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Frontline Sept

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Content
Unplanning, Modi style

'The Planning Commission has become a hindrance'

Limited success

'A gesture to the corporate sector'

Clearance mela

'Displacement of Adivasis will increase'

'A welcome move'

Holding out

Leapfrog growth

The global laggard

10

War without end

12

Notes by vineetpunnoose on www.kiwipaper.com

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Unplanning, Modi style

Sat, Sep 20, 2014

planning commission, Frontline, economics,

By choosing to dump the Planning Commission rather than strengthen and expand its
role to suit the changed environment, Prime Minister Modi has signalled that he does
not want even the minimal checks and balances that an organisation like it can exert
on his neoliberal adventures.
One was that he was making a clear break from the economic policy tradition that
Jawaharlal Nehru and the Congress under his leadership represented. The second was
that he was committed to a trajectory in which the role of the state would be minimal,
in keeping with the slogan "minimum government, maximum governance", and markets
and entrepreneurial "animal spirits" would flourish. that he would not settle for just
renovating and reforming old institutions but wanted to build altogether new ones.
Only the naive can believe that the state has no role in the economic sphere under
capitalism. It can, for example, focus on building the infrastructure that is crucial for
capitalist industrialisation but which the private sector may not have the wherewithal
or the incentive to build in adequate measure. It can address the inequities and "market"
failures that are associated with a growth trajectory driven largely by private
decision-making. It can regulate the private sector to reduce the adverse fallout of
decision-making that privileges profit above all else, leading to profiteering at the
expense of the consumer, labour and the environment. It can emphasise incentivising
private investment even if that implies engineering transfers from the rest of society to
the private sector.
Prime Minister Modi's decision to close down the Planning Commission by no means
suggests he wants the state to have a minimal role, slogans to that effect notwithstanding.
He has centralised considerable economic power in his own office and put pliant
Ministers where it matters so that he can control the direction of economic policy. His
effort to whittle down independent representation on the National Board of Wildlife,
now under challenge in the Supreme Court, reflects his attitude to institutions that could
be impediments to his model of development.
. In fact, the role and agenda of the Planning Commission has been through many
changes since its inception. The Commission was established in an age when the
understanding was that a state-appointed body that combined the vision of politicians
with the expertise of economists, statisticians and scientists would define a strategy
and steer investment in directions that would maximise the growth of output and
employment and distribute reasonably fairly the benefits of that growth.
The configuration of Indian society and state power was such that the assumptions on
what the state would or could do proved wrong. That explained in part the disillusionment
with and the discrediting of planning as practised in the immediate post-Independence

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period.
With the failure of the original conception of planning and the enforced acceptance of
a Plan holiday in India during 1966-69, the country shifted to a revised, scaled-down
role for planning and the Planning Commission. Modi's Independence Day declaration
was not the first time the shape and substance of India's Planning Commission has
been modified, even if not in the current Prime Minister's drastic slash-and-burn style.
The first was to push infrastructural investments--in power, roads, ports, and
communications--without having to place demands on the government's budget. This
required finding ways of building viable public-private partnerships, incentivising the
flow of private finance into long-term capital investments, and deregulating pricing of
infrastructural services so as to render these projects viable. The second was to dilute
or do away with the regulation of private players to realise social objectives and substitute
that activity with direct public action to ameliorate poverty, generate some employment,
ensure a modicum of food security for the poorest and improve a range of human
development indicators in the areas of health and education. Finally, the Planning
Commission was called up to find ways to get the private sector to work for the poor
by delivering credit, devising insurance schemes of various kinds and taking on the
task of social services delivery. The Commission joined the effort to design partnerships
of the public and private sectors that involved the use (or procurement) of private
capabilities to deliver public services for a fee or guaranteed return. A Commission
geared to undertaking these tasks was very different from the body set up to centrally
coordinate investment decision-making in the 1950s.
One is that of being the instrument of "indicative planning", concerning "itself with
the building of a long-term strategic vision of the future and deciding on priorities of
the nation", based on which "it works out sectoral targets", and provides a "promotional
stimulus to the economy to grow in the desired direction".
The second is that of playing "a mediatory and facilitating role" in the allocation of
Central resources between the States and the Ministries of the Central government,
given the resource constraints that a lenient tax regime under liberalisation had generated.
Further, in a system the States resented, the Commission was also given a role in
overseeing the use of the resources that the States had access to through the devolution
of Central taxes and their own resource mobilisation. Annual negotiations over State
Plans provided the means to such monitoring.
Finally, the Commission saw itself as developing a "holistic and integrative approach"
to various social sector schemes in areas critical to human development, such as rural
health, drinking water, rural energy needs, literacy, and environmental protection.

