Diplomacy

Rubber Ducky: Understanding Asian Diplomatic Naval Games

Artwork by Kay Nielsen, 1914
November 29, 2007

Elaine Meinel Supkis

The US/China relations have constant difficulties due to the fall of the US empire and the rise of Chinese hegemonic powers. The spat over the Kitty Hawk is a classic example. The US need to try to throw its weight around in Asia to convince China that we are still a power to fear. Of course, they charge us interest on loans we have to sell to Tokyo in order to do this. There is some sort of nasty joke embedded in all this. Time to revist futile US international saber rattling diplomacy and check out the Chinese counter strikes carefully.

U.S. criticizes China for barring U.S. ships from port

"This is perplexing," said U.S. Navy Adm. Timothy Keating, commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, which is responsible for all U.S. military activities in the Pacific region.

"It's not helpful. It is not in our view conduct that is indicative of a country who understands its obligations as a responsible nation," he told reporters in Washington by videolink from Pacific Command headquarters in Hawaii.

China has not explained its decision to block U.S. access to that port, said Keating and Adm. Gary Roughead, the U.S. chief of naval operations.

The British used to go on and on about the rule of law and civilization as they ruthlessly looted and acted like pirates across the planet. The Japanese began their march to power by claiming they were bringing law and order to China after it fell apart under the repeated assaults by European powers, above all, British attacks. The US roams the planet, attacking nations after getting the UN to disarm them and then we turn around and lecture everyone about sovereignty and being responsible.

Since no one hits us on the head with a hammer when we do this, we think they agree with us. Instead, I would strongly suggest they are accumulating a feeling of contempt and annoyance as we, the Golden Goose step our way through international interactions. The US has always destained subtlety and finesse when it came to interacting with other nations. We like the image of the rip-roaring cowboy whooping it up and slapping everyone literally on the back. We don't notice that people grit their teeth and allow this so long as they can pick our pockets while we act uncivilized.

What is civilization, anyway? Civilized people can be very cruel and even demonic. But they also know how to interact, when not killing someone, in a way that doesn't ruffle feathers. Eating with the mouth closed instead of spraying food all over as Bush has done at international dinners, for example. Learning how to salute people and show deference or care is part of this. In older times, people carried swords on a daily basis and this included kings. And if someone made the wrong gesture or jostled someone, they could and were impaled. The peasants were not armed and they were very careful about deferring to the ruling elites for this reason.

In Japan, if a samurai was not deferred to properly, he would slice the head off of the offender. And if two samurais were interacting, they had this long-learned, carefully rehearsed, often slow motion ballet of showing intentions and recognizing status. They had various facial expressions as well as words and hand movements that each expressed the appropriate status and communicated future intentions.

Just moving the feet the wrong way by taking a 'battle' stance could lead to a flash of swords. In France, when the rapier evolved, so did 'courtesy'. The knights practiced courtesy earlier but the hyper-elaborate courtesy of the rapier era was serious and very deadly. The flourishes, bows, cock of the head, squint of the eye, the movement of wrists or fingers was instantly analyzed and responded to and woe betide anyone who made a mistake!

Fencing masters in Japan or Italy or France all conducted classes not just in the way one thrust or parried with a sword but lessons in respect, honor and courtesy were the major part of the lessons. This is why non-ruling elites who tried to fob themselves off as courtiers often failed. Unless they were adopted by someone of the upper echelons, it was a hopeless task. Two courtiers from different languages could meet and interact safely simply by gesture and stance thanks to the development of this system of controlling the violence of personal contact. The age of duelling in these nations are the foundation of all global diplomacy.

This is why our own is in collapse. The mythology is that we are good-hearted John Wayne/Rambo clones who are self-depreciating while also quick to violence, torture and super-human cruelty based on a sense of justice and political correctness. This desire to be crude which leads Bush to grab and maul other world leaders, how many times have we seen him grab someone inappropriately? This is coupled with our wish to be cultural leaders which is why we go after other nations for torturing prisoners or not caring for the disabled or ethnic cleansing. While supporting or doing these very things, ourselves.

Right now, we are in the middle of trying to show China and Russia, we are one tough hombre. This, alas, is the tough hombre who goes to the bank and bursts into tears, demanding the bank extend him more credit. One of the arts perfected by the ancient regime in Europe was to retain haughtiness while expecting loans to be extended. This was because they could kill the bankers. The US rulers can kill bankers too, but not the ones in China. They have nuclear bombs.

After WWII, the US was in an ideological battle with the communist revolutionaries across the planet. We won that struggle but the price we paid was for our nation to give up economic ground to our 'allies' especially the ones on the front ranks facing Russia and China. Namely, Germany and Japan. To this day, we keep on giving them both advantages they no longer need since Japan is the world's #2 economy and Germany just this year gave ground to China for the #3 slot. The tension caused by China's swift rise should be handled the same way the courtiers of the ancient regime handled encounters: with finesse and greatest care. The main thing is, we dare not lose face. Losing face makes everything much, much harder.

China Explains Decision to Block U.S. Ships

China denied permission for a United States aircraft carrier battle group and other American warships to visit Hong Kong last week because of the Bush administration’s proposal to sell upgrades to Patriot antimissile batteries to Taiwan, Chinese state media said today.

