Peter Myer's View

----- Original Message -----

From: "Peter Myers" myers@cyberone.com.au

Sent: Wednesday, October 13, 2004 5:37 PM

Subject: A Global Power Shift in the making with Asia rising fast

1. AUSTRALIA LOST ITS SOUL ON SATURDAY
Date: Mon, 11 Oct 2004 02:02:18 EDT From: ECONORTH@aol.com
http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?noframes;read=57068
AUSTRALIA LOST ITS SOUL ON SATURDAY *PIC*
Posted By: TruthPassion <Send E-Mail>
Date: Sunday, 10 October 2004, 11:09 p.m.

Australians voted on 9 October - and something in the Australian psyche
died a little that day.

John Howard, liar extraordinaire, and complicit murderer of 353 "illegal
immigrants on a boat called SIEV X, the man who took our guns away in
1995 after the "event" of the Port Arthur massacre, used scare tactics
once again.

Last election, it was the "illegal immigrants" issue, and many still
languish in concentration style camps in Australia to this day -
including children. Well, those who didn't die at sea between 18-20
October 2001. For confirmation of what I am saying here, please go to
www.sievx.com.

This time he hit us where we are weakest. His fear mongering was to do
with interest rates. He enforced and reinforced the idea that if we
voted for Labor our interest rates would rise. Australians are deeply in
debt, and they capitulated.

And sadly, he won by a much greater majority than he had won previously.
Now it seems his party will be uncontested in the Senate, and he is well
on his way to the dictatorship I know he covets.

Our media laws will be changed. We have one reasonably free media outlet
left, Fairfax, and this will be one of the first acts he will bring in.
Now Murdoch and Packer will be able to take full control of our media.
Shocking.

He will continue destroying our old growth forests in Tasmania - a
beautiful, wild place as at now. We don't benefit. The logs go to Japan
or China to be made into wood chips. Tasmanian loggers voted for Liberal
because Labor was planning to save much of the forest, and with $800
million, train the loggers, hopefully to chip their own logs.

Our world is closing in. Rayelan may yet be right. Australia may be the
first country taken over by the NWO. However, if this is the case, we
are talking about John Howard, who walks in lockstep with everything
George Bush does or says.

I had hoped Australians would stand up against the Howard government
onslaught. They didn't. And I believe we have lost our soul.

TruthPassion

Below are some of the children who drowned when the SIEV X capsized in
international waters, on its way to Christmas Island. Most of those who
died were women and children.
{end}

REPLY (Peter Myers):

This is a Green interpretation of Howard's victory in the Federal
election Australia had on October 9. But it's wrong. Until 5 or 6 days
before the poll, despite all Howard's scares about interest rates, the
parties were neck & neck (2-party preferred). What changed was Labor
leader Mark Latham's committment to stop logging in Tasmania's Old
Growth forests.

This showed that Labor was still the Middle-Class party that Hawke &
Keating had made it. It was dumping its traditional Blue-Collar voters,
and reaching out instead to "Progressives".

I oppose woodchipping, but the article is wrong to imply that this is
the main destiny of these trees. Tasmania's Forests are logged for
sawmilling into lumber (timber products). Branches too small to mill may
be chipped.

Forests grow each year; why can't some of that growth be harvested? Much
of Tasmania is already locked up. Many of Tasmania's industries have
been decimated; forestry and tourism are now all that's left.

Even before his speech, Latham already had Green preferences. That
speech put Bob Brown in the position of "King Maker". Even though I
detest Howard, I decided that if Latham went that way, he would lose my
vote. For the first time ever, I "voted" but handed in blank voting
forms.

The article ends with an appeal on Asylum seekers, the issue on which
Howard won the 2001 election. "Progressives" don't understand that
voters don't want Open Borders; they want control over who comes here.

Greens would have been better off if they had not pushed Labor into a
corner. Now they'll lose much more.

I am a small-g green, but I oppose the Greens because of their
extremism. They have destroyed the forest industries in NSW (and, by
locking the forests up, e.g. removing the grazing leases that used to
limit undergrowth, contributed to the bushfires), promote Open Borders,
Gay Marriage, Feminism (eg day care for babies) and every other kind of
political correctness. The Australian Democrats pursue similar policies.

