What Kind Of Regime Sends Children To War? By Dr. Majid Rafizadeh: New Age Islam's Selection, 25 October 2017
New Age Islam Edit Bureau
25 October 2017
• What Kind Of Regime Sends Children To War?
By Dr. Majid Rafizadeh
• Just Grant Them The Nationality!
By Tariq A. Al-Maeena
• Iraqis In Saudi Arabia And Vice Versa
By Mashari Althaydi
• The New Saudi Vision: Return to the Past for a Better Future
By Abdulrahman Al-Rashed
• Catalonia And Iraqi Kurdistan: A Time Of Disenchantment
By Christian Chesnot
• Saudi Economy 2.0 Versus OPEC 2.0
By Wael Mahdi
• Discovering the Secret Republic Of Iran
By Abdulrahman Al-Rashed
• Russians Have Mastered How To Wage War in the 21st Century
By Dr. Azeem Ibrahim
• Rohingya Children Need Support, Normality and Education
By Evan Schuurman
Compiled By New Age Islam Edit Bureau
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What Kind Of Regime Sends Children To War?
By Dr. Majid Rafizadeh
25 October 2017
Although the US Treasury Department has been instructed by President Donald Trump to impose new sanctions on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) because of its support for terrorism, the Iranian regime shows no signs of backing down from its violations of international laws and interventionist policies in the region, particularly in Arab nations. In fact, Tehran is ratcheting up breaches of international law, military adventurism and expansionist policies.
One linked issue that has received less time in the spotlight is the intersection between the Iranian regime and the involvement of children in armed conflicts.
There are six grave violations that are identified by the UN Security Council. One of them is recruiting, abusing or exploiting children during conflicts.
One prominent example of Iran’s involvement in such cases is the Syrian conflict. In the last six years of the Syrian conflict, the Islamic Republic has shown that it will resort to any tool in order to maintain Bashar Assad and his forces in power. One of these tools has been the increasing recruitment of foreign children, both in Iran and elsewhere, in order to fight in the front lines of the Syrian battlefields to enable the Syrian and Iranian forces and their militias to suffer fewer casualties and achieve victories.
Two particular Iranian organizations are behind the recruitment; the IRGC and its elite Quds Force, whose mission is to operate beyond Iran’s borders in order to export the revolutionary principles of the Islamic Republic and safeguard Iran’s geopolitical interest.
Leaders of the IRGC and Quds Force implement different tactics to recruit children. The Iranian regime normally preys on children and families who are vulnerable for various reasons.
Some children come from immigrant families. The families are lured to give up their children to fight in conflicts in exchange for a better position in Iran. Other children are refugees who are seduced by promises of legal residency status and permits. It is extremely difficult to obtain a legal residency permit in the Islamic Republic even for those refugees who have been living there for decades.
In addition, many of these children come from lower socio-economic class. The Iranian regime exploits their poverty and recruits them in exchange for financial incentives. Reports from human rights organizations indicate that currently not only does the Iranian regime recruit children, but Iran-backed militia are also engaged in such activities.
The UN’s Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary General for Children and Armed Conflicts states that ending such violations is “the focus of its Special Representative’s work and advocacy.” Nevertheless it does not seem that any concrete and successful actions have been taken to prevent the Iranian regime from abusing children in conflicts.
Ironically, Iran is a signatory to the Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which focuses on the involvement of children in armed conflict, which was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2000 and went into force in 2002. The Protocol states that 18 is the minimum age for participation in wars and armed conflict. It clearly states that the protocol is a commitment that states will not recruit children under the age of 18 to send them to the battlefield. States will not conscript soldiers below the age of 18. States should take all possible measures to prevent such recruitment — including legislation to prohibit and criminalize the recruitment of children under 18 and involve them in hostilities. States will demobilize anyone under 18 conscripted or used in hostilities and will provide physical, and psychological recovery services and help their social reintegration. Armed groups distinct from the armed forces of a country should not, under any circumstances, recruit or use in hostilities anyone under 18.
