Bill Sykes' - In Retrospect XII.
(August 2008)

Bill Sykes looks back in retrospect at material which has been published in previous editions of "View from America", in an attempt to determine whether the subject matter written then is still applicable in today’s world.

Introduction to Article #12.
One more time I’m afraid that I’ve done what I previously said that I wouldn’t do, and that is to bore you the reader with the who’s, the what’s, and the where’s, of the never ending Presidential saga, but this time, at least I’ve reduced the number of words down to what I consider to be an acceptable limit - as I recognize that enough is enough.

Firstly: Who in their right mind would want to take on the job of being the President of the United States of America when considering the present state of the country.
My doubts concern the capability of either of the two contenders for the job of President of the United States to be able to handle the current situation that the people of these dis-United States now find themselves in due to the ineptitude of the current President and his Administration - not forgetting that the members of both the Republican and Democratic Parties did very little, and in many cases did nothing, to dispute or discourage the decisions by this President to go to war with both Afghanistan and Iraq.
Both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party, (and their respective leadership), must shoulder a huge portion of the blame for letting this President and his Administration lie to the American people and literally force them into the situation that they are now in.
As I said in the above title, I cannot for the life in me see why anyone would want to take over a job as President of a country which currently is in such a complete and utter disastrous financial mess and is still fighting two un -winnable wars in the Middle East, when we are no closer to getting an acceptable solution, and be able to get our troops out of these un -winnable wars with any degree of dignity, than we were when the wars commenced some seven years ago.

Now let us take a closer look at both of the Presidential contenders.
1) Initially, let us now examine the position of the Republican candidate John McCain, who apparently not only supports the two un-winnable wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, (that President Bush and his cohorts in crime started), but in his words he would extend the presence of American military in both those countries for as long as one hundred years if necessary.
Yes, believe it or not, that is what he actually said - although I think that he has changed his mind several times on that position as he has done many times with the contents of some his other pre-election speeches.
This is an OLD man with OLD ideas who cannot bear to be on the losing side of a war, (*), and has suggested that he will do anything he can, if he becomes President, to avoid bringing our troops home and losing the wars in the Middle East, indeed I would suggest that he would possibly, (much against a majority of the American people), consider increasing the number of troops in both areas.
As I said he is an OLD man, who many of the American public consider to be a Vietnam War Hero, (I will go along with that), but in my opinion he now appears to have become just as much of a warmonger as the current President has been during his term in office.
Of course one must not forget that many of the American people still believe that America won that terrible war in Vietnam.

(*) Please refer to the May 2005 Edition of View from America which includes my version of, "America’s win at all costs syndrome"
I’m afraid that if John McCain was to win the Presidential race, (which would appear to be highly unlikely at this time), he has indicated in as many words that he would continue to conduct his policies in the image of George W. Bush. Indeed he has stated that he would expand upon the Bush policies and the consequences of doing so suggest that we would have four more years of the same disastrous situation that the current President and his entourage have established during their eight year reign in power.

2) Now we get to Presidential candidate Barack Obama who has been touring the world and giving the impression that he already is the new President of the United States.
I’m all for a potential President making overtures to the heads of state of the European and Middle East countries, and at the same time learning what world diplomacy is all about, but there were times during his tour that he went a little too far by giving the impression that he was destined to take over the President’s job, and then stating how he would cooperate with any and all nations of the world in a search for diplomatic solutions and that he would only consider the use military force to subdue potential aggressors who threatened any neighboring country or countries in the hope that diplomatic solutions could be found in order to prevent or stop the terrible consequences of an open war.
A very brave statement Mr. Obama and I for one will be very interested to see whether you will be able to carry out your promises, if and when you do get to be the next President of the United States.

Time to take a look back in retrospect.
As everyone is aware, the current President of the United States and his Administration have involved the people of the United States in two un-winnable wars in the Middle East with little or no success.
In fact the recurring question keeps entering my mind, and I have never yet been able to come up with an answer, as to why the Russians fought a war against the Taliban and tried to occupy Afghanistan?
The question also begs an answer to, "What on earth did the Russians expect to achieve?".

To take it one step further, "What on earth does America expect to get out of their ill advised attempts at the occupation of two Middle East countries?". It cannot be just for occupation purposes - so does it all boil down in one particular case to the preservation of oil reserves in Iraq and as far as Afghanistan is concerned, why is Afghanistan so important that both Russia and America have fought to conquer this hostile territory.