2. Presbyterian & Jewish Groups Clash Over Divestment From Israel
Date: Sun, 10 Oct 2004 17:30:52 EDT From: RePorterNoteBook@aol.com
Jewish Groups Scramble To Head Off Divestment Push
By Eric J. Greenberg
October 1, 2004
http://www.forward.com/main/article.php?ref=greenberg200409291150

As the push to cut off investments in Israel gains momentum in
Protestant circles, Jewish organizations and their allies on Capitol
Hill are racing to neutralize the burgeoning divestment movement.

This week, following a tense three-hour summit with upset Jewish
communal officials, leaders of the Louisville-based Presbyterian Church
(USA), with 2.5 million members, said they were determined to go ahead
with their recently approved plan to divest selectively from Israel. The
interfaith meeting came just days after Anglican Church officials
visiting Israel said that they would push for consideration of a
divestment plan to protest Israel's policies toward the Palestinians.

"The Presbyterian divestment could potentially create a snowball effect
and resurrect what had been a moribund issue," said the interfaith
affairs director of the Anti-Defamation League, Rabbi Gary
Bretton-Granatoor. "Now it has provoked the Anglicans, and we know it
will not end there. We have to send a clear message to every church that
they will have to face a united Jewish community on this issue."

In an effort to head off anti-Israel divestment efforts, a bipartisan
group of 13 congressmen sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Commerce
stating that such campaigns violate America's laws regarding the Arab
boycott of Israel. The letter, which was initiated by the Zionist
Organization of America, was sent to the Commerce's Office of
Anti-boycott Compliance. The congressmembers urged the office to
"investigate the national boycott campaign against Israel, shut down the
illegal divestment campaigns and impose the appropriate penalties."

A second bipartisan group of congressmen sent a letter to the
Presbyterian Church's chief executive, the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick,
calling for the church to abandon its recently adopted divestment plan.
The letter, organized by Howard Berman, a California Democrat, termed
the church's divestment policy "irresponsible, counterproductive and
morally bankrupt."

The letter stated that the resolution "leads us to only one conclusion:
The Presbyterian Church has knowingly gone on record calling for
jeopardizing the existence of the State of Israel."

Some critics raised concerns that the effort by congressmen to insert
themselves in the affairs of a religious group is an assault on the
separation of church and state.

Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, sounded a
similarly harsh note during his opening speech at the Tuesday meeting
with Presbyterian leaders. The gathering was held at the Reform
movement's headquarters in Manhattan.

Referring to several anti-Israel resolutions, or Overtures, approved by
the church during the summer ññ including one assailing the erection of
Israel's secuiryt fence ññ Yoffie declared: "Do the authors of these
Overtures value Jewish lives and Palestinian lives equally? Do they
mourn the death of Israeli children in the same way and with the same
intensity that they mourn the death of Palestinian children?"

"In your Overture, Israel's occupation is evil, as are, by implication,
those who carry it out," Yoffie said in his opening statement. "And yet
the word 'evil' appears nowhere else in the Overture. No Palestinian
action, no matter how horrific, is categorized as evil. If the blowing
up of Israeli children on a Tel Aviv bus is not an evil act and a
terrorist act, then what is it?"

Leaders of the Reform and Conservative movements took part in the
meeting, along with several Jewish public-affairs agencies including the
Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs and the
American Jewish Committee.

After the meeting, Kirkpatrick, the church's chief executive, declined
to call for the reversal of the anti-Israel divestment resolution,
despite entreaties during his first face-to-face meeting on the subject
with Jewish communal leaders.

"I do not leave this meeting feeling that the decision by the General
Assembly should be reversed," Kirkpatrick said at a press conference.

He did, however, pledge to keep Jewish leaders more informed on the
divestment process.

Leaders from both sides also said they would look into organizing joint
trips to Israel and the Palestinian territories, as well as increasing
interfaith dialogue on the local level and among seminary students.

In November, the church's special committee on socially responsible
investing is expected to begin deciding which American companies that do
business in Israel are harmful to Palestinians and, hence, subject to
divestment. The committee is scheduled to make recommendations in March
to the church's board of directors. The church has about $7 billion in
investments, but only a small percentage is related to Israel.

A decision by the General Assembly on which companies to divest from
would not be made until the next national conference, in 2006,
Kirkpatrick said. He also stressed that divestment would be used as a
last resort, only after the companies in question were urged to attempt
to change Israel's policies toward the Palestinians. He named
Caterpillar Inc. as one company that would be targeted, because its
bulldozers have been used to demolish Palestinian homes.