Human Rights Watch’s latest report raised alarm about the Iranian regime’s role in recruiting Afghan children. Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, said: “Iran should immediately end the recruitment of child soldiers and bring back any Afghan children it has sent to fight in Syria. Rather than preying on vulnerable immigrant and refugee children, the Iranian authorities should protect all children and hold those responsible for recruiting Afghan children to account.”
More importantly, since reports by human rights organizations indicate that Iran recruits children as young as 15, Iran is committing another violation of international law which is considered a war crime by the International Criminal Court and is completely prohibited.
The increasing recruitment of children by the Iranian regime to fight in conflicts not only has serious psychological and physical implications for the children and their families, but also inflicts serious damage on the security and stability of the region. It is incumbent on the international community and human rights organizations to follow up on their promises, take immediate action and hold the Iranian leaders responsible for violating international law, abusing human rights and children, and committing a war crime.
Source: arabnews.com/node/1182751
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Just Grant Them The Nationality!
By Tariq A. Al-Maeena
25 October 2017
An item in this paper the other day reflected upon some of the hardships and challenges facing expatriates born and raised in this country, but made to feel that they did not belong. An estimated two million expatriates have been born in this country, many the children of second- and third-generation expatriates who have also been born here. This is the story of one of them.
Wasim B. has been in this country for over 40 years. He came here from Pakistan at the age of three with his parents, and older siblings. Over the years Wasim was educated in Saudi schools at a time when anyone could take advantage of the opportunity for learning, and today he is dependably taking care of the business of an elderly Saudi family here in Jeddah. His honest association with this family since his youth has resulted in him being entrusted with all their financial affairs.
But Wasim has a problem. While his father some 35 years ago managed to apply for and get citizenship for his elder brothers and sisters, Wasim’s case was somehow delayed due to his young age. With the passage of time, his father died, and Wasim’s application for citizenship slowly went out the window.
For a while, it was not much of a bother. But as he got older and wanted to start his own family, his status as an alien complicated getting approval, among a host of other problems. And as citizenship laws became more restrictive, his desire to obtain Saudi nationality and settle here permanently became more fraught with uncertainty.
Once his children were of school age, the issue of government schools was out of the question. And today, upon his son’s graduation from the Pakistani school, Wasim faces a dilemma as to what to do with his offspring. With our universities restricting admission to foreigners, he is understandably concerned, as he does not relish sending his son abroad, even to Pakistan where Wasim’s family ties have eroded over the decades and where his son would be a stranger in the culture he would be thrust into.
Wasim is but one of a multitude of fathers and mothers in similar situations. From the continents of the West to the far corners of Asia, their forefathers at one time moved to this country. It was not the lure of wealth or the prospect of making it big during the oil boom years. Many had been here prior to that era. Instead, most had made the perilous journey then in their quest to live in the proximity of the two holy cities.
They find themselves today facing gut-wrenching situations requiring decisions that often split the family apart. They have lived as Saudis, learned as Saudis, worked as Saudis, and prayed as Saudis, but they are not Saudis. And they are not accepted as Saudis. And the bureaucratic challenges in gaining Saudi citizenship are not encouraging for most of these people.
Many of them today cannot think of another land to call home. Even the lands of their ancestry would seem alien to their locally home-grown family; the culture, the language, the food, and just about everything else! And as their children come of age and require further education or jobs, some will reluctantly attempt to pack up and re-enter their own societies, while others will grudgingly make plans to move westwards to more alien cultures.
I pose this question to the authorities. Would it not be just and right to grant those facing such uncertainties and who wish so, the rights and benefits of full citizenship? It would also boost Vision 2030 with investment being applied domestically by new immigrants, rather than swept away in remittances elsewhere.
Why not absorb this rich talent and wealth within our own land rather than see it lost to foreign lands? To increase the diversity within our society and to enhance it with a whole host of subcultures would serve the nation well. The mindset that we must preserve the heritage of this country through the restricting of bloodlines has got to change.
