Ukraine Crisis: When Two Styles Make the Walk. Real Crisis is Energy.

War news reports a Bear walk to another separatist victory; same style just a different costume.

Russia’s Vladimir Putin sends signals to EU & Nato. Simple….. forget taking over former Socialist Republics.  

Victory walk by Tiraspol Russians during the separatist conflict between
breakaway Transdniestria with former Soviet Republic of Moldova in 1992

The Baltic States, Belarus, Poland & Moldova are in a quandary. They are caught between a Russian hard place for a multi polar world and a western rock for cheap energy and steady progress towards EU expansion and globalisation.

Energy, now there’s a topic. Western Ukraine, Belarus the Baltic States are rightly and arguably old Polish & Hapsburg territories. Cut off from the fold after the clash of empires during 1914-1918 WWI. Since the end of the USSR and during this current crisis they look west not east.

But this is walking backwards not forward. We share the planet ensemble. Energy is creating real dangers for us all. A century past, fossil fuels were the latest style of the day. If the hat fits wear it. Now the hat covers our vision and makes us deaf to warning cries.

Ukraine today 2014. Same walk for Russian separatists in a different
costume. The excuse may sound the same but a vision of victory
is focused around the worlds energy problems.   

The Security Council knows there is 46yrs of oil left, 63yrs of gas left and 120yrs of coal left. Energy matters. It overshadows the political ambitions out of Brussels, Warsaw, Kiev and Minsk.

Fossil fuel is out of style. Society is required to kick off its cruel side effects.  Natural Gas damages us less than coal and oil.

So, Russian gas and not Russian masks may yet prove to be the current peacemaker in this historical regional political & military crisis.

Trouble in the Ukraine: EU Sold a Pup from a House of Straw.

In September 1991, I was sent to Chernovtsy -Chernivtsi on assignment. We were covering the birth of a nationless country; a former Soviet Republic and aspiring new comer to the hybrid family of European states.

Viewing in opposite directions at Bender market on the Moldovan Transnistria border. Kremlin strategists
tip the scales  in favour of  Russians looking East. Conflict on the southern flank is never far away
to include most of Bassarabia.  Image 2002

Crossing back from the Ukraine at the northern Moldovan border our minders entered into the customary bribery for exit visas and the torturous babbling over who we were and why we were there.

Through our translator a border guard asked why I was making a picture of the new Ukrainian flag. Baffled, I flippantly enquired why!  Is it a secret! The answer came back “Yes! Our national flag is a Secret.”

Ukraine is a house of straw, steeped in division and secrecy. The western Polish/Ukrainian sector wants to join the EU. It will bring little if nothing to the party. Russian east-Ukraine has all the goodies; industry, agriculture, tourism and natural resources. It has a chance to build a home of stone for Slavic pride.

The EU has been sold a pup over Polish ambitions to regain the city of L’viv and former surrounding territories.

In the end, Russians have kept their best cards for this present scenario. Should Polish Ukraine move west, Russia will follow towards Transnistria, Gagauz and Kishinev, re-establishing the former south western flank of a resurgent power. Its time for the EU to weigh-up the odds. 

EU Crisis: Ukraine Hits the Wall: Revolution to Coup or Vice Versa.

The weekend coup, revolution, liberation or occupation, depending whether one is Russian or Ukrainian, was nonetheless a Moscow stroke of tactical genius worthy of respect.

EU and Nato where hapless viewers in a movie style battle scene - a play out exposing the phoney nature of a dream to rule a roost from Atlantic to Urals.

No wonder a US official from its foreign corps recently said “Eff” the EU.  Polish, German & French foreign ministers sent to Kiev to sign a negotiated settlement, reneged on the deal hours later and basically spat in the face of Kremlin tough cats…….one big miscalculation…Just like nearly everything Brussels puts its hand to these days.

Careful with those mines missus!!!!! Crimea again the centre of Ukrainian political future. The Kremlin
stages a bloodless week-end take-over of the region in response to Kiev's Western backed
revolution. Image: Mines cover the "Road to Odessa" during the 1992 Russian
separatist war against the former Soviet Republic of Moldova.   

The EU has no army. They would love one.

Ukraine has an army. It’s a dove one.

West might send a force. Russians will shove one.