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'The Planning Commission has become a hindrance'

Sat, Sep 20, 2014

Frontline, economics, Planning Commission,

Ajay Chhibber, Director General, Independent Evaluation Office, laid the ground for
the dissolution of the Planning Commission. Prior to being appointed the IEO's DG,
he was based in New York as United Nations Assistant Secretary General and Assistant
Administrator at the United Nations Development Programme. Before that he had
worked at the World Bank for 25 years on a range of development programmes in
Vietnam, Turkey, Indonesia and the Pacific.
The Planning Commission was created in 1950 through a mere Cabinet resolution. It
has no Constitutional sanctity. It came into being through a mere executive order and
then it just continued to grow, taking over jobs assigned to other institutions like the
Finance Commission. Because of a different historical context, it even got into
micromanagement of devolution of funds, how schemes should be run and even to the
extent of how the States should spend those funds.
The States were made to follow the "one size fits all" theory of the Planning Commission
for the implementation of the schemes. The States wanted more flexibility; they wanted
freedom to design their own schemes, the way they should be implemented and the
way funds meant for various schemes should be spent. They wanted to experiment with
new ideas, new ways of implementing ideas. At the moment they are denied this freedom.
We realised that the real problem in schemes not benefiting people lay not so much in
the schemes as such but in the way they were approached by the States. Also, the
majority of the staff at the Planning Commission are generalists, not domain experts,
which made it frustrating for the States to explain different issues.
We realised that the Planning Commission was initially envisaged only as a think tank,
but over a period of time it appropriated to itself the work of other institutions and
started the tight-fisted approach of allocating funds between the Centre and the States
and among different Central Ministries.
there is a general realisation that the distinction between Plan and non-Plan funding
makes no sense now. The distinction should be between current and capital expenditure.

Limited success

Sat, Sep 20, 2014

planning commission, Frontline, economics,

Contrary to the purpose for which it was instituted, the Commission, and its experts,
instead of guiding the Union government in socio-economic matters and devising
sustainable long-term plans, ended up reiterating the government's advocacy of

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liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation (LPG).

This opinion gained ground as most infrastructure development in the past two decades
came from private investment.
the government's decision to wind up the body as a blatant espousal of free-market
capitalism in which the Indian state is setting aside the last vestige of welfarism.
This argument is justified by the fact that despite several limitations, the Planning
Commission has remained the only body that has consistently recommended, through
the Five-Year Plans, increased public expenditure to address socio-economic inequalities
and supported welfare programmes such as the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM),
the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS)
and the Right to Education. its recommendations came at a time when the economic
climate in the country was overwhelmingly neoliberal, which favours zero public
expenditure. the note, prepared on the basis of a directive from the Prime Minister's
Office, limited the functions of the body to areas such as infrastructure, mining,
public-private partnership projects and targeted implementation of the government's
flagship schemes. It does, however, mention that the new institution will have managerial
experts from the social sector to implement the government's flagship schemes in an
effective manner.
The hallowed institution was also responsible for devising strategies to bridge income
inequalities and address the problems of socially vulnerable groups such as Dalits,
Adivasis, women and the disabled. With the closure of the Planning Commission, much
of the responsibility of addressing social and economic deprivation will rest on the
respective Ministries.
The First Five-Year Plan allocated 16.64 per cent of the total Plan outlay for social
services. In what was then considered the government's priority, 5 per cent of the Plan
outlay was allocated to land reforms. Along with this, the Plan resolved to strengthen
higher education to complement economic growth by setting up the University Grants
Commission (UGC) and five Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).
The Second Plan, mostly known as the Mahalonobis Model, focussed on large industries
but set aside a significant amount, Rs.4,800 crore, for the social sector. On the
recommendations of the Third Plan, the Green Revolution was launched, which
transformed the agrarian scene in many parts of India.
The Fourth Plan, in what is still seen as the most radical step to bridge income inequalities,
recommended the nationalisation of banks. The four Five-Year Plans gave primacy to
empowerment of the people through education. Most of the state-sponsored education
structures visible today are the creation of the Plan programmes.
The Fifth Plan (1974-79) was a period of high political turmoil as the government at

