Finding historical parallels between the Arab spring and what happened during the Protestant revolution

One theme which has been on the mind of every intellectual in the World ever since the obscure fruit vendor at an obscure Tunisian town had set himself on fire is “Arab spring.” The most pressing issue for the intellectual community is seemingly to understand and forecast what could be the next in these turbulent times throughout the West Asian and North African region. Now following the events in Egypt, Libya and Syria there is also the considerable task to make some sense about the political forces which have been coined as “Islamists”. Much of the discussion about the situation in the region has been to understand and forecast about how would these “Islamists” would try to replace the existing system of the day.

One of the most familiar techniques used by analysts to understand a given situation is to compare the same with a historical event, find similarities and dissimilarities and come up with solutions. It would be thus a fair attitude to try and turn our focus on another very interesting event in the history of the Western civilization which may have quite a few parallels with the current situation in West Asia and beyond. We need to look back at the event of the Protestant reformation and the tumultuous events which followed it.

The Protestant reformation was in many ways a revolt against the existing order of the day which happened to be the Catholic Church and the monarchies which were allied with it. The chain of events had started with the invention of the printing press and subsequent spread of education. This gave the ability to a lot of popular and charismatic church leaders of the day to translate the Latin scriptures into their own languages and thus make it possible for a lot of education and awareness of the scriptures amongst the people of the time particularly those who could afford leisure and resources to afford a good education i.e. the nobles. This widespread awareness of the scriptures allowed the nobles of the day as well as the nascent urban artisan and merchant classes of the day to question the doctrines of Papal infallibility, veneration of Catholic saints and relics and most significantly the worldly rights of the Church and the Monarch to rule and exploit national resources as divinely ordained rights.

The rise of the Protestants (particularly the Calvinists some of whom would later go on to be famously referred as Puritans) tended to extract a harsh response from the existing order i.e. the Catholic Church and her affiliated monarchies like for example the Holy Roman Emperor Philip II of Spain. The revolting forces of Protestantism and the Catholic reactions would plunge much of the continental Europe into terrible bloodletting for decades which would only be culminated at the treaty of Westphalia when most of the combatants were either worn out or had decided in favor of prioritizing Worldly concerns instead of religious dogma by the respective churches.

The current situation in the West Asian region could also be thought to having similarities with that of the time of reformation. The political economy which had started its course ever since the end of the World War I and the subsequent fall of the Ottoman Empire, has been based upon a group of artificially crafted states who are ready to share their vital natural resources with the economic hegemonic powers of the day firstly Britain and France and then the US and erstwhile USSR (and may be China in future). The leaderships in these states have been prepared to buy the allegiance of their restive populations either by drowning their political ambitions in an ocean of enticements or submerging them in the darkness of oppression and tyranny. The economic hegemonic powers have been largely content to let things continue in these ways as long as the vital tap of cheap national resources was likely to continue. The first challenge to this system came in the early 1950-s when the then prime minister of Iran Mohammed Mossadegh nationalized that country’s oil industry. The subsequent Western intervention and overthrow of Mossadegh would ultimately make the way for a Western-backed tyrant to plunder that country and the suppression of all the opposition forces. Thus we can clearly see a clear connection now between the political and economic situation between that of the pre-reformation Europe and the pre-Arab spring political situation of the country.

Now here we can observe another similarity between the two situations. In the case of Europe, it has been the rise of preachers like Luther and Calvin who presented a more or less simplistic solution to what they considered existential problem in their times. They identified (according to the World view of the time) the Catholic Church as the diabolical root cause behind all the evil of the day and suggested replacing the authority of the Catholic Church with a system supported by a most literal interpretation and implementation of the new testament. Similarly we can see in West Asia from Iran in 1979 to Libya and Syria in 2011 that political forces who interpret their problems in a simplistic way to the misdeeds of either “the great Satan” or her “local agents” are gaining momentum and popularity.

