Foreign Minister Shanmugam was invited to make a keynote speech in Washington at the Singapore Conference attended by the decision makers of the US. I heard that the Conference was oversubscribed, an honour that is rare for a visitor from Singapore other then Mr Singapore himself. And there in the heart of Washington, Shanmugam went on to warn the Americans of their jingo rhetoric against China and the containment of China. It must be a painful slap to those who paid to listen to this warning. And from Washington Shanmugam flew straight to Beijing to be hosted by the Chinese leaders and pledging to work more closely and to cooperate on international issues. This must be even harder to swallow for the Americans.
Then came the veto by Russia and China against regime change in Syria at the Security Council. And the fuming mad European mafia led by the US is now trying to bypass the UNSC to intervene directly in Syria with the UK saying that it was not bounded by the UNSC decision. The double vetos were a strong statement that the Russians and the Chinese are ganging up to take on the Western powers and would not let them bulldoze their way in Syria.
Coming closely to these developments is the key American agenda of sanctioning Iran. Like a lightning bolt out from the cold and from the most unlikely places, India is not going to go along with the sanction. Instead, the Indians are going it alone to expand trade with Iran. And the comment is that it is a golden opportunity to go in when the West and America have left a vacuum.
The defiance by three big powers from the BRICS group is a turning point in American dominance and dictation of world affairs. And with their strongest and most dependable ally Singapore telling them off on home ground, it is quite clear that the fortune of Pax America is going downhill.
The Americans can shout and scream, but not many will listen anymore. The raising of the profile of emerging powers to put their own national interests first rather than be made to tow the American line must have startled the American decision makers. A new paradigm shift is in the making. The three major Asian powers will have a mind of their own. If Japan and S Korea were to come on board, it will present a very formidable new power centre to challenge the American leadership and the Europeans.
A minister from Pee Sai Land telling American GI what to and what not to do. Thumbs Up to you. Becareful , the thumb dun land in the wrong lobang. 吃不了逗著走。
ReplyDelete夜郎自大
ReplyDeleteThis punching above ones' weight is synonymous with typical Sinkies.
ReplyDeleteLet us see if our ministers can do a good job running the locals instead of poking their noses into international affairs.
Presently it is like 'ni pu sa kuo jiang, zi sheng nan pao' meaning the clay buddha crossing the flowing river. Would it be able to remain in one piece?
Please do not read too much into the words from a Minister of a tiny dot. He wont be able to influence the status of the US.
ReplyDeleteConversely, the world knows tat the tiny dot cannot exists without the US.
The Philippines, Myanmar, Japan, S Korea and Singapore are welcoming the US with opened arms and soon Thailand and Cambodia, even Indonesia will follow suit.
For the first time, the US has been welcomed by so many Asian/Asean countries at the same time.
As for the US being welcomed by the countries mentioned, the US is merely returning to reclaim their old military bases and their semi colonies.
ReplyDeleteThere were huge American bases, in Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, the Philippines and Singapore.
The catchphrase must be 'welcomed at the same time'.
ReplyDeleteHmmm
ReplyDeleteVietnam and Myanmar, historically China's friends until lately. In a way, it seems that the US is getting more support in Asean.
proxy war, fuck the whites(includes ruskies) and also the yellows, let start wiii and be done with, though bean sir you are right about my stupid muslims abrabs and persians brothers. let them bend over and stick it to them good shameless undignified bunch.
ReplyDeleteTHE ROVING EYE
ReplyDeleteSyria, the new Libya
By Pepe Escobar
A Kalashnikov in Iraq, until recently, sold for US$100. Now it's at least $1,000, and most probably $1,500 (those were the days when Sunnis joining the resistance in 2003 could buy a fake Kalashnikov made in Romenia for $20).
Destination of choice of the $1,500 Kalashnikov in 2012: Syria. Network: al-Qaeda in the Land of the Two Rivers, also known as
AQI. Recipients: infiltrated jihadis operating side-by-side with the Free Syrian Army (FSA).
Also shuttling between Syria and Iraq is car bombing and suicide bombing, as in two recent bombings in the suburbs of Damascus and the suicide bombing last Friday in Aleppo.
Who would have thought that what the House of Saud wants in Syria - an Islamist regime - is exactly what al-Qaeda wants in Syria?
Ayman "The Surgeon" al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda's number one, in an eight-minute video titled "Onwards, Lions of Syria", has just called for the support of Muslims in Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey to topple Bashar al-Assad "pernicious, cancerous regime". They had been responding, in kind, even before The Surgeon came into the picture. Not only those, but especially transplanted Libyan "freedom fighters", formerly known as "rebels".
Who would have thought that what NATOGCC (North Atlantic Treaty Organization-Gulf Cooperation Council) wants for Syria is exactly what al-Qaeda wants for Syria?
