Politics & Policies: The world is one global village

What do illegal migrants from sub-Saharan Afriac have in common with Europeans living in Europe? AFar more than you think. (click on anove link for full story.)

Will redrawing the map of the Middle East end conflict?

Will redrawing the map of the Middle East end conflict?
BY CLAUDE SALHANI

13 July 2006

LT. COL. Ralph Peters published an article in the US’ Armed Forces Journal last month where he outlines his vision as to what is needed to solve the many woes — and wars — troubling the Greater Middle East: redraw the maps of most countries in the turbulent region, as Lt. Col. Peters (retired) would have it. In so doing, the face of the region as we know it today would change, thereby hopefully eradicating present day conflicts.

What Peters omits from his expose is that these changes would produce winners and losers, which in turn would be the genesis of newer conflicts.

Working from the assumption that "international borders are never completely just," Peters suggests major alterations. "Modern borders," says Peters, "have been the cause of injustice, oppression and atrocities." Peters starts with Israel: the Jewish state, he says, must abide by the demands it return to the pre-1967 lines, "if it hopes to ever live in peace."

Next he takes on Saudi Arabia: The kingdom stands to lose the most, according to the author’s plan. He advocates breaking it up into three parts. The Eastern province would be tied to the "Arab Shia State," composed of parts of southern Iraq and Iran — and bits of some of the other Gulf states. Rest assured, Peters leaves the UAE (and Oman) intact. It’s Yemen that wins big with large swathes of Saudi Arabia going its way. The second part of Saudi Arabia, the part comprising the holy cities of Makkah and Medina, would be shaped into what he calls the "Islamic Sacred State." Peters sees Saudi Arabia as "A root cause of the broad stagnation in the Muslim world."

The basis of Peters’ thesis is that today’s borders were "most arbitrary and distorted," which he claims were "drawn by self-interested Europeans (who have had sufficient trouble defining their own frontiers)." To those who think that borders are unchangeable, he offers this advice declaring "that boundaries must not change and that’s that, it pays to remember that boundaries have never stopped changing through the centuries. Borders have never been static," says Peters."Oh, and one other dirty little secret from 5,000 years of history: Ethnic cleansing works," adds the retired army officer. Look at the former Yugoslavia,

Then he comes to Iraq — "A Frankenstein’s monster of a state sewn together from ill-fitting parts." He adds, "the US and its coalition partners missed a glorious chance to begin to correct this injustice after Baghdad’s fall." According to Peters, "Iraq should have been divided into three smaller states." He says the United States "failed from cowardice and lack of vision, bullying Iraq’s Kurds into supporting the new Iraqi government — which they do wistfully as a quid pro quo for our good will."

He correctly states that should there be a free plebiscite to be held. “Make no mistake,” says Peters, "Nearly 100 per cent of Iraq’s Kurds would vote for independence.

The same goes for the Kurds of Turkey, whom Peters says "have endured decades of violent military oppression and a decades-long demotion to ‘mountain Turks’ in an effort to eradicate their identity." While the plight of the Kurds in Turkey "has eased somewhat over the past decade, the repression recently intensified again and the eastern fifth of Turkey should be viewed as occupied territory."

Peters sees the Kurds of Syria and Iran, rushing to join in forming an independent Kurdistan if they could.

In the new Middle East, according to Peters, "Iraq’s three Sunni-majority provinces might eventually choose to unify with a Syria that loses its littoral to a Mediterranean-oriented Greater Lebanon: Phoenicia reborn." "Correcting borders to reflect the will of the people may be impossible, for now. But given time — and the inevitable attendant bloodshed — new and natural borders will emerge. Babylon has fallen more than once."

True, but there is bound to be more bloodshed before any such changes take place, if they ever do. And more blood after these changes take place is sure to follow.

Claude Salhani is International Editor and a political analyst with United Press International in Washington. He may be contacted at Claude@upi.com

Iran, Syria fighting Israel by proxy militias

Iran, Syria use and abuse Lebanese militia... to fight Israel.

Illegal Immigration draws Africa closer to Europe

How do you stop the flow of millions of Africans from crossing the Sahara Desert as they try to make their way to Europe, via Morocco? Not through security measures alone," say officials.

Are Iran and Syria behind the latest Mideast escalation?

Israel is fighting on two fronts now -- Lebanon and Gaza -- in efforts to free its captured soldiers. The battle, however, could escalate to frightening proportions.

Illegal Immigration: Go North, young man

Millions of would-be African immigrants head north to Morocco every year, hoping to make it to Europe from here. Alas, many die along the way.

