Judo in geopolitics

The martial art of judo rests on the idea that a smaller, weaker person can use its opponent’s size and strength to its own advantage and Russian President Vladimir Putin, by his own account, took up martial arts as a slight boy to protect himself from bigger courtyard bullies.

Putin at the moment indeed plays a sort of geopolitical judo by evading the attacks of the West and waiting till his adversaries have pushed forward far enough that he can pull them off balance.

This is not a new tactic, it has been used throughout history, most notably in WW II, when a German army of three million soldiers got exhausted in the far lands of Russia to finally be destroyed in the epic battle of Stalingrad.

That this tactic despite countless warning examples still works, confirms again Hegel’s quote: “The only thing we learn from history is, that humans don’t learn from history.”

Russia is undoubtedly the smaller, weaker geopolitical judoka. Despite controling a formidable nuclear arsenal, its power has obviously faded since Soviet days, and it is no match for the USA, whose military expenditures, according to SIPRI (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute), outrank it by more than seven to one.

So what should Russia do against the world’s remaining superpower? The answer is to take a lesson from the judo handbook and wait for the right moment to use America’s clout against it. That moment may be now, as Washington has overplayed its hand and has maneuvered itself into a corner in Syria as well as in the Ukraine.

It has yet to be seen how the judo match in the Ukraine plays out, as the hangover after the Maidan party has set in, corrupt oligarchs promise to fight corruption, and cash trapped governments promise to pay the bills of the costly Ukraine/Russia economic divorce.

The Syrian match on the other hand is fast reaching a culmination point where defining changes take place. The die will be cast soon and a winner be declared. One winner (the weapons industry) and one loser (the Syrian people) have emerged already now.

First things first: IS (Islamic State) basically is a creation of Western agencies and it receives continuing support from Turkey and various Gulf states. Turkeys MIT has organized truck convoys with weapons to IS, it enables the transfer and sale of looted industrial machinery, historic artifacts, and oil, it has dedicated whole hospital wards for the treatment and recovery of IS fighters. IS commandos have attacked Kobane and other Kurdish border towns from Turkish territory in plain sight of massive Turkish military.

Brand new US weapons and ammunition were found in IS weapons caches, IS specialists miraculously were instantly able to operate conquered US made tanks, artillery, and other sophisticated equipment which normally needs thoroughly trained experts; satellite images and other sensitive intel were found in the possession of killed Islamic fighters.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called into question the earnestness of US efforts against IS and stated, that concerned colleagues from within the US-led anti-IS coalition informed him that the US-military did not give clearances to pilots even though they clearly had located and identified IS positions.

Major General Eizza Zawir, commander of the Kurdish Peshmerga’s fourth division, told reporters that he sees the busy supply lines of IS less than 3 kilometer away but is not allowed by the USA to hit them. Senior Jordanian military officers told the same. Yazidi militias complained that they waited in vain for US help as they tried to fend off IS assaults.

82 percent of Syrians believe that the West is behind IS, a sentiment that is shared with most of the Arab public. The circumstantial evidence of Western foul play is overwhelming, but a smoking gun will not be found, because after a century of black ops the spy agencies know how to conceal their traces.

Countless conspiracy theories are floating on the internet (‎Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is a Mossad or CIA asset or is Israeli actor Simon Elliot). Some of them are Western psy-ops, spread to be easily dismissed so that the whole notion of Western involvement can be discredited.

Despite smoke screening (censoring, misleading, lying), common sense alone makes it clear that the US-led coalition’s fight against IS is a farce, and Western propaganda has increasing problems to mask the glaring discrepancy between the stated intent to fight the IS brutes and the reality of supporting them.

Putin only needs to exploit this discrepancy and to call the US bluff. It will be a hell of a job for the Western press to prevent the castle of lies tumbling down. Pundits and editorial writers probably spend already sleepless nights pondering about the formulations which are ambiguous and nonsensical enough to distract and confuse the trusting and gullible public.

Orwell’s 1984 squared.

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“It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.”
Yogi Berra

Lets give it a try nevertheless:

Russia (and possibly China) will quietly build up forces, gather information, and at a convenient moment suddenly strike not only IS, but also Jabhat al-Nusrah and Ahrar al-Sham with overwhelming might. The SOHR (Syrian Observatory for Human Rights) will decry civilian casualties and the pictures of bloody corpses of children will deluge Western front pages, but thats all what the USA can do against the demise of their secret friends.

When all is said and done, Russia will have proven (rightfully or not), that it doesn’t sell out its friends, a fact which may resonate in many places. Putin will have reinforced his status as a world leader. He is poised to become an icon of the left, undeserved though, because he is not the untainted hero as some discontented and desperate souls would like to see him. The good people of the world will have to wait for their messiah a little bit longer.

Putin is a nationalist and pragmatist. Russia has close economic ties with Turkey and Israel, it buys military hardware from Israel. No BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions).

Putin is friends with both  Erdogan and Netanyahu, a fact which may help to find compromises and avoid deadly confrontations, but also could be a reason, why Russia didn’t step in forcefully to help Syria destroy the Islamic terrorists in 2011 /12.

Since September 21, when Netanyahu rushed to Moscow to clear matters with his friend Putin, negotiate a “security agreement,” and set up a bilateral coordination team to prevent the countries accidentally trading fire, Israeli jets and artillery have struck several times military targets in Syria. Putin voiced concern but there is not much else he can do. (What would be the appropriate judo move against a rogue state with 200 nuclear war heads?)

Putin is not a saint, but he is a pragmatist and realist. Beside being a judo aficionado, he was a KGB operative in East Germany when the Berlin Wall fell, and he must be nursing bitter memories of how Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was outmaneuvered and treated like a beggar by the West on the question of German unification and NATO expansion.

Putin’s resulting mistrust of the West is well placed and the most appropriate attitude in his ongoing political dealings.

Related:
http://mato48.com/2015/09/02/who-will-stop-the-islamic-state/
http://mato48.com/2015/03/02/islamic-state-a-short-recap/
http://mato48.com/2014/12/11/news-from-syria-dezember-2014/
http://mato48.com/2014/11/08/turkish-cooperation-with-is/
http://mato48.com/2014/10/23/heroism-and-hypocrisy/
http://mato48.com/2014/09/23/the-bombing-of-syria-has-begun/http://mato48.com/2014/08/04/is-the-pinnacle-of-us-middle-east-strategy/
http://mato48.com/2014/05/09/the-nearly-forgotten-war-in-syria/

Imperialist War is a Bi-Partisan Problem

Cindy Sheehan

The following text is part of the Newsletter #92
http://cindysheehanssoapbox.blogspot.com/2015/09/revolutionary-organization-of-labor-usa.html
The text is posted here in full length because it could be easily overlooked when only the link is provided.

“I do not hesitate one second to state clearly and unmistakably: I belong to the American resistance movement which fights against American imperialism, just as the resistance movement fought against Hitler.”

–Paul Robeson

I believe that just as important as it is to study the great thinkers, revolutionaries, and philosophers of the past, we should use that information to inform our lives as we draw from our own past and experiences.

