The Separation Oath

Israel has done it again. Just when you thought they couldn't get anymore chauvinistic or tribal they never cease to amaze me. Binyamin Netanyahu finally agreed on having a loyalty oath in which Arab (now Jewish) people who live in Israel or at least wish to live there have to pledge allegiance to a "Jewish and democratic" Israeli state. The problem is whether or not Israelis wish their state to be democratic in nature but if they want it to be Jewish or not.

It's claimed that this is meant to forge unity amongst Israel's new immigrant populations from the former Soviet Union, the US, Ethiopia, Yemen, Iran wherever but I highly doubt this is meant for that purpose. People who come to live in Israel seek to self-actualize their Jewish identity in their "God-given" country. You don't need an oath to do that. This legislation is meant to do two things; appease the extremists in Israel and ensure a Zionist state.

This oath, (authored by right-wing foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman - a former Russian bouncer) gives more legitimacy to his Shaas party and helps him win even more support from Israeli settlers in the West Bank and more zionist leaning Israelis all over the country where Jews are sparse such as the Negev and Galilee. This in turns threatens a possible peace deal - (though it's not like Israel actually wants a peace settlement) and will pro-longed the conflict obviously in Israel's favour as Arabs inside and outside of Israel are increasingly marginalized.

Finally, this measure allows for the creation of a Zionist state. Using the law in order to ensure racial/ethnic purity is nothing new. Apartheid in South Africa is an example Israel detractors like to bring up often since the West Bank is resembling a terrible Bantu-stan and the Gaza Strip is still just an open air prison camp. Also, the United States had a go at Jim Crow when Reconstruction failed after its Civil War all the way until 1965. Nearly 100 years! The most important factor of this oath is that it'll create a mental segregation of Israel's Arab population which is currently 20% of the population and growing as are the Palestinians.

Doing this ensures no Jewish state and will ultimately come to hurt Israel as it turns on its Arabs. The only Arabs in the Middle East who somewhat didn't mind Israel.

Bloody Anatolia

Anatolia (the Turkish peninsula) is one of those few places which seem especially bloody in a world map for some odd reason. Places like Northern India, Central Europe & Africa not forgetting Eastern Asia have seen some of history's worst bloodletting and Anatolia is no different.

Around 2000 BC or so the Hittites, a iron welding charioteer group of people controlled Anatolia. As they expanded their Empire they clashed with their greatest enemy, the Egyptians who ruled Canaan. After biting off a piece of Canaan the Egyptians attacked and had a massive battle at Kadesh ending in a draw. After signing a peace treaty with the Egyptians the Hittites started to decline and eventually collapsed when the Achaean Greeks were besieging places like Wilusa aka Troy. By 1200 BC it was all over.Soon Greek speaking peoples began settling Anatolia, they settled over all over the Mediterrenean. From Egypt to Southern France. The Greek archipelago during that period of time had very little farmland (especially for a growing population) for new farmers. Greek settlers and traders set up in the Black Sea as well. Soon kingdoms developed like Lydia which were smart enough to develop the beginnings of Greek philosophy...but not smart enough to ignore the Oracle at Delphi. King Croesus of Lydia offered the usual sacrifice at Croesus using his kindgoms' riches and in return he was told to attack the Medes (Persians). Baaaad move. The Persians were on the move. They surprised attack the Lydians on camels and killed Croesus sons on a pyre. The Persians were a people on the move. Just right after that, they conquered Babylon.

Ever since the Persians conquered their tribal cousins the Medes, they'd been hacking people in the Middle East right and left. Conquering down the Nile Egyptians and chasing Scythians in the steppes and then of course they made the massive mistake of conquering Anatolia, which brought the ire of the cousins of the Lydians and Ionians in that region - the Greeks. The Ionians kept getting drafted into Persian imperial conquests and revolted in part of the governor of the city of Miletos, Aristagoras. Athens sent 1000 hoplites to Ionia and it burned down the seat of the Persian regional capital or satrap named Sardis. This obviously meant war. At 490 B.C., Sparta sent its navy to crush Athens. Unfortunately, the Persians were crushed at the battle of Marathon though they outnumbered the Greeks 3 to 1. Let's just say, the Emperor Darius was not happy. He found out the hard way there was only so much you can control beyond the Bosphorus. Futhermore, he had to deal with a revolt in Egypt.His son Xerxes had even less success against the Greeks. He invaded Greece with probably over 100,000 troops and camp followers by constructing an artificial bridge over the Dardanelles strait and yet - 300 Spartans and hundreds of more Thebans held them back at Thermopylae to a devastating cost. Though Athens itself was razed and Athenian victory at the Battle of Salamis cemented Persia's retreat from the Greek world and the rise of the Athenian Empire.

Skip ahead a few years and Alexander conquers Anatolia en route to a final show down with the Persian Empire. After his death Macedonian and Seluecid warlords battle over control of the peninsula along with other minor Greek kings and soon Rome slowly but surely extended it's imperial shackles onto Asia Minor after conquering Greece due to the the meddlesome Hannibal. But soon, the region was a province of the Roman Empire and as usual the region flourished despite barbarian invasions when the Roman Empire was crumbling apart. Around 330 AD, the Emperor Constantine turned the city of Byzantium into a new capital named himself called Constantinople. He was also Christian and it's interesting to note that the growth of Christianity into a global faith was because of the efforts of Paul of Tarsus - an Anatolian. Constantine and Christ laid the foundations of a new Eastern Roman Empire which under Emperor Justinian and his General Belisarius conquered North Africa and other lost Roman provinces and was about seize all of Italy when a lack of resources for his hand. Also, the fact that the Persians had become newly resurgent and needed to be fight to a draw every ten years or so. It's the problem with Anatolia - threats from the both West and East are overwhelming. Eventually after dozens of battles and the massacre of Palestine's Jews on a scale not seen since the Great Jewish Revolt, the Byzantines managed to secure a weak control over the Levant under Emperor Heraclius.

Of course, things were not meant to be. The Arab tribes had just been united under the Prophet Muhammad and armies led by Caliph Umar invaded both Byzantium and Persia at the same time. Persia fell so fast that an army doubled pack to help the Arab conquest of Palestine and later Egypt. In one battle, the Byzantines lost 50,000 men in an afternoon and soon the Arabs were besieging Constantinople. It was an ominous beginning of what would later culminate in the destruction of the Greeks in Anatolia more than 1400 years later...

Mexican Jitters

I love the history of Mexico. From the earliest Mayan times to the 1910 Revolution in Mexico it's history has fascinated me and remains a gripping story. Even today, Mexico is still making headlines via it's gruesome drug war against certain cartels which are vying to control the drug trafficking routes to the United States (El Norte). Millions of Mexican immigrants in the past 30 years have entered that country, especially when the Mexican Peso collapsed in 1982. Though the Mexican economy is now a trillion dollar economy like the United State's other neighbour Canada, it has 70 million more people to feed and thousands of immigrants are still streaming into the United States for work. The United Mexican States is still a country in trouble especially on the eve of the country's bicentennial of independance.

100 years ago, on it's centennial of independance from Spain, the country launched itself into a 10 year revolution which decimated the country - literally. Porifio Diaz, the dictator of the nation held an election so fradulent that his challenger Francisco Madero only garnered a few votes across the country. Riots, rebel armies eventually sprang up and Diaz went into exile. Madero and the generals who assumed the title of President after him were assasinated all the while battles were raging across the country and the US had sent in troops to find Pancho Villa - another rebel leader. Finally, Alvaro Obregon - a general who defeated Pancho Villa at the Battle of Celaya despite losing an arm at that battle became President after the deaths of 900,000+ Mexicans.

100 years before that, Napoleon's invasion of Spain sent shockwaves across the New World and of course it's biggest colony - Mexico was shortly affected. The first leader of the revolution (a priest!) was defeated in battle and was captured before he reached the US border. Jose Maria Morales, Vicente Guerrero (both of significant African descent) and Agustin de Iturbide ( a Basque) became powerful leaders with the latter becoming Mexico's first Emperor. Eventually after eleven years of war Guadeloupe Victoria became Mexico's first President.

Now, let's fast forward to today. The Zapatista guerrillas are still active, Cartels rule Northern Mexico, the GPD contracted more than five percent during the global recession, La Santa Muerte is becoming a national religion. If political independance and land reform were important for the first two major upheavals of Mexican history what would be the third one? Legalization of narcotics? Or maybe Globalization? Since 1994, the United Mexican States have become more and more interconnected with the rest of North America econonically, politically and legally. The marginlization of many Mexicans and the augmentation of those who're able to manipulate the system (gun runners and drug dealers) are changing Mexican society. American society as well with a significant portion of the population (30%) being Hispanic of predominately Mexican descent in 40 years time.

No matter what calamity might occur in Mexico this year, the US should note that whatever happens to Mexico will always affect the United States. Most often negatively as well. This is one issue that will unite Mexicans and Americans to pray for a peaceful, non-revolutionary year.

You Can Only Sink So Low

The country of Haiti has never had good luck. When the Spanish arrived, diseases and slavery had killed most of the indigenous Taino and Carib peoples. Then they brought over African slaves to cultivate sugar cane and toil on it's tropical soil. When they revolted against their white and mixed race masters a third of their population was killed and the French forced them to pay damages for the loss of lives and property - the property being the newly emancipated slave population of Haiti and then on top of all that they were blockaded and nations like Britain and the US refused to trade with them because they were a Black Republic.

More than 2 centuries later, it's much the same. A 2004 rebellion toppled Aristide and put in Rene Preval and criminal gangs gained controlled the streets of Port Au Prince and UN troops had effective control of the nation - flash forward 6 years and a devastating earthquake levels Port Au Prince and kills hundreds of thousands of Haitians. Now, a new tragedy is unfolding. No, it's not the coming hurricane or flood season. It's not the threat of diseases like dysentary or cholera. No, it's much worse. It's political hip hop.

