The iPINIONS Journal: Commentaries on the Global Events of 2012—Volume VIII

By Anthony Livingston Hall

From the spectacle that is the U.S. presidential election to the London Olympics to the Secret-Service sex scandal to rising tensions between China and Japan and to Superstorm Sandy, The iPINIONS Journal takes a look at it all.

In this eighth volume of political commentaries, author Anthony Livingston Hall examines an eclectic mix of worldwide topics that became a part of 2012. Insightful and often humorous, Hall discusses the topics of the day, including the political mnage a trois involving the French president, his ex-wife, and current consort; the Miami Heats dream team come true; the fall from grace of CIA director General David Petraeus; the costly comeuppance of Lance Armstrong; the fiscal cliff; Twitter no better than Twinkies; deaths of famous people; the mysterious vigil for Venezuelan leader Hugo Chvez; and more.

Through this collection of lively and thought-provoking commentaries, Hall, an unsparing, equal-opportunity critic, provides a refreshing worldview of the global events of 2012.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Apr 2, 2013
• ISBN: 9781475980318

Anthony Livingston Hall

Anthony L. Hall is a Washington-based lawyer who is licensed to practice in a number of foreign jurisdictions. He hails from The Bahamas and Turks & Caicos Islands and was educated at some of America’s best schools, including Williams College. Hall is also a syndicated columnist and the author of The iPINIONS Journal, a weblog of enlightening and entertaining commentaries that provide a refreshing take on current events. He lives in Arlington, Virginia. http://ipjn.com

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Copyright © 2013 Anthony Livingston Hall

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ISBN: 978-1-4759-8030-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4759-8032-5 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4759-8031-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013904152

iUniverse rev. date: 03/27/2013

Contents

Introduction

AFRICA / MIDDLE EAST

Israel’s Mossad Strikes Again

Despite drumbeat, Israel will never attack Iran

Kenya’s Uhuru Kenyatta Indicted

Kenyatta running … for president

Tweeting Genocidal Joseph Kony to Death?

Kony still at-large

Charles Taylor Convicted in The Hague

Judgment Day

Assad of Syria Continues to Massacre with Impunity

Why Putin, not Obama, is master of Assad’s fate

Reparations from Britain for Colonialism?

Britain must pay

Massacre at South Africa’s Lonmin Marikana Mine

Murder charges…?

Zuma: Whites keep dogs as pets. Blacks should not!

Attacks on U.S. Embassies in Egypt and Libya

UN Grants Palestinian Statehood? Not Exactly…

Israel reacts

DR Congo’s Heart of Darkness Gets Even Darker

Vietnamization of Afghanistan

Abu Ghraib 2.0: Pissing on Dead Afghans

U.S. Apologies Add Insult to Folly

U.S. Soldier Goes Postal

U.S. soldiers no more trustworthy than Taliban fighters?

Another Sign Afghanistan Is Lost Cause

Obama Droning al-Qaeda… Allahu Akbar!

How Many More Soldiers Must Die for a Mistake?

Obama’s surge fails

Egypt, Egypt, Egypt

Sexual Assault on CBS Reporter by Protesters

‘Liberated’ Egypt Thumbing Nose at U.S.

Protesters Return to Tahrir Square

Mubarak Gets Life

Morsi the Pharaoh…?

AMERICAS / CARIBBEAN

Simpson Miller, Jamaica’s First Female PM, Gets Second Chance

Antigua Police Owe Sir Ron an Apology

‘Antigua police, politicians come under fire’

Haiti Reconciles with ‘Baby Doc’

China Invading U.S. ‘Sphere of Influence’ in the Caribbean

Obama’s Bushism Highlight of Americas Summit

No Secret Service sex scandal … if supervisor were a man

Obama weighs-in

PLP Ousts Ruling FNM in The Bahamas

Viva Chávez … Again!

Chávez at death’s door

Amazonian Indians Defeat Chevron

ASIA

Myanmar: One Small Step for Democracy, One Giant Leap for Aung San Suu Kyi

Obama visits … too soon?

North Korea Commanding World Attention … Again

Missile test bombs

Thai PM Flirts with Obama, Incites Riots?

China, China, China

Jasmine Revolution Simmering in China

China’s Purging of Bo Xilai

Bo’s wife confesses

Blind Dissident Seeks Refuge at U.S. Embassy in China

Dissident ‘leaves’ embassy

China and Japan in Falklands-like Dispute

Japan fighting China with hot air

EUROPE

Concordia Another Titanic? Not Quite

Hacking Scandal Metastasizing Inside News Corp

Murdoch resigns

Russia: The Restoration of Vladimir Putin

‘Hello1937’—turning Russia back to Stalin days

Putin gives Pussy Riot the clamp

Hollande Defeats Sarkozy for President of France

Hollande nominates ‘first partner’ as speaker

Monaco: Forget the Spare, Produce an Heir!

Greece: a Tumor Growing in Europe

Brits Pray Lockerbie Bomber Took Secrets to Grave

The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee

Topless photos of future queen Kate

Ecuador Grants WikiLeaker Assange Asylum … in London

Al-Masri Extradition Prompts Journalist to Betray the Queen

Catalonia: Spain’s Kosovo Problem

The BBC’s Penn-State Problem

Heads roll

UNITED STATES

Vigilante Killing of Trayvon Martin

Zimmerman arrested; his wife too

The Prosecution of John Edwards

Edwards gets off

Legalize Marijuana!

Contestant Claims Miss USA Pageant Is Rigged. Duh

Pageant vindicated?

Arizona’s Controversial Anti-Immigration Law

Boy Scouts Have Catholic-Church Problem? Duh

Benign Honey Trap of CIA Director David Petraeus

Now a bona fide soap opera (All My Generals…?)