It took me awhile to look at the world and my past through a revolutionary, anti-Imperialist lens. When my son Casey Sheehan was first killed in Iraq in 2004, my eyes were clouded by a red-hot hatred of George Bush and the Republican Party that I believed had murdered my son.

I quickly learned though through much trial, heartbreak and profound disappointment that even though BushCo were a HUGE problem, it was not THE problem. Unfortunately, most of my comrades during the Bush regime years have not come to that same conclusion.

Of course, a relative handful of others and I, have continued the struggle against US Imperialism since the oppressors allowed Bush to leave office and Obama to move in as the head C.E.O. of USA Murder, Inc. However, the antiwar movement was effectively co-opted and demobilized as far back as 2006 when the Democratic half of Imperialism reared its ugly head.

A few of the Obama regime’s lowlights include: the expansion of US troops to Afghanistan; the continuing and now expanding occupation of Iraq; greatly expanding the use of “drone-bombing”; “kill” lists; the absolute destruction of Libya; increased tensions and hostilities with Russia as the Obama regime supports neo-fascists in Ukraine; and the creation of IS and all of its crimes with increased incursions into Syria, Yemen, and Kurdish areas. Most of these “Nobel Prize” winning events were met with little opposition, and in fact with outrageous shows of support from the same people who would have apoplectic fits if, say, a McCain or Romney regime were pulling the same disastrous stunts.

Currently, we have the “Iran Nuclear Treaty” deal. Of course, the “deal” was forced on Iran (which by all accounts and evidence is NOT seeking a nuclear bomb and does not have Imperial or colonial designs like the US and Iran’s closer neighbor, Israel).  Top Iranian officials signed the “deal” to, I am sure, alleviate some of the crippling economic sanctions that were hurting them. [That is, both the Iranian rich and the Iranian people. — the editor]

The treaty is one-sided and negotiated by a “super” power that has thousands of atomic weapons at its disposal, and, by the way, the only nation that ever used atomic weapons against civilian populations. The treaty is opposed by the colonist and Zionist state of Israel, which has hundreds of nuclear weapons on hand and has been shown to be like its benefactor: not opposed to brutally slaughtering innocents.

The same forces and organizations that have given Obama a free-pass when it comes to his crimes against humanity, are now in an uproar because the Republican sector of the US Imperialist state opposes this treaty and the “peace” NGOs are telling us that this “deal” is the “best chance for peace in the Middle East.” My response is “seriously?”

I have been asked to sign petitions and write letters to members of Congress to urge them to pass the treaty, but these petitions and letters NEVER mention the fact that the USA and the USA/Israel collaboration are in fact the biggest blocks to “peace in the Middle East” and are responsible for killing millions, directly or indirectly through terrorist proxies.

The state of Iran, with all of its issues, is NOT the major deterrent to peace in the Middle East or the biggest sponsor of terrorism. Plainly and simply, that would be the USA.

Considering the fact that the USA has never entered into a treaty it hasn’t broken (especially with indigenous populations), I am not sure what all of this cheerleading for this newest treaty is about, really. However, I suspect it is just another hammer to use to beat the dead horse of partisan politics with: “Democrats good and peaceful” vs. “Republicans bad and warlike.”

In my humble opinion, the best chance for “peace in the Middle East” would include, but not be limited to:

1)  The US removing all occupying forces from the Middle East and closing all Military bases and CIA /covert operations;

2)  The US stopping support to “terrorist” organizations such as al Qaeda and IS (Islamic State);

3)  Israel ending its occupation of Gaza and territorial expansion with focus being on the right of return and a Palestinian state;

4)  The US paying reparations to the people it has harmed and giving aid for rebuilding and repair.

The US (under Obama) is greatly expanding its military/economic Empire to Africa and is trying to isolate Russia and China, so “peace in the Middle East” is actually just one piece of the Imperial pie.

The antiwar movement has been effectively neutralized by its affiliation with and devotion to the Democrat Party, but we as true revolutionary anti-Imperialists must never waver in our resolve to resist and smash the US Empire and to try to lead others to the same conclusions and principled action.

Comments on a recommended website

The recommended Website is https://consortiumnews.com/ and the linked articles plus associated comments are about the US political scene and about Syria. To understand the comments it is necessary to read the articles, which are all well formulated and partly informative.

https://consortiumnews.com/2015/09/15/are-neocons-an-existential-threat/

I enjoyed the article and I’m even able to comment now after two early comments were not accepted (probable because of software flaws and not because of their critical content).

The articles on Consortiumnews are not unaffected by the captivating propaganda of Western news organizations (brutal Assad regime), they often use carelessly and thoughtlessly the propagandists terminology (Syria’s “civil war” instead of invasion, aggression, terrorist insurgency), but show a genuine desire to break out of the ideological cage and present alternative storylines.

Concerning the Middle East, I still miss the environmental and social dimension:

Water grab by the South-eastern Anatolia Dam project and by Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights. Increased desertification of the Middle East and long lasting droughts. Overpopulation with no future for young men.

Unrealistic expectations raised by media presentations of a clean and luxurious Western consumer paradise. A paradise which is clearly unachievable and even in the most affluent countries exists only for a tiny minority on top of the food chain.

The neocon project is probably not substantially different from other organizations and pressure groups which were used throughout history by the ruling elites as “control rooms” or operation centers to coordinate policies and propaganda. One could also discuss if the neocons are indeed central coordinators or just one of an assortment of likeminded groups. There are surely interconnections with AIPAC. ALEC, US Chamber of Commerce, The Family (The Fellowship), Bilderberg, and various billionaire-funded NGO’s, foundations, think tanks.

I also would like to have more infos about the inner working and the members of the neocon project. Elliott Abrams and Robert Kagan were mentioned, in the US administration I made out Ashton B. Carter, Susan Rice, Victoria Nuland, Samantha Powers. There are for sure many more and a list of names just to get started would be helpful.

Is Hillary Clinton a neocon? Was Bill Clinton a crypto-neocon? Are the neocons bipartisan?

This would be worth writing a book about but a seasoned journalist like Robert Parry can maybe manage to compress the most essential information into a future article. Thank you in advance,

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https://consortiumnews.com/2015/09/13/whos-to-blame-for-syria-mess-putin/

This article is mostly acceptable, though a few annotations and corrections are necessary.

Putin can indeed be blamed partly for the Syrian mess, because a more decisive support of the Government in the early stages of the uprising or bombing campaigns against Jabhat al-Nusra and IS in 2013 would have quelled the insurgency. Russia also should have moved against Turkey, but Putin didn’t want to jeopardize trade with Turkey. He proposed even a “Turkish Stream” natural gas pipeline, but negotiations about this project fortunately have collapsed, so Russia doesn’t have to take care anymore about Turkish sensibilities.

I don’t agree with the sentence: “So, although it’s surely true that Syrian security forces struck back fiercely at times in the brutal civil war…” This appears to be a concession to the popular presumption, established via million times repeated catchphrases (butcher Assad), that Syria is a brutal totalitarian dictatorship, where the Sunni majority is suppressed by an Alawite clique.

The classification of the Syrian war as a “civil war” is debatable, it could as well be seen as an undeclared war of aggression by Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Israel, the USA).