Some very important and related information for the uninitiated with respect to CIA involvement in Afghanistan. Initially the United States CIA financed and trained the Taliban in what turned out to be a success in forcing the Russian military to pull out of Afghanistan - and now the Taliban, (using the vast financial resources coming from the opium poppy fields), have purchased some of the very latest weaponry which they are using against the American troops.
The initial case for using American troops to fight in Afghanistan was to capture Usama bin Laden, who so say master minded the terrible attacks on American soil, but the latest information coming out of the White House appears to indicate that the search for Usama bin Laden has been abandoned!!!
I would suggest that perhaps the reader should take a look at my comments concerning whether I consider that the United States still wishes to capture, (or not capture), Usama bin Laden.
Those comments can be found in Item #4, of Article #11, of the February 2008 Edition of "Bill Sykes’-In Retrospect" on this website.

The current mess that this country of America currently finds itself in.
We have a financial recession here in the United States bordering upon, or even getting to a point that it may turn out to be as bad, or perhaps even worse, than the 1929 financial debacle. Of course no one up to now will admit that a recession has been shaping up for some time, except perhaps the unfortunate citizens who are losing their houses due to the corrupt practices which have been used in the handling of sub-mortgage applications by individuals seeking mortgages from the banks and real estate companies.
These sources have provided certain borrowers with mortgages which were way above the means of the individual’s concerned, (at variable interest rates), who thought that they were onto a good thing after experiencing a number of years in an ever increasing real estate price boom, and so they took a risk and purchased houses with price ranges far beyond their financial means, and when house prices took a gigantic down turn - many of the people who had outstanding mortgages, (which were now way above the potential sale price of the property that they had purchased - known as negative equity), found themselves unable to pay their monthly mortgage payments and the banks and loan institutions then place a foreclosure notice on the property, which left the prior home owners homeless and penniless.

The manipulation of the price of oil products and the effect that this has had on world economies.
The American Stock Market which handles oil futures, maneuvered the price of a barrel of oil to exorbitant and unsustainable levels which created havoc at the local gas/petrol pumps, where the elevated price of a gallon of gas, (Note: The American gallon is 4/5th the size of the British gallon, or whatever that is in litres), to such a high price per gallon of that precious fluid that a section of the American public are having to choose between buying gasoline in order to travel to work, (One must remember that we do not have sufficient alternative modes of transport in this country as the British and European people have at their disposal), or obtain a place to rent and be able to purchase food, (which currently is rising nearly as fast as the price of petroleum products), and other necessities of life in order not to become down and out welfare recipients.

One must also remember that many of the crops, which once were food sources, are now being used to produce the fuel Ethanol which is a partial substitute for petrol/gas or whatever one likes to call that combustible fluid which has become an ever increasing worldwide demand.
By the way today the 31st of July 2008, Exxon/Mobile announced that their last quarter profits were a record net income of $11.68 billion on revenues of $138 billion. This is the largest quarterly profit in United States history, so who would one say is reaping the benefits of the elevated oil prices besides the Saudi and OPEC cartels - perhaps the oil refining and distribution companies.!!!

A possible answer as to why oil has become such a valuable and overpriced commodity.
When Sheena and I were in China in May of 1993, we discovered that two of the large cities, Shanghai and Beijing had populations of around twelve million people, and we also found that the main mode of transportation of most of the city population was by bicycle.
Now in this modern day world those six million bicycles that thronged the streets of each of those two major cities have been replaced by six million automobiles, hence the current day demand for petroleum products which has forced the price of those petroleum products to an incredible high price at the pump in most of the worlds major cities.
This demand for petroleum products also applies to other emerging nations, which have vast populations and who have reverted from say rickshaws or whatever other means of transportation, to automotive transport and are now demanding increased supplies of that liquid gold - namely oil products.

My thoughts have taken me back to a poem which I believe was penned during the Great Depression (and was made into a song called Sixteen Tons sung by Tennessee Ernie Ford in 1955).
You load sixteen tons and what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt
St. Peter, don’t you call me, because I can’t go.
I owe my soul to the company store. (Or in this case the mortgage company)

I have often wondered who wrote the initial poem, and I’ve always assumed that the author was a coal miner. Can any reader enlighten me as to who the initial author was - and the circumstances in which the poem was written?
Editor's Note: The song Sixteen Tons was originally written by a country singer named Merle Travis - for further details follow this link.

The United States National Debt.
Just in case you the reader were wondering what the United States national debt is at this very moment here it is $9.5 trillion. WOW, work that one out?
U.S. NATIONAL DEBT CLOCK.
The outstanding public debt as of 01 Aug 2008 at 12:08:55 AM GMT is:
$9,535,742,103,303.16
The estimated population of the United States is 304,458,413
so each citizen's share of this debt is $31,315.95.
The national debt has continued to increase an average of
$1.72 billion per day since September 28, 2007!