Petraeus Affair Part of Benghazi Cover Up?

Benghazi-gate? No, McCain fried Rice!

Obama taps Kerry for State. But…

Illegal Immigrants Do Jobs Americans Won’t…?

Ignore Chicken Littles. Fiscal Cliff as Real as Mayan Calendar

Republican blames Tea Party ‘chuckleheads’

Controversy at MLK Memorial

Shooting Rampages vs. Gun Control

Media Compounding Tragedy of Aurora

New York City Becoming New ‘Dodge’ City

Now Newtown

Sandy Hook Elementary: back to normal?

The Second Amendment and Gun Control

Obamacare

To The Supreme Court

Decision eve…

I was right! Court upholds Obamacare!

Individual Mandate: a Penalty or Tax?

The Will of the American People…?

The Presidential (Re)election

Iowa Caucuses: Much Ado About Nothing

Obama’s Press Secretary Cursed First Lady Michelle?!

In Support of Obama: Welcome Aboard Andrew Sullivan

Newt Gingrich’s Indecent Proposal

Obama’s State of the Union Address

Snooki Alert: Trump Endorses Romney

Susan G. Komen vs. Planned Parenthood

SGK reverses course

Abortions a Political Issue … Again?

Hillary: Running for VP, or Heading to WB?

Clinton caught ogling Christina’s boobs

Rush Limbaugh vs. Sandra Fluke

Romney Wins ‘Super Tuesday.’ Duh

The Politics of Gas

And the Republican Nominee (in fact) Is…

Hilary Rosen vs. Ann Romney

Romneys laughing all the way up the polls…

Obama-Clinton Kick Off Obama-Biden Campaign

Obama Evolves on Same-Sex Marriages

Blacks evolving or Obama leading?

Supreme Court to rule

Whites: Polling Obama, but Voting Romney?

Trump’s Birther Nonsense: Take 2

Shameless huckster strikes again

Holy Stuxnet! The White House Is Leaking!

Reporter Heckles Obama

Delusions of Despair Undermining Obama Presidency?

Super-rich irony

Romney’s Tax Returns vs. Obama’s College Transcripts?

Romney’s VP: Paul Ryan

VP Biden, Stop Your Dog-Whistling About Race!

Niall Ferguson: from Eminent Historian to Political Hack

The Party Conventions

White Guilt Key to Obama’s Re-election

The Debates: Just Making Waves…

Romney beats Obama

Black Actress Stacey Dash Pilloried for Supporting Romney

Why (Is) Buzz Bissinger Voting for Romney?

Race Still Matters

Obama Defeats Romney In A Landslide!

Smart people voted for Obama; dumb ones for Romney? Duh

Republicans Continue Stupid Efforts to Delegitimize Obama Presidency

Romney unplugged and unhinged … again

THE GLOBALSPHERE

Australia’s Aboriginal Spring

Rudest City in the World

Beating the Global Warming Dead Horse

Obama Nominates Korean-American to World Bank

Obama’s Kim appointed

LIBOR: Why Banking Scandal Is Becoming Redundant

Investment bankers as bagmen for terrorists and drug kingpins?!

The God Particle? Hardly

Get Over Mars Rover!

Prisoners Serving Time in a Restaurant?

UN General Assembly: Hurling Words, Not Bombs

The Wrath of Mother Nature

Hurricane Isaac: Republican Convention vs. Haitian Lives

Hurricane Sandy: Frankenstorm?

Unprecedented destruction; relatively few deaths

Bloomberg to Obama: Stay Away from NYC?!

Bloomberg endorses Obama

Now Venice is Flooding

SPORTS

NFL Championship Sunday

Prediction: Patriots over Giants 38-17

Giselle’s potty-mouth pout

Feds Give Lance Armstrong a Pass on Doping

USADA files doping charges

Armstrong fired!

New York Knicks: Stop the Linsanity!

Win-streak linished!

WTF: Colts Release Peyton Manning!

Broncos: we want Peyton; Tebow can go to Hell

March Madness: My NCAA Final Four

Sweet 16

March Gladness: My NCAA (Women’s) Final Four

Baylor Lady Bears National Champions

Forget the Miss USA Pageant, Boxing Is (even more) Rigged

Márquez knocks out Pacquiao

Roger Clemens Not Guilty, But Far from Innocent

Hall of Fame for Bonds, Clemens and Sosa, or end of steroids era?

Denied!

LeBron Leads Miami Heat to NBA Championship

Serena and Roger Triumph at Wimbledon … Again

Black Quarterbacks: NCAA vs. NFL

NFL: Replacement Refs … and the Call

Regular refs return

Major League Baseball: Congrats Nats!

Nats falter … again

Tigers sweep Yankees out of playoffs

Giants World Series Champions

The London Olympics

The Trials

Team USA Uniforms Made In China?! Where Else?

Olympics Giving New Meaning to ‘War Games’

Border agents to strike before terrorists do

Agents cave

The Opening Ceremony

Let The Games Begin!

Wheaties is so yesterday…

Closing Day

Pistorius falls from grace

In Defense of NBC’s Olympics and Paralympics Coverage

ENTERTAINMENT

‘Red Tails’ a Must-See Movie

The Grammys: a Postmortem

Judging Bobbi Kristina

‘The X Factor’

84th Annual Academy Awards

Post-Oscar review

Mike Tyson on Broadway?!

