Russian President Vladimir Putin, (click here) former Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the co-founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, Jack Ma, are taking part in a discussion panel at the 14th Annual Meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi.
Alibaba is instant infrastructure. (click here) They offer everything but the kitchen sink and there may be a few of those. Alibaba is non-productive for local economies. Local economies are labor intensive and provide real jobs to people. But, in the case of Afghanistan, Alibaba will provide ideas, supplies and raw materials to begin their economy on a more modern path.
Former President Karzai would be interested in Afghanistan and it's future. I am not surprised he is looking for economic alliances with Russia and in the case of Alibaba, China. Karzai, from the beginning of the USA invasion into Afghanistan, never denied Afghanistan's need for relationships with it's neighbors. Karzai, early on in the USA invasion, asked "W" for a summit with Iran to realize a greater peace for the region. "W" declined.
Alibaba is incorrect. Computers are not smarter than people, although AI provides a danger to the human race; but, computers are made by people and are not smarter than people.
Computers are an enhancement to the human experience. Alibaba is an internet company similar to Amazon. It is understandable how a CEO involved with a densely computer based company would worship the idea computers are more intelligent than people. Such CEOs want to believe computers can control their markets.
To the human race, really?
This gives me a chance to visit the reality of the USA military. The battle for Raqqa is being touted in the US media as a victory for Trump. The facts are plan and in order to find the complexity and reporting supporting the truth has to be taken from Al Jazeera (Al Jazeera has mastered the reporting of intense fighting that occurs in the Middle East. The USA calls it "Urban Warfare."):
It was the Peshmerga that concluded the defeat of Daesh. The Peshmerga is maintaining the occupation currently. This is a background article from March of 2017. The Peshmerga has a deep interest in the Syrian Kurds.
March 28, 2017
By Mariya Petkova
...For the past two months, (click here) US allies have waited impatiently for an outline of Washington's strategy to capture the city from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS).
Defeating ISIL was claimed to be President Donald Trump's top foreign policy priority shortly after his inauguration. Capturing Raqqa has come to be viewed as the high point of his administration's strategy to take on the group. However, instead of proceeding with a plan that the Obama administration had prepared, Trump's team dismissed it and in late January asked the Pentagon to submit a new one.
The Pentagon's proposal turned out to be very much in line with Obama's plan: to rely on the SDF.
Turkey, a key US ally, has decried Washington's intentions, considering one of the SDF's main constituents - the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) - a "terrorist" organisation. Alternately, Ankara has proposed using the lose formation of Syrian rebel factions under the umbrella of its Euphrates Shield operation to launch the offensive on Raqqa. The Euphrates Shield forces advanced as far as Al Bab, west of Raqqa, but their progress has been blocked by Syria's regime forces.
Another scenario suggested that the Turkish-backed rebel groups enter into Syria through Tal Abyad, currently under SDF control and most likely will be fiercely opposed by the YPG. According to a third proposal, a Syrian Kurdish force - Peshmerga, trained by the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) that is sympathetic to Ankara, would join the fight against ISIL in Syria and potentially the battle for Raqqa. This has also been rejected both by its Syrian Peshmerga commanders and by the YPG, which is hostile to the KRG.
Turkey's main argument for its participation has been that Raqqa needs to be liberated by an Arab-majority force, but the Kurdish-dominated SDF, it argues, is not and, therefore, will not be able to govern the city afterwards.
Arab nations participating in the US-led international anti-ISIL coalition, such as Saudi Arabia and Jordan, have hinted at their participation - presenting a possible alternative - but no concrete proposals have been put forward.
Russia, too, has expressed its interest in participating in the battle, with defence ministry spokesman Konashenkov saying that "all forces fighting terrorism" must unite in order to capture Raqqa....
The facts are clear. There is absolutely no reason for the USA to become involved in Syria OR a threat to Iran. The region has been through enormous use of national resources to end a regime that grew under "W."
There is no reason for the USA to destabilize the region further than it had when Daesh launched a caliphate and killed ungodly numbers of innocent people.
October 7, 2017
By Louisa Loveluck and Liz Sly
...Perhaps more importantly, (click here) the Trump administration has not yet indicated whether it is prepared to stay on in northeastern Syria to provide protection for the fledgling ministate being forged by Syria’s Kurds. The experience over the past two days of the Kurds in neighboring Iraq may embolden the Syrian government to challenge the Syrian Kurdish enclave once the Islamic State is vanquished, just as the Iraqi government has moved to dislodge Kurdish forces from the oil-rich city of Kirkuk and other areas they controlled.
