EU Refugee Crises: Why Are EU Politicians Never Mentioning US Is To Blame For EU Refugee Crises ? - by A. Bacevich

The Middle East: From Bad To Worse

‘If you break it, you own it.” Colin Powell’s Pottery Barn Rule, warning George W. Bush of the consequences of invading Iraq, turned out to be dead wrong.

Make that half wrong. Bush broke it — “it” being a swath of the greater Middle East. But the U.S. adamantly refuses to accept anything like ownership of the consequences stemming from Bush’s recklessly misguided acts and you will never hear a European politician openly admit to it.

Not least among those consequences is the crisis that finds refugees fleeing Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and other parts of the Islamic world in search of asylum in the West. The European nations most directly affected have greeted this wave with more hostility than hospitality — Germany, for a time, at least offering a notable exception.

For its part, the U.S. has responded with pronounced indifference. In a gesture of undisguised tokenism, the Obama administration has announced it will admit a grand total of 10,000 Syrians — one-eightieth the number that Germany has agreed to accept this year alone.

No doubt proximity plays a part in explaining the contrast between German and U.S. attitudes. Viewed from Wichita or Walla Walla, the plight of those who hand themselves over to human traffickers in hopes of crossing the Mediterranean plays out at a great distance.

Syria is what Neville Chamberlain would have described as a faraway country of which Americans know nothing (and care less). And Iraq and Afghanistan are faraway countries that most Americans have come to regret knowing.

Such attitudes may be understandable. They are also unconscionable.

To attribute the refugee crisis to any single cause would be misleading. A laundry list has contributed: historical and sectarian divisions within the region; the legacy of European colonialism; the absence of anything even approximating enlightened local leadership able to satisfy the aspirations of people tired of corruption, economic stagnation, and authoritarian rule; the appeal — inexplicable to Westerners — of violent Islamic radicalism. All play a role.

USA: The Creator Of The George Bush Refugee Crises 

Yet when it comes to why this fragile structure collapsed just now we can point to a single explanation — the cascading after-effects of a decision made by Bush during the spring of 2002 to embrace a doctrine of preventative war.

The previous autumn, U.S. forces toppled the government of Afghanistan, punishing the Taliban for giving sanctuary to those who plotted the 9/11 attacks. Bush effectively abandoned Afghanistan to its fate and set out to topple another regime, one that had no involvement whatsoever in 9/11.

For Bush, going after Saddam Hussein’s Iraq formed part of a larger strategy. He and his lieutenants fancied that destroying the old order in the greater Middle East would position the U.S. to create a more amenable new order. Back in 1991, after a previous Iraq encounter, Bush’s father had glimpsed a “new world order.” Now a decade later, the son set out to transform the father’s vision into reality.

The administration called this its Freedom Agenda, which would begin in Iraq but find further application throughout the greater Middle East. Coercion rather than persuasion held the key to its implementation, its plausibility resting on unstoppable military power. For Bush’s inner circle, including Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz (but not Powell), victory was foreordained.

They miscalculated. The unsettled (but largely ignored) condition of Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban already hinted at the extent of that miscalculation. The chaos that descended upon Iraq as a direct result of the U.S. invasion affirmed it. The Freedom Agenda made it as far as Baghdad and there it died.

That Saddam was a brutal tyrant is a given. We need not mourn his departure. Yet while he ruled he at least kept a lid on things. Bush blew off that lid, naively expecting liberal democracy or at least deference to American authority to emerge. Instead, “liberating” Iraq produced conditions conducive to the violent radicalism today threatening to envelop the region.

The Islamic State offers but one manifestation of this phenomenon. Were it not for Bush’s invasion of Iraq, ISIL would not exist — that’s a fact. Responsibility for precipitating the rise of this vile movement rests squarely with Washington.

So rather than cluck over the reluctance of Greeks, Serbs, Hungarians and others to open their borders to those fleeing from the mess the U.S. played such a large part in creating, Americans would do better to engage in acts of contrition.

On the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, former president Bush visited New Orleans, implicitly acknowledging that his administration’s response to that disaster just might have fallen a bit short. It was a handsome gesture. A similar gesture is in order toward the masses fleeing the region into Turkey and Europe.

It’s never too late to say to say you’re sorry. 