NBC Blurring Reality and Entertainment to Unseemly Degree

Taylor Swift Blurring Reality and TV to Unseemly Degree

Swift and Kennedy split. Duh

POTPOURRI

Beyoncé and Jay-Z: No Pimping Pictures of Our Baby

Jon Hamm: Kim Kardashian’s a F*#king Idiot

White Actresses Adopting Black Babies

My Good Friday Sermon

Jesus was married?!

Tyler Perry’s Claim of Racial Profiling is BS!

Police cleared of racial profiling

Stop Bitching About TSA Patdowns!

‘Fifty Shades of Grey’—Mainstreaming Kinky, Abusive Sex?

The Kid (Blanket) Is Not Michael’s Son?

John Travolta’s Indecent (Gay-Sex) Proposals

Facebook IPO: Just Floating Another Tech Bubble…

Floating … under water

European Women Finding ‘Paradise: Love’ With African Men

PSA: Smoking Litterbugs

Child-Sex Abuse: the Catholic Church and Penn State

Report: Coach Paterno engaged in pedophile cover-up

Scoop Doggy Poop … then Wipe that Ass!

Katie Divorces Tom: Duh (But Don’t Blame Scientology)

Women, Pleasure Your Man to Cure Morning Sickness?

Don’t let him see you give birth

Diana Nyad Fails Cuba-to-Florida Swim … Again

Skyfall: But the Name is Baumgartner, Felix Baumgartner

Twitter Rant: Take 2

Mayan Calendar Says The Apocalypse Is Now

Happy Festivus

Happy Kwanzaa

DEATHS OF FAMOUS PEOPLE

Don Cornelius, Creator and Host of ‘Soul Train’

Whitney Houston, Diva of Pop

Mike Wallace, Godfather of ‘60 Minutes’

Dick Clark, Trailblazing Entertainment Icon

Gore Vidal, Iconoclastic Author, Raconteur, Provocateur

Neil Armstrong, First Man on the Moon

Acknowledgement

Bibliography: Notes on Source Materials

About the Author

For Cde Soraya Booley,

still fighting for economic emancipation in

free South Africa…

Introduction

310804.jpg

What truly distinguishes my commentaries is their lack of conformity to any prevailing orthodoxy. I suspect, for example, that readers of celebrity commentators like Paul Krugman, Maureen Dowd, and Thomas Friedman have developed a vested interest in knowing that their commentaries on any topic will almost always conform to the conventional wisdom of the liberal establishment. What’s more, a cursory examination of this interest would likely reveal that it is far more emotional than intellectual. By contrast, people invariably remark—with evident exasperation—that they can’t tell whether I am a liberal or conservative commentator.

The point is that, unlike most political pundits and social critics, I have no vested interest (commercial or political) in proselytizing any ideology. From the day my hometown newspaper published my first commentary over 30 years ago (when I was still a teenager), my only aim has been to provide readers an irreverent, informed, and sometimes witty take on the events of the day. Therefore, far more than emulating those of any other commentator, I hope the seven volumes of my commentaries have kept faith with this aim. Which brings me to my eighth.

It is impossible to reflect on 2012 without lamenting the mercenary (Super-PAC) spectacle U.S. presidential campaigns have become. Like an antidote, though, it is equally impossible to do so without celebrating the camaraderie among all peoples that is continually strengthened through Olympic competition.

Yet, notwithstanding the spectacle, there’s no gainsaying that presidential campaigns evoke global interest, intrigue, and appeal that are rivaled only by the Olympic Games. Which is why this volume consists of more commentaries on these two topics than any other.

Of course, this is not to say that there were no other events equally worthy of comment—from the dying embers of the Arab Spring to the birthing pains of Burmese democracy, as well as happenings in culture and entertainment that were too provocative or titillating to resist. My interests are nothing if not eclectic.

Accordingly, as you browse the table of contents, I hope you will come across titles of many commentaries that will interest you to read them as much as I was inspired to write them.

Enjoy.

—ALH

January 2013

AFRICA / MIDDLE EAST

310807.jpg

Israel’s Mossad Strikes Again

January 13

Two years ago, agents from Israel’s revered Mossad were caught on CCTV in Dubai carrying out a hit on a senior Hamas leader. They were universally ridiculed, and I duly piled on:

It’s bad enough that these spies can be seen in Technicolor going into public bathrooms and coming out in their laughable disguises (some looking like clones of 1970s tennis player Bobby Riggs as they stalked al-Mabhou into the hotel elevator).

I doubt Mossad, known for its stealth and highly sophisticated operations, will ever live down viral videos of its agents acting more like keystone cops than James Bond as they carried out this mission.

(So Much for the Enviable Reputation of Israel’s Spy Agency, Mossad, The iPINIONS Journal, February 18, 2010)

Well, by all accounts, Mossad lived up to its reputation on Wednesday when its agents assassinated a deputy director of Iran’s main uranium enrichment plant with drama, skill, and stealth that would make Bond very proud indeed. They reportedly rode by on a motorbike in broad daylight, attached a magnetic bomb to his car, blew it to smithereens, and were long gone before anyone even realized what happened. This is the fourth time in two years an Iranian nuclear scientist has been assassinated in similar fashion, which all seems pursuant to a psychological warfare that Israel is waging against Iran.

But targeted assassinations will do nothing to impede Iran’s inexorable drive towards building a nuclear bomb. Not least because its nuclear scientists have far more to fear from the mullahs who have ordered them to build it than from the Israeli spies who are trying to take them out one by one. Likewise, the draconian sanctions the United States and Western countries are poised to impose will deter Iran no more than similar sanctions deterred North Korea—now a notorious and bona fide member of the nuclear club.

Of course, nobody is more aware of the limitations of targeted assassinations and sanctions (political and economic) than the Israelis. Which is why all of this psychological warfare must seem like mere foreplay before the big, inevitable bang to take out Iran’s nuclear facilities—with the only question being whether they will do it alone or in a gangbang with the Americans.