An act, (and lack of action), by Congress.
At a time that I personally would call a "national emergency" within the United States, where currently there is an on-going depression which has created an enormous economic downturn that includes a housing/mortgage crisis, plus the fact that 51,000 jobs have been lost in the month of July 2008 alone.
This job loss has elevated the unemployment level to 5.7%, a five year high, and this is the seventh straight month of job losses this year.

In addition we still have a situation where we are heavily involved, both financially and manpower wise, in the two wars that we have been fighting in the Middle East for the last seven years.
Would you believe that the members of Congress would be so unconcerned about the current situation that they have decided to still take their annual five week vacation starting in a few days time?
Unfortunately this is the type of uncaring Government that we appear to currently have in power.
I would be delighted if you the reader would provide me with your assessment and comments on what I think is a disgusting and careless attitude of the current members of the United States Congress which I equate to the disputed saying that in 644AD, "Nero fiddled whilst the city of Rome burned", if you get my comparative meaning.

Late breaking News 1:
Information has just been released by the National TV and other media that Iraq has in excess of $80B, (apparently obtained from oil revenues), invested in US banks and Wall Street. Of course all of this money is earning interest whilst we continue to spend up to $10B per month in order to keep the Iraqi war going. I would suggest that there is something radically wrong in this financial expenditure of American financial resources in a day and age were the American people are getting deeper and deeper in debt on a daily basis.
No wonder that the United States has such a huge national debt.

Georgia on my mind - Late breaking news 2:
A) The following  information was contained in the April 2002 Newsletter.. 
The president of Georgia, Eduard Shevardnadze has praised the United States move to help train the former Soviet Republic’s armed forces, but in Moscow we find politicians across a broad spectrum denouncing the plan saying that it would only destabilize the region and criticizing the move as an act by the United States to expand its military presence in the Caucasus mountains region.
The Chairman of the Dumas defense committee went as far as to say that Shevardnadze’s policies have resulted in a virtual dissolution of ties between Russia and Georgia and the presence of United States troops could seriously complicate Russian-American relations. Russia, who had been hoping for a joint operation against terrorist connections in the region is reluctant to allow American forces to operate independently
 

B) The following information was contained in the May 2005 Newsletter.
Plans have been made by Russia to build a multi-million dollar oil pipeline from the Caspian Sea through Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey, to a Mediterranean sea port.
At a recent meeting with President Putin in Moscow, American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice antagonized the Russian Government by declaring that Russia is not doing enough to embrace an American type democracy.
Perhaps Ms Rice should reconsider her rather harsh critique and apologize for her utterances or perhaps the multi-million dollar investment by American oil companies, seeking to participate in the oil bonanza, may become shall we say a pipe-dream.

My comments to the above:
As I've remarked several time previously, George Orwell said that all the world economies were dependent upon a war or threat of war, or something like that.
Well, here we have the event of Russia invading Georgia for various reasons, and if this skirmish expands across the Black Sea to other regions and the United States continues its threats to assist Georgia, which obviously they cannot do Militarily because they don't currently have sufficient financial means or manpower resources to fight an additional war at this time, especially against the Military might of Russia, then we could get into a situation of expanding the Middle East wars which would really break the banks of many countries in addition to the United States

The recent event of President Bush sending Condoleezza Rice to France and Georgia with a message to Russia that it must stop its incursion into Georgia and immediately retreat from this American supported democratic sovereign country, must have sent laughter echoing through all those hallowed halls of the Kremlin.
In a recent speech, President Bush said ,when referring to the Russian invasion of Georgia, that no nation had the right to attack a sovereign country. Surely Mr. Bush you haven't forgotten that America has invaded and occupied two sovereign Middle East countries for the past seven years, and still continues to do so.

I think that there is more riding on this invasion by Russia of Georgia than meets the eye - possible a move by Russia to indicate their new military strength and perhaps a warning that the proposed location of missile installations in Poland by the United States will not be tolerated???

Disclaimer:
Some of the information gathered for this news letter has been gleaned from American and International media sources, (Including the Internet), and as such is quoted as accurately as possible. I try to obtain confirmation on each subject from several outlets, so the text is a mixture of composite news items and my personal comments and therefore the reader must make his/her own judgment as to the reliability and degree of accuracy of the subjects discussed.

Eric (Bill) Sykes, (Southern California).
August 2008.

 We welcome feedback about any of the contents of these articles. Please send all correspondence to bill_sykes@huddersfield1.co.uk