...interest in the Trans-Afghanistan pipeline. Afghanistan’s president Karzai has been linked with Unocal through Zalmay Khalilzad, the Afghan-born U.S. envoy to the 2001 Bonn conference on Afghanistan’s future, who together with Bush chose Karzai to run the country. In the broader context it is of course no secret that Washington wishes to keep its toeholds in the region for a potential strategic encirclement of Russia and China, as well as a bit of control to deny energy resources to the Chinese in case conflict and competition for those become part of a future reality. The references to “nuclear-armed Pakistan” where the “stakes are even higher” and the characterization as the “epicenter of the violent extremism practiced by Al Qaeda” for the area straddling the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, appear to point at a genuine worry in Washington’s national security community about insuffieciently guarded Pakistani nuclear weapons falling into the hands of terrorists. As the New York Times has noted, he left much unsaid about this, including the warfare waged by unpiloted bombers, the Drones, which have been indiscriminately killing hundreds, perhaps a thousand, Pakistani civilians along with suspected Taliban members. Expanding the ‘dirty war’ in Pakistan, with its secret operations under control...

...registered with Washington, or for that matter with the European capitals, notwithstanding the proven incapacity of Israel to knock out that movement. For a while, during the recent assault on Gaza, Sarkozy created the impression that he was looking for an opening. He visited Cairo three times. But there was no sign of that anymore in Munich. In the eyes of the American government European preparedness to support it in Afghanistan has become the touchstone of European loyalty. Washington is preparing a ‘surge’, a (perhaps temporary) strengthening of its combat troops over there, after the Iraqi example. As Biden sees it: “The result must be a comprehensive strategy for which we all take responsibility that brings together our civilian and military resources that prevents a terrorist save haven, that helps the Afghan people develop the capacity to secure their own future.” In this matter European support comes with conditions. The German government in particular does not appear to have the slightest intention to cooperate by fighting against the Taliban in the southern part of the country. The Bundeswehr is in a relatively comfortable position in the North. (The ethnic factor of the minority position of the Pashtun, giving the Taliban...

...securities industry, construction and real estate companies. And, as always with such rapid power re-alignments, this stimulated an uncomfortable sense among the members of the System that normalcy had been disturbed, requiring at least some adjustment. In the 1980s, the security houses gained a measure of influence and prestige they had never had before. And it was reasonable to expect that it would only be a matter of time before they would be forced to undergo an experience intended to cool down their zealousness, restrain their arrogance, and remind them of the proper relationships within the Japanese System. This has just happened, and for Nomura, as the leader of the cartel, it has been, of course, the most unpleasant. Similarly, Ministry of Finance officials appear to have decided that the time had come to cut the securities bureau within their own organization down to size. Until it began to reflect the new importance of the the securities industry in the 1980s, this bureau had been relatively insignificant when compared with the tax, banking and budget bureaus. The old internal balance in the Ministry of Finance can, at least to some extent, now be restored. But these forced adjustments among the...

...Gaza could only be observed, and that sparsely so, from a distance, from refugees, and from Al Jazeera broadcasts. In that way the impression that Israel had chosen its use of arms for defending itself and was very careful in its choice of targets could continue to flourish. Hamas was accused of using the Palestinian population as a shield, while foreign audiences are hardly aware of the fact that Gaza is one of the most densely populated areas on the globe, which turns any armed intervention into a slaughtering party. Why have the international media been such easy victims of Israeli propaganda? Is it prejudice that drives them? Is it the effect of the American filter through which we all get most of our international news which gives this news its terrible slant? What has been kept far in the background in most analyses is that Hamas won elections, that the Palestinian Authority has kept it away from power, and that the international community has been boycotting it. Could an honest account of the circumstances of life, life ebbing away, and death in Gaza now create some compensation for that inaccurate reporting? Sarkozy now pleads for a major international conference...

...endorsed the story that Merkel was allowed to dominate with in the headlines. This helped stoke strong indignation that spread over the northern euro countries; why should we, well-behaved taxpayers, have to bail them out? By the time the German broadsheet Das Bild had created a commonly accepted picture portraying hard-working Germans versus irresponsible Greeks there was no going back for the Chancellor. That tabloid, along with the domestic financial interests and their allies, blocked a return to rational analysis of the bank crisis, preoccupied as she was with minimizing threats to her staying on as chancellor in a new coalition after next year’s elections. There were other possible beginnings that would have allowed a sound approach to the controversy from a different direction. Such as low German domestic demand compensated for by years of voluminous German exports to peripheral Europe, including Greece, which required funds for buying that German stuff; funds happily being pumped into southern Europe by German banks. As these were raking in premiums and interest, their credit risk analysts slept soundly because the credit rating agencies had given their blessings with blanket triple A ratings for all the euro countries. Is Greek governmental irresponsibility then only...

...vulnerable Japan’s democracy has become. Koizumi decreed that only one subject counted and the country, dazed by fake reform frenzy, went along with this deception. He played the media better than any prime ministers before him, so that he could make news stories revolve around the question of whether he or disloyal party members would win. Real policy issues as well as the opposition parties that might have raised them were shoved aside in national media attention, fatally undermining the process for which elections are held to begin with – at least outside dictatorships. The trick could have been designed by Karl Rove, the political strategy genius but totally unconscionable wrecker of democracy who is behind George W. Bush’s election maneuvers. It may all seem permissible as part of the mean art of politics, but it causes the demise of public influence over what happens in a country. Many, perhaps most, elections in other countries are not much about policy either; the commonly heard joke in Japan about elections being political beauty contests happens to be, unfortunately, the truth in much of Europe and the United States. Democracy appears to be deteriorating everywhere. For much of the time this does...