Note EU-Digest: as to our own "whimpy" EU politicians, who are supporting these totally failed US Middle East Policies, they ask no questions. They continue backing this madness with costly military assistance from the air and on the ground, financed by taxpayers money. 
Why are European Politicians not coming to their senses and develop their own independent foreign policies based on the real needs of the EU.

After all, as the saying goes, "charity begins at home" . 

Read more:  - by Andrew Bacevich The George W. Bush refugees – POLITICO

US Establishment Getting Worried as Hillary Clinton Turns to McCarthyism – by Robert Parry

US Elections: Democracy at work or the final meltdown ?

The irony of Hillary Clinton’s campaign impugning the patriotism of Donald Trump and others who object to a new Cold War with Russia is that President George H.W. Bush employed similar smear tactics against Bill Clinton in 1992 by suggesting that the Arkansas governor was a Kremlin mole.

Back then, Bill Clinton countered that smear by accusing the elder President Bush of stooping to tactics reminiscent of Sen. Joe McCarthy, the infamous Red-baiter from the 1950s. But today’s Democrats apparently feel little shame in whipping up an anti-Russian hysteria and then using it to discredit Trump and other Americans who won’t join this latest “group think.”As the 1992 campaign entered its final weeks, Bush – a much more ruthless political operative than his elder-statesman image of today would suggest – unleashed his subordinates to dig up whatever dirt they could to impugn Bill Clinton’s loyalty to his country.

Some of Bush’s political appointees rifled through Clinton’s passport file looking for an apocryphal letter from his student days in which Clinton supposedly sought to renounce his citizenship. They also looked for derogatory information about his student trips to the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia.

The assault on Clinton’s patriotism moved into high gear on the night of Sept. 30, 1992, when Assistant Secretary of State Elizabeth Tamposi – under pressure from the White House – ordered three aides to pore through Clinton’s passport files at the National Archives in Suitland, Maryland.

Though no letter renouncing his citizenship was found, Tamposi still injected the suspicions into the campaign by citing a small tear in the corner of Clinton’s passport application as evidence that someone might have tampered with the file, presumably to remove the supposed letter. She fashioned that speculation into a criminal referral to the FBI.

Within hours, someone from the Bush camp leaked word about the confidential FBI investigation to reporters at Newsweek magazine. The Newsweek story about the tampering investigation hit the newsstands on Oct. 4, 1992. The article suggested that a Clinton backer might have removed incriminating material from Clinton’s passport file, precisely the spin that the Bush people wanted.

Immediately, President George H.W. Bush took to the offensive, using the press frenzy over the criminal referral to attack Clinton’s patriotism on a variety of fronts, including his student trip to the Soviet Union in 1970.

Bush allies put out another suspicion, that Clinton might have been a KGB “agent of influence.” Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s Washington Times headlined that allegation on Oct. 5, 1992, a story that attracted President Bush’s personal interest.

“Now there are stories that Clinton … may have gone to Moscow as [a] guest of the KGB,” Bush wrote in his diary that day.

With his patriotism challenged, Clinton saw his once-formidable lead shrink. Panic spread through the Clinton campaign. Indeed, the suspicions about Bill Clinton’s patriotism might have doomed his election, except that Spencer Oliver, then chief counsel on the Democratic-controlled House International Affairs Committee, suspected a dirty trick.

“I said you can’t go into someone’s passport file,” Oliver told me in a later interview. “That’s a violation of the law, only in pursuit of a criminal indictment or something. But without his permission, you can’t examine his passport file. It’s a violation of the Privacy Act.”

After consulting with House committee chairman Dante Fascell, D-Florida, and a colleague on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Oliver dispatched a couple of investigators to the Archives warehouse in Suitland. The brief congressional check discovered that State Department political appointees had gone to the Archives at night to search through Clinton’s records and those of his mother.

Oliver’s assistants also found that the administration’s tampering allegation rested on a very weak premise, the slight tear in the passport application. The circumstances of the late-night search soon found their way into an article in The Washington Post, causing embarrassment to the Bush campaign.

Yet still sensing that the loyalty theme could hurt Clinton, President Bush kept stoking the fire. On CNN’s “Larry King Live” on Oct. 7, 1992, Bush suggested anew that there was something sinister about a possible Clinton friend allegedly tampering with Clinton’s passport file.