Beijing also said today that Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi had not told President Bush in a meeting Wednesday that the decisions to deny the ship visits were a “misunderstanding,” as the White House had reported after the talks.

“Reports that Foreign Minister Yang said in the United States that it was a misunderstanding do not accord with the facts,” a Foreign Ministry spokesman, Liu Jianchao, said in Beijing today, adding that China had “grave concern” over United States weapons sales to Taiwan.

First off, the Foreign Minister Yang, not Hu, spoke to Bush. Insult #1. Insult #2, this lower level minister openly said Bush was a liar. Slap on the face #3 is the warning as to why the ship was not allowed to anchor. But there are more insults delivered with an interesting twist!

China warship docks in Tokyo as sign of warming ties

A Chinese warship arrived in Tokyo on Wednesday on the first such port call since World War Two, the latest sign of warming ties between the Asian neighbors and former foes.

The two countries had agreed to reciprocal warship visits in 2000, but China cancelled a planned port call in 2002 after then Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visited Yasukuni Shrine, seen in China as a symbol of Japan's past militarism.

Note how China uses these decorative moments to deliver diplomatic warnings. The orchestrated moves of this nation are carefully gaged and the reason why China is very enthusiastic about setting up all sorts of 'events' is it gives them a chance to communicate various initiatives without doing things like yelling on TV or something. So they are now engaging Japan in this elaborate dance which the Japanese absolutely love. For they do this too! The pavane requires both sides say the right things and make the right gestures and they study each other's eyes and examine where the feet move. Shifts in the center of gravity are responded to by turning the shoulders or moving the hand to the left where the sword is riding on the hip. Notice, also, how the Japanese slide sideways and try to get China and America to accept their defeat only China won't let them. Every time a minister in Japan tries to sneak off to the Yasukuni Shrine, the Chinese swiftly retaliate. But not the US. We have stood stupidly by as Japan repeatedly slaps all of us in the face. This is done to Mr. Rambo Flightsuit himself. And he thinks the leaders of Japan who are openly insulting our nation are his good friends!

So the same week the Chinese give us a smart slap with the gauntlet, the Japanese roll out the red carpet for the Chinese navy! The deeper meaning of all this is pure speculation. But here is my own take: the Japanese are triangulating. They already know they can slap the US right across the nose and we will think this is a sign, they love us. They can play any sort of financial game with us and we think they are our best buddies. In this case, our lack of appropriate response has bred contempt. It really isn't much fun, poking at someone this dense, this out of touch with reality. But when Japan pokes at China, the response is very swift and forces the Japanese to think of new ways of insulting or poking at China and China loves playing as if they want to be good friends but really want to smack them around and I suspect this gives both parties lots of intellectual and emotional fun. They go into back rooms and relive the encounters and plan new ones.

We, on the other hand, believe in friendship and love that means never having to take a bath, stop picking our noses and talking with our mouths full of food, things that Bush has done to foreign heads of state.

China-U.S. Strategic Economic Dialogue to convene in Beijing on Dec. 12-13

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao announced here Thursday.

Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi and U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson will co-chair the meeting as special representatives of state leaders of the two countries.

Ministers and other senior officials from related departments of the two governments will also attend the dialogue, Liu added.

All this is a prologue to the real negotiations. The US threw in the towel over the North Korean issues and handed it to a gloating Dragon who quickly resolved many issues that no one could do in the past. I will note here that the one bugaboo for Japan was NOT addressed by China in these negotiations and this was quite deliberate. Namely, the issue of the kidnapped girls. Many hot editorials and demands from Japanese diplomats haven't moved China one inch on this matter. The dispute over the Japanese kidnapping Korean and Chinese girls and turning them into sex slaves has not been resolved by Japan nor will Japan resolve this. Japan wants to champion this similar issue but isolate it from paying reparations to the sex slaves who are still alive. Japan won't pay them because Japan won't even admit, they enslaved these women during WWII.

The Chinese continue to dance around all these issues, slowly moving Japan into a corner. The US refuses to do this despite the crimes Japan has committed in the past. Just like we didn't stop them from insulting us at the Yakusuni Shrine. In the case of the economic negotiations, the Chinese will NOT demand the US raise the value of the yen vis a vis all other currencies. They figure, the government knows what is going on and simply is refusing to do this or if they don't know what is going on, then they are too stupid for words and should be looked down upon and pitied as well as pushed around.

In other words, we lose face. Astonishingly, if we openly discuss with China international realities and our plans for the future, if we express a desire for harmony, peace and stability and recognize China's majesty, they will retaliate by flattering us back and assuring us, they could be our best friends but we must first join them in scolding Japan over the sex slave issue and discussions about WWII will have to now commence.

But this won't happen. The US will come, loudly proclaiming how we will force China to strengthen the yuan and threatening them with retaliatory trade sanctions. We will blunder about, snapping orders or laughing like idiots. I saw pictures of Paulson at a previous meeting in China where he looked obviously drunk. There is a trick to drinking while negotiating. It takes practice. One has to learn how to keep one's wits while enjoying booze. And the Japanese as well as the Chinese do like to see if they can get us drunk and trip us up this way.

