Category Archives: military expenditure

December 30, 2021 · 7:20 pm

USA’s Hegemonic Designs Sustain A Dangerous Wonderland

 Jean-Pierre Page, whose preferred title is “The Longer Telegram and “sleepy Joe”in Wonderland!

The Biden Administration appears to be implementing most of the recommendations in the Atlantic Council’s Longer Telegram: Toward a new American China strategy, an important strategic document about US policy towards China published in January 2021.  This document is one of a troika produced by the Atlantic Council; the other two are Global Strategy 2021: An Allied Strategy for China, published in December 2020 with a preface by Joseph Nye, and The China plan: A transatlantic blueprint for strategic competition, published in March 2021.

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December 30, 2021 · 12:30 pm

China on the World Stage: A Judicious Assessment

Global Times, 10 December 2021, with this title “French media pushes anti-China narrative in a monolithic block, but at least one man is fighting for objective views” — “Bursting alliance” ….with highlighting imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi

Maxime Vivas (Vivas), French writer and journalist, has been insulted and attacked for his objective views on China. Vivas started in early November on the world’s largest petition platform, change.org, a petition to call on all sectors of society to have an objective view of China. But then the link for the petition quickly became unavailable, as the US-based website deleted the petition. “Respect China like we respect ourselves!” Vivas openly criticized the Western media outlets and social media that demonize China, but was frequently attacked by the French media. The Global Times reporters Chen Qingqing and Liu Xin recently had an online forum with Vivas and Zheng Ruolin (Zheng), a senior Chinese media professional and European studies expert who has lived in France for several years, to look into where the Western media bias came from on China-related coverage and how to deal with their smearing of China.

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December 6, 2021 · 6:45 pm

On the Table: The Nuclear War Option! God Almighty!

Brian Victoria, in Countercurrents, 5 December 2021, where the title is “An Option Taken Off the Table”

As most readers know, whenever the US seeks to force a nation to accede to its wishes, a spokesperson will say, “All options are on the table,” meaning the use of military force is at least a possibility if not likely. Seldom, however, will one ever hear a US spokesperson say, “The use of military force has been taken off the table.” Instead, one is left to ponder when military action doesn’t occur if it might have been called off because the offending country acceded to American demands. Thus, the mere threat of military action is sometimes sufficient to bring about the desired result.

 

 

 

 

Test Firing of the Hwasong Missile North Korea

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November 26, 2021 · 11:45 pm

World’s Leading Mass Killers? Who? Answer = US Military Machine

Michael Moore, in Information Clearing House, 23 November 2021, where the title reads thus: “A Memorial to the Terrorists – when the Terrorists are US!”

Eleven days ago on Veterans Day, while watching the cable news, I learned that our Congress, never missing a chance to ingratiate themselves with what they think Middle America wants — more money for the military, more flags flying everywhere, more fake patriotism and more pandering to the fake patriots — decided it was time to create a brand new national memorial on the already overcrowded National Mall in Washington, D.C., between the Lincoln Memorial and the U.S. Capitol building. The memorial will be called “The Global War on Terrorism Memorial.” I’m not making this up.

And what patriotic politician or red-blooded American wouldn’t be in favor of that!

Well, me. I’m not in favor of it. And I hope you won’t be, either.

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September 1, 2021 · 7:36 pm

Western Imperialism in Retreat …. and in Vain

Well ! What do you know!

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July 20, 2021 · 1:01 am

Sri Lankan, US and Japanese Naval Units in Joint Operations

Asiri Fernando, in Ft.lk, 16 July 2021.… … with this title “Sri Lanka, Japan and US partner to better respond to future maritime challenge”

Sri Lanka’s maritime trade hub ambitions and future economic success depend on sound economic strategies and a robust foreign policy as well as on her ability to work in partnership with regional and global actors to ensure the safe navigation and security of the maritime domain around the Island.

 

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July 9, 2021 · 2:12 pm

The CHINA Bogey in Western Circles

Clive Williams, in The Australian, 9 July 2021, where the title reads “Chinese Military Threat is Overstated”

Despite its technology-poaching history, China is now capable of autonomously designing and producing advanced military items, and much more cheaply than its Western competitors.
Despite its technology-poaching history, China is now capable of autonomously designing and producing advanced military items, and much more cheaply than its Western competitors.

Comments in May by a Beijing newspaper editor suggesting strategic missile strikes on Australian targets under some cir­cumstances should not alarm Australians. They were made in response to comments coming out of Australia about supporting the US in any conflict over Taiwan, and in the context of the Chinese Communist Party’s 100th anniversary celebrations.

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March 24, 2021 · 12:09 am

The Western Bloc vs China in Clash of Giants: A Veteran Lankan Leftist Speaks

Lakshman Gunasekara**

“I am NOT interested in Western anti-Chinese conspiracies, having been familiar with them all my Left activist life since 1974. My interest is (as a good Communist) in the internal problems faced within China and grappled with by the Communist regime there – including the Han ethnocentrism, the anti-Uighur AND anti-Tibetan racism, the huge social problems faced by the intricately managed, partial transition to the capitalist market and, by the new class relations that the CCP must manage with the rise of private capital. So, I repeat my request that if you do come across such studies, please do point me to them. Not this stuff which is as old as the Cold War.

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March 10, 2021 · 6:04 am

The Far Eastern Bureau and Its News Reels during World War II

Tony Donaldson

I enjoyed reading Michael Roberts’s short essay titled “Michael’s Testimony for VE Day in Britain, 8th May 1945,” published at Thuppahi on 10 May 2020. But I felt the story ended too quickly, leaving me to ponder where the story goes next. It would be good if Michael could continue this story. In the meantime, the following short note was triggered by Michael’s comment about the “insidious impact of Movietone News or Pathe News.”

After 3 September 1939, when Britain went to war with Germany, the British Ministry of Information (MOI) began arranging with numerous companies the release and distribution of their newsreels. One example was The Battle of Tobruk which was sent by plane to Colombo in March 1941. It was cleared through customs and distributed to cinemas in Colombo in time for screening at the evening shows on the same day the film arrived in Ceylon.

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February 17, 2021 · 5:26 am

Galle: Four Hundred Years Ago

Chandra R. De Silva

The political and military history of the port city of Galle, located on the southwestern coast of Sri Lanka, is well documented. This brief report is merely an effort to fill in a gap in the records relating to the history of this port in the half century between the 1580s and the 1630s.

The popular belief is that the name of the settlement comes from the Sinhala word Gaalla or cattle pen, but in his description of Galle in the Saragossa manuscript probably finalized in the 1630s Constantino de Sa de Miranda suggests that the name comes from the word Gal (stone) (Flores p. 130) of which there was plenty around Galle harbor. The Portuguese historian de Queyroz (p. 31), writing in the late seventeenth century, also suggests that the name comes from the word Gal (stone) or Galgue (stone house).

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