Geo-Politics
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Apr 10
America at War
Jimmy Carter went one step further when he noted some years ago that in its 242-year history, America had enjoyed only sixteen years of peace, making it "the most war-like nation in the history of the world".
That is beyond just the "modern world".
#auspol
@SenatorWong
@narendramodi
#trump
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Apr 7
MiddlePowers in the Age of Coercion
1. Hours before the expiry of #trump's threatened deadline, real or fungible, I will go on a limb with this augury.
2. #trump’s grotesque threat to use a nuclear weapon on Iran - how else can “a whole civilisation...die tonight” - is plainly a bluff. It has the familiar hubris of a poker player engorged with narcissism-fueled imagined ability, who believes that betting large alone can force an adversary to fold and hand him a ‘good deal’.
3. If so, the Orange Buffoon is misreading #Iran. The Persian strategic mindset, shaped by ancient civilisational mores, honed by the discipline of chess, and fortified by the Shi’ite ethos of sacrifice and martyrdom, is not one to submit abjectly.
4. Iran sees its confrontation with the #AmericanZionistAxis as an existential struggle. It will not bend the knee; it will fight.
5. More broadly, irrespective of how this war unfolds, there is a salient lesson from it for the world’s Middle Powers. It exposes a stark reality: #America’s naked imperial behaviour has opened a Pandora’s box, normalising the use of raw force unconstrained by international law. For states with valuable resources and strategic exposure, nuclear capability is no longer a luxury; it is a necessity for survival against hegemonic manipulations.
6. Even rogue states such as Israel, DPRK and Pakistan sit pretty because their nuclear weapons confer a formidable shield. The USA’s neutron-less poodles in Western Europe and Asia, and Deputy Sheriff Australia, will need to rethink their defence posture more seriously than ever before.
@AlboMP
@SenatorWong
@dfat
@CitizensPartyAU
#auspol #Australianforeignpolicy #MiddlePowers #WorldOrder
http://RakeshAhuja.DownloadingMyMind.com
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Mar 30
Taiwan's Days are Numbered
Rings true to me. One former Taiwanese colleague, admittedly no longer in the midst of the #Taipei professional policy world, told me last week that "most here" are resigned to the "Chinese embrace very soon". #Hegseth's claim today that every nation north of the equator is part of America's security parameter - "Greater North America" - can only encourage #CCPchina to impose its model of #Sinospheric influence over #Taiwan in the near future.
#auspol
@SenatorWong
http://RakeshAhuja.DownloadingMyMind.com
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Mar 22
2 Positives(!) from Gaza and Iran Wars
Interesting thought. Looking at the expanse of the #ZionistProxy, Israel's #GazaHolocaust, and its War on Iran in company with #America, two psychological strands stand out:
One, the devaluation forever of the #Holocaust1. #Israel has long been addicted to one inconvertible public strategy: whenever it finds the world around it troubling - mentally or militarily - it has desperately gulped from the endless well of #Shoah to display its pain to the world. That blackmailing game plan has no emotional credibility after #Holocaust2.
Two, #trump's savage 'joke' about #PearlHarbour has liberated the Japanese from the victors’ imposed guilt over their brilliant ambush on 7 December 1945. In effect, as Trump bluntly confirmed, why telegraph war plans to the enemy beforehand? There was never a reason for shame. The guilt myth was something that the Japanese surrender forced them to swallow, and then to display ever since. Uncharacteristically, trump spoke the unvarnished truth. For once.
#auspol #USA #JapaneseSurrender
@dfat
@SenatorWong
@StateDept
http://RakeshAhuja.DownloadingMyMind.com
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Mar 16
The First Tangible Crack in Western Alliance
It remains enduringly puzzling to me that analysts actually ascribe strategic thinking to anything that toddler Orange Buffoon #trump says or does. That is oxymoronic.