Mind you, the Iranians steadfastly claim that their nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes. Perhaps; but here is the dilemma their refusal to allow UN inspectors to verify their claim poses:

God help us if the United States, Israel, or a coalition of the willing attacks, and Iran’s nuclear program turns out to be no more threatening than the WMDs that were never found in Iraq. But God help us even more if nobody attacks, and Iran’s nuclear program turns out to have the holocaust capacity we all fear….

(New Sanctions on Iran: Shrewd or Naïve? The iPINIONS Journal, June 15, 2010)

NOTE: For the record, Iran blames Israel and the United States for this assassination, as well as for every other setback related to its nuclear program, including a series of cyber-attacks. For their part, Israel’s non-denial denial is as telling as the United States’ condemnation….

RELATED

Despite drumbeat, Israel will never attack Iran

February 21

The rhetoric now being hurled between the United States/Israel and Iran smacks of an unnerving echo of that which was hurled between the United States/Britain and Iraq before the ill-fated invasion of that country in 2003—complete with UN nuclear inspectors (then and now) on a wild-goose chase to find weapons of mass destruction.

The key difference, however, is that the indispensable party to this war dance with Iran is the pragmatic and prudent President Barack Obama; whereas, in the case of Iraq, it was the dogmatic and cocksure President George W. Bush. More to the point, unlike Bush, whose logic was to bomb first and seek peace later, Obama seems determined to seek peace first and bomb later … if necessary.

All the same, the United States/Israel and Iran are ratcheting up their psychological warfare to an unprecedented level. Commensurate with this, Israel is saying everything to give the impression that an attack is imminent. Except that this ploy is being undermined by its indispensable partner, the United States, which clearly deems such obvious blustering beneath its dignity as a superpower. For its part, Iran is saying everything to give the impression that it not only has the power to withstand any attack, but might launch a preemptive strike of its own: oy vey!

But here’s the deal:

I am convinced that, despite increasingly onerous sanctions, Iran will develop nuclear weapons. Not least because Iran is clearly following the North Korean precedent. Specifically, despite suffering for decades under the most comprehensive and stringent battery of sanctions, North Korea developed the nuclear weapons that it now uses as a Damoclean sword to extract all manner of political and economic concessions from the very countries, most notably the United States, that are still enforcing sanctions against it.

Yet I am convinced that, despite threatening to use military force to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, the United States/Israel will never attack. Not least because the United States has to wonder if Iran is just playing a cat-and-mouse game with the world over its nuclear program for the same reason Iraq did over its WMDs: it’s far more important for its neighbors to think that it has weapons to destroy them than it is for the world to know that it has no such weapons. Not to mention that an attack on Iran would stir up a veritable hornet’s nest—ranging from $6-per-gallon gasoline to effectively kicking off World War III.

And Hamlet thought he had a dilemma? Hell, having to decide when, or whether, to act in these circumstances could turn any thinking president (or prime minister) into a dithering fool.

(New Sanctions on Iran: Naïve or Shrewd? The iPINIONS Journal, June 15, 2010)

Most important, though, I am convinced that, despite its rhetoric about wiping Israel off the map, Iran will never attack Israel. This, for the same reason the Soviet Union/Russia has never attacked the United States: Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD). And rest assured that if any country thought it was beneficial (politically or financially) to sell nuclear weapons to terrorists, North Korea would have done so years ago.

It is worth noting, however, that when Iran acquires nuclear weapons, it will only be a matter of time before other countries in the region acquire them too. Indeed, according to the January 16, 2012 edition of the Wall Street Journal, Saudi Arabia signed a nuclear cooperation pact with China just last month to develop and use atomic energy for the same peaceful purposes Iran continually proffers….

As a general proposition, possessing nuclear weapons is sheer lunacy, which makes the United States and Russia the biggest lunatic nations in the history of mankind. Beyond this, trying to control which countries possess nuclear weapons under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is as inherently unfair as it is patently unenforceable.

Who says every sovereign nation does not have the same right to develop these weapons that the United States, Russia, China and others exercised…? Indeed, it is instructive that India, Pakistan and Israel refused to even sign the self-abnegating NPT.

(North Korea Has Nukes…Now What?! The iPINIONS Journal, October 6, 2006)

Obama dissing Netanyahu?

September 12

I am simply stupefied by the way Netanyahu has been publicly goading Obama—almost from day one of his presidency—to stop Iran’s nuclear program before it enters some amorphous zone of immunity (presumably where North Korea resides).

The world tells Israel: ‘Wait. There’s still time.’ And I say: ‘Wait for what? Wait until when?’ Those in the international community who refuse to put red lines before Iran don’t have a moral right to place a red light before Israel.

(Netanyahu, The Washington Post, September 11, 2011)

The problem, of course, is that Netanyahu’s woe-is-Israel schtick is belied by the record of Obama repeatedly endorsing Israel’s absolute right to act whenever and however it sees fit. In other words, all of his talk about red lines and red lights is just a red herring. If Netanyahu wants to attack Iran today, nobody’s stopping him. Except that this arrogant SOB would rather sit on his moral high-horse (playing the Holocaust card) and declaim falsely about Obama dictating when and how he should act to defend Israel’s national security interests while presuming to dictate to Obama when and how he should act to defend America’s national security interests with respect to Iran: talk about brass ones….