So when the Assad regime, for all its ghastly military offensives that essentially victimize civilians caught in cross fire, says it's fighting "terrorists", it's not exactly bending the truth. Even that ubiquitous, proverbial entity, the unnamed "US official", is blaming AQI for the recent bombings. Same for Iraq's Deputy Interior Minister Adnan al-Assadi; "We have intelligence information that a number of Iraqi jihadists went to Syria."
So if Syria could not be the new Libya in the sense of a UN resolution authorizing NATO humanitarian bombing - vetoed by BRICS members Russia and China - Syria is a new Libya in the sense of unsavory ties between the "rebels" and hardcore Salafi-jihadis.
TBC...
THE ROVING EYE
ReplyDeleteSyria, the new Libya
By Pepe Escobar
And as the West absolutely loves a win-win situation, no matter how prefabricated, that could also turn into the perfect Pentagon casus belli to intervene - as in freeing Syria from an "al-Qaeda" which was never there in the first place. Remember - for all the hype about the Pentagon/Obama administration's "pivoting" from the Middle East to East Asia, the global war on terror (GWOT), rebranded by Obama as "overseas contingency operations" (OCO), is still alive and kicking.
Liberate me so I can kill at ease
Last year, Asia Times Online extensively reported that "liberated" Libya - "liberated" by the so-called NATO rebels - would descend into militia hell. That's exactly what's happening; at least 250 different militias in Misurata alone, according to Human Rights Watch, acting as cops on the beat, judges and exterminators all rolled into one. There's no Ministry of Justice to speak of in "liberated" Libya. If you go to jail, you end up dead; and if you are a sub-Saharan African, you get a bonus of extensive torture at a liberated resort before meeting the same fate.
Just as in Libya, as a matter of strategy, for the House of Saud/Qatar Sunni axis, any possibility of a real dialogue between the (armed) insurrection and the Assad regime has been thwarted. After all; the key objective is regime change. Thus crude propaganda - in an Arab media largely controlled either by Saudis or Qataris - rules.
Example; the much-lauded Britain-based Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, which vomits unending, unsubstantiated statistics on government "massacres" - and even "genocide" - gets its funds from a Dubai entity financed by shady Western and GCC donors.
As a bonus, the non-stop "opposition" spin totally laser-guides Western corporate media coverage. CNN attributed the Aleppo bombing last Friday to "terrorists" - in quotation marks; imagine the hysteria if this was the US Green Zone in Iraq bombed by the Sunni resistance in the mid-2000s. The BBC actually believed the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood spin according to which the Syrian government bombed itself; it would be like the Pentagon bombing itself in the Green Zone. As for Arab media - largely controlled by Saudis and Qataris - it has totally ignored the AQI connection.
The GCC League - formerly Arab League - after bombing its own report on Syria because it didn't fit the prefabricated narrative of an "evil" regime unilaterally bombing its people, is now peddling a supposedly humanitarian plan B; a joint Arab/UN peacekeeping mission to "supervise the execution of a cease-fire". But no one should be fooled; the agenda remains regime change.
THE ROVING EYE
ReplyDeleteSyria, the new Libya
By Pepe Escobar
Prince Saud al-Faisal, Saudi Arabia's foreign minister, has been making the right noises, ruling out a humanitarian intervention. At the same time, it's refreshing to hear the oh so progressive House of Saud carping about the "lack of commitment of the Syrian government", and pontificating that " what Syria is witnessing is not racist, not sectarian, nor guerrilla war, but a mass purge without any humanitarian considerations".
Imagine the House of Saud's "humanitarian considerations" should a pro-democracy movement emerge in the Shi'ite majority eastern province (it did; and it was ruthlessly pre-empted). Better yet; look at how "humanitarian" they looked in their invasion of Bahrain.
The NATOGCC agenda remains the same; regime change, by any means possible. Even Warrior-in-Chief US President Barack Obama said so himself. The GCC minions will happily oblige. So expect an inflation of Kalashnikovs crossing borders, more car bombings, more suicide bombings, more civilians caught in cross fire, and the slow, immensely tragic, fragmentation of Syria.
From: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/NB14Ak01.html
The Arabs and Iranians were ancient civilisations that had their glorious days. It is very sad that they have been destined by foreign forces to be stooges and puppets and to be in constant political strife and wars.
ReplyDeleteThis Arab Spring could see the levelling of the Arab world and a phoenix will rise from the ashes just like the levelling of China and India and even Japan and Germany. Destruction is the mother of creation, a new beginning.
America is one cuntree who never seeks the support of anyone else. If "support " is warranted in American interest, they will bribe, coerce or engineer their way.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, America dictates the terms. Ever seen how the US responds to the UN? With contempt and arrogance. The US doesn't give in, and they couldn't care less people like them or not.
Like it or not, you wont have all the awesome stuff you have if not for the US. Sure there's shit too, but I think the balance is swayed in the direction of wdstern enlightenment values of which the American Experiment is the lkngest running interactive construct.
"Destruction is the mother of creation, a new beginning". Unquote.
ReplyDeleteDestruction can lead to extinction too.
~Anon 10:07 AM 吃不了逗著走~
ReplyDelete吃不了兜著走。