The 10th China-EU Leaders' Meeting was held here Wednesday, and leaders from both China and the European Union (EU) outlined their future strategic partnership while discussing pragmatic issues.
*snip*
Over the past decade the China-EU ties have witnessed the fastest development in history and mutually beneficial cooperation has produced rich results and the ties now have reached an unprecedented level in width and depth, Wen said during the meeting.

From the Renminbi exchange rate issue, trade imbalance to climate change and energy cooperation, both sides touched upon all the core issues in the China-EU relations in a pragmatic and open attitude.

The Europeans approached China the same way the US does this: frontally and loudly declaiming what their goals are and shouting threats, etc. The Chinese then roll out the red carpet and say soothing things and then begin to turn things around in an expert way. For example, right before this big visit, the Chinese bought a bunch of Airbus jets! This kind of killed the outrage. The Chinese can now look at the Europeans straight in the face and say, 'Would you like to sell us another 150 Airbuses next year? Or do you want us to cut back trade?' Waiting until the very last second to sign the contracts was probably a deliberate move. And we should heed this. Learning to read what one's opponents are up to is a skill that is life and death in the world of armed courtiers prone to dueling.

One proposal is the two sides should improve the structure of trade, expand trade volume and properly handle the problems in bilateral trade.

Wen proposed to maintain close high-level contacts and have prompt exchanges on bilateral and global issues, making full use of current dialogue mechanism.

He said the two sides should speed up negotiations on a new Partnership and Cooperation Agreement, which was started last January and aimed at replacing the outdated 1985 Trade and Economic Cooperation Agreement.

Wen also proposed to make common working plan on China-EU sci-tech cooperation and sign educational exchanges and cooperation agreement as soon as possible, implement the working plan on cultural dialogue and cooperation, and strengthen practical cooperation in the fields of climate change, energy and environmental protection.

I highlighted the important sentence here. China used various things to drive the Europeans into desiring a better platform for future trade and diplomacy. Europe isn't offering this, this is a Chinese dish prepared in the Hu kitchen. He knows that being nice is useless unless first, people fear the sword. Then the courtly flourishes lead to mutual respect tinged with a bit of fear. Putin struggles to gain this sort of fine-tuned diplomacy. I truly am in awe of Hu's leadership in this regard. Whatever his shortcomings as a national leader, his ability to play international games is unsurpassed at this point.

Strong euro helps Chinese firms cope with US weakness

The euro's strength against the yuan is stirring trade tensions but for small Chinese consumer goods makers it also offers a chance to shore up sales as they struggle with rising costs and the weak U.S. dollar.

In southeastern Zhejiang province, Zhejiang Enchant Cosmetic Co Ltd expects 30 percent growth in shipments to Europe this year, offsetting flat sales to the United States.

"The strong euro is giving Europeans more purchasing power and we are targeting Europe for sales growth," says Ran Jing, a manager at the firm.
*snip*
[The yuan's fall against the euro] contrasts with its 9 percent rise against the dollar, which, on top of mounting labour and raw material costs and cuts in export tax rebates, is squeezing Chinese manufacturers' profit margins, particularly in the highly competitive U.S. market.

The strength of the euro and the British pound helped boost China's exports to Europe by 37 percent in the first nine months of this year to $176 billion, for the first time exceeding exports to the United States, which grew 16 percent to $170 billion.

In October, China's trade surplus with the European Union hit $13.9 billion, nearing its $15.4 billion surplus with the United States.

China's trade with Europe is now nearly equal to the US, eh? This is a big change and yet another shift in power and another case of triangulation which is the name of the game when a major empire weakens. All former allies will profess love and devotion but will rush to the new power and begin dancing with them, too. The US should be more aware of this and realize, WE should be triangulating! WE need to treat all allies as just so many trade rivals. And WE must figure out that we must be wittier and warier than we currently are. Rambo in real life would not have survived for 5 minutes, fighting the Vietnamese.

Culture of Life News Main Page

OPEC And EU Meetings Mull Over Collapsing US Power

November 18, 2007

Elaine Meinel Supkis

OPEC ends meeting with Iran and Venezuela hogging the world stage and embarrassing Saudi Arabia badly. The US and Europe, despite the UN finding Iran is not violating any treaties, want to attack Iran for supposedly violating treaties. And so the guys in glass houses continue to throw rocks. Meanwhile, the British Foreign Minister makes an astonishing speech about letting Russia into the EU! How funny is that? Time to talk about Europe's penchant for imperial powers.

Although the IAEA found Iran truthful about its nuclear history, pressure from the U.S. for more sanctions continues.

But according to an article on the BBC, the unity of the UN Security Council is wearing thin and the international front against Iran could split, with veto-wielding UN members Russia and China becoming increasingly unwilling to take significant steps against the Islamic Republic.

According to the Vienna-based UN nuclear watchdog, Iran had made important steps towards explaining its past activities, including an admission that it went onto the black market to acquire uranium enrichment technology.

As usual, the news that Iran let international inspectors in and they found nothing wrong, has been twisted into a pretzel where the US could claim we have the right to attack them like we just attacked Syria, without declaring war or any just cause. The new form of disarmament which the US and Europe had abused when they unilaterally disarmed Iraq and then attacked, knowing full well, Iraq was helpless.

