COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Friday, October 16, 2009

China joins Russia in Bitch-slapping Obama over Iran Sanctions


Iran, if it chooses, will become a holder of nuclear weapons.

The Chinese and Russians are not impressed with weakness.

Bush frittered away the US military in an absurd misapplication of resources through the disproportionate wasting of assets against illusory threats. Bush stood flat-footed while Congress looted the US Treasury and Wall Street decapitalized the World banking system.

Obama and the Democrats often bemoan what they inherited from Bush and the despicable Republicans. They inherited nothing, they won the Presidency and Congress at an auction. The Obama Administration would not exist were it not for the disgust, exasperation and contempt of the American people for what Republicanism, as practiced, not preached, did to reduce the welfare of the American State.

Obama, a naive visionary, honestly believed that smooth cool and agile activism would softly persuade the hardcore men in the mean political streets of World politics. That ain't happening baby.

The Russians and the Chinese know that there will not be a third US war in Asia. Not even the Americans could be that reckless, but if they were to be, the Chinese and Russians know that would end America as the great hegemonic.

No miracle is coming to the White House. The Chinese and Russians know that if Obama answers the bell, he is a punched out contender. He can finish a few more rounds, but cannot win the fight.

Russia and China beat the capitalists at their own game.

Be you on the far right or extreme left, take no glee. Make no mirth. History will be justifiably cruel in judging the fools and knaves that set the stage, the enabling stage hands, the supporters, the silent majority, the cheer leaders, that collectively and massively produced the current debacle of an American folly.

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In Face of Sanctions, China Premier Warms to Iran

By MARK LANDLER and EDWARD WONG NY Times
Published: October 15, 2009

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration’s effort to marshal global support for new sanctions against Iran hit another snag on Thursday, when China said it was seeking to increase cooperation and high-level exchanges with Iran, suggesting that it would not support additional punitive measures over Tehran’s nuclear program.

The comments by Prime Minister Wen Jiabao came a day after Russia’s prime minister, Vladimir V. Putin, said that sanctions were “premature” and two days after its foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, said that threatening Iran while talks were under way would be “counterproductive.”

China and Russia are crucial to a muscular sanctions campaign, analysts said, because of their geopolitical and commercial links to Iran and because they have historically resisted sanctions in the United Nations Security Council, where each holds a veto.

But China has a deepening reliance on Iran for energy, and in a meeting with Iran’s first vice president, Mohammed Reza Rahimi, in the Great Hall of the People, Mr. Wen emphasized cooperation between the countries in energy and trade and greater coordination in international affairs, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

Obama administration officials said they had long viewed China as being even more reluctant than Russia to act against Iran. China and Russia often act in unison, the officials said, with China typically following Russia’s lead in Security Council deliberations.

Still, the administration pointed to a recent statement signed by the two countries, as well as the United States, Britain, France and Germany, that threatened Iran with “consequences” if it did not negotiate over its nuclear program. Those countries presented the same message to Iran at talks in Geneva on Oct. 1.

Speaking of the Iranians, Ben Rhodes, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said, “They’ve heard directly in those meetings in Geneva that all the parties involved expect them to take action.”

The administration was also buoyed by what it viewed as a shift in Russia’s position when President Dmitri A. Medvedev said after a meeting with President Obama at the United Nations last month that “sanctions rarely lead to positive results, but sometimes, sanctions are inevitable.” He reiterated his views to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in Moscow on Tuesday, American officials said.

Yet some analysts said the administration should pay more attention to the first part of Mr. Medvedev’s statement than to the second. Russia has always had little faith in the value of sanctions, and his statement reaffirmed that skepticism.

“The administration overreacted to Medvedev’s comments,” said David J. Kramer, a trans-Atlantic fellow at the German Marshall Fund. “Putin’s comments are the ones to focus on. And I would bet that Lavrov made sure his comments were in sync with Putin’s.”

The latest statements from Russia and China appear to expose a rift with the United States about how to press Iran in the negotiations. The United States wants to back up diplomacy with a credible threat of sanctions; Russia and China believe such an approach would backfire by pushing Iran into a corner.

