Stop NATO News: April 29, 2011

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Updates on Libyan war and Syria: April 29

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Bulgaria: U.S. Launches Latest Joint Military Exercises

NATO Hails Petraeus’ New CIA Role

Strategic Partnership: State Department Backs Georgia Versus Russia

Western-Backed Oil Pipelines From Caspian To Baltic Seas

Germany Pushes EU Regime Change Package For Syria

Chinese Envoy Rules Out Threat Of External Force In Syria

Russian Interview On Western Media Lies About Syria

Uncle Sam’s Century And Control Of World’s Sea Routes

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Bulgaria: U.S. Launches Latest Joint Military Exercises

http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=127705

Sofia News Agency
April 27, 2011

Bulgaria, US Militaries Start ‘Thracian Spring’ Drills

The joint Bulgarian-US military training “Thracian Spring 2011″ began Wednesday in the Plovdiv region, the Defense Ministry announced.

The 2011 “Thracian Spring,” an annual Bulgarian-American military exercise, will last from April 27 till May 5, and will be concentrated around the Plovdiv Airport and the Krumovo Air Base.

Units of the Bulgarian Army, Bulgarian Air Force and Bulgarian Navy will partner with detachments from US forces in Europe.

The American military will take part in the joint drills with two C-130 Hercules military cargo aircraft and up to 150 servicemen.

The Bulgarian forces will be represented by one military transport plane Spartan C-27J, two Cougar AS 532AL helicopters, and up to 600 soldiers.

The 2011 Thracian Spring drills will include night and day training of parachute units, low altitude tactical flights, transportation of troops and equipment….

The annual “Thracian Spring” exercise is one of the prominent examples of the extensive Bulgarian-US military cooperation developed in the recent years.

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NATO Hails Petraeus’ New CIA Role

http://www.nato.int/cps/en/SID-401A5C7F-882F934A/natolive/news_72939.htm

North Atlantic Treaty Organization
April 29, 2011

Statement by the NATO Secretary General on the nomination of General Petraeus

I would like to extend my congratulations to General David Petraeus on his nomination as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. I have enjoyed working with him and would like to thank him for a particularly successful tour of duty in Afghanistan.

ISAF has seen many successes under his command, which is due in no small part to his hard work and dedication. We will continue our joint efforts to further campaign progress and implement Transition between now and his departure.

I wish him every success in his future role.

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http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_17956688?nclick_check=1

Associated Press
April 29, 2011

NATO welcomes Petraeus’ CIA nomination

BRUSSELS: NATO is congratulating Gen. David Petraeus on his nomination as CIA head, saying its forces in Afghanistan will continue implementing his strategy of handing control to local security forces.

Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Friday the 150,000-strong NATO force “has seen many successes under his command.”

Petraeus assumed command in Kabul in June, after President Barack Obama fired Gen. Stanley McChrystal.
….

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Strategic Partnership: State Department Backs Georgia Versus Russia

http://rustavi2.com/news/news_text.php?id_news=41288&pg=1&im=main&ct=0&wth=

Rustavi2
April 27, 2011

Kaidanow sums up results of her visit to Tbilisi

US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Tina Kaidanow summed up results of her visit to Tbilisi at a press conference after the 4-hour meeting, which was held within the US-Georgia Charter on Strategic Partnership.

At the press conference Tina Kaidanow especially stressed the importance of developing democratic institutions in the country.
….
Kaidanow also said U.S. strongly supports Georgia`s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

The next meeting on economic issues within the US-Georgia Charter on Strategic Partnership is expected to be held in Washington in a few months.

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Western-Backed Oil Pipelines From Caspian To Baltic Seas

http://www.rbcnews.com/free/20110429104618.shtml

RosBusinessConsulting
April 29, 2011

Odessa-Brody oil pipe could run to Baltic Sea

Kiev: Ukraine is interested in extending the Odessa-Brody oil pipeline to the Baltic Sea, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich said Thursday at a joint press conference with his Azeri counterpart Ilham Aliyev.

“The Odessa-Brody pipeline has finally become operational. Needless to say, we would like it to run as far as the Baltic Sea.” Yanukovich said, adding: “We will work on extending this pipeline to the Baltic Sea.”