I also object to the sentence: “The obvious solution would be a power-sharing arrangement that gives Sunnis more of a say.”

Sunni are represented sufficiently and pols in 2012 and 2013 showed, that the majority of Sunnis support Bashar al-Assad. Sunnis are represented in the government as well as in the security apparatus and account for between 60 and 65 percent of the regular army. Many high ranking officers are Sunni.

Even a West Point analysis had to acknowledge that
https://www.ctc.usma.edu/posts/syrias-sunnis-and-the-regimes-resilience.

In Syria’s 30-strong cabinet only two ministers are Alawite. The prime minister is Sunni, as are the interior minister, the justice minister, the foreign minister, even the defense minister.

Beside that, who should take part in a power sharing transitional government? Who of the external opposition figures has enough support of the Syrian population to justify an inclusion in a power sharing government; who could be entrusted with reconciling the war-torn nation?

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https://consortiumnews.com/2015/09/02/the-islamic-state-conundrum/

This article completely misses the point and it starts already with the three introductory questions, who’s formulation seem to deliberately lead away from the essence of Islamic terrorism.

The first question:

“Is ISIS driven essentially by theological and religious motivations? Or pragmatic political considerations?”

IS is driven by testosterone, by social tensions, lack of opportunities for young men because of overpopulation and resulting unemployment, by media propaganda, depicting a perfect clean world where affluence and a luxurious life can be easily achieved, by alienation in an artificial technical world which many don’t understand and which has led us far away from our primal needs.

Theological and religious motivations (what is the difference between the two?) are just a tool to enhance and smoothen the flow of terrorism applicants and sugarcoat the personal motivations of the participants. Pragmatic political considerations are of course guiding the organizers, sponsors, enablers of the terror groups (USA, Turkey, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, Kuwait, some other Gulf monarchies and NATO members).

The second question:

“Is ISIS essentially a medieval movement in character — or a “modern” movement?”

Humans have biologically not changed much since medieval times, society has changed, technology has advanced. IS members, like their forbearers in medieval times (Vikings, Huns, Mongols, later marauding mercenary armies) are driven by biological urges, but they use modern technology.

The third question:

“Is the movement durable?”

IS was just one of many terror groups who were invented and funded by the already mentioned agitators and meddlers in the Middle East (see the list above). In an evolutionary process IS by natural selection turned out to be the most effective group. It has developed its own dynamic but is still depending on the mentioned sponsors and enablers. Without the steady flow of supplies and apprentices from Turkey, without the trade of oil and antiquities via Turkey, without the amplification of their propaganda via Western media and internet companies, IS would be finished in a few month.

If the USA would start a bombing campaign in earnest, IS would be finished in a few weeks. Where should they hide in these barren lands?

The author doesn’t forget to use a classical propaganda trick: “…. in Syria feeding off the tragic breakdown of order under Assad’s gross and brutal mishandling of early Arab Spring rioting.” How does Mr. Fuller know? Was he there? Or did he just read Western propaganda and accept it as truth?

Did he consider the high death toll of Syrian police in the early days of the riots? (much higher that the casualties of the demonstrators). Does he know that Syrian policemen didn’t wear weapons and when they finally were equipped with weapons as the unrest progressed they had to account for every bullet they fired.

The remaining text of the article is a compendium of commonplaces, some right, some wrong, but all detached from the reality of IS. It is not worth the effort to take this text apart sentence by sentence.

To sum it up: This is typical smokescreen journalism and unworthy to be published on this website.

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https://consortiumnews.com/2015/09/15/how-russia-can-help-in-syria/

It is easier to write a comment in response to an article than to formulate an article with a logical and easily understandable structure. It is often easier to document, analyze, and conclude from an outside observation post. Mr. Fullers CIA years have seemingly shaped his thinking and despite a honest intention to present a rational and fact based view he seems to be trapped by deep-rooted presumptions. Presumptions which are unfounded but deeply engraved in the brain by lifelong indoctrination.

Most of us suffer from such presumptions, which cloud our judgement and hinder us to find appropriate answers to the many challenges of life.

The article mentions: “…the rollback of sectarianism as a driving force in the region…”

Western intelligence agencies have supported Islamic radicals since Nasser’s days. Said Ramadan was likely a CIA agent. Huma Abedin, Arif Alikhan, Mohammed Elibiary, Rashad Hussain and other members of the US administration were linked to the Muslim Brotherhood. What about Charlie Wilson’s war? Turkeys AKP is affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood. What about the funding of a broad range of Islamic terror groups by Saudi Arabia and Qatar via Kuwaiti banks? What about the support of IS by Turkeys MIT, the support of Jabhat al-Nusra by Israel and Turkey, the unhindered transfer of fighters and equipment through Turkey and the sale of looted industrial machinery, antiquities, and oil from Syria via Turkey?

Most Iraqis believe that IS basically = US, and there are countless indications for that beyond the farcical bombing campaign of the so called “coalition,” which stirs up a lot of desert dust but achieves nothing except an obfuscation of the fact that IS is a creation of the West.

Sectarianism was latent in the Middle East but it was rekindled by the neocolonial powers and it blossomed due to constant funding from Gulf potentates (US allies) and Western agencies.

No rollback of sectarianism is necessary, just stopping funding and stopping arms sales to the region would do the trick.

The article mentions: “…freeing up of energy/pipeline options across Asia.”

Is that desirable, when the menace of global warming would dictate a reduction of fossil fuel use?

The article mentions: “Assad obviously is far more likely to listen to tested allies than heed the plans of enemies dedicated to his overthrow.”

Syria’s President Assad will listen to any well meant advise, but he is perfectly capable of leading the country by his own judgement. He managed the precarious situation caused by the various invasions and incursion from Turkey, Jordan, and Israel (via the Golan Heights) remarkably well and he always had and probably still has the support of the majority of Syria’s population.

His one big mistake was the introduction of Western inspired economic reforms at the start of his tenure, thereby increasing inequality and hardship for the rural population (especially in drought-stricken Daraa). His vision of a “free-market economy” has long since been abandoned by the necessity to establish a war-economy.

The article mentions: “U.S. and Turkey stepped up support to nominally moderate and secular armed opposition.”

Was there ever a moderate opposition? The FSA brigades were right from the start either ruthless criminal gangs, marauding mercenaries, or fanatic Islamists.

The article mentions: “As ruthless as Assad had been in crushing domestic opposition…”

Wow! How does Mr. Fuller know? Was he there? Or did he just read Western propaganda and accept it as truth?

Did he consider the high death toll of Syrian police in the early days of the riots? (much higher that the casualties of the demonstrators). Does he know that Syrian policemen didn’t wear weapons and when they finally were equipped with weapons as the unrest progressed they had to account for every bullet they fired?

The remaining parts of the article are less controversial but there is no mentioning of the following important factors:

Global warming, droughts, scarcity of water, desertification in most of the Middle East and northern Africa.

Overpopulation, weakening of traditional social structures (tribe, clan, family).

Cultural incompatibilities, brought to the fore by globalization and tourism.

