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April 06, 2005

Meanwhile in Other News...

Around the world in…the length of time it takes you to read this

 

 

On China’s Mideast Policy

 

Uncooperative Blogger cites a great article in the Middle East Quarterly about China’s game plan where it concerns the region. It points to dubious deals brokered between the Chinese dictatorship and local regimes to boost China’s standing and economic prowess. One deal according to the article was made with Iran in shortly after Bush won re-election. In the deal Beijing promised not to rat out Tehran to the UN Security Council. The article points to other attempts by China to secure oil for its thirsty and quickly expanding military and industrial centers and to stave off Islamic terrorism within its borders by trading arms – arms likely used against the US and her allies in the Middle East.

 

This of course is a smart move for China for many reasons. Primarily, not only does it secure the resources it needs for solidification and expansion, it builds valuable alliances in the region that help to complicate things for China’s enemy the United States in maintaining a foothold on the region and from tightening the noose slowly closing around the dictatorship.

 

Qian’s open criticism of a central tenet of Bush administration policy reflects the intensity of Beijing’s concern with Washington’s Middle East strategy, which it sees both as advancing the encirclement of China and creating a norm of regime change against undemocratic states. If the Chinese government perceives that Washington is serious about making democratization the centerpiece of U.S. Middle East policy, Beijing will resist it even more intensely, seeing such a policy as an implicit challenge to the Chinese communist party’s legitimacy at home.

 

At the same time China has a deadline. It knows if it doesn’t solidify inwardly and outwardly soon it will face a different struggle from a stronger internal pro-democracy resistance and unrelenting pressure from a well-positioned and wide-awake America. Beijing cannot afford this and fears death-by-freedom for its people.

 

 

Meanwhile, “Syria Urges Unity against Foreign Meddling,” Middle East News reports…

 

Turkey’s leader possibly developing Syria’s relationship:

 

ANKARA - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad hailed his Turkish counterpart's determination to visit Syria despite US displeasure, urging neighbouring countries to step up cooperation against foreign meddling in the region, in an interview with Turkish television broadcast Wednesday.

 

…”Cooperation against foreign meddling in the region.”

 

So in flew the idea: let us look up shall we, this word, “meddle”:

 

med·dle intr.v. med·dled, med·dling, med·dles 1.       To intrude into other people's affairs or business; interfere. See Synonyms at interfere. 2.       To handle something idly or ignorantly; tamper.

 

Once upon a time there was this small Christian country called Lebanon in the times before Syria invaded. And why haven't we heard MSM, the UN or very many others rail against the occupied territories of Lebanon? Things were going well for Syria as long as the soviets ran the only dictatorship being challenged. Now there's a rude light turning on their rats' nest.

 

The article continues and, alas! There is now an anti-dictator conspiracy afoot! But not to worry, Mr. Assad, Beijing wants to help you. And they'd really like to see you and Sezer kiss and make up/out too:

 

Assad told the CNN Turk news channel in Damascus that not only the United States but other countries as well had pressed Ankara to cancel a visit by President Ahmet Necdet Sezer to Syria later this month.

 

And CNN Turk was there to listen…

 

"They started with Iraq, now they are threatening Syria and other countries... They are trying to interfere in Turkey's affairs," he said.

 

Let me hear the violins play something soft and sad.

 

Yet Ass-ad finishes his little rant for his pals at CNN with this piece of horse hockey so large, I’m amazed even CNN swallowed it whole no questions asked, with Middle East News obligingly dropping it into the final line of their story:

 

"If Iraq breaks up, we will pay a very heavy bill. It is difficult even to guess what dangers we may encounter," Assad told CNN Turk.

 

 

Our Neighbor the Banana Republic

 

Matt Drudge gives us the latest from down in Margaritaville. In case any of us were actually buying into the malarkey coming out of the mainstream media, the Bush administration and Vicente Fox’s office, Mexico today is as it always has been (minus perhaps a few million scaredy-cat runaways who weren’t man-enough to stick around and fix things).

 

(Mostly) From the Reuters article, “Radio Journalist Shot on U.S.-Mexico Border” (pay no attention to the headline which makes it sound as if the reporter had been shot by one of those Minutemen in Arizona that even though it didn't happen here reminds us that Republican guns kill):

 

MEXICO CITY, April 6 (Reuters) - A radio reporter in Nuevo Laredo on Mexico's border with Texas was in serious condition after being shot several times by an unknown gunman, the latest journalist to be attacked along the border in recent months.   Guadalupe Garcia Escamilla, 39, was hit by nine bullets as she arrived at Radio Stereo 91 to do her regular show on crime and public safety, according to the prosecutor's office in the Tamaulipas border state.   Officials were investigating whether the attack was motivated by her work, Miguel Chavez, spokesman for the prosecutor's office, said.   "Revenge, organized crime, no line of investigation has been discarded," he said.   “We’re waiting for the bribe money to come in before we make a decision,” Chavez added…well, not aloud.

 

Ah, nothing beats that good old-fashioned Third-World living.

 

 

On Lowering Driver Stress

 

E-Clare Blog bemoans left-lane sluggards in Colorado but rejoices in a new law meant to finally get them out of the way, in her post, “When they *oughta* be dragged out through their wing windows and beaten about the head and shoulders”

 

 

Posted by Martin at April 6, 2005 04:47 PM

Comments

Posted by: jeff at April 8, 2005 12:56 PM