Within families, inbreeding often spells the beginning of extinction and doom. Within nations, it can only lead to a stifling of growth and enrichment.
Source: saudigazette.com.sa/article/520159/Opinion/OP-ED/Just-grant-them-the-nationality!
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Iraqis In Saudi Arabia And Vice Versa
By Mashari Althaydi
24 October 2017
What’s right and normal is for Saudi Arabia’s relations with Iraq to be good and prosperous as the opposite of that is wrong and abnormal. Iraq has historical, social and economic ties with the people of the Arabian Peninsula, especially Najd and Ahsa.
While addressing the Iraqi delegation headed by Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi and in the presence of US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, King Salman said: “What links Saudi Arabia to Iraq is not just geography and common interests but ties of fraternity, blood, history and destiny.”
These are not compliments but facts that are based on the past and the present.
I’ll give few examples about Iraqis who served Saudi Arabia and about Saudis who served Iraq. King Abdulaziz’s royal court included prominent Iraqi figures who professionally and loyally served the Saudi state. An example is Doctor Abdullah Al-Damluji, who hails from Mosul. In 1929, Damluji represented Najd and Hejaz before the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia assumed this name.
When he returned to Iraq, the Iraqi government decided to assign some political posts to him but some were concerned that King Abdulaziz would be displeased as Damluji had served with him. However, Abu Turki, i.e. the king, was tolerant and understanding as usual and wished luck and all the best to Iraq.
Iraqi historian Najda Fathi commented on this incident saying: “This reflected tolerance and insight which characterized his majesty.”
Mohammed Saeed Al-Habboubi, one of Iraq’s most famous poets and who hails from Najaf, immigrated with his father and uncle to Hail in Saudi Arabia around 1864. He lived for three years with them in the famous Iraqi neighbourhood of Mushahida in Hail. His works include poems longing for Najd.
As for Saudis who served Iraq, the most famous figure is Pasha Abdul Latif Al-Mandil whose father immigrated from Sudair in Najd. He was the representative of King Abdulaziz in Iraq during the early phase of renaissance.
During the Ottoman era, he became a member in the Basra council and his achievements include providing Basra with electricity and drinking water.
Mandil was appointed Minister of Commerce in the first Iraqi cabinet headed by Abd al-Rahman al-Gillani in 1920. He was then appointed Minister of Awqaf in the second cabinet headed by Abd al-Muhsin as-Sa'dun in November 1922. He was elected to the membership of the Constituent Assembly in 1924 to represent Basra and became member of the council of elders in 1929.
There are also other figures such as Hisham al-Rifai, Sleiman al-Dakhil and others.
Source: english.alarabiya.net/en/views/news/middle-east/2017/10/24/Iraqis-in-Saudi-Arabia-and-vice-versa.html
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The New Saudi Vision: Return to The Past For A Better Future
By Abdulrahman Al-Rashed
25 October 2017
Although the speaker was the Saudi crown prince, and although he talked about Saudi Arabia and its society, his subject — facing extremism and the return to moderate Islam — should be the project of everyone: The regional states as well as the international community.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman spoke on Tuesday about building the future being the best way out of a past that follows and besieges us all. He believes that development requires transformation, and in the need to admit the problem and to have the courage to deal with it. I believe Crown Prince Mohammed did that on Tuesday. He was clear, frank and brave in his address to the world. He talked about the return to the Saudi society of the past — religious without extremism, and tolerant of its surroundings.
Yes, there is a problem at present from the heritage of the recent past, and he talked about it to the audience without embarrassment or equivocation. He said that the extremists imposed their views on Saudi society after 1979, precisely after the revolution of Ayatollah Khomeini which opened the door for extremism and radicalization, and more extremism. And on Tuesday, the crown prince vowed that it was time to fight extremist thought and destroy it.
This assertion was echoed throughout the Kingdom, not just the conference hall. He chose an important event for it, introducing one of the future Saudi projects for investors and the world and explaining his development plan for the young generations.