Political hip hop had humble beginnings. In the late 1980s and early 90s groups like Public Enemy pushed an Afro-centric popular brand of hip hop with great hooks and production quality to the masses of Black people. It inspired a Million Man March and colourful dashikis in places like New York and Philadelphia. Then, like most trends in hip hop it faded away due to the influence of Gangsta Rap, Club Rap and finally Pop Rap. It made a vicious return in 2007-8 when Black people like DMX discovered that a person named Barack Obama actually existed. Terrible musicians like Will.I.Am and Young Jeezy made songs like "My President Is Black" among others to help Obama win over millions of Black youth from the sinister forces of Hillary Clinton (now Sec. of State).

This political hip hop didn't go away though. The Haitian earthquake made R & B and Hip Hop artists more active. Hell, even BET had a Haitian charity and the worse of the lot was and still is Wyclef Jean. He organized a charity called Yele Haiti which was extremely corrupt and diverted funds from the relief effort. This 38 year old clown got some popular artists together to record songs to help the millions of Haitians suffering. Strange ideas started to infiltrate his mind there after. It's almost like an HP Lovecraft novel where the Ancient Ones decide to conquer the Earth by inserting dreams of grandeur into the minds of Lil Wayne, Jay Z and Kanye West. Sadly, these ideas coalesced into a planthat he too, may join the proud pantheon of Haitian leaders like Papa and Baby Doc Duvalier, Aristide, Dessalines and other dead people.

The sad fact about all of this is that, he might actually win. If he does, it'll just confirm how uneducated and Third World the Haitian people are. Haitians better move on masse to the Domincian Republic and Cuba while they can still flee. Marxist Lennism and racism from the Dominicans is probably better than whatever Wyclef can magic up. Banana republics will be better than anything that Zombie Republic will create while under the control of Wyclef. Toussaint L'Ouverture is rolling in his grave. It'd be akin in his day to a road-side lute player in 1810 becoming President of a destitute nation because he can beg really well and garner sympathy.

The worst part about all of this, is that the media isn't even condemning this opportunistic move by Wyclef Jean. ARGH! It makes no sense - there hasn't been any criticism! It'd be sad if the most reasonable arguments against him running come from Fox News. It'll be like saying it doesn't take much intelligence or experience to create jobs for 9 or so million people living in that impoverished Carribbean island which a GDP lower than that of Nigeria. What has he done that required much leadership? Leaving the Fugees? Starting a corrupt charity in the aftermath of a terrible natural calamity?

God Haiti, you can only sink so low. It'd be better if your half of Hispaniola just sank into the sea.

E Pluribus Unum

The title of this blog update refers to the motto on the Seal of the United States akin to the Coat of Arms of any other nation. A new Empire forged on the riverbanks of Mid-Atlantic the motto ultimately refers to the original Thirteen Colonies who came together to create one nation despite their various origins. The Catholic Maryland with the Cavalier Virginia. The Puritan Massachusetts with the slaveowning gentry of the Carolinas. The United States before it's forma founding was much different then than it is now.

To start it off, the landed aristocracy of the South was the true power in that area until the destruction of slavery and it's system during Reconstruction in the 1870s and the violence between slave and slave-master was even brutal enough for others in northern colonies to protest... another facet of Southern society were the poor white. The 80% of Southern Whites who were too poor to own slaves.Middle colonies like New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey for instance were America's breadbasket. These farmers grew so much food that they could easily support other forms of occupations such as the law, real estate speculation, trade and construction with the port at New York being among the colonie's busiest.Last but not least New England with the residual Puritan ethic tried to instill Puritan values via the laws they enacted in their colonies. It's forests constructed the world's greatest military machine (The Royal Navy) and shipping was it's main economic activity. Despite these differing ways of live these people managed to forge a nation.

Let's look at the United States today. American citizens are at each other's throats. The NAACP vs the Tea Party Movement. Republican vs Democrat. Socialist vs Fascist. Wall Street vs Main Street. Old American stock vs New American stock. America is in transition. Not only internally but internationally as it's traditional allies like the United Kingdom grow weaker and new power players such as China and Brazil grow stronger. New enemies are transnational shadows which like viruses lay dormant in states (even the United States) until they decide it is time to strike against America, it's allies and it's interests around the globe. All the while the push and pull between the Federal Government and the States become fiercer and fiercer as the tether threatens to snap.

Whites in America are close to revolting against their political system. They feel abandoned by the Democrats and are bitter towards the corrupt Republican party. Populism is their new philosophy and people like Rand Paul and Michelle Bachmann are sadly their philosophers. Last blog update I mentioned how racially confused and bigoted these people are and i'm sure these issues are bound to get worse as these people gain power and utilize Fox News to broadcast their message of populist revolt. William Jennings Bryan is rolling in his grave. In a new age of "Post-Racial" America, perceived racism against whites seems to be the new fad. Just ask Shirley Sherrod.

What's even worse is the political dance of death both parties seem to enjoy waltzing to in Washington. With the passing of the Financial Bill a few days ago, more hurdles are pressing against the legislative part of government. Climate Change and Immigration Reform are issues that will probably never be solved. Ever. The interests to keep the status quo going in these two areas are far too strong for anyone to try and change for the better.Also, despite TARP and pushing hundreds of billions down the greedy throats of banks it seems like the big corporations which run this would are just hogging the money in case there's a double-dip recession instead of lending the money. Also, Americans are still using their credit cards on borrowed Chinese money as if nothing had happened in September of 2008.

Despite all these problems and the worsening war in Afghanistan, America will have to unite as country to in order to prosper in this century. In a new age where global competition isn't only from nations but from foreign corporations and small businesses in developing nations... America will need to adapt. Or die. The Tea Partiers should change their banner from "Don't Tread on me" to "Don't leave me behind".

The Philosophy of Selfishness

Philosophy makes people go mad. Atheists often hark upon the evil of believing in religious dogma and creed but as we've seen in the 20th century, philosophy is just as bad. Whether it was Marxism, Fascism, National Socialism or Economic Neo-Liberalism people often die to create a utopia. As the Jews of Central Europe (who largely no longer exist) because the Nazis wished to create a paradise for the German Speaking people of Europe. Or the millions of kulaks, Ukranians, Chechens and other peoples Stalin liquidated to create a worker's paradise in the Soviet Union. I could go on and on but Year Zero often seems to be the goal of the people who actually crazy enough to philosophy. Which is why i'm fascinated by people in the United States or more specifically those who are aligned with the Tea Party movement in the United States which holds Ayn Rand's Objectivism, Atlas Shrugged and Libertarianism as the Second Coming of Reagan.

I've never read Atlas Shrugged, nor do I play to read a book that has a speech in the middle of it that goes on for 30 pages. That's sheer overkill, almost selfish of the author to put that in her book. But you don't need to read the book to understand what Objectivism or by an extension what libertarianism is about. Like most philosophies, it's core tenet is about pleasing humanity. Objectivism aims to increase people's perception of reality (since reality is only perceived by human perception of course) through logic and that self-interest, individual rights, laissez-faire capitalism and nasty industrial art from 1930's New York can help us cast off the shackles of tyranny.

These philosophies influenced many people; many of whom who'd have strange influence over the economic affairs of various nations. Milton Friedman - a staunch believer in laissez-faire capitalism utilized some of his free-market reform ideas like unbridled free trade on poor Latin American countries after it had been taken over like dictators like Augusto Pinochet of Chile and Galtieri of Argentina. In order for these economic policies to follow through, these regimes had to brutally repress their peoples civil rights and it lead to massive inflation which brought many of these nations ten step backwards instead of forwards into the loving arms of Free Market Capitalism sans Socialism. I especially feel bad for Argentina, Argentina was among one of the richest nations in the beginning of last century and now India with 800,000,000 helots are richer by GDP and GPP. How the mighty have fallen. Free market capitalism for poor countries is devastating as your country is flooded with cheap products from China, as state owned enterprises are sold to be privatized who then fire half the workers or destroy unions to lower wages and increase the hours worked per week. They cause massive inflation as central banks toy with interest rates to gain profits while the Middle Class is squeezed out of existence. This is what happened to Latin America in the 1970s. Brazil was spared one could suppose but it soon had a debt of over $100 billion dollars due to its Free Market dictators from the 1964-1985.

Another economic error caused by these libertarians was caused none other by Alan Greenspan. A devout disciple of Ayn Rand. Under his control, derivatives and subprime mortgages caused an early 2000s boom that all came crashing down in 2008. Even before a congressional hearing later that year he admitted that there was some flaws in his thinking. A method of thinking dating back to Ayn Rand and her rational-self interest to enrich oneself's without regulating the market. We're in a recession becomes of these fools. Now, this is when the story of the philosophy of selfishness becomes interesting. The worsening recession creates a movement within the US who basically hate the US government and dislike a whole bunch of things which Democrats and Republicans but more specifically George W Bush created while in office. Such as a large fiscal imbalance, two foreign wars, terrible schools, rising costs etc. and libertarianism soon took root among these "Tea Party" people.

Now, go forward two years and the US is facing an important election this year to decide which party controls the Congress. A xenophobic, racist, nationalist, war mongering party of libertarians or a do-nothing, hypocritical, pandering party of snakes in the grass. While US debt to GDP ration is getting higher and higher with a budget deficit of over 1 trillion dollars. Rand Paul (note Ayn Rand = Rand Paul), son of Ron Paul is launching his own bid for power states that he questions the legitimacy of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 mainly because of his libertarianism believes. Ultimately, this goes back to any argument involving libertarianism whether it be about free market economics or same-sex marriage. His argument is this, since people are rational and self interested beings having laws against hate crimes are dumb because only dumb people would do it. And if dumb people discriminated against people in say - restaurants then social pressure would create such a backlash that the dumb people wouldn't be racist ( Dr. Martin Luther King begins to toss in his grave).

