UN high-level politics and how to simplify things....

This must be the picture of the month, if not of the year.

Addressing the UN General Assembly this week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu illustrated his concerns over Iran's nuclear ambitions, with a complex drawing.

I thought the US hit the UN's intellectual bottom when they came up with their fabricated evidence of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, back in 2002. But Netanyahu showed one could go lower. (Full story)

Story filed under #KinderGardens and #HowToAddressWorldLeaders


Picture courtesy AP/Richard Drew

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So why did the West push for South Sudan's independence?

75% of the oil reserve in Sudan, perhaps 6.5 billion barrels, is located in South Sudan (Source).

Since the "second" Sudan war between the North and South started in 1983, an estimated 2 million civilians were killed, and at least 4 million were displaced at least once.

During the war, aid agencies set up one of the largest, most costly and complex humanitarian relief operations ever, "Operation Lifeline Sudan", running a "relief pipeline" from Kenya (and partially Uganda) into the South. An operation which was often criticised as "fueling the conflict".

True or not, I guess "Operation Bulletline Sudan" fueled the conflict much more: While Russia -mostly through proxies- and China -mostly thru "oil-for-bullets" deals- made good business of arms deals with the North, the "West" kept "an extensive arms pipeline" running to the South during the whole conflict.
For years, the world kept their eyes closed, as business was good: selling weapons dearly, and getting cheap oil, I mean, what more can one wish?

This US arms supply to the South continues to run up to this very day, mostly through Kenya, one of the strongest US proxies in the region. Meanwhile, Russia and China continue to supply Khartoum. What will this lead to? An expanded conflict border zone where North and South Sudan dispute oil fields.

Aren't we lucky there is an embargo for selling arms to Sudan?

PS: this map might indicate the oilfields more clearly (Tnx @MFB)

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US, UN and the Taliban: An invitation to dance.

There are no coincidences in life. Certainly not if they concern politics. Once again, UN and US politics have only one letter of difference.

KABUL: The United States and other foreign powers are engaged in preliminary talks with the Taliban about a possible settlement to the near decade-long war in Afghanistan, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Saturday. (Source)

and on the very same day:

The UN Security Council has split the international sanctions regime for the Taliban and al-Qaida to encourage the Taliban to join reconciliation efforts in Afghanistan. (Source)

So, all of a sudden, the Taliban is no longer the arch-rival of neither US, UN or the Afghan government anymore...? All of a sudden, they are not the harbour of terrorism anymore? Is it because the Taliban have become good boys? Starting to behave, and wear suits and ties as they are now become devoted Catholics?

Or might we just have another Vietnam and "Black Hawk Down"-Somalia scenario, where the US is trying everything possible, to bail out of Afghanistan, using no matter what means. After all, why not? "If you can't beat them, you might as well join them (again)", the US will be thinking. What the flip to they care what happens to the country after they leave?

So Mr.USA: after a decade of war in Afghanistan, what will you have accomplished? Did the threat of terrorism get any less? Was the Taliban or Al Qaeda eradicated? Any less threat for another 9/11?
What have you accomplished Mr.USA, apart from having plunged yet another country into disarray, pushed it further down into poverty and insecurity, killing tens of thousands along the way, and causing suffering to zillions more? Did the women's right flourish? Burqa's being massively exchanged for bikini's? Every child now goes to school, and is properly fed? Open freedom of speech? Drug fields completely eradicated? None of the above, Mr.USA, so shame on you.

Shame on you.


Picture courtesy Free Republic

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A historic overview: The US involvement in Iran

Via St Pete for Peace. Discovered via Pros before Hos

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Civilian casualties in Iraq, Afghanistan and 9/11

Putting the amount of innocent victims into perspective...

This also means by invading Iraq and being unable to guarantee civil stability (a responsibility enforced by the Fourth Geneva Convention), the US has directly or indirectly killed more Iraqi civilians than Sadam ever did (989,788 versus about 600,000).


Graph courtesy Prose Before Hos

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Libya and bin Laden,... is the West on a new killing spree?

No matter how horrific the 9/11 attacks were. No matter how repressive the Ghadaffi's regime was - including clusterbombing his own people. Still, we, "the civilized world" should show higher ethics.

And we don't. We use "an eye for an eye" tactics, meeting violence with more violence, having our hate and mass hysteria lead us. That's why I have been upset with the world lately.

I think it is immoral to wildly celebrate the murder of a man, even if he was a criminal brain who killed thousands. The more so as Bin Laden was not a cause. He was a symptom. A symptom of a divided world, mostly caused by decennia of frauded US foreign policy. A policy rooted in expansionism, religious discrimination and a hunger to dominate economically and politically.
Now bin Laden is dead, will the world be a better place? I don't think so.