A more productive effort would be to dwell on the immediate reactions of other geopolitical players to American policy irrationalities, for that gives a glimpse of what is to emerge from the rubble of the present World Disorder. The refusal of US allies, even that of the saccharine-dripping loyal US Deputy Sheriff Australia, to 'liberate' the Strait of Hormuz is a case in point. It is the first tangible and indelible crack in the Western alliance. (It is worth recalling that the US has never ever won a major war, even the Cold War, without allies.)
This pointer to the torturous decline of the #AmericanImperium and self-proclaimed #AmericanExceptionalism requires no complex, wordy intellectual analyses. It is there.
#auspol
@SenatorWong
@dfat
http://RakeshAhuja.DownloadingMyMind.com
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Mar 5
Impotent India
I agree. As I commented to
@hvgoenka
- more politely - I believe that #IndianForeignPolicy has as much influence on the world stage as a sparrow's fart.
https://x.com/DwnlodingMyMind/status/2029163914840428651
@SenatorWong
@dfat
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Mar 5
The Atlanticist International Law
Well, as it has emerged over the years, that was precisely the objective of the post-war Atlanticist architecture, including the #UNSC.
#auspol
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Mar 2
Raw Imperialism
Superb. I cannot think of a single Western newspaper that could so elegantly pinpoint unfettered facts as they really are, instead of calling a spade a garden implement.
I commend these eds to Australian observers.
@MaryKostakidis
@MikeCarlton01
@SenatorWong
@AlboMP
@smh
#auspol
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Jan 28
Fascism and Oligarchs
#Trotsky makes the point that the upper classes have a dread of being forced down into the ranks of the proletariat. So, they align with #Oligarchs to use capital to organise and militarise them under the cover of the official Government, and keep that class under its command (and servile).
Today, the role of the oligarchs is on show in #ToddlerTrump’s #WhiteSupremacist and
@narendramodi
's #Hindutva ideologies. In contrast, Xi and Putin have re-harnessed State control over the oligarchs, not because of class or ideological wars, but because of naked ambition to exercise sole power.
@netanyahu
's #Israel is in a class by itself: Use American oligarchs to advance its global interests, but without disturbing the power of the bourgeoisie Jewish #Ashkenazi domestically.
@SenatorWong
@LeiblerMark
@jeremyleibler
@AlboMP
@AuspolX
#Auspol2026
http://DownloadingMyMind.com
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Jan 28
Fascism and Oligarchs
#Trotsky makes the point that the upper classes have a dread of being forced down into the ranks of the proletariat. So, they align with #Oligarchs to use capital to organise and militarise them under the cover of the official Government, and keep that class under its command (and servile).
Today, the role of the oligarchs is on show in #ToddlerTrump’s #WhiteSupremacist and
@narendramodi
's #Hindutva ideologies. In contrast, Xi and Putin have re-harnessed State control over the oligarchs, not because of class or ideological wars, but because of naked ambition to exercise sole power.
@netanyahu
's #Israel is in a class by itself: Use American oligarchs to advance its global interests, but without disturbing the power of the bourgeoisie Jewish #Ashkenazi domestically.
@SenatorWong
@LeiblerMark
@jeremyleibler
@AlboMP
@AuspolX
#Auspol2026
http://DownloadingMyMind.com
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Jan 18
The Pitfalls of Nationalism
Marvellously put.
#auspol #Nationalism
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Jan 9
Calling out the USA for what It Is
"Those were the days, my friend, we thought would never end."
#NATO #auspol
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Jan 6
Emerging New World Order
1. #ComradeXi, you now have a free hand in the #SinoSphere. The South China Sea and Taiwan are clearly yours to command and rule. Japan will gradually acquiesce to vassalage.
2. #ComradePutin, Ukraine is undoubtedly in #RussoSphere. Now complete the job there and release the Europeans from the expensive misery of supporting #Zelenskyy.
3. Comrade
@AlboMP
, time to kick the Chinese out of the #SouthPacific. Or do a transactional deal with XI - leave us alone and guarantee freedom of rule-based navigation in the sea lanes of interest to Australia, in return for continuing supply of resources, and a free hand in the South Pacific. (After all, when it is said and done, what do the 14 South Pacific nations offer us but a drain on our Treasury, no?)
