India's Greatest Friend

But do we want such a friend?

Iraq War For Oil!

Brave Mr Greenspan? No. Context is everything.

Update: And the funny thing is, he is still lying!

Guilty Unless Proved Innocent

kmp responds to the previous post:

Recklessness rather than intention!?

It means “Guilty unless proved innocent”

It does.

Also found some good rejoinders to Hasan Suroor's uncharacteristically illogical piece on The Hindu's Letters to the Editor:

Debate or denial

Hasan Suroor in the article “Debate or denial: the Muslim dilemma” (July 17) would like Muslims to stop blaming the west for the violence caused by the jihadists. He feels Muslims are in a state of denial. George Bush will agree with the author. While I strongly oppose Al-Qaeda, I cannot overlook the role of the west in the havoc caused in Muslim lands. Wise western leaders such as President Jimmy Carter had opposed any regime change in Muslim countries.

The example of Iran is too obvious where, in 1953, a duly elected Prime Minister, Mossadegh, was overthrown and later killed in a CIA coup. His crime: he opposed the Anglo Iran Oil Company paying more taxes in Britain, and much less royalty to Iran. The reaction eventually led to the theocratic revolution of Khomeini. Similarly Iraq was invaded in spite of worldwide protests and over 6 lakh civilians have died in the war so far. Yet there is hardly any reference to these horrors today. But an unexploded bomb in Glasgow can so disturb Mr. Suroor. Muslims do not need the west to run their own affairs. In particular, they must stop patronising autocratic Muslim rulers. Our true path is independent of both Osama bin Laden and George Bush.

J.S. Bandukwala,

Vadodara

* * *

I agree that the real challenge to Islamic society comes from the despotic regimes of most Muslim countries that are aided and abetted by the west.

Any sensitive person should be angered by the U.S. foreign policy, particularly in Iraq. Everyone cannot be expected to be a mute spectator while a handful of business interests orchestrate war and butchery under false pretexts. It is amply clear from Dr. Mohammed Haneef’s ordeal that the west has a fairly clear cut agenda — if you aren’t in the Salman Rushdie frame of mind you may as well be a terrorist. Terrorism is a natural by-product of the top heavy world order that doesn’t lend an ear to the weak and despairing.

Sanjay Ghosh,
New Delhi

Hasan Suroor's piece flies in the face of facts - all the major terrorist attacks recently (7/7, Madrid train bombings, and the recent UK attempts) are political and mostly in response to the Iraq war, the Palestinian problem, and in general western foreign policy. As for Mr Butt and other 'reformed' extremists, like Mr Suroor himself says:

Arguably, defectors are not the most reliable of people and there is, inevitably, an element of exaggeration in what they say about the organisation they have left and of their own role in it.

You could say that again Mr Suroor.

Money Can't Buy Me Democracy

With apologies to The Beatles. Read this.

As a result of the rampant truancy, the Speaker is contemplating "fining members $400 for every missed session" and replacing absentees. But... there's a problem. "For the proposals to be put in place, a majority of members in Parliament have to be present to pass them."

That's what a trillion dollars buy.

Oil And US

An editorial appeared in The Hindu speculating as to what would happen next after Saddam's execution. It was very clear : After Saddam it will be oil. It predicted:

Now that Saddam Hussein is gone, in the coming weeks and months one can look to see events that will help consolidate oil security for the U.S. Even at the cost of Iraq's balkanisation.

Now we hear:

Iraq's massive oil reserves, the third-largest in the world, are about to be thrown open for large-scale exploitation by Western oil companies under a controversial law which is expected to come before the Iraqi parliament within days.

The US government has been involved in drawing up the law, a draft of which has been seen by The Independent on Sunday. It would give big oil companies such as BP, Shell and Exxon 30-year contracts to extract Iraqi crude and allow the first large-scale operation of foreign oil interests in the country since the industry was nationalised in 1972.

Meanwhile, people continue to draw parallels between what Saddam did and what the US/UK are doing in Iraq today:

If Saddam could be held criminally accountable for torture despite the absence of any written order, any honest court would not think twice before convicting Mr. Bush and Donald Rumsfeld for what went on in Abu Ghraib.

Of course, what Bush has done is far worse in scale. So I would like to think: after Saddam, one gone, one more to go.

Saddam And US

Use and throw.

1 FU = 6 Months

The flat worlder gets his own unit of measurement. The Friedman Unit.