”. Or view the HBO documentary “White Light/Black Rain” (truthout: “HBO Airs A-Bomb Footage Kept From Media for Decades”)

On this August 6, let's all unite to Ban the Bomb!

The Embassy

Yes, we can call it THE EMBASSY, the largest in the world, representing the sole superpower in its most recent colonial dependency. Costing 300 million pounds or 445 million euros or 613 million dollars, a cluster of 21 high-rise towers occupying 104 acres on the west bank of the River Tigris, to house 3,000 staff. Still under construction, the American embassy in Baghdad is to become the biggest in the world. Incredible isn't it? Are relations with Iraq the most important of all to the U.S., requiring its biggest diplomatic mission on earth? More important than its relations with Russia, the European Union or China? What's more, the embassy is being build with slave labor. (The Times: “‘Kidnapped’ Filipinos build US embassy”)

In March 2006, 51 Filipinos boarded a flight in Kuwait, having been issued boarding cards for Dubai, contracted by First Kuwaiti General Trading and Contracting to build skyscrapers in the Gulf. In fact, they were smuggled past Kuwaiti security, victims of human traffickers. Ten minutes into the flight they were told they were heading to Baghdad, kidnapped to the most dangerous place on earth, incarcerated in the Green Zone, forced to help build America's biggest and most glorious embassy, kept under control on the plane by a submachine toting security guard of their employer. Conditions in the concentration camp in the Green Zone were the kidnapped workers were performing forced labor were “deplorable, beyond what any man should tolerate”, one U.S. expert testified.

The Democratic chairman of the House oversight committee, Henry Wax-man, admitted: “The project has been beset by allegations that the prime contractor, First Kuwaiti, has used forced labor to build the embassy, violating the laws against human trafficking and sending exactly the wrong message to Iraq and the rest of the world about U.S. respect for human rights.”

An inspector of the U.S. State Department has investigated the case and found nothing wrong. The U.S. government and its commander-in-chief is guilty of kidnapping, human trafficking, the organization of slave labor, conducting fake investigations, violations of human rights, and of course war crimes and crimes against humanity, committed every minute since the invasion in March 2003.

More of the same

The U.S. Democrats are meekly trying to bring the troops home from a disastrous war in Iraq while at the same time giving Bush more money to continue the bloodshed. The Democrats are also as eager as the Republicans to start a war against Iran. Here comes one of the Democrat hopefuls for the presidency, Barack Obama, declaring that he would invade Pakistan – even without the agreement of its president Pervez Musharraf – to hunt al-Qaeda leaders in the North-West Frontier area. (The Times: “Obama willing to invade Pakistan in al-Qaeda hunt")

It seems that even if the American people elect a Democrat president in November 2008, far from stopping the aggressive wars, it will only be more of the same.

In order to brush up his credentials as commander-in-chief, Obama suggested a pre-emptive military action that even Bush has refused to order because it would plunge the whole of Pakistan into a war of resistance against American aggression. The Pakistani government – an “ally” in America's “war on terror” - reacted angrily. It seems, apart from the Israeli Zionists, the U.S. is unable to keep any friends in the Middle East.

Offering to meet with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea is meant to win votes to his left, while suggesting to strike in Pakistan is aimed a winning converts on his right. Unprincipled speeches to try to win as many votes as possible are sending a confusing message that will do Obama no good.

Tofu projects

The U.S. is regularly accusing China of poor craftsmanship, exporting poisonous products and building shoddy projects. Indeed, there are a lot of “tofu” projects in China, built by unscrupulous contractors offering bribes to gullible officials. Roads, buildings and bridges age in a couple of years because substandard materials were used so contractors and corrupt officials could line their pockets.

But the U.S. authorities should not throw the first stone. Are all the roads, building and bridges in the U.S. safe and up to standard? The catastrophic collapse of the bridge over the Mississippi in Minneapolis showed this not to be the case. What's more, the American Society of Civil Engineers reports that as of 2003, there were about 160,570 bridges deemed structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. The number represented 27.1% of America's bridges.