The reactions which have given these nascent movements a baptism of fire are also quite similar in nature to the ones the Protestant movements in Europe found themselves into. The persecution of the peaceful protests in Bahrain and the bloody civil conflicts in Syria all attest to the fact. What complicates the picture further is the involvement of the Western powers in the midst of the events and their contradictory policies like for example supporting the rebels in Syria whereas at the same time either ignoring them in Bahrain and trying to crush them in places like Mali and Yemen. So should we expect another violent bloodletting and ultimately a peace when all the combatants are fatigued as it happened in Europe centuries earlier? It would be nice for those who are familiar with the Protestant reformation in the West to remind themselves of the history of Protestant reformation when they want to understand the current spate of tumultous events affecting West Asia

Finding the root cause behind rape in Delhi

Ever since that gruesome evening of December in Delhi which saw the rape of the unfortunate young woman there has been a lot of angry popular demands for delivering quick retribution to the perpetrators of this heinous crime. Considering that in India every hour sees the heinous violation of a woman, I guess it is time for us to look into the mirror and ask some questions about how women are perceived in our society. It is true that the perpetrators of the crime were scantly educated yet a lack of a proper education can hardly be considered as an excuse for this heinous crime. Now I use the word “scantly educated” to describe the attitude through these men may have considered their victim. It is this particular attitude which we need to consider when we decide to find the root cause of the prevalent rape scenarios in India. Considering that these men had very few opportunities to get a formal education (particularly for the 17-year old juvenile who has been accused of being a prominent perpetrator in this ghastly crime), their outlook and world view are formed by the predominant popular social culture in which they live and the most important element of this popular culture which plays a great role in nurturing these people’s world view has to be Bollywood, considered as India’s answer to Hollywood. Ever since India opened up her economy, Bollywood movies have gone a sea change and the media industry’s attitude towards women also has changed considerably in the last few years. Whereas in the 60-s and 70-s it was rare to see prominent heroines showing their navels, forearms or thighs, now days these types of expositions of women have become common place. The display of the types of female characters also has gone a sea change whereby previously the emphasis was given upon the female character being a proud daughter, obedient sister, a faithful wife, a loving and caring mother and truthful lovers, now days the emphasis has solidly shifted towards female characters who are not hesitant to use their suggestive charms to move ahead in life. There was a time when there was the thought to spread the message of Indian women being the anchor of the traditional family and now days the focus has shifted towards women using whatever means at their disposal to get ahead in life. This should be considered as productification of women since now days we see in our films that every feminine grace and charm of womanhood becoming a commercially viable product which can be lured to attract as many as young men as possible to the theaters

.

Talking about the current productification of woman in Bollywood, one also needs to have a look at how the opening up of the Indian economy has played its part in terms of different aspirations amongst people. In the case of the rape victim and the juvenile perpetrator, we can observe this chasm between how different people look to live their dreams. The woman in question as we know by now belonged to a lower-middle class family who has had the option of sending their daughter into higher education in the big city since they could afford to sell a small piece of land which they owned. The family of the juvenile perpetrator presents a completely different picture to the family of the victim since this family was surviving on doing farm work on someone else’s lands and had very little in terms of fortune to send their kids to even a primary school let alone sending them for higher education. In fact we also come to know that the mother of the said perpetrator was forced to send his perpetrator son who also happens to be the first-born in the family to work as a service-boy in a Delhi restaurant at the age of 11. Thus we can see the two different India-s which came into being ever since the economic liberalization of the 1990-s clashing with each other as fierce competitors in an uneven game where there is very few if any decency or honorable conduct is part of the game. Is this the economic game our policymakers had in mind when they thought of unleashing the animal spirits in this country? After all human mind works in various intriguing ways which can be hardly fathomed easily.

Another question which could also be raised about the spontaneous protests and this does not bode well for the future of this country. Most of our protestors were fixated on seeking quick gratification for the horror by seeking death penalty for the rapists. Undoubtedly the perpetrators of this heinous crime deserves harshest punishment however is this also not a very good opportunity to tackle the question of the productification of women in the most popular cultural medium in India ? After all the productification of women in this country does very little to nurture positive outlook towards women. The public anger which is apparent at this moment could also be a very good opportunity to tackle the question of productification of women in the popular culture in India and how to prevent it.