The West has been hyper-arming itself while demanding disarmament for small nations which either Europe or the US have menaced in the past. The UN, after disarming Iraq, did not punish the US for shoving inspectors aside and rushing in, killing a million people and destroying the country. 3 million refugees, too. Ever since not one WMD was found after this disgraceful invasion, the clock has been ticking. What we are seeing now is pure, raw power. This is being applied with violence and cruelty that is astonishing considering that the US preens itself as being the leader of the 'Free World.'

Indeed, one of the biggest fictions in history is how the Western European empires like to pretend they are freeing people even as they have practiced some of the cruelest forms of slavery. Throughout European history starting with Ancient Greece, the taint of slavery and the need to raid and loot, haunts us. This weekend's news is filled with all sorts of strange stuff that harks back to old battled and positively Medieval desires.

The biggest flash point for global rather than local conflicts is in the Middle East. This has been a flash point in history for a long, long, very long time. The many religious as well as political fissures that criss cross the region intersect with valuable resources as well as vital passages for trade. For the last 6,000 years, empires and kings bent their bows and threw spears in order to control this region. Even when the Romans conquered the entire Mediterranean basin areas, they couldn't penetrate much past Palestine and to the bitter end, were unable to defeat the Persians. Vast swaths of both Persia and the disintegrating Roman empire fell swiftly to the whirlwind Islamic fighters. This split the European continent from Africa and Central Asia.

The reverberations of this still ring today. The ancient battles between Sunni and Shia are as fresh today as a newly opened tomb in Egypt, the flowers and mummies perfectly preserved. Right on top of the Americans and Europeans trying to disarm Iran so they can invade with impunity is OPEC. They just had their 3rd meeting in 35 years. Obviously, things there are coming to a head. The power of OPEC is very small. It is a consortium or rather a very loose confederation that sets oil allocations so they can control the oil markets only everyone cheats their own system. The Saudis, the worst offenders. For political reasons, they increased or decreased production over the years. Often, it was to beat down the value of oil so the US could do thing in return like suppress Muslim discontent or fight the Shi'ites. The Saudis vacillate between utter greed and fear of all the people that surround them including their own subjects.

The recent story of the Shia girl who was gang-raped by the Saudi Sunnis is typical of that nightmarish state. She was sentenced to prison and a beating. When she appealed for justice in the media, they doubled her punishment and sentenced her lawyer to 500 lashes, a near-death sentence. Despite this, the propaganda in the West continues to be 'Saudi Arabia is moderate.' The Saudis have panicked in the past and pumped more and more oil, flooding the markets, to pay their bills they run up. They spend money like there is no tomorrow just like their mercenary army of protectors, the USA and England.

Over the years, the Saudis have entangled themselves within the US/UK empire's economic systems. For example, they are the chief owners of Citigroup. This thing is going rapidly bankrupt. The investment can vanish and they are very much afraid of sending the US and Britain into an economic tailspin. But they can no longer influence oil prices by simply turning on the taps! This is because they are rapidly approaching the Hubbert Oil Peak. On top of this, things are falling apart there. The huge oil fire on one of their lines barely makes the news. Nor do other insurrections that aim to cut the flow of oil.

So, this third meeting was in Saudi Arabia. But instead of dominating it, the king was on the defensive. Iran has an ally, Venezuela. And both want oil prices to be as high as possible! And both are basically at war with the US. This is mostly an economic war. The US is using its powers as the world's biggest nuclear power and empire to crush both but both have a very potent weapon: the more the US threatens them and cuts trade, the higher the price of oil. And the more the US/UK economies are hammered by this. On top of this, there is a currency war raging and it is everywhere. As the global banking system goes into meltdown, the internal affairs of OPEC diverge.

Saudi Arabia had to pretend they were not pushing for war with Iran while secretly doing exactly that. Iran retaliated with bringing up the entire issue of the dollar as a reserve currency. Speaking to the outer levels of the Arab world, the Iranians forced the Saudis to declare allegiance to the Crusaders invading Islamic lands. We think that, since the despotic and cruel dictators ruling much of the oil pumping nations rebuffed Iran, they won.

This ignores the bigger audience. Namely, the people in the streets. The US and England expect the cruel rulers of these terrible places to ignore their people and suppress them. But as the dollar dies, this becomes harder and harder to do. The OPEC ministers know that the US desires to bankrupt Iran and Venezuela and this means they, in turn, can try to do this to the US. The US is very, very unpopular in the Arab world and so everyone is walking a very sharp tightrope and the game is to see who will fall off first. The US is increasingly agitated about this because our war talk is making oil cost more and more and the dollar dropping more and more. We cannot do this for another 2 years or oil will be at $200 a gallon and the US economy, in the toilet.

OPEC SUMMIT OPEC leaders stress link between peace, oil prices

Leaders of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries stressed the importance of world peace for the stability of oil prices, according to a final summit statement obtained by AFP on Sunday.

'We insist on the importance of world peace to guarantee investments in the energy sector and the stability of the market,' said an Arabic copy of the statement translated by AFP.