Tuesday's interfaith summit also comes as the Institute on Religion and
Democracy, a conservative Washington think tank, issued a report
accusing mainline Protestant churches of disproportionately attacking
Israel, while letting repressive regimes known for human rights abuses,
like Saudi Arabia and Egypt, off the hook.

The report stated: "It is not unreasonable to ask whether anti-Jewish
animus may play some role in the church's skewed human rights advocacy."

The National Council of Churches USA, a coalition representing mainline
Protestant groups, responded by criticizing the report as significantly
flawed, and by arguing that the conservative think tank was attempting
to drive a wedge between the Jewish community and liberal churches.

"The most unfortunate part of the IRD's report is its apparent attempt
to hurt Jewish-Christian relations by quite blatantly planting seeds of
suspicion that the mainline churches are antisemitic," said the national
council's general secretary, the Rev. Dr. Robert Edgar. "The IRD wrongly
and dangerously equates any criticism of the government of Israel and
its policies with antisemitism."

3. 911 re-fuelling records; insurance premiums rise
Date: Mon, 11 Oct 2004 07:44:16 +1000 From: "Blackheath Books"
blackheathbooks@bigpond.com
Could somone in USA check aircraft re-fuelling records for planes
involved in 911.This may reveal a chink in armour.Cordially John
Cameron.

Also, Pls.have a look at COUNTERPUNCH article by Walter A.Davis OF
PYNCHON,THANATOS & DEPLETED URANIUM. Chilling that Carlyle Group is now
into nuclear profiteering. Excellent writing. With respect to Dick
Eastman & WTC # 7,very incisive.Just reading The Conspirators by Al
Martin; # 43 his forte was insurance fraud. Just ponder, here we have
the biggest scam in history. Some $3.5 billion being paid out with no
detailed investigation. Premiums will now rise & the public will pay
more. Al Capone's biggest mistake, he should have been a politician.
Regards John Cameron.

(4) Misleader and Culture Distorter Jacques Derrida, dead
Date: Sun, 10 Oct 2004 19:02:27 EDT From: Ichee@aol.com
www.ICHEE.org: Misleader and Culture Distorter Jacques Derrida, dead'
Jacques Derrida, Abstruse Theorist, Dies at 74
By JONATHAN KANDELL
Published: October 10, 2004 NY TIMES
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/10/obituaries/10derrida.html?hp&ex=

1097467200&en=bf0e4a5d1d77ff19&ei=5094&partner=homepage

Jacques Derrida, the Algerian-born, French intellectual who became one
of the most celebrated and notoriously difficult philosophers of the late 20th century, died Friday at a Paris hospital, the French president's office announced. He was 74.

The cause of death was pancreatic cancer, according to French
television, The Associated Press reported.

Mr. Derrida was known as the father of deconstruction, the method of
inquiry that asserted that all writing was full of confusion and
contradiction, and that the author's intent could not overcome the
inherent contradictions of language itself, robbing texts - whether
literature, history or philosophy - of truthfulness, absolute meaning
and permanence. The concept was eventually applied to the whole gamut of
arts and social sciences, including linguistics, anthropology, political
science, even architecture.

//cut
Mr. Derrida, a Jew, was understood by some people to be condoning Mr. de
Man's anti-Semitism.

A Devoted Following

Nonetheless, during the 1970s and 1980s, Mr. Derrida's writings and
lectures gained him a huge following in major American universities - in
the end, he proved far more influential in the United States than in
France. For young, ambitious professors, his teachings became a
springboard to tenure in faculties dominated by senior colleagues and
older, shopworn philosophies. For many students, deconstruction was a
rite of passage into the world of rebellious intellect.

5. Bush and Kerry Represent the Real Terrorists, by Henry Makow
Date: Sun, 10 Oct 2004 21:51:34 -0400 From: John Kaminski
skylax@comcast.net
Subject: Bush and Kerry Represent the Real Terrorists
Date: Sun, 10 Oct 2004 12:01:33 -1000 From: "Stephen Ross"
rosswave1@msn.com

To:"Aloha Amigos" rosswave@yahoo.com
http://www.savethemales.ca/
Bush and Kerry Represent the Real Terrorists
By Henry Makow Ph.D. October 10, 2004

Americans have an unappetizing choice November 2.
They can vote for the candidate who metaphorically will kill their
brother. Or they can choose the other who will kill their sister.
Choices. Isn't democracy great?
George Bush represents US oil interests. He likely will launch a nuclear
war against Iran and let the radiation solve his Iraq problem.