“Why in the world would anybody want to tamper with his files, you know, to support the man?” Bush wondered before a national TV audience. “I mean, I don’t understand that. What would exonerate him – put it that way – in the files?” The next day, in his diary, Bush ruminated suspiciously about Clinton’s Moscow trip: “All kinds of rumors as to who his hosts were in Russia, something he can’t remember anything about.”

But the GOP attack on Clinton’s loyalty prompted some Democrats to liken Bush to Sen. Joe McCarthy, who built a political career in the early days of the Cold War challenging people’s loyalties without offering proof.

On Oct. 9, the FBI further complicated Bush’s strategy by rejecting the criminal referral. The FBI concluded that there was no evidence that anyone had removed anything from Clinton’s passport file.

At that point, Bush began backpedaling: “If he’s told all there is to tell on Moscow, fine,” Bush said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “I’m not suggesting that there’s anything unpatriotic about that. A lot of people went to Moscow, and so that’s the end of that one.”

As her campaign sinks into its own anti-Russian mud pile of guilt-by-association, Hillary Clinton and her supporters may ask themselves how far are they prepared to go – and whether their ambitions have overwhelmed any “sense of decency.”

The writer of this report
Investigative reporter Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s. You can buy his latest book, America’s Stolen Narrative, either in print here or as an e-book (from Amazon and barnesandnoble.com).

For the complete report click here: Hillary Clinton’s Turn to McCarthyism – Consortiumnews

US Foreign Policy: ISIS and European Refugees Crises A Direct Result of Iraqi War

Blair and Bush launch Iraq war based on false information:

Why are Governments keeping silent about the undeniable fact that the terrorism and security crises Europe is facing comes as a direct result of the Iraqi war.

Also,  as more and more innocent victims die as a result of terrorism in Europe and around the world, Governments need to recognize the facts and identify the culprits who provided false information to the so-called "coalition of the willing" which resulted in  more than a million civilian and military deaths.

During the years following the aftermath of the Iraqi war it should be crystal clear to our political leaders that military actions are not the answer to solving any political crises  So far this strategy has only increased the security problems around the worls and resulted in a very unstable political and social environment..

Across Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, and Turkey people have crossed borders and traveled many kilometres within their own country to find respite from war.

Millions have crossed continents and have ended up in Europe seeking that same respite. By and large it's taken Europe by surprise. Opinions vary on how to deal with the crisis. Some say Europe and the US should step up. Others say the rich Gulf states should use their enormous wealth to help.

The fact remains: why is no Government leader in the US or Europe backing the obvious that a strategic mistake was made by the invasion and occupation of Iraq?  Can our Governments still be trusted ?

March 2003 was the pivotal point. Based on controversial evidence that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction (WMD), the war drums beat loudly.

The WMD claim was eventually publicly discredited by the CIA's own Iraq survey group report . That report proved whispers and intelligence community doubts from the time that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

But it wasn't just those who questioned the evidence. Mass opposition from the British and American public concluded in marches in various Western capitals opposing the war.

Those voices went ignored and in March 2003, the then US president George Bush Bush  and the British prime minister Tony Blait  met in the Azores, Portugal, with the Spanish prime minister, and set into motion events that now include the dead body of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi that washed up on a Turkish beach.

The Arab Spring was officially launched when Mohamed Morsi, who became Egypt's first democratically elected president, was toppled by the military in 2013. Initially it was not religious or even violent in nature.

It was popular anger at dictators propped up by the West coupled with frustration at the lack of economic development.

Down the dictators fell, and with them, decades of religious suppression. That religious fervour found expression in anger at the US' role in Iraq.

Suddenly religious groups were able to speak freely, and freely they did, mainly about the US and its role in the region.

Then when the protests reached Syria, President Bashar al-Assad knew he didn't want to suffer the same fate as his Arab counterparts.

The West quickly abandoned him and said no negotiations while he was in power. Left with little choice he moved on those that opposed him in a violent and bloody manner.

The Iraq war was the war too far - the one that has changed the Middle East.

It was the war that solidified and unified disparate young men from different countries into following the path of violent jihad.

Had the Iraq war not happened, then Saddam Hussein would have been contained as he was.
This dictator was a threat to freedom and to his own people, but was no longer a threat to his neighbours.