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the Centre imposed the Emergency. However, in order to retain political legitimacy,
the Fifth Plan laid stress on income inequalities, which was made more visible by Prime
Minister Indira Gandhi's 20-Point Programme.
As part of this vision, two transformative plans--the special component plan (SCP) and
the tribal sub-plan (TSP)--were implemented. The SCP requires the Centre and the State
governments to allocate budget funds for Dalits in proportion to their number in the
population so as to enhance the flow of development benefits to them. Similarly, the
TSP mandates the governments to earmark for the Scheduled Tribes (S.Ts) 8.2 per cent
of the total Plan outlay. It was from the Seventh Plan onwards that the focus of the
government shifted to the model of private investment for economic growth.
This was also the time when India adopted economic reforms. In all subsequent plans,
until 2002, the state's concern for the socially and economically deprived population
took a back seat. However, the Eleventh Plan (2007-2012), despite adopting the neoliberal
path, devoted a significant section to the social sector.
The institution, for the first time, introduced the term "inclusive growth", a term that
has gained wide usage. Blatant lberalisation and privatisation for more than a decade
did not yield the kind of results the government had promised the people. Income
inequalities widened and social injustices grew leading to widespread protests. People
were not ready to buy the "trickle down" theory (that tax breaks or other economic
benefits to the rich will trickle down to the poor) of neoliberalism. The Planning
Commission was the only body to acknowledge this effect of economic reforms, though
only in a cursory way. The Eleventh Plan was reflective of this sentiment, despite being
overtly driven by LPG policies.
"India's Eleventh [2007-2011/12] and Twelfth Five-Year Plans [2012/13-2017/18]
have emerged as being distinct from the earlier Five-Year Plans insofar as these Plans
had the goal of inclusiveness at the core of the growth strategy. The main features of
the inclusive growth approach under the XI and XII Plans are the following: First, while
faster growth is the main goal, the growth of GDP is not treated as an end in itself, but
only as a means to an end. Second, the Plans recognise that the end outcome of growth
is reduction in poverty and creation of employment opportunities, improving access to
essential services in health, skill and education and other amenities. The third feature
is the group focus, which means that pro-poorness would essentially involve outcomes
that yield broad-based benefits and ensure equality of opportunity for all, especially
the poor, and the poorest among them like the Scheduled Castes [S.Cs], Scheduled
Tribes [S.Ts], other backward castes, minorities and women," economists Sukhdeo
Thorat and Amaresh Dubey write in a paper that reviews of the Eleventh and Twelfth
Plans.
First, it remained a toothless organisation without any power to hold the government
accountable.

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Secondly, the thrust of planning in India has always been driven by economic growth.
"Undoubtedly, in a country like India, Central planning is needed. But throughout the
Planning Commission's tenure, the idea of planning at the macro-level was flawed.
Economic planning was given undue advantage over social sector planning, which is
equally important.
Thirdly, it instituted many committees for substantive restricting of Centrally sponsored
schemes. The B.K. Chaturvedi Committee recommended that 20 per cent of the total
Plan outlay be given to the States. But the Ministries agreed to only 10 per cent. I agree
that the Planning Commission does not have an unblemished record, but uncooperative
Central governments have had a bigger hand in the institution's failures."

