Posted on 06/12/2006 3:52:37 AM PDT by Oshkalaboomboom
Some see it as a NATO counterweight. Others call it a Club for Dictators or at least neardictators. Some consider it an antiAmerican stalking horse for Chinese and or Russian hegemony, with the potential to become "OPEC with nukes."
Whatever: The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) a so-called "anti-terrorism, anti-separatism, anti-extremism" grouping, including China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, which holds its fifth annual meeting this week - definitely reeks of trouble for Uncle Sam.
Start with this: The "anti-terrorism" SCO has given observer status to Iran, the world's top state sponsor of terrorism including an annual convention of just about every terror group on the planet.
Then consider the wider strategic implications. Beijing and Moscow are using the SCO as a tool to eliminate U.S. influence in the Eurasian heartland the home to half the world's population, a key front in the War on Terror and the location of key world energy supplies.
The SCO formally agreed at last year's summit to reverse America's post-9/11 military presence in Central Asia. Soon after, Uzbekistan closed Karshi Khanabad airbase to U.S. forces. Now the rulers of Extortistan - er, Kyrgyzstan are trying to raise the price of the U.S. lease on Manas airbase rent from $2 million to $200 million a year.
The United States has asked to participate in some meaningful way in the SCO since 2005, such as observing meetings or military exercises - and been flatly denied.
The SCO has offered observer status to India and Pakistan as well as Iran, and discussed full-membership for all. Iran and Pakistan are keen to join - and may be offered the chance later this year.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may push for membership at this week's session it would help scuttle U.S. and European Union pressure over Tehran's nuclear program.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
SCO? I thought they were talking about the United Nations.
Iknow little of this SCO, but what I have learned over my 62 yars is that, if Russia is in it you can bet it wont help the USA.
I believe the Russians are fine people, but their leadership seems to be afflicted with an urge for power ,not only over their own people but the world.
MAD, (Mutually Assured Destruction) kept us safe for the duration of the cold war.
We "won" the cold war and guess what? Same people, Russia controlled by KGB, Communist China, Fidel Castro, etc, have simply found they can avoid MAD, by have some bogeyman find a nuke or two and smuggle them in to the US.
Nobody here but us chickens, they would say.
Agreed. I guess they get the "Hidden Observer" status. I have been saying it in other threads that Asia-Pacific needs a treaty on the same lines as NATO. Call it the Indo Pacific Treaty Organization. Base it on the same lines as NATO, accept only continuous democracies as members. Get Japan, India, Thailand, Singapore and the likes on board. And then we have a battle on our hands with SCO. SCO is nothing but Warsaw PAct with different members.
True. The USSR is making a comeback, and China never reformed.
PIng
Brilliant!
Sometimes I wonder at some folks ability to self-govern.
which I began writing in 2000 with the help of a number of Freepers, and finished publishing (the fifth volume of that series) in 2004.
With the effort to attract and potentially include Iran in that organization (if indeed that occurs), and left unchecked, it will set the stage for the horrific confrontations between that organization (which in my series included China, N. Korea, Iran, most of the the 'stan states, and ultimately India, with economic ties to Russia) and the west that I wrote of in that series.
Very similar to what Japan envisioned with the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere in the 1930s and 1940s...leading to the same type of disasterous confrontations and results.
IBTRWC!
And $30 oil will fix a lot of mischief in the world.
"Iknow little of this SCO, but what I have learned over my 62 yars is that, if Russia is in it you can bet it wont help the USA.
I believe the Russians are fine people, but their leadership seems to be afflicted with an urge for power ,not only over their own people but the world."
Couldn't agree with you more. And the one thing the Russians do better than anyone else in history, as far as I'm concerned, is subversion. Buroughing into the governments and societies of other countries.
Up until the 1950s, they did it openly with communist parties around the world. In the 1960s they got smarter. Created the New Left not just in the US but around the world. They don't control it as tightly as they controlled communist parties---but you can bet their influence on the Left is very big. And have you noticed that all these different leftist groups in the United States, while their goals seem unrelated, such as homosexuality, anti-Christianity, glamorization of drug use, dumbing down education---they all help to tear down the United States of America in some way---and they all support each other. Who is more logical to be behind this movement than Russia?
Fully agree with your # 7, and have been saying it all along, albeit I would use the expression "never reformed" to Russia/USSR as well.
"The SCO formally agreed at last year's summit to reverse America's post-9/11 military presence in Central Asia. Soon after, Uzbekistan closed Karshi Khanabad airbase to U.S. forces. Now the rulers of Extortistan - er, Kyrgyzstan are trying to raise the price of the U.S. lease on Manas airbase rent from $2 million to $200 million a year."
The SCO's plans-- if successful-- would lead to an immense setback to the United States' War on Terror; American troops in the Central Asian countries are a necessary buffer to prevent Islamist fanaticism from spreading northward, and Putin is making an immense strategic error by opposing their presence. After all, if Islamist fanaticism moves northward, *Russia* will be its major target. The Islamists have, after all, already manifested aggressive designs on Russia via attacks like the Beslan school shooting.
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First thing's first...
1. Russia is the main controller in the SCO, not China.
2. Russia could wipe china out in two seconds if it wanted to. Therefore, China won't try anything brash. And so won't the Islamic world.
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