We also need to ask ourselves another significant question. Why it was this particular gruesome incident, the rape of a young woman from Hindi-speaking background, which made it possible for the urban middle-class youths to come out from their self-imposed slumbers? Would we have been able to see the same outpouring of emotions on the streets of Delhi, if the victim would have been a Muslima from Kashmir or from any of the north-eastern tribes in India’s restive frontiers, considering that allegations of rapes of these peoples by Indian military men are not very infrequent in nature? This is one question we need to answer as we look into mirror to think about this particular tragedy.

The main fundamentals of the current situation in Sudan

The main fundamentals of the current situation I Sudan are

1.       The Khartoum ruling establishment would love to strengthen it’s position by creating a war-like situation and thus uniting the population behind it’s war efforts.

2.       The South Sudan government is struggling to hold together it’s ragtag army and an ambitious army general could mount a local initiative and thus change the whole equation.

3.       The third force in the Sudan conflict are the South-Sudan backed militias who have been fighting the Sudanese government for overthrowing of the government in Khartoum.

4.       The biggest source of problem between the two sides is the distribution of the oil money in a fare manner between the two parties. Most of the oil wells happen to be part of South Sudanese territory whereas the distribution pipelines which pour oil from South Sudan to the outside World, all culminate in the Sudanese territory of Port Sudan. So the question of transit-fee here is very crucial particularly for the government in Khartoum.

5.       None of the governments pose overwhelming power to destroy each other. In fact it is clear from recent clashes that both powers lack not only enough firepower to overwhelm each other but they also lack enough monitory power to outlast each other.

6.       Both the governments need to unite their people behind themselves considering that people in the respective countries have been suffering a lot ever since this conflict first started.

7.       The interests of the outside players are also very important to understand the nature of the conflict. The governments of Ethiopia and Kenya have been directly backing the South Sudanese government. The South Sudanese government is also considering the creation of a proposed oil pipeline from it’s territory to Lamu , a Kenyan port.

There is also much foreign interest in terms of countries like Israel, China and the USA to the current situation in these two countries.

Israel has been apparently willing to deport a considerable number of its ever-so-growing economic asylum seekers in the Southern Sudanese territory irrespective of their origins. So naturally as a country with less number of dependable allies in the African continent, the Israeli government was one of the most important of the countries to back the establishment of an independent South Sudanese state.

China also has an important stake in the region. Considering that it is the biggest consumer of Sudanese crude, China would always like to have an important say in what goes on between Khartoum and Juba.   

The main interest for the Chinese would be to ensure safe passage of Sudanese crude into the Chinese economy and they are willing to bring pressure on both the two disputing parties to prevent further tension.

The Americans would also have an interesting stake in the region since the Americans consider the government in Khartoum as not enough open-minded to the dictations of AFRICOM and thus they would like to maintain a strong amount of pressure upon the Sudanese government.

The wild card in this conflict could well be the fluid situation arising out of chaos after the fall of the Muammar Qaddafi regime in Libya and the loose situation with regards to the flow of arms in the region. Already the country of Mali has seen a rise in Islamic sentiments in it’s northern territory and with more clashes between the two Sudans, the Islamic elements who are always eager to fill these types of political vacuums, may decide to fill in the gaps that may arise out of the situation in Sudan.  

In the final analysis , one needs to mention that at present we can expect a continuous stalemate between the two parties since no one side posses enough resources to claim outright victory over the other and the outside pressure on both the countries for keeping the stalemate are considerable.

So we can expect one side to up the ante from time to time for securing concessions so we need to embrace for periodic upheavals in the overall situation.

Without the International community putting into place a relief mechanism to alleviate the causes of the parties it would be important to understand that this prolonged stalemate between the parties is an inevitable outcome here.

Random Thoughts On the global economy_Part1

Most glorious ideas and extraordinary inventions come into being during the time of existential crises. Human propensity to work at its best comes into fruition when the species cowers under the fear of extinction of the way of life which it holds most dear. New ideas and new horizons open themselves up before the human eye only at the crisis when the human existence finds the need for them.

The current global economic crisis is one such situation which calls for new approaches and new kinds of solutions. Before we think about possible solutions just let us have a look at how we arrive at our problems.

At the end of the Second World War, the all victorious allies came together in what is now known as the Bretton Woods conference and the bricks for the foundations of the current global economic order were laid.

