War and the Quest for Energy

6/9/2006

WAR AND THE QUEST FOR ENERGY

Today is the first day of the World Cup in Germany. I have never been much of a sports fan, but since three billion other people are expected to view at least part of the series on television, I thought I might as well make it three billion and one. So last night I read up on the “Laws of the Game” on the FIFA website and this morning I tuned in to the opening ceremonies and watched the first half of the game between Germany and Costa Rica. The play by play was in Spanish, so I largely missed that, but enjoyed watching the plays, especially the physical skills and endurance of the players. I decided to be for the Latinos, but then again, I usually find myself on the side of the underdogs.

At the half-time, I went to the Internet and began reading an article in Asia Times Online, and found again that the game of international geopolitics is more fascinating to me than sports, exciting as sports can be. The Internet is such a wealth of information on any topic. For Geopolitics, my home page is BBC News, which I scan first for the latest news from all sections of the world. Then I read the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times, because they seem to be the only papers in the U.S. which do investigating reporting anymore. I scan the Miami Herald for news from Latin America. Then I go to the Guardian in the UK, and on to the Moscow Times, Itar-Tass, and Kommorsant in Moscow, and Xinhuanet in China. I end up in Hong Kong with Asia Times, which seems to have more information, quite accurate usually, which I have not found elsewhere.

I have been reading about the quests for energy by various countries of the world and had begun to appreciate how especially Russia and China were going about it in ways quite different from the United States. While the U.S. has been running up massive debt and losing friends in its military endeavors to secure hegemony in the Middle East and Central Asian oilfields and spreading “democracy”, all in the name of the “war on terror”, Russia and China have been building up large reserves of cash, Russia cashing in on selling oil and gas, and China from selling manufactured goods to the U.S. The U.S. manufactures Dollars and sells them in the form of Treasury Notes to China and to many other countries that are willing to invest in the American people.

Russia has been paying off its debts, and this year will have paid off all the entire debt of the former Soviet Union. It is rapidly recovering from the disastrous financial chaos created by Boris Yeltsin’s “give-away” of national wealth. It is now consolidating its gas production and distribution at home and expanding into Europe, Algeria, Central Asia, Turkey, and now even Israel. Gasprom is close to being the largest corporation in the world.

I knew, of course, that China, as well as India, was seeking new sources of oil and gas in Russia, Central and Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Africa, South America, and even Canada, but F. William Engdahl describes so well in this article in Asia Times[1] how China is using its wealth of U.S. Dollars in these endeavors. For instance, China loans $2 billion to Angola to build infrastructure and in return receives a stake in oil exploration off the coast. “Chinese infrastructure projects under way in Angola include railways, roads, a fiber-optic network, schools, hospitals, offices and 5,000 units of housing developments. A new airport with direct flights from Luanda to Beijing is also planned.” He reports that China is doing the same in other oil-rich countries of Africa. I read elsewhere how the Chinese government is setting up hundreds of “Confucius Institutes” in cooperation with universities around the world, including some in the United States, where people can study the Chinese language and learn about Chinese culture. You might say that the Chinese have learned “How to Win Friends and Influence People”.

Hugo Chávez, President of Venezuela, who also has considerable oil wealth, is attempting to do the same in Latin America, but with his big head and loud mouth he instead is losing friends and driving people away.

So we have the Bush Administration, with most of Congress going along and no one offering an alternate course, building more nuclear weapons, the next generation of high-tech armaments, and carrying them into Space, and now, the military bogged down in Iraq, and the Taliban apparently resurging in Afghanistan. It should becoming clear to all that “WAR IS NOT THE ANSWER” and that military solutions will not bring us peace, but only more people who hate us.

What IS the Answer?????

Well, before you can provide the answer to the problem, one must first define the problem. There are many problems in the world, but here I am talking about the Middle East. I believe that the majority of the people of the Middle East would say that the occupation of Palestine territory, and now the occupation of Iraq, and all the accompanying violence and deprivations are the things that they resent the most. I believe they also believe, as do we in the West, that people should be able to select and participate in their own governance, i.e. democratic process.

So let’s stop the occupations and also promote true democracy, which also means the people choosing their own value systems.

Israel has occupied all the Palestinian territories, and some of Syria, for nearly 40 years. The chef reason for this is that they had harbored the idea that they could incorporate all of it into the “Greater Israel” of Biblical times. The only problem was that there were too many Palestinian natives, so that Israel could not have them all as citizens and still have an “Israeli” democratic state. So after all this time of building settlements, the government realizes that they cannot “have it all”, but plan to keep the best parts and crowd the Palestinians into what is left. This is not justice.

The Arab League at least as long ago as 2002 said that they would accept Israel and make peace if Israel would withdraw to the 1967 borders. The U.N. Security Council long ago demanded that Israel withdraw to the 1967 borders. Now, even Hamas, the new government of the Palestinian Authority, has said it would recognize Israel if it would stop the occupation and draw back to the 1967 borders.

Hosni Mubarak, President of Egypt, recently confirmed what I have been thinking for some time. In order to bring peace to the Middle East, all of the major problems need to be addressed at the same time.

I suggest that The Quartet, consisting of the U.S., the U.N., the E.U. and Russia, which has been trying to solve the Israeli-Palestinian problem, be expanded to include all Middle East countries, and probably China as well. The rights of all people in the region will be recognized, it will be agreed that the occupations shall end, and that the governments of Iraq, and Palestine will be supported until they can function effectively on their own, that all governments will be expected to have free and open elections and the democratic outcome will be accepted. It also will be recognized that there is a significant difference between terrorism (violence against innocent civilians) and insurgencies against occupying forces. With democratic elections, insurgencies will be expected to enter freely into the democratic process, but violence against civilians will be treated as criminal offenses. At the same time, state violence against its own citizens will be considered to be international crime.

All countries need to recognize that military force is legitimate only for the defense of the country. Minimum international standards of law and justice need to be developed and be enforced by means, also to be developed. The world is facing many other problems, poverty, health, education, environmental degradation, and global warming, but none of these can be effectively addressed as long as wars continue.

Economics is the engine that drives our world civilization, and while capitalism is recognized as an effective means of creating wealth, services, and goods, it needs to be balanced with social policies which meet the basic needs of life for all people, i.e., food, clothing, shelter, medical care, education, protection, and opportunity.

Am I hoping for too much? Probably, but I had given up all hope because I could not see a way to peace. At least it is better to hope than despair.

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[1] SPEAKING FREELY
US outflanked in Eurasia energy politics
By F William Engdahl

ASIA TIMES Online

www.atimes.com

June 10, 2006