I.O.W.A.

International Order of Wily Asians

BIG meeting today in Beirut. Trying to prevent the collapse of Lebanon and possibly WWIII.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/LG31Ak02.html

US media are notably uninformative about the whole situation.

The US is currently throwing stones at China, while Germany takes a different approach.

from WaPo:
"The Obama administration has adopted a tougher tone with China in recent weeks. . . .The United States unveiled a new policy that rejected China's claims to sovereignty over the whole South China Sea. It rebuffed Chinese demands that the U.S. military end its longtime policy of conducting military exercises in the Yellow Sea. And it is putting new pressure on Beijing not to increase its energy investments in Iran as Western firms leave.

"The U.S. maneuvers have prompted a backlash among Chinese officialdom and its state-run press, which has accused the United States of trying to contain China." (end WaPo extract)

Germany is taking a different tack. German Chancellor Angela Merkel made a recent four-day visit to China, a move widely expected to boost the countries' bilateral economic ties and political interactions. The fourth visit of Merkel to China since she took office in 2005 is part of the high-level interactions boosting the bilateral ties. Nearly half of Germany’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is exported, so developing relations with Asia is a major German goal.

In the course of its visit to China, the German delegation secured billions of euros in new contracts for leading German corporations: Daimler Benz, Siemens, BASF, and Volkswagen.

Also, Chinese premier Wen Jiabao emphasized that China would continue its financial support for the euro. After the June meeting of G20 finance ministers in Busan, South Korea, China bought up large quantities of Spanish bonds. The London-based Financial Times commented, “During most of the past 20 years, Europeans have assumed the US is the key source of power in global finance. However, the Busan episode shows how this is now shifting, and applies beyond the eurozone.”

Germany’s leading financial newspaper, Handelsblatt, wrote, “criticism from Washington now gives both China and Germany a good reason to close ranks.” Germany ranks just below China and Japan in GDP, with the US far ahead.

This brings to mind a recent statement from "China's Next Emperor" Xi Jinping: "There are some bored foreigners, with full stomachs, who have nothing better to do than point fingers at us [China]. First, China doesn't export Revolution; second, China doesn't export hunger and poverty; third, China doesn't come and cause you headaches, what more is there to be said?"

Iowa is not what people like to think.

'Small-town' Iowans -- I'll dispense with the Prairie Home Companion levity -- have a longstanding cosmopolitan habit of welcoming leaders and religious orders, and often the process imbues a whole town with an unexpected flavor.

As a result, the region boasts Vedic City, Iowa:
http://www.maharishivediccity.com/
and that's been good for business:
http://ruraleship.org/site/images/research/es/sec/sec4.pdf

And of course the Algerian George Washington is the namesake of Elkader, Iowa:
http://www.themodernreligion.com/ht/elkader.html

http://adiamondinsunlight.wordpress.com/2008/03/31/small-town-iowas-algerian-roots/

So we'll welcome VP Xi Jinping : it sounds like there's an Iowa town that offers a good fit for him as well. Par for the course -- for some of us.

What else, what else . .. . oh, yeah! Everybody can get married there.

Of course, all this isn't new: the Upper Midwest hosted German POWs as farm labor -- elderly ex-Nazi prisoners had worked the land: no guards, no fences and no torture -- and returned for bus tours of the land they came to love, and with tears streaming down their faces, they recalled the kindness with which they were treated and the gratitude they felt, even decades later.

Also, Iowa farmers follow Illinois statehouse politics pretty well, with larger implications for the other 50 states than Chris Matthews is able to grasp.

_____
(excerpt from link above)

"As part of the Sister City's philosophy," Olson said, "we should cross borders in friendship, not war."

On their visit, the Americans heard about Algeria's own struggle with fundamentalist extremists. They dined on Algerian cuisine and visited the nation's landmarks. In a moving ceremony outside Mascara, they planted trees at a monument to El-Kader. For the rural Iowans, most from northern European immigrant backgrounds, it was an "unforgettable experience."

"Just as we had preconceived notions of their society, and Islam," Olson said, "they had built their image of America around the movies. They thought our country was full of mobsters."

When a Mascara delegation arrived in Elkader the next year, the town hosted a parade, led by the high school marching band, which played the Algerian national anthem.

