Letter from America........

 

Too much bad news in the world press. Your record-breaking winter is an apt beginning. It is incredible that the snow and ice and freezing temps have been so severe and have lasted so long. I see pictures every day of snow-bound vehicles, people dressed in parkas and boots and rescue operations in the Scots Highlands of hikers and climbers who dared to venture beyond their capabilities. Being from Minnesota, I know what severe weather is like and how to deal with it and when not to challenge it. My hope is that the weather will warm up before the UK runs out of fuel oil and gas.

 

Wherever I turn in the Middle East, gloom and doom prevails. The Syria thing has gone too far and should really be brought to a conclusion. The US strategy has been to 'hope for the best' and provide reportedly non-weapon aid to the rebels. Bashir al Assad, like Saddam in Iraq, rules through an elite minority that is seemingly crush-proof. Perhaps the recent reports of Bashir being shot by his bodyguard will dampen if not entirely stop his rampage. However, every single one of Syria's neighbors have been brought into the fray in one way or another and the rustled feathers of these neighbors will remain part of Bashir's legacy.

 

For the most part, US news agencies have been silent about the alleged shooting. It is astounding how we can hope for the best without having a clue to what that might mean. We should have learned by now that once the despot is overturned, a new one emerges that is considerably less appealing then the previous one.

 

 

We all thought that the demise of Saddam would put an end to the conflicts there. Now, the new Prime Minister, Nouyri al Maliki, is attempting to calm Shiite groups by allying with Iran and virtually opening the doors of friendship between the two predominantly Shiite countries. Maliki is sufficiently confident to even refuse our new Secy, of State's request to deny Iran access to Iraq airspace. The relief route for arms and supplies to Syria has long been known to flow through Tehran and then into Damascus by land and air. Even some of our Iraq war veterans are asking what their comrades fought and died for in that conflict.

 

 

Would you believe that I recently heard a political commentator suggest there would soon be an entente between Shia and Sunni Muslims? This is about as likely as the lion and the lamb sharing the same water hole. One thing we can count on, but seldom do, is that the Arab world will always be in some sort of disagreement with one another. There is no basis for unity there given the different aspects of Islam, different tribal associations, different racial orientations and different cultural and linguistic foundations.

 

 

I note with interest that your David Miliband is forsaking politics in favor of a role in the International Rescue Committee.

 

He will certainly be in good company what with the litany of current and past members reading like a who's who in world affairs. I cannot quite understand his motive and why he opted to come to the US when he still has a future and a following in the UK.

 

 

The big financial news here remains the ECB's raid on the larger Cyprus banks and its threats to do the same thing in Spain and Italy and possibly other member states. There is a modicum of support here to target foreign holdings in Cyprus banks, particularly Russian holdings, as the conviction prevails that the money was dirty in the first place. It does seem as if the Bank of Cyprus was somewhat lacking in discretion with respect to the origins of funds deposited. More importantly at the moment, is the issue of ECB's having the legal right to dip into the personal savings of investors in its member banks for purposes of bailing out failing economies and, ultimately, of saving the Euro.