With this courageous rhetoric, Saudi Arabia is leading a new wave in the region and the Islamic world, upon which we can hold out our hopes to deliver us from the era of extremism that threatens the world.
The Saudi crown prince has proved that he meets his word. He took challenging steps and made many promises and openness initiatives that proved to his citizens, and to the world, that he means what he says, and that his country is leading a campaign to clear out extremist thought, and the extremists. Many decisions were taken, and many laws were modified.
The dispute with the neighbouring brotherly state of Qatar is just one part of the policies of the crown prince. Saudi Arabia has adopted a clear position that it does not want any relations with the government of Qatar if it continues financing extremist groups on its soil, offering them media support, and receiving their fugitives.
The Saudi rhetoric against extremism has no room for tolerance. It does not tolerate individuals, or private or public institutions, who spread radical Islam socially and politically. The Saudi government has also undertaken openness programs that surprised us all, programs we thought were difficult, even impossible in the current political environment.
The importance of what the crown prince said stems from the importance of Saudi Arabia as a leading country for more than a billion Muslims all over the world. In my opinion, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has the legitimacy, vision and courage that enable him to lead the locomotive of change and save Islamic communities all over the world from the intellectual sabotage they have suffered since 1979, for Saudi Arabia is the spiritual reference of Muslims.
The aim is not just liberating the people from extremism and extremists, but also building a promising future for their children. The positive spirit of change paves the way, just like the announcement of a giant new development in the northwest of the country, connecting continents, opening the door for modern industry, international trade and tourism, running on state-of-the-art technological systems.
At the Riyadh conference, we heard a speech about life, not death; about the future, not the past; and therefore we hope it will make the Kingdom the gateway for change for all.
Source: arabnews.com/node/1182756
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Catalonia and Iraqi Kurdistan: A Time of Disenchantment
By Christian Chesnot
24 October 2017
Obviously, the circumstances of the separatists in Catalonia and Iraqi Kurdistan have nothing in common since the political and geographical situations are different. But there is, despite everything, historical resonance between these two people. The Catalans and the Kurds were hardly hit in the 20th century. The first were repressed under Franco's dictatorship (1939-1975). During these years, Catalonia lost its autonomy, the Catalan language was banned, books were burned and intellectuals were hunted, most of whom found refuge in France. Spanish democracy, based on decentralization between regions, will give Catalonia a great autonomy in all areas.
In the Middle East, the Kurds share the same sad reality, as do the Palestinians, of being a scattered people. Repressed under Saddam Hussein, who even used gas against them in Halabja in 1988, Iraqi Kurds found some form of security after 2003 and the fall of the Baathist regime. Their autonomous region of northern Iraq became a haven of peace and prosperity. Virtually, the Kurds possess all the attributes of a pseudo state, while remaining attached to Iraq. For their part, Catalonia, the economic heartland of Spain, even has a representative office in Brussels, a seat in the European Union.
The will of the people to self-determination and therefore to independence is one of the cardinal principles of the United Nations. But another principle comes to frame the first: that of the territorial integrity of the States. The other postulate that for a possible secession of any part of a state, the central authority have to grant consent. However, neither in the case of Iraqi Kurdistan, nor in that of Catalonia, does Baghdad or Madrid approve the independence of both sides.
To this we must add another dimension, a political one. One could contemplate an independence of Catalonia or Iraqi Kurdistan, if they were repressed, humiliated or attacked by the central power. However, it is not the case. Since the death of Franco, Spain is a democracy while Iraq, since the fall of Saddam Hussein, is on the road to democracy. One may object since Iraq is very far from being a democratic model. But the country holds elections regularly and tries, despite serious shortcomings, to ensure a form of community and ethnic pluralism. The president of the Iraqi Republic, Fouad Massoum, is he not Kurdish?