4. Ashkenazi butcher
@netanyahu
. There is nothing to impede the growth of the power of your Jewish lobby in formulating US foreign policy beyond the now-proclaimed #AmericanSphere. You can thus procure an endless supply of arms from the US. As a nuclear power, you now have an unprecedented opportunity to fulfil your dream of creating a #ZioSphere in #WestAsia, which is fragmented as is the Arab wont. Start with Iran.
5. Comrade
@narendramodi
. Despite your pretensions about #India emerging as a superpower, the truth is that your Third World country is irrelevant. No action required by you lot; keep muddling through sanctimoniously as you have in the past 80 years. Your neighbours dislike you or, at best, tolerate you. There is no #Indosphere.
6. #EuropeanComrades, sadly for you, who once ruled and pillaged the Globe mercilessly, your swan song is now basically to swing hither and thither. There is no #EuroSphere.
7. #ComradeGuterres. The prime reason for the demise of the League of Nations - the lack of power to enforce international law - has been evident for years at the UN. Your own impotence has been equally fluorescent from the #GazaGenocide to the US's mafiosi kidnapping of #Moduro. Declare #UNDead. RIP: Roast in Peace.
8. This package for a potentially more peaceful world is offered with thanks to Richeleau, Talleyrand, Palmerston, Morgenthau, Herzl, Kissinger, Zubrynski, Bull, Eden, Hitler, Evatt, Chifley, Dyan, Nehru, Mao and Stalin, and to the #SayingsOfTrump, among others.
http://RakeshAhuja.DownloadingMyMind.com
@SenatorWong
@AIinstitute
#auspol #NewWorldOrder #GazaShoah
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Jan 8
Containment of the Rogue USA
In the 1980s, we Kremlinologists used to disparagingly call the #SovietUnion "Upper Volta with nuclear weapons". But #RogueUSA today is no Third World country and is evidently powerful across the geopolitical and economic spectrum. #Kennan's or #Kissinger's prescription for containing the #USSR or #CCPchina will not work in the case of the #US. The only viable possibility is, as #Springsteen implies, a Second American Revolution Led by domestic remnants who still believe in American ideals indelibly etched in the #USConstitution.
#auspol #Containment #AmericaWeeps
http://DownloadingMyMind.com
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Jan 8
Irrelevant Europe
After 50 years of observing international relations, I ask: Do the Europeans, galivanting in the pantomimes of their (admirable) fairy tales and (successful) extractive Colonial ventures, even realise how irrelevant they have become today?
As I wrote (in plain, unacademic language):
https://x.com/DwnlodingMyMind/status/2008470090032050584
#Australia is more relevant and has the capacity for greater resilience amid current geopolitical instability.
#auspol #NewWorldOrder
Ursula von der Leyen @vonderleyen · Jan 7
Our Union is not perfect, but it is a promise.
That cooperation is stronger than confrontation.
That law is stronger than force.
Principles that apply not only to our European Union, but equally to Greenland.
Dr. Brahma Chellaney @Chellaney · Jan 7
“Geopolitical whiplash” best captures Europe’s predicament: the very international laws it treated as optional just days ago have suddenly become its primary shield. After years of hyping the Russian threat, European leaders are now confronting a more uncomfortable reality — the most immediate challenge to European sovereignty is not Moscow, but Washington.
In a joint statement on Greenland, the leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, Britain and Denmark urged the United States to respect the UN Charter, including the core principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity — the same principles many of them tacitly or openly brushed aside when they applauded the Trump-ordered military intervention in Venezuela.
Only after Trump and senior aides suggested that the “Venezuela model” of asserting influence could be applied elsewhere — explicitly naming Greenland — did European leaders pivot to a rigid defense of the UN Charter. Europe, it seems, is learning the hard way that sovereignty is a fragile concept when applied selectively.