Which all means: Even without Western-instigated wars there will be tension, volatility, social strife. There will be unrest (bread protests), mass migration, revolutions.

Don’t the rich countries have a responsibility to help and share their wealth which they gathered by exploiting the resources of the world? Advise alone — even well meant — will not be welcomed as long as the USA consumes twice as much energy and resources per capita as Europe and eight times as much as the rest of the world.

What about leading by example?

Including such considerations in the article (or at least mentioning them) would certainly have enhanced it.

The article concludes: “Washington does not have the luxury of playing dog in the manger in “managing” the Middle East, especially after two decades or more of massive and destructive policy failure on virtually all fronts.”

This formulation implies “good faith,” fairness, altruism as factors of US politics, it somehow smells of US superiority (exceptionalism), and The White Man’s Burden. Maybe I’m biased and overcritical and it wasn’t meant this way. Maybe it wasn’t suggested that the USA tried hard to benefit humanity but failed for whatever reason.

US politics didn’t fail the weapons producers (MIC) and big oil.

I cant go into details in the short form of a comment but main assumptions in this article cannot be left unchallenged and I’m ready to discuss open questions.

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https://consortiumnews.com/2015/09/16/neocons-babble-over-syria-crisis/

This is an excellent article, with not a single line being objectionable. A few minor notions as a humble contribution:

When Lewis writes: “…replace Bashar al-Assad with a figure who could rally moderate Syrians to restore a stable government…”, one has to ask, who this figure would be and how he or she would be chosen.

When in 1979 Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Teheran millions of Iranians were on the street to enthusiastically welcome him. When Jean Bertrand Aristide returned to Haiti in 2011, the streets of Port-au-Prince were full and people were climbing up trees, walls, and rooftops to get a glimpse of him. People were jogging along his motorcade, dancing and singing. When in 2002 Hugo Chavez returned to Caracas after the failed coup, thousands celebrated in front of the Miraflores palace, singing the national anthem and setting off firecrackers.

How many Syrians would pour into the streets of Damascus to welcome a Western installed puppet?

Lewis writes: “There are those who see Syria as a quagmire for Putin, a kind of matched pair to our own folly in Iraq.” One has to wonder, if the Iraq invasion is indeed regarded a folly by the US establishment. Bush, Rumsfeld, Powell, Cheney don’t feel remorse and would do it again for sure. For Haliburton, General Dynamics, Lockheed, Northrop, and other military contractors the Iraq war was a rousing success.

One point could maybe have been emphasized more clearly: The USA has no business there and should leave Syrians alone. 1,200 military bases around the word should be enough to secure all strategic interests of the exceptional nation (to question these strategic interest, which center around resource exploitation, admittedly exceeds the scope of this article).

The author writes: “Or the West could cooperate with Russia and Iran in organizing a power-sharing “unity government” in Damascus that would allow Assad to remain in office for the time being while adopting democratic reforms.”

The White Mans Burden again.

It may not be in the imperial lexicon, but the article could have been crowned with the suggestion of the most logical, simplest, and cheapest solution:

Ami go home!

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Consortiumnews is one of the few bright spots in the pitch-black US media scene and it deserves support and encouragement. One has nevertheless to be aware that the organizers and contributors of this media project are fully immersed into the US way of thinking and despite their genuine efforts to think out (break out) of the box ever so often unintentionally purport US propaganda lines.

Comments by people who hail from other cultures and watch things from the distance may help to remedy this.

Links September 2015

Feline news

https://chicago.craigslist.org/chc/tlg/5188443833.html Circus animals seldom have a happy life. The Moscow Cat Theater of Kuklachev is accused of torturing cats and animal rights activists call for a boycott.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/10/amazing-acrocats-cat-circus_n_7040256.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/11841884/Cats-do-not-need-their-owners-scientists-conclude.html Cats are not owned by anybody, to begin with.
http://abc7news.com/pets/firefighters-rescue-burned-black-cat-from-valley-fire/985671/ Terrible burns. I would take him instantly if he wouldn’t be far away in America.

Environmental news
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/09/150908-sperm-whale-culture-vocalizations-animals-oceans-galapagos-science/
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/what-is-killing-americas-bees-and-what-does-it-mean-for-us-20150818
http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/26-08-2015/131731-toxic_pesticides_bees-0/
https://www.opendemocracy.net/transformation/javan-briggs/we-have-right-to-have-that-basic-thing—it’s-water
http://www.globalresearch.ca/monsantos-sealed-documents-reveal-the-truth-behind-roundups-toxicological-dangers/
http://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Conflict-Over-Water-In-Central-Asia.html
http://www.wri.org/blog/2015/08/ranking-world’s-most-water-stressed-countries-2040
http://news.yahoo.com/number-ethiopians-needing-food-aid-surges-4-5-125134071.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/08/31/us-somalia-hunger-idUSKCN0R01T420150831
http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/2015/aug/monsanto-roundup-glyphosate-pesticide-kidney-liver-toxic-gmo
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/aug/23/hawaii-birth-defects-pesticides-gmo?CMP=twt_a-environment_b-gdneco
http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/blogs/monsanto-turns-its-attention-to-the-produce-aisle/ I usually let the flower heads of broccoli plants bloom, when they are too small to be harvested, and I am proud, when new broccoli plants emerge where I never have planted seeds. Broccoli is vulnerable to insect infestation and my broccoli performs poorly, battered by aphids, caterpillars, and other herbivorous insects. This is not a viable business, for sure not a cash crop, but every now and then there is organic broccoli on the menu.
http://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/09/01/17922/nuclear-cleanup-project-haunted-legacy-design-failures-and-whistleblower
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2015/08/27/1504710112 Who would have thought that birds hate traffic noise?
http://blogs.worldwatch.org/5-eye-opening-global-trends-you-should-know-about/

Economic news
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/09/labor-day-lets-tell-the-truth-and-call-it-assets-day.html This is spot on. Must read!
http://petras.lahaine.org/?p=204 James Petras’ outrage about the betrayal of the Greek population is justified but he should nevertheless mention the organizational and technical difficulties of a Grexit and a return to the Drachma. The financial systems of Western nations are tightly interwoven and controlled by big financial institutions (banks, hedge funds) which hold national politicians to ransom.

The times of self sufficiency are long gone and we are small wheels in a big machine, unable to turn at our own pace. While todays specialization and reliance on big support systems (national or even global) have made life comfortable in many respects (at least for citizens in the most affluent countries) it has made us vulnerable to extortion and exploitation.

