Thursday, July 9, 2009

Bush Lite 1.0

I am not sure how long will people will carry on giving Barack Obama the benefit of a doubt? I mean I can understand the main stream media is quite happy to dance to the drums covering every inch of their wardrobe and how cute as a couple the Obamas are and that's because people are dumb enough not to look through the fog white meaningless noise and filter it out. Not a lot (if any!) is being reported about what Obama is actually doing on the ground which is so far not much different than George Bush! I would say he is a Bush Lite version 1.0! Yes, the language is considerably different but the outcome is pretty much the same. Look on what is going on internally and externally and tell me what's the difference. Domestically, he has given billions of Dollars to Wall Street and he is pulling together a very complicated health care "reform" bill that would make it even more complicated for ordinary citizens to understand and I'm sure with bunch of lobbyist around, this bill will be dis-armed of any real benefits to ordinary citizens. Internationally, he is pulling out the cities and will stay outside which in other words were the oil fields are to protect "American interests". On the Israeli-Palestinian front, he has done almost nothing different than what Bush was doing. To give you an example, in his Cairo speech a few weeks ago, Obama said "the US does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements", note the work "continued" which means what happened so far is good and you can keep but future ones will not be considered legit. So if the Israelis want to play along and show some good will, they will now simply issue building permits of a finished building for the future settlements that are planned and in a few years time will build these! that's it. Business as usual folks!

Friday, June 26, 2009

I'm Back!

It's been almost five months since I last blogged...I know...I was just too busy or perhaps too lazy to blog.

Well, in the past few months, I have invested a lot of time and effort on preparing and passing two important professional exams. The last one I passed a couple of days ago. I still have one more exam that I'm planning to take but not in the summer. I will take a well deserved break.

A lot has happened in the world in the past few months and I have come across a lot of issues that I wanted to talk about yet never had the time to do so. I will try to address these from now on piece by piece.

I will be back soon.

Saturday, January 31, 2009

Provincial Elections, Obama and the Future of Iraq

It will be interesting to see the outcome of the provincial elections that took place in Iraq earlier today. I am not very optimistic about it considering the short history of the absolutely corrupt and dysfunctional political and governmental system in Iraq coupled with a largely ignorant, religiously brain-washed, non-patriotic people. I expect that the majority of the political parties will keep a strong hold on the majority of the representation in these provincial elections not because of the massive electoral votes but owing to the fact that these parties without a shadow of a doubt will do ANYTHING to win in these elections whether it was legal or not!

I would like to zoom out a bit here and talk about other issues/factors that come into play on the back of these elections. these are;

1-First and foremost is Iran! Iran is pulling the strings behind the scenes in Iraq on ALL levels! The US, having screwed it up big time after the invasion, paved the way for Iran to be the most influential power in Iraq, in fact so powerful, even the US can't stand up to Iran in Iraq and they know it. Now, with Obama at the steering wheel, this fact counts and it's one of the major reasons the US is going to pull out because they (the US) lost the covert war to Iran in Iraq. Now let me get this straight, the US is NOT going to pull out of Iraq literally for Iran to take absolute control of Iraq and it's resources, they won't do that and they also can't politically afford to keep their troops in Iraq for much longer so what are their options? well, showmanship aside is to sit and talk to Iran about how to split the winnings in Iraq! huh! interesting isn't it? after all the trash talk show by Ahmadinejad and the very aggressive responses from the US so far but it is the most logical way ahead. I know many of you will sat that this is just nonsense but I beg to differ on this one! How the Iraq pie is going to be split is more of an unknown for me but I can see a reduced pressure on Iran from now on whilst the US negotiates with Iran on long term goals and interests in Iraq and that's exactly where Iran wants the US to be.

2-Another interesting thing about this elections is what's going to happen next and I think that this election is the first step towards the disintegration of what used to be Iraq into three smaller states. Why? because Iraqis, ordinary ones, will vote again along sectarian lines which will, most probably, lead to the same combination of parties in power. This of course is better for the US as well cause it is easier for the US to deal with three smaller and shaky states than one unified and stronger state especially when the powers that be in these three smaller fractions will be bending far backwards and will do anything to stay in power and keep things the way they are for them and knowing how scared each one of these smaller states will be from the other two will make this a whole lot easier, don't you think?

