Roberts: Washington’s War Mongers
Pleasantly surprised that Paul Craig Roberts, a former Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury and Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal, penned this blistering condemnation of US foreign policy/military strategy. He’s absolutely hit the mark that America had driven the Russians into a corner with NATO’s eastward expansion since the Clinton Administration, ultimately leading to the Ukraine debacle, a view shared by a number of prominent international relations scholars.
Mr Roberts is a clear believer in spheres of influence of great powers. American intervenes around the world and considers every corner of the globe its backyard. Russia’s sphere was whittled down to the point of ABM bases built all along its border (with imbecilic bought-off former Eastern European states like Poland allowing deployment).
Meanwhile, in conjunction with its ‘pivot to Asia’, the US wants to erect a series of new bases in countries surrounding China, including former arch-enemy Vietnam for which it has most recently partially lifted the ban on arms shipments. Don’t worry, a full lifting to include offensive weapons is not too far in the future.
Also, note his remarks on the CIA trying to stir up student protests in Hong Kong.
Mr Roberts’ latest book is How America Was Lost.
Read his piece at: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/10/07/381326/washington-is-destroying-the-world/
Lord Powell’s Words of Honesty on Hong Kong
Here are some blunt words from former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s private secretary Lord Powell on the Hong Kong protests (although the last sentence is kind of a cop out):
The protesters in Hong Kong are “unrealistic” and should enjoy the freedoms they already have, said a former advisor to Margaret Thatcher.
Lord Powell, who served as private secretary to then British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher when Britain agreed to return Hong Kong to China, said he did not believe the protest would make a change.
“The position about elections has been clear since the law was published in 1991 and I don’t believe for one moment that Chinese are going to change that basic position,” Powell told British BBC Radio 4’s The World This Weekend.
“Hong Kong has always been part of China,” Powell said. “We rented for a while and we didn’t introduce democracy… and one reason we didn’t is because we knew it was eventually going back to China and it would have been far worse to introduce full democracy and then taken it away from them.”
– The Standard (Hong Kong)
Mainlanders Not Sympathetic With the Hong Kong Protests: NPR
This report by US’s National Public Radio generally hits the mark but it is wrong that mainland Chinese don’t know much about the Hong Kong protests. It’s been headline news on all channels, central and regional, for many days (although it wasn’t reported right from the get-go).
This author visited Hong Kong just as Occupy Central tried to storm government offices two weeks ago. Hong Kong’s standard of living is the envy of many on the mainland. While their apartments and condos may be tiny (and in some cases shabby) by mainland standards (due to Hong Kong’s outrageously expensive real estate market), its markets and stores are stocked with the best meats, produce, fruits, and internationally made products. Its public transit system is very efficient and relatively inexpensive given Hong Kong’s cost of living, and its hospitals, schools, and public services are also top rate.
Mainlanders often think Hong Kongers take their standard of living for granted and demand too much from both the central and SAR authorities. Hong Kongers, on the other hand, hold their mainland cousins in contempt, seeing them as uncouth country bumpkins who lack morals and are fixated with shopping. Yet, Hong Kongers needn’t be reminded that many of them hailed from the mainland and not so long ago, they were also unsophisticated ‘locals’ who couldn’t speak a word in Mandarin, let alone English.
So, Hong Kongers, cherish what you have and seek political reform incrementally, is the message from mainlanders.
This story can be heard at: http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2014/10/06/354088313/on-chinas-mainland-a-less-charitable-take-on-hong-kongs-protests?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=world