John Kerry represents Rothschild oil interests. Kerry will look the
other way while Israel does the same thing.

If I were an American (I am Canadian), I would not vote on Nov. 2.

The election legitimizes and makes us accomplices to government by a
thoroughly corrupt and immoral elite. It is far better to disassociate
oneself from the sorry affair.

SEPT 11

I cannot participate in a system that slaughters its own citizens as a
pretext for war. Both the Democrat and Republican leadership are guilty
of perpetuating the 9-11 and War on Terror hoax. They are the
terrorists, as well as traitors.

On Sept. 11, 7 World Trade Center, a 47-story building nearby collapsed
apparently in sympathy with the twin towers. Larry Silverstein, the
owner, admits that he chose this moment to demolish it.

Isn't it a huge coincidence that it was already wired for demolition?
Was it the intended target of the jet that crashed in Pennsylvania?

Silverstein also owned the World Trade Center. It stands to reason that
it was a planned demolition as well. The towers fell in roughly 10
seconds, about the same rate that an object falls through air.

According to Indymedia Hawaii: "Anyone with a little common sense will
realize that the top of a building does not pass through the concrete
and steel that comprises the lower portion of the building at the same
rate that it falls through air. This just doesn't happen, unless, of
course, the lower part of the building has lost its structural integrity
(and this is usually due to the detonation of a multitude of small
explosive charges as seen in controlled demolitions)."

A Boeing 757 jet did not hit the Pentagon. The damage did not fit the
profile of a passenger jet and there was no debris on the lawn. See this
short video.

Sept. 11 was carried out by the Mossad, CIA and MI-6, which are
instruments of the London-based financial cabal that runs the Western
world. The purpose was to provide a rationale to invade Moslem countries
and create a police state in the West.

STOCKHOLM SYNDROME

The corrupt criminal elite spins a yarn about Al Qaeda. Like children,
Americans hope that they won't be harmed if they play along. This has
reached the level of "Stockholm Syndrome."

According to Ask Yahoo, "Stockholm Syndrome describes the behaviour of
kidnap victims who, over time, become sympathetic to their captors. The
name derives from a 1973 hostage incident in Stockholm, Sweden. At the
end of six days of captivity in a bank, several kidnap victims actually
resisted rescue attempts, and afterwards refused to testify against
their captors.

Captives begin to identify with their captors initially as a defensive
mechanism, out of fear of violence... Rescue attempts are also seen as a
threat; since it's likely the captive would be injured during such
attempts.

It's important to note that these symptoms occur under tremendous
emotional and often physical duress. The behaviour is considered a
common survival strategy ... and has been observed in battered spouses,
abused children, prisoners of war, and concentration camp survivors."

When "terrorists" hijacked four planes on Sept. 11, it was only the
latest episode in the long history of the kidnapping of humanity by a
corrupt financial elite.

REFLECTIONS ON 'DEMOCRACY'

"Democracy" is the financial elite's preferred method of deceiving and
controlling the plebes.

The media creates the illusion that the candidates are our leaders. In
fact, they are members of the elite who also own the media.

Both Bush and Kerry pretend to be opposed. Distant cousins, they are
both members of an occult secret society, the Illuminati "Skull and
Bones" at Yale. You would think this would disqualify them from "public
service."

The two men and their respective parties, act as giant pincers keeping
the sheep in their pen. They are the two arms of the great American
mental straitjacket. They define the boundaries of the debate. People
like Ralph Nader need not apply.

Although the major parties barely differ, they have polarized the US
population into two warring camps. Thus Americans ignore the true enemy,
the sponsor of both parties.

The U.S. talks of bringing democracy to Iraq. American democracy is an
embarrassing farce. The U.S. promises freedom to the world while gutting
it at home.

WHO IS THE ELITE?

"They Live", a visionary 1988 movie directed by John Carpenter,
postulates a police state run by aliens who look and behave like
yuppies. The masses are reduced to a nomadic life of poverty and
persecution.

The hero, played by wrestler Roddy Piper, discovers glasses that reveal
the true hideousness of the ruling class. An interminable fight between
Piper and his sidekick ensues when his sidekick refuses to wear the
glasses and see the truth. Anyone who has tried to reason with a
brainwashed acquaintance will identify.