Many intelligent people in response to this said that Rand Paul is dumb because by not banning hate crimes and segregation the government would be sanctioning this behaviour because it wouldnt be able to enforce it's laws or protect the liberties of people and by not being against it - it would seem to dumb racist people that since it's not against the law the US is a "free country" it's legal to be racist in the public sphere, thus making segregation legal and sanctionable by law because you have the supreme authority to discriminate against those who wish to do business with you. Rand Paul saw these comments and fled to Arkansas to lick his wounds and shut up ever since.

The libertarians are just getting started however, there was a piece in a newspaper in some US state about the evil of being charitable on a hot summer day by giving free lemonade by a woman named Terry Savage. No, people should be selfish and not give things away for free asserted the libertarian and if they do, it's socialist. To be honest, i'm not even sure what socialist is anymore. So I decided to look it up in a dictionary. Socialism : is an economic and political theory based on public or common ownership and cooperative management of the means of production and allocation of resources [Thanks Wikipedia]. Since the business is privately owned, if it decides to be charitable with what it produces it's not necessarily socialist since it's not owned by the public. Americans on the whole are just confusing. The Classical Liberals are the social conservatives and the Classical Socialists can't even pass universal national healthcare.

Maybe the great moral tragedy isn't same-sex marriage, the legalization of marijuana or Obama winning a 2nd term of office. Maybe it's when selfishness, the idea of naked self-interest to satisfy your endorphin craving that hammers at your brain all day becomes popular (especially to the 1% of Americans who on 50% of the wealth in the country) chips away at American liberty until becomes another Chile.Fear-mongering by the far right has enflamed the unemployed masses of the American populace so much that xenophobia and a rampant anti-intellectualism may guarantee someone a seat in Congress or the Senate not to mention the White House. Can you imagine the Supreme Court nominees Sarah Palin would pick? America is doomed and the Libertarians aren't helping with their avarice.

McClellan, MacArthur, McChrystal

There's something about the US having these Scot-Irish American generals who basically talk the talk but cannot seem to be able to complete the task without failing to attack, wishing to nuke East Asia or talking to a crappy contemporary music magazine about which member of the Obama White House rankles him the most. Pathetic.

Out of all of these, I think McClellan is the worst, MacArthur the craziest and McChrystal the dumbest. Let's take a walk in memory lane all the way back to 1862. The battle of Antietam in mid-September of the year 1862 was the single bloodiest day in American history. In all the campaigns McClellan was in charge of Union forces like the Peninsula Campaign he refrained from attacking the enemy because he constantly thought he was outnumbered by the Confederacy. Of course he wasn't but he was foolish. The only positive thing he provided to the Union troops besides saving their lives from frontal assaults up hill in the Mid-Atlantic states was improve their drilling.

Antietam was the worst though, he was far from outnumbered and his reserve forces he held in check outnumbered the Confederate forces that day. Lincoln was pissed though. McClellan held a draw against an outnumbered enemy who had it's back to a river which McClellan could've struck hard and crushed the Army of Northern Virginia that day. Instead, General Lee slinked away to fight another day and Lincoln had suffered enough from a figure who likened himself to Napoleon. He was removed from his command after the battle. Though the battle allowed the Emancipation Proclamation to be delivered, and made any attempts of Britain or France giving support to the Confederacy impossible he was still fired. The Civil war lasted 3 more years and killed hundreds of thousands of more Americans.

Like McClellan, MacArthur was a General with a big ego but at least he had guts. He wished to fight on against the Japanese in the Philippines but President Roosevelt ordered him to retreat to Australia to conduct the Pacific War from there with the issuing the famous quote "I shall return". He did return after Admiral Nimitz was able to rid the Japanese from the Central Pacific by 1944. Recaputring the Philippines from hardened Japanese resistance was his major triumph during the war, and after the Second World War creating democratic institutions in Japan was his major social high-water mark. Then, just 5 years later the United States was at war in the Pacific again.

This time, it was over the Korean peninsula because as you probably already know - the North Koreans invaded South Korea with the objective of unifying the peninsula. With the US leading the UN mission in defense of South Korea, all seemed loss until - MacArthur led an amphibious landing at Inchon, then captured Seoul deep behind enemy lines and advanced north. This is the beginning of the first act of batshit crazy MacArthur created. Zhou Enlai, Mao's foreign minister and political savante indirectly told the Americans that an advance towards the Yalu river would mean China would have to intervene. Now, if your potential enemy was telling you that if you come close to this river - we will invade and destroy all the gains you made thus far the rational person would try and reason with the Chinese or perhapse not reach the Yalu river. MacArthur just dismissed it. The People's Liberation Army invaded Korea on November 5th 1950 and UN forces were fleeing towards the South once more.

By early 1951, he called on the Chinese to admit they've been defeated after recapturing Seoul again. Also, he started create orders for possible nuclear strikes on China if the Chinese airforce was utilized against the Americans. Furthermore, he openly criticized President Truman's limited war aims. He was fired April 10th 1951, the war lasted 2 more years and probably a million more Koreans were killed as a result.

McChrystal is just stupid however. If you had a grievance about the President's Afghan War advisors, why not take it up with Obama? But no. He takes it up with Rolling Stone magazine. He just help them win another Pullitzer. He also weakens the US and make the Taliban seem even stronger as the US is conducting a strange offensive in Kandahar province against Taliban fighters. Petraeus is taking over but soon he'll realize Afghanistan is a strange country. He'll take a whiff of the Afghan mountainous air and go crazy like McChrystal and Karzai - the man who would be king. If history is anything to go by, the war will go on for another 2-3 years before the US wins a costly victory or draw. A draw seems more likely. If only MacArthur was in Afghanistan today - would he recommend nuking the Pashtun tribal areas in both Afghanistan AND Pakistan? Would McClellan refuse US forces from launching offensives against the Taliban and concentrate solely on training Afghan forces and posturing around Afghan valleys talking about his military greatness? Either way, the US has kinda let itself get fucked over by another Scots-Irish American general.

The World Slowly Turns Against Israel...

The recent flotilla incident is slowly making Israel the pariah of the world. It's joining the ranks of North Korea, Iran, Myanmar and hell even the Palestinian Authority. Even Turkey, the only Muslim friend it had in that neighbour is turning against Israel - at least diplomatically. Turkey still wants Israeli weaponry to kill Kurds with but Israel is sure making a lot of dumb moves recently with the US having to defend Israel at the UN Security Council.

This is why Washington was partly right even during the 1790's when he said that the United States of America should avoid foreign entanglements. He also should've said they should have avoided tribal conflicts as well. Yes, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a tribal conflict over land. It doesn't matter if you LA Jews are insulted. It's the truth. Your cousins in the Levant are actively trying to gain control over more Galileean hills for more land to aid Uncle Moshe's olive oil farm. It is what it is.

The Gaza blockade has failed. Israel must understand that. The aim of the blockade was to starve the Palestinian people of luxuries and for them to turn against Hamas. That would've worked fine if Israel wasn't firing rockets and missiles into Gaza each year. Each time Israel attacks civilians in the Gaza Strip, it reminds Palestinians of their true enemy - the IDF. I'm not even going to pity Israel. They created Hamas to counter the influence of the PLO. Israel has always created it's own enemies though. Hezbollah only existed after Israel invaded Southern Lebanon. Also, now the UN is reporting stunted Palestinian children and having Reuters reporters taking pictures of mostly destroyed Gaza Strip towns and sections of Gaza city. Optics is everything. You can't do ethnic cleansing right anymore. Too many pictures. Plus you can't even lie either. The internet is available for all to see. Any anti Arab comment Avigdor Lieberman makes, they'll be a youtube video of it created by a Swedish Palestinian or a Manhattan Jew determine to expose the hypocrisy of Israel.

Tough luck trying to build a Jewish state when most of the Jews in the world (who live in America belive it or not) are starting to hate your guts. Especially the young smart ones who go to college instead of vocational Orthodox schools which indoctrinate the young ones about loving Israel from the time they can speak Hebrew and swear in Yiddish. Man, now there's links of Israel aiding South Africa in developing nuclear arms. An apartheid state! Like what Jimmy Carter views Israeli policies against Palestinians to be. At least Black South Africans could work in the rest of the country. Palestinians can barely do so. Israel has to rent Filipinos to do the dirty work Falasha Jews aren't already doing. All the while Michael Oren says they'll investigate the Flotilla incident.

Doesn't the world care that Israel is being hated. Young Republicans are starting to hate Israel! General Petraeus and Obama agree that Israel is confounding their attempts to win over the Muslim world. This year could only get better for Israel if it attacks Hezbollah or invades Gaza again. Or if Turkey breaks off all relations with Israel and pulls an "Iran" on Netanyahu.

Oy vey!

The Warrior Peoples of the Month: THE RUSSIANS pt.2

So when we last left off on the saga of the Russian people they were expanding west and east. Killing turkic tribes in Siberia and Poles and Cossacks in the Ukraine and Eastern Europe. Yet, Russia was still politically a basket-case. When Fyodor the Third died, Peter the first and Ivan the Fourth were made co-Czars of Russia. This had never happened before but obviously someone wished to weaken the power of the Czar, in this case their elder sister Sophia. Luckily for Peter he was intelligent and was highly interested in the West and modern military technology in Europe, which was good because he wished to make Russia a European nation.