It’s a cold war that’s been cold for too long…

There's always another excuse. We've just to fake one.

Maybe up in Belarus, Lukashenko can make one.

Needs a better plan. We gotta bake one.  

It’s a cold war that’s been cold for too long……

In the serious world of Kremlin politics, terms of democracy are still being defined. Until this progression is fully understood and accepted, defending every wee bit of Russian turf is still a generational obligation.

Regardless of what imperial dreaming goes on in the minds of Brussels Federalists, Russia is still by far the world’s largest country and potentially it’s most dangerous. Now it’s up to US experience to breath regional diplomacy to warm a chilly Siberian wind. 

EU v EU: Empire is Back: European and Eurasian Unions Tough it Out Over Crimea.

The current Eurasian Union movement is a providence of Vladimir Putin and his neo-Eurasianists. It is not a new concept, having roots in the 1920’s and again during the years leading up to the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The Eurasian Union will challenge destiny (European Union) and forge its future down in the Crimea. .Empire is back! Can it defend its turf!

The Russian president has put 150,000 troops on alert to assess battle readiness as the Russian flag is hoisted over the parliament in Simferopol.

Empire is Back in fashion. It's the EU verses the EU. A tussle over contested zones will determine new frontiers
for the coming decades if not a century. Some things never change. 

From the Crimean conflict of 1853 to battleship Potemkin 1902, the Russian civil war 1917-21 and the Yalta conference to carve up post WW2 Europe, the Crimea is at the heart of imperial ambitions for this region.

Days are long past for Turkey to go on bended knee to France requesting European Union membership. Russia offers past glory and most of all energy power for allegiance to the Eurasian club.  There is even no longer a Turkish given for NATO.  

Can Ukraine split into west and east! Can Moscow force a Ukrainian return to the Russian fold!

Of course it can for both options but the first option is highly improbable.

White Russian forces that fought the Red army 1917-21 discovered Moscow’s resolve when it comes to protecting the Crimea. And, the Ukrainian war of independence as it was called then resulted in millions being sent to the grave.

Western armchair generals (politicians) who egg-on nationalists in Lviv and Kiev should also warn there will be no second charge for either the light or heavy brigades at Balaklava.     

EU Crisis: A Journey of Choice

"There can be no cherry-picking when it comes to the EU."

This mantra is often levelled at those who dare challenge “Brussels obedience.”

They declare the EU’s four freedoms fundamentals are not negotiable.

This portrays a picture of Brussels commission as custodian of the Union. And as such, reserves the right to determine and police membership behaviour.

The Brussels commission can argue it merely carries out the wishes of national agreements forged at summits and cemented in treaties. Citizens respond that some content of the treaties is not what they desire nor were they ever consulted about them.

A journey of choice. Europe reflects over the historic Swiss vote on the free movement of
people issue. The slide away from passive consent to Brussels management continues.
May elections should prove an effective acid test for new directions within the
European project. Image: Central Switzerland Jan 2014. 

Those few who were consulted and objected were sent back to corrected their bad voting behaviour; causing irreparable damage of trust between the technocrat management in Brussels and the democratic process.

Such is the complicated clash of wills developing between the EU commission, the ECB, the EU judiciary and citizens of several European nations.

Philosophers say people with power want more power and you don’t know someone till you fight them. There is amble evidence to suggest that the commission seeks more power whether or not it is deserved or necessary.

The commission pushes the argument that closer Union safeguards peace and stability. It seems they are cherry picking on this issue. The commission failed people during the Yugoslav war. It has failed the Roma. It has corrupted democracy. It pursues a relentless economic policy of austerity in pursuit of forced political union - the Federalist dream, a harmony in Art of Superstate; is such a love ever meant to last!

And because of this lust for federalism the Union now enters a phase of assessment. Purpose is everything. Doubt is taking root in citizens’ minds. The road-map is changing direction.

The commission argues that they as custodians of the Union are ultimately the guardians of peace.

Repeating this story over and over again until it sounds real - once was the perfect deception.

In todays’ connected world choice is no longer an illusion between those embellished with power and citizens who giveth and taketh away that power.

The historic Swiss vote over the fundamental pillar of free movement will be followed by an equally historic vote in May 2014 when choice decides Europe’s new directions.