The 674-kilometer pipeline with an annual capacity of 9m tons of oil, was built in 2001 to transit Caspian oil to Europe. However, it was commissioned only in 2004 in reverse mode to pump Russian oil to Black Sea ports and in 2010 to the Odessa refinery. Since February, the pipeline has been moving Azeri oil to Belarus.

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Germany Pushes EU Regime Change Package For Syria

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,15038596,00.html

Deutsche Welle
April 29, 2011

Germany pushes for tough sanctions against Syria

Ahead of a series of international meetings, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle has called for broad sanctions against Syria for its brutal crackdown on anti-government protesters.

Speaking on German television Friday morning, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle urged the international community to implement tough sanctions against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for his violent crackdown on anti-government demonstrations.

“We strongly condemn in all severity the violence against one’s own people,” Westerwelle told the ARD morning news program, Morgenmagazin.

European Union ambassadors in Brussels are slated to discuss a joint EU reaction to the escalating violence against peaceful demonstrators in Syria at a meeting Friday afternoon.

A push by the EU to condemn Syria in a United Nations resolution failed in the Security Council on Thursday.

Clear response needed

Westerwelle stressed that it was important that the international community now speak with one voice.

“We Europeans will be implementing sanctions,” he said.

The chairman of the foreign affairs committee in the German parliament, Ruprecht Polenz, also called for “targeted sanctions” and a “clear response” to Assad.

“I am for clearly showing Syria that what they are doing in unacceptable,” he said.

Polenz raised the prospect of sanctions aimed at travel restrictions for members of the Syrian regime, the freezing of assets, a weapons embargo and political isolation.

….

Author: Gregg Benzow (dpa, AFP, AP, Reuters)
Editor: Sean Sinico

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Chinese Envoy Rules Out Threat Of External Force In Syria

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2011-04/29/c_13852195.htm

Xinhua News Agency
April 29, 2011

Use of force not solution to Syrian crisis: Chinese envoy

GENEVA: The use or threat of force should be ruled out in dealing with the Syrian crisis, Chinese Ambassador He Yafei said at a special session of UN Human Rights Council on Syria Friday.

The use or threat of force “cannot not bring a solution to the problem and will only cause a greater humanitarian crisis,” He said.

Addressing the Human Rights Council, he said China welcomed the moves taken by the Syrian government, such as the lifting of the state of emergency and beginning of political reforms, as well as a call for national dialogue and decision to investigate all the recent events.

The Chinese envoy also expressed his concern over the ongoing turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa. The unrest, he said, has not only affected those countries’ stability and disrupted their economic and social development as well as people’s normal life, but also undermined the regional security.

Apart from the principle of non-use of force, China also insists that the solution to the Syrian crisis should be in accordance with the UN Charter and international law while respecting the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the countries concerned, and refraining from interfering in their internal affairs.

“Any help from the international community has to be of a constructive nature, which is conducive to the restoration of stability and public order and ensuring the maintenance of normal economic and social life,” He said.

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Russian Interview On Western Media Lies About Syria

http://rt.com/news/syria-lies-interview/

RT
April 29, 2011

Western media lie about Syria – eyewitness reports
­Nadezhda Kevorkova

-It was quite a shock to see Al-Jazeera presenting rallies in support of the president as if they were protests against him. It was just as surprising to see the Israeli websites post photos and videos of supporters’ rallies with comments saying those were opponents of the regime. There you have people holding portraits of Bashar al-Assad and flags, and we’re told that these people are against him.
-Reuters broadcast their material around the world, including Russia. One source lies, and then this lie is like a snowball rolling downhill creating a fake reality, and picking up rumor and speculation.
-People in Syria watch the footage. What do they see? A picture allegedly from Yemen. A picture allegedly from Egypt. A picture allegedly from Syria. But the pictures all show people dressed in the same fashion. People in Syria can tell their fellow countrymen from their neighbors – both by their faces and their clothes.
-I repeat, policemen are unarmed. The Syrian police are not too good with guns, because nothing like this has happened here for a long time. But the killed rookies are reported as either victims among the protestors, or as policemen who refused to shoot at their fellow countrymen, depending on the editors’ preference. Goebbels’ words seem to be true: the bigger the lie, the more easily they believe it.
-Rumor has it that trained commandos came across the border from Iraq. People in Syria are well-aware that after the US occupied Iraq, they formed special squads there. They were killing people, stirring up conflicts between the Shiite and Sunni communities, and between Muslims and Christians; they were blowing up streets, markets, mosques and churches….Such militants were detained in Deraa and Latakia. They had US-made weapons.