The idea behind the global economic structure can be observed such as this ; the two wings of the Western civilization aka Europe and the United States were considered to be the primary consumers in the perennial economic dialectic of supply and demand and the rest i.e. the nations from Africa , Latin America and Asia were considered as the providers. Since economy is an ever changing game of demand and supply, the health of the global economy is thus dependent upon the social vagaries in the two wings of the Western civilization which constitutes roughly 15-20 per cent of the global population [1].

This is the model which would later come to be known as globalization.

That is why when USA goes into cold after playing with harmful habits like reckless financial speculation or when Europe catches flue because of bursts in real estate bubbles, the rest of the World needs to check their temperatures.

Since much of the production of casual and familiar goods in the Western countries have been outsourced to the meager wage countries , thus there are very few primary avenues left in the Western World other than enticing would be customers with proponents of cheap credit. Thus without the prospects of improvements in terms of job prospects in the Western hemisphere the only major form of consumption has been cheap credits and hopes of quick gratification.

We need to mention that this system run its course as long as it could have done however without viable means of repayment, this system had to come to an end as it did in 2008.

In order for the global economy to arise from the ashes of the globalization model thus the only plausible solution is for the diversification of the global economy so as to create domestic demand in the hitherto-providing nations.

Two of the Asian giants, India and China, can thus be said to be the natural candidates for shoring up the global domestic demand.

The unfortunate scenario for the rest of the World is that India as a democracy can seldom claim strong and decisive decision making as its best forte in her last six decades of history. Prioritization of resources also seems to elude the minds of Indian policymakers.

The current scenario whereby India tries to shore up the flagging fortunes of the European nations by offering a $10 Billion USD into the IMF coffers or India becoming the largest arms importer in the World hide the fact that India has to think about lifting her fuel subsidies which are much needed for its millions of poor citizens. The impact on the purchasing ability of the common Indian “aam aadmi” as a result could be significantly compromised.

Thus it leaves the job of the heavy lifting of global consumer demand on China which has a much sound leadership capable of taking tough decisions.

India_US_Iran new triangle

Abstract: The recent decisions by the Indian government to drastically reduce India’s existing energy trade with Iran may give birth to unforeseen repercussions for the future.

                         Possible repercussions of India’s souring relations with Iran

The recent decision by the Indian government to substantially reduce the existing energy trade with Iran may have had many possible reasons. Indeed many noted International affairs experts like Vijay Prashad believes this was India’s acquiescence towards overall US position in Iran. [1]

                   “The US has sought an alliance with India for the past decade with the aim of putting pressure on China, of balancing out its reliance upon Pakistan's geographic location, and of isolating Iran in the forums of the non-aligned world.”

                           And again he mentions the following in the same article [1].

                  “By many indications, India has accepted the broad policy orientation of the US on Iran, and to a lesser extent on Afghanistan. On China there is less harmony.”

Irrespective of the motives behind this position taken by the Indian government, it is important to understand what could be the possible repercussions behind this decision.

1.     The overwhelming majority of global oil trade and subsequent pricing of this is done through two markets a. New York Mercantile exchange (NYMEX) where oil is valued with reference to West Texas intermediate crude standards and b. London’s IPE where oil prices are referenced in respect to the Brent crudes produced in the North Sea.

2.      In both these two markets, the trade is done through futures trading whereby the buyer agrees to take delivery and the seller agrees to provide a fixed amount of oil at a pre-arranged price at a specified location.[2] Since futures trading systems are complex mechanisms this may enable volatility regarding oil prices.

3.     Now in both these two markets all the transactions are made in US dollars. Iran came up with the idea of its own Iranian oil trading market which started operating in this year march in Kish Island of Iran. The Iranian idea is to allow trading of oil in terms of a range of national currencies like Euro , Yen , Yuan and Rupee and the transactions would be done not in the future trading system but in the “on-the-spot” type of system whereby direct trading and fixing of prices between the buyer and seller can be done without the involvement of any possible third parties thereby reducing speculation ad volatility in the prices.[3]

Indeed there are many prominent experts who believe that the real bone of contention between Tehran and Washington has little to do with Iran’s nuclear program but Tehran’s decision to open its own oil trading system.