EU Crisis: Brussels Fumes Again at Democracy.

The Swiss are to be punished by the EU for voting badly in a democratic process over the burning issue of free movement. Naughty democrats are at it again.

All sorts of appropriate retaliatory actions are flying about from the Eurocrats' munitions store. Most of it is hot air of course. Even a fool can see if Brussels moves against Switzerland in any form of sanctions then skeptics will win another battle in convincing the electorate the EU is dictatorial by nature.

The EU Crisis paid a visit to Little Switzerland this week with the promise to
punish it for voting badly. The juggernaut of change picks up speed
for the up-coming verdict over Democracy verses Eurocracy.
Image Jan 2014. The road to Lucarno

For some countries this nature is already established as de facto. There is no going back for the UK over Europe.  It is difficult to locate any meaningful support for the EU among the populace, either in the papers, cafes, bars, homes or on TV.

Over-reaction from Brussels to democratic votes, through displays of rage and recrimination, smacks of paranoia. Eurocrats, Bureaucrats and Technocrats just can’t keep up with the changing political landscape sweeping across the continent.

This sweep is about two options for Europe. There is one Europe which doesn't mind following the EU and all its Technocratic mechanisms. For this Europe the democratic deficit is expendable to a point where the means justifies the end. Just what that ends is, is very unclear.

The other Europe is the rest, the northern and central Confederate Nation States. If the UK leaves, and it is looking very likely, the question is who will follow to create the democratic balance to Eurocracy.

Little Switzerland may be about to deliver more to Europe than just the cuckoo clock.  

E.U. Crisis: French President Pinches the British over EU Reform

The British led EU reform campaign this week felt a bottom “pinchier” from French president Hollande to match a House of Lords rejection over the 2017 EU referendum bill.

President Hollande faces questions about
decline in French social and political eminence.
 French children are not slow to
 criticise parental dysfunctional behaviour.
 Image Strasbourg Jan 2014.   

No big surprise, except to further strengthen British skeptic resolve and commitment to giving the public a voice on the matter.

“More Europe” has lost momentum to carry a willing populace towards its goal of political union.

 “More Europe” believes it can steamroll ahead where the end justifies the means.

 In the end Europeans and the world will see the benefits of being led by technocrats and bureaucrats towards a new Utopian Spirit.

 Plans are afoot in Brussels’ Rue De La Roi HQ to present this operandus modi case to the public before the upcoming EU elections.

Maybe it has an audience, but history has a way of repeating its past.  Telling citizens they are no longer trusted in their decision making process is to usher in Dictatorship. Albeit it commences benevolent, altruistic, benign or otherwise, eventually, it becomes self-preserving, paranoid and authoritarian.

French President Hollande’s rebuff to the British can also be interpreted as a sign “More Europe” is deciding its problem child should feel unwanted if not encouraged to vacate the family home.  But President Hollande should know by now dysfunctional parents are also part of family problems. 

E.U. Crisis: Love Europe, Not Brussels: Rider of die Stürme

European Parliament May elections are translating into a showdown with todays Brussels commission. Democracy verses Technocracy. Confederate Nation States (CNS) is organising Europe wide opposition to Art of Superstate. The creation of a genuine working European parliament is underway.

A rider of Die Sturme on an Atlantic "grosse welle" off Mullaghmore, County Donegal.
 The EU May election is a judgement on this commission's legitimacy and a test
for Confederate Nation States verses Federalist aspirations. 2014

This Byzantine commission is loathed to release power to the people while peoples’ loathing wishes to release Brussels from power - period.

Wasn't this consequence mentioned here before! If the common man can see the horizon what is defect with Federalist vision. - A commission force of 28 commanders and 60,000 foot soldiers is no match for European citizen power – period. 

Just as January storms sweep in off the Atlantic in spectacular style, the forthcoming May elections is emerging as Die große Welle to a Brussels Federalist advance.

It’s neither a Stalingrad for Europe nor an Alamo for Brussels. It is merely an exercise of democratic expression.

 “Who Dares Wins” is not just for the military.

