The iPINIONS Journal: Commentaries on the Global Events of 2016—Volume XII

By Anthony Livingston Hall

ANTHONY L. HALL takes aim at the global events of 2016 with a unique and refreshing perspective. Here are some topics in this twelfth volume of his writings:

Hillary Calling Half of Trump’s Supporters a “Basket of Deplorables” “Hillary was only half right … But the most troubling thing is not how deplorable they are; it’s how willing they are to elect an even more deplorable man as president of the United Sates. The latter is what I find incomprehensible … unforgivable.”

Brexit “The irony seems lost on both sides in this Brexit debate that Britain poses a far greater threat to the EU if it remains. After all, Britain planted the seeds of disintegration years ago, when it began negotiating all kinds of ‘opt-outs’ from EU legislation and treaties.”

Brazilians Protesting Cost of Rio Olympics “Brazilians need only point to the poisoned chalice Athens 2004 turned out to be for the Greeks. After all, the debt hangover from those Games not only triggered the EU financial crisis of 2010, but austerity measures to service that debt have many once-proud, middle-class Greeks now living like favela-dwelling Brazilians.”

Report on College Coaches Raking in Millions “These salaries only validate my longstanding contention that college coaches are using the free labor of student-athletes to live like plantation owners. The only precedent for this is the Founding Fathers, many of whom were in fact plantation owners, preaching about all men being created equal while owning slaves.”

VP-Elect Pence Hailing Trump for Accusing the FBI of Corruption “Nothing could be more foreboding than the willingness of no less an establishmentarian than Pence sacrificing democratic institutions and political norms at the altar of Trump’s ego, affecting that constipated countenance of sincerity as he does so.”

J.K. Rowling merchandising Harry Potter like Mickey Mouse “I admired her because she helped millions of kids discover the love of reading. But my admiration waned when she started exploiting that love like a drug dealer exploiting a junkie’s addiction.”

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Apr 4, 2017
• ISBN: 9781532017247

Anthony Livingston Hall

Anthony L. Hall is a Washington-based lawyer who is licensed to practice in a number of foreign jurisdictions. He hails from The Bahamas and Turks & Caicos Islands and was educated at some of America’s best schools, including Williams College. Hall is also a syndicated columnist and the author of The iPINIONS Journal, a weblog of enlightening and entertaining commentaries that provide a refreshing take on current events. He lives in Arlington, Virginia. http://ipjn.com

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Copyright © 2017 Anthony Livingston Hall.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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iUniverse rev. date: 04/20/2017

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

AFRICA / MIDDLE EAST

Hail, Museveni! Big Dada Wins another Democratic Election in Uganda

Putin’s Bush-Lite Declaration of Mission Accomplished in Syria

Truth about viral image of (another) Syrian boy

Alas, Syrian ceasefire no. 44 will fare no better

Ceasefire ends with barrel bombs

Russia finally speaking more Pravda than propaganda

#BringBackOurGirls Lost in Dustbin of Public Consciousness

A few escaped; a few released

Turkey: Bungled Coup Fails. Grave Purge Begins

State of emergency

The Gambia’s Jammeh Using Military Force after Losing Democratic Election

Now Congo’s Kabila (the son) is refusing to go?

South Sudan: another Genocide Developing in Africa

Netanyahu’s a Putz for Branding Obama a Judas over UN Resolution

Obama Continues Vietnam-Style Missions

Obama sends more advisers to Syria

Obama’s Former Defense Secretary Upbraids Him over Combat Mission

Obama finally acknowledges troops in combat

Obama, Nobel Peace Laureate, Seals Fate as Wartime President

AMERICAS / CARIBBEAN

Minister Regrets No VAT in Turks and Caicos Islands

TCI elects first female premier

For Independence Sake, Caribbean, Abolish Privy Council

Cuba: Obama Has Landed

Referendum on Equal Rights in The Bahamas Is Unnecessary

Taliban values in paradise. Bahamas votes No

President of highest court affirms my take

Happy (almost) Independence Day, Bahamas

Chauvinistic Impeachment of Brazil’s First Female President, Dilma Rousseff

What the FARC! Colombians Reject Landmark Peace Deal

People reject peace that won Nobel Prize

People be damned; peace will not be denied

Saint Lucia Prime Minister Chastanet Aping Putin by Bullying the Press

Hurricane Matthew

Canada’s Aboriginal Shame—Abides

ASIA

Groundhog Day: North Korea Tests Nukes and World Explodes with Outrage … Again

Another test, more outrage …

Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s Mandela, Is a Religious Bigot Who Condones Ethnic Cleansing?

Suu Kyi becomes de facto leader

Burma’s Rohingya speak of genocidal terror

So Much for The China Model of Economic Growth

Xi doing more to develop his cult than China’s economy

China’s Paper-Tiger Warnings to US about Dalai Lama and South China Sea

International court rejects China’s claims

Alas, Peasant Protests No Germination of

Chinese Spring

China Buying the Global Influence Russia and US Fighting For

China Vows to Crush Hong Kong-Led Confederacy; and It Should

EUROPE

Germany: Muslim Men more Sexual Predators than Asylum Seekers

Migrants still turning Mediterranean Sea into a cemetery

British Inquiry Finds Putin Ordered London Hit. No Sh*t

London Elects Sadiq Khan First Muslim Mayor. Hip, Hip, Hooray!

The Gunpowder Plot

Burkini Laws in France Like Segregation Laws in America

Forget Leaving, Britain a Greater EU Contagion if It Remains

Britain exits, the die is cast

Hey, UK, No (More) Cherry Picking for You!

Brexit leaders turn on themselves

Britain’s Iron Lady 2.0

Theresa Maybe?

UNITED STATES

Observing MLK Day

Obama Delivers Final State of the Union Address. Thank God!

Observing Presidents’ Day

Obama Presents Consensus Supreme Court Nominee, Merrick Garland

Obama played it straight only to have Republicans play him

Prosecutor Patronizing Prostitutes He Prosecuted

Tubman, Truth, and MLK on Currency Is Fine. But What about Douglas? And Remember Geronimo?

Court Docs Reveal Coach Paterno Knew for Decades Sandusky Was Raping Boys

EpiPen Price Gouging Is Just Hallowed Capitalism at Its Best … or Worst

Hail to the Chief: Obama Halts North Dakota Access Pipeline on Native Lands

Access denied at Standing Rock

9/11: It’s Been 15 Years. Time to Move On

Alton Sterling Latest Black Man Shot Dead … while (or for?) Resisting Arrest

Five Policemen Murdered: America Beware the Dallas Effect

A lone wolf?