Obviously, not enough funds are earmarked to repair defective infrastructure. The U.S. prefers to throw away its money in Iraq. Shouldn't a so-called “democratic” government overseeing a market economy be able to allocate funds where they are most needed? Some American economists are accusing the Chinese government of distorting the free market economy are thereby misallocating funds. The U.S. government is also misallocating its funds, letting the country's infrastructure crumble in a pile of debris. The “terrorists” didn't even have to lift a finger.

More arms for more war

The U.S. government has decided to sell billions of dollars worth of arms to its so-called allies in the Middle East. Zionists and Sunni Arab states will be armed to the teeth to counter what the U.S. perceives as an emerging Shia alliance of Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and its Sunni Hamas ally. Saudi Arabia will get 20 billion dollars worth of armaments in the coming decade. That is how Bush is spreading “democracy” in the Middle East, arming one of the most brutal royal dictatorships, where there are no elections worth the name and where women are prohibited to drive a car. Never mind that the majority of 9/11 hijackers had a Saudi passport and the U.S. must reluctantly agree that Saudi Arabia is playing a counterproductive role in Iraq. (The New York Times: "U.S. Arms Plan for Mideast Aims to Counter Iranian Power") (Time: "Slow Going for Rice in Jerusalem")

If Saudi Arabia gets the goodies, Israel must also be rewarded with an increase in military aid from USD9.1 billion in the past decade to USD30.4 billion in the coming decade. Egypt, Jordan and the Gulf states also get their share. What is the U.S. trying to achieve? It is preparing a war on Iran to completely destabilize the whole of the Middle East and wants its allies to be well armed to lend a hand.

The U.S. may very well be arming the governments of the Arab states, but they have forgotten that the real power is in the hands of the peoples of the Middle East. The U.S. could rather easily drive Saddam Hussein from power but is now mired in an unwinnable war in Iraq because the Iraqi people is resisting the occupation.

Selling more weapons to its client states in the Middle East will not save the U.S. from utter defeat. Bombs and fighter jets can rain destruction on the innocent but will never be able to win the war. Power comes out of the barrel of a gun – and in the 21st century also out of roadside bombs. These simple weapons of the people can defeat the most expensive hardware the U.S. can deliver. The U.S. is working itself into deeper trouble from which it will not be able to extricate itself.

PLA turns 80

The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) turns 80 today. On August 1, 1927, during the Nanchang Uprising, a ragtag army was born, called the Red Army. It withstood five blockades by the Kuomintang and embarked on the legendary Long March, during which it was literally decimated. The purpose of the trek north was to fight against Japanese aggression. Who could have thought that the remnants of the Red Army arriving in Yan'an would not only successfully expel the Japanese aggressors, but also win a civil war against the stronger and better equipped Kuomintang army?

The Chinese people had never seen such an army. Instead of plundering, they fought for the people. If they took anything from the people, they politely requested it and paid for it. Under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, the PLA won the “hearts and minds” of the Chinese people. It fought its way to Beijing, where Mao announced the establishment of the People's Republic of China on October 1, 1949. The PLA heroically fought against American aggression in Korea and played an important role during the Cultural Revolution in reestablishing order out of chaos. Although the number of its members has declined from 6.2 million in 1951 to 2.3 million today, the PLA is still the largest army in the world.

Its assault on the people of Beijing starting on June 3, 1989 will never be forgotten, but will also never be repeated. Today, the PLA is a much more professional fighting force, with a strategic missile force, nuclear attack submarines, oceangoing missile destroyers and supersonic fighter jets. This week, a PLA contingent is preparing for the first ever joint maneuvers in Russia, in the area of Chelyabinsk. Of course the U.S. is getting nervous. With a strong PLA, it cannot bully the Chinese nation.