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Jan 7
See paragraph 6:
Chay Bowes @BowesChay · Jan 4
The EU has announced an unprecedented "Monitoring the Situation" operation in Venezuela. Its thought it will involve huge numbers of nobodies doing absolutely nothing. "This is an unprecedented close watching of the situation, not seen since Gaza" an anonymous insider says.
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Jan 5
Moral Impotence
Yes, such morally impotent bodies... Meanwhile, #India, the self-proclaimed conscience of the world, has sanctimoniously declared that it is "closely monitoring the evolving situation" in #Venezuela.
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Dec 7
End of Hypocrisy?
The latest US formulations cast aside the post-war mantra of America and its Western allies, championing democracy and upholding a “rules-based international order. For decades, Western governments have echoed this ideological refrain, aligning themselves with Washington’s moral script. Now, they face the task of crafting a policy architecture that is less doctrinaire and more pragmatic. That is no bad thing. For too long, the wand of “Democracy” has been wielded to till the soil of the 2nd and 3rd world, cultivating playing fields that largely yield political and economic benefits for Western governments themselves.
@AlboMP
and
@SenatorWong
have a load of old laundry to wash.
#auspol #USforeignpolicy #NewWorldOrder
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Dec 5
USA, Australia and all that
This is so right - as were Levy's comments in the 1980s about the "hollow" Soviet Union.
Australia has some thinking to do about the parallels between the USA-Ukraine-Russia and the USA-Taiwan-China paradigms.
#USForeignPolicy #auspol
@SenatorWong
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Aug 22
Gaza Holocaust, now Famine
If you are sincere in your outrage, Secretary-General, I implore you to do what one of your predecessors #Hammarschold, did nearly 75 years ago. I repeat my appeal:
Rakesh Ahuja
@DwnlodingMyMind
Jul 25
Appeal to the Secretary-General, UN
1. Comrade
@antonioguterre
, is this really the time for rhetoric about renewable energy? A veritable #Holocaust is taking place in #Gaza! Do you not see the irony in all this? Your exhortation "seize the moment” should instead prioritise the halting of the #GazaGenocide.
2. Enough of platitudes. It is time for you to strategically circumvent the impotent Security Council as necessary, and act decisively, do something concrete, not merely anodyne.
3. Why do you not visit Gaza in your capacity as the Secretary General of the UN? Why do you not personally lead a convoy or flotilla of medical supplies? If Ashkenazi
@netanyahu
blocks you, then Israel's intent to erase the Palestinians - already acknowledged by some in its polity - will be credibly confirmed.
4. The Israeli perpetrators of the #Genocide have learnt well from the #Nazi murderers of 6 million Jews on how, in turn, to mercilessly abuse their #Palestinian victims.
5. This is not the time to remain ensconced in the UN HQ. I remind you of your predecessor, Dag #Hammarskjöld, of long ago. He faced the Congo Crisis, an intense period of political and military turmoil following the country's independence from Belgium in 1960. Inevitably, he was cramped by Cold War dynamics, with the U.S. and the Soviet Union backing opposing sides.
6. Nevertheless, he stretched scattered bits of consensus among tense arguments to make multiple trips to the Congo to manage the crisis. He personally oversaw the establishment of the UN peacekeeping force and the withdrawal of Belgian troops. His commitment to the UN principles drove him to act.
7. Why, oh why are you not doing something, anything tangible?
P.S. Hammarskjold died in an air crash in 1961 in Rhodesia, now Zambia; suspicions of foul play linger. #Israel #GazaHolocaust #UNSC
#Hammarskjold
@SenatorWong
@AlboMP
@dfat
@AusHCIndia
@netanyahu
@narendramodi
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Aug 21
Peace Unravelling
#Putin invades Ukraine, #RealEstatorTrump is on the point of intervening in Venezuela (for whatever reason), so the question is: Will #XiJinping bring forward #CCPchina's annexation of Taiwan from its self-set deadline of 2027?