Even worse, what happens in Libya. I have no respect for a repressive leader. I have no respect for any leader turning his arms against his own people to stay in power. But I also have no respect for an international community who miss-uses a pretty clear Security Council resolution to topple a government. Even if it is a repressive government.
The mandate given by the UN Security Council resolution on Libya (#1970) is very clear: protect civilians under threat of attack, enforce a no-fly zone, an arms embargo and a freeze of assets.
This is not what NATO does. NATO is executing a clear support operation for the "rebels", in their attempt to topple Ghadaffi. And that includes attempts to kill Ghadaffi. And nobody cries foul, because Ghadaffi is the bad guy.

Not even if one of the assassination attempts kills Ghadaffi's 29 year old son, and three of Ghadaffi's grandsons. All younger than 12. Only the West can get away unpunished with killing three young boys without being accused of war crimes.

After toppling the Afghanistan and Iraq regime, it seems we are all too eager to open up new war fronts. Wars to which we know no end. Wars which will lead to years long of human suffering. As in Afghanistan and in Iraq.

I am upset with the West, right now. And sad. Even more so when I see people celebrating the death of a person, when I hear all the joy on Twitter, when I hear all the cries of "This is a good day for the nation, God bless America". Just like "Gott mit Uns", the motto of the German Nazis.

If there is a God, I am sure he does not bless wars. I am sure he does not bless the killing of three small boys. Even if they were the grandsons of a cruel dictator.

Meanwhile innocent civilians are getting slaughtered in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. A civil uprising met with violent repression, very much like the one in Libya. But there... "Sssshhht, don't say a word! They are our allies!".

Despicable, that's all I can say. And we are all guilty of not crying foul.

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Breaking news: Obama is an American Citizen

(to view the video, you might have to first click the "close" button in the top right corner, to close the ad)

For the elite not following the news: Trump and others claimed that Obama was not born in the US, which created a US media hype...
This showed once more there is no end to the hot air US media can sell.

Here is Jon Stewart taking a piss at them all. "This man should run for president!" Love it!

PS: Now the only issues remaining:
- Obama's christianing certificate ("He really is a Muslim")
- Justification for his extensive stay in several Muslim countries ("He really attended a madrasas instead of kindergarten")
- Obama's DNA testing to show he is really who he says he is ("He can't be")
- Media claims that the island of Oahu is actually an independent state, and not part of the US Commonwealth ("See the lawsuit of the Single State of Oahu versus the United States of America, for the protection of the Inherited Pacific Guano Reserves")


Video courtesy MediaIte

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US military hijacks social media

The United States military is developing software that will let it secretly manipulate social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter by using fake online personas to influence Internet conversations and spread pro-American propaganda.

A Californian corporation has been awarded a contract with US Central Command (CENTCOM), which oversees US armed operations in the Middle East and Central Asia, to develop what is described as an "online persona management service" that will allow one US serviceman or woman to control up to 10 separate identities based all over the world.

The project has been likened by Web experts to China's attempts to control and restrict free speech on the Internet. Critics are likely to complain that it will allow the US military to create a false consensus in online conversations, crowd out unwelcome opinions and smother commentaries or reports that do not correspond with its own objectives. (Source)

Original picture courtesy Evan Vucci/AP

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The subjectivity of war hunger

A week ago, it seemed that a military intervention in Libya was far fetched. Less so today.

That raises the question of the norms the international community uses to determine for which countries it should intervene.

If it is:
- use of unreasonable armed force against civilians
- atrocities against civilian population
- instigating civil war
- causing a mass exodus of civilian refugees

... then Israel should have been "invaded" a long time ago, I guess.

Certainly when we think of using internationally banned weapons against civilians and civilian targets (use of white phosphorus in densely populated civilian areas of Gaza), economic sanctions against Israel would have been justified. As well as expelling them from all kinds UN committees, a Security Council condemnation, engaging the ICC to prosecute Israeli government officials, and implementing a no-fly zone over the country...

So what are the prediction when this will all happen? For Libya, probably within the next week. For Israel, probably never.

Ok, but then how about a military intervention in Ivory Coast? Or a no-fly zone above Sudan?


Cartoon courtesy Al Jazeerah

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Predicting revolutions in Arab countries

The Economist predicts which Arab countries are most vulnerable to revolutions...

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Cartoon: Khadaffi's political system

Cartoon courtesy The Dry Bones Blog

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Libya: American Neo-con see opportunities for a new war. (Iiiie-haa..)

In a distinct echo of the tactics they pursued to encourage U.S. intervention in the Balkans and Iraq, a familiar clutch of neo-conservatives appealed Friday for the United States and NATO to "immediately" prepare military action to help bring down the regime of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and end the violence that is believed to have killed well over a thousand people in the past week.

