Showing posts with label nuclear. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nuclear. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

What Would Obama Do

If he ran his presidency as if this is his one and only term in the office


There are people who question if Obama can win second term in the office. At this time he is being kept afloat, barely. The stock market ups and downs are just enough to make it look good for few days, and then it all falls apart until the next cycle. This is well orchestrated. The man behind this facade is the White House Chief of Staff.

Given the disillusionment created at the hands of same set of people, with collusion from the media what if Obama was to break himself free from his current handlers, fire his Chief of Staff and replace him with someone who really deserves the job, and ran his presidency as if this is his last term in the office. What would he do? If he was to keep the promises he made to American people without the interference from his handlers, those who voted for him first time can help him guarantee a win again. As things stand, the ones that voted for him are losing confidence in his ability to deliver on his promises. Not becuase he cannot but because his agenda has been hijacked. (Read analysis if his first term) Those who did not vote for him will never vote for him even if Obama gave them hoards of cash and promised them a place in paradise.
What can he do to affect a 180 degree about face?

He would tell Israel to take a hike
American image has been badly damaged in the eyes of the world, including our most trusted friends for the humiliating defeat of Obama policy when it comes to Middle East peace. The illegal settlements in occupied territories continue, evictions and murder at the hands of IDF continue unabated, the Israeli media war and smear machine continue to pull new tactics to undermine American foreign policy. If Obama ran his presidency as if he only going to be in the office for one term he would stop all aid to Israel until they comply with the legitimate demands of those who want peace in the middle east. He would reign in all the under secretaries running amok at the State Department making their own policy as they go along when it comes to Israeli and middle east politics. These policies are one of undermining Obama's policy of engagement with the leaders in the middle east.

Genuine Effort towards resolving Iranian Nuclear issue
Obama promised diplomacy and an extension of friendship towards Iran. That never happened. The current regime at the state department will not allow that to happen. From the very start of the Obama administration the approach to Iran was that of hostility, outright belligerence, and threats. The policy of disengagement that was put in place by bush/cheney cabal never, for one day, changed. The hand of friendship that Obama wanted to offer to Iranian was cut off as soon as Obama took office. The threat of Military action was never taken off the table, the embargo, and sanctions continue, and the bellicosity that preceded the current administration coming directly from the state department never ceased for one day.
Obama would silence all his detractors at the state department by making a historic trip to Tehran, talking to the Iranians directly, and offering them what no administration has ever done: a genuine engagement for real negotiations.

Stop the Bailout Scam
Billions and Trillions of dollars have been wasted to artificially prop up economy and that has not helped create single job. Only the larger corporations and their CEOs have benefited from the bailout since there is general perception that the pay czar is an inside man. What it may have done is a backward slide of job loss which is really not a gain but a false hope of an improved economy. That bubble can only last for a short time because there is nothing to sustain those jobs for the long run. The only people that have benefited from the bailout are the ones that never needed the bailout. The people that are pushing the bailout and benefiting from it are the same set of people. It's the trademark collusion of the filthy rich that include the bankers, the media, insurance companies, and the military industrial complex.

Geitner has proven himself to be part of the inside crowd and a failure, as suspected from the day one. Geitner must go. At this point Obama dog is probably a better candidate to run the fiscal house than Geitner.


Bring the Culprits to Justice
Those who have committed heinous crimes against humanity should be brought to justice. That includes some people at the highest levels in the previous government. This has to be done if America is to gain credibility in the world. Without taking this serious step towards correcting the wrongs at the hands of those in power we will lose what is left of any credibility in the eyes of the world. Without credibility the only way to keep our supremacy will be to create more wars, more chaos, more bloodshed. There are no two ways about it.


Universal Truth: If the criminals are not brought to justice they live to do the same or even worse crimes again.

Is there still time for an about face? Very little if any. It will take courage, it will take audacity, the same audacity that brought Obama to the office in the first place.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Will the media lead us to War with Iran

The Obvious Truth People Are Refusing To See

From New York Times to Associated Press to Google, the hypocritical coverage and misleading news headlines is leading us to war with Iran. Last two moths there has hardly been a day that New York Times has not printed a decisively opinionated column telling the nation and the world that its OK to go to war with Iran. The allegiance of New York Times with Iz-ra-eeli lobby is no surprise. New York Times, touted as independent media is THE mouthpiece of AIPAC and rest of the Iz-ra-eeli war machine.


