Out of narrow self-interest, the EU6 should never have admitted the "middle income" countries.

"Honestly. Spain? Portugal? Ireland? Poland? Clearly, basket cases. Handouts out of our taxes? You're kidding."

Speaking for myself, I think these are "good investments" by the EU in Ukraine, with a good ROI (in human terms at least).

_{It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II}

I cannot believe that the readers don't have any children or relatives.

I have two : one is attending a public university in France, one who has completed her degree in Scotland. (For free. Thanks to the EU.)

But I agree that the proliferation of private, for-profit tertiary education in France is scandalous, and indicative of Macron's professed desire to "normalise" higher education on the "anglo-saxon" model.

His second term is likely to be the death of what's left of the French free university system. But there will be a fight.

I would be in favour of making higher education an EU competence, and fully funding it.

_{It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II}

Noam Chomsky on Syria Conflict: Cut Off the Flow of Arms & Stop Bombing to Stem the Atrocities | May 17, 2016 |

AMY GOODMAN: President Obama announced the deployment of 250 more Special Operations troops to Syria in a move that nearly doubles the official U.S. presence in the country. Syria is only one of a number of ongoing conflicts in the Middle East. Last year, a record 60 million people around the world were forced to flee their homes, becoming refugees.

Well, for more on these conflicts, from Syria to Iraq to Yemen, and the U.S. role in the ongoing violence, we continue our conversation with the internationally renowned political dissident, linguist, author, Noam Chomsky. He has written over a hundred books, most recently, Who Rules the World? Noam Chomsky is institute professor emeritus at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he's taught for more than half a century. I began by asking him to talk about the conflict in Syria.

NOAM CHOMSKY: Syria is spiraling into real disaster, a virtual suicide. And the only sensible approach, the only slim hope, for Syria is efforts to reduce the violence and destruction, to establish small regional ceasefire zones and to move toward some kind of diplomatic settlement. There are steps in that direction. Also, it's necessary to cut off the flow of arms, as much as possible, to everyone. That means to the vicious and brutal Assad regime, primarily Russia and Iran, to the monstrous ISIS, which has been getting support tacitly through Turkey, through--to the al-Nusra Front, which is hardly different, has just the--the al-Qaeda affiliate, technically broke from it, but actually the al-Qaeda affiliate, which is now planning its own--some sort of emirate, getting arms from our allies, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Our own--the CIA is arming them. We don't know at what level; it's clandestine. As much as possible, cut back the flow of arms, the level of violence, try to save people from destruction. There should be far more support going simply for humanitarian aid. Those who are building some sort of a society in Syria--notably, the Kurds--should be supported in that effort.

These efforts should be made to cut off the flow of jihadis from the places where they're coming from. And that means understanding why it's happening. It's not enough just to say, "OK, let's bomb them to oblivion." This is happening for reasons. Some of the reasons, unfortunately, are--we can't reverse. The U.S. invasion of Iraq was a major reason in the development, a primary reason in the incitement of sectarian conflicts, which have now exploded into these monstrosities. That's water under the bridge, unfortunately, though we can make sure not to do that--not to continue with that. But we may like it or not, but ISIS, the ISIL, whatever you want to call it, does have popular support even among people who hate it. The Sunni--much of the Sunni population of Iraq and Syria evidently regards it as better than the alternative, something which at least defends them from the alternative. From the Western countries, the flow of jihadis is primarily from young people who are--who live in conditions of humiliation, degradation, repression, and want something decent--want some dignity in their lives, want something idealistic. They're picking the wrong horse, by a large margin, but you can understand what they're aiming for. And there's plenty of research and studies--Scott Atran and others have worked on this and have plenty of evidence about it. And those--alleviating and dealing with those real problems can be a way to reduce the level of violence and destruction.

It's much more dramatic to say, "Let's carpet bomb them," or "Let's bomb them to oblivion," or "Let's send in troops." But that simply makes the situation far worse. Actually, we've seen it for 15 years. Just take a look at the so-called war on terror, which George W. Bush declared--actually, redeclared; Reagan had declared it--but redeclared in 2001. At that point, jihadi terrorism was located in a tiny tribal area near the Afghan-Pakistan border. Where is--and since then, we've been hitting one or another center of what we call terrorism with a sledgehammer. What's happened? Each time, it spreads. By now, it's all over the world. It's all over Africa, Southeast Asia, South Asia, everywhere you look. Take the bombing of Libya, which Hillary Clinton was strongly in favor of, one of the leaders of, smashed up Libya, destroyed a functioning society. The bombing sharply escalated the level of atrocities by a large factor, devastated the country, left it in the hands of warring militias, opened the door for ISIS to establish a base, spread jihadis and heavy weapons all through Africa, in fact, into the Middle East. Last year, the--according to U.N. statistics, the worst terror in the world was in West Africa, Boko Haram and others, to a considerable extent an offshoot of the bombing of Libya. That's what happens when you hit vulnerable systems with a sledgehammer, not knowing what you're doing and not looking at the roots of where these movements are developing from. So you have to understand the--understand where it's coming from, where the appeal lies, what the roots are--there are often quite genuine grievances--at the same time try to cut back the level of violence.