The appeal, which came in the form of a letter signed by 40 policy analysts, including more than a dozen former senior officials who served under President George W. Bush, was organized and released by the Foreign Policy Initiative (FPI), a two-year-old neo-conservative group that is widely seen as the successor to the more-famous – or infamous – Project for the New American Century (PNAC). (Source)

Amongst the co-signees was former Bush Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, in more moderate circles better known for his distinguishly short stint as the president of the Worldbank. While that nomination disgusted anyone with a sound mind, we all danced on his ashes when Old Pal Paul had to resign after it became clear he abused his position to give his girlfriend a highly paid job (within the same poverty-fighting organisation).


Article discovered via Aid News. Cartoon (slightly modified) by Jim Morin, discovered via The English Blog

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Picture of the day: Libya - The last glimpses of a dictatorship?

This deserves a "Picture of the Day" nomination: Saif Gaddafi, son of the infamous Libyan ruler (still is, at the moment of writing), raises a warning finger against his "fellow citizens".. "Bad people, bad bad bad people. You have been naughty. Do you think you can raise against my daddy and me? And daddy has soooo done his best to take of you"...

I wonder what that green stuff is, coming out of his head? Is that the steaming realization that maybe, many many years ago, the interest of the people, a nation and an individual got de-prioritized, and maybe, many many years ago, things started to go?

When would the point be, the point where a ruler mixes up his own interests and those of a nation? When is the corner turned and a ruler starts walking into an endless tunnel of self-preservation, where any measure is justified "for the good of the nation", even if one has to shoot his own citizens, or starve them,...


Picture courtesy Al Jazeera's live blog on Libya

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Wanted: a government for Belgium...

Today, we broke a new world record. Belgium now beats Iraq's record as the country without a new government for the longest period of time since a general election: 249 days. (Source)

Seems the international community cares more than the Belgians themselves. Voices from abroad say we might need an international mediator like ex-Finnish president Ahtisaari to help us out of the impasse... Guess that puts Belgium on the same level as Kosovo...

Cartoon courtesy Toonpool

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How Bush started

For the "whatever" department of quotes...

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Sarah Palin better roll up her sleeves

Sarah Palin reminds me of a Belgian artist many years ago. She competed for the pre-selections of the Eurosong festival, but did not qualify. Nevertheless, she made it as a real TV hit, made good money, and eventually ended up as a politician.

I guess Sarah Palin only made it thus far, as she appeals to hidden sexual fantasies of the middle aged US male electorate.

If women had as few braincells as men all Chippendales'd be senators by now.

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Do governments spend too much on foreign aid?

This video makes me chuckle: Polls show most people think the US government (but that stands for most governments) spends too much on foreign aid. When asked what percentage they think would be appropriate, people all suggested a percentage which was higher than the actual....

Lesson learned: Governments actually spend less on public aid than people think....



The video refers to this study by Pipa.

Video discovered via Examiner

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And yet more Iran election cartoons

The Iran elections seems to be a big hit in the world of cartoons.

More Iran election cartoons on The Road.

Cartoons courtesy Vic Harville, Toles, Taylor Jones (El Nuevo Dia), Steve Benson (Arizona Republic), Robert Ariail (The State), Peter Pismestrovic (Kleine Zeitung), Ole Johansson, Oliver Schopf (Der Standard), Nate Beeler (Washington Examiner), Morland (Times), Mike Luckovich (The Atlanta Journal), John Darkow (Columbia Daily Tribune), Jimmy Margulies (The Record), All Voices, Fritz-Simmons (Arizona Daily Star), The Times, Bob Englehart (The Hartfort Courant), Bill Day (The Commercial Appeal),

Some discovered via Daryl Cagle's Political Cartoonists Index

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The story of Iran - Part III

In view of the recent happenings in Iran, here is the third series of BBC videos on the history of Iran's political relationship with the West.

This series of videos is a BBC documentary the marking the 30th anniversary of the Iranian Revolution. Inside stories are told by two ex-presidents of Iran, Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatami, by two founders of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, and by leading westerners including Secretaries of State George Shultz, Warren Christopher and Madeleine Albright..

Iran and the West - Part I:



Here is the rest of the documentary:
Iran and the West - Part II
Iran and the West - Part III
Iran and the West - Part IV
Iran and the West - Part V
Iran and the West - Part VI

The war in Afghanistan, the invastion of Iraq and the mixture of the Western press and politics. Enjoy...

Videos posted by Ali Sanaei

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The story of Iran - Part II

In view of the recent happenings in Iran, here is the second series of BBC videos on the history of Iran's political relationship with the West.

This series of videos is a BBC documentary showing how militant Islam enjoyed its first modern triumph through Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran in 1979.

The Man Who Changed the World - Part I:



Here is the rest of the documentary:
The Man Who Changed the World - Part II
The Man Who Changed the World - Part III
The Man Who Changed the World - Part IV
The Man Who Changed the World - Part V
The Man Who Changed the World - Part VI

Looking at these video, I am thinking how politics rule the world, with all the rest secondary to this game of chess.

Videos posted by Ali Sanaei

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