Filed under: China / SE Asia | Tags: china, dalai lama, jiaboa, obama, prc, taiwan, yuan
In a few short months Barack Obama has bungled and bumbled any strategic advantage the U.S may have possessed in international diplomacy and has seriously jeopardized long-term relationships with all 4 major powers of the East. Departures with India on Copenhagen, missile shields threatening Russia and China and loss of support in Japan among the new government are just a sample of the diplomatic missteps which have occurred. Even if the Obama administration’s disposition wasn’t militaristic and threatening, which it certainly is, their arrogant diplomatic behavior is enough alone to drive support away from the U.S on the international level. In this arena, the Chinese are clear in their assertion that the U.S has “grossly violated the norms governing international relations.”
Reuters: China foreign minister says U.S. ties “disrupted”
Business Week: China Says U.S. ‘Entirely’ to Blame for Strained Ties
Roman Tomberg: Stalemate in China-US Relations
This winter has been a cold one for China-US relations. So many serious disagreements between the two countries have not surfaced simultaneously for decades: the US is exerting unprecedented pressure on China to revalue the Yuan, a cyber war erupted between Google and the Chinese administration, Washington intends to sell weapons worth $6.4 bn to Taiwan, China dumped US bonds worth $34.2 bn, both sides threaten to introduce punitive import tariffs, and US President B. Obama received 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso in the White House. In the past China and the US avoided taking harsh measures against each other serially, but evidently things have changed beyond recognition over the past several months.
Notably, the round of tensions came as a surprise – just recently US analysts used to churn out totally different predictions concerning the relations with China. US economist and the director of Peterson Institute for International Economics Fred Bergsten coined the term G-2 as the new global economy formula in his The United States and the World Economy (2005). In the early 2009, the concept was upheld by such US foreign politics gurus as former Secretary of State H. Kissinger and former White House National Security Adviser Z. Brzezinski. Their idea was that China should shoulder the burden of global hegemony jointly with the US, which implied that Obama’s Administration would be steering a course generally benign to the country. Continue reading
Filed under: Resource Wars, War | Tags: dod, military, obama, penatgon, qdr, War
An ever increasing defense budget clearly demonstrates the priorities of the U.S government/military. Freedom of movement and the ability to engage multiple enemies on multiple fronts will characterize warfare in 2010 and beyond. The disingenuous demagogue Obama had promised to end these type of conflicts, yet more than a year after his election we are expanding our presence aggressively in several new areas of operation and are continuing the derided policies of the Bush administration. Will this ever end?
Matthew Berger: America’s “War without Borders”
WASHINGTON – A report and budget request from the U.S. Defense Department released Monday reveal both new and old priorities for President Barack Obama’s Pentagon.
Strategically, the military recognizes new, non-traditional threats ranging from failed states to cyber-warfare to climate change. But there is little change in the military spending habits of the Obama Pentagon versus that of his predecessor.
The new Quadrennial Defense Review, a congressionally mandated report on the direction of U.S. national security strategy, marks several major breaks from past reports. Whereas previous QDRs have had at their heart a strategy in which the country is able to fight two separate conventional wars, Monday’s report shifts the focus to multiple and diffuse simultaneous threats.
“We have learned through painful experience that the wars we fight are rarely the wars we plan,” Defense Secretary Robert Gates told reporters at the Pentagon Monday afternoon.
New threats require new responses, and the report emphasizes having increased numbers of special forces, drones and helicopters as well as preparing for conflicts that take place in the realms of counterinsurgencies and cyberspace.
“Although it is a manmade domain, cyberspace is now as relevant a domain for DoD activities as the naturally occurring domains of land, sea, air, and space,” the report notes.