Police chief seconds my admonition

Police Shootings of Black Men Trigger Violent Street Protests … Again

Evangelicals Supporting Donald Trump like Israelites Worshipping Golden Calf

(Some) Evangelicals come to their senses

Christian students chastise president of Christian university

New Hampshire Primary Proved One-Third of Republicans Are Gullible Fools

Hillary Is a Lesbian?

Pope Implies Jewish Bernie more Christian than Christian Trump

Bernie and the pope call for moral economy

Republicans Trying to Kill the Trumpenstein Monster They Created

I Can’t Hear, or See, or Say that Name [TRUMP] Without Spitting

Trump brand becoming toxic

Trump and Cruz In Catfight Over Whose Wife Is Hotter or More Respectable

Humping Trump Exposes News Anchormen as Worse than Used Car Salesmen

Hackers Leak Trump’s Tax Returns?

October surprise: NY Times publishes (one year of) Trump’s tax returns

Dude I Feel the Bern Too. But …

Republicans Bewailing Trump As Their Nominee; Democrats Hailing Hillary As Theirs

Hey, Bernie And Jeremy, Get Lost Already!

WTF: Bill Clinton Meets Privately with Attorney General Loretta Lynch

Backlash and recusal

FBI Gives Hillary Tongue Lashing but Recommends No Charges

The NY Times Is Wrong To Say Trump Is Right About Ginsburg

The justice regrets

A Rant about Stupid Voters re Grexit, Brexit, the NRA, and Trump

Polls show Americans are too stupid poll on any critical issue

Trump’s Law and Order Doublespeak Has RNC Raving and Roiling

Anti-Trump Quote of the Year re Nude Trump Statue

Forget the Clinton Foundation. Shut Down the Trump Organization!

Trump Foundation is a shell charity

Detroit Bishop and South Carolina Pastor Latest Evangelicals to Abandon Values at Altar of Trump

Ignore the Polls. Hillary Will Win in Wave Election …

Hillary and Trump Should Have a Military Doctor Perform Physicals

WTF! Obama Says It Would Be a Personal Insult If Blacks Don’t Vote for Hillary

Presidential Debate: Hailing the Dumbing Down of America

Hillary won. Duh

N-Word Not P-Word Taboo During Clinton-Trump Debate

Trump’s growing Bill-Cosby problem

Trump Channels Lincoln at Gettysburg in Most Trumpian Way:

October Surprise: FBI Reopens Email Investigation

Hey, FBI, scavenging Hillary’s e-mails is no way to disrupt terrorist plots

FBI repeats: no reasonable prosecutor would even file charges

WTF! President-elect Donald J. Trump?! America. What. Have. You. Done.

Congratulations, Madam President! (If Hillary Had Won …)

Why Hillary Lost …

UnLike Facebook for Facilitating Trump’s Post-Truth Run to the White House

The Issue Is Not Whether Russia Affected the Outcome

Obama strikes back; Putin retreats

THE GLOBALSPHERE

Financial Times: Davos World Economic Forum Is Moronic, Silly, Empty

Higgs Boson. Gravitational Waves. HIV/AIDS? Zika Virus?

Catholic Bishops Living Like Princes, the Pope Like a Pauper

UN Peacekeepers like Foxes Guarding Henhouse

International Criminal Court Is Neocolonial, Imperious and Incompetent. Abolish It!

Russia withdraws from ICC to avoid (nuisance) prosecution

UN Exposes Wahhabi Saudis as Extortionists

Real Captain Piccard Flies Like No Man Has Flown Before

Obama’s UN Farewell

Backlash against (Liberal) Women Leaders

South Korea’s Park impeached

Backlash ensnares female IMF head Lagarde

World AIDS Day

Referendums Abdicate Duty to Govern in Representative Democracies

Terrorists Terrorizing: Brussels Follows Paris, San Bernardino, et al.

Under the Gun Appeals to Common Sense of NRA Members. Good Luck with That!

Now filmmakers under the gun

Orlando Gay Club—Scene of Latest Terrorist Attack

FBI director to media: stop glorifying terrorists

Carnage in Nice: France Attacked … Again

Groundhog-Day Killing of Yet Another Terrorist Leader? Please, Spare Us.

WikiLeaker Julian Assange Making News Again. Duh

Hey media, Assange is still a self-promoting, bail-jumping rape suspect!

It should be treason for US media to abet Russian hackers

US government fingers Russia and WikiLeaks

More tabloid peddler than transparency crusader

Apple Defends iPhones as Safe Haven for

Terrorists to Plot

US government: Apple helping China, Why not us?

Leaked Panama Papers Affirm more than Reveal Offshore Banking Secrets

Congress: Snowden’s a Liar and a Traitor Who Should Never Be Pardoned

Post says No pardon for Edward Snowden

SPORTS

Maria Sharapova Just Latest Superstar Athlete Caught Using PEDs

Suspended

Partial victory

WTF: Tennis Boss Says Women Players Should Get on Their Knees?

Djokovic gives backhanded apology

Jordan Spieth, Post-Tiger It Boy, Has Epic Meltdown at Masters

The Invictus Games

Media’s crippling coverage of Rio Paralympics

NBA Finals: LeBron Delivers on His Promise Cleveland, Finally

Cubs Win! Cubs Win! Cubs Win!

Women Soccer Players in Match of Their Lives

Terminal Humiliation of MMA Golden Goose, Rhonda Rousey

NFL Conference Championship Sunday: Hail, Broncos! Hail, Panthers!

Broncos Tame Panthers to Win Super Bowl 50

Peyton Manning Retires

NFL Sacks Brady as Court Reinstates Deflategate Suspension

Appellate Court affirms suspension

Brady finally deflated

Al Jazeera Outed Manning as a Cheater. He Outs Himself as a Coward

NFL returns Manning’s good name; protects its rich brand

Delusional Kaepernick Standing Up by Sitting Down During National Anthem

Kneeling instead of sitting?

Justice Ginsburg affirms my take

Cardale Jones, Ohio’s Superstar QB, Shows Why Colleges Should Pay Student-Athletes

Salaries of college coaches reflect enduring master-slave relationships

March Madness—among the Women Too

Wildcats upset Tar Heels for men’s championship

UConn routs Syracuse for women’s championship

Zika Virus: God Help the Children; Save the Olympics?

Political Chaos Makes Zika least of Pre-Olympic Woes

Track Officials Ban Russians from Rio for Doping

Clarion call to ban all Russians

IOC proves it’s in Putin’s pocket

Withdrawing from Olympics Over Zika a Betrayal of Olympic Spirit and National Pride

The Opening Ceremony

Let the Games Begin!