While media reports paint a picture of the situation in Syria as a mass public uprising brutally suppressed by the dictatorial government, the events are viewed in a totally different way by those living there.

­RT caught up with Ankhar Kochneva, director of a Moscow-based tourist firm specializing in the Middle East. She often travels to Syria, and stays in touch with hundreds of people in the region. She shared what her contacts say about the unfolding unrest and who they blame for the spreading violence.

RT: What’s happening in Syria? What have you seen? And that are the Syrians saying?

Ankhar Kochneva: Not even once did I come across anyone who would in any way support these riots; and mind you, in the line of my job, I deal with all sorts of people. There are many vehicles with the president’s portraits driving the streets throughout the country – ranging from old, barely moving crankers to brand new Porsches and Hummers. You can’t force people into hanging up portraits. It means that people, irrespective of their status and income, support the president rather than the rebellion. I saw quite a number of young people walking or driving around with Syrian flags. How can you force a young person hanging out with friends to wave flags? I think it’s difficult too. If you understand the mentality of the Syrians you can tell there is a sincere impulse rather than a forced obligation.

On March 29, I saw a rally in Hama to support the president – indeed, many thousands of men and women, with their children, and entire families went out. The streets were flooded with people. It was quite a shock to see Al-Jazeera presenting rallies in support of the president as if they were protests against him. It was just as surprising to see the Israeli websites post photos and videos of supporters’ rallies with comments saying those were opponents of the regime. There you have people holding portraits of Bashar al-Assad and flags, and we’re told that these people are against him.

RT: The media reports mass anti-government rallies.

A.K.: There’s a powerful misinformation swell going on. On April 1, the media reported a large anti-governmental rally in Damascus. I was in Damascus on that day. This rally never happened – I didn’t see it, and neither did the locals.

On April 16, Reuters news agency wrote that 50,000 opponents of the regime took to the streets of Damascus, and that they had been dispersed with tear gas and batons. Damascus’ residents realize that such a rally could not take place in the city unnoticed. How many policemen would it take to disperse it? And how come nobody saw it except Reuters? Five hundred people in the streets of Damascus are a large crowd. Reuters broadcast their material around the world, including Russia. One source lies, and then this lie is like a snowball rolling downhill creating a fake reality, and picking up rumor and speculation.

People in Syria watch the footage. What do they see? A picture allegedly from Yemen. A picture allegedly from Egypt. A picture allegedly from Syria. But the pictures all show people dressed in the same fashion. People in Syria can tell their fellow countrymen from their neighbors – both by their faces and their clothes.

There are videos on the internet showing how amateur footage of the so-called riots is made. There’s a parked car and nothing’s going on around. And there’s a man standing next to it throwing rocks. And people around are taking pictures.

There are a lot of staged videos. A Lebanese can tell the difference between footage taken in Lebanon and that taken in Damascus at a glance. And they show footage from Tripoli, or footage taken several years ago in Iraq, and say it is unrest in Syria.

There are many online forums for women in Arab countries. Women share information following TV reports on ‘mass unrests’. Women write – what’s happening outside your window? And they reply: we looked down from the balcony, and didn’t see anything that the TV was talking about.

Presently, a lot of young unarmed policemen get killed. The media propaganda immediately labels them as victims of the regime. I repeat, policemen are unarmed. The Syrian police are not too good with guns, because nothing like this has happened here for a long time. But the killed rookies are reported as either victims among the protestors, or as policemen who refused to shoot at their fellow countrymen, depending on the editors’ preference. Goebbels’ words seem to be true: the bigger the lie, the more easily they believe it.

RT: But why are policemen dying if there are no mass protests?

A.K.: Policemen die because they get shot by those who know that they are unarmed.

RT: Who shoots policemen?

A.K.: They talk a lot about it in Syria. Rumor has it that trained commandos came across the border from Iraq. People in Syria are well-aware that after the US occupied Iraq, they formed special squads there. They were killing people, stirring up conflicts between the Shiite and Sunni communities, and between Muslims and Christians; they were blowing up streets, markets, mosques and churches. Those terrorist attacks targeted civilians rather than the occupying regime.