The leaders of ISIL and other radical groups would have found death in Afghanistan or prison elsewhere. However, hindsight and "what if" are the words of those that have the luxury of not living in a tent.

The Iraq war did happen.

The refugee crisis is happening.

Now the only questions the world perhaps should be asking is how we can bring about a political solution to the war in Syria and how we bring all sides to the table.

What the refugee crisis has done is force the Western European public to think. Whether they can force their governments to act and bring about a solution is another question.

The architects of the Iraq war still say their actions had nothing to do with the current crisis.

It is high time that the US, EU members states and other Nations, including China and Russia step up to the plate and let international justice take its course by prosecuting those who lied about the weapons of mass destruction, for war crimes. 

In the same breath, these nations under auspices of the United Nations should also declare the Middle East a nuclear and military free zone and weapon sales to this area should be prohibited.

The NATO, which has outlived its cold war purpose should be disbanded,  and replaced by a Multi-National Development Network to initially benefit the populations of Middle Eastern and North African Nations, and eventually also other nations ravaged by famine, war or tribal conflicts.

All this might sound like a utopian fantasy or unattainable dream, but it is certainly worth the effort and a far more productive proposition than enriching the weapons industry which is killing millions of innocent civilians around the world today.

EU-Digest

Britain: Tony Blair unrepentant as Chilcot gives crushing Iraq war verdict - by Luke Harding

A defiant Tony Blair defended his decision to go to war in Iraq in 2003 following the publication of a devastating report by Sir John Chilcot, which mauled the ex-prime minister’s reputation and said that at the time of the 2003 invasion Saddam Hussein “posed no imminent threat”.

Looking tired, his voice sometimes croaking with emotion, Blair described his decision to join the US attack as “the hardest, most momentous, most agonizing decision I took in 10 years as British prime minister”.

He said he felt “deeply and sincerely ... the grief and suffering of those who lost ones they loved in Iraq”.

The head of the Iraq war inquiry said the UK’s decision to attack and occupy a sovereign state for the first time since the second world war was a decision of “utmost gravity”. Chilcot described Saddam as “undoubtedly a brutal dictator” who had repressed and murdered many of his own people and attacked his neighbors.

But he was withering about Blair’s choice to sign up to a military plan drawn up in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 by the US president, George W Bush, and his neo-con team. Chilcot said: “We have concluded that the UK chose to join the invasion of Iraq before the peaceful options for disarmament had been exhausted. Military action at that time was not a last resort.”

Overall, Chilcot’s report amounts to arguably the most scathing official verdict on any modern British prime minister. It implicitly lumps Blair in the same category as Anthony Eden, who invaded Egypt in a failed attempt to gain control of the Suez canal. Chilcot’s 2.6m-word, 12-volume report was released on Wednesday morning, together with a 145-page executive summary.

Note EU-Digest: Tony Blair needs to be put in jail together with Bush Rumsfeld and Cheney. They (the US) are the root cause for our European refugee and terrorism problems which came as a direct result of the IRAQ war and US's Middle East policies..

It is high time the US Congress also puts together an investigation committee to investigate Bush, Cheney and Rumsfelds role in the IRAQ war and their lies to the US population and the countries who were called upon to support the US in this disastrous war.

Read more: Tony Blair unrepentant as Chilcot gives crushing Iraq war verdict | UK news | Th

Britain Chilcot Report: Blair Should Be 'Stripped Of All Honors' if He Lied About Iraq

Tony Blair should be “stripped of all honors” if the long-awaited Chilcot Report reveals he lied about Iraq, a senior Tory backbencher has said.

The 2.6 million word-long inquiry, due to be published Wednesday, is expected to criticize the former Labour prime minister for misleading Parliament and the public over the 2003 conflict.

The report collected evidence from more than 150 witnesses and over 200 cabinet meetings, and has analyzed 150,000 government documents.

Note EU-Digest: When will the US Republican controlled congress set up a similar investigation inquiry for the former US President George Bush who committed the same crimes which ultimately caused all the refugee mess the EU finds itself in today. 

Read more: Chilcot Report: Blair Should Be 'Stripped Of All Honors' if He Lied About Iraq

Brexit: Michael Moore: 'Britain Is A Toxic Place... Should Vote To Stay In The EU'

The Oscar-winning documentary-maker was promoting his new film, ‘Where to Invade Next’, which sees him visiting European countries to claim their best features for his home nation.