Days 1-16

Hope Solo fired

Russian doping haunts Games

The exceptional Russian

USA swimmer Ryan Lochte’s Olympian tale of robbery

He lied

Closing Day

Report indicts state-sponsored doping on unprecedented scale

Athletes boycotting more effective than countries sanctioning

IOC president shocked, shocked

The Russians confess

ENTERTAINMENT

#OscarsSoWhite! Duh. But Boycott? Nah

The Oscars: My picks

And the Oscar goes to …

Academy casts new members to blacken Oscars

White Actor Playing Michael Jackson Exploits His Self-Hate

Tyga Dissing Paul McCartney Reflects Farce Grammy Night Has Become

Ovation! Gimmicky Gaga is now singer Joanne

Elvis, Michael, David, Now Prince: How Death Became Them

For LGBTs in North Carolina, Beyoncé Is a Sellout

Hamilton and the Triumph of Hip-Hop

An Open Letter to J.K. Rowling: Please, Just Stop

Jo says it ain’t so … again

Contending for 2017 Grammy Queen: Beyoncé vs. Adele

POTPOURRI

Crappy New Year to Bill and Camille Cosby

Happy St. Patrick’s Day

My Good Friday Sermon

Happy Easter … Monday

Earth Day

Happy Cinco De Mayo

So…

Revealed: Michael Jackson’s Pedophile File

Women Complain Fox News Head, Roger Ailes, Has Dick for Brains

Ailes resigns

Makeup-Free Alicia Keys Star of VMAs

Underground Airlines Is White Privilege Appropriating Black Slavery for Entertainment

Brangelina Divorce: Who or What Will Angie Do Next?

Happy Indigenous People’s Day

Breast Cancer Awareness Month: Beware the Angelina Effect

The Nobel Prize: Dylan No More Worthy than Obama

Dylan disses Nobel Committee … again

Happy Festivus

IN MEMORIAM

David Bowie, Gender-Bending Performing Artist

More popular in death than he ever was in life

Antonin Scalia, Pugnacious Justice of the US Supreme Court

Justice Thomas speaks

CNN’s Toobin changes his tune to sing mine on Scalia

Prince, His Purple Majesty

Mourning Prince, flattering self

Muhammad Ali, Celebrated Boxer and Conscientious Objector

Peter Schaffer, critically acclaimed playwright

Elie Wiesel, Holocaust Survivor and Conscience of the World

Fidel Castro, the World’s Longest Surviving Dictator

Not All Deaths Are Worthy of Tribute

Bibliography: Notes on Source Materials

About the Author

To Harriet,

My swimming coach and mentor,

For giving me the opportunity of a lifetime …

Forty years ago.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to my production and design team for their unfailingly professional and personable support.

One of my pet peeves is finding typos in published books. But I have come to accept that, no matter how keen the editing, there’s no avoiding them. Acclaimed authors like Tom Wolfe, Henry Miller, and Kurt Vonnegut—whose books have the dubious distinction of appearing on the dreaded Corrigenda List of Book Errata—know this all too well. Therefore, please forgive me if you find any typo that makes this book a candidate for that list.

Thanks to my small group of extraordinary friends for their continued interest in my commentaries. Never mind that their support these days amounts to little more than suggesting snarky topics, which I invariably ignore. This is why, in singling out my dear friend Mary Lauture for special thanks, I risk causing no offense. She is easily my most devoted reader.

Thanks to my darling Katherine—whose love, support, and friendship have sustained me in all of my endeavors for the past 31 years. She has a pretty sharp editorial eye too.

Last, but by no means least, thanks to you, my readers. You may be relatively few in number, but you inspire appreciation beyond measure.

Introduction

By any measure, 2016 was an annus horrendus. It speaks volumes that one need only utter words like Aleppo, Brexit, Cubs, ISIS, Prince, Rio, Trump, or Zika to evoke remembrances of one of so many shocking events.

The commentaries in this twelfth volume cover those and all other major events of 2016. I have left them in their original form—as posted on my weblog, The iPINIONS Journal. This not only gives you a better sense of time and place, but also lends authenticity to my thoughts on the unfolding events in real time. But this volume also contains many updates not posted on my weblog. I’d like to think they add value.

As always, I quote extensively from previous commentaries. I do so not just to show how current events vindicate them, but also to distinguish myself from commentators whose opinions seem no more rooted than the trending topic of the day. I use two block quotation styles throughout: shorter quotations are italicized; longer ones (a.k.a. excerpts) are in plain text and set off with lines above and below.

I hope that, for posterity, this volume proves a reliable source for reflection on the most important and noteworthy events of 2016. And I hope these commentaries serve as a provocative, informative, and even entertaining antidote to 140-character tweets, which no less a person than President-elect Donald J. Trump would have you believe constitute informed public debate these days.

-—ALH

January 3, 2017

AFRICA / MIDDLE EAST

Hail, Museveni! Big Dada Wins another Democratic Election in Uganda

February 24

I have been lamenting Uganda’s floundering democracy all my adult life. With respect to elections, here is what I wrote years ago in Where’s the Outrage?! Opposition Leaders Doing Hard Time During Elections, December 30, 2006.

____________________

Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni is no more a democratic pioneer in Africa than Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak is in the Middle East. Yet Western leaders routinely lavish Museveni with praise for his democratic leadership.

In Another Commonwealth Summit on Trade Ends with Imperial Promises but no Guarantees, November 29, 2005, I noted with derision that:

Delegates spent almost as much time defending their decision to allow Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni to host their next summit, as they did spinning the platitudes about trade and good governance contained in their joint Communiqué into something approximating substantive achievement.

Except that their decision was indefensible. Because, only weeks before this summit, Museveni had opposition leader Kizza Besigye arrested on a battery of charges ranging from terrorism to rape. More to the point, these Commonwealth leaders knew full well that Museveni timed Besigye’s arrest to prevent him from running in national elections scheduled for next February.

Yet they not only refused to censure Museveni; they reaffirmed their intent to allow him to host their summit in 2007. The damning irony of treating his re-election as a fait accompli seemed completely lost on them.

So, where’s the outrage?

____________________

Now, again with respect to elections, here is what Al Jazeera reported on Monday:

Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye has been bundled into a van outside his home by police as his supporters planned a march to protest against the results of a presidential election.

The Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party leader had been under heavy police guard since he was placed under house arrest on Saturday, shortly before the election results were announced.

President Yoweri Museveni, who seized power as the leader of a rebellion in 1986, was returned to power with 60.8 percent of the vote. Besigye secured 35.4 percent, according to the electoral commission.

Alas, plus ça change …

Incidentally, I have been lamenting Zimbabwe’s floundering democracy too. The parallels are uncanny. In fact, elections there have seen President Robert Mugabe treat opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai much as Museveni treats Besigye. I bemoaned the despairing dynamics of the former relationship in many commentaries, including World Is ‘Shocked, Shocked’ that Mugabe Had Opposition Leader Beaten and Arrested, March 15, 2007, Mugabe Makes Dictator’s Pitch for Re-election, March 29, 2008, and It’s Hail, Mugabe! Again, August 4, 2013.

