A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Sunday, June 25, 2017
Tensions Mount as the New Saudi Prince Takes Charge
( June 25, 2017, New York City, Sri Lanka Guardian) What
a scary week in the Mideast. The epicenter of the world’s energy
resources and the land-bridge between Asia and Africa is spinning out of
control as the danger of a shooting war between the US and Russia grows
daily.
A US F-18 warplane shot down a Syrian Air Force SU-22 ground attack
aircraft over eastern Syria. This was a grave, reckless provocation
clearly authorized by Washington. Russia, Syria’s ally, threatened to
begin targeting its supposedly deadly S-300 missiles against US
warplanes over Syria.
Another US warplane shot down an Iranian drone over southeastern Syria
as US forces and US mercenary Arab troops closed in on a worthless piece
of ground on the Syrian-Iraq border. Russia is rushing ten more
warships into the Mediterranean, though most are obsolescent or small.
The US Navy is challenging – or provoking – the Iranians in the Gulf. US
technicians and crews are keeping Saudi warplanes bombing Yemen, where
half the population faces starvation. Just across the Red Sea, US
warplanes and special forces are attacking the Somalia nationalist
resistance movement, Shebab. At least 4,000 more US troops are headed
for Afghanistan’s stalemated war.
US Marines are attacking ISIS positions near Mosul, al-Tanf and Raqaa
and adding long-ranged HIMARS artillery rockets. American forces are
using white phosphorus, a hideous chemical weapon, against Isis
defenders. Iran may send more ‘volunteer’ troops into Syria and Iraq as
US warplanes probe Iran’s airspace. Turkey is reportedly moving against
US-backed Kurds in Syria. Some Mideast experts believe the US may be set
on partitioning Syria.
A US fighter just buzzed a Russian aircraft over the Baltic carrying
Russian defense minister Sergei Shogu until chased away by Russian
fighters. Moscow is under growing pressure to retaliate against the US
though President Vladimir Putin insists he wants no military
confrontation with Washington.
Adding to these tensions, a palace coup in Saudi Arabia just sidelined
the kingdom’s iron-handed number two, former Crown Prince and Interior
Minister Mohammed bin Nayef and replaced him by 31-year old Prince
Mohammed bin Salman, the favorite son of King Salman. The King is said
to be seriously ill. But the 15,000-member Saudi family is not pleased
by the defenestration of heir apparent Nayef.
Prince – now crown prince – Mohammed was the author of Saudi Arabia’s
stalemated war in Yemen, which is burning through the kingdom’s cash
reserves at a time when oil prices are plunging and has killed large
numbers of civilians. He is behind the recent Saudi-Egyptian-Israeli
tacit alliance.
It was Prince Mohammed who came up with the plan to run US shale
producers out of business by launching an oil price war. It has
backfired badly. The Saudis even had to borrow $9 billion to keep the
kingdom running.
Arab critics assert that the young prince is rash and inexperienced. The
Trump administration likes Prince Mohammed a lot. He is about the same
age as Trump’s favorite, son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who is in Israel
this week supposedly crafting a final peace settlement between Jews and
Arabs after a century of conflict. What a cruel joke this is.
Kushner has been meeting with Israel’s wily PM Netanyahu, who has no
intention of ever allowing a Palestinian state, and with over-the-hill
Palestinian ‘leader,’ Mahmoud Abbas, who is 82. Abbas is widely reviled
as a US/Israel puppet who was made PLO leader after the untimely death
of Yasser Arafat. The shady Mohammed Dahlan, rumored to be CIA’s
Palestinian ‘asset,’ waits in the wings to replace the doddering Abbas.
The authentic Palestinian government, Hamas, is locked up in Gaza and
totally isolated by a joint Israeli-Saudi-Egyptian campaign. Back in
Washington, most of Trump’s senior advisors are ardent supporters of
Israel. So with whom will young Kushner, himself an orthodox Jew,
negotiate? As in decades past, Washington’s supporters of Israel’s
moderates will negotiate with Israel’s right. Is it any wonder there is
no Mideast peace?
Meanwhile, the new Saudi Crown Prince proclaims he will modernize the
kingdom, diversify away from its oil and gas economy, and make himself
leader of the Arab world. Those who do not readily agree, like little
Qatar, will be squashed like bugs.
It’s a tall order. But we wish Crown Prince Mohammed well because Saudi
Arabia, the world’s most ultra-conservative nation, very badly needs
shaking up, modernization and less theocracy. The skimpy army is denied
ammo and transport for fear of a coup, and the kingdom employs large
numbers of foreign mercenaries.
In the past, 15,000 tough Pakistani troops defended the royal family.
Pakistan’s former president, Zia ul-Haq, told me many funny stories of
his days as a military advisor in Saudi and Iraq. Today, US forces in
the region protect the Saudis from their neighbors and their own
sometimes restive people.
Add the rising dangers in Syria, Iraq and the Gulf to this tense
situation and we can count on Arabia and the Levant to provide lots of
fireworks in days to come.