This is Saudi Arabia's surrender. Contrary to what the Washington Post says, there is a direct connection between wars and oil prices. So this is a slap at the US. Of course, the neo-cons in the US intent on attacking Iran will say, they are disarming Iran so there will be peace. Of course, the history of disarmament used to be all about diplomacy and treaties. Not threats and then invasions. The US and Saudi Arabia conspired to invade Iraq after disarming Saddam. No sane nation will allow them to do this again. So Iran now has the upper hand and will use this joint statement to talk about the huge flotillas of foreign ships and armies working on behalf of the corrupt and cruel Saudis threatening all Shi'ites as well as everyone outside of the ruling elites.

OPEC members consider converting cash reserves into non-dollar currency

“They get our oil and give us a worthless piece of paper,” Ahmadinejad told reporters after the close of the summit in the Saudi capital of Riyadh. He blamed U.S. President George W. Bush’s policies for the decline of the dollar and its negative effect on other countries.

“All participating leaders showed an interest in changing their hard currency reserves to a credible hard currency,” Ahmadinejad said. “Some said producing countries should designate a single hard currency aside from the U.S. dollar ... to form the basis of our oil trade.”

The Saudis barely beat off the Iranian/Venezuelan proposals to drop the dollar as the basis for pricing oil but they won over enough support to set up a study committee that will consider alternatives. The US hopes to pressure everyone into continuing this farce and keep the dollar a the global imperial currency even as we debase it ruthlessly. But with the possibility of the Federal Reserve dropping interest rates looming in the near future, this is increasingly impossible.

Over all this looms some very real powers who are now playing hardball with the US. First, there is Russia. Putin, unlike Bush, is immensely popular with the masses due to his management of Russian resources, especially energy products. Russia isn't part of OPEC but then, OPEC can't last long if the go counter to Russia's wishes. And Russia doesn't mind rising oil prices and a dying dollar. We declared economic war on Russia when Putin came into power. So here we are: the troika of Russia, Iran and Venezuela have replaced the Axis of Evil of Iran, Iraq and North Korea. An imaginary axis has been replaced by a very real joint organization which has one end in mind: the crushing of US imperial power. And not by arms.

Iran has right to peaceful nuclear energy use: China

China believes Iran has the right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy but supports nuclear non-proliferation efforts, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said here Wednesday.

Beijing also hoped for a "positive outcome" from dialogue between Iran, Europe and the International Atomic Energy Agency on talks over the Iranian nuclear issue, Yang said.

The foreign minister arrived in Kabul from Tehran where he held talks with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Iran's controversial nuclear drive.

Yet another shot across the prow of the USS Even Keel. The complex international game is full of hazards for the US which are utterly ignored. The US cannot demand China do things while at the same time doing things our own way. The entire point of diplomacy is to balance power with persuasion. The US and Europe have used up vast seas of influence, fruitlessly demanding China do things for us all.

Both Russia and China have been playing this balancing game with the US and Europe. And this game has been mostly going in their own direction. Namely, time itself is on their side, not ours. We are in a hurry to force events along and this is dangerous since it is reckless. And can trigger a global confrontation we will lose. As it is, we are already losing the economic battles.

Lavrov confirms Russia's Dec. 12 moratorium on CFE Treaty

November 15 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's foreign minister confirmed on Thursday that the country will impose a moratorium on application of the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty on December 12.

"We will not exercise our right to withdraw from the CFE treaty," Sergei Lavrov said after a meeting with his Finnish counterpart. "But we will temporarily suspend our participation in this treaty, effective December 12," he said.

The State Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament, voted on November 7 in favor of President Vladimir Putin's bill to impose a unilateral moratorium on the CFE Treaty.

The modified version of the arms control treaty, which Western countries consider a cornerstone of European security, was signed on November 19, 1999 by all NATO countries except Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia and Slovenia.

The US, under Bush, has unilaterally cancelled important arms control treaties. We are now talking about militarizing space. We want to increase our nuclear attack arsenal. We are pouring huge sums into military systems designed to attack Russia and China. Our rulers openly agitate for WWIII and should be arrested. But the vast US media supports this. So Russia is now signaling to us, this is a fatal course. Even as the growing European 4th Reich is sneaking in offensive weapon systems aimed at Russia, both they and the US are running propaganda campaigns designed to justify all this.

And this is a losing battle! We can't afford this and certainly Europe can't. Their last two major wars nearly destroyed all of Europe and if they provoke the Russians, nothing will be left, not even ruins. This has to stop and they should be talking about their own actions at the UN. But they are not any more than the US accepts blame for war crimes.

EU 'should expand beyond Europe'

Foreign Secretary David Miliband has suggested the European Union should work towards including Russia, Middle Eastern and North African countries.

*snip*In his first major speech on the UK's relationship with Europe, he said the EU would not become a "superpower" but should be a "role model" for the world.

It could be a "model power of regional co-operation" dedicated to free trade, the environment and tackling extremism.
*snip*
Mr Miliband said that speech had been "haunted by demons - a European superstate bringing in socialism by the back door".

But he said: "The truth is that the EU has enlarged, remodelled and opened up. It is not and is not going to become a superstate. But neither is it destined to become a superpower."

And History sits on her throne and throws back her head wreathed with snakes and laughs. HAHAHA. So the rapidly growing EU system is not going to be a superpower? I'm sure Russia is no longer worried about this. Watching them being hammered by Asians playing a fierce currency war shows the limitations of the EU as a power. The EU is an appendage of the American military alliance. Like the Warsaw Pact nations when part of the Soviet empire, they trail after the US and say 'Yes, Master' at appropriate times.