Incidentally, it’s not as if Netanyahu is privy to intelligence about the nature/progress of Iran’s nuclear program that Obama is not. He just thinks that he has some divine dispensation to treat Obama like his lapdog the way Bush treated UK Prime Minister Tony Blair. Apropos of this, it is noteworthy that Netanyahu is being supported in his rhetorical misadventure by the same coalition of crusading dunces (namely, Zionists, Christian fundamentalists, and new-world-order neo-cons) who goaded Bush into attacking Iraq. Not to mention that they have all been issuing Chicken-Little warnings about Iran being just months away from going nuclear since the late 1990s….

Thank God Obama is made of sterner stuff. He demonstrated this just yesterday when he rebuffed Netanyahu’s attempt to bully his way onto Obama’s schedule during his one-day visit to New York City later this month for the UN Annual General Assembly. But Netanyahu got the media spin he wanted when virtually every news reporter and political pundit began parroting the line about Obama dissing Netanyahu … again. None of these saps even bothered to question why this Israeli prime minister feels entitled to impose on this U.S. president in this imperious manner.

Anyway, screaming headlines about Obama refusing to meet with Netanyahu forced Obama’s spokesman to plead the obvious: there is and has been no lack of communication between these two leaders on strategies for dealing with Iran; everybody knows that every minute of the U.S. president’s time at the UN General Assembly is scheduled months in advance; and it would not be in America’s national interest for Obama to blow off a meeting with another world leader just to hold a non-emergency meeting with Netanyahu. All of which makes one question why Netanyahu would make such a stink about Obama not granting his last-minute request for what could only have been a meaningless photo-op? I submit, in a word: politics.

Foremost, if Netanyahu were truly interested in meeting with Obama, the media would never have known about his request and it would have been scheduled through the normal diplomatic channels. On the other hand, it is no secret that Netanyahu and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney are close personal friends. Indeed, they both went out of their way to broadcast this fact during Romney’s visit to Israel last month. Which is why this manufactured media conflict seems far more about Netanyahu’s desire to get his friend Mitt elected president of the United States than about any need to defend Israel. In fact, a cynical, reckless and hopelessly misguided Republican strategy holds that the more Romney slams Obama as anti-Israel, the better his chances are of winning the election.

In this light, it seems clear that Netanyahu is just providing fodder for Romney to continue perpetrating his big lie about Obama being the first president in U.S. history who would sooner throw Israel under the bus than help defend it. Never mind that this big lie has already been debunked not just by Israeli President Shimon Peres, but also by no less a person than Netanyahu’s own defense minister, Ehud Barack:

I am saying very clearly that…under this administration we went even further into a clear, deep, deep commitment to the security of Israel… I see the administration is ready to veto steps which are somewhat go against (sic) or perceived by us as being against the interests of Israel.

(Charlie Rose, March 24, 2010)

Not to mention that top military officials in Israel seem more in synch with the geo-strategic steps Obama is taking towards military confrontation with Iran than with the war-mongering steps Netanyahu is urging him to take: Obama maintains that the sanctions regime in place is having the desired effect. Netanyahu wants to draw red lines that trigger certain war—except that getting him to state where those lines should be drawn is rather like getting Romney to state what deductions he would subtract so that his tax policy adds up.

The United States will always have Israel’s back… Loose talk of war only plays into Iran’s hands. Now is not the time for bluster. Now is the time to let our increased pressure sink in.

(Obama, Associated Press, March 5, 2012)

What more could any Israeli prime minister (in his right mind) want?!

Honestly, I suspect there are many more Israelis who are embarrassed by Netanyahu’s tail-wagging-the-dog impudence than there are Americans who believe Obama is dissing (or has ever dissed) him. Then, of course, there’s the irony of the Mormon Romney and Jew Netanyahu being bonded by the self-loathing fact that they have sold their political souls to Christian fundamentalists who believe that Netanyahu and Romney have to deny their religion, respectively, to make it into Heaven: schmucks.

Kenya’s Uhuru Kenyatta Indicted

January 24

It’s simply impossible for any Westerner to fully appreciate the significance of the son of Jomo Kenyatta (1889-1978) being indicted yesterday by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges of organizing a campaign of rape and murder against political opponents. The closest analogy I suppose would be if Prince William were indicted on similar charges for crimes committed during a mission to reinforce colonial rule in the Falkland Islands.

In any case, the crimes against humanity being alleged against Uhuru stem from the orgy of violence that erupted in December 2007 when incumbent President Mwai Kibaki refused to cede power to Raila Odinga after losing a free and fair presidential election. Here, in part, is how I commented on this African pathology as it was playing out back then:

I am simply crestfallen by Kenya’s rapid descent into Rwandan-style tribal warfare in recent weeks. Despite manifestations of congenital kleptocracy, it was just beginning to appear worthy of being called a beacon of democracy on that Dark Continent.

But when President Mwai Kibaki and his ruling party refused to cede power after losing national elections on December 27, I was so mindful, indeed fearful, of the potential for widespread civil unrest that I wrote the following:

‘[T]his sets up the all too familiar prospect of Africans resorting to tribal warfare to settle their political disputes… Those of us who are still hoping against hope for a political awakening in Africa cannot help but look on in despair as Kenya descends back into the heart of darkness—where bloodlust gives rise to more Idi Amins and Rwandan-style genocides….’

(Conflict in Kenya: Another African Genocide in the Making, The iPINIONS Journal, January 17, 2008)

When the dust settled—with Kibaki and Odinga forming a grand coalition government—1,200 people were reported killed and 600,000 displaced. But I wonder what evidence the ICC possesses that ties Uhuru and the three other prominent Kenyans it indicted to the rapes and murders that were committed. And am I the only one who finds it a little too convenient that, of the four indicted, two of them supported Kibaki (namely, Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and Cabinet Secretary Francis Muthaura) and two supported Odinga (namely, former Education Minister William Ruto and radio presenter Joshua Arap Sang)? Frankly, this seems a contrived attempt by the ICC to forestall more score-settling and communal violence by saying, in effect, a pox on both your houses.