'A gesture to the corporate sector'

Sat, Sep 20, 2014

planning commission, Frontline, economics,

because the Planning Commission, for all practical purposes, ceased to exist from the
mid-1980s upon the assumption of office [of Prime Minister] by Rajiv Gandhi after
the assassination of his mother [Indira Gandhi]. People will not perhaps remember, but
he, despite being formally the Chairman of the Planning Commission, had described
the members of the Commission as a "bunch of clowns".
There were some old-timers still left in the Commission who would say such foolish
things like "integrated planning", "coordinated planning", "higher rates of taxation"
etc., etc., whom he wanted to get rid of.
The Planning Commission was presiding over the farce of consultation with the State
governments and showering homilies on them.

Clearance mela

Sat, Sep 20, 2014

environment, Frontline,

it found a villain in environmental non-governmental organisations (NGOs), such as

Greenpeace. A leaked Intelligence Bureau (I.B.) report stated that the activities of these
organisations had slowed the growth rate of the gross domestic product (GDP) by 2 to
3 per cent.
So while journalists had to speculate about what the Ministers had in mind for the
country, they already knew who the villains opposing development were.
The media and the public continued to focus attention on environmental issues even
when the government wanted public attention to be directed elsewhere.

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The first statement the NDA made after forming the government was that environmental
bottlenecks hindered development projects. These had to be removed in double-quick
time, it said.
there would be a maximum time limit for obtaining environmental clearances and that
this limit would be brought down systematically. In the first week of June, the Ministry
launched an online mechanism for applying and getting clearances for industrial and
infrastructure projects.
He announced that small mining projects covering less than five hectares would be
exempted from seeking environmental clearance from the Centre. A clearance from
the State government concerned would be sufficient for such projects, he said.
The aim of the simplification process is to have a single window for environmental
clearance as promised in the election manifesto. This single window may not even be
in the Environment Ministry.
Another move by the government which disrupted an established environmental practice
was the decision to reconstitute the National Board of Wildlife without the mandated
10 independent experts and five NGOs. According to a notification issued by the
Ministry of Environment and Forests on July 22, the reconstituted Board has one NGO
and two experts as members. This goes against the provisions of the Wildlife Protection
Amendment Act, 2002, which stipulates the membership criteria for the Board. The
Standing Committee of the new Board is reported to have cleared most of the 140
projects reviewed during its meeting held in mid-August.
The only area where the government is treading carefully is with respect to the controversy
relating to genetically modified (GM) crops. Initially, the Genetic Engineering Approval
Committee (GEAC) within the Environment Ministry cleared field trials of GM rice,
mustard, cotton, chickpea and brinjal at its meeting on July 18.
There was strong criticism, not just from anti-GM crops activists but also from the
Swadeshi Jagaran Manch (SJM) and the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS), two organisations
that are close to the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh. Following a petition from these
organisations, Javadekar put the GEAC clearance on hold.
On the one hand, as publicly proclaimed by Modi in early June, is the ambition to
launch a tricolour revolution, which includes a second green revolution to increase
agricultural production. To make this happen, the government will need to explore all
options in its portfolio, including genetic modification of crops. On the other hand is
the strong perception among anti-GM activists and organisations, including those with
strong right-wing leanings, that multinational corporations will monopolise control
over seeds through the GM crops route.
These opposing stands have made the government wary. Javadekar's public statements

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were made with one foot in the pro- and the other in the anti-GM food camp. He said
a cautious approach was needed on GM crops even as it was not possible to reject
science. Environmental issues with religious and cultural connotations are the ones that
are confusing the NDA.
As with GM crops, the Sethusamudram project to develop a shipping channel through
the Palk Bay in southern Tamil Nadu will be another area where the government is
likely to tread carefully. The only statement issued by the government on the Sethusamudram
project is from Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari in Parliament. He said the government
would suggest an alternative route that would not require the dredging of the shallow
"Ram Sethu" land bridge in the Bay connecting India and Sri Lanka.

