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Elsewhere
place
Switzerland
Mr. Hu goes to Washington
Japan's Draft Charter
China, India and SAARC
Senegal & Rome
Better
Monopoly on Power
Walls of Debt
The Development of Death Squads in Iraq
Vanuatu
Military Exercise
Reporting for Duty...again
No Surprises
Via Yahoo!
“As democracy in Iraq takes root, the enemies of freedom, the terrorists, will become more desperate, more despicable, and more vicious,” Bush warned.
One of the (oh so many) things that concerns me about the Bush Administration is just the sheer number of times that we’ve heard this line. I remember when Hussein was found, when the political power transition took place, when the elections were held, when the constitution talks began…every time a big event happens, we hear that the “enemies of freedom” become more and more and more “desperate”. Never mind that the new constitution ignores the Sunnis and that nearly 1,900 troops have died and that the situation in Iraq is far from the rose petals we had been told to expect, but how long until the Administration accepts reality?
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According to the Washington Post, 3.76 million Chinese took part in 74,000 protests last year.
Most protests are related to economic issues (corruption, taxation, seizure of land, pollution) rather than political issues. So the protests aren’t dedicated or concentrated on bringing down the government, but in drawing attention to the economic woes and problems that have befallen the people.
This is important: the goal is not to bring down the CCP. The goal is to draw attention to the individuals/situations that are causing the problems. The people aren’t asking for the overthrow of the leadership structure, but asking the leadership to help them.
In addition, the protests are becoming more organized than before. The problem for the government is that along with organization, leadership structures, and a clearer message follow. The rise in protests in the past year should highlight two main areas of concern for the government:
1) Organization.
The protestors and their mechanism of being heard is better organized than before and there seem to be constant messages and themes that the people are protesting about. Specifically corruption and the lack of transparency/efficacy by the government. The problem is that the government is more alarmed by the protests themselves rather than the messages that the protestors are trying to get across. The government is responding by trying to squelch the immediate short-term problem (i.e. the protests) rather than any long-term issues involving what the government deems as ‘sensitive’ issues.
2) Transparency.
Thanks to the internet and mobile phones, news of protests and the reactions by the local and central government spread faster than ever before. While the government was originally in a position to stop the protests relatively quickly and efficiently (read: silently), it is no longer able to effectively do that. The question with this issue specifically is how long it will take the local and central government to realize that force and speed in stopping the protests will no longer work.
While China’s first and second generations of leaders focused primarily on reforming China into a unified nation-state, the third generation under Jiang Zeimin had to deal with a new variable – the developing relationship between China and the rest of the world. The latest generation of Chinese leaders must take on the responsibilities of the previous generations, but under a system that places more pressure than ever before. They must juggle between maintaining stability to the masses, economic development towards all (farmers and businessmen alike) as well as achieving its goals of becoming a regional power in Asia and a world player on the larger international scene.
The increase in protests over the past several years reflect one of the many underlying problems in China. The CCP has always claimed to be the party of the masses and those who were disenfranchised in the past. It was meant to be the government of the farmers, peasants and the poor. The very people they are supposed to represent – who Mao referred to as “the popular masses” – are finding themselves overlooked and sitting in second place compared to the businessmen. Unless the long-term problems are faced, dealt with, and solved – the reluctance of the government to sacrifice its rapid economic development at the cost of environmental issues and solving the rampant corruption – then these protests could very well be the beginning of a popular forceful demand for change.
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“Indeed, the budget instructs lawmakers to raise the federal government’s statutory debt limit this fall by $781 billion, to $8.96 trillion. The government’s borrowing limit will then have climbed by $3 trillion since Bush took office.”
Not really the best way to calm the nervous masses of investors, but hey, I’m really beyond hope at this point.
Article is here.
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According to Newsweek the Pentagon is considering establishing the Iraqi equivalent of the Right Wing ‘Death Squads’ of El Salvador during the 1980’s.
Basically, the Pentagon would be training, funding, and legally shieldling groups of Shiite and Kurdish paramilitary groups to target the insurgency leaders and those who support them.
These groups would be able to perform ‘snatch’ operations into Syria to apprehend targeted individuals. As in El Salvador, I don’t believe it would require too much of a stretch in one’s imagination that ocne these individuals are captured, they would be subject to Iraqi law and information gathering techniques rather than American.
To begin: These ‘death squads’ would be able to go after groups of individuals that not only actively support the insurgency, but also to those who are not actively against the insurgency. As it was in El Salvador and other Latin American countries in the 1980’s, you are either with us or against us.
He said most Iraqi people do not actively support the insurgents or provide them with material or logistical help, but at the same time they won’t turn them in. One military source involved in the Pentagon debate agrees that this is the crux of the problem, and he suggests that new offensive operations are needed that would create a fear of aiding the insurgency. “The Sunni population is paying no price for the support it is giving to the terrorists,” he said. “From their point of view, it is cost-free. We have to change that equation.”
Let’s also remember that this “Sunni population” constitutes over 200,000 people. From a historical perspective, as well…encouraging the Kurds and Shiites to take arms against the Sunnis with few – if any – questions asked from the Americans is a disaster waiting to happen.
US supported Death Squads in Latin America during the 1980’s was not a success as many conservatives believe. An inherent distrust of the US and of the Government and democracy itself was fostered. And one succeeds in developing a group of ‘warriors’ who know nothing but the use of force in order to get what they want. Giving a historically oppressed group arms and a virtual blank check to go against their oppressors feeds into the vicious cycle that will re-emerge 20 years down the line.
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China now has international support from the nation of Vanuatu for the cheap cheap price of $2 million.
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