The prime example is the financial sector, where banks, initially entrusted with the organization of cash transfers, the matching of borrowers and lenders, and the secure holding of savings, have hijacked the system and extract sums that are a multitude of their operational costs. Banks don’t fail because fees and interest rates are too low but because they gamble away the entrusted money with risky investments.
http://www.globaljustice.org.uk/blog/2015/aug/19/greece-sale-–-and-everything-must-go
http://www.globalresearch.ca/economic-destabilization-financial-meltdown-and-the-rigging-of-the-shanghai-stock-market/5471533
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/demographic-challenge-poor-countries-by-adair-turner-2015-08
http://www.alternet.org/economy/why-bezos-denials-about-exploitation-amazon-pure-sociopathic-ceo-speak If you ever should contemplate to use Amazon, read this first.
http://www.thenation.com/article/ukraine-has-reached-a-debt-deal-now-what/
http://www.thenation.com/article/the-tpp-will-finish-what-chiles-dictatorship-started/

Technology news
http://mathbabe.org/2015/08/26/links-about-big-bad-data/

Imperial news
http://www.workers.org/articles/2015/09/07/behind-the-govts-rosy-jobs-report/
http://www.workers.org/articles/2015/08/19/former-black-panther-killed-in-calif-prison/
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2015/08/first-state-approves-drones-with-rubber-bullets-tasers-pepper-spray-tear-gas-sound-cannons-for-domestic-use.html
http://civileats.com/2015/09/09/former-black-panther-launches-oakland-urban-farm-to-give-ex-prisoners-a-fresh-start/ Never give up, never lose hope!

Global military expenses:

Imperial conquest news
http://www.globalresearch.ca/washington-wants-regime-change-in-ecuador-what-is-the-cia-planning-before-ecuadors-2017-elections/
http://www.workers.org/articles/2015/09/04/a-letter-on-the-colombia-venezuela-border-conflict/
https://consortiumnews.com/2015/09/02/usnato-embrace-psy-ops-and-info-war/
http://www.unicef.org/emergencies/syria/
http://www.unicef.org.uk/Documents/Media/Education%20Under%20Fire.pdf
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/08/turkey-syria-palestinia-fight-for-syrian-army.html Al-Monitor is a Western propaganda instrument, but nevertheless it has now published several articles by author Fehim Tastekin, which diverge from the usual storyline and show the Islamic rebels in an unfavorable light. What is behind this change of direction?
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/08/turkey-syria-sued-for-looting-aleppo-industry.html
http://www.ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/peace-and-prosperity/2015/september/04/white-house-russian-military-action-against-isis-in-syria-would-be-destabilizing/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/11846382/Russia-is-building-military-base-in-Syria.html The article doesn’t fail to include one of the obligate phrases that are used to vilify a person which is on the US-hitlist. “Syria and its brutal ruler” was chosen this time, “butcher Assad” is maybe after intensive use regarded as trite and hackneyed or is spared for the really important psy-ops. The only thing what one can do against this constant mudslinging is to constantly call out the lies and unmask the propagandists.
https://consortiumnews.com/2015/08/04/how-us-allies-aid-al-qaeda-in-syria/
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/sep/02/david-petraeus-bright-idea-give-terrorists-weapons-to-beat-isis The Daily Beast’s article, “Petraeus: Use Al Qaeda Fighters to Beat ISIS,” has caused some consternation, but his suggestions are nothing new. Petraeus, the former commander of US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, has been since some time quietly urging the administration in Washington to consider using so-called moderate members of al Qaeda’s Jabhat al-Nusra to fight IS in Syria. Petraeus is also in accord with the Brookings institute, which stated in an article: “Ultimately, negotiation and amnesty programs with extremist groups must enter the US counterterrorism repertoire if reluctance to military deployment continues.”
http://www.globalresearch.ca/british-sas-special-forces-dressed-up-as-isis-rebels-fighting-assad-in-syria/5466944
http://www.globalresearch.ca/polls-show-syrians-overwhelmingly-blame-u-s-for-isis/ A remarkable text not only because it shows that the majority of Syrians still support Assad but also demonstrates how poll results can be turned on their head in the establishment press by careful wording. Beside that, Syrians know that IS = US.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jackie-abramian/rania-kinges-social-enterprise-i-love-syria-transcends-nationalism_b_7994862.html
http://newcoldwar.org/grim-toll-of-rising-ukrainian-shelling-in-donbas-eastern-ukraine/
http://russia-insider.com/en/ukraine-shelling-keeping-osce-out-suffering-east-ukraine-town/ri9327
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-mh17-pilots-corpse-more-on-the-cover-up/5467351
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-crisis-soldiers-accuse-commanders-of-lying-as-both-warring-sides-make-repeated-claims-of-victories-and-broken-ceasefires-10462754.html
http://www.workers.org/articles/2015/08/20/ukraine-silences-igor-guzhva-editor-of-largest-daily-newspaper/
http://harpers.org/blog/2015/08/undelivered-goods/
http://newcoldwar.org/ukraine-agribusiness-firms-in-quiet-land-grab-with-development-finance/
https://consortiumnews.com/2015/08/24/the-case-for-pragmatism/ Well written and a useful compilation of facts, but the plea for “geopolitical pragmatism” will be unheeded. Criminals (bankers, politicians) thrive in chaos and instability, taking advantage of lawlessness and fast changing situations. The “disaster capitalists” are not restrained by feelings of responsibility, compassion, or guilt, their ethical guide is profit optimization.

About the consequences? Devil may care, or après moi, le déluge (after me, the flood), as King of France Louis XV said.
http://sputniknews.com/us/20150912/1026926635/foreign-meddling-and-a-fight-for-oil-fueling-syrian-civil-war.html A useful compilation about Syria.
http://medialens.org/index.php/alerts/alert-archive/2015/801-invisible-war-crimes-the-corporate-media-on-yemen.html Exposing the lies.

News roundup

I’m busy in the garden but I’m also spending more time on the computer than I would prefer. There is so much going on in the world and I’m researching, collecting information from the few trustworthy sources, sifting through piles of often inconsistent and contradictory informations, making conclusions, formulating ideas in my head and writing them down.

Economy

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has stopped shipping gold back to Germany, which wants to repatriate the national gold reserves. Is there no gold left in the vaults in Manhattan?

Deutsche Bank, which runs Europe’s biggest investment bank, may let go 23,000 employees and Italy’s UniCredit may fire 10,000, leading a bloodletting across Europe’s financial organizations which could cost tens of thousands their jobs.

Oil prices go up and down without apparent reason, keeping analysts guessing. High frequency trading is at any moment good for crashing the stock markets.

The Chinese stock market is in turmoil and the government has spent 246 billion US$ purchasing equities since the 5 trillion US$ selloff began three months ago. The Shanghai Composite has tumbled 40 percent from its June high. Is this economic warfare? Are the big banks in New York and London able to orchestrate this?

Or is this just an inevitable result of the Ponzi schemes and other financial shenanigans going on all the time?

According to the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), since 2010 the amount of US$-denominated debt issued by foreign companies has grown by 50 percent from 6 trillion US$ to 9 trillion US$.

Some of the credit extended to companies operating in emerging-markets (China, India, Brasil, Turkey, South Africa) was used for real economic projects, but a BIS report released in late August concludes that most of the money was simply invested in higher yielding shadow-banking instruments. This is the so-called global carry trade.

The credit/money growth was seemingly fueling economic growth while in reality production and productivity didn’t increase. Wealth was only created in form of profits for the financial companies.

Ukraine

Ihor Humeniuk, a a member of the Sich volunteer battalion, which is part of the Interior Ministry forces, killed three policemen with a hand grenade during a violent protest in front of the Verkhona Rada. 140 people were injured. There were allegedly also shots fired.