The latest headline from Google:


Here is the headline from New York Times:



The story does not stop at the headlines though. Many of the articles, opinions, and Op-Ed pieces allow you to leave comments and that is where the real story reside. The vitriol, the venom spewed, and the amount of hatred towards not only Iran but rest of the world that has anything to do with Iran. Surprisingly nobody faults the Russians who actually sold the technology as well as most of the know how on building the reactor. Why? The truth may just come out as to what is the capability of is sold to them.

Here are comments and there is no surprise as to what is expected:



Here is another example:




The distortions, the half truths, the misinformation, the unsubstantiated anonymous sources, and just outright lies is what makes up the coverage of Iran nuclear issues. There are many people that know exactly how crooked the media is when it comes to Iran however most of these people have no clue what to do about it. Here is an example of the misinformation (this is realted to drone attacks in Pakistan and the "accuracy" of these attacks):





So the question one must ask: how do they know they were all militants?

One advantage that media has over people at large is that no matter how many comments you leave with hard facts the damage that is done by somebody like New York Times can never be undone. Nobody has the time to call them to account. So the editors know very well that these distortions no matter how egregious are not going to land them in court. The actual war criminals are walking the streets stuffing there pockets let alone the editors of a newspaper being called to account.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Let There Be A Nuclear Iran


Why Is The West Afraid Of Nuclear Iran?

It's not what you think.

Why is a nuclear Iran such a huge problem for the west? This question is raised time and again and the answer is always the same. The lie about what the Ayatollah may have said about wiping Israel from the face of the earth which is not entirely a bad idea but its not something to be entertained rather seriously.

That itself is astounding. What you see in the news is reality. What you hear over and over again is reality. If you hear it long enough it becomes the truth and anybody who questions the truth must be crazy. That is the logic behind pushing the lie over and over and again. We have seen that time and again and the lie about what the ayatollah may have said is no exception. Top that with more lies by attributing that lie to the current regime in Iran. Nobody is a fan of the current regime but that is not because they are illegitimate or because we want to question what they want in nuclear know how. What they want is their inalienable right and nobody has any question about that. (except the media of course) The dislike is over the ignorance of how to handle this situation. The colourlessness goes far and wide and plagues the entire middle east. With all the money they have they could buy each and every journalist outright for life. All journalists are for sale, many for a fairly small amount of money. Many just for the opportunity to see their name in print and media. But then again, the leaders of the middle east have no clue how to go about doing that.

coming back to the issue at hand; why is the west so apprehensive about Iran acquiring nuclear know how. Nuclear bombs in Iran are a far cry because first Iran has to perfect the technology for producing, enriching etc. of Uranium. Not an easy task. It will be twenty plus years before they are anywhere close to making indigenous warheads. It took Pakistan years to do that and it required collaboration with many countries including France.

The overwhelming reason why the west is so afraid of any Muslim country getting nuclear know how is because the larger ramifications of technology acquisition and transfer. Of course this is not new technology but there are many other related technologies that come with general know how of nuclear technology. Medical, electrical, energy to name a few. This Independence is what scares the west. After the fall of Ottoman empire there was wholesale destruction of the written proof of advances made in science by Muslim scholars. Today nobody knows the advances made during that time and it is as if we started the world after the WWII and nothing existed before that. Let's look at each region/country separately and how the government and people are oppressed to keep them in check.

The Middle East: Middle East as a region includes major portion of all the Muslim countries. They are by far the most wealthy and well off. However, those, as a result or consequence, are the people least likely to advance in strategic knowledge. Saudi Arabian youths come to the US universities, get educated and go back home. However, the easy availability of cheap labors compels them to rather hire somebody to do the work than do the work themselves. They import people from the subcontinent and have them work at rates they agree or rates that market would bear. There are many American expatriates that go to Saudi Arabia, get paid really well, get housing and other allowances, and do whatever is asked of them. Other countries follow suite. The oil extracted from Middle eastern soil is bought at fraction of its real price, refined to umpteenth other uses and that technology has never passed on because of the agreement clauses and other legal mumbo jumbo.

