Obama: Redefining Politics or Redefining Slime?

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1. Senator Obama is a dangerous and disappointing man. Moving the war on terror to Pakistan could have disastrous consequences on both the political stability in the region, and in the broader balance of power. Scholars such as Richard Betts accurately point out that beyond Iran or North Korea, “Pakistan may harbor the greatest potential danger of all.” With the current instability in Pakistan, Betts points to the danger that a pro-Taliban government would pose in a nuclear Pakistan. This is no minor point to be made. While the Shi’a in Iran are highly unlikely to proliferate WMD to their Sunni enemies, the Pakistanis harbor no such enmity toward Sunni terrorist organizations. Should a pro-Taliban or other similar type of government come to power in Pakistan, Al-Qaeda’s chances of gaining access to nuclear weapons would dramatically increase overnight.

   There are, of course, two sides to every argument; and this argument is no exception. On the one hand, some insist that American forces are needed in order to maintain political stability and to prevent such a government from rising to power. On the other hand, there are those who believe that a deliberate attack against Pakistan’s state sovereignty will only further enrage its radical population, and serve to radicalize its moderates. I offer the following in support of this latter argument:

   Pakistan has approximately 160 million people; better than half of the population of the entire Arab world. Pakistan also has some of the deepest underlying ethnic fissures in the region, which could lead to long-term disintegration of the state if exacerbated. Even with an impressive growth in GDP (second only to China in all of Asia), it could be decades before wide-spread poverty is alleviated and a stable middle class is established in Pakistan.

   Furthermore, the absence of a deeply embedded democratic system in Pakistan presents perhaps the greatest danger to stability. In this country, upon which the facade of democracy has been thrust by outside forces and the current regime came to power by coup, the army fulfills the role of “referee within the political boxing ring.” However, this referee demonstrates a “strong personal interest in the outcome of many of the fights and a strong tendency to make up the rules as he goes along.” The Pakistani army “also has a long record of either joining in the fight on one side or the other, or clubbing both boxers to the ground and taking the prize himself” (Lieven, 2006:43).

   Pakistan’s army is also unusually large. Thathiah Ravi (2006:119, 121) observes that the army has “outgrown its watchdog role to become the master of this nation state.” Ravi attributes America’s less than dependable alliance with Pakistan to the nature of its army. “Occasionally, it perceives the Pakistan Army as an inescapable ally and at other times as a threat to regional peace and [a] non-proliferation regime.” According to Ravi, India and Afghanistan blame the conflict in Kashmir and the Durand line on the Pakistan Army, accusing it of “inciting, abetting and encouraging terrorism from its soil.” Ravi also blames the “flagrant violations in nuclear proliferation by Pakistan, both as an originator and as a conduit for China and North Korea” on the Pakistan Army, because of its support for terrorists.

   The point to be made is that the stability of Pakistan depends upon maintaining the delicate balance of power both within the state of Pakistan, and in the broader region. Pakistan is not an island, it has alliances and enemies. Moving American troops into Pakistan will no doubt not only serve to radicalize its population and fuel the popular call for Jihad, it could also spark a proxy war with China that could have long-lasting economic repercussions. Focusing on the more immediate impact American troops would have on the Pakistani population; let’s consider a few past encounters:

   On January 13, 2006, the United States launched a missile strike on the village of Damadola, Pakistan. Rather than kill the targeted Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda’s deputy leader, the strike instead slaughtered 17 locals. This only served to further weaken the Musharraf government and further destabilize the entire area. In a nuclear state like Pakistan, this was not only unfortunate, it was outright stupid.

   On October 30, 2006, the Pakistani military, under pressure from the US, attacked a madrassah in the Northwest Frontier province in Pakistan. Immediately following the attack, local residents, convinced that the US military was behind the attack, burned American flags and effigies of President Bush, and shouted “Death to America!” Outraged over an attack on school children, the local residents viewed the attack as an assault against Islam.

   On November 7, 2006, a suicide bomber retaliated. Further outrage ensued when President Bush extended his condolences to the families of the victims of the suicide attack, and President Musharraf did the same, adding that terrorism will be eliminated “with an iron hand.” The point to be driven home is that the attack on the madrassah was kept as quiet as possible, while the suicide bombing was publicized as a tragedy, and one more reason to maintain the war on terror.