4.     Since we in India are now starting to look to other options instead of Iran when it comes to energy imports , it means that we would be doing more in terms of dollar-based transactions with regards to our oil purchases and thus we would be more open towards subsequent volatility in International oil markets.

5.     Considering our already substantial trade deficits and also considering that a large share of this comes with India’s burgeoning oil import bill, more exposure to International market price fluctuations of oil may not be necessarily good for our hopes of cutting our trade deficits in near and long term futures.

Had our leaders shown the foresightedness by continuing through our existing Iranian oil imports, we would have been able to take advantage of the situation and strike deals which may well have been beneficial for us like for example if we in exchange of Iranian oil could have been able to sell our substantial amount of surplus Wheat as well as help Iran in building infrastructure as well as other important aspects like aircraft spare parts. All these would have been beneficial to us without much inflating our already precarious trade imbalances.

6.     Another technical aspect of reducing oil imports from Iran has to do with the capacity of our refineries to handle non-Iranian crude. Iranian crude oil is considered to be a variety of light crude which can flow easily through the terminals of the refineries. Now our need to switch to non-Iranian crude could mean that we may need to remodel our existing refineries and this ensures that our overall input costs could further swell.

7.     The exposure to International market prices has already caused a price hike in India in the last month with further possibilities in short-term future. [4] [5] Irrespective of political ruckus behind this, one possible impact of any further hike in domestic petroleum prices would be to further tighten the purse strings of Indian consumers which could ensure overall reduced consumer demand. This is something the country can ill afford at this critical juncture of our economy when it is already suffering from lower rates of productivity.

8.      There are some talks regarding possible future issues involving insurance for Indian companies after the July 1 when European sanctions on insurance companies comes to effect with respect to the tankers containing oil from Iran. [6] This is where the benefit of the long-proposed overland energy pipeline from Iran to India via Pakistan comes into play.

This pipeline if constructed would have reduced our dependence on overseas insurance cover for these kinds of emergency situations. The construction of a pipeline such as this one would also have provided much needed commercial boost for our acrimonious relations with Pakistan. Iran and Pakistan are willing to go ahead with their part on this pipeline and it is up to us to make our mind on this vital issue.

9.     Increasing economic interactions with the countries of Central Asia has been one of the key features of Indian foreign policy establishment of late. The Iranian port of Chah Bahar is one of the ports through which we are able to pursue our trade with some of the Central Asian countries. Our decision to reduce oil imports from Iran may jeopardize those crucial trade links with Central Asia.

10.                         Our past contacts with Iran had helped us considerably with regards to Afghanistan. Indeed during the Taliban reign of Afghanistan; Tehran was one of the very few foreign capitals with which we could have made contacts in terms of our existing ties with the then anti-Taliban northern alliance. We have already made substantial economic and infrastructure investments in Afghanistan in the past decade or so and in a post-US Afghanistan, the future of those investments of ours may very well be in uncertain terms considering now we have burnt sufficient amounts of bridges with Tehran. A realignment of Tehran and Islamabad on their common opposition to any continued presence of Western forces in that country is certainly not what our policymakers did expect in the first place.

11.                         It is without doubt that our policymakers had made the decision to reduce our imports of Iranian oil with certain long-term interests in mind. But this decision also gives us an image that when it comes to holding on to our commitments even under duress and compulsion, India could be fragile and malleable. This and all the other economic repercussions that have been discussed here are substantial when our leaders and policymakers make their next move with regards to Iran.

REFERENCES

[1] “India: the US doormat into Asia?” by Vijay Prashad published on AsiaTimes on Jun 19, 2012.

      [2] “Oil Markets explained” published on BBC on October 18, 2007.

               [3] “Iran Opens oil bourse – Harbinger of Trouble for New York and London” by John Daly published on OilPrice.com on July 18, 2011.

             [4] “Petrol bomb: Fuel price hike angers political parties” published on HIndustanTimes on May 23, 2012.

            [5] “Indian shares rise on hopes for fiscal measures” published on Business Standard on June 20, 2012.

            [6] “Insurance to stop Indian shippers handling Iran oil in July: sources” published on livemint.com on June 11, 2012.