'Displacement of Adivasis will increase'

Sat, Sep 20, 2014

social, Frontline, tribal,

Despite its limitations, the Planning Commission has always made a lot of effort to
conduct periodic surveys about the concerns of Dalits and Adivasis. The Panchayat
(Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, or PESA, and the Forest Rights Act are results of
this consultative process.
It is only because of some legislation guaranteeing some immunity that prevented this
exploitation to some extent. The condition of Adivasis in forest areas is already abysmal
because of this, but now I guess we will be forced to forfeit whatever little preventive
mechanism we have.

'A welcome move'

Sat, Sep 20, 2014

CSR, Frontline, economics,

one can expect that this institution will ensure better targeting of the social and
developmental programmes of the government. A number of welfare schemes of the
government do not reach the intended beneficiaries. In fact, certain corporate social
responsibility (CSR) schemes work better in terms of delivery and social impact. It can
be hoped that the new institution will address these issues.

Holding out

Sat, Sep 20, 2014

Frontline, international, Israel, Palestine,

Abbas' letter asked the U.N. to place the State of Palestine "under an international
protection system". The objectives of the "international protection system" were
threefold. First, to maintain peace and security against "acts of aggression and breach
of peace resulting from Israel's continued occupation and illegal colonisation". Second,

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to promote the rights and well-being of Palestinians within the West Bank, including
East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip "on the 1967 borders". Third, to ensure respect for
the human rights and fundamental freedoms of Palestinians, all denied by "Israel's
ongoing occupation and acts of aggression".

Leapfrog growth

Sat, Sep 20, 2014

Frontline, international, tibet, china,

At the end of the conference, the delegates signed a document called the "Lhasa
Consensus", which stated that Tibet enjoyed sound economic growth and social harmony.
The participants noted that ordinary people were living a contented life and that traditional
culture continued to thrive. Religious freedom, the participants concluded, was evident
all over the TAR. "Prayer flags, pilgrims and people burning aromatic plants for religious
purpose can be seen easily on the streets of Lhasa. The temples are crowded with
worshippers and pilgrims," the participants at the Forum stated. The Lhasa Consensus
statement also said that the situation on the ground in Tibet was radically different from
the one that was being portrayed by the Dalai Lama.
The Herculean efforts of Chinese railway engineers to connect the TAR, "the roof of
the world", to the rest of China has given a similar fillip to the local economy and the
wider region. The Qinghai-Tibet railway, one of the greatest engineering feats of this
century, has contributed significantly to the rapid growth of the Tibetan economy in
recent years. Tibet was the only autonomous region in the People's Republic that was
not linked by rail. The railway, built at a cost of $4 billion and completed in 2005,
reaches an altitude of over 5,000 metres and is the highest railway in the world. About
550 km of the railway is built on permafrost.
Now, the railway is being extended from Lhasa to Xigase, near the border with Nepal.
The line is being further extended to Nyingchi, near the border with India. The railway
will be connected to the inland port of Yadong, situated 300 km from Thimphu and
600 km from Dhaka. This will further expand trade between Tibet and South Asian
countries. (With the Indian Railways also having ambitious plans to extend its network
to the north-east, the time may soon come when people and goods from India can reach
Tibet by train.) The short-term goal is to connect the whole of Tibet to the major cities
of China by the year 2020. Among the tracks planned are the ones to the Nepalese and
Indian borders from Xigase. The 253-km Lhasa-Xigase line became operational in the
third week of August. A total of 116 bridges and 29 tunnels account for 46 per cent of
the length of this new railway line, which passes through scenic alpine valleys and
mountains.