Now we see the British officer suggesting the EU double or rather, quadruple in size by joining Russia? HAHAHA. This will really go down well with Washington, DC! Russia would dearly love to be part of the EU but with voting powers equal to Russia's military and energy production capacity. Namely, Russia will replace Germany and France as the controlling power within the EU? Of course.

THE INSTANT RUSSIA JOINS, THE EUROPEAN UNION WILL BE A SUPERPOWER.

But for Russia, not themselves. If they try to use Russia as a tool, this will fail. This is because power grows out of the barrel of the gun. On top of this, the need to expand to Turkey and beyond is part of the inner logic of all systems that need to grow in order to thrive. As the euro's problems mount, the lure of fixing this by expansion grows. Just like the US, going bankrupt from stupid wars, expands wars in a futile rage to fix this by bringing a violent peace and surrender.

This would be a "version of the European Free Trade Association that could gradually bring the countries of the Mahgreb, the Middle East and Eastern Europe in line with the single market, not as an alternative to membership, but potentially as a step towards it".

And the EU should extend military support to places like Darfur, he argued, to help solve problems of unwanted migration.
*snip*
"It's frankly embarrassing that when European nations - with almost two million men and women under arms - are only able, at a stretch, to deploy around 100,000 at any one time," he said.

"European countries have around 1,200 transport helicopters, yet only 35 are deployed in Afghanistan. And EU member states haven't provided any helicopters in Darfur despite the desperate need there."

First, Europe has ridden in the US Chariot of Firepower for 60 years. They have gotten cheap and lazy. Also note the comment about Darfur. The worry is about immigrants from Africa! Not mercy or aid but to stop immigration. Now this is a funny use of imperial powers. I recall the past and so does the goddess of History. We both remember that most of the black populations of North and South America were kidnapped from Africa and put in chains, beaten, raped and forced to work for free for CENTURIES. The Europeans became very rich off of all this. To this day, not one nation that trafficked in or abused African slaves have paid reparations.

Today, Europe is troubled by Africans coming over just like they used to sail all over the planet, colonizing other countries including Africa, of course. Britain is one of the countries most guilty of this. The feeling I get is, Europe isn't expanding because they love their neighbors, they are doing this frantically because they want power. Raw power like they had a mere 100 years ago.

Dump the Dollar, China State TV Tells Viewers

A state news program, quoting unnamed "wealth management experts," told residents with dollar accounts on the mainland to convert their holdings into yuan or a range of other foreign currencies, including the pound and the euro.

The prospect of ordinary Chinese ditching the dollar should be less alarming than reports that have roiled global markets of Beijing diversifying its official foreign exchange reserves.

And this news is very funny indeed. In the US, the media and the rulers are yelling at us to not buy gold but to trust them. They also are lying to us about inflation. The US has been pushing China very hard about currency values and this comes along! HAHAHA again. The US has the most inept negotiators on earth. China growled just 4 months ago, we should not attack them frontally on the issue of currency values or play war games aimed at encouraging Taiwanese rebellions against China. Of course, the US has ignored this just like Europe. Both, accustomed to using raw power and tremendous violence, accustomed to violating everyone's sovereignty, etc, have ignored these warnings.

So here we are: OPEC is fighting over whether to dump the dollar. Russia wants Europe to be part of Russia again, the US and Europe picked a fight with China they are doomed to lose and Europe wants to dominate the world? Queer, indeed.

Dinosaurs hit with double whammy 65 mln years ago

The Age of Dinosaurs ended roughly 65 million years ago with the K-T or Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event, which killed off all dinosaurs except those that became birds, as well as roughly half of all species on the planet. The prime suspect is an asteroid or comet impact, which left a vast crater at Chicxulub on the coast of Mexico.

Another leading culprit is a series of colossal volcanic eruptions that occurred between 63 million to 67 million years ago. These created the gigantic Deccan Traps lava beds in India, whose original extent may have covered as much as 580,000 square miles (1.5 million square kilometers), or more than twice the area of Texas.

Europe and the US are political dinosaurs who will get a one-two punch from currency battles and high fuel costs. We can go extinct just as easily. Especially if we try the WWIII option.

For the edification of our readers, here is a very old map drawn up by an Islamic cartographer nearly 1,000 years ago.

Europe still dreams of the Roman Empire. They hope to dominate the Mediterranean Sea basin, all the way up to central Russia like in Byzantia, and fight the Persians just like in olden times. This vast empire will, of course, be modern and have voting and such. But it won't have either cultural or economic unity at all. Just like the US formed a union but then, within it, the states outbid each other all the time, so it s with the EU. They are not an empire but a collection of states that want to have imperial power without while no power over themselves within.

But the logic of the system is forcing imperial powers on the European mini-states. This is why there is such a row over the Constitution that has been stalled due to voters rejecting this. I don't see the EU growing, indeed, as their economies slide down the rabbit hole due to a strong euro, even this joint venture may be doomed. Then the yuan will be the world's #1 currency, I suppose. Unless it is the ruble. That would be just too funny.