China will continue to play a “constructive role” in finding a peaceful solution, according to Xinhua. Russia says the focus should be solely on diplomacy.

On Monday, Iranian officials will meet in Vienna with officials of several countries to discuss details of an accord reached in Geneva to ship most of Iran’s publicly declared stockpile of lightly enriched uranium to Russia, where it would be further enriched. It would then be returned to Iran, where it would fuel a research reactor in Tehran.

Iranian officials were in Beijing to attend a meeting of a regional security group that includes China and Russia. China has used the group to strengthen its ties.

This week, Mr. Wen and Mr. Putin attended the signing of a framework agreement by a state-run Chinese energy company and Gazprom of Russia to potentially build two pipelines carrying natural gas from Siberia to China.

China’s rapid growth has forced it to look at many foreign nations for energy. It sees Iran as a large provider of oil, and has ignored Western calls for sanctions or withdrawing business from other resource-rich nations.

It imports half its oil from the Middle East, and those shipping routes are secured by the United States. It will have to balance its desire to lock up energy supplies with its interest in ensuring those supplies can be shipped to China.

“The question is whether they can do this skillfully, because they haven’t been playing this global game for decades,” said Jon B. Alterman, the Middle East program director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.


Mark Landler reported from Washington, and Edward Wong from Beijin

33 comments:

  1. For you economic wonks, here is a masterful explanation of the "carry trade."

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  2. China may be relatively new to the "Global" game, but they're playing like "Grand Masters."

    Good little video on th "carry trade."

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  3. Oil continues to rally. Looks like it might open around $78.00 in the morning. Gasoline jumped $0.08/gal, today.

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  4. I don't think you want to see oil go over Eighty Dollars/barrel, right now.

    It seems like of all the Global Players the U.S. Leadership seems the most oblivious to the developing energy danger.

    It's hard to belive, but I'm beginning to think they really don't "know."

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  5. A really strong leader might tell Russia, and China, "Look, you're not doing yourselves, or Iran any favors, here. We're going to blast their weapons facility all to hell if we're forced to. The only way you can stop it is get on board. If the shit hits the fan, who knows what will happen to those oilfield you so much lust after.

    But, I'm beginning to think that Obama doesn't even know where the "button" is, much less how to screw up the courage to use it.

    Wow. wotta bunch of Maroons.

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  6. There's an awful lot of bad shit coming together all at once, here.

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  7. "A really strong leader might tell Russia, and China, "Look, you're not doing yourselves, or Iran any favors, here. We're going to blast their weapons facility all to hell if we're forced to."

    Ain't going to happen. Obama can't get the political support to keep two wars going much less three.

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  8. rufus said...
    "I don't think you want to see oil go over Eighty Dollars/barrel, right now."
    ---
    Obama could take credit for it as his latest idea for Stimulatin the Economy.

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  9. "There may be more time on the Iranian nuclear clock than some analysts had feared. The fuel stock that the Iranians have worked so hard to produce might damage their centrifuges if they try to enrich it into a bomb. Making a deal with Iran to enrich nuclear fuel outside the country makes sense, so long as the international community can monitor where and how it's used -- and learn whether there's a secret stash."

    Washington Post

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  10. There is no "facility" there are over 350 aim points in a dispersed program.

    That's the "challenge".

    These boys are not Saddam, it is not 1981.

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  11. Iran will own the "full" cycle, as is their right under the NPT.

    There is no getting around that.
    Whether monitors could keep them from developing a weapons capacity, that'd depend upon the monitors, wouldn't it.

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  12. There is no military answer to the problem of Iran developing their own nuclear industry.

    Just because the military is our best tool, still does not mean a hammer can be used when a wrench is required.

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  13. A really strong leader might tell Russia, and China, "Look, you're not doing yourselves, or Iran any favors, here. We're going to blast their weapons facility all to hell if we're forced to. The only way you can stop it is get on board. If the shit hits the fan, who knows what will happen to those oilfield you so much lust after."

