Here we go again in the battle of territorial claims and name changing

Yep, here we go again. Japan has 'dibs' on East China Sea islands they call 'Senkaku'. China and Taiwan claim them as their own, and to them, they are the 'Diaoyu islands'.

These three countries are not only talking of national pride and of course, appeal to history to justify claims of theirs. There, however, is an overarching economic reach in pinning names on maps to these islands. We're talking of fishing rights as the fishing wars grow sharper owing to overfishing and depletion of fish that make up everyday diets. And of course, the potential pot of gold of oil and gas deposits that lie, it is said, under the sea floor.

Somewhere or the other, South Korea will enter the territorial fray as both China and Japan lay claim to offshore islands Seoul says that it has right and title to.

US, Philippines reenforce military ties

It seems as though it were yesterday that the Filipino government refused to renew a basing agreement with the US. Actually it was 20 years ago when America abandoned Clark Air Force base and Subic Bay naval base, hang ons from US colonial occupation of the Philippines and the Cold War in Asia.

The evacuation of bases did not signify abandonment of military consultation and cooperation, only at a diminished degree.

China's claims to the South China Sea, with its rich oil and gas deposits, infringes on Filipino claims to a portion of the Sea which falls in its territorial waters. For an poor country like the Philippines revenue from oil and gas would go a long way in lightening the heavy economic baggage it carries.

Beijing has bold as brass pushed its claims to territorial waters that Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, and the Philippines lay claim. To make the point clear, China has not only uses threats but sent its naval into the SCS to stress its determination to have its way either through intimidation or brief naval encounters, as it has done with Vietnam.

The US has not stood idly by as China's star has risen higher and higher in the Asian firmament challenging America's hegemony in the Asia Pacific theatre.

Already the Bush administration had given Manila strong words of support. But it is the Obama White House that has come designed at forward military dogma for the Asia Pacific area, with a single goal in mind: thwart and tame China's territorial ambitions.

As such, the Filipino government has been willing to hold joint combat drills at oil rigs in Filipino waters in the SCS as well as undisclosed sensitive areas. The return of open military presence in the Philippines has injected new blood into a 'keep America out' movement which is always close to the surface in that country's history.

Here, it is useful to recall that the US has been active in Manila's fight against the Moro insurgents in Mindanao as well as in the long war against the Communist New People's Army in the Visayas.

Consequently the Philippines has a role to play in Obama's forward military and political policy in Asia. And the stakes are high since it involves oil and gas hidden riches in the SCS.

Israel's hand in American politics

GuamDiary has always contended that Israel was an internal American problem. In the last few weeks, two events underscore this assertion.son injected us$5 million into Newt Gingrich super PAC, which worked wonders to upset Mitt Romney's applecart in South Carolina, and a week later, Penny Adelson pumped $5 million more into that super PAC as Gingrich geared up to deny Romney the nod from Florida in his run for the Republican party's nomination for the presidency.

Now, a wag may point out that Gingrich and the casino owner Adelson know each other for a long time. No dispute there, but the money tap was turned on when 'historian' Newt boldly declared that there was no such thing as a Palestinian people. Translation, Israel has every right to occupy and extend its border to the Jordan river in what it calls 'Sumaria and Judea', but which is poaching on the legally recognised land of what would be a Palestinian state, no longer under the jackboot of Israel occupation for the last 45 years.

And then there's the 'Third Jihad' scandal rocking New York City's police department. 'Third Jihad' is a malicious piece of propaganda that was showing in loop fashion to high ranking police officers: funded by the Clarion Fund which is a front for the right wing Israeli organisation Aish Ha'Torah which favours illegal land grabs and illegal Jewish settlement in the West Bank, which it claims to be the God given land to the Jews as Sumaria and Judea. Raymond Kelly the chief of police actively cooperated in the making of film that claims that all American Muslims are a Fifth Column of potential, if not actual, terrorists.

This idea is in agreement with not only the New York police's policing of racial profiling Muslims but is an echo of what is happening among law enforcement across America.

GuamDiary has already blogged on the potentially disloyal behaviour of Eric Cantor, the House of Representative leader of the Republicans, who openly swore fealty to Israel's prime minister Netenyahu, and who arranged for him to speak to a joint session of Congress where he heaped scorn of president Obama's plan to bring a two state solution to the Israeli einian problem.

And then, there the Hebron Fund which already claims Hebron is already a part and parcel of the Zionist state, even though it is recognised as part of Palestinian although under 45 years of Israeli occupation. The US look the other way as the Fund raises money for an organisation which favours occupation and terrorism against Arabs. And yet whereas the US finds no pangs of heart at listening Muslim charitable organisations in the US as 'terrorists', it remains blind to Israeli organisations which are fundamentally terrorist.

As we say, Israel is an American problem, and potentially a headache and has always to pull Israel's chestnuts out of the fire diplomatically, politically, and, yes, militarily.

Israel itching to bomb Iran?

In the Sunday 29 January 'New York Times Magazine', veteran Israeli investigative reporter Ronen Bergman's 'Israel vs. Iran' is featured.