In any event, the Obama administration registered pro forma complaints about election irregularities, which included shutting down social media. But there’s no gainsaying that Obama is just as pleased to see Museveni win this rigged election as his predecessors were to see Museveni win previous ones … by any means necessary. Granted, given the chaos that followed democratic revolutions against Hosni Mubarak in Egypt and Muammar Gaddafi in Libya, one can hardly blame him. Obama is still trying to wash blood off the hand he had in overthrowing them, after all. He learned the hard way that, when it comes to Third World dictatorships, it’s better to support the dictator you know than the revolutionaries you don’t.

As it happens, this is a lesson some of us have been trying to teach from day one of the ill-fated Arab Spring:

With all due respect to the protesters, the issue is not whether Mubarak will go, for he will. (The man is 82 and already looks half dead for Christ’s sake!) Rather, the question is: Who will replace him? And it appears they have not given any thought whatsoever to this very critical question.

The devil Egyptians know might prove far preferable to the devil they don’t. Just ask the Iranians who got rid of the Mubarak-like Shah in 1979 only to end up with the Ayatollah—whose Islamic revolution they’ve regretted (and have longed to overturn) ever since.

(Army Pledges No Force Against Protesters, The iPINIONS Journal, February 1, 2011)

Of course, Obama not only abandoned Mubarak but bombed Gaddafi. This is why dictators and potentates across Africa and the Middle East can be forgiven for looking to Russian President Vladimir Putin as a more reliable superpower patron. Not to mention the extent to which Putin is going these days to show why he just might be. Specifically, he’s bombing the hell out of opposition forces in Syria to spare his puppet dictator, Bashir al-Assad of Syria, the fate that befell Mubarak and Gaddafi.

All the same, I’ve become as chastened by political corruption in Africa as I’ve been for years by sectarian strife in the Middle East; not least because political intervention in the former has proved every bit as feckless, if not counterproductive, as military intervention in the latter. This is why I have advocated for benign neglect in such commentaries as Sunnis, Shias, and Kurds Fighting for Control of Iraq. Stay Out, America! June 19, 2014, Demystifying ISIS: the Case against Obama’s Bush-Lite War on Terrorism, September 10, 2014, Fatal Assistance … Oxymoron Intended, February 3, 2015, and Global Fight against ‘Extreme Poverty,’ October 21, 2015.

Accordingly, I reiterate that the United States should leave countries in those regions to their own devices; that is, just as Europe left the United States to its own devices in the decades following independence. Moreover, self-righteous and interventionist Americans would do well to remember that it took a civil war and 100 years of enforcing Apartheid-like laws before America became the America it is today.

It might seem incomprehensible that countries in Africa and the Middle East could emulate the United States in this respect. If left to their own devices, however, I suspect they would establish the means of self-preservation and peaceful coexistence in less than half that time.

Putin’s Bush-Lite Declaration of Mission Accomplished in Syria

March 19

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has abruptly declared that he is withdrawing the majority of Russian troops from Syria, saying the six-month military intervention had largely achieved its objective. … Western diplomatic sources were both sceptical and startled by Putin’s unexpected and mercurial move. …

Putin and US President Barack Obama spoke on the phone on Monday, with the Kremlin saying the two leaders ‘called for an intensification of the process for a political settlement’ to the conflict.

(London Guardian, March 15, 2016)

As it happened, I warned that Vladimir V. Putin’s bombing of Syria smacked of the same kind of vaingloriousness that characterized George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq. More to the point, in Bombing ISIS Smacks of Masturbatory Violence, November 18, 2015, I explained why Putin’s bombing would prove every bit as feckless as Bush’s invasion.

____________________

Hailing Putin’s bombing as ‘shock and awe … on steroids’ ignores that it took hundreds of thousands of troops invading (not hundreds of jets bombing) for Bush to win his pyrrhic victory in Iraq. …

Criticizing Obama for having little to show after bombing [Syria] for over a year ignores that he deems it as unconscionable as it is counterproductive to get off on killing thousands of women and children in a vain attempt to kill a few ISIS combatants. …

Staking out safe zones in Syria and Iraq will stem the flow of refugees into Europe. It will also provide a base from which Western ground forces can launch strategic incursions to kill ISIS leaders and enemy ombatants, not hapless Syrians unable to flee. Russia … should join forces with the United States and its coalition partners to implement this strategy.

All else is folly.

____________________

No doubt it’s inconvenient now for Western pundits to recall how virtually every one of them hailed Putin when he launched his bombing campaign. In fact, conservatives seemed to relish propagating the narrative about Putin outmaneuvering Obama, making a mockery of the unchallenged superpower influence US presidents have wielded the Middle East for over 50 years.

Tonight Charles Krauthammer said Russian President Vladimir Putin is directly targeting American allies in Syria and the Obama Administration is giving him a green light. ‘It’s one thing to be humiliated,’ Krauthammer said on Wednesday’s Special Report on Fox News. ‘It’s another thing to have that demonstrated to the world when our allies are looking at us and wondering who’s in charge here.’

(National Review, September 30, 2015)

Of course, these pundits would be hard-pressed to explain what salutary objective Putin achieved with his six-month bombing campaign. For, as Krauthammer himself unwittingly conceded, he killed more innocent civilians than ISIS terrorists. This, despite Putin vowing from the outset to defeat ISIS.

Rights groups and observers lay bare human cost of Moscow’s campaign as Putin declares military drawdown. …

Russian airstrikes in Syria have killed about 2,000 civilians in six months of attacks on markets, hospitals, schools, and homes, rights groups and observers say, warning that plans for a military drawdown may not mean an end to the deaths.

Moscow has insisted it carried out only surgical strikes on ‘terrorists,’ but victims and fighters say bombers strayed well behind frontlines in areas far from strongholds of Islamic State or al-Qaida fighters.

(London Guardian, March 15, 2016)

Frankly, nothing betrayed Putin’s vainglorious intent (no matter the human cost) quite like his propaganda about deploying 150,000 Russian troops to wipe out the evil Islamic state. Western media bought this hook, line, and sinker—as evidenced by this headline in the December 18, 2015, edition of the London Express:

End of ISIS? Russian bombs leave terrorists on the ‘brink of DEFEAT.’

Unsurprisingly, Putin never deployed those troops and ISIS remains as powerful today, if not more so. What’s more, if he ever follows through on his threat to resume his orgy of bombing, within hours if necessary, he would only be aping Bush’s heralded surge of troops back into Iraq, which did nothing but wreak more death and destruction. In other words, for all of his bluster and bombast, Putin has ended up in Syria right where Obama has been stuck for years; namely, trying to negotiate a political settlement between government and anti-government forces. Which of course holds about as much promise as negotiating a political settlement between Israelis and Palestinians.