Leaflets bearing Poroshenko’s portrait and the words “Kill the fag,” were handed out in Kiev.

IMF and World Bank officials say, that the Ukrainian economy is stabilizing. It has to be seen how the population in the long run responds to the all-out privatization and the systematic destruction of the remnants of a welfare state.

The new ceasefire from the start of September is holding and it is unusual quiet in Donbass. According to Igor Strelkov the Ukraine has amassed forces south of Donetsk city ready for an offensive but it doesn’t look like they are able to start war again.

President Petro Poroshenko disclosed in an interview why EU and USA have refused to provide more weapons, saying: “I was given two reasons. First, you don’t have an army. What you do have is infiltrated by Russian agents, and everything we give you will end up in Russia. And second, the army is corrupt.”

The Trans-Dniester card also doesn’t work at the moment to pressure Russia because the EU-leaning government in Moldova is in deep trouble and may soon lose power. Protesters have set up a tent city with at least 150 tents in Chisinau’s main square outside the government’s building. The population is infuriated by a bank fraud where not less than one billion US$ were stolen by oligarch Ilan Shor.

28-year-old Ilan Shor owns a football club, TV stations, the country’s main international airport, Chisinau International Airport, and has a Russian pop-star wife called Jasmine. He made his fortune selling duty-free goods at the airport.

The fraud has caused a rapid depreciation in the national currency, the Leu, stoking inflation and hurting living standards. The EU has frozen funding for Moldova.

Mikheil Saakashvili, the former Prime Minister of Georgia who was made the governor of Odessa, has brought in a series of tough anti-graft measures. He is mired in a dispute with Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk after accusing officials in Kiev to sabotage his reform efforts. Rumors say that Yatsenyuk will leave the governing coalition in preparation for elections which may come earlier than expected.

Ihor Mosiychuk, a member of the Verkhovna Rada from Lyashko’s Radical Party was stripped of his immunity and instantly detained by SBU officers inside the parliament on September 17 for demanding a bribe (4,600 US$).

The head of the central office of the State Employment Service Yaroslav Kashuba has been arrested and charged with bribery (28,000 US$).

The head of the public organization “Center of counteraction of corruption” Vitaliy Shabunin accused the Minister of internal Affairs Arsen Avakov of stupidity after Avakov posted on his Facebook page information about money of oligarch Serhiy Kurchenko in the accounts of Latvian banks, revealing that 80 million US$, 177 thousand Euros, and 1 million Czech Korunas were found in Kurchenko’s accounts. According to Avakov, the money was discovered during an investigation of the laundering of criminal funds, taken by offshore companies from Real Bank and Brokbiznesbank. 

The money has not been recovered yet and as Kurchenko is warned now it may disappear before any action is taken.

When Avakov created the “Office for the return of assets obtained through criminal activity.” he appointed Elena Tishchenko as head, which in 2013 was detained in Russia on suspicion of fraud and money laundering, but was released under an amnesty. The first task of the new body was to scrutinize the financial dealings of the former ecology Minister Mykola Zlochevsky, of Serhiy Kurchenko, and of Dmytro Firtash.

After Maidan Kurchenko moved to Russia while Firtash lives in Austria.

Ihor Kolomoisky has left Ukraine for good. 1.8 billion US$ of IMF money disappeared in dubious dealings of Private Bank with 54 offshore companies based in the Caribbean, USA, and Cyprus. The money is said to be in Cyprus bank accounts controlled by Kolomoisky. No charges have been filed until now.

Podcaster Anatoly Sharii fights his own campaign via a YouTube channel against Anton Gerashenko and other corrupt Ukrainian officials. He lives in Latvia and since 2012 Ukrainian authorities both pre- and post-Maidan try to get him extradited but as they are not able to present convincing evidence of criminal activities until now they failed.

President Petro Poroshenko by decree banned 400 foreigners, mainly journalists, from entering the country, including BBC’s well known Steve Rosenberg, Emma Wells, and Anton Chicherov. The Spanish journalists Antonio Pampliega and Angel Sastre, who are missing and presumably dead in Syria, are also included. This is incredibly insensitive — what was Poroshenko thinking?

Banned are further 105 Russian corporations, including a number of Russian airlines like Aeroflot and Transaero, and major banking institutions like Gazprombank and Rosselkhozbank. Russia’s largest producers of Internet security software, Kaspersky Lab and Doctor Web, are also on the list. Ukraine is the country with the most malware infected computers, so this ban comes handy for cyber criminals. The major Russian state news channels Rossiya-24, Channel One, and NTV are all banned.

Not that this move matters, after four Russian journalists (Andrey Stenin, Igor Kornelyuk, Anton Voloshin, Anatoly Klyan) were killed in Ukraine, there are understandably no more official visits of Russian reporters.

This is not the first list of banned foreigners and foreign companies and counting all together there must be thousands of names on these lists.

Igor Guzhva, one of the most profiled journalists of Ukraine and editor of Vesti, which is the largest daily newspaper in the country, has stepped down and sold his shares in the company. Vesti was accosted of “anti-Ukrainian activities” and distributors of the newspaper were subject to frequent attacks by right-wing extremists. Guzhva is now being investigated for non-payment of taxes.

Igor Guzhva revealed in an interviews that officials had approached him with the demand that he give (not sell, but give) shares to them in exchange for pressure being taken off him and that he refused.

Western values of press freedom and freedom of expression in general are in the Ukraine apparently as fiercely held up as in the West.

Turkey has, in partnership with Ukraine, created an international Islamic Brigade intended to destabilize Crimea. Elements of IS (Islamic State) have arrived in Kherson, where a so-called “Crimean Government in Exile” exists. Turkey has apparently decided to break off its ties with Moscow and has cancelled the contract for the gas pipe-line Turkish Stream.

Greek coast guard seized 5,000 assault weapons and half a million rounds of ammunition found aboard the vessel Haddad 1, en route from Iskenderun, Turkey to Libya. The arms had no accompanying documents and were concealed by furniture and gym mats.

A Turkish foreign ministry spokesman confirmed that the cargo included weapons but maintained they were fully documented and were destined for the Sudanese police force. The vessel’s documentation indicate that it was supposed to travel to Misrata and Tobruk in Libya before going back.

Syria

Syrian forces are weaker this year and have suffered significant territorial losses to IS and a jihadi coalition led by Jabhat al-Nusra. The army gave up an airbase at Abo al-Dohur, which was the last government stronghold in Idlib province. The airbase was out of service, so it is a setback but not a crippling blow for Damascus.

The biggest threat to the government is probably that IS fighters have advanced from Palmyra and are close to cutting the north-south highway, which links the capital to cities such as Homs and Aleppo, and the Mediterranean. IS has also taken the government’s last remaining oilfield at Jazal.

The SOHR (Syrian Observatory for Human Rights), an opposition propaganda channel and for most Western news organizations the only source of information about Syria, sounds alarm about the dismal plight of civilians in Madaya and Zabadani. This is good news, because when the SOHR warns about an impending human catastrophe and fantasizes about barrel bombs it means, that Syrian forces are advancing and that the Islamic terrorist gangs are in trouble.