The state of the American military mind

Abu Gharib in 2003. Fallujah and Haditha in 2005. American marines urinating on dead Taliban, burning copies of Quran and US gunmen massacring innocent civilians in 2012. These incidents are both disturbing and increasingly worthy of creating derision in the minds of many in America as well as across the globe.

A clear pattern can be clearly observed here. The pattern here is that a group if young US servicemen in spite of their rigorous training programs which mean to term them into disciplined and law-obeying young men, are not following what they are taught to and becoming involved in acts which can be easily categorized as derisive and dangerous to prestige and reputation of the United States all over the Muslim world.

                                                       
Belmont v/s Fishtown

To understand and find the exact reasons into why there is this spurt in the unfortunate and tragic events involving American servicemen who are otherwise noted for their discipline and valor we need to take a deep and long look at the specific strata of American society from which they come.

Charles Murray, a noted social commentator in the American affairs has pointed out in his latest book “Coming Apart” in vivid terms the growing economic and social inequality in the US. Charles Murray mainly points out that the growing economic inequality in the US has given rise to two separate economic classes in the US with almost oxymoronic social attitudes and quickly diverging lifestyles.

According to Charles Murray, the economically backward areas of US are the ones prone with more divorces, lack of social capital, a breakdown in family values, a spurt of single mothers, a bulge of social crimes and myriad other social issues.

As Murray has pointed out clearly in his book that the growing economic inequality in the USA, creating two different classes of peoples with increasingly divergent worldviews. Murray decides to divide the two classes into two superficial entities; one is Belmont which represents the richer elite strata of the society and then there is Fishtown or the comparatively poorer sections of American populace.

Belmont according to Murray has fewer divorces, out-of-wedlock children, fewer educational dropouts, fewer broken families and fewer drug addicts and fewer levels of indebtedness, home foreclosures and most importantly lesser number of violent crimes.

By Murray’s analysis Belmont and the social class i.e. the rich , upper-class that it represents not only does well over Fishtown in terms of wealth creation but it also does well in terms of fostering better human qualities amongst its people.

The status of American family has gone through a tremendous transformation whereby a majority of women under the age of 30 now give births to their children as single moms. [2] Undoubtedly it is Fish town than Belmont which leads in this phenomenon according to Murray. [3]

As a result many kids will be living under single parents with either mom or dad in the role of playing both parents’ part as well carrying the burden of being the only bread earner in the family. In most of the cases though it is the single mother who has to play the roles and responsibilities of both the parents while being the sole wedge earner in the nuclear family. [2]

Many prominent psychologists opine that  all of our important character traits generate from the subconscious section of human mind and two fundamental parts of human subconscious i.e. anima and animus actually play important parts in helping the child develop important character traits such as sympathy , love , responsibility and fighting spirit.

Now the anima is the aspect which is grown inside a Child’s subconscious mind from 0 to 6 years of age and this aspect is developed primarily by the influence of the mother. Anima helps a child grow qualities such as sympathy and love.  The aspect of Animus which helps a child build character traits of responsibility and fighting spirit is developed from the 6 to 12 years of a child and this particular quality is developed by the influence of father.

So by the science of psychology the biggest negative effect of children who come from single parents or broken families is that they do not sufficiently grow their anima and animus which in later years may prevent them from developing important character traits such as love , sympathy , taking challenge and taking responsibility for own actions.

Since Fishtown overwhelmingly leads Belmont when it comes to phenomenon such as divorces and broken marriages and single moms, it can be argued that Fishtown also leads Belmont when it comes to producing children without proper parenting i.e. children without sufficient amounts of Anima and Animus grown into them. This makes the children from Fishtown vulnerable to lacking important character traits such as love , sympathy , taking challenge and taking responsibility for their own actions etc.

Unfortunately it is Fishtown rather than Belmont which produces more prospective employees for what is probably the most important institution for projecting America’s image abroad i.e. the US military. [1] This deprives America to deploy her best talents in the military profession since it is Belmont which by far outshines any other social strata in the US when it comes to producing children with better abilities and talents.

Since the military service in the US is voluntary we can argue that it is the economic problems that lead to many from Fish town to seek employment in what is probably the last port of call for them in hard economic times i.e. the American military. [1]

This suggests that the US military may be burdened with the fact that a considerable amount of its potential recruits may be coming from a social strata like Fish town with not sufficient amount of social capital.