He first started to conquer the Khanate of the Crimea which still existed and succeeded by building a navy that was navigable on the Don river. The Crimea was important because he wanted access to warm-water port, Archangel up north just wasn't cutting it anymore, too cold in the winter...this quest would make Russia engage in many other wars in the future. He also toured the west acting like a giant jackass along the way but also learning new skills especially from Germans. Still, a desire for a good port made him and some other countries including Denmark and Poland declare war on Sweden which controlled the Baltic at this time in the year 1700. They didn't know who they were messing with. The Swedish King Charles XII turned out to be a military genius and knocked out Poland and an entire Russian army with less than 30,000 troops at his disposal. He couldn't spare too many troops. There was only (at the most) 1 million people living in Sweden at that time. The war continued until Charles was killed trying to conquer Norway in 1718 and Russia was one of the biggest winners of that war for it kept all its conquests.

After Peter died, the typical dynastic problems that Russia often faced re-emerged since his only son Alexis tried to collaborate with the Swedes but eventually Peter III with his German wife Catherine II took power. Peter was also German so when Fredrick II's capital Berlin got captured by the Russians, as soon as Peter came onto the throne he switched sides helping Fredrick hold out even longer against Austria, France and all of their allies. Anyways, Catherine II took the throne when Peter died and Russia continued to expand much to the chagrin of the Ottoman Empire, the Crimean Khanate and Poland who lost independance entirely in 1795. Also, Russia was expanding into the Americas and Russian explorers got as far as California! Furs meant that Alaska was important to Russia...or at least until they sold it to America in 1867. Imagine if Russia never sold Alaska and the Soviet Union had a foothold on the Americas.... a thought to keep in mind.

By this time, the French Revolution had come about and all of Europe was to suffer due to Napoleon's tactical ingenuity. Russia declared war on Republican France and under the generalship of Alexander Suvorov they marched all the way to the Swiss Alps but Suvorov died and at the battle of Austerlitz Napoleon handily defeated Austrian and Russian forces. Still, Napoleon wanted to end his struggle against Russia and tried negotiating with Czar Alexander I about dividing Europe (and also the Ottoman Empire and India) between them but the Czar still wished to do lucrative trade with Britain. Naturally, Napoleon invaded Russia with 600,000 soldiers of his Grande Armeé in 1812. The Russians carried out an attrition type of campaign that burned any resource the French could possibly use since the French army marched on its stomach and pillaged for food instead of using wagon trains. Napoleon did get his big battle at Borodino which was among the bloodiest single day fights in European history and still the Russians had more land they could retreat into. All the way to Moscow, which the Russians burnt down as soon as the French got there. Napoleon wanted to go after St. Petersburg but soon a cold snap came that was so severe many French animal transports froze overnight and the French prepared to march back to Central Europe. Out of every hundred men that joined Napoleon in Russia, only 3 returned.

Russia joined the Sixth Coalition which chased Napoleon all the way to the outskirts of Paris and though Russia was too far away to participate at Waterloo if they did Napoleon would've been given an even greater defeat than the one that Prussia and Britain (and the Dutch) gave to France. At the Congress of Vienna, Russia gained even more land such as Finland and most of modern day Poland. After the Napoleonic Wars Russia got even more interested in European affairs. Russia armed Serbians who rebelled against the Ottoman Empire and in 1817, they freed themselves from Turkish rule much to their and everyone else's surprise. Also, Russia started seizing more territory in the Caucasus and waging war against people like the Chechnyans and Circassians. Russia even supported Greek rebels who now began their own revolt against the Turks and Britain jumped in too to prevent the Russians from gaining too much power. They also decided to ensure that Russia doesn't conquer the Ottoman Empire by agreeing to make sure it remains the "Sick Man of Europe" instead of European cannon fodder. But, Russia decided to press against the Ottomans once more.

Russia demanded the Turkish Sultan give Russia the right to "protect" Orthodox Christians in Ottoman Syria and Palestine. The French and British governments got scared of Russia becoming too powerful especially after it destroyed the Ottoman Black Sea fleet and declared war on Russia. Even Austria got uppity with the Russians which was shocking since Russia helped it with a rebellion a decade earlier or so. The Anglo-Gallic forces landed in the Crimean peninsula and besieged the port of Sevastopol while the Ottoman held them back in sieges in Eastern Europe. To keep it short, Russia lost this war and lost it's control of the Black Sea...and Romania.

Russia sulked for a bit..even liberated its serfs and then got back into. It used the power of ethnic nationalism, the same kind that liberated Serbia and Greece and used that as a crutch to fight the Ottomans once more over Bulgaria. The Russians nearly got to Constantinople but Britain cried foul again. The Russians were forced to allow the Turks to live but the Turks lost Cyprus, Tunisia, Bosnia, part of Armenia and Thessaly to European nations. Nonetheless, Russia had done well for herself and was slowly industrializing and conquering parts of Central Asia and was consolidating the East when Russian interests collided with another Empire's interests - Japan. Japan had just suddenly gone from feudal isolationist kingdom to burgeoning Eastern Empire. Japan wanted Korea and had already defeated the Chinese for control over it. Now it was Russia's turn. Russia was defeated on land at the battle of Mukden (then the largest battle fought) and then at sea at the battle of Tshumina. This made the Russian populace go crazy. It had lost a war against a nation of small Asians and most of its people were still living in abject poverty despite the mid 19th centuy reforms against serfdom. The 1905 revolution made the Czar adopt a constitutional government and a parliament called the Duma and allied itself with France to protect itself from a powerful Germany. Austria allied with Germany to protect it's holdings in the Balkans and the Serbs found a patron in Russia. The stage was set for a great war...

The First World War was terrible for Russia. The Russians mobilized quicker than Germany thought and invaded Germany with two armies....both of which were destroyed at the battles of Tannenburg and Masurian Lakes in Prussia. Fighting against the Turks in the Caucausus was much easier than the Eastern Front and so were battles against the multi-ethnic goulash of a state like the Austro-Hungarians whose armies generally have sucked since Napoleon III bled them to death in Northern Italy 50 years ago or so. Eventually, a competent general emerged named Alexei Brusilov who launched a million man offensive into Austro-Hungary which was on the verge of success - until German troops showed up.

By 1917, the people in the cities were starving and cold and angry. Riots in Petrograd led to a new Russian Revolution which put in Alexander Kerensky in charge. The only foolish thing that Kerensky did was not end the war against Germany, Austro-Hungary and the Ottomans. Extreme leftists came out of exile, or hiding to spread their propaganda. As soon as the United States entered the war, soldiers and workers joined leftists parties which toppled the Provisional governement of Kerensky. Their councils or Soviet coalesced into a vast movement and one of these parties called "majority" or (Bolsheviki in Russian) seized power. They ended the war against the Central Powers since they deemed it as a capitalist fight over Empire - which it was and then Russia fell into Civil War between the Red Russians (being Communists and led by Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trostky) and the White Russians (anti-communists).

The Bolsheviks formed a Red Army as differing ethnic groups whether they be Pole, Czech, Russian or even Tartar fought over the remnants of the Russian Empire with France and Britain seizing Russian seaports. Even America and Japan occupied Russian cities. The Reds controlled most of European Russia or the core of Russian cities along the Volga and Don rivers and pushed into Ukraine to capture Kiev. They also pushed along the Trans-Siberian railroad to reconquer the Eastern regions of Russia. By 1921, most of the Anti-Soviet armies had disintergrated due to Red Army attacks and general incompetance and Russia's vast multi-ethnic empire became the marxist Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Close to 20,000,000 people died due to the First World War and the Civil War.

Some Communists like Trotsky wished to spread Communism deep into the heart of Europe. He wished a Permanent Revolution and advised Leftists across Eastern Europe to take the the streets. They failed everywhere. After Lenin's death in 1924, a new leader arose named Josef Stalin. He wished to Socialism in One Country and slammed Trotsky as a traitor and banished him finally. He instituted Five Year Plans to industrialize the Soviet Union and calmed down Capitalists who feared Communist revolution in their own countries after the war. Though Stalin was initially isolationist, he did establish Communist parties in China and Vietnam and supplied arms to the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War. While the Great Depression didn't affect the USSR that much, Germany erupted into political violence between fascists and communists and somehow Adolf Hitler won out in the end with 35% of the popular vote in 1933. His Nazis took power and wished to spread Fascism all over Europe starting in Spain. As we all know, Hitler hated Slavs and Communism so the Soviet Union was the chief enemy in his mind. In 1939, Stalin made a deal with Hitler to ensure that he had some time to build up the Soviet Red Army in case of World War II....which did occur when Germany invaded Poland in September of that year with Soviet assistance.

The Soviet Union also took over the Baltic states and invaded Finland to prove a point. The Finns kicked the Red army's ass. Finnish troops clad in white and on skis destroyed Red Army columns with relative ease when looking at the number of Finns vs the number of Russians engaged in what is now called the Winter War. Hitler observed this and stated it'd be easy to march on Moscow. On June 22, 1941 the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union with over 3 million troops and captured millions of Soviet troops and killed millions more. By December, the Red Army managed to slow the momentum of the Nazis just outside the gates of Moscow and also Leningrad and launched offensives to push them back at great cost using Siberian troops which would've been stationed in the East guarding against the Japanese which decided not to go to war with the Soviet Union, especially considering how the USSR destroyed them when they tried invading Mongolia 2 years earlier. General Georgy Zhukov emerged as the pre-eminent Soviet commander and Stalin let the generals conduct the war, opposed to Hitler who acted like the Supreme Field Marshal of Nazi Germany.

