This week, the Syrian conflict “celebrated” its second anniversary or entered its third year as you prefer. In keeping with our title, the former fits best. In any case, I chose Syrian conflict because we do not know what it is anymore.
What began as an Arab Spring uprising along with Tunisia, Egypt & Libya that saw Bacher El-Assad try the old army in your face social justice trick has devolved. The civilian fight for rights is now but a part of a civil war that includes Islamist factions intent on taking over. Russia stands by its old arms client while China ponders and so, no one has jurisdiction to intervene. If both are a bit responsible, Iran is by far the most double dealing of the international gang, supporting Assad but also Islamists.
Just to give an idea, neighbouring Lebanon with its myriad of communities suffered a 15 + years civil war that is not definitively solved and the UN Peacekeepers there have more political orders than tactical ones. It is increasingly menaced by the Syrian government that sees fighters resting there and coming back to fight it. One thing for sure, poor Lebanon has refugees from the quagmire to the North-East and that is to be lauded! And as long as we bring back historical data, Lebanon was attacked and endangered many times by Syria and not vice-versa. Even the Hezbollah has been keeping a low profile so just shut up already Bacher, please.
The forgotten deal is that the population is suffering which can be reviewed in that usual excellent pictorial in the Denver post :
http://photos.denverpost.com/2013/03/15/photos-syrian-uprising-reaches-second-anniversary/
France and the UK have asked for Europe and the International Community as a whole to allow arming the rebels. They went as far as to say that they would anyhow.
It was a delayed choice to do so due to the fear that the armament would end up elsewhere : Mali, Iraq, Israel or even Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE or heck why not Iran. Mali is highly improbable thanks to the efficiency demonstrated by the French since more weapons are being retrieved than exported or imported right now. Iraq is a given though and after that all are possible if not likely.
( Chances are the biggest worry is acquisition by China whose arms programs are apparently run by Xerox or another photocopy giant. We’ll come back to it. )
There is such a thing as traceability nowadays though. Although the systems can surely be tempered with, arms can carry tagging devices and thus be found say by GPS. Besides, it would not have become necessary had a plan been devised which had stopped the massacre. Under present circumstances . . .
Iran is not only in the news for its handling of the Syrian crisis but also for having threatened to down US drones. The USA has drones flying over international waters of the highly contentious Persian Gulf in order to monitor Iran’s activities. It so happens that an interview with American President Barack Obama this week revealed that the Nuclear Program in Iran has been found to require about a year to lead to weapons-grade materials. This is of interest to geo-politics as A- the deadline is now fixed and B- when a leader publicly says 14 months, it means action will likely begin in less than 9 or 10. Why? Because you do not want to start at the last minute nor to reveal your intentions so that actual intervention in the matter will necessarily be taken before then.
The reason Iran is so edgy about the Gulf is that it serves to deliver a hefty chunk of the world’s oil and, on account of the sanctions imposed on it, not much of Iran’s own black gold? In this view, Gwadar’s terminal in Pakistan to be used by China coupled with plans for pipelines are actually good news. Apart from respect of the sanctions themselves, if that alleviates some Iranian woes, it would make them less frisky on the Ormuz Strait? To be followed.
A little more to the East we have Pakistan which had a hard week of terrorist attacks. It did have worst but let me again say that for all the signs read as duplicity on their part, mostly that of State Intel agency ISI, this country pays one of, if not the, worst price around for aiming at an Islamic State but not an Islamist one! Good luck, my brothers and shame on the regular name-callers that don’t know their stuff past scaring their constituents to look busy as they cannot even agree to save their country’s ass from Sequester and guns.
Yet some more East is Beijing. There’s been a slew of snippets from China’s capital, this week.
Butchers accused of selling tainted pork.
http://english.people.com.cn/90882/7690878.html
Thousands of dead pigs were found floating in Shanghai’s river.
http://english.people.com.cn/90882/8170212.html
Which apart from showing how few fishermen use its shore for then it would have been noticed sooner, does rime tongue-in-cheek with this :
http://english.people.com.cn/90882/8166255.html
And more pigs in the river?
http://english.people.com.cn/90882/8170214.html
Ok, maybe the fact that government cannot link 8k dead swines in a river to 6 butchers selling chemicals-laden pigs to 46 people selling contaminated porks may not be double face double entendre and just a stereotype of bad administration, still… you’re having more trouble with that animal than Muslims and Jews combined, are you not? Just sayin’ … 😎
On nicer news, the President Xi Jinping ( replacing Hu Jintao ) and Prime Minister Li Keqiang were confirmed by the CCP in their respective roles. You had to know this was coming, of course.
It allowed a phone call with France’ François Hollande and this :
http://english.people.com.cn/90883/8170016.html
I could have actually let that one pass as not so morally ambivalent in itself but, if the reminder that France was the first country to recognize New China fifty years ago is bearable, the phrasing :
“… both France and China, as permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, advocate multipolarity of the world …” had me link to a two-face moniker that always bugs me, includes China and had evaded my wrath-filled contempt ( or contempt-filled wrath, again, as you prefer dear readers 😉 ). Namely BRICS.
BRICS as my readers may remember is the acronym for Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa.
It represents the future of a multi-polar world as explained in Hollande’s quote above. I have a qualm with that, honestly. The Russia and China part is so little representative of “the rest of the World”! Both have permanent seats on the United Nations’ Security Council that allow them to veto International actions for Pete’s sake? Whom are we kidding? Want to compare that with Surinam or Belize? The others, OK but those two? France may be in fact the West’s opening to multipolarity which will necessitate an analysis in a coming post but in all truth, China and Russia are only going through transitional phases and that does not reduce them to also ran status.
Funny then that O’Neill, Jim, the perpetrator of the term, chose this week to predict that the Euro currency will not endure past 2020? Tssssk, hush mate, there might be people listening that will take you up later on that … too?
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/03/14/business/oneill-ambrosetti-marketplace-europe/index.html?section=money_news_international&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fmoney_news_international+%28International+News%29
And to cap it off, since the Euro is the money of Europe, this shows the useful side of subtle half-truths of light honest content :
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-21812161
Chuck Hagel, the American Secretary of Defense has stated that the global coverage of Europe by a US missile shield will not be implemented due to ” development problems and funding cuts. ”
If you liked our title and want double face to be found, just open the link and check the side bar blue title on : “US to boost Alaska missile defence“.
Still, I cannot blame Hagel or the USA. If anything, this comes right before the French military programmation law and should entice them to keep budgets up. But France is with the UK a good contributor to European defence as seen in Mali. The rest of … no, not the world .. gang on the old continent should catch the drift? America has important military procurement headaches and it would be as good a move to alleviate those by confining them to a National level for the Yanks as it would be to finally have the locals take care of their own bugs. WW II is of the last century and the future is tomorrow, like?
And to ( post- ) conclude on track, is it not peculiar, even preposterous that China’s newspapers mention : ” Loopholes for rich make estate tax meaningless.” ???
http://english.people.com.cn/90778/8168259.html
Not to nitpick but how about the aforementioned contender? In the USA, the 400 richest folks own more wealth than the lowest 100 . . . millions?
http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html
So sorry China but wait your turn on that one, OK?
And for all people with more honest takes and lower means, good day gang, Tay.
Definitive Lapse of Reason 
Hello Tay, I like this — a lot — after only a quick read. One to go back to for a thorough read.