Forcing the Doors of History
By organizing referendums of independence, Catalans and Kurds wanted to force the doors of history. In both cases, failure is at the end of the road. They made a monumental mistake. Madrid has just suspended Catalan autonomy and does not intend to relieve pressure. Spain is all the more strongly encouraged since no European country supports the independence of Catalonia and that the European Union does not intend to play the role of a mediator in a dossier that it considers as a Spanish domestic affair.
For their part, Iraqi Kurds found themselves isolated. They lost many territories, including Kirkuk, which they had reconquered from ISIS. They are under triple pressure from Ankara, Tehran and Baghdad. In short, for Catalonia as in Kurdistan, it is a huge step backwards. Many assets will be lost. Kurdish Massoud Barzani and Catalan Carles Puidgemont made their people take a huge risk. The price to pay - in political as well as economic terms - could be exorbitant. All of these sacrifices, gone with the wind. As usual, once again the basic citizen will have to pay the bill in his daily life.
Fragile by the influx of migrants and Brexit, Europe really did not need a new crisis with Catalonia. Iraq and the Middle East could have avoided the crisis with the Kurds, especially since the challenges are immense after the ebb of ISIS on the Syrian-Iraqi front. What is certain is that the time of disenchantment has come for the Kurds and the Catalans.
Source: english.alarabiya.net/en/views/news/middle-east/2017/10/24/Catalonia-and-Iraqi-Kurdistan-A-time-of-disenchantment.html
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Saudi Economy 2.0 versus OPEC 2.0
By Wael Mahdi
24 October 2017
Saudi Arabia this week unveiled its ambitious plan to use its sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), to move the economy away from oil.
The plan is the start of what the government coined as the Saudi Economy 2.0.
Themes such as digitalization, urban development, investments in smart technology and clean energy are what Saudi Arabia will focus on under the new plan and these new areas are where the PIF will invest after it gets the proceeds from the sale of Saudi Aramco shares that will happen very likely in the second half of next year.
However, as Saudi Arabia tries to move away from oil, many of its fellow OPEC members are still clinging to the petrodollars.
This is not to say that Saudi Arabia or any other oil-producing nation will totally abandon oil, but the game now is how to make oil one of many sources of income and not the only source, as was the case for many years.
OPEC’s addiction to oil is a problem that will endure for some time. Saudi Arabia is trying to break away from this addiction, as Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said in April 2016.
The addiction of OPEC can be easily seen in the level of high break-even oil prices needed to balance the fiscal budgets in the member countries of the organization.
Nigeria, the largest oil producer in Western Africa, needs oil prices at $139 per barrel for it to balance its fiscal budget in 2017, according to estimates by Fitch Ratings.
Brent oil prices are fluctuating between $55 and $58 even with the current efforts made by OPEC and non-OPEC producers.
Angola, another OPEC member, needs oil at $82 to break even. Iraq would need $62 while Saudi Arabia needs a price of $74 a barrel to balance its fiscal budget this year, said Fitch.
Only Kuwait and Qatar can break even with oil prices below $60.
Even non-OPEC producers who are part of the agreement need higher oil prices to avoid seeing deficits this year.
Russia needs $72, Oman needs $75, Kazakhstan $71, and Azerbaijan needs $66 to break even, according to Fitch.
Oil prices may not stay higher for long though. Citibank expects oil prices to remain between $40 and $60 over the coming decade.
This means that balancing fiscal budgets may become a difficult goal to achieve even if producers maintain their production cuts for an extended period.
Keeping oil prices at above $60 for a longer period could be a “self-defeating” policy for OPEC and its allies. Surely, other producers in the world will start to have more funds to invest in bringing more crude to the market and with prices at $60, the profitability of many producers will improve.
The main risk to prices might come from high-cost producers who can flood the market over the coming two years with the right prices even as demand will keep increasing by healthy rates of 1.2 to 1.4 million barrels a day.