Bergman is no stranger when it comes to Iran and the Mossud. His 'Secret war with Iran' came out in an English translation in 2008, and is now available on the web for the lowly price of US$0,99 plus shipping fees.

You have to wonder whether Bergman's article saw it way into print through the good offices of a public relations firm. On one hand, it weightily tilts towards Israel attacking Iran in 2012 around the time the Republican and Democrat conventions meet, as a means to force the US, once more, to do Israel's bidding. Bergman is firmly convinced that the right wing Likud led government of 'Bibi' Netenyahu will attack Iran, and he ably supports his arguments through interviews of Ehud Barak, the Zionist's state defence minister and Moshe Ya'alon, vice prime minister and minister of strategic affairs; the views of these two men reflect perfectly the thinking of Netenyahu.

Israel has been banging pots and pans for bombing Iran more loudly and more often of late: its intelligence establishment sees the 'window of opportunity' narrowing fast before Tehran has developed a nuclear weapon. These 'wise' old men of the Israeli establishment see a striking parallel between Nassar's closing of the Straits of Tiran in 1967 and Ahmadinejad's threat to close the Straits of Hormuz. In 1967, Israel attacked, and in 2012, it may very well drag the US into war with Iran and setting off a firestorm of war that will threat the Zionist's state's own existence. Is Israel willing to use its nuclear arsenal? No one can rule that option out.

Baruch willingly talks of narrowing identity of views with Washington, but can we be so sure? The Obama administration is not in the mood for yet another war in west Asia after the mess it made in Iraq, yet the Israelis, come hell and high water, are intent in making the White House pull Israel's chestnuts out of the fire after it bombs Iran.

Yet, according to CIA estimates Iran is not developing nuclear weapons; the spy agency has often quoted its own findings. Bergman does give an opposing Israeli standpoint which bolsters the CIA reports by citing the former head of the Mossad as well as retired senior Israeli officers and cabinet holders. These 'realists' think that the 'impending' attack on Iran is shortsighted if not reckless since it would expose the Israeli civil population to heavy rocket attacks, to destruction of infrastructure, and in a curious way, to the devastation that Israeli 'tsahal' [defence forces] visited on Gaza during 'Operation Cast Lead' in December 2007.

And then there are the tactical problems which aerial warfare brings: noteworthy is that the long distance from Israeli bases to Iran requires refueling in air, thereby leaving the Zionist air force vulnerable to Irani aeroplanes. More, an Israeli 'manu militari' thrust would give the green light to Israel's hostile neighbours to attack it.

And yet, owing to the media blitz of Netenyahu & co., the Israelis live in growing and constant fear of rockets from Iran descending on their heads. And as such, the 'realist's' argument has lost more and more of an audience.

Bergman concludes that he does feel Israel will bomb Iraq. What he doesn't say: given the logistical difficulties the Zionist's military will have, it would surprise anyone were Netenyahu's hawkish government give the 'go ahead' to use Israel's atomic weapons.

Washington has grown more ill at ease at Israel's propaganda war. It dispatched the current chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Martin Dempsey to talk sense and turkey with Netenyahu & co. Obama is fingering his worry beads for the US can never be certain Israel will not carry out its aggression against Iraq and drag the US screaming and kicking into an unwinnable war that would guarantee the collapse of the US and European economies which remain after the 2008 global recession in the doldrums.

Israel, if we believe Bergman' is hellbent on self destruction and doesn't give a royal fart it it takes everyone down with it. The example of Samson comes to mind here.

And yet, can we trust the 'wisdom' of Ehud Barak and the other other hawks--Netenyahu and Ya'alon? It is important to point out that Barak sent Israel into Lebanon, and that invasion forced the Zionist state to retreat with its tail between its legs. There is little reason to give a failed prime minister and general a reasonable doubt. There is more to fear from the warmongering they preach and the willingness to send young men and women to death and in a holocaust of their own making destroy the state of Israel

New York's mayor Bloomberg likes spy stories

Billionaire mayor Mike Bloomberg likes John LeCarre. He said as much whilst visiting a Bronx high school English class. As self styled 'education mayor', the man who spent more than $100m for a third term in office and with a narrow margin of 4 percent got to stay mayor. [So much for the power of money when the electorate does not think highly of you!]

The object of Bloomberg's pitch is to encourage students to read more since reading scores of New York's public and charter [read private] and parochial schools remain disappointingly low.

Of course, the mayor eats up financial publications, he has a business to run as a financier, as well as biographies, non fiction best sellers with a history slant.

His admission that enjoys a rattling spy novel, particularly LeCarre's 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy' sought to send a message to 'underachieving' young readers to read more. A laudable goal. Bloomberg had also gone with his squeeze to see the film based on the LeCarre book which is currently playing in New York to a good gate. Saying this, it makes you wonder whether a high school student would rather plonk down $13 to see Gary Oldman as George Smiley, LeCarrer's relentless hero than sloughing through more than 400 pages of prose?