Prophetically, Piper and the people resisting alien rule are dubbed
"terrorists" by the mass media in the movie.

In reality, members of the elite are aliens only in the sense they have
embraced the Illuminati's occult mission to spiritually enslave
humanity.

Meyer Amschel Rothschild started the Illuminati in 1776, at the same
time as the American Revolution which was caused by England's demand
that the colonists use its (privately produced) money and stop printing
their own.

To put down the revolt, Rothschild concocted the scheme of sending
16,800 Hessian mercenaries. For this King George paid the Hessian
Landgrave $20 million which he gave to Rothschild for safekeeping.

Rothschild promptly lent it to the colonists to finance their rebellion.
The Rothschilds and their allies have instigated and financed every
major war since. (See Gertrude M. Coogan, Money Creators pp.173 ff.)

They regained control of the U.S between 1902 and 1913 when they
purchased 25% of US industry and established the privately owned Federal
Reserve. When Marina Oswald was asked who killed JFK, she answered, "the
Federal Reserve." Kennedy had committed the unpardonable sin: he tried
to print US money.

Also known as the Club of the Isles, the moneylenders and their allies
are the aliens. Both Bush and Kerry are members of this clique. Every
war has been designed to enrich this cabal and consolidate its power.

It controls every Western government, newspaper, TV network, university
and large corporation. You are a bystander in their unfolding program of
"world government."

I would love to be wrong about all of this. But as a hostage who eschews
Stockholm Syndrome, I think that participating in their elections
shackles my mind and makes me an accomplice to their evil design.

6. A Global Power Shift in the making with Asia rising fast
Date: Sun, 10 Oct 2004 22:15:29 -0400 From: "David Chiang"
chiang.d@worldnet.att.net
A Global Power Shift in the Making By James F. Hoge, Jr.
From Foreign Affairs, July/August 2004 http://www.foreignaffairs.org

Summary: Global power shifts happen rarely and are even less often
peaceful. Washington must take heed: Asia is rising fast, with its
growing economic power translating into political and military strength.
The West must adapt -- or be left behind.

James F. Hoge, Jr. is Editor of Foreign Affairs. This article is adapted
from a lecture given in April at Johns Hopkins University's Paul H.
Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C.

The transfer of power from West to East is gathering pace and soon will
dramatically change the context for dealing with international
challenges -- as well as the challenges themselves. Many in the West are
already aware of Asia's growing strength. This awareness, however, has
not yet been translated into preparedness. And therein lies a danger:
that Western countries will repeat their past mistakes.

Major shifts of power between states, not to mention regions, occur
infrequently and are rarely peaceful. In the early twentieth century,
the imperial order and the aspiring states of Germany and Japan failed
to adjust to each other. The conflict that resulted devastated large
parts of the globe. Today, the transformation of the international
system will be even bigger and will require the assimilation of markedly
different political and cultural traditions. This time, the populous
states of Asia are the aspirants seeking to play a greater role. Like
Japan and Germany back then, these rising powers are nationalistic, seek
redress of past grievances, and want to claim their place in the sun.
Asia's growing economic power is translating into greater political and
military power, thus increasing the potential damage of conflicts.
Within the region, the flash points for hostilities -- Taiwan, the
Korean Peninsula, and divided Kashmir -- have defied peaceful
resolution. Any of them could explode into large-scale warfare that
would make the current Middle East confrontations seem like police
operations. In short, the stakes in Asia are huge and will challenge the
West's adaptability.

Today, China is the most obvious power on the rise. But it is not alone:
India and other Asian states now boast growth rates that could outstrip
those of major Western countries for decades to come. China's economy is
growing at more than nine percent annually, India's at eight percent,
and the Southeast Asian "tigers" have recovered from the 1997 financial
crisis and resumed their march forward. China's economy is expected to
be double the size of Germany's by 2010 and to overtake Japan's,
currently the world's second largest, by 2020. If India sustains a six
percent growth rate for 50 years, as some financial analysts think
possible, it will equal or overtake China in that time.