3-One of the other things that is worth mentioning is how clever the Iranians have been in playing their cards in Iraq. They got Al Hakeem, whom is their strongest and favorite boy but to keep their ducks in a row so to speak, they got Al Maliki fighting with Al Hakeem for more power and influence and to keep things even more interesting, they got Al Sadr as the Joker card that they chose not to use for the time being against either or both just because they don't need to! So we now have both Al Hakeem and Al Maliki literally struggling to prove their allegiance to Iran and don't be fooled by the recent nationalistic gestures that Al Maliki has shown recently. It's all tricks to get more of his followers elected to the provincial councils and prove to Iran that he is the man that get things done.

4-The Kurds will "eventually" get what they want thanks to the increasing US satisfaction with their continuing and persisting expression of "unlimited loyalty" and for the record, the Kurds are their most loyal allies in Iraq from the US point of view since they have no Iraqi nationalistic or Arab or patriotic inclinations what so ever coupled with no religious dogmatism. This makes the Kurds the perfect partner for the US. Let's not forget the fact that they also are working really hard on improving their relations with the Israelis and Jews starting with the Talibani's son, Qabad!

5-The Sunnis have lost it! they are today weaker than they ever were. Thanks to their political naivety, disorganization and just plain stupidity. I won't be surprised if they lost the Speaker of the Parliament position
(the only relevant government position) cause the other political powers now know how divided and weak they are. They will definitely get the shortest end of the stick if you know what I mean!

Saturday, January 17, 2009

On Obama's Inauguration

On the occasion of imminent Obama inauguration celebrations, I couldn't help but remember a video by the great George Carlin. So to all the optimistic people in America and the rest of the the world in particular, you folks are in for a big disappointment! Why? cause I believe that whoever won the elections and will become the president means almost nothing to US foreign and domestic policies. Just take a look at the appointments that Obama has made so far and you will know why! Enjoy!

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Naomi Klein

I just finished reading Naomi Klein's book (The Shock Doctrine) and this book is one of the best books about economy I have read for quite some time. It talks about how international corporation (or local corporations sometimes) take advantage of people's shock to pass regulations that gives these corporations access to resources that they can never get their hands on under normal circumstances. It also explains what happened in Iraq when Paul Bremer almost put Iraq for sale back in 2004 and gives examples of how big corporations take advantage of poor third world countries and drive their shaken economies into the mud. Anyway, a great read for anybody who is interested in the way global corporations do business around the world.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

The Financial Crisis-A Video Worth Watching

I have come across this video (copy link below into your address bar). I certainly have read a lot of stuff that agrees and confirm the contents of this video so I strongly recommend it to anybody whom is interested in the reasons behind the global financial crisis and the reasons behind it. Having said that, I am not saying that everything in the video is absolutely true but it certainly makes a lot of sense. One last advice, this is kinda heavy material so make sure that you have two hours of free time to watch and also try to keep an open mind as some of the concepts and issues presented are certainly challenging, Enjoy!

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7065205277695921912&ei=JN0gSceQPKeKqQPS6r2xBw&q=zeitgeist+addendum&hl=en

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Obama

So, as I was hoping, Obama is now the president elect! I tried to get excited but couldn't! why? you'll need to read my previous blog. I got excited for a little while watching people, ordinary Americans, crying of joy when they heard the news of Obama's win. I also felt sorry for Obama because at this time of economical uncertainty all over the world and especially in the US, Obama, I believe, is being looked at as the savior, the hero who will save the day and save all the ordinary and poor Americans. They are doing so cause they want to hold on to something, anything, anybody and a man as charismatic and intelligent as Obama is certainly a great choice if not the only choice.

I hope the American people wise up a bit and be more realistic of what Obama can achieve. Yes, he seems to be a decent man, certainly smart and charismatic and, in hindsight, examining the way he ran his presidential campaign makes me confident that he knows what he is doing.

So let me do some forecasting here, Obama, pumped up with patriotism as all good old Americans usually do, will be looking at one thing and one thing only, SERVING AMERICAN INTERESTS ALL OVER THE WORLD! and what does that mean, the world will have to pay for that! and believe me, there are many ways in which the world will pay to bail the US out of the hole that the good old boys in the US government and corporate America have dug for themselves and for the rest of the world first!

I don't want to sound negative about the "voice for change" that everybody is hearing these days but let's not forget that most of us spend too much time on the last twenty-four hours and too little on the last six thousand years! don't you think so?