But clearly, unlike Western diplomats and pundits alike, I was neither skeptical nor startled by Putin’s abrupt withdrawal. Not least because it merely vindicated my commentary, Russia Flexing Military: more Regional Bully than Global Superpower, March 19, 2015, which includes this prescient observation:

The only issue I have with Putin’s military exercises is that he’s using them to extract economic concessions from the West. …

Far from making Russia look strong, these maneuvers only make it look as feckless as Putin is reckless. It might be an unwitting demonstration of his intent to use desperate military threats to extract sanctions relief that he invited North Korea’s boy leader, Kim Jong-un, to make the first foreign trip of his reign to Russia.

This is why I am encouraged that no less a publication than the Economist is now seconding my observation. For here, in part, is what it published in a commentary that is uncanny—as much for its title, A hollow superpower, as for its date, March 19, 2016 (coming one year to date after my Russia as regional bully commentary):

Judging by the pictures on television, Vladimir Putin won a famous victory in Syria this week. … Look closer, however, and Russia’s victory rings hollow. Islamic State (IS) remains. …

As our briefing explains, Russia’s president has generated stirring images of war to persuade his anxious citizens that their ailing country is once again a great power, first in Ukraine and recently over the skies of Aleppo. The big question for the West is where he will stage his next drama.

Flexing muscles. Staging drama. That’s the Putin doctrine in a nutshell.

Enough said?

RELATED

Truth about viral image of (another) Syrian boy

August 24

A boy, covered in blood and in obvious shock, became the image of the war in Syria last week. It sent shock waves around the world, evoking conscience-stricken calls for the international community to act now to prevent a recurrence.

The media abandoned all pretense of objectivity as it validated this reaction. On Monday’s edition of the NBC Nightly News, for example, anchor Lester Holt reported that it took this image to open the eyes of the world to the horrors of Syria’s five-year war. Except that the Groundhog-Day spectre of this image belies the authoritative reporting, betrays the heartrending outrage, and befuddles the clarion calls. After all, a boy, drowned at sea and washed ashore, became the image of the war in Syria last year. It too sent shock waves around the world, evoking similar calls. Remember that?

Hence this fleeting truth: this latest image shows that, despite the shock waves and outrage, those calls for action have gone unanswered. Which is why it’s only with forlorn hope that one can believe these calls won’t go unanswered too.

Meanwhile, thousands of Syrians—who have suffered, and are suffering, similar fates—are conspicuously absent from far too much of the reporting on and reaction to these two heartrending images. But I hasten to clarify that the Syrian boy who drowned was not even fleeing Syria. He was fleeing Turkey. Therefore, he had more in common with countless African migrants who also drowned in the Mediterranean Sea than with the Syrian boy who survived that bombing … in Syria.

Which brings me to this discriminating truth: all of the reporting on Syria’s children of war highlights the media’s failure to report (as widely and with equal urgency) on the children of war in countries across the African continent.

Most notable in this respect is the D. R. Congo’s children of genocide, which my stricken conscience compelled me to comment on in D. R. Congo’s Heart of Darkness Get Even Darker, December 4, 2012. This country alone has seen 5.4 million killed and 2.6 million displaced since 1996; whereas, according to the UN Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Syria has seen 250,000 killed and 6.5 million displaced (and 4.8 million migrate) since 2011. Hundreds of thousands of Congolese boys and girls have been abducted, raped, and conscripted. And, regarding conscription, the D. R. Congo’s child soldiers have become notorious for perpetrating acts of terror and unspeakable horror against their own people, including family members.

Clearly, these tortured and slaughtered children could have provided heartrending images of the horrors of war and survival for headline news every day for the past 20 years. Yet you’d be hard-pressed to recall ever seeing a single one. What’s more, the children of war in countries like Mali, Nigeria, Central African Republic, and South Sudan could provide the same today. Not to mention those in countries like Iraq and Afghanistan. But I digress …

Except that, for more on displaced Africans emulating displaced Syrians (or vice versa) by fleeing to Europe, I refer you to Lampedusa Tragedy Highlights Europe’s ‘Haitian’ Problem, October 7, 2013, and Migrants Still Turning Mediterranean Sea into a Cemetery, June 1, 2016.

That said, the war in Syria now seems every bit as chronic as privation in Africa; specifically, the conditions that compel migrants to flee, respectively, show no signs of ebbing. In fact, nothing ensures those conditions will only worsen quite like Russia bombing Syria to defend President Bashir al-Assad, the United States bombing Syria to defend opposition forces, Turkey bombing Syria to destroy so-called Kurdish terrorists, and Russia, the United States, and Turkey bombing Syria to destroy ISIS. Got that?

Apropos of this babel of bombing, aerial shots of this war-ravaged country show why Mother Nature, with earthquakes like the ones that struck in Italy and Myanmar today, has nothing on mankind when it comes wreaking senseless death and utter destruction…. Human rights groups are pleading for a temporary cessation of hostilities to enable humanitarian relief. But the bombings have become so inexorable and unwieldy that thinking humanitarian relief will save Syrian children is rather like thinking bailing water would’ve saved the Titanic.

As I argued in my March 19 commentary, Syria is a hopeless cause if the United States refuses to lead a coalition of the willing to enforce a safe zone—in Syria. At the very least, a safe zone would stem the tide of Syrians migrating to Europe and might even encourage many of them to return home, if they’re not forcibly repatriated. Not to mention that, besides all of the humanitarian benefits, if Obama had chosen from the outset to enforce a safe zone, he would not be repeating the same mistakes in Syria today (masquerading as a fight against ISIS) that he claims he regrets making in Libya. Of course, he pursued regime change/nation building in Libya only to suffer the same kinds of all too foreseeable pitfalls his predecessor suffered in Iraq.

I also predicted in Bombing ISIS Smacks of Masturbatory Violence, November 18, 2015, that the highly touted Russian intervention would do no more to resolve the Alawite-Sunni-ISIS conflict in Syria than American intervention has done to resolve the Shia-Sunni-Kurd conflict in Iraq. Sure enough, here we are.

Frankly, I have bemoaned these foreign follies in far too many commentaries, including Europe’s Migration Crisis: Sowing Seeds of Unintended but all too Foreseeable Consequences, September 7, 2015. I have also duly noted that enforcing safe zones applies as much to war-ravaged countries in Africa as to those in the Middle East.

Again, all else is folly.

Alas, Syrian ceasefire no. 44 will fare no better

September 10

I explained why no peace is at hand in the commentaries above. But see also US and Russia Strike Deal to Avert US Bombing Syria … for Now, September 16, 2013, and Bombing ISIS Smacks of Masturbatory Violence, November 18, 2015.