Axis armies then launched offensives towards the South in an attempt to seize Soviet oil refineries to fuel their own armies in 1942. The Red Army engaged the Nazis in the battle of Stalingrad which is the Bloodiest battle of the 20th century and in the history of warfare which killed more than 2 million men on both sides which ended with the Soviets encircling and trapping the 6th Army of the Wehrmacht in Stalingrad. In 1943, the Soviets launched a huge offensive in the Battle of Kursk which is the largest tank battle ever fought where Soviet defence in depth which trenches, mines and anti-tank batteries which cut panzer divisions to pieces. In 1944, Operation Bagration was launched which pushed the Soviet Red Army to the center of Poland, back where the war started 3 years earlier and by May 1945, Berlin was in Soviet hands. In the East, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan to aid America and tie down Japanese imperial forces and perfectly encircled Japanese forces in Manchuria and destroyed them with piercing attacks. The Soviet Army by August 1945 was the most powerful land army on Earth and at the cost of 20,000,000 Soviet citizens it was a Superpower but with its armies controlling most of Eastern Europe it was in prime position.

By 1948, eight European countries had communist governments and the Soviet Union had formed the Warsaw pact to counterbalance NATO. The Soviet Union became more belligerent under the rule of Khrushchev. It invaded Hungary and Czechoslovakia in 1956 and '68 when they protested and rebelled agains the Soviet Union. It blockaded Berlin in 1948-49 and almost had a nuclear war with the United States in 1962. It started a rivalry with the People's Republic of China in the 60's over Indo-China. It funded Arab armies against the West's ally Israel and funded many marxist movements in Latin America and Africa but it took one step too far when it invaded Afghanistan in 1979 to protect the marxist government there. It soon became the Soviet Union's "Vietnam" and just like in Vietnam with the Soviets...the Americans gave the Afghan mujahadeen weapons and training to fight the Soviet armed forces. All this happened while the USSR built thousands of nuclear weapons to counter America's nuclear arms race. The Soviet system couldn't cope with foreign wars, an expensive arms race and large army with a command economy. By 1989, all Soviet troops had left Afghanistan under Mikhail Gorbachev and the Warsaw Pact dissolved when the people of Eastern Europe voted against the Soviet system and the Cold War was over.

In 1990, Soviet republics voted to leave the USSR one by one until just Russia remainded. Russia became democratic, weak, poor and Russians began dying by the millions due to disease and starvation. The Russian Federation was born and so apparently was the idea of an independant Chechnya. Russia had controlled that part of the caucasus for the past 150 years and it didn't want to lose anymore territory to allow Canada to be the largest country in the world. And so - Russia carpet bombed Grozny, the Chechen capital and invaded in 1995. Grozny was besieged but not without heavy Russian casualties whose conscripts lacked morale befitting the post Soviet malaise of the Russian people. It got even worse when the Muslim Chechen clerics declared a Jihad on the Russian invaders and that recruited thousands of foreign fighters to the region and the violence spread in the Caucasus. With the threat to totally destroy Grozny hanging over the air of the Chechen leaders, an accord was signed to end the war. The war obviously wasn't finished, especially when Chechen fighters invaded the neighbouring Russian republic of Dagestan and the Chechens set off bombs in Moscow. Russian airpower forced thousands of civilians to flee and the new Russian PM, Vladimir Putin launched a ground invasion of Chechnya which captured Grozny in early 2000. An insurgency was launched by the surviving Chechen fighters which caused many bombings, hostage crises and other terrorist attacks.

The last time the Russian people flexed its strength was against Georgia. Just on the eve of the Olympic Games in Beijing, where Putin was relaxing with the Russian Olympic team - Georgian forces shelled the South Ossetian capital and attempted to invade and reconquer their lost territory. Within a week, Russia was deep inside Georgia and was threatning Tblisi. France had to negotiate a peace between Georgia and Russia but, Russia was back with South Ossetia firmly a part of area of expanding Russian influence.

The Russian people have been around for awhile and probably will be around for a lot longer too. They've fought most Eurasian powers and live to tell the tale with a huge rich country to boot. Never underestimate the Russians. They fight even harder when weakened. In an increasingly multi polar world, the way Russia acts towards its neighbours will determine the future of Eurasia.

Warrior Peoples of the Month: THE RUSSIANS Pt. 1

As long as the Eastern Slavs have existed they have taken on the worst conquerors and best armies in the world and have mostly been successful. Whether it has been the Teutonic Order, Mongols, Crimean Horde, Swedes, Frenchmen or the men of the Wehrmacht; Russia has taken them on and won. We should at least honour these brave warriors of the Volga by having a brief....extremely brief rundown of their military exploits, triumphs and disasters.

The story of Russia begins when the Slavs hooked up with the Swedish Norsemen. What would possess Swedes to go to the shore of the Baltic and explore the inland rivers? Well, trade of course. After the Abbasid dynasty started the Islamic Golden age and made contacts with Charlemagne through Jewish traders, the Swedes wanted in on the action too. They pushed down these rivers and traded Amber, furs, gold and Slavic slaves to the Middle East. In fact, the world Slav is the route word for the English word "slave". It wasn't only the Swedes though, the Mediterrenean power of Venice would get into this trade too. Trade with the Byzantine Empire and Khazars (a Turkish-Jewish tribe..a story for later) was highly important to the Swedes as well. Back in these times, trade was everything and having a good trade network could really pay off. Ask the Arabs of Mecca pre-Muhammad for instance. Or the Byzantines who's control over the bottleneck of the Black Sea and the Mediterrenean allowed them to have access to silk before the Renaissance.

History is rather obscure about the exact details of how Russia developed but we can assume it was similiar to how Hinduism colonized South East Asia which occurred around the same time. A wandering Prince and his posse probably befriended some locals, killed others, married some, kidnapped a select few and became the boss of a nice riverbend and soon Novgorod was the home of a new Russian state called Rus by 850 AD. Soon there was trouble though. These Russians pushed south towards the Black Sea and the ancient Byzantine Empire was not amused by the fact it would have to share the Black Sea with these upstarts. In 866 the Russians sent a force of tens of thousands of men at a time where the Emperor and his army were off fighting Arabs, Bulgars or some Pechenegs. The Greeks paid off the Russians and good trade relations started after that.

As usual, the Russians grew too successful and the Byzantines allied with the Bulgars to pull a ruse in order to crush them. In 970 the Greeks offered to pay the Russians off (again) and asked how much money he needed. The Russian Prince Sviataslav said he had 20,000 troops. In response the Greeks sent 100,000 troops and destroyed the Russians. The Prince escaped but fell victim to Pechenegs who turned his skull into a winecup. Also around this time, the Byzantines managed to convert the Russians to their Orthodox Christianity in order to make them more pliable. Of course it failed, but you'd think they'd realize after first trying that tactic on the Bulgars! It's stuff like that which makes me love the Byzantines, or Greeks in general. I should probably make an update about them too but there's so much history to go over from the Achaean times all the way to some war over Cyprus...or a recent economic meltdown...

After such disasters, the Russians tried consolidating power at home and began conquering city-state after city-state...that is until they ran into the Mongols. The Mongols had a knack of doing things like that. Ending good streaks. They destroyed the Islamic Golden Age and killed the last Caliph. They ransacked Persia during it's Golden Age and caused desertification, not to mention wiping out millions of Chinese people. Compared to all of these examples, what they did to Europeans weren't that bad. Anyways, the Hungarians were the Europeans who suffered the most because of the Mongols anyways. It goes without saying that the Russians were swiftly conquered, their women raped, their princes crushed to death. Not only did Russian princes get crushed to death, but so did Arab Caliphs in Baghdad. He was rolled into a carpet and was crushed to death by horses. These Mongols really knew how to axe people.

During this time, heroes like Alexander Nevsky - Prince of Novgorod emerged..he just had to submit to the Mongols first BUT he did kill large number of Germanic Teutonic Knights in 1242.
Good fortune became available to the Russians when the Mongol Empire began to fracture and Batu Khan and his followers proclaimed the Golden Horde in it's place (yea?). They didn't rule Russia directly but they liked demanding tribute and if that tribute wasn't met they'd basically pillage your city-state. Fun times all around in the Volga. Also around this time, the Eastern Slavic ethnicities began having differing ethnogensis. The Belorussians formed now what is called Lithuania, the Ukranians formed under the Mongol yoke and the Slavs who lived around the Volga and intermarried with Finnish tribes became the Russians we know and love today.

During this tumultous time, the state of Moscow grew in importance and size. It resisted a Golden Horde attempt to "tax" it and the Mongols sent an army of 200,000 (huge in those times) but the Moscovites managed to ally with other city-states and brought a force close to that size against the Mongols. During a battle in 1378 at Kulikovo Pole the Russians managed to squeeze out a win. The Golden Horde started to collapse into a Civil War and then Tamerlane brought the killing blow to the Golden Horde as a significant power.


Moscow continued to grow, as it took Novogorod as it's prize even as Novogorod was starting to create the first attempts at Russian democracy. The Mongols left most of Russia alone but small Khanates like in the Crimea would continue to cause problems. Also, Moscow declared itself to be the Third Rome. After the defeat of the Western Roman Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire when the Turks took Constantinople in 1453 and Prince Ivan III married the last niece of the Byzantine Emperor thus claiming fictious ancient lineage all the way to Caesar Augustus. Muscovy also started Russian serfdom with the Boyars controlling hundreds of peasants who'll never be able to pay back debts to their landlord.Some of these peasants fled this oppressive regime and migrated toward the Don and Dnieper rivers and became Cossacks and became nomadic hunter-warriors that future Czars would use to wage war against other powers.

Ivan the IV or Ivan the Terrible took the throne and terrible he was to his own subjects, especially rebellious Boyars...he was even worse towards Russia's enemies. He conquered the Khanate of Kazan and Astrakhan in the mid 1500's. The Cossacks even helped him conquer Mongol city-states too. The Crimean Khanate or Horde was tougher because it was backed by among the most powerful nations at the time; the Ottoman Empire. However, his rule ultimately destroyed the upper class in Russian society until he had no more enemies to worry or about or this his insanity wanted to think up.