#USA #Russia #China #Taiwan
Megatron @Megatron_ron · Aug 21
🇻🇪🇺🇲 Democracy has arrived on the shores of the country with the largest oil reserves in the world.
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Jul 25
Appeal to SecGen, UN
1. Comrade
@antonioguterres
, is this really the time for rhetoric about renewable energy? A veritable #Holocaust is taking place in #Gaza! Do you not see the irony in all this? Your exhortation "seize the moment” should instead prioritise the halting of the #GazaGenocide. Enough of platitudes. It is time for you to strategically circumvent the impotent Security Council as necessary, and act decisively, do something concrete, not merely anodyne.
2. Why do you not visit Gaza in your capacity as the Secretary General of the UN? Why do you not personally lead a convoy or flotilla of medical supplies? If Ashkenazi
@netanyahu
blocks you, then Israel's intent to erase the Palestinians - already acknowledged by some in its polity - will be credibly confirmed.
3. The Israeli perpetrators of the #Genocide have learnt well from the #Nazi murderers of 6 million Jews on how, in turn, to mercilessly abuse their #Palestinian victims.
4. This is not the time to remain ensconced in the UN HQ. I remind you of your predecessor, Dag Hammarskjöld, of long ago. He faced the Congo Crisis, an intense period of political and military turmoil following the country's independence from Belgium in 1960. Inevitably, he was cramped by Cold War dynamics, with the U.S. and the Soviet Union backing opposing sides.
5. Nevertheless, he stretched scattered bits of consensus among tense arguments to make multiple trips to the Congo to manage the crisis. He personally oversaw the establishment of the UN peacekeeping force and the withdrawal of Belgian troops. His commitment to the UN principles drove him to act.
6. Why, oh why are you not doing something, anything tangible?
P.S. Hammarskjold died in an air crash in 1961 in Rhodesia, now Zambia; suspicions of foul play linger.
#Israel #GazaHolocaust #UNSC #Hammarskjold
@SenatorWong
@AlboMP
@dfat
@AusHCIndia
António Guterres @antonioguterres · Jul 23
The renewable energy revolution is our moment of opportunity to ... build the energy system of the 21st century; meet the world's surging electricity demand sustainably;
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Jul 21
Ransom for Guilt
How long will Anglo-Saxons and other European peoples continue to pay economic and political ransom to #Israel to assuage their historical guilt for the #Holocaust?
#GazaHolocaust #HolocaustRansom
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Jul 20
Holocaust by Starvation
Ashkenazi
@netanyahu
and his murderous cohort have seen their exclusive divine light in the form of an absurd dictum: Nothing justifies October 7, but in the name of October 7, everything is justifiable.
#GazaGenocide #Shoah #starvationingaza
@LeiblerMark
@netanyahu
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Jul 6
Palestine and Muslims
This illustrates one reality of the continuing #GazaHolocaust, which can not be ignored by one and all sincere protestors in Australia and the West against #Israel: Even major Muslim nations display sheer hypocrisy about the #PalestinianCause. They vote against Israel at the UN and shrilly mouth support for the cause every day, but, at the grassroots level, they offer no material help, except #Egypt, and will not accept Palestinian refugees.
#Turkey #Palestine #Pakistan
Inking_Insights @Rebel_Inks · Jul 5
Puppet PM of Pakistan, Dictator of Azerbaijan & Sultan Erdogan performing in their pleasant little circus, a charade sold as “Muslim unity” while Palestine is soaked in blood.
If you can’t read the room, at least read the daily death toll.
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Jul 6
Devaluing Holocausts
1. Thank you, but I would caution against portraying #AlligatorAlcatraz in Florida as a "concentration camp". It is no such thing.
2. Such a depiction devlaues #Israel's #GazaHolocaust, which, in turn, and by a large margin, has very sadly devalued the first #Holocaust, the murder of 6 million Jews by the Nazis.
3. The attempted erasure of the Judaic faithful shows what we humans are capable of, but we learn nothing. We are now watching the attempted erasure of 2 million Palestinians.