    McCrazy might have done that. Obama, no way.

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  14. Iran will come to terms with Russia and China on a monitoring regime, while the US stammers and refuses to speak with the Iranians, frozen out of the negotiations.

    A final agreement presented as a fait acompli by the IAEA, Mr Putin and the Charlie Chi-com collective.

    Charlie may even provide the monitors.

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  15. The nuclear genie has been out of the bottle since the Rosenbergs, you can't stuff it back in, sanctions don't work, all you can do is retaliate with an array of ICBMs and air and sub-launched MIRVs when Iran fires their wobbly Little-Boy type device at Tel Aviv.

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  16. I think a serious sanctions program could work. Forced divestiture by US companies of any interest in any company doing business with Iran.
    That'd be a serious move.

    The US divesting from the World Bank over the water project in Iran.
    That'd be a serious move.

    The US taking serious action, actions that had far ranging economic consequence, both predicted and unforetold, that'd be something we could do.

    But we will not.
    Not under Mr Bush and President Obama he will not tread there, either.

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  17. I think a serious sanctions program could work.

    It might, but it would have to be really really serious.

    I just don't see it in the cards, alas.

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  18. Anonymous said: Miss T you give me nightmares.

    Not all of us can be like MLD, who gives you nice dreams.

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  19. Nice post....good prose....
    ---------------------------------
    Be you on the far right or extreme left, take no glee. Make no mirth. History will be justifiably cruel in judging the fools and knaves that set the stage, the enabling stage hands, the supporters, the silent majority, the cheer leaders, that collectively and massively produced the current debacle of an American folly.

    That makes me glad I only had the part of an "extra."
    __________________________________

    Robert Kagan, writing in the Atlantic, says that the Nobel Prize could backfire on Obama. Throughout the rougher parts of the whirled, Obama will be seen as weak. Being associated with the likes of Jimmy Carter doesn't help either.
    _________________________________

    Whit, writing at the EB says that President Obama is feted by the elites while being dissed by the dangerous.

    Watch, he's gonna have to "bust a cap" on somebody. The question is: Who will it be? He shows a tendency to humiliate our former allies while kissing up to an assortment of thugs.
    ___________________________________

    I am hearing reports about the Baucus version of Health Care Reform. For the 85% of us who currently have insurance, Baucus will cost about $2k per year more than what we currently pay. Baucus also advances a slew of new taxes. Pay go, doncha know?

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  20. EXCLUSIVE: Obama loosens missile technology controls to China

    Bill Gertz INSIDE THE RING

    President Obama recently shifted authority for approving sales to China of missile and space technology from the White House to the Commerce Department -- a move critics say will loosen export controls and potentially benefit Chinese missile development.

    The president issued a little-noticed "presidential determination" Sept. 29 that delegated authority for determining whether missile and space exports should be approved for China to Commerce Secretary Gary Locke.

    Commerce officials say the shift will not cause controls to be loosened in regards to the export of missile and space technology.

    Eugene Cottilli, a spokesman for Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security, said under new policy the U.S. government will rigorously monitor all sensitive exports to China.

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  21. UN votes to endorse Gaza report
    BBC News - ‎28 minutes ago‎

    The UN human rights body has endorsed a report into Israel's offensive in Gaza which accuses both Israel and Palestinian militants of war crimes.

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  22. You see, fellas, it is all about the quality of the monitoring.

    Besides, the Clintons and Loral have already sold Charlie Chi-com all the tech he need to kill satellites, in space.

    They, too, can hit a bullet with a bullet.

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  23. Quick Calif Facts:

    California tallies 12% of the population of the USA, but accounts for 33% of the welfare caseload!

    California is losing 3,000 citizens/week to places like Colorado, Arizona, and Nevada.
    (few of these people are in the aforementioned welfare demographic, many of whom are those who pay the taxes for said social welfare programs)

    Unemployment hovers around 40% in agricultural areas devastated by the Government imposed drought.

    The State Budget and Calpers (largest retirement fund in the World) are both in dire straits.