After this death, Russia was messed up. Seriously messed up. Ivan the Terrible killed his only mentally competent son and the mentally retarded one took the throne. Boris Godunov, a Boyar was practically Czar. When Godunov eventually became Czar, everyone opposed him. Especially the politically powerful Romanov family. False pretenders to the throne emerged and one even took power due to Polish intervention. Sweden and Poland invaded Russia again and rebellions among the Cossacks and other peoples started. Russia was saved when a Romanov family member used Russian patriotism and the Orthodox Church to rally the people to chase the Poles out of Moscow. Which they did. Michael Romanov was named the new Czar of Russia in 1613.

The feudal system grew even worse as it became hereditary and serfs couldn't leave the land upon the pain of death but Russia expanded due to the help of Cossacks and fur traders all the way to the Pacific Ocean, in less time than it took the United States to do so. They expanded so far east that the Chinese attacked them in order to make sure Manchuria (where the ruling Manchu dynasty came from) wouldn't be threatened by the Russians. Russia also expanded West into Cossack territory and picked a fight with Poland which weakened them and killed thousands of members of their Jewish community. All this time, the rest of Europe knew very little about Russia or the immense consequences it would have on the future of the continent...

Prompt Global Strike - What....The.....Fuck....

Some time ago, I perused a book by George Friedman called the Next Hundred Years. I've already blogged about it in the past but this morning I nearly choked on my cornflakes when I read headlines on the internet detailing "hypersonic missile technology using satellites". No.....no..... this couldn't be happening. George Friedman couldn't be right for once? This is impossible! Well, it's true.

US President Barack Obama is reviving an Bush Administration wunderwaffe which could possible cause Ragnarok. The way this weapon works is wonderfully simple. ICBM's equipped with conventional warheads utilizing scramjet engines. These missiles would shoot up high into the atmosphere near space where they would deploy a glider guided by satellite towards their target, then the glider would deploy the warhead to nearest wedding in Pakistan. All part of the weaponization of space. I've also heard news of using special "X Planes" the US government is developing in the same hypersonic capacity to act as military satellites that'll relay information to missiles, warships, drones etc. because they're harder to shoot down. The Chinese blew up a satellite using a missile last year and this got the US defense planners scared for that China-US war over Taiwan 15 years down the road. These maneouvarable satellites would stand a better chance.

Anyways, the weaponization of space is a scary reality but this is all part of Obama's plan. He must think he's wickedly smart for doing this. For every nuclear weapon that's decomissioned, each is turned into a hypersonic missile. With nuclear weapons, at least you know they most likely wouldn't be used and if they were used you'd die instantly or slowly due to radiation burns...or even slower due to the sun being blocked out by radioactive dust as if you're close to an Icelandic volcano. But no, these warheads would make the sound of your lungs collapsing and your ears bursting due to external pressure an even more spectacular event. Even scarier is that these things could get anywhere on Earth in less than an hour. What if the US placed these things in... I don't know; Poland? They could hit Moscow in 5 minutes. 5 minutes. 5 minutes.

I don't care what you think. This is much worse than a nuclear weapon because countries will actually USE this technology to kill people thousands of kilometres away from their tiny computer monitors while eating Doritos and sipping on Diet Coke. War is becoming much less personal in this way and more like an odd computer game where the bad guys can often be little children in an Iraqi street like that Wikileaks video which had most ordinary people surprised at the brutality of modern day conflict. Now, imagine that coming in at the speed of Mach 17. Things just get worse and worse. Soon, we'll be using satellites to collect UV energy and we'll be sending it down to Earth in the form of microwaves. What..the...fuck. Fucking Stratfor.

The picture above is the various steps that the US Government will take before actually using hypersonic missiles to kill brown people.

Britain Takes a Stab at California

Today, David Cameron revealed his magnificent Conservative Party Election manifesto for the May 2010 British general elections. It was by the town of Battersea, England where a dilapidated power station which inspired Pink Floyd to use it as the background for the album cover of Animals that Mr. Cameron launched his bid to become Britain's next Prime Minister.

Either way, a Scotsmen will win the election no matter what the people of England has to do or say about it but David Cameron wants to make politics for the masses again. Oh joy. He wants YOU to be in charge.

The ideas that the Conservative party caucus has brought forth happen to be chiefly these ideas:

- A cap in non-EU immigrants to the United Kingdom

- Police chiefs will be elected by the people

- People will be able to fire their MP's

- Tax-cuts, tax cuts and more tax cuts

- .... while simultaneously getting rid of the deficit and reducing debt

I have a feeling that Mr. Cameron is a compassionate Conservative. Let's take a look at these tax-cuts because I have a feeling it'll benefit mostly wealthy Scottish elites like David Cameron.

Tax cuts like the 1.2 bn pound inheritance tax cut for the wealthiest people in the UK or the tax cuts for the 50p top rate of tax. Class will dominate this election as it always has in Britain. Saying that raising taxes, on the say richest people on Britain is an "attack on the Middle-Class" is flawed..unless Cameron thinks he IS Middle Class which I highly doubt.

Electing police chiefs will be another headache if it manages to get pushed through Parliament which it might due to party discipline if Cameron wins a majority government. By turning police officers into politicians and with each of them promising to be "tough on crime" in the big cities like Birmingham, London, Manchester etc. it'll be the lower classes who commit more street level crime than the average stock broker in the City of London. Instead of solving societal issues which make people commit crimes, getting tough on crime will probably choke Britain's prisons in a decade.

A cap on Non-EU immigration. I think it's only fair that these people get to come to Britain to feed off it's welfare system. Did not Britain milk the economies of it's former colonies dry when its Empire ruled the waves and killed dark natives just as easily? It's only fair I think. History is rather fair that way. What goes around comes again though it doesn't necessarily mean Indian companies will act as sovereign in Britain and will culminate in a military occuption of Britain for the next 100 years....or does it? The Scots would be their sepoys no doubt.

Furthemore, how is Mr Cameron going to reduce the deficit via tax cuts. Doesn't he realize Britain's economy is in peril. Even if you do win the election, you could also win being the head of a country that starts a new financial crisis. Hip hip hooray! Only huge budget cuts can save Britain and who's willing to do that? People want promises during elections, not misery and melancholy. Besides, living on the dole is the wet dream of many Britons. It really is just a few years before Britain's debt being 100% of GDP then the pound sterling gets devalued to Japanese levels. They're so fucked.

Firing your MP's. Hmm not a TERRIBLE idea.

Then again, David Cameron isn't all bad. Gordon Brown (another Scotsmen) pretty much planned the economic policy which cause Britain to nearly go down an international credit rating. By putting Britain in the "hands of the people" what'll result. How will the upper class blue-bloods react to this populism? How will the lower class white British who may view the British Nationalist Party as a possible solution to "wogs" taking their homes and jobs? How will the constantly squeezed middle class of Britain react to all this hullaballoo? Does Britain need it's own Tea Party movement ( BNP) to start a mass movement towards racism and government conspiracies about immigrants?

At a time of budget cuts and the eventual raising of taxes Mr Cameron wants to give up and give the power of government to the people. What sane citizen wants to raise taxes? Ask anyone in California and they'll so though they're bankrupt..at least the taxes aren't as "bad" as they should be. Poor, damned fools.

Either way. Britain is screwed by Scotsmen. This model minority first hijacked the English throne and then became its monied elites and politicians. At this rate, Rory Stewart will be Prime Minister by 2020! Better yet, Alex Salmond will get Scotland to separate and they'll be a Scot elected next year as Prime Minister, even more malicious is that England, Wales and Northern Ireland will still be fucked.Utterly brilliant. The revenge of William Wallace continues.

The Modern World in Five Pictures

I thought this would be something interesting I would try out. I'd describe how the Modern world has formed in 5 interesting pictures. Perhaps I'll do this more often involving other topics but here goes.

This picture depicts the Storming of the Bastille during the French Revolution. This was a very fascinating time in world history. A country's citizens rose up to toss out the old oder and bring in a new order which would bring happiness to alll. The revolution tries to bring ideals to people everywhere but ultimately it flops due to the chaos of revolution and the self-interested nature of humanity. The Revolution officially ended when Napoleon returned from Egypt to seize power from the Directory and the Little Corporal soon became the Emperor of the French Empire. As thousands of French young men were conscripted to die all over Europe, the Revolution did devour its' young.

The above picture displays the brutality of slavery and the Atlantic Slave Trade which tens of millions of Africans were sold to bondage in the New World. Through the intelligence of very effective scholars, doctors, politicians such as William Wilberforce the Slave trade was stamped out by the British navy and slavery in the Empire was elimated in 1833. No Empire is perfect but an entire nation decided to care about the enslavement of foreigners and the money that was created by it. From Sierra Leone, to Jamaica to the "Slave Coast" the British Empire found a vehicle to expand it's laws..and it's might.

In 1853, when black-hulled ships blowing steam entered Tokyo Bay the Japanese universe was flipped upside and inside out. The country had been ruled by a Shogun for centuries, it was a pirate island archipelago which raided China and Japan occasionally and it had kept out foreigners like the Portuguese..until now. What makes a nation modern? Modern science? Modern medicine or modern warfare..note that 100 years before the United States had been a collection of British provinces along the eastern seabord of North America numbering less than 2 million people. Maybe Japan had to emulate the Europeans (and Americans) to avoid the fate of China and it did by creating a "modern" government...and a modern Empire in East Asia. Japan was now...modern.

How does science operate usually? One day a primate was slapping rocks together just to see what will happen. A chip flakes off, a finger is cut. They primates starting breaking rocks on purpose to make tools for food and other stuff. They also use these tools to kill their enemies. Is it worth it? The scientific revolution had produced a weapon that could vaporize cities and kill millions of people and all of it came from examining how light works. Electromagnetism gave us telegraphs, telephones, electric currents, generators and the atomic bomb that ended a world cataclysm and started another one between two groups of primates that had the Atom bomb.