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The global laggard

Sat, Sep 20, 2014

Millennium Development Goals, social, Frontline, MDG,

It should be remembered that these goals and the associated targets were not all that
ambitious --in most cases they amounted to little more than simple extrapolations of
past global average trends. The choice of targets was seen as somewhat arbitrary, and
they were not always equivalent in importance.
For example, the first goal of reducing extreme poverty and hunger is so broad that it
effectively contains several major goals all subsumed under this one head. This became
especially so evident when the critically important target of "full and productive
employment and decent work for all, including women and young people" was added
to the already major targets of halving the proportion of people living in extreme poverty
and the proportion of hungry (or undernourished) people.
Making all these part of one goal seems a bit odd, say in comparison to Goal 2 (achieving
universal primary education) or Goals 4 and 5 (reducing child mortality and improving
maternal health) or Goal 6 (combating human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune
deficiency syndrome, or HIV-AIDS, malaria and other diseases), which are more limited
in scope.
Other MDGs are inadequately delineated by the specific targets chosen. Thus, Goal 3
(promoting gender equality and empowering women) has been reduced to what many
have seen as extremely limited indicators: achieving gender equality at different levels
of education; reducing vulnerable employment of women; and increasing their participation
and representation in politics and government. Similarly, Goal 7 (ensuring environmental
sustainability) is a mix of good intentions (integrate principles of sustainable development
into country policies and reduce biodiversity losses) and specific but limited targets
(halving the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking
water and basic sanitation, and improving the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers).
Whatever their limitations, it is certainly true that the MDGs at least provided a framework
for interpreting and assessing progress in human conditions across the world. The United
Nation's MDG report 2014 provides a useful summary of the achievements of the
various goals in the final year before they are supposed to be met.
A large part of the success of the MDGs is because East Asia (especially China) has
met them well in advance--and the lack of success is largely owing to the lack of sufficient
progress in India. So, it is safe to say that these goals cannot be met globally if India
alone does not meet them.
The U.N. MDG report for 2014 shows that progress on reducing income poverty has
been slowest in South Asia, largely owing to India's relatively poor performance.

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Around one-third of the world's extremely poor people reside in India, according to
this report.
More worrying is the evidence on hunger, where once again South Asia and sub-Saharan
Africa are the worst performers, comparing very badly with the impressive progress
made in other parts of developing Asia. Outcome indicators of child undernutrition
remain significantly above target--and once again nearly one-third of the underweight
children in the world live in South Asia, dominantly in India.
Primary education enrolment has improved across the world, including India, and is
one of the few targets that is likely to be met. However, dropout rates remain high even
at the primary school level; in South Asia they appear to have shown little improvement.
Promoting gender equality and empowering women still remain a distant dream in most
regions. The U.N. report shows that gender disparities are prevalent at higher levels of
education and there is significant evidence of gender discrimination in labour markets
in all regions. In India, we have other evident concerns: the decline in economic
empowerment reflected in falling recognised work participation, the very low political
representation (less than 12 per cent of elected representatives in Parliament), the low
and still falling sex ratio, and the continued incidence of violence against women in
different forms.
Child mortality and maternal mortality continue to be very important concerns, and
once again India is an underperformer in comparative global terms. The world will not
meet the target of reducing the under-five mortality rate by two-thirds largely because
of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
The GoI's report notes that in India the infant mortality rate (IMR) has reduced by
nearly 50 per cent during 1990-2012, with the present level at 42. On such a trend, the
IMR would be 40 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2015, while the MDG target is 27. It
is true that recently the pace of decline has accelerated, but this is still not enough to
meet the declared target.
Similarly, the maternal mortality rate (MMR) in South Asia is estimated to be way
above the 2015 target for the region. The GoI's report suggests that at current trends,
India will reach an MMR of 140 by 2015, falling short by as many as 31 points. This
reflects poor nutrition and sanitation conditions for mothers, low age at marriage,
inadequate attendance of skilled personnel at delivery and many other related problems
that should have been direct concerns of policymakers.
Another area in which the India performance is poor if not embarrassing is in sanitation
and conditions of slum dwellers. Improved sanitation is still more talked about than
acted upon: nearly two-thirds of the estimated billion people globally who have to rely
on open defecation reside in India.