Culture of Life News Main Page

China Gets Russia And US Gets France

November 7, 2007

Elaine Meinel Supkis

Diplomacy of Bush versus the historic new alliances of China: the US has a buddy in Paris so we are now full of energy and determination to attack Iran while Russia and China form an amazing alliance. For the first time in 70 years, the US has a major alliance that can take us down militarily as well as economically. The US got one of the 7 dwarves that we had all along, anyway, while Hu reeled in Russia, a major power.

From Xinhua:

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and his Russian counterpart Viktor Zubkov singed here Tuesday a joint communique at the 12th regular prime ministers' talks between China and Russia, pledging to broaden strategic and political cooperation between the two nations.

Wen and Russian President Vladimir Putin had an in-depth exchange of views on major international and regional issues as well as broadening strategic cooperation and deepening cooperation in the fields of politics, economy and trade, energy, science and technology and humanism, said the communique.

Both sides have agreed to work out and adopt the 2009-2012 plan for implementing the Sino-Russian Good-Neighborly Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation by drawing on the experience of successfully implementing the treaty during 2005-2008 period, the communique added.

The two leaders expressed their satisfaction over the success of "the Year of China" in Russia, saying that the Chinese and Russian national years are unprecedented events in the history of China-Russia relations.

China is nearly done securing its rearguard. Patiently, Hu and Wen worked hard for this. The process took several fascinating years and I tracked this closely for this is real history in the making. Bush is rolling out the red carpet for Sarkozy. After France tried to stop the US/UK/Israeli invasion of Iraq, the Zionists targeted France for change and they succeeded wonderfully. The victory is freighted with great dangers. Sarkozy, unlike Hu when he visited, was NOT [thanks to FC for alerting me to this mistake!] insulted repeatedly by Bush and his gang, is being feted and feasted just like Koizumi who was the previous prime minister of Japan.

What is forgotten in all this is why we have diplomacy. It is not to become buddies with various leaders. It is to make deals, sign treaties and strengthen relations that strengthen the nation. In the case of France, their opposition to our war nearly saved us from infinite grief and costs. We have misspent a fortune we can ill-afford in our invasion of Iraq. We have committed many grave and serious war crimes for which our generals and political leaders should hang. The French leaders tried desperately to prevent this. Now we see in charge of France, a man who wants 'better' relations with the US.

Will he, like Koizumi, do this via destroying our economic base just as Japan has? Will Bush eagerly help France export to the US while not buying US? Will we help the French aircraft industry or will we compete with them? What sort of treaties do we have?

What this new guy has meant, is more of the most disastrous initiatives. More attacks on Iran. More pro-Israel moves, President Sarkozy perhaps might be a member of Mossad. In Lebanon, France will be partial towards the Israelis just as the Jewish President of France applauds illegal attacks on Syria like the mysterius attack this last month. Just the other day, Israel apologized to Turkey for illegally violating their air space during that illegal atttack. France stood by and sneered. In the UN, France is now one of the more obedient of the G7 dwarves and will echo whatever the US says.

So we will do dumb things. In contrast, China has not been installing puppet regimes in provinces and then using them, like Russia used to use the Warsaw states, to do bad things. China has been courting the leaders of countries without coups, tricks or manipulating people via the media. They used the old fashioned, standard tools. And the wide array of deals and treaties they have recently negotiated with Russia are historic. This changes the way the world works. This is a huge alteration in the balance of power.

France has been part of the European alliance since WWII. Actually, WWI. We nearly lost control of France several times as the French struggled, like the English, to pretend they were a great empire instead of some rump state under the American thumb. Historically, France has always reached over Germany and repudiated England in order to form alliances with Russia. In addition, France has always been open to refugees and others from German tyranny such as the Poles like Sardosky. All of Eastern Europe, badly burned by Soviet domination, have rushed into the European Union.

Post-war Germany kept a very low profile for many years after the Nazi experiment in brutal Real Politik. France could pretend to be the leader of Europe during those years. But ever since Germany reunited and all of Eastern Europe came flooding in, France's pretensions of being a world power have collapsed. Now they are reduced to tagging after the US as we focus on our colonization/control efforts in Muslim lands while simultaneously, Europe struggles to prevent any Muslims entry into Europe's orbit. I was living in Germany when France lost control of the Algerian sector of Northern Africa.

There was tremendous right wing rage over that. The desire to hang onto that province was very high and there was a lot of resentment that the US didn't step in like we did in Vietnam, another French colonial failure. But the US was already floundering badly in Vietnam in 1968. During this time, China and Russia were at each other's throats. To get ourselves out of the Vietnam mess which was caused by us supporting the Catholic/pro-French side, Nixon went to China to make a historic deal that changed the world's power structure greatly.

Mao was probably insane by then. If not much earlier. His wife was dominating the Throne in Beijng. When Kissinger arrived and began negotitions, he asked the Chinese who they wanted to come over and help them out so they could stand up to the Russians.

They asked for my father. Up until that day, back in the very early 1970's, the US had no relations at all with China. China wanted an ally because of a dangerous enemy on their borders: Russia. Vietnam was a danger to them for Vietnam was allied and supplied by Russia and the more we fought there, the stronger the Vietnamese military and the better their equipment from Russia. China wanted that war over with. Indeed, few Americans know that there was a hot border dispute right after we surrendered and fled Vietnam.