Nevertheless, China's own extraordinary economic rise is likely to
continue for several decades -- if, that is, it can manage the
tremendous disruptions caused by rapid growth, such as internal
migration from rural to urban areas, high levels of unemployment,
massive bank debt, and pervasive corruption. At the moment, China is
facing a crucial test in its transition to a market economy. It is
experiencing increased inflation, real-estate bubbles, and growing
shortages of key resources such as oil, water, electricity, and steel.
Beijing is tightening the money supply and big-bank lending, while
continuing efforts to clean up the fragile banking sector. It is also
considering raising the value of its dollar-pegged currency, to lower
the cost of imports. If such attempts to cool China's economy -- which
is much larger and more decentralized than it was ten years ago, when it
last overheated -- do not work, it could crash.

Even if temporary, such a massive bust would have dire consequences.
China is now such a large player in the global economy that its health
is inextricably linked to that of the system at large. China has become
the engine driving the recovery of other Asian economies from the
setbacks of the 1990s. Japan, for example, has become the largest
beneficiary of China's economic growth, and its leading economic
indicators, including consumer spending, have improved as a result. The
latest official figures indicate that Japan's real GDP rose at the
annual rate of 6.4 percent in the last quarter of 2003, the highest
growth of any quarter since 1990. Thanks to China, Japan may finally be
emerging from a decade of economic malaise. But that trend might not
continue if China crashes.

India also looms large on the radar screen. Despite the halting progress
of its economic reforms, India has embarked on a sharp upward
trajectory, propelled by its thriving software and business-service
industries, which support corporations in the United States and other
advanced economies. Regulation remains inefficient, but a
quarter-century of partial reforms has allowed a dynamic private sector
to emerge. Economic success is also starting to change basic attitudes:
after 50 years, many Indians are finally discarding their colonial-era
sense of victimization.

Other Southeast Asian states are steadily integrating their economies
into a large web through trade and investment treaties. Unlike in the
past, however, China -- not Japan or the United States -- is at the hub.

The members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN),
finally, are seriously considering a monetary union. The result could be
an enormous trade bloc, which would account for much of Asia's -- and
the world's -- economic growth.

THE STRAINS OF SUCCESS

Asia's rise is just beginning, and if the big regional powers can remain
stable while improving their policies, rapid growth could continue for
decades. Robust success, however, is inevitably accompanied by various
stresses.

The first and foremost of these will be relations among the region's
major players. For example, China and Japan have never been powerful at
the same time: for centuries, China was strong while Japan was
impoverished, whereas for most of the last 200 years, Japan has been
powerful and China weak. Having both powerful in the same era will be an
unprecedented challenge. Meanwhile, India and China have not resolved
their 42-year-old border dispute and still distrust each other. Can
these three powers now coexist, or will they butt heads over control of
the region, access to energy sources, security of sea lanes, and
sovereignty over islands in the South China Sea?

Each of the Asian aspirants is involved in explosive territorial
conflicts, and each has varying internal stresses: dislocated
populations, rigid political systems, ethnic strife, fragile financial
institutions, and extensive corruption. As in the past, domestic crises
could provoke international confrontations.

Taiwan is the most dangerous example of this risk. It has now been more
than 30 years since the United States coupled recognition of one China
with a call for a peaceful resolution of the Taiwan question. Although
economic and social ties between the island and the mainland have since
grown, political relations have soured. Taiwan, under its current
president, seems to be creeping toward outright independence, whereas
mainland China continues to seek its isolation and to threaten it by
positioning some 500 missiles across the Taiwan Strait. The United
States, acting on its commitment to Taiwan's security, has provided the
island with ever more sophisticated military equipment. Despite U.S.
warnings to both sides, if Taiwan oversteps the line between provisional
autonomy and independence or if China grows impatient, the region could
explode.

Kashmir remains divided between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan. Since
1989, the conflict there has taken 40,000 lives, many in clashes along
the Line of Control that separates the two belligerents. India and
Pakistan have recently softened their hawkish rhetoric toward each
other, but neither side appears ready for a mutually acceptable
settlement. Economic or political instabilities within Pakistan could
easily ignite the conflict once more.

North Korea is another potential flash point. Several recent rounds of
six-party talks held under Chinese auspices have so far failed to
persuade Kim Jong Il to scrap his nuclear weapons program in exchange
for security guarantees and aid to North Korea's decrepit economy.
Instead, the talks have brought recriminations: toward the United
States, for offering too little; toward North Korea, for remaining
intransigent; and toward China, for applying insufficient pressure on
its dependent neighbor. Now recently disclosed evidence suggests that
North Korea's nuclear efforts are even more advanced than was previously
believed. As Vice President Dick Cheney warned China's leaders during an
April trip, time may be running out for a negotiated resolution to the
crisis.