To dream a dream can be prophetic revelation. But to create a reality you need to be wide awake. Is Brussels sober to the mood of this Mays voter! It seems in the throes of a dying executive a bitter legacy is shaping. Shortly after the May election this legacy will be thrown to the wolves– and gone will be a team marred with history’s scorn.

A new commission will be appointed. It will be this commission which determines a new pace for the “European Project,” for just as Rome was not built in a day, so let it also be with Art of Superstate.

E.U. Crisis: Emboldened Skeptics See an Unravelling Union in the Near Distance.

A most striking piece of news contained in the Centre for Economic and Business Research (CEBR) December 2013 report is; today’s powerhouse Germany can only maintain its European lead position over a surging UK if it quits the Euro and re-instates the Deutschmark.

What a kick in the head is that for “More Europe.”  So, is German Eurozone loyalty now the acid test for euro pretentiousness  as hard currency player!

After 4 long years of dishing out the austerity to the south and the western periphery will Berlin accept eclipsing by a skeptic UK to save the EU federalists and their “More Europe” ideology!  

Berlin knows very well, any hint of “More Europe” will align more opposition if not outright resistance.

Looking towards 2014. Can "More Europe" find vision to
accommodate rising Skeptics. Image: Brussels 2012

A policy of real reform can save this Union. It’s on the table for sure. Only real leadership from the big economies can pull the Union away from the abyss and steer forward with support of a majority of its citizens. Brussels’s aspiration as the capital of European central government is mortally wounded. The skeptics sense a victory. The Union is on its knees. The technocratic commission is discredited and despised.

But is it!

For most of the weaker members and especially the Balkan and Eastern flank, the Union is hope and future. Real reform can restore a Union fit “for purpose.” Real reform can accommodate the Skeptic tide. Real reform can produce a credible parliament and in transparency take the imperious Commission and bossy ECB to task. It might also be better if both disappeared in the real reform offensive.

Crushing the Union in anger is not an option. Neither for masters nor servants, who together, can keep an orderly Europe in hope and future. 

EU Crisis: Support for Union Utopia Grows in the East While Faltering in the West

Strong feelings stretching from London to Kiev are prevailing against and for the Union. Is the noble idea of European Union going the way of the Eurovision song contest!! We shared a common effort to sing together during the 1960’70’s and 80’s. Now this show (the song contest I mean) represents an out of tune affair with little interest from the west other than the giggles its bizarre content supplies.   

But at least it is somewhat entertaining if not a bit childish. On the other hand there is nothing laughable about the mounting task facing Europe to sort out its EU future. More and more Brussels central is being portrayed as self-serving. The EU is increasingly becoming a personality with its own distinct character; an entity shaping a future separate to its original purpose with little regards for the sensitivities of the nation states which created it. Ultimately these states will destroy it should no consensus be found on direction over the coming decade.

In a democracy you cannot pass laws influencing people’s lives secretly and without their knowledge and then insist to applying these laws as if they have common approval.

Dead but not forgotten. Man's search for Utopia still lingers in Post Soviet Kremlin games. Moves
to incorporate Ukraine into the EU is being checked by Russian grand masters of destiny.
image- post communism series 1989-2001 

Country identity belongs to those who built it over generations and not to the hungry EU. 

This message needs to be listened to.

So this is Western thinking. The western media is now full of this argument with London the centre of resistance. Big, rich, confident and assertive, why should this glorious capital bow to a commission of 28 and its army of 60,000 technocrats!

The flip side to this coin is in the East. While some mutterings may from time to time come from the Czechs general support for the Union is solid. It is the unsure, the poorer, the downtrodden and the aspirational who see the Union as means to feel free even though they have little or no say in creating its laws. Their choice is simple. Who is the lesser of a dictate directive! Brussels or Moscow! It is totally understandable that Putin’s Russia is unappealing to former Warsaw pact countries.

Russia stepped in and is telling Ukraine which road to tread and if Ukraine follows regardless of the will of its citizens while the EU looks on and does nothing, then London will win its biggest fight. Oh yes The EU is big at spending but when citizens freedom is under threat it is not the EU who offers protection but our very own national capitals.

When songs are singing for Europe in Denmark 2014 it may be that Ukraine opts to play Shakespeare’s Hamlet instead. 