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  24. Just how crazy are the Iranisns, on a scale of 1 to 10? Are they really nuts? Or rather their leadership, are they really nuts? Because it certainly seems so, reading some of the articles about Ahmadinejad and the others. It would seem that allowing these people to get nuclear weapons is a major mistake, if they are taken at their word. I don't know. Man, it seems like this is a bad bad situation.

    Sanctions, maybe, but ptobably not, if they are really crazy. If they are really crazy sanctions wouldn't stop them. The USA under Obama won't stop them. That leaves Israel. And soon.

    Man, this is a bad situation.

    And here I thought the purpose of life was to get a place for everyone, a decent place for everyone, so we can sit around and talk about it. Talk about this truly remarkable experience of just being. Of just being here.

    Instead we seem to just be getting sucked down into a whirling drain.

    The Israelis are under some real pressure. Man what a horrible situation for bibi.

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  25. Col. Richard Kemp, the former commander of British forces in Afghanistan addressed the UN session, and said that based on his knowledge and experience, during Operation Cast Lead, the IDF "did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in a combat zone than any other army in the history of warfare."

    Speaking on behalf of UN Watch, an independent Geneva human rights group, Kemp added that "Israel did so while facing an enemy that deliberately positioned its military capability behind the human shield of the civilian population."

    He said that Hamas, like Hizballah, was expert at driving the media agenda.

    "Both will always have people ready to give interviews condemning Israeli forces for war crimes," he said. "They are adept at staging and distorting incidents."

    "It is the automatic, Pavlovian presumption by many in the international media, and international human rights groups, that the IDF are in the wrong, that they are abusing human rights," continued Kemp. "The truth is that the IDF took extraordinary measures to give Gaza civilians notice of targeted areas, dropping over 2 million leaflets, and making over 100,000 phone calls. Many missions that could have taken out Hamas military capability were aborted to prevent civilian casualties."

    He also noted that during the conflict, the IDF took risks by allowing huge amounts of humanitarian aid into Gaza, saying that to the military tactician, delivering aid virtually into your enemy's hands is "normally quite unthinkable."

    "War is chaos and full of mistakes," added the former commander who has served with NATO and the United Nations; commanded troops in Northern Ireland, Bosnia and Macedonia; and participated in the Gulf War. "There have been mistakes by the British, American and other forces in Afghanistan and in Iraq, many of which can be put down to human error. But mistakes are not war crimes."

    He stressed that the civilian casualties were a consequence of Hamas' way of fighting, saying the terror group deliberately tried to sacrifice their own civilians.

    "Israel had no choice apart from defending its people, to stop Hamas from attacking them with rockets," he concluded.

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  26. The Israelis are under some real pressure. Man what a horrible situation for bibi.


    Israel is already on the ground in Iran...

    And you wonder WHY Iran keeps having problems?

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  27. Interest little piece on the Carry Trade. It highlights again for me on just how much speculative cash is sloshing about in the world. So much cash that actual trade between nations doesn't even factor in that monologue on currency valuations.

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  28. This is the list of those great UN nations that are endorsing the Goldstone report

    Argentina
    Bahrain
    Bangladesh
    Bolivia
    Brazil
    Chile
    China
    Cuba
    Djbouti
    Egypt
    Ghana
    India
    Indonesia
    Jordan
    Mauritius
    Nicaragua
    Nigeria
    Pakistan
    Philippines
    Qatar
    Russia
    Saudi Arabia
    Senegal
    South Afrivca
    Zambia

    Should i vomit now or later?

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  29. "I think a serious sanctions program could work. Forced divestiture by US companies of any interest in any company doing business with Iran.
    That'd be a serious move."


    If Iran wants nuclear weapons they will get them. In the end, sanctions are equivalent to the military option in results. It merely delays the inevitable. Ms. T as usual is right. The only thing that will stop Iran from using the bomb when they get it is the 2000 + bombs we have and the 200 + bombs Israel has.

    The really dangerous aspect of all this is the iumage of weakness associated with the Big O. Some may judge that it takes a lot more balls to launch a missile than the take out three pirates.

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