You have to hand it to Bloomberg wanting to pitch the value of reading books. And yet, fiction takes last place among the books he reads. 'Johnny Tremain', a 1943 patriotic children's story about the American revolution, is the only other book the mayor endorses.

Has Bloomberg made a 'Freudian slip' in his choice of reading matter? Maybe. The no nonsense mayor likes to think of himself as fair minded and running a ship of the city on even keel. He is and can be moralistic, as he has a big ego for running a police department with ties to the FBI and CIA, and backing up his police chief Raymond Kelly who is under fire for racial profiling, massaging the truth until he is caught in the act and forced to admit the truth and apologise, and other questionable practices. Consider his participation in the Israeli financed 'Third Jihad' which questioned the loyalty of all law abiding American Muslims.

Bloomberg, intoxicated as he is with LeCarre, fancies himself as head of New York's combined equivalent of Britain's MI-5 [read, FBI] and MI-6 [CIA], as well as general of commando attacks in full riot gear against 'Occupy Wall Street'.

Is old Mike New York's George Smiley, the mild manner, savvy bureaucrat who nabs the bad guys? You better believe it: his actions speak louder than his quiet words: he has tasted the power of male fantasy and may even think under the cover of a gentle, reasonable mien, he's really James Bond.

Bill Mardo sportswriter dead at 88

Bill Mardo is not a household name. And certainly a forgotten figure in the fight for racial equality. He was a sports writer for 'The Daily Worker', the organ of the Communist Party USA. That alone should make him forgettable or infamous. And yet, from 1942 until the closing of the paper in 1968 he wrote a much read sports column. He joined Lester Rodney who broke ground as sports writer and editor in 1936.

Say what you will about the sins of CPUSA but you cannot deny that pioneering sports journalists like Rodney and Mardo fought racism in American sports, particularly baseball. They both championed integration of all white National and American League teams. And followed the career of Jackie Robinson.

After Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers, Mardo and Rodney publicly called on the owners of the 15 other teams in the two Leagues to sign up black players.

CPUSA has been accused of many things, some true, some not, but one thing is certain: it was in many respects in the vanguard for racial equality in Jim Crow America.

Consider the Scottsboro Boys case. A recent Broadway revival of Kander & Ebb's musical, opened to excellent reviews, and once more brought to the broad public's attention of the framing of nine black boys and young men accused of rape in 1931 Alabama by two white women, even though the women recanted. It was the involvement of the International Labor Defense that hired the left wing lawyer Samuel Leibowitz to defend them, at a time when the more mainstream civil rights organization hesitated. Only after ILD and Leibowitz managed to draw national and international attention to this miscarriage of justice, did the ACLU and NAACP join the battle. And yet in spite of it all, it wasn't until 1976 was the last Scottsboro Boy released from prison. The case shone the light of even the Supreme Court's upholding segregation in a ruling on whether the rights of the nine 'Boys' had been violated. It also, despite the snipping at the CPUSA, made more lustrous the party's unrelenting policy and struggle for racial justice and against the oppression of America's minorities.

No one has written a book about Mardo, but the late Irwin Silber wrote 'Press Box Red' about Lester Rodney.

GuamDiary encourages the reading of Silber's book, so that a little known but important slice of the fight for racial justice and equality by CPUSA and its newspaper wont be entirely forgotten.

The rise of Neo-knownothingism in America

This years slate of Republican presidential candidates are living proof of the rise of 'know nothings' in American politics.

Quickly many might object to this characterisation: Romney is a Harvard man with an MBA and law degree; Gingrich holds a ph.d. in history; Ron Paul is a medical doctor, and Rick Santorum is a University of Pittsburgh MBA. Put all the learning together does not make for smartness. In fact, what all these men of politics and influence peddling and business exploit is the masses popular fears of a US in serious economic trouble in a world which challenges America's ideal of itself as a swaggering superpower with the right of a seigneur to deflower [read regime change] any country that goes against its will.

Romney, Gingrich, Paul, and Santorum play all too willing, by any and all means necessary, on xenophobia, anti Muslim sentiment, and the popular fear that undocumented Spanish speaking immigrants will overwhelm, if not drown, the once predominantly white USA in a sea of brown. In this they pick up the dropped stitches of the largely middle-class Tea Party, financed by the super wealthy, who see in foreigners, American Muslims, and Hispanics hostile elements to American values as they see them.

And eager to defeat a black president, all the candidates will embrace ideas which are more or less patently questionable if not false. So out of the window goes any learning worth a damn in favour of appealing to the basest popular sentiment of the growing immiseration of the middle classes who standard of living is greatly challenged by the 2008 global recession brought about by Wall Street bankers; of stirring the fires of fear that children and grandchildren of Baby Boomers will not live the 'good life' of their parents born in the luxury and comfort of post world war two America.

The endless debates among the Republican candidates vying for their party's nomination for the presidency in 2012 have given rise to dimness and dumbness in ideas as though these very men, very comfortable if not very much, had been seized by madness. In their pursuit of power, they have dusted off the much discredited notions 'nativism'.