EU Crisis: The Rise, Rise and Rise of the Euroskeptics

Marine Le Pen is swept into the mainstream. The Front National
is poised to use the Europe problem as a platform in the
May 2014 Strasbourg elections. image: Paris political rally

Marine Le Pen’s Euroskeptic National Front moves into the lead for the May 2014 European elections and now looks on track to becoming the largest party in France.  Polls put her on top at 24%.

A spokesman for the party declared “A brilliant victory” for the National Front after a local election success. "The French are showing a wish to take their destiny into their hands and take back their sovereignty." He also predicted an "unprecedented earthquake" in the next European elections; a claim echoed by many of the rising Euroskeptic parties of both the left and the right.

"All the ingredients are coming together for people to express their discontent with everything associated with Europe, immigration, globalisation, and so on."

The Front’s power base is in the south of France, where fear of immigration, identity crisis, austerity and recession are creating opposition to the Brussels Federalist ideology. 

 NF success is mirrored across Europe where Skeptic support grows.  Marine Le Pen is interested to jointly campaign with Geert Wilders of the Netherlands anti-immigration Freedom Party. . “It is important that voters see we are not alone, and that there are similar patriotic movements in every EU country,” she said.

Is this the beginning of a clear voice for the European Parliament.! A choice for voters to be represented through defined political roles concerning Europe’s future.

New Skeptic parties should impact but they will engage with the pro-European camp in establishing meaningful reformist coalitions. Politicians have a way of diluting their rhetoric once they taste the honey elixir of power and privilege.  

Brussels Federalist ideology may be over for now. The third attempt may have failed, but the project to unite the Europe project in some shape or form is far from over and in fact is most likely unstoppable. May 2014 is still some way off.

Syrian Conflict: The Hezbollah Effect

President Assad has held his line. The Us President has telephoned the new Iranian president to hammer out peace negotiations. The Syrian free army and Al Qaida affiliate groups are backed up against the Turkish border. Qatar and Saudi Arabia are at a loss over their next move.

In Short the civil war in Syria has an outcome.  The Shia Crescent spread its influence from Tehran across Iraq to the port of Tartus embracing Alawite Syria and Shia Lebanon. It’s complete. The sectarian and economic confrontation between Iran and Saudi Arabia has forged lines. Turkey to the north and Gulf states to the south are Sunni lands. The Shia crescent between is clear; just like the mighty gas which will flow through its Islamic pipeline towards Europe.  

The 2013 summer battle for the strategic town of Al Qusayr tipped the balance. After it fell to Assad’s army it was too late for further proxy intervention. It came down to the presence of a few thousand Hezbollah fighters to decide the fate of the Syrian civil war.

“Saudi Arabia, Turkey and other regional countries backing Syria's rebels must acknowledge their failures to bring down the Syrian government, and join efforts for a political solution to end the two and a half year civil war,” Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah said Monday 08^th Oct 13.

"I call on Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and other Gulf states to revise your stance," he said. "You won't reach anywhere by relying on a military victory….. think with your minds. Think about your interests, the interests of the region, the survival of the region."

It took several thousand fighters from Hezbollah's Unit 910, external security organisation, to tip
the balance in the 2 yr Syrian civil war. Now it's peace deals, with Iran's Shia Crescent the winner.    

Nasrallah said that Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries are using Hezbollah as a scapegoat "to run away from their failures," by accusing the highly trained resistance army of occupying Syria.

"For two and a half years, they used everything in their disposal ... to control Syria and they failed. Of course Hezbollah are foreigners, we are not Syrian, but what about the tens of thousands of foreign fighters who you brought from all over the world? Are they occupying Syria?"

President Assad, who is currently undergoing rehabilitation with western powers, said in an interview with Der Spiegel, “Victory is stability. The real battle for Syria is to get rid of their (Al Qaida) ideology.

It cannot be that an eight-year-old boy tries to behead someone, which happened in the north. Or children watch a beheading with jubilation, happy, like they're watching a soccer match. If we don't deal with this problem, which is more dangerous than the terrorists themselves, we're going to face a bleak future.”

Global Mind Games: Russia and U.S. Battle Words in Search of Nirvana.

A cynical exchange of words over the Syria conflict is exposing an expanding void between East and Western military/economic alliances to direct global management.