   Last year trouble escalated when the Pakistani government laid siege to the Red Mosque and more than 100 people were killed. “Even before his soldiers had overrun the Lal Masjid … the retaliations began.” Suicide attacks originating from both Afghan Taliban and Pakistani tribal militants targeted military convoys and a police recruiting center. Guerrilla attacks that demonstrated a shocking degree of organization and speed-not to mention strategic cunning revealed that they were orchestrated by none other than al-Qaeda’s number two man, Ayman Al-Zawahiri; a fact confirmed by Pakistani and Taliban officials. One such attack occurred on July 15, 2007, when a suicide bomber killed 24 Pakistani troops and injured some 30 others in the village of Daznaray (20 miles to the north of Miran Shah, in North Waziristan). Musharraf ordered thousands of troops into the region to attempt to restore order. But radical groups swore to retaliate against the government for its siege of the mosque and its cooperation with the United States.

   A July 2007 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) concludes that “al Qaeda is resurgent in Pakistan- and more centrally organized than it has been at any time since 9/11.” The NIE reports that al-Qaeda now enjoys sanctuary in Bajaur and North Waziristan, from which they operate “a complex command, control, training and recruitment base” with an “intact hierarchy of top leadership and operational lieutenants.”

   In September 2006 Musharraf signed a peace deal with Pashtun tribal elders in North Waziristan. The deal gave pro-Taliban militants full control of security in the area. Al Qaeda provides funding, training and ideological inspiration, while Afghan Taliban and Pakistani Tribal leaders supply the manpower. These forces are so strong that last year Musharraf sent well over 100,000 trained Pakistani soldiers against them, but they were not able to prevail against them.

   The question remains, what does America do when Pakistan no longer has a Musharraf to bridge the gap? While Musharraf claims that President Bush has assured him of Pakistan’s sovereignty, Senator Obama obviously has no intention of honoring such an assurance. As it is, the Pakistanis do just enough to avoid jeopardizing U.S. support. Musharraf, who is caught between Pakistan’s dependence on American aid and loyalty to the Pakistani people, denies being George Bush’s hand-puppet. Musharraf insists that he is “200 percent certain” that the United States will not unilaterally decide to attack terrorists on Pakistani soil. What happens when we begin to do just that?

   –John Maszka on Jul 24, 2008

2. Look at Obama flip-flopping on Jerusalem:

   http://eye-on-the-world.blogspot.com/2008/06/obama-jerusalem-should-remain-israels.html

   BO is reputed to be a friend of the Palestinian cause, and drew support from anti-Israeli activists like Frank Eng. But now that he’s a professional politician pandering to the Jewish voters, he will move to the right of Ariel Sharon one day, then do a complete about-face the next day when Arab voters complain.

   Do you guys recall the fable about Bats, Birds, and Mammals?

   Now some Asian supporters of Obama like Frank Eng claim that they care for the commonweal, human rights whatever. But Frank Eng is mostly worried about neocons nuking “mainland” China, as he admitted on one of his earlier posts.

   Chinese-Americans like Frank Eng should recall that it was the Democrat Bill Clinton who bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade to humiliate the Chinese. It’s mostly Democrats like Obama who keep raising the specter of Yellow Peril in trade/defense issues, and would cut commercial/political ties with Asia to please the working-class/labor base of the Democratic Party. The Democrat Hillary Clinton belligerantly threatened to “annhilate” Iran with nukes if Iran threatened Israel’s security.

   Republicans like McCain are more pragmatic and more friendly to Asia because the business interests of the GOP favor greater economic integration with Asia as well as other regions such as the EU. MNC’s that invested billions of dollars in China and even plan to become de jure Chinese corporations (Cisco, WorldCom?) do not want their production centers and consumer markets in China to be bombed or nuked. It’d be like burning down your own store. Wall Street wants to maintain mutually lucrative commercial/financial ties with China and Greater Asia.

   Thus, it’s precisely the GOP and its capitalist base who want stable political/economic relationship with Asia, and would pressure the U.S. government to soften its stance towards China whenever populist demogogues (Democrats mostly) attempt to exploit the public’s anxiety about the U.S.-China relations.

   Whoever is the titular head of the U.S. Government, the U.S. will maintain unchallenged military prowess for the foreseeable future. Nothing that China, Russia, France or Frank Eng does or wishes will change that reality. The U.S. has even militarized the outer space. Both a far-right or far-left President will maintain American military superiority and use it where deemed appropriate. Chances are, however, a conservative president representing the corporate and business interests is unlikely to instigate destabilizing military actions overseas because causing trouble is bad for Wall Street.