The Indian Subcontinent: When Brits left India and divided the subcontinent into Pakistan and India, and later Bangladesh the division was such that all the factories, schools, colleges, and major universities remained in place in India. The monuments and the main places for tourist attraction were all part of India. All the major government installations and hubs were in the Indian part of the subcontinent. The rivers flow downstream to Pakistan with control of those rivers in India. At the start Pakistan was saddled with a part of its own that was thousand miles over the hostile Indian territory. All flights had to go around the Indian ocean to bypass Indian airspace. This was a huge strategic disadvantage. Imagine the burden all of that placed on a newly independent country.


Fast forward to the current situation. With all those problems inherited it's no wonder Pakistan is struggling with its economy, literacy, industry, the infrastructure etc. It is struggling against overwhelming odds that were stacked against this country right from the time of its Independence.

Africa: The poorest, the most neglected, and the most exploited continent on the face of the planet earth. From Egypt to Ghana to Zimbabwe, the odds of any country making any substantial progress are minimal at best. For centuries the Gold and Diamonds, the most precious and sought after minerals, are being extracted and the wealth of nations plundered by few large western enterprises who buy influence and never allow their dirty laundry to come out in full view. They have the local politicians on their payroll and nothing can change until all of that wealth is gone. The movie Blood Diamond was a pretty fair expose of what really happens but the core of the matter was dropped by the mainstream media promptly after the buzz about the movie died.
when you talk to anybody they will be happy to tell you and remind you that the change will have to come from inside. They will contend that people must make the change to make their country better. Then they will move to leadership gap. Then finally they will say it's the literacy or the lack thereof that's causing these problems. Although all of these factors must be considered to formulate a policy of change, they neglect to mention the most important factor: The will, the demand, and might of the superpower to keep the status quo. The superpower and its allies must not allow any substantial progress from taking place. Which brings us full circle back to Iranian nuclear issue. The main reason why American politicians through its client state of Israel want to prevent Iran from gaining nuclear know how is to prevent that country, and any other country for that matter, to acquire any sophisticated technology that may lead to Independence from it's hegemony. They know very well that it will be years, probably more like decades for Iran to develop full capability of its own to develop nuclear arsenal. However the perception that is being pushed by the very controlled media is that of imminent danger. The perception that something must be done to stop the Iranians from acquiring nuclear know how right now. It must be done now to stop them from getting handle on the technology.

At the same time name any Muslim country and along comes the list of policies in place to keep them exactly where they were about 100 years ago. There are people in high places whose only job is to make sure no progress is made in any substantial way in any of these countries. The so called think tanks are churning out policy papers that the lawmakers take as Gospel. For example, Pakistan's nuclear arsenal is in danger, not from the likes of Taliban, but from US who would want to force the hands of Pakistani politicians to dismantle it and take the nuclear tips off them. The goal is to de-fang Pakistan, the one Muslim country set to and capable of making most advances in science and technology. Do they not need the nuclear plants to generate electricity? Do they not need the medical technology? Obviously not, according to the think tanks. It will be "provided" for them. It will be given to them when US wants to give it to them. As long as they are good boys and girls and do as US tell them to do we will keep providing them with what they need. One step out of line and all of that stops. Where does that leave Pakistan.

They want Iran to agree to have nuclear fuel processed elsewhere. The same doctrine as the Pakistan doctrine applies to Iran. The real purpose of this demand is to make sure if they stray out of line we will have the strings that can be pulled to bring them back in line. Iran has no choice but to go independent with its nuclear technology. Iran must develop full nuclear cycle on its own. It should conduct all the tests necessary to make sure everything is in place for next generation to take it to the next level. It will not only give them alternative to fast depleting energy sources, and the much needed medical isotopes but it will create new high end jobs, it will create national pride, and it will be good for the middle east. These are the foremost reasons to one other one: the non-proliferation treaty gives them the full rights to do what they have done so far.

The question is: is Iran willing to pay the price that it must to make that happen?