Continue reading
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: corporate, corruption, court, election, obama, supreme
Can’t argue too much with this article. It really provided a clear framework for understanding the evolution towards the concept of “corporate personhood”. For too long corporations have been trying to extend the Constitutionally-protected rights of individuals onto their own corporate entities. With recent U.S Supreme Court rulings that allow corporations unprecedented influence in U.S elections, the principles that defined American government are slowly being lost. Of course Obama, desperate for any semblance of legitimacy, is quick to renounce the decision as if his position offers him no leverage to alleviate the situation in any way. Corporations, syndicates, cartels–whatever they are called, have demonstrated significant control over the functioning of the American government for decades and now they are on the cusp of a takeover. Sounds serious, huh?
Vi Ransel: Cold Case Democracy and the Doctrine of “Corporate Personhood” (part II)
Filed under: Latin America | Tags: aid, dod, haiti, military, obama, southcom, us
It just so happened that SOUTHCOM was conducting a drill involving assisting Haiti in the aftermath of a hurricane the day before the first earthquake hit the island nation. It was at this point that U.S commanders decided to take the drill “live”. Thank god for the U.S military and its uncanny ability to predict disasters in the days before they occur.
Michel Chossudovsky: A Haiti Disaster Relief Scenario Was Envisaged by the US Military One Day Before the Earthquake
A Haiti disaster relief scenario had been envisaged at the headquarters of US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) in Miami one day prior to the earthquake.
The holding of pre-disaster simulations pertained to the impacts of a hurricane in Haiti. They were held on January 11. (Bob Brewin, Defense launches online system to coordinate Haiti relief efforts (1/15/10) — GovExec.com, complete text of article is contained in Annex)
The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), which is under the jurisdiction of the Department of Defense (DoD), was involved in organizing these scenarios on behalf of US Southern Command.(SOUTHCOM).
Defined as a “Combat Support Agency”, DISA has a mandate to provide IT and telecommunications, systems, logistics services in support of the US military. (See DISA website: Defense Information Systems Agency).
On the day prior to the earthquake, “on Monday [January 11, 2010], Jean Demay, DISA’s technical manager for the agency’s Transnational Information Sharing Cooperation project, happened to be at the headquarters of the U.S. Southern Command in Miami preparing for a test of the system in a scenario that involved providing relief to Haiti in the wake of a hurricane.” (Bob Brewin, op cit, emphasis added) Continue reading
Filed under: Latin America | Tags: aid, aristide, cia, earthquake, haiti, obama, port-au-prince, quake, relief
We’re back. OK. The tragic situation in Haiti has brought the plight of one of the poorest nations in the Western Hemisphere to the forefront of international media concern. Resulting events are are likely to produce an outwardly egalitarian motivation for assisting the millions of indigent and homeless in the wake of these events– with the U.S government attempting to take the lead in post-disaster relief. However, while doctors, construction equipment, triage kits, and basic supplies are desperately needed as chaos begins to hit the streets, the U.S seems intent of fulfilling military and strategic objectives long before tangible assistance can be observed. The logjam of military equipment at the Port-au-Prince airport, military surveillance aircraft, CIA operatives and photo-ops for Obama highlight U.S response to a purely humanitarian objective. This clearly signals the DOD and its intentions to expand their presence into Latin America to be used as a base of operations against non-cooperative leaders and a strategic area for military deployment to Africa and the Antarctic– demonstrated by Chavez and Morales at the ALBA meeting some months ago. This could be the new American bulwark in the Caribbean.
U.S military equipment waiting to be deployed in Port-au-Prince
Global Research: The Militarization of Emergency Aid to Haiti: Is it a Humanitarian Operation or an Invasion?
Online Journal: U.S. troops in Haiti to prevent Aristide’s return
Filed under: The Pacific, War | Tags: china, hatoyama, japan, korea, obama, okinawa, us
World News: President Obama and the Rise of Japan’s Pacifists (Again!)