The UK does not feature in the film as it has nothing to offer against the likes of Italian holiday entitlement, Norwegian prisons and French school lunches. Michael Moore explained:

“It was a conscious and purposeful decision to not come to the UK. I mean this with respect, we didn’t feel like there was anything left to learn here. And that you had given up on yourselves.”

In particular, the Guardian reports, Mr. Moore cited Tony Blair’s support for allying Britain to the 2003 invasion of Iraq in the poisoning of the UK’s reputation, saying:

“You may be over Tony Blair. We’re not. We expected George W Bush to start that war. That wasn’t a surprise. But he was able to do it because you – the Brits, under Tony Blair – gave him back-up. You made it possible for him to say: ‘Hey, it’s not just me!’

“Honestly, if Blair hadn’t supported that war, I don’t know that [Bush] could have pulled it off. We’re not quite over the damage that this country has done to us and to the world by so-called liberals here voting and revoting for an individual who was anything but a liberal.

“This is a toxic place.
”
Mr. Moore did suggest that the election of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour Party leader atoned for some of the country’s sins, claiming: “that’s getting back to what Labour stood for, its roots. I wish Tony Benn were still around to see this.”

Nevertheless he identified what he sees as a further blot on the UK’s record, namely people voting for “bonkers” Brexit in the upcoming referendum.

“Why would you do this? You saved Europe. Europe today is, in large part, because of you, the UK. Why would you want to leave?

“Because, see, what are the arguments I’ve had to listen to this morning already on the news?  ‘It costs too much money…it’s 50 billion pounds a day…immigrants, immigrants, immigrants, immigrants…’
“Really? You know, that’s not who you are.”

Mr. Moore went on to draw comparisons between the EU referendum and November’s U.S. Presidential Election. He believes it likely that Brexiteers are similar to Donald Trump supporters, being more dedicated to their cause and therefore more likely to vote.

“I’m guessing the majority of Brits don’t want to leave the European Union,” he said. “But on election day who’s going to be out there? The haters.”

Read more: Michael Moore: 'Britain Is A Toxic Place... Should Vote To Stay In The EU'

Iraq: Laughing From His Grave - by Matthew Hoh

Nearly 12 years ago, the United States Congress, representing the American people, provided President George W. Bush with the authorization to invade Iraq. Friday, seemingly under this same authorization, American bombs fell again on Iraq.

This is not, however, the Bush Whitehouse.

After coming into office and adopting a proto-Bush approach to foreign policy by escalating the war in Afghanistan, participating in Libya's civil war, and enlarging America's targeted assassination and drone bombing campaign, the Obama White House has appeared, recently, more reticent in its use of military force.

With the current emergency in Iraq, so far the most apt and discerning quote, and the course of action most likely to bring about some form of peace and stability in Iraq, has come from White House Press Secretary.

If American bombs and bullets were the answer to the civil wars and political disorder in the Muslim world, then the situation would have been resolved in 2003

Read more: Laughing From His Grave | Matthew Hoh

EU-USA: Trust or Divorce: Spy issue saps U.S. effort to rebuild ties Bush broke

In Europe, America’s friends are furious, in the Middle East they are mystified and in the Pacific they are merely puzzled.

Mounting questions over the direction of U.S. foreign policy and sweeping espionage operations are threatening to undercut the Obama White House’s claim to have repaired relations with key allies that frayed under former President George W. Bush.

The world is also looking on in alarm at political dysfunction in Washington and wondering whether it will curtail America’s global role. Secretary of State John Kerry warned in a speech last week that U.S. partners are now asking, “Can we be counted on?”

President Barack Obama, already beleaguered over the chaotic rollout of his health care law, now has another foreign policy headache. Europe is in an uproar over explosive new leaks from secrets scooped up by fugitive analyst Edward Snowden.

The European public, which once swooned over Obama, are fuming at claims the secretive U.S. National Security Agency logged details of millions of their phone calls, and even apparently tapped the cellphone of German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Heather Conley, a former deputy assistant secretary of state for Europe and Eurasia in the Bush administration, said the White House response so far has done little to placate its allies.

