An Answer To Bushco

While the dance continues with Iran over whether or not they intend to stop uranium enrichment that would allow them to make a bomb, I tried to do a bit of a “connect the dots” exercise over what Russia and China are up to in all of this (I mean, the leaders of these other countries aren’t stupid; our rhetoric could make even the most ardent pacifist start hunkering down in expectation of an assault).

These two countries are pushing for talks against Iran instead of sanctions (again, didn’t WE used to do stuff like that, or is that “so pre-9/11” of me?), and this story from The Moscow Times mentions something called the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, of which Russia and (of course) China are members.

As a public service, I now intend to provide whatever information I can on this organization which has, no doubt, gone unreported as we sift through news headlines about illegal spying, undocumented workers, and Britney Spears’ parenting skills. I will tap into my vast body of knowledge on this to provide the most interesting content that I can (don’t worry...I didn’t know about the group until 10 minutes ago also).

Background is available on the group from this link, and I’ve excerpted this paragraph to summarize what the group is about:

According to the SCO Charter and the Declaration on the Establishment of the SCO, the main purposes of SCO are: strengthening mutual trust and good-neighborliness and friendship among member states; developing their effective cooperation in political affairs, the economy and trade, science and technology, culture, education, energy, transportation, environmental protection and other fields; working together to maintain regional peace, security and stability; and promoting the creation of a new international political and economic order featuring democracy, justice and rationality.

Gee, I wonder who the “rationality” part is directed at, anyway?

So it sounds like the Asian countries including some of the former Soviet republics are gathering together out of economic self-interest in an effort to “feather each other’s nests” in the best capitalist traditions, right?

Well, it may be a bit more than that (as mentioned in this link).

Though the declaration on the establishment of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization contained a statement that it "is not an alliance directed against other States and regions and it adheres to the principle of openness", most observers believe that one of the original purposes of the SCO was to serve as a counterbalance to the United States and in particular to avoid conflicts that would allow the United States to intervene in areas near both Russia and China. Many observers also believe that the organization was formed as a direct response to the threat of missile defense systems by the United States, after the United States reversed course in its nuclear policy and began promoting National Missile Defense.

The Hamas victory in the Palestinian elections, the rise to power of Ahmadinejad in Iran (and by the way, the “letter” post is on hold since I’m getting a decidedly underwhelming response to my original idea, which I partly expected), now the development of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (which, to be honest, may have happened even if Gore had won the legal battle in 2000 and thus the election, but I wonder if they would be conducting military exercises); all of these developments are consequences of the unilateralist, confrontational madness of our ruling regime.

Try thinking about this the next time you read about a bit of celebrity fluff or cancellation of television programs on CNN’s web site and wonder whether or not these news geniuses and others even know if this stuff is going on.