Syrian government officials have spoken on several occasions about their determination to regain control over all of the territory they lost to the rebellion against President Bashar al-Assad, including the area controlled by the Kurds.
“What would be disastrous for Syrian Kurds is a rapid U.S. drawdown in Syria. It would take away their major foreign patron,” said Nicholas A. Heras of the Center for a New American Security....
I remind. The global community has locked arms to end Daesh and it's charismatic movement. No one should be seeking to divide any of the military forces in this effort to end the occupation of Daesh in Raqqa. Carrying forward stability and a people's government to rebuild an economy is vital to Syria. A stable Syria will anchor a far better peace for the region.
I also remind, Syria has been the home of the Shi'ite Crescent. Plans to end the legitimate presence of Shi'ites is to be considered genocide. Iran is the country that carries the greatest concern for the Shi'ites in all their manifestation, including it's diaspora.
The manifestation of a continued civil war MUST be discouraged. The Syrian future depends on mutual respect for all religions within it's borders. The end of human rights is paramount to this goal.
The region has had enough of war and needs stability. The stability of the region should be paramount to the USA and not another immoral and illegal war into Iran.
The USA media tends to find better circulation numbers when providing "The Flag" at war. This false focus will never be tolerated by most Americans. Just sayin'.
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President Putin is talking about START (click here). This was the treaty "W" cancelled and wrote a 3 page document instead. Putin is correct, the USA has been playing a dangerous game. He stated Russia is still interested in START, but, believes the USA has yet to become significant partner.
START was re-engaged by President Obama.
...Aggregate limits: (click here)
- 700 deployed intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), deployed submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs), and deployed heavy bombers equipped for nuclear armaments;
- 1,550 nuclear warheads on deployed ICBMs, deployed SLBMs, and deployed heavy bombers equipped for nuclear armaments (each such heavy bomber is counted as one warhead toward this limit);
- 800 deployed and non-deployed ICBM launchers, SLBM launchers, and heavy bombers equipped for nuclear armaments.
Verification and Transparency: The Treaty has a verification regime that combines appropriate elements of the 1991 START Treaty with new elements tailored to the limitations and structure of this Treaty. Verification measures under the Treaty include on-site inspections and exhibitions, data exchanges and notifications related to strategic offensive arms and facilities covered by the Treaty, and provisions to facilitate the use of national technical means for treaty monitoring. To increase confidence and transparency, the Treaty also provides for an annual exchange of telemetry on an agreed number of ICBM and SLBM launches....
During the elections of 2016, Russia is known to have stated, Donald Trump as President and Russia would re-engage in another arms race to outclass the rest of the world and bring about renewed interest in Anti-Proliferation. So, the idea President Putin is stating the USA is not engaging START and Russia is, is somewhat of a surprise and a renewed interest by Russia.
October 16, 2017
By Paul Roderick Gregory
Among Russia’s biggest headaches (click here) is the widespread condemnation of its annexation of Crimea in March of 2014. Vladimir Putin still smarts from the November 2016 International Criminal Court (ICC) finding that “there exists a sensible or reasonable justification for a belief that a crime [my italics] falling within the jurisdiction of the Court ‘has been or is being committed’” within the Crimean and Donbas territories of Ukraine. Upon issuance of this finding, an irate Russia withdrew from the ICC. Sanctions continue to threaten persons and companies associated with the Crimean takeover. United Nations investigators have documented evidence of arbitrary detentions, torture, abductions, and political murder in occupied Crimea.
I'll be honest here. When are the old communists going to move out of the Cold War and realize the world is becoming far smaller everyday? Annexing Crimea and launching a war along the Ukraine border only caused problems for Russia. Such aggression is very old world and launches sanctions that cause damage to the future of Russia.
The old communists need to stop playing politics with old world ideologies. The facts that Russia is once again, as a BRIC country, facing a stalled economy due to the isolation deemed vital to Russia's sovereignty. That is nonsense. Russia's economy has to be valuable to Russians and not simply hunker down into politics that should have been jettisoned decades ago. Putin hasn't always pandered to the old communists. That occurred about the time of his second victory to the Russian presidency. Isn't this old world ideology enough for Russians yet?
When Putin took the presidency for his first term he was far more a Yeltsin Russian than Stalin. What happened since his first term is wrongly viewed within Russia as a loss of national identity under Yeltsin and forced the politics to conservative Stalinism. That is really unfortunate.
Russia is a very old country and it needs to abandon the fear of the return of the Czars.
Putin sees in the Catalonian referendum an opportunity to convince the European Union, NATO, and the UN that it is time to recognize that Crimea belongs to Russia and to let bygones be bygones. After all, business and political interests in Europe are getting restive. They contend that, after almost four years, it is time to return to “business as usual” with Russia.