   It is precisely the likes of Barrack Obama who will stir up unnecessary conflicts with Asia and threatened to renegotiate trade deals, or use the military might of the U.S. if that’s what will do the job.

   –AsianPresident on Jul 24, 2008

3. Folks:
   I am DUMBstruck by “AsianPresident” and his lengthy and more than interesting post immediately preceding.
   Well, almost dumbstruck. After all, I AM, or was, a working “journalist,” that breed of quizzical and quidnunc poetasterz who have, of late, been far too servile and faithless to their obligations.
   I am bemused, flattered in a way, but who needs, much lesx wants, flattery, when it is respect one seeks?
   I KNOW I don’t matter here, which is perfectly okay by me, and, in point of fact, I could care less as that old bromide goes.
   What DOES matter are the points at issue, the ideas, the actions that spring therefrom, AND the entire mishegash of politics and politicking.
   Which I, in my absoluotely “cool” madness propose to append in the following responses.
   But, prolog, prelude, may I be allowed to acknowledge, commend, and totally agree with John Maszka’s post immediately preceding AsianPresident’s.
   Maszka’s detailed dissection of the American Psndora’s Box in Pakistan is spot-on, or so it seems to me, and purely on the SURFACE facts and reports.
   Oh, and, again, my thoughts and my beliefs are strictly subjective, personal, AND idiosyncratic, which should be obvious event to “Asian President,” whom I richly suspect is the new alias for Captain Obvious and others.
   Now, on to a half-dozen points raised:
   First, poor li’l ol’ moi is NOT, I repeat, NOT, anti-Israeli. But I AM anti-neo-Zionist, that latter a breed of power-mad “antihumanists,: who have sold to their betters the same madnesses and idiocies the theoneocons have sold to Amurrika. I will renounce my own loving claims to my “Jewishness” before I accede to the belief that the Likud, the “settlers,” the IDF, AND Mossad are the be-all and end-all of a semitic people who have been gulled into oppressing OTHER semitic peoples.
   And I am NOT alone. Check Uri Avnery. Check the likes of Daniel Barenboim, Allah praise hum. Check any number of authentic and practioing? “Jews” among us who share these views. Read about Hedy Epstein, an octogenarian who survived the Holocaust via the kinder transport and who recently visitied the Mideast and was aghast at what is going on in Palestine and has spoken out and contuinues to speak out.
   As for my concerns about “nuking” the “Mainland,” for sure I’m agin it. Just as I am agin nuking ANYone ANYwhere, going all the way back to Hiroshima AND Nagasaki. “We,” these benighted states of amurrika, are the only savages who have ever dropped this bomb from Hell on ANYone. And have we repented? No, we continue to threaten one and all with same, the while we whine and cry about anyone else having ONE while we have what?, six thou?
   AsianPresident said it, not I, that the bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade was meant to “humiliate the Chinese.” Well, as I have been saying for some time now: the Democrats as a Party are the Dumpty to the GOP’s “humping,” and servilely at that. The “humiiation” should be ours, that of the bully, the supremely superior ones who, clinically and “cleanly,” push the buttons that slaughter innocents, like far too many wedding guests in the expendable Mideast.
   And, yes indeed, just exactly WHO is pushing all those
   “China-bashing,” yeah, you too, Emil, buttons these days? Renegade neocons? Who don’t know the hands that feed THEM are the same hands rubbing themselves over offshoring profits?
   Years ago, after reading a single online report in the Washington Post website about “the Blue Team,” I was reminded of California’s Chris Cox gang. The neocon conspiracy, in all its (in)glory then began to emerge from the woodworks.
   But what difference between neocon and NYTimes promulgations of spies and spying in re one Wen-ho Lee?
   Or, for that matter, to today’s David Remnick? New Yorker maunderings, cartoon or otherwise?
   It’s all the same RACIST drivel.
   I, for one, refuise to “buy it.”
   The argument that business-minded and corporate “Republicans” are the lesser of two political evils is as funny as that currently celebrated “Asian” woman “standup comic” who belittles her own to gain celebrity and coin.
   But the last is showbiz, and the former grim and grisly political and WAR biz.
   Bottom line, AsianPresident, and why are you afraid to come out from behind your pseudonym?, is that your entire “argument” amounts to a non-sequitur.
   Not only is McCain considdrably less than Obama, he is also visibly tottering, and his choice of a running mate will resonate more with the electorate than his own top of the ticket presence.
   And, Obama, for whom I am NOT s disciple or apologist, is, at the very least, one seeming last glimmering of “hope” here, forget “change.”
   Frank Eng
   P.S.: As for “military might,” which “might” be deployed against the PRC or anyone else, I have news for you: after the shock-and-awe passes, the problems BEGIN, as most have noted since Bush parachuted? onto that battlewagon.
   Vote Republican? I’d as lief stick my finger in my throat to barf.