“Their approach has led the (European) leaders to up the volume because we are not understanding how significant this issue is for public opinion,” said Conley, now with the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

In Washington, some officials privately disdain Europe’s fury as overly theatrical — because some of the outraged governments are partners in counterterrorism spying themselves and because U.S. intelligence has thwarted attacks in Europe.

The attitude that spying is rampant everywhere, and Europe should just get over it, is also widespread.
“Everyone spies on everybody,” Republican Sen. Marco Rubio told CNN. “These leaders are responding to domestic pressures. None of them are truly shocked about any of this.”

Read more: Spy issue saps U.S. effort to rebuild ties Bush broke | The Japan Times

France gives non-lethal military aid to Syrian opposition says PM

France is providing the Syrian opposition with “non-lethal” military aid, Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said Wednesday.

Speaking on BFMTV-RMC radio, Ayrault said France had responded positively to a request for help from the rebels seeking to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

“On the military level, what we have done is we have responded to a request by the Syrian National Council and the Syrian resistance to provide a certain number of non-lethal elements... means of communication and protection,” Ayrault said.

The premier reiterated that there was no question of France becoming directly involved in military action in Syria without U.N. backing, citing the example of former U.S. president George W. Bush’s 2003 Iraq invasion. “We have the example of Iraq where George Bush alone decided to go to war,” Ayrault said. “We were opposed and we were proved right. It ended in chaos.”

Read more: France gives non-lethal military aid to Syrian opposition: PM

US Presidential Elections: Brzezinski Says Romney Lacks Foreign Policy ‘Grasp’

Zbigniew Brzezinski, a former Democratic national security adviser, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital With Al Hunt,” airing this weekend, that Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney lacks a grasp of foreign policy and would return the U.S. to the policies of George W. Bush. 

For more: Brzezinski Says Romney Lacks Foreign Policy ‘Grasp’ (Transcript) - Businessweek

US Presidncy: Life after the White House: What’s on the former president’s iPad?

Doing the dishes, making coffee for his wife, and reading the Wall Street Journal on his iPad. That's what day-to-day life is like these days for former President George W. Bush, according to his wife, Laura.

In an exclusive interview with Deborah Roberts for Yahoo! News and ABC News at the Women's Conference 2010, former first lady Laura Bush talked about life post-White House and her husband's upcoming book, "Decision Points."

For more: Life after the White House: What’s on the president’s iPad? | The Upshot Yahoo! News

Alternet: USA: The insane adventure in national suicide known as the Bush administration is at last coming to an end - by David Michael Green

For the complete report from AlterNet click on this link

USA: The insane adventure in national suicide known as the Bush administration is at last coming to an end - by David Michael Green

Go on. Admit it. You never thought this would end, did you? You never thought they'd actually leave, huh? With only days remaining, you still have nagging doubts, don't you? Finally. Mercifully. Astonishingly. Incredibly. The insane adventure in national suicide known as the Bush administration is at last coming to an end. This was a ride that beggars belief. Even after McCarthy and Nixon and Reagan and Gingrich, nothing prepared us for the last eight years, and I for one have difficulty finding the words that could begin to do justice to describing this historical folly of epic proportions.

Right side News: Europe May Yet Long For George W. Bush - by Rafael L. Bardaji

For the complete report from Right Side News click on this link

Europe May Yet Long For George W. Bush - by Rafael L. Bardaj

Europeans are thrilled with the end of the Bush presidency and the election of Barack Obama. The euphoria over Obama will inevitably decrease when reality sets in and both sides are faced with making policy decisions. Hatred of, and disdain for, George W. Bush was the European excuse for refusing American requests for cooperation. How will Europe now justify saying no to Obama?

FT.com - Europe has to guard democracy amid crisis - by Anatol Lieven

For the complete report from FT.com click on this link

Europe has to guard democracy amid crisis

Europe has to guard democracy amid crisis - by Anatol Lieven

A fraction of the trillion and a half dollars now spent on rescuing western economies from the consequences of their elites’ greed and recklessness would have been enough to have greatly reduced African misery, stabilized Pakistan and other Muslim states – or put a human being on Mars. In fact, whatever was left over from the west’s relentless pursuit of material satisfactions has been largely burned up by the Bush administration’s tax cuts and by misconceived and appallingly executed American wars. The European Union in this period does, however, have two substantial achievements to its credit. The first is that, albeit far too slowly and inadequately, the EU has placed the issue of man-made climate change squarely on the international agenda. The second is the democratization and economic development of eastern and central Europe. Pray God that this is not endangered as a result of the present economic crisis. If we are lucky and the latest actions by western governments take hold, the inevitable economic depression that we are facing will be short and shallow.