Read my diaries for the last decade here and @BooMan ... the very same line of analysis. Thank you Noam Chomsky. A man of courage.

Syrian Quagmire: Pakistani Taliban and Chechens Join Sectarian War | Jul 16, 2013 |

US With Both Feet in Syrian Quagmire | June 27, 2014 |

Related reading ...

Blair On Downfall Saddam, Iraq Compared Favorable to Quagmire In Libya and Syria | Oct. 25, 2022 |

My new diary was written after I saw the interview on CNN and was able to criticize the squirming and pathetic arguments used by Tony Blair to compare his handling of the Iraq invasion and removal of Saddam Hussein with today's quagmire in Libya and Syria. Easily trying to escape judgement for the Middle-East upheaval caused by him and the US military under the George Bush administration.

Worldless Syria: Depopulated Discourse and Denied Agency

In the West today--and, consequently, around the world--there are three dominant discourses about Syria (and the Middle East more generally). The first is geopolitical; the second culturalist or civilizationist; and the third might be called top-down anti-imperialist.

In analyzing these three, along with the ways in which Syria's Bashar al-Assad regime and its followers benefit from them, this article aims to uncover a deeper structural-discursive pattern concerning the destruction of Syria. There is no need to assume malevolent intentions or conspiratorial schemes, but it is also not simply a matter of unintended mistakes, miscalculations, or neglect. A deeper logic is at work; one closely tied to the structures of Western interests in, and perceptions about, Syria and the Middle East. To bring this to light may also help bring Syria and Syrians back into the discussions from which we have largely been excluded since the moment the Syrian uprising began in March 2011, in spite of our intimate knowledge of oppression, violence, and the experience of being silenced.

The first discourse--the geopolitical--is promoted by states, mainstream think tanks, and media outlets. It speaks in terms of states: presidents and governments; war and diplomacy; special envoys from the US, Europe, and the UN; and the "Middle East conflict," or conflicts.

Over the last three decades, the content of this discourse has shifted from the Arab-Israeli struggle and "peace process," which dominated up until the early 1990s, to the "War on Terror," which has prevailed ever since. The latter is trans-national, but its battlefields are mostly situated in the Middle East. As for the "Middle East" itself, it is a somewhat flexible signifier. Syria, Palestine/Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, and the Arabian Peninsula are always included within it, but it can also extend to Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkey, and North Africa. This "Greater Middle East" appeared after 9/11, and covers most of the Muslim world. It is a geography of the War on Terror, and of torture. The War on Terror, which has reintroduced torture where it was less practiced, is by no means a war; it is torture itself, waged by the powerful against the weak, with no exception to this general rule.

The greatest permanent commitment of the Western powers in the Middle East is to Israel's security, superiority, and welfare. After this comes "stability" in the region, which until recently meant the safety of oil routes for the capitalist West, and all related requirements to support the ruling regimes.

Indeed, after a generation of mostly progressive social, political, and intellectual upheavals following independence (land reforms; wider schooling; improved services; a more active life for larger sectors of our societies), the lesser Middle East has experienced a deadly "stability" since the 1970s; one that has implied permanent rule for familial or oligarchic regimes, and increasing vulnerability and instability for the ruled. Vast masses of people were steadily excluded from this politics of stability, which produced its new lumpen aristocracies and dynasties. Bashar al-Assad's father Hafez was one of these "stable" rulers. He seized power in a military coup in 1970 (possibly rewarding himself for the humiliating defeat in June 1967, when he was Syria's defense minister). He then relied heavily on sectarianized security apparatuses to preserve power; arresting, torturing, and killing tens of thousands of Syrians from all political and ideological backgrounds. By these means, he was able to secure the prized "stability" in Syria; as well as to "pacify" Lebanon--with a US green light--by intervening in Syria's small neighbor in 1976; and also to play a vital "regional role," made possible only by the absolute closure of the political playing field inside Syria.