   –Frank Eng on Jul 24, 2008

4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2rpvj9NSXM

   –Huu on Jul 25, 2008

5. You’d rather have McCain as president?!!?

   –TS Brainiac on Jul 25, 2008

6. Dear Huu, and other idiots,

   The following is an account of a typical Asian student attending a black school in America:

   http://www.taemag.com/issues/articleid.17109/article_detail.asp

   Let me put this bluntly: if Obama becomes the President, these racial harassment will become 10 times worse. Every day, you will see countless innocent Asian kids murdered by blacks on schools all over the U.S.

   Tell Obama to apologize for the crimes of the black people before seeking support from whites, Asians, Latinos.

   –AsianPresident on Jul 25, 2008

7. “AsianPresident”:
   Never mind dropping your mask and identifying yourself.
   You just did.
   In the foregoing rant.
   In fairness, I read your link to Ying Ma’s piece on “black” harassment of Asians.
   Her account, at least, sounds genuine, plausible, and even ratiotnal.
   But YOUR “blunt” alert is, alas!, farcical.
   Daily and “countless” numbers of Asian schoolkids “murdered” by “blacks” if Obama is elected?
   And Ying Ma attended, it would seem, the typical urban “public” schools. What “black” schools? Where? And the ones you fantasize exist purely by fiat of school boards bent on continuing de facto “segregation.”
   Megalomania is, by definition?, a solitary sentence to one’s own limitations, and you appear to be one uncontested “candidate” for your own lunacies.
   This from one “idiot” to another.
   Yeah, I think I shall add your posts to my personal list of candidates for Coventry. As in “don’t bother.”

   –Frank Eng on Jul 25, 2008

8. The question is right - where is Emil going with this? fanning the flames of rumor-mongering, hate-inspired, racial and even “idiotic” rants and raves is so disappointing.
   Emil, what happened to you? Can’t you see what’s going on with what you’re writing?
   Speaking of idiots, what does Obama have to do with the crimes of black people?
   Who’s answering for the crimes of white people? wiping out Native Americans, slavery, just to start….
   I guess Obama’s has white blood running through his veins too - he has to answer for those crimes too?

   –not a prude on Jul 26, 2008

9. not a prude,

   Many Asians supporting Obama show extreme naivete about blacks. I have met some of these Asians, and they are mostly young, highly-educated and from upper-middle class families. Most of them are still in schools or barely out of ivory towers.

   Most of them have little personal experience with blacks because they grew up in all-white (ok, 99% white) upper-middle or upper class neighborhoods, attended all-white schools, and went to colleges and graduate schools where they were fed the standard accounts about the white oppression in Indian genocide, African slavery, segregation/racism, etc. I also noted that a surprisingly large number of them live in all-white states. Many of them are academics with little common sense or real-life experience.

   The overwhelming majority of Asians I have randomly talked with are horrified, yes, horrified, at the prospect of a black president. Probe a little deeper, and they are scared of social “chaos” looming on the horizon. Specifically, they worry that blacks would riot randomly, and harass Asians much more than they do now. They have these concerns because they HAVE personal experience dealing with blacks and KNOW how blacks are.

   No amount of ivory tower idealism or PC-black nationalism will help these folks when blacks loot and burn down their stores, their children are harassed and brutalized at schools.

   You may ask, blacks already harass Asians, blacks already kill and rape Asians, blacks already burn and loot Asian stores so what difference does it make if Obama becomes the President?

   The difference is that blacks would riot far more often than they do now, relying on “their” president to back them up. Federal and state troops will routinely arrive conveniently “late” to the riot scenes, and mostly stand and watch as Asians are looted and slaughtered. Blacks kids at schools will claim that they “own” this country and boldly brutalize all non-black kids, except the amount and degree of violence towards non-blacks would be much worse than now. Whereas the black kids usually stop at brutalizing Asian kids now, they would routinely kill and rape Asian kids, again believing that “their” president now rules the world.

   So whose views are more reasonable, of those upper-middle/upper class Asians with little to no experience with blacks, or of those who battle blacks day-in, day-out.