On September 11th, 2001 the world did change. Back in 1897 when the British were launching a punitive measure against the Pashtuns near the Khyber Pass they never thought that the Arab allies of the Pashtuns would be able to launch a strike against Whitehall which would kill 3000 Britons. Such a thought was unimaginable. Also like thinking about the economic collapse of the USSR in the 1970s, a wealthy China in the 1960s, a European Union in the 1910s, the State of Israel in 1850s. Times change. People remain the same. A Mullah Omar existed 100 years ago, it's just that the he couldn't lead Jihad on the back of a Toyota pick up truck. Such is history.

Culture Wars: Jamaica Vs Canada

You don't have to be a big country to export your culture to the rest of the world. Amongst a few others Jamaica has managed to do so. From music to religion to language Jamaica has a definitive influence on the Caribbean and the rest of the world. Now let's compare that to the second biggest country in the world, recent host of the 2010 Vancouver Games - Canada. Not so much eh? Why is that? Let's look at a few aspects of these cultures and compare.

Music: Jamaica happens to be a musical breadbasket for the Caribbean and North America. In fact, one of the most popular forms of music today (rap) hails from MC's who used to supervise Dancehall parties on that island. We can't forget reggae which has become a global phenomenon thanks to Burning Spear, Peter Tosh, Bob Marley and the Wailers etc. Furthermore, Ska in the 1970's and 80's converted millions of young with British teenagers to skank to Jamaican vibes. Wherever Jamaicans go in the world their music reverberates and adapts to it's new environment.

Canada has no significant indigenous music..except from the indigenous peoples themselves and I highly doubt Inuit throat singing is going to make a roaring comeback this decade. Instead, Canadians pride themselves on terrible East coast fiddle music, awful Quebecois teenage pop, atrocious bands from Ontario and rustic cowboy music from Alberta. Any good Canadian musician knows it's always best to leave that forsaken country to the US so they can actually make some money or be appreciated by their talents and when they do leave they're often derided by their fellow Canadians for being rich and successful. Canadians should stick to copying American culture. Far easier than inventing something uniquely Canadian.

Food: Jamaican cuisine along with other Caribbean cuisines are famous the world over for their spicy varieties, succulent meats and delicious pastries. Jerk chicken and Jamaican patties are slightly addictive along with ackee and anything curried. It's truly scrumptious food.

The most famous Canadian foods are beaver tail and poutine. Beaver tail essentially is pastry dough covered with brown sugar,cinnamon and icing. Nothing too special about it. An Austrian restaurant in downtown Vienna could probably whip up something ten times tastier and three times more unique than fried dough with sugar on it. Poutine is even worse because it's fries covered with gravy and cheese. It must've taken a genius to whip that up and find a way to clog the arteries of millions of French Canadians. You can't even export that to other nations because i'm sure McDonalds, Burger King and Wendy's can easily put that on their menu and call it "Gravy Fries". Simply pathetic.

Religion: Most Jamaicans are Protestants or Catholics. Nothing special right? Wrong! They're a messaniac cult that you've probably heard of called the Rastafarians who believe the dead Emperor of Ethiopia Haile Selassie (who was strangled and buried under a bathroom or something like that) is the Messiah and that Ethiopia is the holy land. It's a funny religion especially considering Rastafarians can't cut their hair and must braid it to attempt to look even basically decent. Their consumption of the drug marijuana too also brings it at odds with the authorities in Jamaica but what Messianic faith didn't have problems with the authorities?

Canada sadly doesn't have a messianic cult. You can say that hockey is it's natural religion but Canadians only truly worship during the NHL season thus making it a crappy faith even if it did qualify as one in the eyes of some Canucks. Canada really needs to invest in inventing some religions. They can start by making the Vancouver Olympic Mascots (a Sasquatch, a Bear-Bird and a Whale-Bear) spirits which they sacrifice beaver and baby seals to in arcane rituals. Also, giving a shout out to Cthulhu wouldn't hurt the Great White North.

Language: Jamaicans speak English, but English in a distinctive flavour known as Jamaican Patois. This melodious dialect of English is known the world over as characteristically Jamaican. Jamaican English is also peppered with African, Taino (The natives who lived in Jamaica before the arrival of the Spanish), Spanish and French.

Canadians speak chiefly two languages. French and English. Which is fine of course but these languages are used at the expense of thousands of native languages in Canada such as Inuit, Cree, Ojibway, Mohawk, Haida, Miqmaq, Blackfoot which are all disappearing from the Canadian linguistic landscape. At least it wasn't the Jamaicans fault that the Tainos were wiped out, their ancestors were still in Africa before slavery brought hundreds of thousands of Africans to Jamaica. The Natives in Canada are facing a cultural genocide which has been ongoing since the foundation of that country, no matter what the opening ceremony of the Vancouver Olympic Games tried to convey a sad situation is the reality in a lot of Aboriginal reserves in Canada.

This isn't saying that Jamaican culture is superior than any "Canadian" one. Virulent homophobia kills hundreds of gays in Jamaica and spreads a message of violence against them whenever MC's perform abroad. The gang-culture in Jamaica's cities between various neighbourhoods chokes Kingston as well as the corruption and poverty which is the norm in that nation. The fact is, is that Canada barely has a culture and any indigenous culture that it possesses it's trying to slowly rub out via cultural genocide. A pow-wow here or there isn't going to fix things and perhaps this is why Jamaican culture is at least more popular globally than Canadian culture.

Warrior Society of the Month - The Han Chinese! Part II

So when we last left off the story of the Han Chinese people, they were under Toba rule. Well the Toba ruled Northern China for so long that they blended with the Chinese people. Now this brought some problems too, especially now that Central Asians were now fully linked with Chinese civilization. For instance, by the early 500s a new tribal confederation in Mongolia called the Juan Juan were supreme and they asked to marry a Chinese princess (a huge insult). The Chinese bribed a general named Bumin who was in charge of the Tu-chueh people to lead a rebellion against the Juan Juan and Bumin got to marry the princess. His army nearly destroyed the Juan Juan and soon his Tu-chueh became known to the world as the Turks. Thanks to China, we got the Turks.

After this, everyone expected a Turkish invasion but the Turks began fighting amongst themselves and soon so did China amongst various warlords until one with the family name of Yang founded the Sui Dynasty. The Sui Dynasty was kinda messed up though. They invaded Korea and couldn't break into its walled cities and iron ships, they couldn't tax reform to ease peasans after decades of war AND they built a giant canal to link to main Chinese rivers in which 2 million people died. When it was done, the second Sui emperor floated down the canal on a huge dragon boat. He called for another war on Korea, but his barons turned their armies against him. The Li family took power after waiting it out in the mountains while the other armies tired themselves out in the plains. An old Chinese strategy. They took power in 5 years and began the Tang Dynasty. The greatest Emperor of China, Tai-Tsung was the man who led the rebellion on behalf of his daddy.

The Tang recruited a million Turks and Central Asians to push Chinese power deep into Central Asia and traded with the world as a result. He also made land reform a reality for Chinese peasants along with standardized testing for the bureuacracy he formed to run China. China prospered and found leisure time to invent things like printed books, porcelain and compasses. The Chinese population increased to 52 million people doubling the population. This era is known as the Fullness of Tang. However, all was not well..

In 750, a Chinese governor in Central Asia pissed off some Muslims and soon the Chinese fought a battle against an Arab-Persian-Turkish army and lost at Talas river. China lost it's hold on Central Asia and the formula for paper. A general from Central Asia named An Lushan who was worried by the current Emperor's relaxed attitude toward the situation took power and the Emperor was forced to turn to the Uighur people to retake China. It's fullness had emptied out in one gush. The Uighurs were now the head honchos in China and they were the single supply for China's horses which the Chinese had to pay with silk which crashed their economy. Luckily for China, the Uighurs never invaded but they settled down, took up farming and invented an alphabet. Weird.

China's financial troubles continued when the government demanded taxes in cash only, no longer grain or pigs. Peasants lost their land and the governmented melted Buddhist statues for coinage. A short term solution but it didn't stop drough, locusts,famine and a peasant revolt that chased away the Tang dynasty and killed thousands of foreigners in Canton (now known as Guangzhou). The Tang Dynasty collasped in 906.

Chaos reigned until the 960s when the Sung Dynasty took over. They ruled most of China except for the north which was controlled by the Khitai people (where the word Cathay comes from). In order to profit with imaginary credit, they invented paper money which plagues us to this very day. The Sung also heavily invested in its military industrial complex through things like catapults which flung bombs, ox's with a tub of explosives strapped on its back, guns made from bamboo which fired broken pottery and finally a metal tube that fired a large ball..called a cannon. Soon, the Sung would find a good excuse to use these weapons because back in Central Asia, more barbarians were stirring....

The Mongol tribes were united under a man named Temujin who had been given the tribal title by the confederation he formed: Jenghis Khan. He began looting Northern China for silk and then began blowing up it's city walls using explosives, rams and siege engines. They sacked Beijing pretty well in 1215. Besides, invading other parts of Central Asia too he considered genocide against the Chinese people, luckily for the Chinese a Uighur assistant said it was more profitable to tax them to wipe them off the face of the Earth and turn China into a giant game park. The Mongols continued to squeeze China by sending armies to conquer differing sections of it each year whilst also find the time to crush Baghdad and Eastern Europe too. Finally, Kublai Khan launched the final war against China. In the South, the Sung Dynasty still ruled! And they had cannnon to be boot. Guns were used on both sides and millions died over 18 years of conquest but Kublai conquered all of China and had the biggest Empire in the world to date.