Not long ago, they caught three such commandos in the outskirts of Damascus, when they were randomly shooting at people. They turned out to be Iraqis.

Syrian TV showed footage of somebody shooting at policemen and passers-by from bushes and rooftops. They occasionally get caught, and they either turn out to be Iraqis, or they admit that they were paid for it. Such militants were detained in Deraa and Latakia. They had US-made weapons.

The Lebanese security service intercepted several cars carrying weapons as they were coming into Lebanon. One such car was stopped coming from Iraq. There were American weapons in those cars too. Also there are reports about detained people who had large sums of money with them – with US dollars. These people carried expensive satellite phones that cannot be tapped by the Syrian security service.

In Syria, it is no longer a secret to anyone that the Americans have an unhindered opportunity to recruit and train the commandos in Iraq, and then send them wherever they want.

Hilary Clinton has already stated that if Syria cuts its relations with Iran and withdraws its support for Hamas and Hezbollah, the demonstrations would stop the next day. They don’t even bother to keep secret the hand instilling riots in Syria.

There’s plenty of evidence of foreign interference.

Finally, people say protestors are brought in from afar for the rallies. Those people speak and look differently from the locals. Nobody in the neighborhood knows them. Who rents the buses and finances the delivery of these people? The question stands.

The former Syrian Vice-President Abdel Halim Khaddam had initiated the riots in the coastal regions. He had plundered half of the country. He was involved in corruption schemes and finally fled to the West. It was he who tried to accuse Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of assassinating the former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The Syrians firmly believe that Sayed Hariri had personally given a villa to Abdel Halim Khaddam for spreading this version of Rafik Hariri’s murder. But when that version fell apart and was not confirmed, the villa was taken away. Today, those who shot at cars in Banias are shouting: “We don’t want Bashar. We want Abdel Halim!”

There are peaceful and cultured opposition members in Banias who have been against al-Assad’s regime for many years. But they are shocked by what’s going on and do not support Khaddam at all. They say: “He’s a thief. He who stole most calls to fight corruption and thievery.”

RT: What role are Syrian emigrants playing in the Syrian destabilization?

A.K.: It’s an open question. There was a leak claiming that Dan Feldman, Hillary Clinton’s special representative for the Middle East, met representatives of the Syrian opposition in Istanbul in mid-April and suggested the tactics for assassinations of civil and military officials. In less than three days, on April 19, several military officials had been brutally killed in Syria. Not only were they attacked and shot dead, some victims of the attacks, including three teenage children of a Syrian general, who were in a car with him, were cut to pieces with sabres.

Murders committed with a high degree of brutality are aimed at intimidating the population. The news that children had been cut to pieces served that purpose quite well.

RT: Media reports used to say that the riots started after the arrest in the city of Deraa, in southern Syria, of several children writing anti-government slogans? Is it really so?

A.K.: All the children had been released very quickly. Moreover, the government-owned Syrian newspapers published the release orders.

RT: Have troops been brought into Deraa?

A.K.: Yes, troops are there. After an Islamic emirate had been proclaimed in Deraa, the local residents asked the government for help. Troops have been brought in. I’ve just seen the videos. The demonstrators published them on the internet and shortly after erased them. But people made copies. There are soldiers, and people come to them and talk peacefully. Nobody shoots anyone.

RT: Is there a sentiment in Syria that if it gets rid of Hamas support and the Palestinians and strike a peace deal with Israel, all the riots will end immediately?

A.K.: No, there’s no such sentiment. There’s consolidation of society. The people are sticking together because they see that the enemy is extremely dangerous. For instance, previously I never heard anything except pop music and the recital of the Koran on the radio when I rode in a taxi. Now, patriotic music is coming from all cars. When Bashar al-Assad was speaking on television, the people who were listening to him at the market applauded him. You cannot force people to applaud a president who speaks on television.

RT: What has the public mood been in recent days?

A.K.: People are afraid of going out. In some regions, people risked their lives to record with a secret camera how unidentified persons sneaked into a car, moved off and started shooting in all directions. This is how they are sowing panic in residential areas.