With the recent election of Japan’s Prime Minister Yuko Hatoyama, President Barack Obama might have received a warmer welcome in Tokyo’s Suntory Hall by claiming to be America’s first Pacifist President, instead of America’s first Pacific President. Prime Minister Hatoyama, after all, has promised to halt its nations naval mission supporting the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan. He is also reviewing basing agreements and the stationing of 50,000 U.S. troops, including those in Okinawa. It is obvious, that America’s militarist tradition and imperial presidency-which Barack Obama inherited-is in stark contrast to the rise of Japan’s Pacifists, again! In fact, it might be a more important component to U.S.-Japan relations than that of trade and commerce…
…Could this be the reason President Obama warned Prime Minsiter Yuko Hatoyama, along with pacifists in his Democratic Party of Japan, of serious consequences if it reneges on its military realignment plans? North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, Taiwan’s movement towards autonomy, and the geopolitical importance of the Strait of Taiwan have only added to a strong U.S. military presence in the region. And with uncertainty over military bases in Okinawa-making it improbable for America to contain China and other nations in the area-U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has notified Japan that relations may “fracture” and “lead to a standstill in the nation’s security policy…
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Filed under: China / SE Asia, War | Tags: india, nuclear, obama, pakistan, terror, us
This short article seems to be revealing the parameters of the U.S-Indian relationship; using the “Pakistan issue”, the Mumbai bombing and other recent terrorist events as the fulcrum of the growing relationship which includes intelligence sharing, cooperative military drills, nuclear exchange and more.
Asia Times: US boosts India’s anti-terror efforts
…India has also increased its sharing of information and operational details with US intelligence agencies, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Officials say this cooperation has gone a long way towards boosting domestic expertise. CIA director Leon E Panetta is due to visit India in November.
The close relationship of the US with Pakistan gives the Americans access to classified information that is valuable to India. Activities such as phone calls, meetings, travel, and e-mails by dozens of Pakistan-based LeT operatives are monitored by US agencies, information that that is now accessible to India.
One recent example highlights the benefits of India and the US sharing information…. Continue reading
Filed under: China / SE Asia, The Pacific, War | Tags: asia, dpj, hatoyama, japan, ldp, obama, okinawa, War
The question of U.S/Japan relations becomes an interesting consideration for U.S war designs and power projection in Asia. Will the new Japanese regime reverse it trend towards a U.S “client state” or will this inequitable relationship which forces Japanese to finance U.S operations continue?
Gavan McCormack: Obama vs Hatoyama: The making of an unequal, unconstitutional, illegal, colonial and deceitful US-Japan agreement.
Elections at the end of August gave Japan a new government, headed by Hatoyama Yukio. In electing him and his Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), the Japanese people, like the American people less than a year earlier, were opting for change – a new relationship with both Asia and the US, including a much more equal one with the latter. Remarkably, however, what followed on the part of the Obama administration has been a campaign of unrelenting pressure to block any such change.
The Obama administration has targeted in particular the Hatoyama desire to re-negotiate the relationship with the United States so as to make it equal instead of dependent. Go back, it seems to be saying, to the golden days of “Sergeant-Major Koizumi” (as George W. Bush reportedly referred to the Japanese Prime Minister) when compliance was assured and annual US policy prescriptions (“yobosho”) were received in Tokyo as holy writ; forget absurd pretensions of independent policies.
The core issue has been the disposition of American military presence in Okinawa and the US insistence that Hatoyama honour an agreement known as the Guam Treaty.
The Guam Treaty
The “Guam International Agreement” is the US-Japan agreement signed by Secretary Hillary Clinton and Japanese Foreign Minister Nakasone Hirofumi in February and adopted as a treaty under special legislation in May 2009, in the first days of the Obama administration. Support for the Aso government in Japan was collapsing and the incoming Obama administration moved urgently to extract formal consent to its plans in such a way as to ensure that any such agreement would bind any subsequent Japanese government.
8,000 Marines and their 9,000 family members were to be relocated from Okinawa to Guam, and the US marine base at Futenma would be transferred to Henoko in Nago City in Northern Okinawa, to a new base to be built by Japan. The Japanese government would also pay $6.09 billion towards the Guam transfer cost ($2.8 billion of it in cash in the current financial year). [1] The effect in Okinawa would be that the US military would vacate some of its larger bases in the densely populated south but concentrate and expand those in the north of the island.