400 terrorists mainly from Jabhat al-Nusra are trapped in Zabadani, 350 wounded militants which have no access to medical treatment are also said to be there. The Syrian forces and Hezbollah don’t want to clear the town to avoid civilian casualties, because the terrorists are using the civilians as human shields.

A swap deal was discussed to let the militants go in exchange for lifting the siege of al-Fu’ah and Kefraya, two Shiite towns in Idlib province near the border to Turkey with a population of 40.000, but Jabhat al-Nusra’s demands were so over the top that no agreement could be reached.

The plight of people in al-Fu’ah and Kefraya is not mentioned in mainstream news channels.

In the up-is-down world of Western media, everyone condemned Russia for aiding Syria’s internationally recognized government while omitting that Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and other Gulf monarchies (all US allies) are arming IS (Islamic State), Jabhat al-Nusra, Ahrar al-Sham, and a multitude of other Islamic terrorist groups fighting the Syrian government.

The words began flying when the Obama administration announced that Moscow was jetting in soldiers and advisers to an airfield south of Latakia on Syria’s Mediterranean coast, setting up prefabricated housing for as many as a 1.400 personnel and installing a portable air traffic control station. Reuters added a few days later that Russia had sent two tank landing ships as well.

Secretary of State John Kerry was instantly on the phone to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warning him that intervention “could further escalate the conflict, lead to greater loss of innocent life, increase refugee flows and risk confrontation with the US anti-IS Coalition.”

All the usual suspects then piled on. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg voiced concern over the alleged escalation, as did Israel, while NATO member Bulgaria quickly bowed to US pressure to ban Russian cargo planes from its airspace.

Since the USA has struggled to come up with allies willing to flout international law by bombing IS positions inside Syria without Syrian government permission, one would think that it would be grateful if Russia was indeed sending military equipment for the purpose of fighting IS. Since IS and its sometime allies Jabhat al-Nusra and Ahrar al-Sham are continuing to advance, Washington obviously needs help, so why turn up its nose at Russian aid?

A few days after the Obama administration went public with the latest allegations, the Russian foreign ministry seemed genuinely perplexed.

“Russian military specialists help Syrians master Russian hardware, and we can’t understand the anti-Russian hysteria about this,” Maria V. Zakharova, the Russian foreign ministry’s spokeswoman, explained. “We have been supplying Syria with arms and military equipment for a long time. We are doing this in accordance with existing contracts and in full accordance with international law.”

Since Russia maintains that the shipments are both legal and routine, it is up to the United States to prove otherwise. Yet it has made no effort to do so, and neither has the press tried to hold Washington to account. Under international law, it is not illegal to provide military assistance and advisers to a sovereign government, something the USA and other Western nations do routinely to prop up allied dictatorships.

The USA for instance is promising to increase military aid to Saudi Arabia and other members of the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) and gives Saudi Arabia military assistance in it’s inhumane and deadly assault on Yemen.

The USA feels equally bound to go along with the Saudi kingdom’s increased support for Jabhat al-Nusra and fellow jihadis in Syria.The USA never explained last spring how US-made TOW missiles reached Jabhat al-Nusra and allowed them to mount a successful offensive in Syria’s northern Idlib province.

Before US trained Islamic rebels (Division 30) entered Syria the USA reached out to Jabhat al-Nusra to make sure that it didn’t object to the deployment. Despite this charm offensive, Jabhat al-Nusra killed or captured the US-trained fighters and Division 30 has ceased to exist.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called into question the effectiveness of the US-led coalition against IS and stated, that concerned colleagues from within the US-led coalition turned to him and informed him that the US-military did not give clearances to their fighter pilots even though they clearly had located and identified IS positions.

Major General Eizza Zawir, commander of the Kurdish Peshmerga’s fourth division, which is stationed on the hills overlooking the Iraq-Syria border, told reporters that he sees the busy supply lines of IS less than 3 kilometer away. They would be easy to hit — but General Zawir’s hands are tied.

“We’ve spoken to the US team here, the British team, the French team. They see it every day. They can see with their aircraft very clearly. Why don’t they do anything?” he complains.

Echoing the concerns of the Peshmerga, one senior Jordanian military officer describes seeing IS convoys and military formations crossing between Iraq and southern Syria on an almost daily basis. “But we’re not allowed to hit them,” he says.

The British polling organization ORB International, an affiliate of WIN/Gallup International, repeatedly found that Syrians oppose IS by about 80 percent, while (according to the latest poll) 82 percent blame the US for IS.

It was known before that Iraqis and Syrians suspect, that the West is supporting IS and that US hostility to IS may be less than total. In short: IS = US.

Refugees

More than four million Syrians have fled the gruesome reign of Western funded Islamic terrorists. The majority until now lived in overcrowded refugee camps in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, and Iraq, but increasing numbers are embarking on the perilously journey to Europe and are flooding into Austria and Germany.

The rich Gulf monarchies Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, and Bahrain, main perpetrators of the criminal aggression against Syria, have only taken dismal numbers of Syrian refugee, because the idea of thousands of foreigners coming in, without employment or any definite return date, is deeply uncomfortable for Gulf states.

These nations rank in the world’s top 50 GDPs and have a combined military budget of close to 100 billion US$.

None of the Gulf monarchies signed the 1951 Refugee Convention which defines a refugee “outside the country of his nationality” because of “fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality”. Syrians can still apply for costly tourist visas and work permits to enter wealthy Gulf nations but such visas are rarely granted. The only Arab countries where Syrians can travel without a visa are Algeria, Mauritania, Sudan, and Yemen — hardly practical choices or desired destinations.

The Kuwaiti politician Fahed al-Shelaimi, who heads the Gulf Forum on Peace and Security, provided a candid answer for the reluctance of accepting refugees: ”Gulf states are expensive and aside from being laborers, these people are not suitable for life here,” he said and added: “At the end of the day, people from a different environment who suffer from emotional problems cannot be received in our society,”

The number of migrant workers exceeds the native population in every Gulf country except Saudi Arabia and Oman. In all of the Gulf countries, the vast majority of the workforce is foreign, ranging from 88 percent in Oman to 98 percent in the United Arab Emirates. Citizens in the UAE and Qatar number a little over 10 percent of the resident populations in their respective countries. The vast majority of residents are transitory economic workers.

Foreigners are only allowed residency if they or their spouses have full-time jobs. There is no possibility to remain permanently in the Gulf without work — and once their contracts are up almost all migrants return home.

This is how the Gulf works — with a high turnover of low and high skilled labour, which allows the native Gulf Arab populations to maintain their dominant status without being overrun by Arabs from other countries or South Asian laborers.

The refugees from Middle Eastern war zones have to look for other destinations.

Since the start of the year 460.000 migrants have made the dangerous journey from Turkey and Libya over the Mediterranean Sea to the shores of Europe. Between 2.000 and 3.000 of them drowned. Their origin makes clear that most are fleeing conflicts: they come primarily from Syria, Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq, and Pakistan in the Middle East, and to a lesser extent from Eritrea, Somalia, and Nigeria in Africa.

This is the biggest migration in Europe since World War II, when Jews were driven out of Germany, Austria, and Poland by threat of extermination. 6 million didn’t make it then.