What’s more, I doubt any of these men had any hands-on involvement in any of the violence at issue. And if the charges stem just from inciting and organizing what the BBC described as a bloody round of score-settling and communal violence, then surely no two people are more responsible than Kibaki and Odinga themselves. Which makes this rather like blaming Hitler’s generals but not Hitler himself, no? For what it’s worth, all of the men vehemently deny the charges. But, to their credit, all have declared their willingness to cooperate with the ICC’s legal process.

In the meantime, Uhuru and Ruto were both preparing to stand in the presidential election scheduled for next year. Chances are very good, however, that their trials will not be held before that election, and it would be utterly untenable for them to participate with this Damoclean sword of prosecution hanging over their heads. This is why I hope their cooperation with the ICC extends to withdrawing their candidacies. At the very least, President Kibaki should relieve Uhuru of his official duties pending the outcome of his trial….

NOTE: Uhuru’s biography states that he attended Amherst College in Massachusetts. But he spent so much time in the early 1980s hanging out at my college, Williams, that I thought he was a student there. Trust me, Blacks were so few in number that it’s very easy to remember people. Besides, Uhuru’s distinctive features made him stand out even among us.

UPDATE

Kenyatta running … for president

December 17

Were Mr. Kenyatta to be elected, there are concerns the trial might make him an absentee president… In another twist, William Ruto, a Rift Valley parliamentarian also indicted at the ICC and whose supporters fought against Mr. Kenyatta’s after the election, is now Mr. Kenyatta’s running mate.

(Financial Times, December 17)

Well, I suppose if their respective bosses could form a coalition government, why not them. Alas, that ethnic clashes have already begun does not bode well for Kenya….

Tweeting Genocidal Joseph Kony to Death?

March 8

It speaks volumes about the confluence of virtual reality and actual reality that erstwhile sensible people seem convinced that a one-day chain of celebrity tweets can do more to capture Africa’s most brutal guerrilla fighter, Joseph Kony, than foot soldiers who have been trying to capture him for more than a decade.

Specifically, much is being made in the media this week about the U.S.-based group Invisible Children deploying tweets to bring an end to [Kony’s] Lords Resistance Army. To this end, this once-obscure group is making headlines for enlisting celebrities like Taylor Swift and Rihanna to tweet pithy messages tagged #StopKony2012 to their millions of followers. These tweets also link to a slick video that chronicles Kony’s crimes against humanity in propaganda fashion that makes Hitler seem sympathetic. However, for an audience whose attention span is limited to 140 characters or a 90-second video, I doubt more than a handful of people will bother to watch the entire 30 minutes of this Kony documentary.

Frankly, Invisible Children’s entire campaign smacks of little more than a feel-good PR stunt (perhaps even a misleading ploy to raise funds for administrative rather than charitable purposes). In fact, I would wager a fair amount of my pride that if you were to ask Rihanna and any of her followers a week from today who Joseph Kony is, they would react as if you asked what the Higgs Boson is…. Though, to be charitable, I suppose Invisible Children’s thinking is that if pro-democracy protesters could use Facebook to depose Mubarak, then idle-minded twitterers can use Twitter to capture Kony.

Except that Facebook was useful only insofar as it enabled people on the ground in Egypt to organize mass protests on a persistent basis, which ended up posing a direct, immediate, and demonstrably untenable threat to the Mubarak regime. Whereas, apart from placing Kony in the same black hole of public consciousness where Darfur and African famine reside, I don’t see the point of this Twitter campaign. For example, does anyone think a similar campaign would have helped in any way to capture Osama bin Laden? I think not. On the other hand, the folks at Invisible Children should take hope from President Obama’s decision (reported in the October 14, 2011 edition of the Washington Post) to deploy U.S. Special Forces to assist local forces in their ongoing hunt for Kony.

In the meantime, lest I come across as just a bystander pooh-poohing Invisible Children’s efforts, please be advised that I was raising public consciousness about Kony six years ago in If You Think Idi Amin Was Evil, Meet Joseph Kony, The iPINIONS Journal, March 27, 2006. Back then this genocidal maniac was committing the worst of his crimes and the Ugandan people would have welcomed the moral and financial support now being orchestrated ostensibly on their behalf.

UPDATE

Kony still at-large

December 31

I trust it will come as no surprise that the only noteworthy thing Invisible Children’s Twitter campaign accomplished was to heap so much notoriety upon the twit who launched it that he lost his mind.

In fact, the last thing anyone seems to have heard about him or his campaign was when he was arrested on March 15 for running around his California neighborhood stark naked in broad daylight yelling gibberish to himself. He was summarily committed to a psychiatric ward.

Meanwhile, Kony continues to kill, rape, and pillage—albeit at a greatly reduced incidence. The search for him continues….

Charles Taylor Convicted in The Hague

April 27

Yesterday the UN Special Court for Sierra Leone in The Hague convicted former Liberian President Charles Taylor on 11 counts of aiding and abetting all manner of crimes against humanity, including murder and rape. This conviction practically guarantees that he will spend the rest of his life in prison.

But I predicted his fate would be thus:

As a warlord, Taylor commanded rebel forces who raped, tortured, and killed indiscriminately on their march to power. And as president of Liberia, he aided, abetted, and traded (guns for diamonds) with warlords in Sierra Leone whose rebel forces did there what his did in Liberia…

So here’s to the fate that awaits Charles Taylor (think Slobodan, not Saddam). And let’s hope that his capture puts all despots (like Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe) on notice that their day of reckoning is drawing nigh. Because Taylor today, Kony tomorrow? Who knows for whom the bell will toll in due course?