Some can argue that oil at $60 won’t help to bring back the investments to the oil industry at the same rate as three to four years ago when oil prices averaged around $100. And even with $60 a barrel, some argued that only shale oil producers can bring production online fast enough to meet an increase in prices and demand while other conventional producers may need years to respond to prices and demand.
OPEC and its allies enjoy a low cost of development for their crude compared to others elsewhere as they produce conventional crude. Yet the problem is that to develop a conventional oil field might take two to three years at least between discovering a find, drilling, exploring, connecting the wells, and building facilities to process the crude.
Therefore, by the time conventional producers take a decision to invest and the time their crude hits the market, many things can happen. So the market can go up or down.
Due to uncertainty over demand for crude oil, many big producers might be worried about committing themselves to projects that can take three to five years to be completed and this would result in higher oil prices in the future.
This might sound like good news for OPEC and other oil producers, but it is better to plan for the worst and expect the best.
For this reason, moving away from oil and gearing up for the future is important. Initiatives like Saudi Economy 2.0 and Saudi Vision 2030 are steps in the right direction. However, moving away too much from oil is another problem. Consumers must help producers by showing interest in oil to make them feel secure about their investments.
And producers must diversify away from oil but at the same time keep the flow of investments going.
The need for OPEC to diversify income might not be pressing over the next three years, but OPEC needs to keep in mind that “by failing to prepare, we are preparing to fail,” as Benjamin Franklin once said.
Source: arabnews.com/node/1182696/columns
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Discovering the Secret Republic of Iran
By Abdulrahman al-Rashed
24 October 2017
We all understand Iran, the regime with the ambition to dominate and gain influence. However, in fact we do not really know it. To Iran, the end justifies the means from selling cigarettes to counterfeiting currencies, dealing drugs, money laundering, collecting Khums tax and using it for military purposes, establishing complex networks of companies in Africa, Latin America and Asia and sending clerics seeking loyalties from fighting coaches who train on weapons. These are the secret activities of the Iranian empire which tries to exploit everything it puts its hand on to serve its aims. It’s through these cells and secret smuggling networks that it built and continues to build its nuclear program.
Although propagating disputes is its official hobby, Iran does not fight with its own troops. The last war the Iranian armed forces fought was against Iraq and it ended in 1988. During that war, the new Iranian regime sent whatever forces were left of the defeated Shah and got rid of them. After the revolution, the Ayatollahs led the regular army. These Ayatollahs are skeptics about it, and they do not recognize military ranks as they only respect religious hierarchy. Afterwards, all of Iran’s battles were assigned to cells, networks and infiltrators, like Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Iraq’s Hezbollah, Yemen’s Ansar Allah, Afghan Fatimids and dozens of other groups that are deployed across the region and fighting for the superiority of Ayatollah’s state.
Iran did not and perhaps will not engage in military confrontations using its own battleships and fighter jets as despite equipping its naval and ground troops with the best weapons, it avoids big confrontations. It secretly sends fully-loaded ships to the areas where there is unrest while its soldiers guard the Quds Brigades troops crossing Mesopotamia to enhance the capabilities of foreign militias fighting under its command.
Secret Wars
The American government recently said it plans to coordinate efforts between its regulatory and security institutions and seek the help of its regional allies to understand Iran’s training and smuggling networks more and how Tehran manages its secret wars across the world. It said it will publish the information it has about Iran’s secret companies and expose those who deal with them and that it will expose the evidence which proves Iran’s ties to al-Qaeda. These ties came as a strange surprise to us and have changed how we view and understand Iran since 2003. That year, explosions carried out by al-Qaeda organization rocked the Saudi capital. We thought the attacks were by Saudi terrorists but to our surprise the orders to execute the task were conveyed to a cell in Riyadh through telephone calls from Iran. The explosion in May that year was executed via a phone call from Bin Laden’s Egyptian aide Seif al-Adel who is hiding with his fellow terrorist comrades in Iran. Seif al-Adel planned the murder of 18 Americans in the Somali capital in 1993 and it’s believed that he had a role in planning the September 2001 attacks in the US.