These matters (save for the detailed financial clauses) had all been resolved by a previous agreement, nearly four years earlier under Koizumi – the October 2005 agreement on “US-Japan Alliance: Transformation and Realignment for the Future” reconfirmed by the May 2006 “United States-Japan Roadmap for realignment Implementation.” [2] Now, to compel compliance, Article 3 of the new Agreement declared that “The Government of Japan intends to complete the Futenma replacement facility as stipulated in the Roadmap [i.e. by 2014]” even though the parties had virtually given up hope that that was possible in the face of entrenched Okinawan opposition. [3]
The Agreement was one of the first acts of a popular, “reforming” US administration and one of the last of a Japanese regime in fatal decline after half a century of LDP rule. It set in unusually clear relief the relationship between the world’s No 1 and No 2 economic powers. The Agreement is worthy of close attention because, as analysed below, it was unequal, unconstitutional, illegal, colonial and deceitful
Asia Times: Space is suddenly on the agenda
United States President Barack Obama is preparing to make his first official trip to Asia this week, and a growing list of important economic and defense-related issues are on his agenda. From the time he touches down in Tokyo on Thursday until the time he flies home from Seoul – stops in Singapore, Shanghai and Beijing are also planned – Obama is going to be watched closely back home.
Obama’s visit to China is going through some last-minute changes due to recent remarks about China’s plans for space by General Xu Qiliang, commander of the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Air Force. On November 1, in advance of activities marking the 60th anniversary of the founding of the PLA Air Force, Xu was interviewed by China’s PLA Daily.
“Only power could protect peace. Superiority in space and in air would mean, to a certain extent, superiority over the land and the oceans,” he said. “As the air force of a peace-loving country, we must forge our swords and shields in order to protect peace.”
According to Xu, “a country without adequate power would have no say when faced with challenges posed by the militarization in the space and air.” [1]
Xu also said that, “military competition has shifted towards space. Such a shift is a major trend now, and such expansion is a historical inevitability.” [2]
A few days later, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) made clear that Xu’s comments were incomplete and had to be taken in context.
“I want to point out China has all along upheld the peaceful use of outer space. We oppose the weaponization of outer space or a space arms race,” said MFA spokesman Ma Zhaoxu. “China has never and will not participate in an outer space arms race in any form. The position of China on this point remains unchanged.” [3]
Filed under: Latin America, War | Tags: air force, chavez, colombia, obama, uribe, venezuela, War
While the media spins this story into another tale of irrational Venezuelan bluster, quietly preparations are beginning for a potential conflict in Latin America. Will this be a limited conflict between Venezuela and Colombia, or will the U.S use its new found presence in the region as “an opportunity for conducting full spectrum operations throughout South America ?” The U.S military considers Palanquerno such an asset for potential military operations that in the Air Force Global en Route Strategy document, it is treated as a vital defense against “security and stability [that] is under constant threat from narcotics funded terrorist insurgencies…and anti-US governments.”
Obama and Uribe look deeply into each others eyes to reveal the appropriate military strategy.
BBC: Chavez steps up Colombia war talk
Eva Golinger: Official US Air Force Document Reveals the True Intentions Behind the US-Colombia Military Agreement
“…It’s not difficult to imagine which governments in South America are considered by Washington to be “anti-US governments”. The constant aggressive declarations and statements emitted by the State and Defense Departments and the US Congress against Venezuela and Bolivia, and even to some extent Ecuador, evidence that the ALBA nations are the ones perceived by Washington as a “constant threat”. To classify a country as “anti-US” is to consider it an enemy of the United States. In this context, it’s obvious that the military agreement with Colombia is a reaction to a region the US now considers full of “enemies”…”
Duty Now For The Future 