EU-Digest/RFI - Prime Minister suspends parliament to avoid censure

For the complete report from the RFI click on this link

Prime Minister suspends parliament to avoid censure

The Canadian Parliament was shut down Thursday after an unprecedented request by Prime Minister Stephen Harper allowed him to avoid a vote that would have surely toppled his government.Harper had scheduled a confidence vote on several budget proposals for next Monday, but once the opposition Liberal and New Democratic Party (NDP) released a public agreement to bring the government down and form a coalition to replace it, Harper asked the Governor General, Michaëlle Jean, to prorogue Parliament until January. Opposition leaders cried foul, saying the Prime Minister’s request was an overt attempt to save his own job. "We must realize the enormity of what has happened here today. For the first time in the history of Canada, the Prime Minister of Canada is running away from the Parliament of Canada," said Liberal leader Stéphane Dion after the suspension was made official.

Note EU-Digest: Suspending parliament is something only dictators do. Mr. Harper's 44 % popularity with the Canadian voters does not sound like an overwhelming vote of confidence to do so? All we need now is that President Bush and his confidants find this an appealing idea and declare Martial Law in the US before the inauguration of President elect Barack Obama, giving the economic meltdown there as the excuse to do so. If he does, he should realize the US population will not be as passive as the Canadians have been so far.

EU-Digest: The road to financial disaster? - by Rick Morren

EU-Digest editorial on the US economic struggles

The road to financial disaster? - by Rick Morren

A report on Wednesday from Bloomberg which showed that the US Fed is prepared to lend another $7.4 trillion on behalf of U.S. taxpayers to "further" rescue the troubled US financial system, got my attention. According to that story, this $7.4 trillion dollar amount is half of the value of everything produced in the US in the past year! This enormous pledge of funds includes $2.8 trillion already siphoned off by financial institutions in the most important response to an economic emergency since the New Deal of the 1930s, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The commitment also dwarfs the only plan that was actually approved by the US Congress, the so-called Treasury Department’s $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), better known before as the bail-out plan. The report also notes that the US Federal Reserve lending last week was 1,900 times the weekly average for the three years before the crisis.

When Congress approved the TARP on Oct. 3, Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson acknowledged the need for transparency and oversight. Now, as regulators commit far more money while refusing to disclose loan recipients or reveal the collateral they are taking in return, you can only wonder why this is happening. Worse, it is happening without much or any reaction from the Congress or the Public at large.

You don't need to be an Einstein to see that there seems to be something "fishy in Denmark", as to the huge amounts of liquidity the Bush Administration is pulling out of the US national coffers at warp speed before they leave office? Whether it’s lending or spending, it’s tax dollars that are going out the window and the US taxpayer is apparently ending up holding "collateral" they don’t know anything about. Shouldn't the "Obama team" start blowing the whistle? Where is all this transparency we were promised by all of them.

EU-Digest - Press TV - Chavez: G20 summit a waste of time

Press TV - Chavez: G20 summit a waste of time

Chavez: G20 summit a waste of time

Hugo Chavez says that G-20 summit in Washington is a waste of time, because it excluded the poor and is hosted by the people who caused the problem. "Really, I don't know what they are going to do in Washington, the host is to blame," Chavez said, referring to Saturday's meeting of the world's 20 richest countries to tackle the problems of world economy. "They are going to waste their time," Chavez said in a television speech to supporters.

Note EU-Digest: Probably not a complete waste of time. It will provide an opportunity for some of the major economic players in the world to exchange ideas, say goodbye to President Bush and to issue a positive statement. However, without the key player, President elect Obama, who is not yet sworn in as the leader of the USA, which deregulated financial system caused this whole problem in the first place, no decisions of any importance can be made. It's also interesting to see that the British PM Gordon Brown, who fought his country's participation in a common European currency and close regulatory and monetary cooperation, has now suddenly become an advocate of a more structured global financial system. In this respect, it seems that the only world leader who has come up with well thought out plan for a badly needed restructured capitalist system is Mr. Nicolas Sarkozy, the President of France, presently also holding the Presidency of the EU.