(Good News: Charles Taylor Captured, The iPINIONS Journal, March 31, 2006)

This second paragraph on the precedent I thought Taylor’s capture set is particularly noteworthy. Because here is how the BBC parroted this notion yesterday in its report on Taylor’s conviction:

The indictment of Charles Taylor took war crimes jurisprudence to a new level, establishing the principle that a serving head of state was not immune from prosecution.

The later indictments by the International Criminal Court of Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir and former Ivory Coast leader Laurent Gbagbo of Ivory Coast are a testament to the significance of the Taylor precedent.

I take exception, however, to reports (like the BBC’s) that suggest this precedent applies only to African despots. Indeed, you’ll note that I cited the precedent set by the prosecution of the European despot Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia when I wrote about the good news of Taylor’s indictment and capture. (The only reason Taylor now has the unenviable distinction of being the first head of state to be convicted by an international war-crimes tribunal is that Milosevic died during his trial before the inevitable guilty verdict could be rendered.)

Frankly, it seems an egregious oversight that the BBC did not even mention Vladimir Putin of Russia. After all, this news organization has been in the vanguard of those reporting on how Putin is aiding and abetting all manner of crimes against humanity in Syria today just as Taylor did in Sierra Leone:

On 10 January, a Russian cargo ship loaded with containers from the country’s main arms exporter made an unscheduled stop at the port of Limassol in Cyprus…

A well-placed source has confirmed to the BBC that it was carrying tons of ammunition destined for the Syrian security forces which stand accused of committing atrocities against their own people, killing and torturing thousands since the uprising began last year.

(BBC, January 30, 2012)

Which clearly begs the question. If Taylor of Liberia can be hauled to The Hague and tried for aiding and abetting atrocities that were committed in Sierra Leone, why shouldn’t Putin of Russia face the same fate for aiding and abetting similar atrocities now being committed in Syria?

Of course, the UN has a dubious record of sanctioning the relatively powerless for things the powerful do with impunity. Consider, for example, the way Obama of the United States has gotten away with violating Pakistan’s sovereignty for years by launching drone missiles into its territory at will, killing suspected terrorists and innocent civilians alike. This is why I have no doubt that Putin will get a pass; whereas it’s only a matter of time before Syrian President Bashar al-Assad ends up in The Hague (or dead).

UPDATE

Judgment Day

May 31

As the quote above from my March 31, 2006 commentary attests, in predicting Taylor’s conviction, I also noted that his fate would be dying in obscurity in a prison cell in The Hague (just like the late President Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia).

Well, the court affirmed his fate yesterday by sentencing the 64-year-old Taylor to prison for 50 years.

May he rot in peace….

Assad of Syria Continues to Massacre with Impunity

May 29

Reports over the weekend on the massacre (door to door, execution style) of over 100 men, women, and children in the Houla region of Syria by forces still loyal to President Bashar al-Assad had the international community recoiling in horror.

I have come to Syria at a critical moment in this crisis… I am personally shocked and horrified by the tragic incident in Houla.

(Kofi Annan, UN-Arab League envoy, BBC, May 28, 2012)

Except that all expressions of outrage—by everyone from Annan to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton—ring hollow when one recalls that reports a few weeks ago on a similar massacre in Homs also had the international community recoiling in horror. Not to mention that the outrage over Homs preceded similar reaction to reports a few months ago on a similar massacre in Hama.

A surprising number of world leaders seemed to take consolation in the ceasefire agreement Annan brokered in the aftermath of Homs. According to a CNN report yesterday, Assad promised to stop using tanks and other heavy weaponry to shell the rebel forces who have been trying for 15 months now to bring their version of the Arab Spring to fruition. Alas, the only ceasefire agreement more ill-fated than this was the one British PM Neville Chamberlain (and others) brokered in the aftermath of the 1938 annexation of the Sudetenland by Germany. According to that peace-for-our-time agreement, Adolf Hitler promised, never to go to war again….

But to recoil in utter cynicism at the way the international community has stood by and allowed Assad to massacre thousands of his own people, all one has to know is that no less a person than U.S. President Barack Obama pledged the following after Muammar Gaddafi merely threatened to massacre his own people:

Action is necessary … he’s demonstrated his willingness to use brute force… Here’s why this matters to us: Left unchecked, we have every reason to believe Gadhafi would commit atrocities against his own people. Many thousands could die.

(NPR, March 18, 2011)

More to the point, U.S.-led NATO forces backed up Obama’s words by bombing Gaddafi’s forces to such smithereens that rebel forces soon caught the dictator cowering like a rat in a drainage pipe and executed him on the spot.

Many political analysts are asserting that only one word explains NATO getting involved in Libya but not in Syria: oil. And they can cite the way the British government released the Lockerbie bomber to Libya in exchange for oil leases as testament to this fact. But I think there is more to it than that.

NATO got involved in Libya primarily because bombing Gaddafi’s forces was like shooting sitting ducks; Obama and other NATO leaders had no reason to fear this bombing igniting a regional conflagration; and Gaddafi had no superpower patron. By contrast, because the fighting in Syria is confined to such a small, densely populated area, bombing Assad’s forces would likely kill unacceptable numbers of rebel forces and innocent civilians too; given that Syria borders Israel, Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan, and Iraq, it would be an understatement to say that NATO bombing might ignite a regional conflagration; and, perhaps above all else, Russia (as patron) is flexing all that remains of its superpower muscle to prevent any foreign intervention. This latter point is particularly noteworthy because the double standard involved in NATO’s bombing of Libya is easily surpassed by the amorality involved in Russia’s opposition to similar bombing in Syria.