The West, led by the US with its European & Gulf friends face Putin’s Russia backed by Iran, Syria & China.

India, Pakistan, Brazil and some others teeter on the sidelines looking for signs of opportunity.

This showdown, Mexican standoff, a High Noon for the next great global leap towards an Earthly Empire is here already. But what are they babbling about.

“Keep your nukes in their silos and we will do the same,” they shout to each other! “No need to fight, this is just business.”

Waiting for Nirvana. A Buddha moment on a Netherlands beach during
the height of the Global financial crisis in 2011. East and West spat over who
offers the best route to bliss and enlightenment.   

Russia’s Putin declared in the New York Times.

“We need to use the United Nations Security Council…. The law is still the law; whether we like it or not. Force is permitted only in self-defence; anything else would constitute an act of aggression.”

“Millions around the world increasingly see America not as a model of democracy but as relying solely on brute force, cobbling coalitions together under the slogan "you're either with us or against us".

US war veteran John McCain retaliated on the pages of Russia’s Pravda Magazine.

The US senator declared that Putin and his associates,

"Punish dissent and imprison opponents. They rig your elections. They control your media. They harass, threaten, and banish organisations that defend your right to self-governance."

"He is not enhancing Russia’s global reputation. He is destroying it. He has made her a friend to tyrants and an enemy to the oppressed, and untrusted by nations that seek to build a safer, more peaceful and prosperous world."

The fact about this verbal spat is that both men are right and wrong. They understand very well their romantic ballet is about how Five Billion new human arrivals, since the end of W.W.11 seven decades past, are watered, fed, housed, heated and supplied with stuff.

Who controls this supply will win the lead for decades to come. Can we not do it together, share and share alike? “Sorry,” they say “ready for the management job but not ready to trust you lot on the factory floor. Not just yet.”

Globally, we continue to embrace Science and Technology as the modern means to achieve Nirvana. And when finally enlightenment arrives shall we transcend planetary suffering and desires.

I hear the calling of the enchanted; the wailing Encantado and the mischievous forest spirits. “The West is the Best. The East is Spiritual. We are the same but all are different.”

Ha ah! Know thyself and this truth shall set you free! 

EU Federalism Undergoes Radical Soul Searching As Reality Dawns Clear

Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso gave his state of the Union address 11 September 2013. Besides the expected cheer for his waning Federalist cause he hints at a new normal for the European project.

 “Let me say this to all those who rejoice in Europe's difficulties and who want to roll back our integration and go back to isolation: the pre-integrated Europe of the divisions, the war, the trenches, is not what people desire and deserve.

Does everyone still remember just how much Europe has suffered from its wars during the last century, and how European integration was the valid answer?

Does anyone seriously believe that, if the euro had collapsed, we or our Member States would still have any credibility left internationally?

I recognize: as any human endeavour, the EU is not perfect. Let's make no mistake: there is no way back to business as usual. Some people believe that after this everything will come back as it was before. They are wrong, this crisis is different. This is not a cyclical crisis, but a structural one. We will not come back to the old normal. We have to shape a new normal. We are in a transformative period of history.”

Is Europe turning the corner away from crisis and the Federalist agenda. Winds of change are 
upon us says Commission president Manuel Barroso. Its time for a New Normal.
Image from Martin Nangle series Dutch Landscapes 2009 -2011

The political maze, that is Europe’s character, has left Chancellor Angela “Mutti” Merkel and the new Germany as the undisputed champion of European economic and political thinking.

Results to date from the existentialist financial crisis have spoken. Germany is back to where it was before the crisis began in 2008 while the rest struggle to keep up.

In peace, prepare for war. In war prepare for peace.  In this case war and peace is boom and bust.

So where we are now just days before Merkel is ushered into a third term as German Chancellor and de facto guru for the European Union.

We are divided as ever. For some, economic reforms are working and in a short few years we’ll reap their benefits. For others we are merely papering over the cracks and as the financial juggernaut resurfaces from the policies of quantitative easing a second coming is foretold:

The darkness drops again but now I know
 That twenty centuries of stony sleep
 Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
 And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
 Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?    

If the Federalist movement accepts the need for a new normal, then exciting times are indeed ahead. 