Bandits blocked a bridge on the road near the coast. Soon, the military pushed them back. One of my Syrian contacts told me: “you don’t need many people to plunge the country into trouble.”

Putting five people on a major road would be enough to paralyze the whole area. People are unable to deliver foodstuffs or reach hospitals. And the whole country is in shock because of a handful of bandits.

Now, Syrian television is making live broadcasts from various parts of Damascus and other cities for people to see how the situation is unfolding and how life is getting back to normal, whatever the Western media show.

It’s noteworthy that bandits intentionally tried to rouse hatred among various communities. Recently, a sheikh was insulting the Druze, particularly women, in an address to the residents of the south. This video is being broadcast by the foreign media and is advertized on the internet. Nothing like that ever happened in Syria before. Provocations failed in Damascus though attempts were made to set religious communities against each other. Provocateurs lack support in rural areas too – the sowing campaign has started there.

The most massive demonstrations in Dera gathered 500 people. But they say 450 people have been killed.

RT: Has the government launched any reforms?

A.K.: The government has lifted martial law and has allowed the staging of authorized rallies if permission for them is obtained five days ahead. Foreigners have been allowed to buy real estate. The Kurds have been granted citizenship. The Kurdish population didn’t have it before for a number of historical reasons. The government is opening business courses for women in northern Syria. Many provincial governors have been dismissed. Unfortunately, in some cases they were honest people. Like those who refused to free criminals from prison for bribes and had been targeted by smear campaigns in public for it.

RT: Have the number of flights to Syria been cut?

A.K.: There are no tickets for Syria. We wanted to dispatch a group of tourists to Syria but there were no air tickets to Damascus for April 30. But Russians are not fleeing from Syria. I have full information about it for my job.

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Uncle Sam’s Century And Control Of World’s Sea Routes

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=20114\29\story_29-4-2011_pg3_4

Daily Times
April 29, 2011

Uncle Sam, this is your century
Wasay Majid

Today we have it; the neocons eventually evolved a pathway for their ideology, turning it into a system dictating the future of mankind

-World War II and its end (the UN was born) brought about the Washington Treaty of 1949 to give birth to a global attack force, abruptly named NATO. These were the sweet beginnings of the Cold War era. Baby Sam was out of the cot…
-[T]his god complex to monitor the world has also been reflected in the US Navy’s new strategy, presented in 2007, called A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower. Basically, it raises the notion of prevention of war to the same philosophical level as the conduct of war.
-Sammy’s childhood toy soldiers came to life. RAND’s decision in the 1950s to re-model the globe towards a new world order changed everything. With the development of Rational Choice Theory, it turned people from citizens into consumers, as rights and responsibilities were replaced with choices and people’s lives slowly came to be dominated not by integrity or principle, but by what they spent their money on.
-Ideas are in constant conflict throughout the ages as that is their characteristic. They rise and fall. They win battles, arguments, discussions and regime changes but the war continues.

The world has always been in conflict and the decisive player has always had access to sea routes. It has usually been said, throughout time, that whoever controls the seas controls the world. Well, in this present century, all other navies of the world combined are insignificant when compared to the US Navy. All oceans of the world are ruled by the US. Europe had its day and enjoyed it for the last 500 years but after World War II the US reigned supreme on the much coveted North Atlantic route to dominate the world, at last.

While our Uncle was just a baby, he started his end goal’s grand design as early as the end of World War I (when the League of Nations was born) with the Treaty of Versailles. Baby Sam’s annoying dictates were unwittingly painful for the Germans and it was only a matter of time before it would result in its inevitable end — conflict.

Germany was to follow strict orders on handing over territory, restrict its military, pay damages to the amount chosen at will by damaged nations and was to sign and accept a ‘War Guilt Clause’. Surely, even Germans have a tipping point. In 1933, Hitler refused to pay up and this started the systematic breaking of the terms. Thus came World War II and its end (the UN was born) brought about the Washington Treaty of 1949 to give birth to a global attack force, abruptly named NATO. These were the sweet beginnings of the Cold War era. Baby Sam was out of the cot and knowingly used containment of communism as its main strategy to put the Soviet Union into a cot.

