Richard Durbin is the Senator that initiates a new program to release the foreclosure home owners from the pressure to have their homes repossessed. He senator says there are full of such provisions and options for the second home and condo owners that are much financial well off. This is a double standard on the part of the banking interest.
The senator reports that the banking sector lobbyists are hard at work in talking to member of senate to fight off this proposal by Durbin. He laments that the senate is practically owned by the banking interest. This is the hall mark of current form of western democracy that the right wing conservative like to spread to the rest of the world.
The problem in Pakistan and Afghanistan is the US was not really bringing democracy to these states. It is only a rhetoric and lip service on the policy makers’ mouth. The only thing they focus is to use more raw military power bringing to bear its influence on the general public of these nations.
Karzai and Asif Al Zardari of Afghanistan and Pakistan are nothing but puppets that has no genuine local supports at the border regions. They have the unspoken support of US in the form of promise military and economics aids but these aids are under the strictly control of the US bureaucrat and military. The civilian leaders of the countries that received aids have little control over how they are going to be used.
Their presence in US is to take order and promise US to focus more the Taliban issue instead of threat from Indian Pakistan border. This is a big issue lately on the news cycle and it is a campaign of the media circus to put more pressure on Pakistan military leadership.
The job generations for the domestic youths and farmers are nowhere to be seen. There is no economic development in the area to employ more youths and divert them from the pull of Taliban and Al Qaeda that provide service and jobs for these unemployed youth.
The propaganda machine would then say that is because of the corruptive nature of the local government that US and western allies refuse to hand over all the aids. They would only have the rights to say good thing about their benefactors. Now the two are saying that the aids should be delivered to them and under their management.
AfPak also want opening up the US market for their products and services, (contracts for their industry) as a form of economics aid. The figures that were reported by the Western press as aids given to them by US are simply double talk. Pakistan want more drone, night vision goggle, F15 fighters, missiles on their terms and at their deposal and not under US deposal and charge against them as aid.
They also want, I presume more US investment in their locals to provide jobs for the youngsters so they have income to support their families and create a hopeful future and drawn them away from the “attraction” of the extreme groups. This sounds very logical and reasonable. But reality is not reflecting these things unfolding as this writing.
The corruption is never mentioned by the leaders of local, and they offered no way to solve it. They would only mention that this is a long term process to correct the inefficiency and undemocratic practice. The people have to be up to snuff to carry out their rights and responsibilities. Educating the general public is a long term and slow process. This is a process longer than 200 years as indicated by US own history of “democracy”.
What is the problem people pointed out in the Counterpunch and Asia time online? Civilian casualties as collateral damages are the root of the current crisis. This is simply rhetoric from the political liberals.
The liberal critics would point out the goal of battle is to win the heart and mind of the public. Bombing is only a small part of the comprehensive package. Sarah Chayez was a NPR foreign correspondent and now a mentor of democracy for the Afghanistan government. She is the kind of liberals that want to make a difference by actually working on the problem instead simply reporting the problem. She is a bridge between US government and the Afghan public.
This is part of the effort to “rebuild” the war torn nation in the central Asia.
She is also viewing the Pakistan military as a hurdle for the democratizing of the nation of Pakistan. She believes that they are stoking the Indian boogieman as a way to assert its power in the society. Without this threat, they would have no chance to grab so much power as to head a civilian government and total disregard the other branch of the government such as legislative branch and judicial branch.
Abusing power by Pakistan military is not supported by the Chayez. She is working as a mentor of civilian government that upholding the principle of democracy: government should respond to the need of the people more than that of the security apparatus. What is the plan of military planner in Pentagon to deal with the Pakistani military? Treat them like Saddam Hussein Republican Guards and Iraq Sunni based Army.This is a lesson that they need to take it to the heart. Or they could put into the military another header who is sympathetic to the wish of US security. This is a problem of internal power struggle that she sees taking place in Pakistan between civilian power and military power. This has been around for years in developing countries. Indian threat is an excuse of Army refuse to focus on the Pashtun problem on the border with Afghanistan.
She also criticizes the view of with-us -or-against-us. The underlying view is we should understand the needs and view of the locals instead imposing our value on other society. NATO unwillingness to cooperate with US in sending more fighting force to the region is a consequence of the Bush Administration own making. The US military has been going it own way at the beginning without paying any regards to the NATO’s view. They would certainly refuse to take care of the mess left over by the Bush administration military strategy.
Lip service on democracy building from the Bush Administration leads to the mistrust of the general public. Governmental officials in Afghanistan need to cover their rear and align with whomever that they think is really serious about staying with the area in long run. This is also the reason why the public are wearying of the US policy in Afghan.
One of the leaders in the interview also counters the view that drug traffic is the main so
Open US market is the cold war model to win more allies to US. The cost is the hollowing out of US industry and more unemployment in US economy. This is the price of Cold War that brought down USSR. This is the root cause to the current finance crisis where the major player in the economy is no longer industry and manufacture but finance service and gambling on financial market.
All the talks of finance system reform are simply wrong diagnostic of the current woe in the world of finance. Reinstalling the Glass Stegall Act is not very helpful with the power of the Wall Street and banking sector still intact. The same goes with giving the treasury department more power to manage the financial system on the tax payer back. The real reform is to scale back the role US want to play in the world to support the industry and finance sector via its foreign policy and military presence around the globe.
Helping the rest of the world in term of developing a democracy and stabilize the political landscape in order to sell more US products all over the world is simply the rhetoric that would eventually bankrupt US. The current account deficit and the national debt are simply the symptoms reflecting the consequence of this policy. The international derivative market is another manifestation this foreign policy. International involvement has been around since the day of FDR.
The banking crisis is still not out of the wood yet. The stock market is simply over exuberant in predicting a rosy future. This is a misreading of what is the financial market indicating. It is actually a legalized gambling venue for the speculators.
urce of finance of the Taliban. His view is that they benefit from it partiall. It is basically the operation of the drug trafficking thugs.
No Comments Yet
No comments yet.
