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The Price Of Arrogance

Shortly after the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, check Iran “…….proposed ending support for Lebanese and Palestinian militant groups and helping to stabilise Iraq following the US-led invasion” according to a BBC report out today.

Tehran also offered to make its nuclear program “more transparent” if the US ended its hostility towards Iran.

Although the state department was keen on the idea, Vice President Cheney rejected it out of hand.

It raises two questions: is the Vice President the real Commander-in-Chief; and, how many American and Iraqi lives may have been spared had the US responded positively four years ago?

More from the BBC HERE.

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Devil In Disguise

Condoleeza Rice was all smiles for the cameras yesterday during her Middle East excursion to “accelerate” progress on the ‘roadmap’ – political rhetoric for the non-existent peace process between Israel and the Palestinians.

It begs the question: what has she been doing for the last four years?

Let’s not kid ourselves. The roadmap is dead. It won’t move anywhere, let alone “accelerate”. What Rice is really doing is whipping up support among Sunni Arab nations for America’s abortive military campaign in Iraq. While Saddam Hussein was unloved by most Sunni Arabs outside Iraq, he did at least reign in the Shia militias presently rampaging through Baghdad. Sunni Arab nations like Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Jordan are nervous of Iran’s Shia influence in the region; influence that will likely strengthen substantially if the Shia-majority government in Iraq allies itself to Tehran. Hence the apparently snap decisions by Sunni leaders to jump on a US bandwagon, under the guise of resurrecting the ‘roadmap’.

Last year’s democratic election, that brought Hamas to power in Palestine, resulted in yet more blunders by Western governments. Hamas’ announcement that it would not recognize Israel’s right to exist prompted knee-jerk reactions from the West. Cutting funding to the Palestinian government could only result in escalating conflict. If you want a war, starve the people. The resulting unrest led to violence in Gaza that eventually escalated into the Israeli/Lebanese war and the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians.

Had the West used diplomacy to resolve the Hamas issue, it would have known that Hamas was not intractable on its policy towards Israel, and was merely refusing to recognize a Jewish state that continually trampled with impunity over Palestinian rights.

The US/EU financial sanctions caused the Palestinian government to turn towards its fellow Arabs for support. As a consequence, the biggest financial contributer to the Palestinian government is no longer the West, but Iran.

The situation that now exists in the Middle East is due almost entirely to the persistent bungling of Western politicians clinging to an American policy of support for Israel, even when that nation commits outrageous atrocities against its neighbors. (Let’s not forget that last year’s disastrous war in Lebanon resulted from the kidnap of two Israeli soldiers.) If this is, indeed, continuing US policy then Europe needs to think about ending its vegetative alliance with its Atlantic partner, and using its own not inconsiderable powers to shape a more peaceful, lasting solution to this troubled region that has for decades suffered the effects of Western foreign influence.

The foreign policy of George W Bush and Richard Cheney has manipulated the region for no other purpose than the extension of US power, at a cost in lives that will go down in history as utterly unacceptable. Condoleeza Rice’s visit to ‘accelerate’ the roadmap will do nothing to further a promised Palestinian state, but has succeeded in girding Bush’s resolve to escalate US aggression towards Iran and Syria, those two nations most feared in the Sunni Arab world.

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A Strange Species.

The Ardh Kumbh, we’re informed, is only half as good as the Kumbh Mela, but as the latter is only held every twelve years something is needed to combat the boredom in between, so every six years they throw in an Ardh Kumbh.

If you fancy having your sins washed away there’s no better way to do it, but beware all those nasty bacteria floating in the Ganges – and don’t believe the authorities when they say it’s clean. It isn’t. After all, with fifty million people splashing around in it, if it was clean before – which it wasn’t – it’d be pretty putrid by now.

Of course, it won’t work unless you’re a Hindu, for Ardh Kumbh is a Hindu festival that’s held on the banks of the Ganges – in winter; the idea being to throw off one’s clothes, leap into the freezing water and have a jolly good scrub. End result: bye bye sins; hello pneumonia.

Now, forgive the skepticism, but whose bright idea was this?

I can appreciate that the Ganges was once a nice, clear, sparkly river, before Indians began emptying all their sewers into it, but I fail to comprehend the point of stripping naked and immersing oneself in freezing liquid when air temperatures are hitting sub-zero. I can understand the symbolism of “washing away sin”, but does it have to be such an unpleasant process? What’s wrong with a nice gentle bathe in mid-July, when all the pretty flowers are in bloom and families can bring a picnic? Is it asking too much of whichever Hindu god does the forgiving? Isn’t he around in summer? Well, hey, the Hindus worship more than one god. How about a stand-in? Surely some junior deity can understudy if the main guy’s on vacation through the summer? Is it too much to ask?

Apparently so, at least according to the hordes of holy men and pilgrims thronging the northern Indian town of Allahabad for this six week long bash, living in tents in sub-zero temperatures on ground frozen hard as rock.

Seems an Ardh Kumbh is nothing more than an Ardh Slumbh that leaves you with a sore Bumbh.

Read more about the Ardh Kumbh HERE.

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