MACH 3 IS NO LONGER MILITANT

Fans of Mach 3 Gets Militant will notice that today marks a starting point that this blog will be re-inventing itself and evolving into a a new blog called Politics 2.0.

Readers can still expect the same rhetoric and posts that they have become accustomed to except it will be taken to another level now. Opinionated, humorous and independent, Politics 2.0 is the myspace of politics. From Downing Street to Bourbon Street, from the price of oil to the price of cooking oil, from the White house to your house, everything is connected. This blog merely connects the dots . It's world events, as seen on a street level. This is the future of politics.

EAGLES WITHOUT WINGS
Another missed opportunity to spread the Doctrine of Freedom

Press aides to President Bush have been reluctant to confirm whether he will or will not be attending the Beijing Olympic Games. White House press secretary Dana Perino commented this week that Bush "has been very clear that he believes that the right thing for him to do is to continue to press the Chinese on a range of issues, from human rights and democracy, political speech freedoms and religious tolerance, and to do that publicly and privately, before, during and after the Olympics." When pressed as to whether she could say if Bush will attend the opening ceremony, Perino said Wednesday, "I cannot."

Regardless of whether he goes now or does not, Bush has missed the boat in taking a leading role in boycotting the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony. Even Gordon Brown, who is not known to be the most eccentric of British PM’s, Nicholas Sarkozy and my girl Hillary Clinton have decided to boycott the opening ceremony in protest to China’s violent reaction to Tibet. Sources have confirmed that for financial reasons, Mach 3 has decided to involuntarily boycott the Olympics as well.

Bush is now stuck in a conundrum. If he decides to boycott, he will now be just another of those celebrity appearances catching onto a publicity wave. If he goes ahead to the games, then it will send a clear message that being friends with the Chinese is far more important than his doctrine of spreading freedom to the world. So facing this conundrum, Bush at present has decided not to do anything at all, which seems to be the pattern of this administration. Unfortunately, this ostrich in the sand approach of waiting for Dick, dad or Condi to make a choice does not work. Whatever decision or indecision Bush makes, this is another missed opportunity to advance the notion of freedom which has defined this Presidential term so far. Tibet, a peaceful nation, is the poster child for the cause of freedom. When it comes down to the Tachlis of it, “freedom fries” are just plain chips and the Doctrine of Freedom is merely a suggestion.

CZECH MATES

“We have tried to get the Russians to agree that we will participate as equals in a system designed to provide protection to the United States, Europe and Russia," U.S. National Security adviser Stephen Hadley commented on CNN on Thursday April 3, in support of NATO’s decision to back U.S. initiated defence shield in the Czech Republic. In response to Hadley’s remark, blogger Mach 3, who also goes by the alias Castor Troye commented, “What? Are you nuts?” in an undisclosed and unattended press conference.

Building a defence shield in the heart of Europe sends a clear and categorical message to say “everyone on this side of the line is on my team and everyone on the other side…well you didn’t make the cut”. Alluding to repressed childhood memories that we all have of not being picked for the team, the Bush administration has again enforced its For us or Against Us Doctrine where Russia, a country with an unsound history of mental hygiene, is that kid on field who again was left out of the team.

The return of drawing Cold War lines in Europe is not sudden or by accident. Only a year ago, Putin offered Bush the chance to place a missile defence system in the former USSR Republic of Azerbijan to curb the fear of nuclear missiles being launched from Iran and the Middle East region. In response, the U.S. stuck to its original plan and backtracked far from the Middle East to the Czech Republic, throwing cream pie in the Russians’ face. No doubt this is further exacerbated by the west’s wooing of Ukraine and Georgia to join NATO which sends a clear message that the west doesn’t trust Russia.

Instead of actively engaging in a new Russia, the U.S. administration has excluded them from jumping on board the new Europe idea which has forced the Russians to take the rebellious kid approach of being the macho man, anti-democratic, oligarchic stereotype which the Russians seem to enjoy. I guess such an effect is inevitable when the U.S. Sectrary of State is an expert on Soviet affairs, emphasis on Soviet.

Apart from returning the world into a bipolar system, the Czech line in the sand can have another repurcussion which is that Russia will form its own team and friends. After a slap in the face like that, is it unimaginable that Russia could warm up to Iran, the sworn enemy of the U.S.? I hope someone on either side of this translucent iron curtain has some degree of insight into the past and more importantly, some degree of foresight into the future.