Foreigners and Mongols had tons of fun making millions upon millions out of China through merchandise and paper money. The Chinese saw the Mongols as overlords who discriminated against them and made off with their countries wealth along with foreigners. The Mongols formed the Yuan Dynasty. Luckily for the Chinese, their salvation was to come through the deaths of millions of more Chinese people. This time, by the Black Death. The instability caused the Black Death in China made the people revolt on masse. By 1360, the Mongols had quit China altogether and a new warlord named Zhu Yuan-Zhang formed the Ming Dynasty. Vast tracts of land which were once Mongol hunting grounds were sold to peasants and it made millions for the government and helped put off the burden by a now growing Chinese population after centuries of war. This new wealth was used to pay for oceanic voyages to spread Chinese influence around the world. A Muslim Eunuch named Zheng He sailed around the Indian Ocean starting in 1405 and toppled governments in Sri Lanka whilst abducting East African animals. He also left Chinese colonies here and there too. However, this wasn't very profitible.

Instead of conquering new lands or enslaving peoples to make money, the Chinese mainly showed off. The programme was canceled just as Portugal and Spain got started and China turned inwards and the Ming Dynasty fell in the traditional Chinese manner. First a government grows to corrupt, a warlord rebels, a once faithful general becomes a traitor and often Northerners invade. The Ming Dynasty had an all-eunuch army which is completely useless in war. Everyone knew that Eunuchs were better servants than soldiers! Anyways, in 1644 a rebel army entered Beijing and found the Emperor and his posse hanging from the rafters. They chose suicide as their death option.

A warlord, Wu San-Gwei left the new warlord in charge of China because the warlord had taken Wu's fiance. He had clearly never read the Illiad. Wu then offered his services to the Manchu people of modern day Northern China (called Manchuria). The Manchus invaded and soon conquered China. The Manchus were a peculiar people. They loved hunting like the Mongols but they liked living the good life. The Manchu kept apart from the Chinese and required all Chinese males to get a ponytail (the one you always see in old racist movies about China). However, they allowed the Chinese to keep their bureaucracy, laws and civil servants.

The next Manchu Emperor named Kangxi was an interesting guy alright. He started trade with Spain which exchanged porcelain for Mexican/Peruvian silver. He allowed Jesuits to teach the Chinese about astronomy and heavy cannon. Christianity also spread too. However, the next Emperor Yongzheng thought Christianity was an alien cult (true, but weren't the Manchus also aliens to Chinese culture?) so he banned Christianity and Europeans except for the port of Guangzhou because he liked silver. China was doing so great that when there was a famine in the 1750s, they had enough rice to feed everybody.

Now, this was the time of European economic colonialism and exploration and countries like Britain had a dream to trade in China. That textiles in Bristol would clothe 150,000,000 Chinese people. That Lloyd's would set up shop in Beijing and Cadbury in Shanghai. Bought China was a stingy customer, it didn't buy anything Europeans made but Europeans bought Chinese silk, porcelain and tea. The British East India Company found a way to reverse this. Not surprisingly though, they were the most criminal corporation that's ever existed. Based from Calcutta, they operated like a sovereign power having it's own private army of Indians called sepoys and began collecting taxes in Bengal whilst interfering in Indian politics by sending its armies against foes such as the Maharajah of Mysore, Tipu Sultan. They drained India dry. Why not do the same to China?

The company started by planting tea in India, then they would sell this tea in Britain as opposed to buying it from China. Then, the company found a product the Chinese would buy - opium. From Bombay to Madras and beyond, they planted poppy fields to sell to China. At first it was bought for medicinal reasons but by the 1830s, millions were hooked on the stuff. From the highest mandarins to the dirtiest hookers and Britain got EXTREMELY rich off this. This is how Britain was able to recoup it's losses from abolishing slavery, by drugging the Chinese out of the port of Guangzhou yet British smugglers were avoiding the law by sailing up China's rivers to get at customers. Persuaded by the notion of free trade, Britain launched thousands of vessels determined to be the world's premier drug dealers. Imagine that! Soon the British wanted to be treated as equals in China. In 1838, the Emperor decreed the death penalty for drug dealers (a law that still exists today in China) and put the official Lin Zexu to deal with the foreigners. He made a reasonable offer, narcotics for tea. The Europeans brushed him aside. In turn, Lin closed down the wearhouses and destroyed a million kilos of opium.

Britain went to war with China in order for it to have "Normal Relations" with China. The Manchu army had no way of fighting against European gunboats. In 1843, China surrendered and opened nearly all its ports to Europeans. Hong Kong became a British possession. The Summer Palace of the Emperor (amongst the most beautiful places in the world) was destroyed. Christians returned to China and so did opium. This sent China into a moral talespin thinking that their corrupt society deserved such a beating from Europeans. From the ashes of the Opium War arose Hong Xiquan who's schizophrenia convinced him that he was Jesus Christ's Chinese Brother. Using the Bible he gathered a following which he called the Heavenly Kingdom with its own army and civil servants(!). Then these Heavenly Soldiers defeated the Chinese Imperial armies of the Manchu. China fell into a civil war and the Europeans chose to back the side that allowed opium but weren't Christian. Free trade comes first and the Chinese would be fucked up as a result. The war ended in 1864 after killing 60 million lives, the worst war in the 19th century. China was devastated.

Insult to injury, those Japanese barbarians across the sea were becoming modern and richer than China which was now layed open to European exploitation. In 1894, Japan joined in on the fun over who had the most influence over Korea. Japan thrashed Japan on land on on sea and China forked over Taiwan and abandoned Korea to the Japanese. This was the ultimate insult to the Chinese. Chinese conservatives launched an uprising against Christians and foreigners and it became known as the Boxer Rebellion in 1900. The Boxers were crushed and the Japanese helped the Europeans too. China was saddled with debt too making things EVEN worse. In 1908, the Emperor and his mother died (the real power) and revolution was begun against the child Manchu emperor in 1911. In 1912, Sun Yat-Sen founded a Republican govt in the South but the warlords at this time had sway in most of China.

The West ignored the Republic of China and treated Beijing's warlord as the leader of China. The USSR filled the void after the First World War with military aid and funded Chinese Nationalists. They also funded Chinese Communists who worked alongside the Nationalists. In 1925, Sun Yat Sen died and Chiang Kai Shek took over and attacked the warlords winning back some provinces of China. The Chinese also set up shop too after each Nationalist vicotry and they took from rich landowners and gave to the poor peasants. By 1927, Chiang had enough of this Communist meddling and launched an attack against them killing thousands which started a new Chinese Civil War with warlords, Nationalists AND Communists. Then Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931. By 1936, facing defeat the Communists fled from the South to the Western Mountains some 6000 km away. Japan invaded China proper the next year which meant millions more Chinese people would die.

Both parties now fought against the Japanese but the Nationalists took most of the brunt of the fighting. Luckily for the Chinese people who looked like Eastern China was going to become Lesser Japan the Americans got attacked and 4 years later the Japanese were nuked. By 1945 the Natioanlists and Communists had been pushed by the USA and the USSR to reconcile, tough chance. Mao Zedong, the Chinese leader thought he could make Peasant Revolution the foundation of a Communist state but Stalin said no. Chiang thought he could wipe out the Chinese Reds but the West said they were on their way to losing anyhow and China is pretty fucked up too. Chiang was forced to meet Mao but no agreement came of it. He allied himself with warlords who were widely hated for their cooperation with the Japanese and he disbanded 500,000 soldiers with no jobs or pay. These men joined the Communists and the Peasant Revolution and in May 1949, they created the People`s Republic of China.

Chiang fled to Taiwan where the Republic of China still exists to this day. Taiwan kept the China seat on the UN Security Council and the USSR got pissed. No one saw this coming! The ChiComs decided to flex their military might in Korea in 1950 after the West had pushed up to the Chinese border. 270,000 Chinese soldiers invaded pushing the UN forces all the way back to Seoul. Along with invading Tibet. At this time, US President Harry Truman considered nuking China and I think he could`ve done it. What were the consequences? Stalin nuking the US? I doubt it. Invading Western Europe? Possible. Who'd want to fight a war in East Asia and in Europe...again. I still think he should've done it. What a puss.

China did the same thing a decade later when it invaded India over some mountains in the Himalayas. The ChiComs were trying to reclaim their sphere of influence over East Asia again. Tough luck. The US Seventh Fleet and thousands of troops in Korea and Japan are a clear obstacle. Along with an independant Taiwan. Might as well turn inwards Mao thought and he did. The Great Leap Forward destroyed China economically and the following Cultural Revolution suppressed all dissent and made every teenage Chinese kid a Red Guard. China still had something it could do, especially involving its formal vassal state Vietnam. The US and its allies were fighting Vietnamese Communist-Nationalists there. Competing with the USSR (which was soon becoming a foe) by aiding the Vietminh was a worthwhile endeavour. As was mistrusting North Vietnam when it became a Soviet proxy state. US President Richard Nixon went to China and made friends by giving China it's UN Seat. China said thank you by installing the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. This was confirmed when China invaded Vietnam in 1979 for attacking Cambodia.

Soon, China was on its way. Economically that is. Deng Xiaoping said that getting rich was good and China was soon doing that while killing democratic protestors,strange religious cult members, Tibetans, Uighurs you name it. The ChiComs had become Capitalists and soon were on their way to forming a part of what traditionally is the Chinese order of doing things. Their massive corruption will appear in no time.

So, the Chinese people are back. You can't keep a good dog down(?) especially when it's composed of over a 1,000,000,000 people now. Maybe we'll see Chinese vs Chinese in Taiwan. That's always a good fight. Or India vs China part 2. Or just a plain old revolt against the current regime. In either case, the Chinese will always keep it interesting.