4. In passing, one might note that neither #Hitler nor
@netanyahu
introduced alligators as a measure of mortal fear, but #RealEstateorTrump is doing so!!
#Holocaust #Gaza #ConcentrationCamps
Christopher Martin 💙🤟👩🏻🦽➡️🌸⚾️ @ChrisMartin1961 · Jul 5
I’ve been thinking about this “Alligator Alcatraz” concentration camp down in Florida. As a student of the Concentration Camps of WWII, I wrote an entire graduate thesis on the psychology of those working there, I see many parallels to Nazi Germany in the early 1930’s. 1/3
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Jul 5
The British Legacy
That is so correct. In India, it was the Divide and Rule policy.
Peacemaker @peacemaket71 · Jul 5
🇺🇸 Professor Jeffrey Sachs:
"The source of all the conflict in the world is Great Britain. That goes for the Gaza Strip, China, Pakistan, India, and the entire Middle East. It was Great Britain that created this whole mess. For 200 years, it was the most powerful empire in the world, leaving behind nothing but conflict when it left. The disaster that is happening in Gaza now is partly because between 1915 and 1917, Great Britain promised this territory to three different groups. First, in the McMahon Agreement, they promised it to the Arabs. They said: fight with us against the Turks and this land is yours! Then they arranged the Sykes-Picot Agreement, according to which they gave it to the French. And in the Balfour Declaration of 1917, they declared it the homeland of the Jews. They gave away land that didn't even belong to them three times. How audacious! That's where all the trouble started."
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Jul 5
Strong states, Weak states
There may well be a good reason to recall this statement in the not-too-distant future. Encouraged by the blatant display of their strengths by Russia and America, #CCPchina may not be far behind.
#Sovereingty #NuclearWar
ShanghaiPanda @thinking_panda · Jul 5
In France, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told the EU: "The US brazenly bombed a sovereign nation's (Iran) nuclear facilities, setting a dangerous precedent. If this triggers a nuclear disaster, the whole world will bear the consequences... If national strength alone determines right and wrong, where are the rules? Where is justice? So-called strength won't bring true peace; it risks opening Pandora's box. Are weaker nations, especially smaller ones, just to be served up on the table, left to the mercy of others?"
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Jul 3
Fighting Fascism
Thank you for the elaboration. It adds to:
https://x.com/DwnlodingMyMind/status/1940303905180549220
blakandblack @blakandblack · Jul 3
The Great Dictator was Chaplin’s first film with dialogue. Chaplin plays both a little Jewish barber, living in the ghetto, and Hynkel, the dictator ruler of Tomainia
Chaplin spent many months drafting and re-writing the speech for the end of the film, a call for peace from the barber who has been mistaken for Hynkel. Many people criticized the speech, and thought it was superfluous to the film. Others found it uplifting.
🚨Regrettably Chaplin’s words are as relevant today as they were in 1940 🚨
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Jul 2
Fighting Fascism
Chaplin's soliloquy is a classic in honing the reasons why untrammelled autocracy must be resisted.
#USA_Trump #Fascism
Historic Vids @historyinmemes · Jul 2
Charlie Chaplin felt so strongly about fighting fascism against Germany in 1940 that he broke his silence for the first time ever to deliver this monologue
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · June 23, 2025
False Promises
Thank you to your anonymous Iranian contact for this concise articulation of the dilemma that has often been faced by many people since WWII, largely due to false promises made by competing ideologies about what they have to offer upon 'liberation'.
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · May 31
Toppling Carney?
There are expressions of stray concerns within the Liberal Party that #RealEstateorTrump might seek to destabilise the Carney Government. The Canadian Prime Minister is a notable exception among world leaders in firmly challenging him.
Carney’s persuasively reasoned statements and authentic demeanour must rankle the uncouth and unintelligible Trump. As his intemperate public behaviour towards China suggests, Trump’s reactions are guided more by his core value of malice towards all, charity towards none - and diplomatic normalcy be damned.