Yet here they go again, like a husband assuring his battered wife that the beating will stop:

The US and Russia announced on Friday that they had agreed to impose a ceasefire in Syria and, should it hold, to coordinate military operations against terrorist groups in the country.

The agreement was reached after marathon talks in Geneva led by [John Kerry, the US secretary of state] and Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, and announced in a joint news conference.

Mr Kerry said the truce would begin on Monday, to coincide with the Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr, and that he hoped it would lead to talks to ultimately ‘end the conflict’.

(London Telegraph, September 9, 2016)

Yeah, good luck with that.

UPDATE

Ceasefire ends with barrel bombs

September 19

Syria’s military declared the end of a nationwide ceasefire Monday, blaming rebel groups for violating the truce and dealing a blow to US and Russian efforts to halt the bloodshed.

Government forces immediately began shelling the rebel-held part of Aleppo, which has been under siege for more than a month. Airstrikes and barrel bombs pummeled the city, and activists said an aid convoy in the nearby countryside was also hit.

(Washington Post, September 19, 2016)

Russia finally speaking more Pravda than propaganda

December 21

President Obama insisted—from the outset of the Syrian Civil War in 2011—that it made no sense for the United States to go all in because there could be no military solution. No doubt he was mindful that the underlying sectarian conflict that gave rise to it had already bedeviled US efforts, for over a decade, to rebuild Iraq.

But everyone—from congressional Republicans to European allies, from Jewish leaders to Arab leaders—criticized him for showing weakness. They even ridiculed him as the leader of the free world who prefers to, lead from behind.

Then, when President Putin committed Russia to go all in last September, every one of Obama’s critics hailed Putin for showing strength. They even suggested that he was demonstrating the kind of leadership expected of the leader of the free world.

By contrast, I warned that Putin’s bombing of Syria smacked of the same kind of vaingloriousness that characterized former President George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq. More to the point, in Bombing ISIS Smacks of Masturbatory Violence, November 18, 2015, I explained why Putin’s bombing would prove every bit as feckless as Bush’s invasion. I noted in this commentary—excerpted at March 19 above—that Obama deemed it as unconscionable as it is counterproductive to get off on killing thousands of women and children.

Unsurprisingly, Obama’s bombing of Syria had limited effect, especially as ISIS fighters routinely hid in densely populated neighborhoods, using women and children as human shields. Sadly, unlike Obama, Putin does not deem it either unconscionable or counterproductive to get off on killing tens of thousands of women and children. Only that explains this:

Russian and Syrian government forces appear to have deliberately and systematically targeted hospitals and other medical facilities over the last three months to pave the way for ground forces to advance on northern Aleppo, an examination of airstrikes by Amnesty International has found. …

Hospitals in opposition-controlled areas around Aleppo became a primary target for the Russian and Syrian government forces. This eliminated a vital lifeline for the civilians living in those embattled areas, leaving them no choice but to flee.

(Amnesty International, March 3, 2016)

Meanwhile, given reports this week about the fall of Aleppo, you’d be forgiven for thinking that, unlike Bush with respect to Iraq, Putin has just cause to declare mission accomplished in Syria. Except that conspicuously absent from far too many of those reports is that rebels still control wide swathes of Syria. In fact, nothing betrays the military quagmire Putin has gotten Russia into quite like this:

ISIS fighters have recaptured the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra, despite coming under heavy bombardment by Russian air strikes as they fought to retake the Unesco World Heritage site.

The militants’ success in seizing Palmyra after being forced out of the city in March underlines the limits air power has against the group and the challenges faced by President Bashar al-Assad and his allies in fighting a multi-sided civil war.

(Financial Times, December 12, 2016)

In other words, Russia is now mired in Syria, engaged in the same kind of military whack-a-mole that has kept the United States mired in Iraq for the past 13 years. Which is why Obama can be forgiven for saying, I told you so. Not least because Putin is parroting today what Obama was saying five years ago.

Russia is firmly convinced that there is no military solution to the Syrian conflict and is ready to cooperate with the United States and other Western countries on the crisis settlement, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov said on Tuesday.

(Sputnik News, October 11, 2016)

Except that Putin is pressing for a political solution that Obama realized from the outset is a non-starter. After all, the reason members of the opposition took up arms in the first place is that they believe Assad’s brutal crackdown, when the Arab Spring came to Syria, forfeited his right to govern, irredeemably. This, you may recall, is why Obama famously declared, Assad must go.

Hence this all too predictable irony: Putin’s mission in Syria now depends on him endorsing Obama’s declaration for Assad to go. After all, pressing Assad to accept a coalition government that would include members of the opposition makes about as much sense as pressing ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to sign a peace deal with the United States.

Incidentally, the same principle applies to Russia, Turkey, and Iran meeting in Moscow yesterday to broker a peace deal and discuss the future of Syria—as Reuters reported with no hint of irony. After all, this is rather like France, Britain, and Spain meeting in London in 1863, while the American Civil War was still raging, to broker a peace deal and discuss the future of the United States. But really, it seems the very definition of folly for the foreign powers fighting proxy wars in Syria to be brokering a peace deal. Especially given that they have proven time and again incapable of even brokering a temporary ceasefire—as I duly ridiculed in Alas, Syrian Ceasefire No. 44 Will Fare No Better, September 10, 2016.

#BringBackOurGirls Lost in Dustbin of Public Consciousness

April 18

Thursday marked the second anniversary of the kidnapping of nearly 300 schoolgirls in Chibok, Nigeria, by the Islamic terrorist group, Boko Haram.

This kidnapping incited universal outrage. Never mind that this outrage manifested in little more than people—most notably celebrities like Rihanna, Madonna, and Michelle Obama—posting #BringBackOurGirls on their social media pages. Yet you’d be hard-pressed to find any mention of these girls on those pages since then. Which is why it’s hardly surprising that this tragic anniversary passed for so many as if the Chibok girls never entered public consciousness.

Mind you, Boko Haram kidnapped many more schoolchildren (i.e., girls and boys) with nary a mention in mainstream or social media. In fact, having killed 20,000 and displaced 2.8 million across five regional countries, its unrelenting reign of terror is now preventing over 1 million Nigerian children from going to school: On the one hand, parents are too afraid Boko Haram might kidnap them; on the other hand, the Nigerian military has commandeered their schools to repurpose for the fight against these Islamic terrorists. Unfortunately, the latter is resulting in more illiterate, traumatized kids now lying in wait to continue Nigeria’s never-ending conflicts for another generation.