To be fair, Russia insists that it is standing on the principle that no nation has the right to interfere in the domestic affairs of another. Except that this principle is patently self-serving and unsustainable. Not least because, pursuant to it, Russia would have to oppose an international coalition to intervene even if Assad were exterminating millions of Jews the way Hitler did during World War II. And, by the way, Russia’s attempt to bootstrap Assad’s massacre of his people to the global war against terrorism only makes its support for him all the more unconscionable.

This is why instead of just jumping on the United States and NATO for failing to do in Syria what they did in Libya, I feel compelled to reserve a little condemnation for Russia (and for China—given that it invokes this same specious principle of non-interference in its role as patron to indicted war criminals like President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan). Mind you, it should be noted that, in addition to protecting geostrategic interests, Russian and Chinese leaders are also expressing solidarity with Assad because he happens to be emulating the brute force they have used, and intend to continue using, to hold on to power in their respective countries.

All the same, it amounts to untenable passivity for the United States and its allies to refuse to at least supply rebel forces with armaments the way Russia and its allies (most notably Iran) are supplying Assad. After all, while diplomats like Annan are expressing fears about Syria descending into full-scale civil war, Assad is waging a de facto civil war against an enemy that does not have the weapons necessary to defend itself. And, apropos of international outrage ringing hollow, the United States and NATO should bear in mind that Assad would not have been able to perpetrate the massacres in Homs and Houla if they had merely supplied the rebels with weapons as some of us have been pleading for them to do for nearly one year now:

May God in Heaven help the pro-democracy protesters in Syria. Because it’s heart-wrenchingly clear that nobody on earth will.

(Libya, but Not Syria, The iPINIONS Journal, August 2, 2011)

So, at least in this sense, some of the blood of the estimated 10,000 Syrians who, according to the United Nations, have been slaughtered since then is on their hands.

Then there’s this:

Won’t these brutal dictators ever learn…?

Think what you will of the cowardly path Tunisia’s Ben Ali took by fleeing into exile, at least he was smart enough to avoid the humiliation Egypt’s Mubarak is now suffering by being wheeled into court on his death bed to face trial, which will surely end in his Saddam-like execution; or the summary fate that has now befallen Libya’s Gaddafi.

(Gaddafi is Dead, The iPINIONS Journal, October 21, 2011)

Frankly, it is stupefying that, despite these instructive precedents, Assad chose to stay and fight rather than take the money and run … when he still could. Because everybody knows that it’s only a matter of time before growing international outrage compels the United States and NATO to begin providing all manner of military assistance to rebel forces, which may well include ground troops from Turkey. And everybody knows that when his inevitable fall becomes imminent Russia will not hesitate to drop him like a hot potato … just as the United States did with Mubarak.

In any event, the only question now is whether Assad’s dictatorship will end with a whimper like Mubarak’s, or with a bang like Gaddafi’s.

RELATED

Why Putin, not Obama, is master of Assad’s fate

December 14

For the sake of the Syrian people, the time has come for President Assad to step aside.

One can be forgiven for thinking that, with those words, President Obama sealed the fate of Bashar Assad as surely and immediately as, with a thumb down, an emperor sealed the fate of a Roman gladiator. After all, as leader of the world’s only superpower, Obama can seal the fate of more men with the stroke of his pen than Commodus ever could with the show of his thumb—as the few remaining al-Qaeda leaders now cowering in caves from Obama’s aerial drones will attest.

Yet the Washington Post quotes him pronouncing those seemingly fateful words well over a year ago (on August 8, 2011). Which compels one to wonder how Assad managed not only to survive, but to massacre tens of thousands of the people Obama seemed so concerned about? The answer, frankly, can be summed up in one name: Vladimir Putin.

For the simple fact is that while Obama was aiming to deal with Assad as a twenty-first century, multilateral statesman, Putin was aiming to score geo-political points as a twentieth century, bipolar cold warrior. Specifically, while Obama steadfastly refused to supply weapons to anti-Assad forces to back up his words, Putin wasted no time supplying Assad with all he needed to destroy them—no doubt hoping to make Syria as much a satellite state for Russia today as Cuba was for the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War.

But Putin is no fool. He knows better than to have blood still dripping from his hands when this Syrian dictator falls. Which is why he has begun washing his hands of Assad:

Russia’s top Middle East diplomat and the leader of NATO offered dark and strikingly similar assessments of the embattled Syrian president’s future on Thursday, asserting that he was losing control of the country after a nearly two-year conflict that has taken 40,000 lives and has threatened to destabilize the Middle East.

(New York Times, December 13, 2012)

In other words, for the sake of Putin’s reputation, the time really has come for President Assad to … flee.

Reparations from Britain for Colonialism?

July 18

To listen to some critics you’d think British colonialism was utterly devoid of any redeeming value. But as one who was subjected to it throughout much of his youth, I can attest that this is not so. Indeed, all one has to do is juxtapose the way education and civil service have floundered in post-colonial countries in Africa with the way they thrived in those countries during colonialism to counter unqualified criticism in this respect.

Having said that, let me hasten to assert that nothing, not even a good education and a competent civil service, can possibly justify the dominion British colonialists exercised over native people from India to the Caribbean. Especially because British mercantilism meant raping and pillaging local resources for the benefit of Mother England. Not to mention the practice of racial segregation (i.e., de facto apartheid), which reinforced the dehumanizing nature of colonialism.

More to the point, as British journalist and historian Richard Gott notes in Britain’s Empire: Resistance,