Through power politics, the regime was able to accumulate effective playing cards, especially by sponsoring sub-state actors in Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq, and Turkey, all of which proved useful assets for engagement with fellow regional powers and bargains with the more powerful parties; especially the Americans. Those inside Syria were relegated to full invisibility, undergoing massacres, incarceration, and torture scarcely reported in the "free world." Thus was Hafez able to pass his post on to his son, Bashar, whose earliest slogan was "stability and continuity" (istiqrar and istimrar), implying that demands for political change were inherently destabilizing. Bashar has since been able to kill hundreds of thousands of ill-fated Syrians over the long course of this past decade, the second of his twenty-one-year rule. It is worth noting that each of the revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, and Libya prevented a monarchical turn such as the one that took place in Syria, which was the greatest reactionary leap backward in the country's modern history.

Agree fully with Yassin.

Ah so you agree with his criticism of Chomsky who ascribes too much agency to US imperialism, and disqualifies and ignores Syrian intellectuals?

So why was it "bullshit" when I posted it?

He should have mentioned

... ah so you agree with him, sort of, you just need to tell him how to think.

_{It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II}

[_link]

— İsmail KIR (@smailKIR3) March 22, 2022

Dutch election: European relief as mainstream triumphs | BBC News |

European leaders have welcomed the result of the Netherlands election, which saw the anti-immigration party of Geert Wilders fail to become the largest in parliament.

Prime Minister Mark Rutte's centre-right VVD won by some margin.

For Francois Hollande of France it was a "clear victory against extremism", while German Chancellor Angela Merkel hailed a "good day for democracy".

The vote was closely watched ahead of elections in France and Germany. The Netherlands was seen by many as a bellwether for how populist parties will perform in those polls.

The European countries turning fascist. Leading to war on the continent ...

'Sapere aude'

APsplainin | Pakistanis celebrate National Day with military parade

The parade was also witnessed by foreign ministers from the Organization of Islamic Countries who are attending a conference in Islamabad. Thousands of people chanted "Long Live Pakistan" as air force jets flew over, showing off the country's air power as paratroopers jumped from helicopters.

Pakistan celebrates the National Day to commemorate March 23, 1940. On that day the Muslim leadership in the eastern city of Lahore demanded independence from British rule.
[...]
In his speech, President Alvi called for making the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation more effective by forming unity among Muslim countries. He said that Pakistan was a peace-loving country. "We will never make any compromise on our sovereignty," he said.

* recalling a pithy, popular middle-school rebuke

Türkiye's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stresses the necessity of continuing diplomatic efforts to end Russia-Ukraine conflict, in a joint news conference with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte [_link]

— TRT World (@trtworld) March 22, 2022

#OlafScholz says a boycott of #Russian energy would imperil 'hundreds of thousands of jobs'
Germany has been the most prominent opponent of a boycott of Russian energy. It relies on #Russia for 55% of its #NaturalGas, 35% of its oil & half its coal [_link] #UKRAINE pic.twitter.com/ELZtMvcLOK

— Venus Throw (@OneVenusThrow) March 23, 2022

#AlexSaab will be another headache for Erdogan's Turkey after Halkbank case in which the US accused the Turkish bank of bypassing sanctions on Iran. Saab played a key role in building #Venezuela's economic relationship with Turkey through his shell companies located in Istanbul. pic.twitter.com/CXMVKiyevM

— İmdat Oner (@im_oner) October 17, 2021

Biden, Sanctions and Republican Foreign Policy

Finally, how Turkey worked with Iran to circumvent US sanctions ... a plot well known for many years ... Dubai UAE at the center, of course!  A plea deal that may touch Robert Mueller's investigation of Michael Flynn and his counterparts in Turkey. Erdogan must be furious! Recently NATO declared war on Turkey in an exercise in Norway ...

Coup-proofing? Making Sense of Turkey's S-400 Decision | CSIS - July 15, 2019 |

'Sapere aude'

US says F-16 sale to Turkey serves NATO interests in letter to Congress | Hürriyet Daily News |

The United States administration has underlined in a letter to the Congress that the potential sale of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey would serve both U.S. and NATO security interests, particularly in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

"The Administration believes that there are nonetheless compelling long-term NATO alliance unity and capability interests, as well as U.S. national security, economic and commercial interests that are supported by appropriate U.S. defense trade ties with Turkey," read a letter sent by Naz Durakoglu, the State Department's top official for legislative affairs to Congressman Frank Pallone, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

According to the reports, the letter was sent to Pallone on March 17 as a reply to a correspondence by Pallone's office on Febr. 4 that urged the Biden administration not to supply Turkey with the F-16 jets and modernization kits due to its deployment of S-400s and human rights violations.