Behind Pakistan floods, is water shortages

I had no idea it was so bad that the Indus River, like the Colorado, no longer even makes it to sea because it's so overappropriated.

That said, instead of just passing out dam building advice, the Obama Administration should also be passing out birth control advice. (As we should be doing in Iraq, Mexico, Guatemala and all sorts of other places. And India — especially since the Hindu Nationalist Party still seems to have this idea of "winning" a population race with China.)

If Pakistan's population is expected to increase by 50 million in just a decade, NOTHING is more important than preaching birth control, and providing pills, condoms, diaphragms and anything else. In fact, in such cases, we ought to require that birth control goes along with other foreign aid.

Question, though: Does Obama have guts enough to even suggest that?

UK govt minister – distance UK from US on Pakistan

The Labor Party’s Minister for Social Cohesion, Sadiq Khan, says No. 10 Downing has to distance itself from U.S. policy on Pakistan to avoid the possibility of a future generation of Pakistanis hating Britain. Khan, whose parents are from Pakistan, just returned from a fact-finding mission

Kyrgyzstan to close US air base

Well, THIS will likely put Obama’s plans to send more troops to Afghanistan into somewhat of a new light.

And, given that the Kyrgyzstan announcement came just after a Russian foreign aid pot of gold, which is not the only recent Russian stirring in Central Asia, it’s going to reshape other Obama foreign affairs for A-stan “czar” Richard Holbrooke.

Iran computer nuke documents possible fakes

That’s the conclusion of Raw Story in a special investigative report. As President-elect Obama will be encouraged by “centrists” in the Democratic half of the bipartisan foreign policy establishment to keep “continuity” in our Iran policy, the need to stand up to neocon lies on Iran suddenly comes into stronger relief.

Pressure is growing within the International Atomic Energy Agency to stop relying on contents of the computer that U.S. intelligence “came upon” in 2004. The files claim that Iranian company Kimia Maadan is actually a front company for Iran’s government to upgrade its Shahab-3 missile to handle a nuclear warhead.

The IAEA and Director General Mohamed ElBaradai as Gareth Porter points out, in the case of the Niger-Iraq-yellowcake documents, has had no problem in the past calling a forged spade a forged spade. So, stay tuned for an IAEA report due out later this month that includes Iran’s responses to the possibly-forged computer files.

US does not have enemies

Per Ted Rall, we have RIVALS. And, yes, plenty of them.

But, since the Saddam Hussein government is out of power in Iraq, technically, we’re not at war with anybody. (Of course, per the Constitution, technically, we were never at war with Ba’athist Iraq, but that’s a whole nother story.)

Anyway …

Iran? Rival.

China? Rival.

Etc.

Not enemies.

The hate-mongering of U.S. foreign policy would probably drop a notch with more precise use of language.

But, Barack Obama, just like John McCain, talks about “enemies.”

Oh, and Hamas isn’t our enemy either. It IS Israel’s enemy, but, it only becomes our enemy if we make it our enemy.

The blank check to Israel goes on

Israel won’t let the most promising Palestinian university students leave the Gaza Strip. So, the U.S. has withdrawn their Fulbright scholarships.

Of course, U.S. and Israeli officials are now obliquely pointing fingers at each other. That will go on just long enough for the media to forget about the issue and Washington to cut another no-strings check to Tel Aviv.