SHIFTING PRIORITIES

For more than half a century, the United States has provided stability
in the Pacific through its military presence there, its alliances with
Japan and South Korea, and its commitment to fostering economic
progress. Indeed, in its early days, the Bush administration stressed
its intention to strengthen those traditional ties and to treat China
more as a strategic competitor than as a prospective partner. Recent
events, however -- including the attacks of September 11, 2001 -- have
changed the emphasis of U.S. policy. Today, far less is expected of
South Korea than in the past, thanks in part to Seoul's new leaders, who
represent a younger generation of Koreans enamored of China, disaffected
with the United States, and unafraid of the North.

Japan, meanwhile, faced with a rising China, a nuclear-armed North
Korea, and increasing tension over Taiwan, is feeling insecure. It has
thus signed on to develop a missile defense system with U.S. aid and is
considering easing constitutional limits on the development and
deployment of its military forces.

Such moves have been unsettling to Japan's neighbors, which would become
even more uncomfortable if Japan lost faith in its U.S. security
guarantee and opted to build its own nuclear deterrent instead. Even
worse, from the American perspective, would be if China and Japan were
to seek a strategic alliance between themselves rather than parallel
relations with the United States. To forestall this, Washington must
avoid, in all its maneuverings with China and the two Koreas, sowing any
doubt in Japan about its commitment to the region.

Yet Japan, given its ongoing economic and demographic problems, cannot
be the center of any new power arrangement in Asia. Instead, that role
will be played by China and, eventually, India. Relations with these two
growing giants are thus essential to the future, and engagement must be
the order of the day, even though some Bush officials remain convinced
that the United States and China will ultimately end up rivals. For
them, the strategic reality is one of incompatible vital interests.

Militarily, the United States is hedging its bets with the most
extensive realignment of U.S. power in half a century. Part of this
realignment is the opening of a second front in Asia. No longer is the
United States poised with several large, toehold bases on the Pacific
rim of the Asian continent; today, it has made significant moves into
the heart of Asia itself, building a network of smaller, jumping-off
bases in Central Asia. The ostensible rationale for these bases is the
war on terrorism. But Chinese analysts suspect that the unannounced
intention behind these new U.S. positions, particularly when coupled
with Washington's newly intensified military cooperation with India, is
the soft containment of China.

For its part, China is modernizing its military forces, both to improve
its ability to win a conflict over Taiwan and to deter U.S. aggression.
Chinese military doctrine now focuses on countering U.S. high-tech
capabilities -- information networks, stealth aircraft, cruise missiles,
and precision-guided bombs.

Suspicious Americans have interpreted larger Chinese military budgets as
signs of Beijing's intention to roll back America's presence in East
Asia. Washington is thus eager to use India, which appears set to grow
in economic and military strength, as a counterbalance to China as well
as a strong proponent of democracy in its own right. To step into these
roles, India needs to quicken the pace of its economic reforms and avoid
the Hindu nationalism espoused by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP),
which suffered a surprising defeat in recent parliamentary elections.
Officials of the victorious Congress Party pledged to continue economic
reforms while also addressing the needs of the rural poor who voted them
back into office. Bullish in victory, Congress spokespersons said that
they would push to increase India's annual growth rate to ten percent
from its current eight percent.

Unless Congress follows its secular tradition in governing, it will
undercut any utility India might have for the U.S. campaign to counter
the influence of radical Islamists. To date, the aberrant religious
ideology that opposes all secular government has developed only moderate
traction among the large Muslim populations of India and the surrounding
states of Central and Southeast Asia. For example, fundamentalist
Islamic political parties fared poorly in winter and spring
parliamentary elections in Malaysia and Indonesia. In other ways,
however, radical Islamists are becoming a serious threat to the region.
Weak governments and pervasive corruption there provide fertile ground
for back-shop operations: training, recruitment, and equipping of
terrorists. Evidence points to a loose network of disparate Southeast
Asian terrorist groups that help each other with funds and operations.