Despite ethnic killings, officials say still not civil war in Iraq

Officials in the Iraqi capital claim it is still not a civil war...despite the fact that masked gunmen pulled at least 40 Sunni Arabs from their houses, cafes, and cars and executed them in cold blood. Iraq's President Jalal Talabani said it brought the country to a "dangerous edge." I thought it was already there.

North Korea's bluff

The North Korea have gambled -- and lost. By firing their missiles the reclusive communist state we have convinced America's allies in the Pacific region of the need of a strong US presence.

Islamic renewal needs US backing

In the days, months and years after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the United States has found itself in a war against an enemy it had very little intelligence on -- Islamist extremists.

Now, five years later, "The United States still lacks an integrated and sustainable strategy to confront religious extremism in the Muslim world," writes Abdeslam M. Maghraoui, director of the Muslim World Initiative at the U.S. Institute of Peace.

Jihadi bomber blows up hope of peace in Mideast

More deaths and destruction in the Middle East!

Hopes of any peaceful settlement in the Middle East were blown away earlier today along with a Palestinian suicide bomber who blew himself up in central Tel Aviv Monday, killing nine people and wounding about 50 others.

What can the US do with Iran?

Rumors were plentiful in Washington last week that a military strike on Iran was a possibility after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that his country had succeeded in enriching uranium, a necessary first step in producing a nuclear weapon. According to a very reliable source who spoke to me on condition of anonymity, a military strike on Iran was -- or maybe still is -- in the offing, as was reported by Sy Hirsch of the New Yorker.

Bush's European allies pay heavy price

It's not easy being a faithful ally of president these days. Many world leaders who supported the American president in his Iraqi expedition, either politically or by contributing troops to the Iraqi campaign, have systematically found themselves voted out of a job.

In Italy this week Bush lost his staunchest European supporter ever with the defeat of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and his conservative Forza Italia to centrist Romano Prodi and his alliance of Catholics, leftists and communists

Immigration troubles

Thirty-three years ago Jean Raspail wrote "The Camp of the Saints,"his almost-prophetic book on immigration gone wild. The French author explained how social conditions in the developing world deteriorated to the point that it forced millions of refugees from the Indian subcontinent to storm the beaches of southern France after commandeering an armada of cargo ships. At the same time, milliona of hungry Chinese oozed across the Amur River into Russia. With refugees flowing like uncontrolled mercury into Europe from the east and west simultaneously, the face of Europe was suddenly changed -- forever.

Could the same be happening in the US with 12 million "aliens.?"

Iran closer to nukes

Only a few days after strong rumors of a possible preemptive U.S. and/or Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear facilities circulated like wildfire around the Washington Beltway, Iran said it has taken its nuclear program forward.

"Uranium enrichment has been achieved," boasted Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Tuesday to a jubilant crowd gathered in Mashhad, during a speech televised for the world to see. This latest step in Iran's nuclear program brings the Islamic Republic that much closer to acquiring nuclear weapons.

The players in Iraq

The author of the report, Nawaf Obaid, an adjunct fellow at The Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, recently released a comprehensive study of the situation in Iraq titled "Meeting the Challenge of a Fragmented Iraq: A Saudi Perspective." offers invaluable background on the various players and political parties elbowing for power in post-Saddam Iraq. The following are extracts of his report.

Italy votes-- world waits for results...

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's often-controversial rule came to an abrupt end -- maybe? -- Monday after a tumultuous five years in power. This places the center-left back in control. Assuming exit polls are correct the center-left alliance leads with a margin of 4 percent to 5 percent.

Civil war in Iraq? Maybe....

President Bush is right when he says there is no civil war in Iraq. The Commander in Chief is right on the money, there is no civil war in Iraq. The spiraling spate of sectarian killings is far from civil.

A divided Iraq is a challenge for Saudi

"United States policy in Iraq is widening sectarian divisions to the point of effectively handing the country to Iran," commented Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal while on an official visit to Washington on September 20, 2005. "We fought a war together to keep Iran out of Iraq, now we are handing the whole country over to Iran without reason... Iraq is disintegrating."

A new report by Nawaf Obaid, an adjunct fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, reveals some chilling realities about the U.S. intervention in Iraq and explores a Saudi view of the ramifications of the war.

Iraq poses challenge to Saudi

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said while on an official visit to Washington on September 20, 2005: "United States policy in Iraq is widening sectarian divisions to the point of effectively handing the country to Iran. We fought a war together to keep Iran out of Iraq, now we are handing the whole country over to Iran without reason... Iraq is disintegrating." Latest report by Nawaf Obaid, reveals chilling realities about the U.S. intervention in Iraq.
(click on the above link to see full story.)

Last chance summit for Iraq

The Iraqi Islamic Reconciliation Summit will be held in the Jordanian capital, Amman, on April 22 -- it will be Iraq's last chance to avoid civil war.
(Click on above link for full story.)