Before that, it never crossed our mind that the two enemies, Tehran’s regime and al-Qaeda, will meet and work together in the same field against the same target. After this happened, we began to see Iran as the country of mysteries and realized it’s more mysterious than we thought. Knowing it well requires the region’s powers’ joint work. They must work together to decipher its mysteries and expose networking, destruction and intelligence networks. Before engaging in any action against it, knowing the Iranian regime more has become a top necessity.
Source: english.alarabiya.net/en/views/news/middle-east/2017/10/24/Discovering-the-secret-republic-of-Iran.html
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Russians Have Mastered How To Wage War in the 21st Century
By Dr. Azeem Ibrahim
24 October 2017
War seems like a simple affair. You get the biggest army. You invade enemy countries. And then, when you win the war, you make them submit to you will. This is how we have done it for thousands of years, and it has always worked.
But from 2001 onwards, the entire logic of war seems to have been turned on its head. The United States has, by far, the biggest and best armed forces in the world. It is possible that they also have the most sizeable military edge over its competitors that any empire has ever enjoyed. Could the US military on its own take on the entire of the rest of the world combined and win? I don’t know. Probably not. But it is not an absurd proposition. They might. This has never been the case for any other empire at any point in history.
So then how does the most powerful army the world has ever seen, an army which is surrounded mostly by relatively powerful allies who share its goals, keep winning wars and yet still lose the peace? The United States has won every war it has entered since 2001. And in every instance, it has managed to inflict greater damage to her own interests than if she had not entered the war at all.
Contrast this to the ways in which Russia has been waging war in recent years. Russia is not in any way equivalent to the Soviet Union in the military and economic space. The Soviet Union was a worthy and almost equal rival to the United States for a good chunk of the 20th Century. But contemporary Russia? Its economy is the size of Sweden’s, or Italy’s. Its military, which used to be able to go toe to toe with NATO, barely competes with Britain’s, or France’s, or Germany’s – on their own. Let alone the might of the United States or China, or the combined might of NATO.
But Russia is nevertheless as active in international war as the United States. And it is winning consistently. How? It seems that Russia understood as early as 2008 what the NATO allies are slow to recognise even in 2017. Power in the age of an interconnected global culture linked together through the internet and characterised by information overload bears little to no correlation to the size and number of your bombs.
Unrelenting War
Instead, political power at home and geo-political power abroad reduces to the relative power of your narrative compared to that of your enemy. Russia has considered itself at war with NATO since the abortive attempts of Georgia, a former Soviet territory, to join the defence bloc in 2007-2008. And since then, Russia has waged unrelenting and increasingly escalating war against the West’s information, cultural and political infrastructure.
Most see Russia’s interference in the US election in 2016 as the pinnacle achievement of these efforts. But that would be a tragic misunderstanding of the conflict we are facing. The crowning achievement of Russia’s war has been the effective deconstruction of the moral and intellectual bases that have sustained liberal democracy in the West.
This political and economic model which has sustained the achievements of the West for decades is now moribund. We still practice its rituals, such as voting and buying shares, without conviction, and the old press is still speaking as if it’s 1994. But the West has not has not seen the levels of mistrust and hostility towards its fundamental institutions of power since the 1930s. Increasingly, our young value democracy and certain civil liberties less and less. Our societies have never been as fragmented and militant, again, since the 1930s.
The United States took years, billions of dollars, and hundreds of thousands of soldiers to achieve such results in Iraq, in a fundamentally fractured society. Russia has achieved relatively similar results with just millions of dollars and no boots on the ground within our fundamentally unified societies. And, to be clear: it is not an election or two that have been hacked. It has been our entire political culture.
Our societies have yet to develop defences against these kinds of attacks. It is not yet clear whether they will before these attacks alter the character of our societies beyond recognition. But whatever the case, we need to smarted up, and fast. Russia is not fully responsible for the cultural dynamics (the “culture wars”) flaring up in our countries, but they are the most consistent sponsors and greatest beneficiary of our divisions. And until we all recognise that our shared interests need to come before our partisan preferences, the world around us will continue to unravel.