Meanwhile, that this anniversary garnered so little media coverage reflects not only the fecklessness of this fight, but also the disinterest in the schoolgirls’ plight. Indeed, it speaks volumes that the media marked it primarily by sharing the forlorn pleas of Chibok mothers—who are still wailing and wondering about the fate of their daughters. Sadly, we now know they were doomed from the night they were kidnapped:

Boko Haram is forcing and duping young women into suicide missions for refusing to ‘marry’ members of the West African Islamist militant group, according to reports. …

‘It is unbelievable that two years after the worldwide solidarity movement for the Chibok girls, Unicef is still struggling to collect less that 12 per cent of the funding we need to provide emergency assistance to 1.3 million children displaced by Boko Haram,’ [said Laurent Duvillier, Unicef spokesperson for West and Central Africa].

(London Independent, April 14, 2016)

I waited to mark this second anniversary to see if those in the vanguard of the #BringBackOurGirls campaign would belie my cynicism about the fleeting nature of their viral outrage. They did not.

In fact, there is nothing new about the unbelievable lack of interest that Unicef spokesperson is complaining about today. For it was already such that I marked the first anniversary—in Remembering the Chibok Girls (and Boys), April 17, 2015—as follows.

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Here is how I pooh-poohed the self-flattering, self-serving and self-delusional hashtag posts it generated:

Remember when the #StopKony2012 viral campaign made expressing concern for the ‘invisible children’ the LRA kidnapped an article of our shared humanity? …

Yet Kony and his child soldiers remain as menacing today as they were back then.

Therefore, I hope folks bear this in mind; that is, if they aren’t too busy tweeting about the outrage du jour to wonder about the real-world impact of the ‘#BringBackOurGirls2014’ viral campaign.

(Alas, Kidnapping Schoolgirls Is the Least of African Crimes against Humanity, The iPINIONS Journal, May 7, 2014)

I shan’t bore you with the sectarian and geopolitical reasons Nigerian authorities have failed to rescue them. To say nothing of the dispiriting fact that Boko Haram terrorists have kidnapped hundreds more since then; or that they have kidnapped almost as many boys.

The point now is that these rampaging Islamic terrorists are brazenly defying all boots-on-the-ground efforts to stop them, making a mockery of patently feckless protests on social-media.

I am often accused of being too cynical. But my accusers can never cite a single case where my cynicism proved unwarranted.

Moreover, as I found with my friends, you’d be hard-pressed to find a single person, who tweeted #BringBackOurGirls, who can show that her concern for them extended beyond that tweet.

___________________

There’s clearly no vindication in being so right about hashtag protests in this case. It’s just that I was informed enough to know they would do nothing to help. Indeed, I am all too mindful that other terrorist groups (like Al Shabaab and Lords Resistance Army) are terrorizing just as many innocent children across Africa. Not to mention the millions of others who seem fated to lives of chronic strife in war-plagued countries like Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan. I bemoaned the latter most recently in Millions in South Sudan Eating Leaves and Grass … Like Cows, October 29, 2015; and the former years ago in Genocide in DR Congo: Rwanda with a Vengeance, April 6, 2006, which includes this ominous observation—complete with the plea to no avail that has informed my cynicism ever since:

In the fertile killing fields of the DR Congo even children must kill or be killed. …

I appreciate our despairing powerlessness to help these Congolese victims directly. But we can flood our governments with cries of concern and demand action from them in the name of our shared humanity. Therefore, I urge you to contact your government officials and beg them to give this festering human catastrophe the attention it warrants!

According to the NGO International Rescue Committee (at rescue.org), 5.4 million people have died since 1998. This explains why, in its edition on December 12, 2012, the New York Times described the conflict in the DR Congo as The World’s Worst War. Government and rebel forces signed a truce in mid-2013, but vast areas are still veritable war zones.

The point is that media reports or mentions about the killing of so many children in the DR Congo were few and far between. Alas, civil conflicts, including rape as a weapon of war, have become so commonplace in Africa they don’t even incite viral outrage.

That said, decades of futility and fecklessness have demonstrated that Western intervention would prove no more helpful than hashtag protests. Frankly, the record of America’s intervention in the Middle East over the past decade is such that intervening in Africa would be tantamount to jumping from the frying pan into the fire. Therefore, no matter how heartrending this latest scourge, former Western patrons would do well, for all concerned, to leave Nigeria and the other countries affected to their own devices.

African Solutions to African Problems is gaining currency as the new motto for African self-reliance. Cynics argue that this is just a Madison Avenue ploy to solicit more Western aid for the money pit Africa has become. But, if ever there were a cause to prove the cynics wrong, bringing back the Chibok girls is it. And, given the growing number of lost girls and boys Boko Haram is leaving in its wake, it behooves Africans to do so … ASAP.

God help them.

UPDATE

A few escaped; a few released

January 5, 2017

Soldiers interrogating captured Boko Haram suspects have found one of the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapped by the insurgents nearly three years ago, along with her baby, Nigeria’s military said Thursday. … Most of the girls remain in captivity. …

In May, one Chibok girl escaped; in October, the government negotiated the release of 21 more.

(ABC News, January 5, 2017)

Turkey: Bungled Coup Fails. Grave Purge Begins

July 16

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan landed at Istanbul’s Ataturk airport Saturday morning and declared the attempted coup against his government to be a failure, but also a ‘gift from God.’ …

He vowed to ‘clean up’ the armed forces and ‘eradicate’ those who had operated aerial forces against his government. As of Saturday morning, nearly 3,000 people have been rounded up, ranging from foot soldiers to senior officers, Reuters reported.

(Huffington World Post, July 16, 2016)

According to the Turkish prime minister, 161 people (including 20 coup plotters) are dead, 1,440 injured. He failed to mention, however, that thousands of judges and other civil servants—who clearly had nothing to do with this coup—have been either suspended or arrested.

When news of it broke yesterday, you’d have been hard-pressed to find a single commentator condemning this coup, especially early on when it seemed a fait accompli. They rationalized it as due comeuppance for the democratically elected Erdogan—who they claimed was ruling Turkey more like a sultan than a president. They also cited his fraternization with Islamists as evidence of his betrayal of the global fight against ISIS and its eschatological ideology, and his Islamization of Turkey’s secular culture to make it more like Saudi Arabia’s. Truth be told, almost every criticism ever hurled at him is true. But none of it justifies a coup.

Ironically, Erdogan gave credence to claims that he is a paranoid conspiracy zealot—who is unfit to lead—when he immediately blamed Fethullah Gulen for masterminding this coup. Gulen is a progressive Turkish cleric and former Erdogan ally who is now living in exile in Pennsylvania. He categorically denies any involvement in or knowledge of this coup attempt. But Erdogan’s fixation on settling scores, no matter how irrational, explains why so many Turks took to the streets to defend democracy, not to support him. Except that, if they thought he was a dictator in democratic garb before, they have just emboldened him to reveal his true colors—with all of the repression of civil liberties that portends.