   When the great cities of America burn, and non-blacks of all colors-whites, yellows, and browns-are brutalized all over the U.S., you will see Emperor Obama fiddling and rapping about the comeuppance of whites and Asians.

   –AsianPresident on Jul 26, 2008

10. Guys:
    Back to the point supposedly “at issue” here:
    Emil, “slimy”?
    Questionable for sure. Disillusioning even. But, “slimy”?
    Your daughter is 19, and is entitled.
    You, however, should choose your adjectives here more carefully.
    Not even Billary, despite that blue dress? and despite the eponymous “library” and “political” pardons.
    But, to date, Obama seems to be “performing” on a par and a parallel to JFK, and doing so with panache and style and at least the rhetoric to match.
    And, even as one HAS to raise at least one eyebrow at the reported reassurance to Israel that Jerusalem is “their” “capital” in the face of its millennial history, and, equally important, his seeming enthusiasm for the “war” in Afghanistan, there are other prayer flags flapping in the current campaign winds.
    Like Fareed Zakaria’s Newsweek piece on his “foregin policy” bona fides, which, if accurate, make this candidate more palatable, as well as “peaceable.” As in pragmatics and diplomacy, and I don’t mean the western posse type Bush proclaimed.
    If Obama truly believes and understands that other peoples and other cultures have other needs and sine-qua-nons than ours, then he stands head and shoulders above ANY American head of state within memory. This memory at least.
    And does he EVER “look” “Presidentical” in his current overseas hegira. Makes McCain look the senile he is. I can say “senile,” because I’m one too.
    So, contrary to your smart-ass comments above, I tend to join the likes of Mike Whitney, who has proclaimed for days, weeks?, that November will prove a 50-state
    “landslide.”
    Recent slips in percentiles over McCain can be sttributed to “natural” pulsings of the body politic, but, more specifically, to the defections of the likes of your daughter and “ideologues” of the left, like myself.
    But, in the voting booth, who in his/her “right mind” could go “conservative” with a warrior who identifies with a goldbrick?
    By the way, why does EVERYone refer to the man as a “black” candidate? The guy’s as famish’t as you can get, far as “race” is concerned.
    Frank Eng
    P.S.: Some one please tell “AsianPresident” that seppuku will NOT, I repeat, NOT make a kimchee of difference in the sociopolitical stew when Obama takes office. And that if the “authorities” arrive too late to save him from rape and his store from torch that it will be because he is “Asian” and not BevHills 90120 WASP. Jewish? That too. Hey, as a self-styled landsman, I just rolled off the turnip truck from the nearest shtetl.
    P.P.S.. Alright, so I lied. I peeked at “AsianPresident’s” latest offering for the Common Wisdom here. Poor man.

    –Frank Eng on Jul 26, 2008

11. Dear “A.Psychiatrist”:
    Sorry, man.
    Wrong.
    ON ALL counts.
    Well, I AM, certifiably, on my birth certificate that is, “Chinese-American,” although in 1919, Santa Clara County clerks only knew “Mongolian.”
    Still, your batting average is almost as bad as Dubya’s, and, worse, “ad hominem.”
    Oh, and you forgot “Jewish,” or “semitic.”
    I may well “merit” your contumely, but you don’t even deserve your er, ah, “nom de plume,” that is, if you writ with a pen and not a forked tongue. Or, more likely, a pointed head. Very pointy.
    Frank Eng
    P.S.: In point of fact, I only “hate” injustice and oppression and murder and mayhem and destruction and mindlessness. And I raise BOTH eyebrows at ignorance. There is NO excuse for the last, especially today.
    P.P.S.: I don’t even “diss” you OR your post, because I cannot see you, much less hear you.
    P.P.P.S.: By the way, does the shingle you hang up to proclaim your professional bona fides acknowledge your debt to: a) Freud; n) Jung; c) Adler? The latter has just resurfaced in some online screed, Newsweek, I think, that refers to the current Mainland cadreses’ “inferiority complex.”
    Oh, and also check today’s New America Lead piece on a new book about a midcentury-last Brit who “loved” China and wrote 24? volumes about “Chinese” inventions and innovations over the millennia and who gives the lie to the currently ruffled feathers of the domestic “scientific” establishment about THEIR claims to fame aznd immortality, like WHO “invented” the “wheel.”
    Spaghetti? Or noodles. Ramen, anyone?

    –Frank Eng on Jul 27, 2008

12. D’accord.
    But, what’s YOUR “excuse”?

    –Frank Eng on Jul 28, 2008

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