Thank you for this fantastic piece on an “illustrious general,” Lieutenant General Cherish Mathson!

This is one more test on Oct 2023

Reply to my self tes

Comment to lokendra@

If the EU is not an optimal currency area, then the euro is bound to eventually collapse.

Well, size has been a strength of the union in terms of a trading bloc. It’s the biggest in the world as per member states, right? But infrastructure that is too big is at risk of wobbling. Brexit was the first push the EU has faced. There will surely be more.

One positive idea – that might appear foolish, but I honestly like it – comes from our former Swiss president Micheline Calmy-Rey (ex- Federal Council and Minister of Foreign Affairs). She just published a book (preface by F. Hollande). She suggests that Europe, as a block of almost 500M citizens, should adopt active neutrality and buffer between the other big powers in the world. 500 is double the US, triple Russia, and Dame Europe still holds a decent economic power. (1) Could this help the UN keep in check the impatient superpowers?

(1) Calmy-Rey, M., Pour une neutralité active. De la Suisse à l’Europe. Savoir Suisse, 2021.

My performance piece, is now on YouTube. It is a political satire, entitled “Washington Money Talk”. Here is the link; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etPwzJvhxyI

The Chinese involvement with Djibouti merely reflects the Gulf of Aden and Bab el Mandeb Strait’s importance to world trade and the need for the Chinese to thwart pirates and militants from Somalia and Yemen respectively.

To say it signifies a U.S decline is a bit dramatic to be honest.

Missing from the article though is the word “oil”. It presents America as a moral if sometimes mistaken “superhero” who is always determined to fight for justice democracy and good outcomes. The reality in the Middle-East is far different illustrated by America engineering coups, favouring governments purely based on oil supply, arming favoured patrons, swapping sides for personal interests rather than best outcomes for the region, over emphasis on military solutions, failure to learn lessons from past failures etc.

Also notable is the writer is a civilian. In my recent google search on 2014-2015 views on renewed US Middle-East intervention the two proponents are civilians, whereas the two opponents are military personnel. Look at some of the proponents of Iraq and Afghanistan intervention – all civilian leaders of countries e.g.. America, UK and Australia. Those with military experience know the true costs of war, politicians, diplomats and bureaucrats do not.

My concern is that Middle-East is now past the “point of no return”. In other words so much resentment has built up against the west – particularly America – is that it is not a matter of if but when one of these extremists gets a hold of a WMD or a nuclear device and uses it with catastrophic results. Finally, it’s not really “extremism” or militant Islam that motivates these people – that is just a vehicle. Rather it is the sticky beak of America that keeps destabilising the region.