The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, interestingly, saw arrogance being flaunted by a proud and promising adolescent Sam, albeit in a clandestine manner initially. The sudden birth of the neo-conservatives was synonymous with the US becoming the dominant power of the world. Unlike the Dalai Lama, I think Sammy was becoming more a worldly kinda guy.

Looking at a brief history of neoconservative ideology takes us back to the 1930s and 1940s where one can explain it as once being leftist or liberal. Seeing Stalinism, they moved towards the right and supported the Cold War, thus moving into the realm of foreign affairs.

They found refuge in the ideology of the liberal democrats in the 1960s, who demanded a hard line against the Soviet Union. They rejected the New Left of the 1960s, aka the ‘hippies’. The New Left was considered anti-American by the neocons. Their focus on human rights abuses around the world and support for labour unions domestically was in contrast to a logical and superior pathway the US had paved out for its prosperity and control over the globe. Looking at Sam’s moral value and family ethics, do we not all want our daddy to be just like Sam?

The neocons were moving forward. They had think tanks, academic institutes and government covered.

They had a plethora of white papers ripe to make them government policy.

Most notably, the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) achieved its systemic penetration. PNAC has its roots in neconservative ideology. PNAC outrightly blurts that after the end of the Cold War, the US is the most powerful state on the globe and it fears no one.

If I am allowed to explain in plain words, the philosophy of the project has been that the US has to prevent an emergence of any rival and to make damn sure of this it can act in isolation and can pre-empt an attack.

Secondly, it is required to police the world and has to keep tabs on all other nations and any conflicts. Academics like Paul Wolfowitz and Francis Fukuyama are original signatories of PNAC, including Dick Cheney, Lewis ‘Scooter’ Libby, Zalmay Khalilzad and Donald Rumsfeld. Prominent members include Robert Zoellick, Richard Perle and Richard Armitage. Sam became the company he kept.

Furthermore, this god complex to monitor the world has also been reflected in the US Navy’s new strategy, presented in 2007, called A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower. Basically, it raises the notion of prevention of war to the same philosophical level as the conduct of war.

PNAC’s fundamentals reflected the exact philosophy that the Roman Republic evolved into and were eloquently orated and cherished by Marcus Tullius Cicero. Cicero, who among his numerous legacies, as a republican, inspired the founding fathers of the US.

A similar philosophy has been around in the military establishment. RAND — a private sector think tank — is its base. RAND originated in the minds of leading air force generals after World War II.

Sammy’s childhood toy soldiers came to life. RAND’s decision in the 1950s to re-model the globe towards a new world order changed everything. With the development of Rational Choice Theory, it turned people from citizens into consumers, as rights and responsibilities were replaced with choices and people’s lives slowly came to be dominated not by integrity or principle, but by what they spent their money on. Sam’s entrepreneurial itch started to play.

Interestingly, if you look into Leo Strauss’s views of the Republic, being a political philosopher, he points to Cicero’s explanation of Plato’s Republic through a quote of his: “The Republic does not bring to light the best possible regime but rather the nature of political things — the nature of the city.”

In effect, the system is not stirred by efficiency and humanism, but lineage, law, society and suffrage. That is the reason Strauss believes politics and philosophy are intertwined and Socrates’ trial was the inception point of this fact. Strauss feared that people trying to force a world state to come into being in the future would eventually result in it being a tyranny. Sam always knew tyranny is never suffered by the tyrant.

Today we have it; the neocons eventually evolved a pathway for their ideology, turning it into a system dictating the future of mankind. All their white papers are policy. It is inevitable. It is not forced but merely an eventual pathway.

Looking closely we see that people, thinkers, leaders, are products of their previous generations to an extent, and ideas, although they have the luxury of centuries to shape and penetrate, hardly evolve. Ideas are in constant conflict throughout the ages as that is their characteristic. They rise and fall. They win battles, arguments, discussions and regime changes but the war continues.

In short, the new century will be a dangerous one: lots of conflict, war and death, not to mention the plethora of natural disasters gaining probability.

Historically, Sam likes war. He reflects an increasing trend towards it. Though he has the muscle and will, he is still young and immature, and that is what makes him dangerous.

Wherever the US takes its wars, its effects will be detrimental to those countries and their future, but for Americans these constitute distant skirmishes not affecting daily life. I reiterate: this is your century Uncle, though I will always be expecting presents on Christmas and Easter, at least.

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