China lost the skirmishes and this caused great concern which is why they wanted my father above all others: his knowledge of lasers, rockets and other things. They wanted him to relaunch their space program. They wanted to be able to use lasers as we see them using it today [shooting down US spy satellites, for example, in the future]. My father and mother were given every possible honor that was given to Nixon and Kissinger. This is how I ended up being involved with Chinese politics. The Chinese leadership enjoyed discussing international power politics with anyone who could give them information they desperately needed. For they had no education, their schools were so drenched in propaganda, it was nearly impossible for them to 'think on their feet' or 'put themsevles into other people's shoes.'

The US courtship of China is one of the great moves of the century. If we continued to treat China as an equal power, a potential partner, a possible good friend, we would be able to rule the planet for 100 more years. But this is the problem: we wanted to rule CHINA. My father didn't want that, he recognized the importance of treating the Chinese honorably and honest talk. This is why he was the first human to fly between Taipei and Beijing nonstop. It was a test of his diplomacy. As I expected from my dad, he succeeded.

The US, if we were building a web of alliances of equals, could triangulate off of all the other major powers and thus, negotiate things that we need desperately such as a reduction of our need to patrol the Seven Seas and dominate the planet. Presently, the US bears the vast majority of the cost of military patrols of the planet and this is obviously bankrupting us. Not only that, it prevented us from developing a close alliance with China back when Russia was destroying itself trying to invade and control Afghanistan.

Russia wanted a pro-Soviet government there and the populace hated this and resisted. Just like today. A few people here are aware that Iraq killed more soldiers this year than any previous year [tons of propaganda this month about the stupid surge working] or that freedom fighter killed a number of elected officers in the collapsing Karzai government. The fighting raging there is spreading to Pakistan and possibly, Turkey and Egypt. Polls show that the vast majority of Muslims across the Middle East, hate the US, hate Europe and hate our support of their oppressive rulers. Yet we continue on this path of no return.

The Chinese understand, just as Russia is finally understanding, one can't control events if one is broke. Russia's catastrophic wars with Afghanistan and then Chechnya clearly showed that bankruptcy is a weakness and if one wishes to rule anyone, one has to have money. The Chinese watched first with glee and then, alarm, as Russia fell apart an the US and Europe encouraged this and exploited this. The US rush into Central Asia was the final straw. The US was not playing a multilateral game but was playing 'Gimme that now!' And intended to surround not just Russia but China with missiles and attack forces aimed at destroying the sovereignty of both China and Russia. The flap over the missiles in Europe is but one more step in this process of the US flinging our military power in Russia and China's faces.

And the end result: we no longer have France triangulating Russia, China and the US. We now have Japan, England, Germany and now France, banded together on our side in an enterprise that will destroy the US totally: the colonization and domination of the entier Middle East and the seizure of not only the oil wells but the acculated wealth held by Muslims there.

China is familiar with all this. The West invaded China and over the course of 100 years, totally destroyed the empire. This destruction nearly anniliated the Chinese culture as the Chinese, in despair, went on this long riot we call 'the Maoist Years.' Everything to do with the past culture and arts was purged as despair and self-hate ran its course.

This is over with and China is now regaining power and wealth and is regaining its culture and arts. As its powers grow, the Chinese have shown a strong desire to have a peaceful world with real competition which they feel they will win for they know their skills, intelligence and strength is great. Very great.

The future belongs to them. The US can change this only by triangulating Russia, China and itself rather than trying to impose our will on a billion people who hate us for this. Our irritating relations with all of the Muslim world means the Chinese will step in and pluck this fruit for themselves. They know that France wil come to them just as the Germans have and the Japanese must and the Taiwanese need to, but the Muslim world, buffetted by the West, rebuffed and reviled, attacked and invaded, will turn to China and China will triangulate us into History's graveyard of dead empires.

This is why we needed France as our nagging ally instead of a pooch on a leash. This is why Europe is disintigrating as a world power. Europe, in joining the US and attacking China for the last 3 years, has endangered themselves for they no longer are triangulating the three great powers, they are in chains even as they run trade surpluses with us. Note how their trade surplus is collapsing rapidly as the dollar collapses and the euro is over-weighted vis a vis all currencies.

The ONLY way they can deal with this is to privately negotiate with China. Or the G7, when the invite China, could hand over the chair to China and let China decide the agenda. This would force the G7 to face each other realistically and begin serious negotiations about how the triangulate currencies, etc. And the subject of free trade: again, China decides this, not the US. The US has been unable to cope with any of this.

Our financial collapse endangers the world. We can't fix it ourselves due to the diplomatic/historic/imperial forces at work on us. We could have fixed this back when we first discovered we could not consume oil endlessly and our empire couldn't dominate even Vietnam, but we refused.

And the collapse of the Soviet Union wasn't viewed as a warning but as an opportunity to jump forwards into the Middle East and grab whatever we could. And now that is consuming our economy, or political system and endangering the entire planet and all humans here. For this can trigger WWIII. With France egging Bush on, the chances of WWIII are growing, not shrinking. And you can bet, Bush is laughing with his buddy from France as they gleefully talk about strong arming Russia, China and all the Islamic peoples.