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understanding the current political world

a briefing document

New translation, the Magna Carta

Understanding the current political world puts together apparently disparate current events in a coherent fashion that helps to explain why our leaders are taking particular, sometimes unpopular, actions.
related material
replacing fossil fuels - the scale of the problem citizen’s wage
definitive history of the oil industry: a book review    
Index
significant defence relationships
fusion - a future alternative power source
terrorists, criminals and the world policeman

    ensuring terrorists fail
    are terrorist groups politically relevant beyond their nuisance value?

Endnotes

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significant defence relationships

“A statement signed by India's defense minister, Pranab Mukherjee, and the U.S. defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, in Washington on Tuesday night [28/06/2005] said that the United States and India had "entered a new era" and declared that the two countries' defense relationship had advanced to "unprecedented levels of cooperation." ”

“ However, he also sensed a shadow of shared U.S. and Indian unease over China lingering over the document, which he said would be the subject of close scrutiny in Beijing. "China is like the ghost at the banquet - an unspoken presence that no one wants to talk about," Mansingh said.” [Quoted from iht.com]

“Strong exports and home-building has kept the US economy growing faster than expected, official figures show.
Gross domestic product (GDP) rose at an annual rate of 3.8% in January-March 2005, above the initial 3.1% estimate and in line with the previous quarter.” [Quoted from bbc.co.uk]return to the index

fusion - a future alternative power source

Meanwhile fusion power takes an essential step.
Here is a useful summary article:

“The objective of the ITER machine is to demonstrate the scientific feasibility of fusion, with extended controlled burn and, marginally, ignition, for a duration sufficient to achieve stationary conditions on all time-scale characteristics of plasma processes and plasma-wall interactions. To do so the installation will produce 500 MW of fusion power during pulses of at least 400 seconds.

“The Six international Parties that are co-operating to develop ITER are: China, EU, Japan, Russia, South Korea, and the United States. The negotiations take place under the auspices of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Canada was also a party to the negotiations, but withdrew in December 2003.” [Quoted from finfacts.com]

Only by removing the dreadful dependency on fossil fuels and developing enuf technology and power to bring the world to a better standard of living will the pressures from primitivism and survival leave a route forward to greater human civilisation.

terrorists, criminals and the world policeman

ensuring terrorists fail

Meanwhile, George W. Bush lays out the realities to the primitivist jihadi and left cultists. Provided link contains a javascript link to a video of explicit and timely speech from GW Bush. Full transcript.

“Some of the violence you see in Iraq is being carried out by ruthless killers who are converging on Iraq to fight the advance of peace and freedom. Our military reports that we have killed or captured hundreds of foreign fighters in Iraq who have come from Saudi Arabia and Syria, Iran, Egypt, Sudan, Yemen, Libya and others. They are making common cause with criminal elements, Iraqi insurgents, and remnants of Saddam Hussein's regime who want to restore the old order. They fight because they know that the survival of their hateful ideology is at stake. They know that as freedom takes root in Iraq, it will inspire millions across the Middle East to claim their liberty, as well. And when the Middle East grows in democracy and prosperity and hope, the terrorists will lose their sponsors, lose their recruits, and lose their hopes for turning that region into a base for attacks on America and our allies around the world.

“Some wonder whether Iraq is a central front in the war on terror. Among the terrorists, there is no debate. Hear the words of Osama Bin Laden: "This Third World War is raging" in Iraq. "The whole world is watching this war." He says it will end in "victory and glory, or misery and humiliation."

“The terrorists know that the outcome will leave them emboldened, or defeated. So they are waging a campaign of murder and destruction. And there is no limit to the innocent lives they are willing to take.”

“These are savage acts of violence, but they have not brought the terrorists any closer to achieving their strategic objectives. The terrorists -- both foreign and Iraqi -- failed to stop the transfer of sovereignty. They failed to break our Coalition and force a mass withdrawal by our allies. They failed to incite an Iraqi civil war. They failed to prevent free elections. They failed to stop the formation of a democratic Iraqi government that represents all of Iraq's diverse population. And they failed to stop Iraqis from signing up in large number with the police forces and the army to defend their new democracy.

“The lesson of this experience is clear: The terrorists can kill the innocent, but they cannot stop the advance of freedom. The only way our enemies can succeed is if we forget the lessons of September the 11th, if we abandon the Iraqi people to men like Zarqawi, and if we yield the future of the Middle East to men like Bin Laden. For the sake of our nation's security, this will not happen on my watch.”

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are terrorist groups politically relevant beyond their nuisance value?

“What does it mean to win a war against guerilla insurgents? What does it mean for a guerilla insurgency to triumph? The one answer that is popularly advanced -- one that is implicit in Scoblete's argument -- is that guerillas win if they simply remain in existence. This site lists more than 383 armed guerilla groups extant in the world today. Clearly all of them exist and just [as] clearly not all of them are triumphant. There are, for instance 27 armed guerilla groups in India, 9 in Britain (the most famous of which is the Irish Republican Army) and 11 in the United States. Yet no one asks whether it is premature to declare the Westminster Parliament in control of the Northern Ireland or wonder whether Los Matcheteros will take over the Washington DC. And the reason is simple: while the IRA and Los Matcheteros are still likely to exist in 2010, there is little or no chance that these organizations will seize state power in all or even part of Britain or the United States. Seizing state power over a definite territory is the explicit objective of nearly every guerilla armed force in the world today: if they can achieve that, they win. If they cannot achieve that and have no realistic prospect of ever achieving that, they are defeated, however long they may continue to exist." [Quoted from Belmont Club]return to the index


Related further reading
replacing fossil fuels - the scale of the problem
citizen’s wage
definitive history of the oil industry: a book review


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