Source: english.alarabiya.net/en/views/news/middle-east/2017/10/24/Russians-have-mastered-how-to-wage-war-in-the-21st-Century.html
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Rohingya Children Need Support, Normality and Education
By Evan Schuurman
24 October 2017
Nine-year-old Hamida* has a bandage wrapped around her head and vacant eyes that suggest her mind and body are worlds apart. I've never seen a child's face look so empty.
Her uncle Ali, who cares for her now - despite her being the eleventh mouth he must feed - says she rarely speaks any more. That is, until dusk each evening. That's when the terror returns.
"She starts to cry and scream out for her mother," Ali says. "During the day she's OK, but everything changes at nightfall. She feels a lot of pain. She cannot sleep."
I learn that Hamida's mother, father and three brothers were all killed by the Myanmar military forces. Her entire immediate family wiped out in a few minutes.
Soldiers entered their village in Myanmar's northern Rakhine State and opened fire, setting homes ablaze and killing indiscriminately. In the chaotic scramble for life, people fled into the jungle, including Hamida. There was no time to take anything or save her family.
It was a brutal, planned massacre, says Ali, whose parents were murdered, too.
Thankfully, a group of villagers decided to take care of Hamida. Carrying nothing but the clothes on their backs, they walked for days on end, up and down mountains and through driving rain.
Battered and bruised, they eventually made it to Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar district, which is now home to some 800,000 Rohingya, including over half a million who've arrived in the past seven weeks.
Most have taken refuge in the makeshift settlements less than an hours walk from the Naf River, which divides the two countries here. They can still see the hills of Myanmar on the other side.
Ali tells me he searched everywhere for Hamida, and eventually caught word that she was in a local hospital. In a time of endless despair, this reunion was a rare joy.
The settlements themselves are a sight to behold. Once lush green hills have been stripped bare. Terraces have been cut into the clay to make space for more bamboo and plastic shelters. When it rains the ground turns into a series of muddy waterfalls, and dirty, contaminated water pools everywhere.
The roads inside the camps are a hive of activity, with large trucks plundering up and down carrying tonnes of aid. Shirtless men run large bundles of bamboo while lone children wander in search of food, money or something to do. Umbrellas are everywhere, protecting people from the harsh sun or heavy rains - it feels as though there's nothing in-between.
This foreign place is home for Hamida for now, along with more than 300,000 other newly arrived Rohingya children, many of whom spend their days in a similar trauma-induced daze.
Over the past few weeks, I have interviewed nearly two dozen Rohingya women, men and children about what happened in Myanmar and what their lives have become in Bangladesh.
Every single one of them told similar stories of deadly attacks on villages and desperate escapes. The heartbreak is everywhere.
The interviews were raw and emotional. Women wept before my eyes as they recounted their relatives being killed and their homes being turned into a blaze of raging fire.
I've deployed to a lot of humanitarian crises over the past five years including places like South Sudan, Iraq and Afghanistan. But I've never seen anything like this, where so many people - especially children - are so visibly distressed or traumatised.
Dealing with this trauma will form a critical part of the humanitarian response. Already agencies like Save the Children are running dozens of special playgroups for younger children known as "child-friendly spaces".
But what's really needed is education. School isn't just about learning; it provides routine and a sense of normality, a place where children can make friends, play and remember what it's like to be children. It's also a critical form of protection from exploitation and abuse, such as trafficking.
Yet right now, more than 450,000 school-aged Rohingya children aren't going to school.
Ensuring children can access education in emergencies like this saves lives. Seeing the haunted faces of so many traumatised children like Hamida, I've never been surer of this.
*Name changed to protect the identity of the child.
Source: .aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/rohingya-children-support-normality-education-171023095307377.html
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URL: https://www.newageislam.com/middle-east-press/kind-regime-sends-children-war/d/113006