The Russian narrative characterizes Catalonia as yet another unintended consequence of NATO’s 2008 recognition of Kosovo’s independence from Russian ally, Serbia. (No mention of Serbia’s ethnic cleansing of Kosovars preceding independence). Per Russia, Kosovo opened the Pandora’s Box of independence movements, of which Catalonia is but the latest example. In the growing list of self-determination movements – Kosovo, Kurdish Iraq, Scotland, Crimea, Quebec, and now Catalonia -- why should Crimea and its new homeland, Russia, be the only ones singled out for sanctions? Says one insulted Russian commentator: The West “has no right to lecture Russia.” The West cannot punish those referendums whose outcome it dislikes and praise those it welcomes....
October 19, 2017
Spain is to start suspending Catalonia's autonomy (click here) from Saturday, as the region's leader threatens to declare independence.
The government said ministers would meet to activate Article 155 of the constitution, allowing it to take over running of the region.
Catalonia's leader said the region's parliament would vote on independence if Spain continued "repression".
Catalans voted to secede in a referendum outlawed by Spain.
Some fear the latest moves could spark further unrest after mass demonstrations before and since the ballot on 1 October.
Spain's supreme court declared the vote illegal and said it violated the constitution, which describes the country as indivisible.
Article 155 of the constitution, which cemented democratic rule three years after the death of dictator General Francisco Franco in 1975, allows Madrid to impose direct rule in a crisis but it has never been invoked.
BBC Madrid correspondent Tom Burridge says that for Madrid this is about upholding the rule of law in Catalonia, protecting the Spanish constitution and disciplining what it sees as an unruly, disobedient devolved government....
November 24, 2012
Stabilising Spain’s finances (click here) without tearing its social fabric apart is being made harder by a new wave of Catalan secessionism...
The real price of war is that it becomes never ending. The generals and presidents overseeing war then like to say, the price paid by precious lives is an investment in further war. If the lives were so precious, why was war engaged in the first place?
Other answers to conflicts must be sought to bring focus to economies that work for the people.
Ukraine:
October 19, 2017
By Natalia Zinets and Matthias Williams
Ukrainian lawmakers (click here) voted through a long-delayed overhaul of the health system on Thursday that the state's Western backers say will raise standards and tackle a culture of bribe-taking in surgeries and hospitals.
The European Union and the International Monetary Fund have been pressing for faster reform is a country where lives are more than five years shorter than the European average, according to the World Health Organization.
But opponents of the changes, including many opposition MPs, say the more Western-style system will force patients to pay for their medicines for the first time, leaving the poorest with no healthcare.
The legislation lets patients choose their own doctor, rather than have one foisted on them - a move the government said would encourage medics to improve service and give them less opportunity to demand kickbacks for treatment.
The bill also sets out which medicines are paid for by the state and which ones patients will have to buy themselves.
Backers have said it would be clearer than the present system, where medicines are in theory covered by the state, but patients often have to pay to get hold of pills when supplies run short....
October 19, 2017
By Christopher Miller
KYIV -- Protesters calling for Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko (click here) to enact anticorruption reforms or step down notched a small victory on October 19 as parliament sent a bill on lifting lawmakers' immunity from prosecution to the Constitutional Court for review.
Hundreds of demonstrators aligned with opposition parties cheered the news when it was announced in front of the legislature, where they have been camping out in tents since October 17 to ratchet up pressure on Poroshenko to clamp down on what they see as rampant corruption in government.
Mustafa Nayyem, a reformist deputy and Poroshenko critic, called it "a small victory" for the opposition that is likely to appease the protesters for the time being.
Thousands of demonstrators have gathered outside the Verkhovna Rada in recent days in a mainly peaceful protest, though minor clashes with police have been reported....
October 19, 2017
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) (click here) has upheld sanctions imposed by the European Union on former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and his son Oleksandr.
The Luxembourg-based court confirmed on October 19 the freezing of their funds for the period from March 2015 until March 2016, upholding a previous ruling by the General Court.
In a statement, the ECJ said that Viktor and Oleksandr Yanukovych had challenged the EU sanctions that were imposed on the grounds that they were the subject of pretrial investigations in Ukraine for offenses linked to the misappropriation of public funds.
But the court said that the Yanukovychs' concerns over the impartiality of the Ukrainian judicial system "are not capable of calling into question the cogency of the charges made against them...or of demonstrating that their particular situation had been affected by the problems in the Ukrainian judicial system."...
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