New York Press - -The Lame Duckling - by JAMAAL YOUNG

For the complete report from the New York Press click on this link

The Lame Duckling - by JAMAAL YOUNG

"As the United States focuses their attention on the next would-be president, it’s not quite time to forget the one that’s screwed everything up.There once was a governor who, despite all the odds (including losing the popular vote), was elected President of the United States. He was never described as intelligent—or wise, or thoughtful, or even moderately clever—but, boy was he ever charming. He had a way of making everyone around him—including some of the nation’s most experienced public servants—feel all warm inside about policies and practices that were directly in opposition to their own beliefs and self-interests. He convinced millions of middle-class Americans that a tax cut that provided them only $300 in extra dough was enough to jumpstart the American economy—those taxpayers all went out and bought new televisions made in Asia. He bribed Senator Kennedy with the promise of copious amounts of money for public education in return for Uncle Teddy’s support of the No Child Left Behind Bill. That bill became law, but the promised cash never appeared, creating a national school system that focused on math and reading to the exclusion of art, music, physical education and even recess. The result: Cuba still had a higher literacy rate than the United States.

Yes, George W. Bush’s faux-Texan charm served him well as a first-term President; and if he would have called it quits in 2004, history might have remembered him as one of the nation’s more effectively persuasive politicians. Unfortunately for him, he stuck around for a second term, during which every new initiative he pursued ended in defeat.And that brings us to today, with less than two weeks until Election Day and our national attention squarely focused on Barack Hussein Obama and John Sidney McCain. But through all the talk of pigs and plumbers, terrorists and Tina Fey, let us not forget about the US current commander-in-chief who still pursues policies that will continue to contravene the interests of this nation long after he leaves.

Look, it’s not like the US expected a fairytale ending to eight years of Bush rule; but at least the US population expected the president of the United States to act with an awareness of the situation the country finds itself in and with an eye on the consequences his decisions would have on the world as we move forward."

tehran times : Bush accelerated U.S. decline - by Jean Pierre Lehmann

For the complete report from the tehran times click on this link

Bush accelerated U.S. decline - by Jean Pierre Lehmann

Jean-Pierre Lehmann, a professor of international political economy at IMD, has said, “I share the opinion of those who see Bush as one of the worst presidents the U.S. has had. Although the U.S. relative decline was perhaps inevitable, Bush has accelerated this process in many ways: economically, politically, morally.” In a recent interview with the Mehr News Agency, Lehmann added, “The catastrophic Middle East policy of the Bush administration is both a cause and a reflection of this phenomenon. Many things have been made worse, nothing has been accomplished on the positive side. The policy has also been riddled with contradictions.” On the U.S. policy toward Iran, he stated, “The main mistake of the U.S., ie not just Bush's, is not to have re-established diplomatic relations with Iran. Diplomatic relations exist not just for countries that happen to agree with each other, but especially for those that do not agree, so that they can continue dialogue. Even during the worst times of the cold war, Russia and U.S. maintained diplomatic relations.”

EU-Digest/Radio Netherlands : Iran does not agree to suspend nuclear programs

For the complete report from the EU-Digest/ Radio Netherlands Report click on this link

The European Union has received a written reply from Iran regarding international proposals about its nuclear program. The precise contents of the letter have not been made public. The United States, Russia, China, Great Britain, France and Germany are planning to discuss the letter in a telephone conference tomorrow. Two weeks ago, the six countries offered Iran improved economic and political cooperation in exchange for a freeze of its nuclear activities. Iran was given 14 days in which to reply, something it has now done at the very last moment. An Iranian functionary has said that the letter to the EU does not discuss a freezing of Iran's nuclear program. This would suggest Iran does not agree with the request.

Note EU-Digest: Iran's response to an incentives package aimed at defusing a dispute over its nuclear program is unacceptable, U.S. officials said Tuesday, making the prospect of new sanctions against the country more likely. The Australian notes: "With only 174 days left in office, Bush may not need pressure from Cheney and co, or from the Israelis, to start bombing. He's got another motive. For centuries Roman centurions had no end of trouble with those pesky Persians. So perhaps Nero Claudius Caesar Germanicus W. Bush takes Persia personally."