U.S. Leads World In Foreign Weapons Sales – Report – NYTimes.com

Citing a congressional study released on Friday, the Times said the United States was involved in 68.4 percent of the global sales of arms.

U.S. weapons sales jumped nearly 50 percent in 2008 despite the global economic recession to $37.8 billion from $25.4 billion the year before.

The jump defied worldwide trends as global arms sales fell 7.6 percent to $55.2 billion in 2008, the report said. Global weapons agreements were at their lowest level since 2005. (via U.S. Leads World In Foreign Weapons Sales - Report - NYTimes.com).

US in the Post WW2 world

In South East Asia from 1950-1975, Israel from the 1960 onwards and now in Iraq, Afghanistan, the US has been the in the middle of most expensive conflicts (measured in terms of lives lost) in post WW2 world.

This model of international relations is something that needs to change. The poor in this world has not become much safer, seen more democratic or significantly more richer. What justification does this policy have - apart from "I have muscles and can you stop me from flexing them" logic?

Gold - a non-military solution

As I see it, there are two simple solutions. One - everyone who disagrees with (or even if you are worried about the economic consequences of) the US foreign policy should go out and buy gold. This will surely trigger a collapse of the US dollar. Just a 100,000 people buying a 100gm of of gold in the next 1 year will trigger the dollar collapse.

Drill for oil

The second solution will need more time and will need co-operation foron the BRIC Governments. The BRIC Governments must go out and drill oil wells all over the developing world. The collapse in oil prices will remove the petro-dollar funding of the US and simultaneously eliminate /reduce the trade deficit of the developing world.

Reclaiming America’s Soul - NYTimes.com

For the fact is that officials in the Bush administration instituted torture as a policy, misled the nation into a war they wanted to fight and, probably, tortured people in the attempt to extract “confessions” that would justify that war. And during the march to war, most of the political and media establishment looked the other way.

For the fact is that officials in the Bush administration instituted torture as a policy, misled the nation into a war they wanted to fight and, probably, tortured people in the attempt to extract “confessions” that would justify that war. And during the march to war, most of the political and media establishment looked the other way.

It’s hard, then, not to be cynical when some of the people who should have spoken out against what was happening, but didn’t, now declare that we should forget the whole era — for the sake of the country, of course. (via Op-Ed Columnist - Reclaiming America’s Soul - NYTimes.com).

Paul Krugman in his true and real colours

I liked this Op-Ed peice by Paul Krugman. It shows him in his best colours - as a hypocrite, psuedo-moralist, with patently false concerns.

His concern is about the use of torture or 3rd degree methods, in a nation that "used to be, a nation of moral ideals". He wants to do this "not just for the sake of our position in the world, but for the sake of our own national conscience".

Much before the elections it was clear that all the three candidates were on the same side. Their wrangling was all a wrangling for the spoils of power.

A simple question?

Who exactly did the US of A use torture against? Reading Krugman, you cannot ever make-out that the victims were NOT American citizens.

Squeamish, or evasive? Or just a plain affliction of false delicacy? Krugman, you are not being escapist, are you? No "I" word at all. God forbid, but Krugman does not mention, not once - Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Islam, Muslim. Not even once. Good fer ya, Paul!

Krugman signing off ...

what we really should do for the sake of the country is have investigations both of torture and of the march to war. These investigations should, where appropriate, be followed by prosecutions — not out of vindictiveness, but because this is a nation of laws. We need to do this for the sake of our future. For this isn’t about looking backward, it’s about looking forward — because it’s about reclaiming America’s soul.

Says Krugman!

I dont know much about 'investigations,' 'America's Soul,' or 'the nations of laws' - but what I know is that the Rest of the World should do something about a rampant American gone horribly wrong.

And the answers are simple

Just do two things.

Go out and buy gold. If all the readers of this blog bought one kg of gold, the US dollar (and all other paper currency systems) will crash. Phoooos! Yes that the sound of escaping air from the punctured dollar.

Second!

Just stop drinking Pepsi and Coke - and dont step into a McDonald's. If Coke and Pepsi sales in China, India, Brazil and Russia collapsed, it will start a domino effect.

Just this!

Living in a timeless world

Dreamers of the Day: A Novel (Hardcover) by Mary Doria Russell (Author)

Mary Doria Russell’s fiction has always dealt with power and the search for elusive lands as a means to further it. … For her fourth book, Dreamers of the Day, Russell shifts her gaze to the Middle East, specifically to the 1921 Cairo Peace Conference where a group of high-profile Europeans met to decide the fate of the region in the aftermath of the First World War. The reader’s guide along this fascinating trip is Agnes Shanklin, a 40-year-old spinster who lives the staid life of a schoolteacher in Cleveland, until she lands a huge pie of inheritance money. (via Living in a timeless world).

This book is, seemingly, a lot like Midshipman Mr.Easy by Captain Marryat - which set out to white wash slavery. This book by Mary Doria Russell seems to be another such book - going by reviews. The carving of the Middle East after WW1 by the victorius allied powers, a disgruntled Russia and straw figures selected by the likes of TE Lawrence and Gertrude Bell to misrule over the Middle East - and now propped up by the US.

Maybe, somebody should remind Mary Doria Russell about the real people who are paying a price of the Cairo Conference.