Some of the refugees seeking asylum are undoubtedly radical Islamists who take the chance to slip in, hiding among the crowd, to set up sleeper cells in the places where they are allowed to settle. A not very credible source spoke of 4,000 IS operatives, but 4,000 are less than one percent of the migrants, so there could be some truth in this.

There are four causes for the present tidal wave of refugees:

1. Turkey has given up hope of utilizing the refugees as bargaining chip for creating a “safe zone (no fly zone) in northern Syria and herds them to the coastal towns. Turkey by its own assessment has spent 7.6 billion US$ to host the refugees and is running out of money.

Beside being tired of paying for the refugee camps President Erdogan wants to exert pressure on Europe to finally start bombing Syria. The Syrian refugees are not liked by the Turkish population which faces an economic downturn and falling living standards, looming elections in November therefore demand that Turkish authorities significantly reduce the presence of refugees.

2. Since months the WFP (World Food Program) has cut aid to the bone due to a lack of donations and it has dropped one-third of Syrian refugees from its food voucher program. It reduced the monthly stipend for about 210,000 Syrians in Jordan by half.

At the beginning of September it went further. 230,000 Syrian refugees who are living in cities had their aid stopped entirely. Help is still being provided for 100,000 living in camps, but there, too, funds could run out in November. The agency would need 236 million US$ to keep the program (even in its scaled-back version) funded through November, but no major donors have come forward until now.

3. The present mild weather makes the journey to Europe easier. As it will get colder, muddier, and more stormy in autumn the traveling conditions may deteriorate and make it impossible to reach Europe.

4. Syrian authorities are issuing new passports to refugees to increase much needed foreign currency income. A new passport costs 400 US$, an extension 200 US$. More than 10.000 new passports were issued alone in Jordan, the numbers in Lebanon are probably even higher. 

There is also the bandwagon effect.

Initially people of good will (idealists with one word) warmly welcomed the migrants and donated blankets, cloth, food. The authorities organized shelters and transportation.

Yet, as the flood of migrants began to overwhelm EU-countries, the Schengen agreement, which guarantees open borders, was suspended, as Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, and Slovakia imposed border controls. Germany and Austria until now didn’t stop the flow of refugees.

German Minister of Defense Ursula von der Leyen ordered 4000 German soldiers into readiness. Hundreds of soldiers are already deployed to help accommodate newly arriving migrants.

Hungary has erected a 3.5 meter high barbed wire fence on the Serbian border and is now hastily working on a similar fence sealing the sections of the Croatian border where the countries are not separated by the Drava river. There are plans to extend the fence along the Romanian border. The railway lines to Serbia and Croatia are blocked.

When migrants tried to tear away a section of the fence, Hungarian riot police responded with tear gas and water canons, while the migrants countered with hurling rocks and parts of concrete at the police in a confrontation that had become a fool blown riot. 

Croatia closed its border with Serbia. “We cannot register and accommodate these people any longer,” Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic told a press conference. “The European Union must know that Croatia will not become a migrant hotspot.” And in another statement: “Hungary has closed off its border with barbed wire; that’s not a solution, but these people remaining in Croatia is not a solution either.”

Hungary has sent armored vehicles to the Croatian border, while Slovenian police sealed most crossings after Croatia attempted to offload tens of thousands of refugees carried to the border in busses. Slovenian police used tear gas and pepper spray to ward off approaching refugees and stopped a train at Dobova carrying 200 refugees. Authorities only allow limited numbers of families with women and children to continue their journey.

Unable to go back to Serbia, barred from Hungary, and hindered to enter Slovenia, 18,000 migrants are at the moment stranded in Croatia. Thousands are waiting at the tiny rail station of Tovarnik near Serbia for a train which never comes. Earlier in Tovarnik and Batina, another border town, migrants scuffled with police.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proudly shows the way by pointing out that no illegal immigrants have gained access to Israel via Egypt since his erection of a fence along the southern border. Another fence is just built along Israel’s eastern border with Jordan. Gaza and the West Bank are walled off since a long time.

Netanyahu: “This is a success that almost no Western country — and very few countries at all — has been able to achieve, but Israel has achieved it, and I am determined to continue this on all of Israel’s borders.”

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon added, “We can see the stream of refugees washing over Europe. What is happening in Europe could have happened to us, had we not behaved in an intelligent manner.”

The silent majority of Europeans in the meantime frowns and waits for their moment in the voting booth to heave right-wing xenophobic parties into government. These parties are also anti-EU and they will further a EU-breakup with all their might.

Who expects that in a time of increasing egoism, individualism, and consumerism the ideals of solidarity and sharing are still held up? People are told that they have to be competitive in the job market, so it is logical that they try to get rid of the foreign competitors for jobs.

The argument, that Europe’s wealth was gained by colonial exploitation and ruthless resource extraction and that it is only “fair to share” will not weigh much for the broad population, as resources become scarce and food prices as well as utility fees rise. The rentier class wants a bigger part of the pie and prescribes austerity, end of social welfare, and the privatization of all common good. The migrants want a part of the pie too.

Something’s gotta give.

Germany has voiced the intent to get the newly arriving migrants into work as quickly as possible to speed their assimilation into German society, ignoring popular fears that the migrants will take away jobs and put pressure on wages. Companies are clearly happy with this policy, the unions understandably less so. Despite the reservations of the unions this is probably the most sensible thing to do and the only way out of the quagmire.

A part of the migrants will try to integrate and adapt, others will try to curb out cultural enclaves (ghettos) where they keep to themselves. This must not necessarily be a bad thing, the Jewish shtetls were cultural jewels which benefitted their surroundings and enriched eastern Europe. The destruction of the shtetls by Hitler was a human tragedy and a terrible loss for European culture.

The experience with muslim enclaves in Britain, the Netherlands, and France though is not encouraging.

The idealists will find out that multiculturalism is related to globalization, while localism (small is beautiful, buddhist economics) also means the preservation of indigenous national, regional, and local cultures.

The Palestinians in Syria were an example how migrants can be integrated peacefully. Palestinians had all citizen rights and lived comfortably in Yarmouk and other camps. Yarmouk had hospitals, schools, shops, and all other kinds of infrastructure, 120,000 people lived there and the camp had become a vibrant district of Damascus.

The integration of the Palestinian refugees was easier of course because the Palestinians were Arabs and Arab solidarity was always an important factor in Syrian politics. Palestinians also shared the same religions with Syrians (Islam and Orthodox Christianity).

Unfortunately many young Palestinian men joined the Islamic terror groups, lured by financial incentives and the fiery rhetoric of Saudi Arabia funded imams. This is a sad story of betrayal and the clearest explanation why the Palestinians will not be able to win their homeland back from Israel.

Yarmouk is now destroyed and only 8,000 people remain there.

One last word:

14 years ago on September 11, 2001 the USA was attacked by 0 Iraqis and 0 Afghans and 0 Iranians and 0 Libyans and 0 Syrians. The hijackers in the 9/11 attacks came from Saudi Arabia (15) the United Arab Emirates (2), Egypt (1), and Lebanon (1).

Something is fishy here.