But what I found most interesting was the way the 2013 military coup in Egypt figured so prominently in the expert commentary. In fact, as I listened to commentators criticize Turkish President Erdogan for provoking this coup, I got the sense they were reading from transcripts of commentators criticizing Egyptian President Morsi for provoking that coup. The only saving grace for the United States came when President Obama issued a belated statement calling on the Turkish people to support their democratically elected government. Never mind that he hedged his bets by carefully avoiding any mention of support for Erdogan himself. No doubt, if the coup succeeded, he would have hailed the military for fulfilling the democratic will of the people; you know, like the military did in Egypt.

By contrast, my immediate denunciation of the Turkish coup plotters was surpassed only by my excoriation of these commentators: I ridiculed the former as misguided and inept for failing to execute the first stage of any military coup, namely, arresting the leader; and decried the latter as shortsighted and hypocritical for making a mockery of universal democratic values. Above all, though, I could not help thinking of this coup attempt as Obama’s tacit support for the coup in Egypt coming home to roost. Here’s why:

Obama is effectively calling on the Egyptian military to guarantee the protesters’ democratic aspirations. Ironically, he and other Western leaders seem to believe that the best way to transition from Mubarak’s dictatorship to democracy is by installing a de facto military dictatorship.

The problem, however, is that in almost every case where this strategy has been deployed (e.g., in Pakistan and Burma) the military ends up overstaying its welcome … by years, if not decades.

(Crisis in Egypt: the End Game, The iPINIONS Journal, February 4, 2011)

Sure enough, the post-Mubarak fallout in Egypt has developed exactly as I feared. I lamented each step in such commentaries as Egyptians Continue March Back to the Future, December 20, 2013, Egypt’s Arab Spring Spawns Brutal Military Dictatorship, March 25, 2014, and Egypt Sentences Morsi to Death; Exposes Fecklessness of US Middle East Policy, May 20, 2015.

In fact, Egypt is more of a dictatorship today than it ever was under Mubarak. Yet its relationship with the United States is as good as it has ever been. This, despite Egypt’s democratically elected president now withering away in prison under a death sentence.

This is why these Turkish coup plotters could be forgiven for thinking that, if they were as successful as their Egyptian counterparts, it would only have been a matter of time before the United States embraced them too. This, even if Turkey’s democratically elected president were then withering away in prison under a death sentence … too.

Good luck, Turkey! Your struggle for democracy is far from over.

UPDATE

State of emergency

July 23

Turkey’s parliament backed emergency measures Thursday giving authorities broad powers to pursue alleged supporters of a failed coup, even as the government said it has rounded up nearly 10,000 people since the attempted military takeover. …

The strengthened hand for authorities—with tens of thousands of others under scrutiny or suspended from their jobs—came amid further signals of more crackdowns to come. …

[President Recep Tayyip Erdogan] described a ‘virus’ within the Turkish military and state institutions that had spread like ‘cancer.’

(Washington Post, July 21, 2016)

In other words, Erdogan has unleashed his inner Dr. Frankenstein to excise this cancer. Prognosis? Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Ominously, Erdogan withdrew Turkey from the European convention on human rights this week; no doubt telegraphing his intent as much as preempting squeamish complaints about abuses of human rights and civil liberties. Not to mention the hypocrisy in Erdogan now censoring or shutting down the very mainstream and social-media platforms that enabled him to summon flash mobs to thwart tanks in the streets, which clearly saved his ass.

NOTE: Erdogan’s NATO ally, Barack Obama, is being conspicuously silent. This, despite the clear and present danger of Erdogan turning Turkey’s democracy into a dictatorship. Whereas his putative mentor, Vladimir Putin, is being conspicuously supportive. This, because he knows that, if Erdogan can get away with doing so in Turkey, he surely can in Russia—if any group dares try to mount a coup.

The Gambia’s Jammeh Using Military Force after Losing Democratic Election

December 14

Yahya Jammeh, the autocratic ruler of The Gambia, has moved to resist his presidential election defeat, sending armed soldiers to take control of the electoral commission headquarters and filing a petition to the supreme court as a delegation of African leaders urged him to stand down. …

Making up the most important delegation ever to descend on The Gambia, the presidents of Nigeria, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Ghana flew in on Tuesday to meet Jammeh, who has ruled an increasingly isolated nation for 22 years and last week vowed to stay on despite losing the presidential election.

Asked if Jammeh had been receptive after their hour-long closed-doors meeting, the Liberian president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, said that no deal had been reached.

(London Guardian, December 13, 2016)

Alas, Jammeh is just the latest African despot attempting to hold on to power by force. In fact, here is how I bemoaned this lingering pathology in Africa’s Democratic Despots Now Includes Gbagbo of Ivory Coast, December 15, 2010.

_____________

African leaders once personified unbridled despotism. Now they’re personifying the growing spectacle of leaders refusing to give up power after losing free and fair elections; hence their oxymoronic designation: democratic despots.

This has led to an untenable new norm developing on the Continent, where opposition leaders—who win clear and convincing elections—are being forced to either enter into shotgun marriages (i.e., coalition governments) with sore losers or lead civil wars to oust them by force. …

Now it seems that President Laurent Gbagbo of Ivory Coast is determined to follow suit. Because, like Kibaki and Mugabe and their respective ruling parties, Gbagbo and his ruling party have summarily invalidated election results that gave opposition leader Alassane Ouattara a 10-point victory in last month’s presidential election.

Also, like Kibaki and Mugabe, Gbagbo has given the finger to patently feckless international demands—most notably from United Nations, France, the United States, the European Union, the African Union and regional bloc ECOWAS—for him to step down.

_____________

It eventually took military force to remove Gbagbo. I fear it will take the same to remove Jammeh. In fact, I’m willing to bet that it’s only a matter of time before Jammeh ends up either like Gbagbo, in The Hague rotting away in jail, or like Laurent Kabila of the Congo, dead. They never learn.

As it happened, no less a person than President Obama bemoaned the persistence of this Big Dada pathology during his last state visit to Africa:

Africa’s democratic progress is also at risk when leaders refuse to step aside when their terms end. … I don’t understand why people want to stay so long … especially when they’ve got a lot of money. …

You look at Nelson Mandela—Madiba, like George Washington, forged a lasting legacy not only because of what they did in office, but because they were willing to leave office and transfer power peacefully.

(WhiteHouse.org, July 28, 2015)

And, as it happened, I provided a little preemptive insight for Obama in Ukraine’s Orange Revolution Turns ‘Red,’ February 25, 2014. And, yes, I used a notorious white despot to counter the prevailing view that only African leaders seek to hold on to power by hook or by crook these days.

__________________

It would make a mockery of the Cold-War principles he governs by if Putin allows these Ukrainian revolutionaries to put his puppet Yanukovych on trial—the way Egyptian revolutionaries are doing with their former leaders Hosni Mubarak and Mohamed Morsi; or worse, if he allows them to execute Yanukovych in the streets like