Recent public-opinion polls show that sympathy is growing for the
anti-American posturing of the radical Islamists, in large part due to
U.S. activities in Iraq and U.S. support of the Sharon government in
Israel. The full impact of outrage over the mistreatment of Iraqi
prisoners is still to be determined. But deep anger is already in place
among Muslim communities worldwide over the perceived slighting of
Palestinian interests by the Bush administration. A settlement of the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict would not end terrorism, and Muslims
themselves must lead the ideological battle within Islam. Yet the United
States could strengthen the hand of moderates in the Muslim world with a
combination of policy changes and effective public diplomacy. The United
States must do more than set up radio and television stations to
broadcast alternative views of U.S. intentions in the Middle East. It
must replenish its diminished public diplomacy resources to recruit more
language experts, reopen foreign libraries and cultural centers, and
sponsor exchange programs. Given the large number of traditionally
tolerant Muslims in Asia, the United States must vigorously assist the
creation of attractive alternatives to radical Islamism.

NEEDED CHANGES

To accommodate the great power shift now rapidly occurring in Asia, the
United States needs vigorous preparation by its executive branch and
Congress. The Bush administration's embrace of engagement with China is
an improvement over its initial posture, and the change has been
reflected in Washington's efforts to work with Beijing in the battle
against terrorism and negotiations with North Korea. The change has also
been reflected in the reluctance to settle trade and currency
differences by imposing duties. In other ways, however, Washington has
yet to shift its approach. On the ground, the United States appears
undermanned. Despite a huge increase in the workload, the work force at
the U.S. embassy in China numbers approximately 1,000, which is half the
employees envisioned for the new embassy in Iraq. Training in Asian
languages for U.S. government officials has been increased only
marginally. As for the next generation, only several thousand American
students are now studying in China, compared to the more than 50,000
Chinese who are now studying in U.S. schools.

Going forward, the United States must provide the leadership to forge
regional security arrangements, along the lines of the pending
U.S.-Singapore accord to expand cooperation in the fight against
terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. It must
also champion open economies or risk being left out of future trade
arrangements. The United States must also avoid creating a
self-fulfilling prophecy of strategic rivalry with China. Such a rivalry
may in fact come to pass, and the United States should be prepared for
such a turn of events. But it is not inevitable; cooperation could still
produce historic advancements.

At the international level, Asia's rising powers must be given more
representation in key institutions, starting with the UN Security
Council. This important body should reflect the emerging configuration
of global power, not just the victors of World War II. The same can be
said of other key international bodies. A recent Brookings Institution
study observed, "There is a fundamental asymmetry between today's global
reality and the existing mechanisms of global governance, with the G-7/8
-- an exclusive club of industrialized countries that primarily
represents Western culture -- the prime expression of this anachronism."

Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin has embraced the idea of elevating
to heads-of-state level the meetings of the G-20 group, which is
composed of 10 industrialized countries and 10 emerging market
economies. This could incorporate into global economic governance those
countries with large populations and growing economies.

The credibility and effectiveness of international bodies depends on
such changes; only then will they be able to contribute significantly to
peace among nations. Although hardly foolproof, restructuring
institutions to reflect the distribution of power holds out more hope
than letting them fade into irrelevance and returning to unrestrained
and unpredictable balance-of-power politics and free-for-all economic
competition.

www.foreignaffairs.org is copyright 2002--2004 by the Council on Foreign
Relations. All rights reserved.

7. China dual currency system, Islamic dinar
Date: Mon, 11 Oct 2004 10:23:05 +0100 From: "Rowan Berkeley"
rowan_berkeley@yahoo.co.uk

re : "Apart from the difference of mentality, China has a dual currency
system and can develop freely - without dependency on the 'Elites'
monetary system."

Could someone please elucidate the mechanics of dual currency systems,
and explain what forces other than US intimidation prevent it from being
adopted elsewhere?

By the way, my Muslim friends have placed on line streaming video files
of the conference they recently held in Cape Town. Although the sound is
poor, the material presented by Shaykh Abdalqadir and Omar Vadillo,
regarding the delusory nature of terrorism and the lure of the Islamic
Dinar, respectively, is of great interest. The latter as Vadillo
explains it would be a dual currency system within which the domestic
currency of more and more of the Muslim world would be authentic gold
and silver - until such time as the global fiat currency crashes.
Windows Media files, turn up the volume and be prepared for bursts of
clicking: http://www.shaykhabdalqadir.com/phtml/index.php

--
Peter Myers, 21 Blair St, Watson ACT 2602, Australia ph +61 2 62475187
http://users.cyberone.com.au/myers