                                               
The phenomenon of quick gratification

Another prevailing situation in the USA is that abundance of items which bring quick gratification and pleasure. Now day’s kids from a very early age have access to various electronic gadgets and mobile phones of all different hues, providing a very quick gratification.

As the child grows up in age they tend to develop a tendency to find out quick and simple solutions to problems in general and at times at very small inconveniences.  This habit can tend kids to treat problems in a very simplistic manner and find out solutions also in a similar way. This character trait can be attributed to the habit of a child to satisfy him with objects of quick gratification from his child hood.

The absence of anima and animus also could be attributed to a child’s inability to find other than simplistic and temporary solutions.

In an wartime scenario, for a young man who does not possess sufficient amounts of anima and animus due to a troubled childhood and who is prone to seek simplistic solutions to his problems may find himself taking the painful but sudden and abrupt decisions which ultimately leads to tragic incidents such as Abu Gharib , Fallujah and Kandahar.

                                                                  
Lack of deterrence

Another significant factor which could be considered as vital in addition to the above two reasons is the reluctance of the American military authorities to hand down tough sentences to servicemen found guilty of disturbing acts.

Normally after a tragic incidence a familiar ritual can b observed whereby senior American officials apologize, an investigation commission is formed, and the families of unfortunate victims are compensated, media claims “these are works of a few rotten apples and we are not like these” and then the perpetrators of the act gets the maximum penalty of being discharged from the service.

In a country like the USA which still boasts of carrying out most number of death penalties is yet to hand down a single capital punishment to any perpetrators of these tragic acts thereby creating an impression to some of these would-be perpetrators of these terrible acts that they would at most be discharged from the service.

David P Goldman aka Spengler has pointed out that there tends to be strong disincentives for crime once the state comes with rigorous penalties for those who commit crimes. [4]

This is a very interesting dilemma for the American policymakers. The mindsets which lead people to commit horrible tragedies at places like Kandahar and Fallujah, do not take a leave when they come back home. If America does not come up with a strong deterrence to the serious disciplinary issues which are exemplified by her soldiers committing tragic and horrible crimes, there may be unforeseen and unpredictable consequences.

As Ron Unz points out citing a recent New York Times story described the morale-building visit of Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta to our forces in Afghanistan and noted that all American troops had been required to surrender their weapons before attending his speech and none were allowed to remain armed in his vicinity. [5]

Robert Fisk also points out that the top US commander in Afghanistan Gen. John Allen had to appeal to his troops for being calm and not act hastily for revenge after news spread out about the death of two American servicemen following the Quran burning riots in Afghanistan in early, 2012. [6]

These are probably the two most serious examples of breakdown of discipline in the ranks of American military in a long time. This trend is disturbing to say the least since after all Timothy McVeigh was also a psychologically troubled veteran.

                                                                     
References

[1] “Youths in Rural U.S. Are Drawn To Military” by Ann Scott Tyson published in “The Washington Post” on Friday, November 4, 2005 (URL: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/03/AR2005110302528.html)

[2] “For Women under 30, Most Births Occur Outside Marriage” by JASON DePARLE and SABRINA TAVERNISE published in “The New York Times” on February 7, 2012 (URL : http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/18/us/for-women-under-30-most-births-occur-outside-marriage.html?_r=3&pagewanted=all)

[3] “Tramps like Them: Charles Murray Examines the White Working Class in ‘Coming Apart’” by Nicholas Confessore published in “The New York Times” on February 10, 2012 (URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/12/books/review/charles-murray-examines-the-white-working-class-in-coming-apart.html?pagewanted=all)

[4] “What would James Q Wilson tell Mexico?” by Spengler published in “Asia Times” on March 20, 2012 (URL: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/NC20Dj02.html)

[5] “China’s rise, America’s fall” by Ron Unz published in “The American Conservative” on April 18, 2012 (URL: http://www.theamericanconservative.com/blog/chinas-rise-americas-fall/)

[6] “Madness is not the reason for this Massacre” by Robert Fisk published in “The Independent” on March 17, 2012 (URL: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-madness-is-not-the-reason-for-this-massacre-7575737.html?origin=internalSearch)