America, of course, has a long and disreputable record of toppling 'undesirable' regimes worldwide. There would be plenty of MAGA supporters conveniently located next door to abet Trump.
Meanwhile, the timing of King Charles' visit to open the Canadian Parliament – the first monarch to do so in seventy years – and his unequivocal reiteration of Canadian sovereignty and values are noteworthy. This occurred on the very day that Trump offered free Canadian access to his proposed “golden dome” missile shield in return for becoming America’s 51st state. Charles pointedly called for “open global trade” with “reliable trading partners” and “a coalition of like-minded countries that share its values”. The Elected Monarch is unlikely to forgive.
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · May 30
Replying to @KanwalSibal
Good point. Mea maxima culpa. I realise now that I, too, am guilty of overstating the implications of #Indo_PakHyphenation.
The assumed equivalence between India and Pakistan was prevalent during the Cold War years. Then, it seemed justifiable from the Western perspective. It began to fade after the 1991 Indian economic reforms and disappeared after Prime Ministers Rao's and Vajpayee's success in deleting it from international political discourse.
I agree that the sheer magnitude of India's economic, political, and strategic international engagement now cannot be matched by Pakistan, and the hyphenation hypothesis would apply seldom.
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · May 29, 2025
Assuming that the English-speaking side drafted this, there is something inherently offensive about the phrase "nine dead hostages will be released". It is callous (and detached) to describe a tragedy thus. The term "released" is not only insensitive but also dismissive of the loss of loved ones.
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · May 28
I agree, @MaryKostakidis . Decades later, Israel has now 'lost' me. We have arrived at an absurd rule: Nothing justifies October 7, but in the name of October 7 everything is justifiable.
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · May 17
Pray, how will this delegation add value to India's narrative on the recent conflict with Pakistan? The underlying assumption appears to be that making a case face-to-face will somehow buttress its case. This is doubtful. As I said: This is old thinking dating back to Diplomacy by Delegations. As the recent Indo-Pak conflict illustrates, in the Age of Information India must instead formulate a linear and focussed media strategy. The validating test of its effectiveness would be the degree to which it can influence social media purveyors such as the likes of GROK, OpenAI ChatGPT, etc. They, not transitory delegations, are the new influencers.]
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Apr 24, 2025
Jimmy Carter observed that in its 242 [now 249] years history, the United
States has enjoyed only 16 years of peace, making it "the most war-like
nation in the history of the world."
This is a telling truth about America in the context of the following
compilation by
@stats_feed
about US military and clandestine operations in
foreign countries since WWII:
https://x.com/stats_feed/status/1915137349815615686
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Apr 23, 2025
If the following is any indication, GOP legislators are now reduced to
improving US relations with the likes of El Salvador. Given
#DeveloperTrump's policies, they are not expressing such sentiments vis a
vis China, EU, etc. Of course, this decline of Imperial America fits in,
historically, with the fate of all Empires.
https://x.com/RepLuna/status/1914703088855753122
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Apr 14, 2025
As the United States of America unravels under the reign of the Elected
Monarch, #DeveloperTrump:
In How Democracies Die (2018), Harvard academics Steven Levitsky and
Daniel Ziblatt developed four behavioural warning signs to identify an
autocrat/dictator in the making.
First, when a politician rejects the democratic rules of the game. Second,
when he ""denies the legitimacy of opponents". Third, when he "tolerates or
encourages violence". And fourth, when he "indicates a willingness to
curtail the civil liberties of opponents, including the media".
Sigh!
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Mar 19, 2025
I confess that Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged did attract
me in my teen-hood. Having abandoned her long ago, it is nevertheless
startling to hear her first-hand praising "individualism, capitalism". Today,
these two ideological watchwords are being rehearsed unrestrained in
America, setting the stage for social and political upheavals in flawed
(populist) democracies.
https://x.com/Sadie_NC/status/1901811494230049059/video/1
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