"It blew their minds," Olson said. "It was a very emotional exchange, because all of the barriers came down on that trip. We became friends, and it was a tearful day when they left. Following that we had a youth exchange."

@ Dan Bacon

Yeah because those same trade agreements really work to America's advantage, what with its debt in the trillions of dollars, job losses to corporate offshoring, crippling of its manufacturing sector, etc, etc. Strangely enough, when Germany and China sign trade agreement deals, it's justified in the Schumpterian spirit of promoting international peace and co-operation.

Good god with Americans like you, who needs enemies?

If he returns, the unpleasnt racket eminating from the heartland
may change his opinion.

http://www.howdyland.com/that-weird-sound/

At the risk of becoming obnoxious with repetition, I again point readers toward the Quadrennial Defense (QDR) Review just now hitting the street. China is a part of it.

The final report of the Quadrennial Defense Review Independent Panel is a critique of America’s defenses. It discusses a “significant and growing gap” between U.S. military forces and the challenges they face, particularly shortfalls in maritime and aerospace capabilities required to deter adversaries and potentially fight in Asia.

It urges a “substantial and immediate” infusion of additional spending to close the gap. And it recommends wholesale reorganization of U.S. national-security departments and the congressional committees that oversee them.

Pentagon spending plans and cost-saving efforts would fall short of fielding the kind of modern combat arsenal likely needed to fight future foes, including a rapidly modernizing Chinese military, according to a high-level bipartisan group of defense experts.

The QDR itself (Feb 2010) makes little overt reference to China's military buildup. Missing from the 2010 version are several concerns of the 2006 edition, such as China's cyberwarfare capabilities, nuclear arsenal, counterspace operations, and cruise and ballistic missiles.

Instead, there's a stated desire for more dialogue with Beijing - and prescriptions for countering the anti-access and area-denial capabilities of unnamed countries.

Even the Obama administration seems to be deviating from the QDR (see above) at a time when the US is not threatened by any military force, not even close, and has severe financial problems.
http://tinyurl.com/3a58fva (pdf)

The first sentence should refer to the QDR Independent Panel Report, not to the QDR itself.

More on today's BIG foreign affairs news story--the summit in Beirut:
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=5&article_id=117655#axzz0vCsarsRz

Very plausible, says one guy who divides him time between DC and
rural northwestern Iowa.

More seriously, Iowa has a long tradition of modest, globalist,
involved intellectuals and businessmen: Borlaug, Henry Wallace and
his family, Harry Hopkins, Roswell Garst, John Chrystal. The soviets
felt unable to contemplate food security without engaging their
friends in Iowa; perhaps Xi has concluded the same. There isn't a
more productive, wealthier agricultural economy in the world. It
would make a lot of sense for Xi to bypass east coast mandarin
thinking, if he's curious about feeding his country and borrowing
best educational, agricultural and community practices.

It's unlikely that anyone here has heard of Chrystal, so here is a
summary of his work with the USSR. Chrystal had a degree from
Iowa and another from a community college. He's exemplary of
Iowa internationalism and practical engagement.

"Chrystal's ties to the Soviet Union began in 1958 when he met
Nikita Khrushchev during the Soviet premier's visit to Iowa and
the Garst family farm. In 1960 and 1963 Chrystal and Roswell
Garst traveled together to the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe
as citizen ambassadors and agricultural advisors. In 1972, Garst
and Chrystal hosted another Russian delegation to Iowa, this
time to Coon Rapids. Between 1960 and 1989, Chrystal was
invited repeatedly to visit the Soviet Union to offer advice about
agriculture. He visited approximately sixteen times and led
efforts to help modernize farming and agricultural infrastructure
systems in Russia, Georgia, and Ukraine and to improve trade
relations between those countries and the United States. In 1994,
President Clinton appointed Chrystal to the Overseas Private
Investment Corporation (OPIC), a federal agency with economic
development projects in the former Soviet Union. Chrystal was
an active member, serving as a board member and director of
OPIC. In 1995, Chrystal accompanied United States President Bill
Clinton on his trip to Moscow, Russia, Kiev, and the Ukraine."

http://www.lib.iastate.edu/spcl/manuscripts/MS422.html

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