 Surely some revelation is at hand;
 Surely the Second Coming is at hand.  W. B. Yeats

U.S. and French Attack on Syria Linked to Turf War over Supplying Natural Gas to Europe.

Extraordinary claims that Qatar and Saudi Arabia are pitched in a proxy war against Iran, Russia and Syria to control whose gas is sold to Europe reminisces of Mafia and gangland turf spats.

It seems one bunch of thugs is clipping the other over lucrative European energy markets addicted to cheap fixes and that the excuse to up the ante is the use of chemical weapons. The most recent incident left over 1400 innocent Damascus civilians dead.    

While not serious enough at the moment to start a full blown war, if such a scenario was to happen the entire Middle East could ignite into total chaos dragging the world with it.

Russia has the largest reserves of natural gas followed by Iran. Qatar with a population of just 800,000 is third with 15% of the world’s reserves. That’s some clout for a country the size of Jacksonville Florida.

A recent discovery of major gas fields off Cyprus and Syria adds to the dimension.

The fact that a delivery route, dubbed “The Islamic Pipeline” is a signed agreement (2011) to take Iranian gas through Iraq to the Syrian Mediterranean port at Lattakia unsettled the Gulf Arabs and are now he main sponsors of the Syrian rebels. Controlling Syria checks Iranian aspirations.

"War of the Gas-Masks." Syrian conflict is linked to controlling flow of
natural  gas to Europe.  Opponents Iran and Qatar are number 2 & 3
 after Russia for world gas reserves. Images; the 1st Gulf War 1991 

Qatar and Saudi Arabia are also allies with the US in the War on Terror. This is looking increasingly like a “War of the Gas-Masks.” Some they say get rich in wartime.

In all do we care who the supplier of what we need is. Well to some degree it should matter if innocents are getting killed and hypocrisy is the sermon of the day.

Some are claiming it was mis-handled Saudi Chemical Weapons supplied to the Rebels which cause the slaughter if the innocents in Damascus. While others in Allied West are “convinced” Assad is to blame.

Either way it’s a sign we are on course for war in the coming years. The weapons used will be brutal and devastating.

E.U. Crisis: Debate on Europe #2. Freedom or Money, Which one makes the world go round.

Without freedom there is no money and without money there is no freedom.

City fund manager Helena Morrissey whose firm has almost £55bn under management, said she was “not afraid that all will be lost” if Britain leaves the single market.

“I am convinced that the tide of influence is moving away from the top down, command and control, one-size-fits-all approach to business and politics.”

She describes the European Union a “flawed model of the past.”  Several experiences have left her “disillusioned about the EU’s approach to effecting change” she said, citing poor decision making and lack of evidence or understanding to back up views as main reasons.

“Lack of flexibility and accountability within the Eurozone has left a whole generation of young people paying a very painful price for this imperial, large-scale, flawed political agenda,” she added.

Writing on walls is no longer just for anarchists. Participants at the summer Graffiti Jam in
Derry-Londonderry UK city of culture 2013.  

Her most scathing comments are addressed for Euro leaders’ mind-sets. “Eurozone politicians are determined to defend the monetary union whatever the social cost in Greece, Portugal and Spain. Their desire to be proven right may well outweigh their motivation to do the right thing.”

This mind-set seems to be defining the structures and differences growing between Eurocrats and national politicians. Which philosophy to follow …..”No we can’t” or “Yes we can.” 

Business leader Sir Richard Branson warns of dangers in putting “politics before economics.” He claims Britain’s EU membership is worth almost £92bn a year and even closer EU integration could add a further £110bn.

 “The debate on Europe is not going away anytime soon, and it’s vital that those arguing the case for staying in the EU, and those pressing for an exit, come up with clear, evidence-led visions for the UK,” says current director of the Confederation of British industry.

“We must consider what an alternative for the UK would look like, based on hard facts, not emotion or hollow rhetoric.”

However there is increasing political support for an “out” vote in Mr Cameron’s proposed 2017 referendum. As those who once ruled through Empire know very well once one country leaves the fold others will follow.

Departure from Empire is often the result of suppression, discrimination or national rebirth for greater glory.  At present there are just too many fundamental flaws inside the E.U. Failure to listen and implement calls for EU reform will be an act of folly precipitating a UK reaction into an action for secession.