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The National Sample Survey (NSS) 2012 revealed that 59 per cent of rural households
and 9 per cent of urban households had no latrine facilities--and even when such facilities
exist, access to water remains a huge problem.
Meanwhile, Census 2011 has reported 37 per cent growth in the number of slum
households since 2001, with around 18 per cent of the urban population now living in
identified slums.

War without end

Sat, Sep 20, 2014

Iran, USA, ISIS, Frontline, international, Iraq,

The lightning military advances made by the I.S. in northern and central Iraq and its
control of strategic assets such as dams and oil wells had initially prompted a lukewarm
response from the Barack Obama administration.
In fact, initially there seemed to have been some coordination between the Kurdish
administration in northern Iraq and the I.S. The I.S. forces had taken over Mosul while
the Kurdish forces ousted the Iraqi government forces from the disputed oil city of
Kirkuk. But what many observers in the region had viewed as a tacit opportunistic
alliance was short-lived. The I.S. soon turned its attention to the Kurd-controlled areas
of northern Iraq and Irbil, another oil city, prompting the U.S. to insist that the I.S. had
violated redlines.
The threat posed by the I.S. to northern Iraq prompted the White House to order
large-scale deployment of the U.S. Air Force. The U.S. has a consulate and hundreds
of military advisers and security operatives in Irbil.
The Kurdish leadership has been a long-standing ally of the West. An independent
Kurdistan could become an all-weather friend of the U.S. like Israel . The U.S. was left
with no option but to intervene militarily to prevent the collapse of its only political
ally in Iraq, which would have hurt its "special interests" in northern Iraq.
Another reason for the U.S. military intervention is to free the Mosul dam from the
control of the I.S. The dam, which generates electricity and supplies water to a large
section of the Iraqi population, has since been retaken by the Peshmarga and the Iraqi
forces after U.S. planes used massive firepower to disperse the I.S. forces.
The I.S. launched its military offensive at a time when the West's focus was on the
crisis that was unfolding in Ukraine and the Israeli offensive against the 1.8 million
people trapped in the Gaza Strip. While Washington threatened Moscow for the Ukrainian
crisis, it did not lift a finger to stop Israel when it continued to massacre Palestinians.
The death toll in Gaza has touched 2,000.

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The Obama administration has not been forthcoming with military help for the beleaguered
Iraqi Army, which has lost the key cities of Fallujah, Tikrit, Kirkuk and Mosul in quick
succession. The I.S. has declared Fallujah the capital of the "Islamic Emirate" it has
proclaimed. The U.S., instead, chose to make Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki the
scapegoat for the military and political quagmire the country finds itself in. The fall of
Mosul sealed al-Maliki's political fate and he was forced to admit defeat.
The deepening sectarian divide in Iraq is the result of the U.S. occupation of the country
since its invasion in 2003. Washington encouraged a divide-and-rule policy in the
country to prolong its occupation.
Al-Maliki, after two terms in office, was forced to forsake his claim for a third term
after he lost the backing of many allies, including the leading Shia cleric, Ayatollah
Ali Sistani. The new Prime Minister, Haydar al-Abadi, has the support of both Washington
and Tehran. The U.S. viewed al-Maliki as being too close to Iran. The U.S. hoped that
the Western-educated al-Abadi would be more open to its demands. Al-Abadi, however,
faces an uphill task with the Kurds demanding more concessions and the Sunni leadership
refusing to acknowledge the new political realities in Iraq, where the Shias constitute
the overwhelming majority of the population. I
The leadership in Iran is no doubt bemused by the latest talk in the U.S. about targeting
the I.S. positions inside Syria. U.S. was looking at "all options" against the I.S., including
the redeployment of U.S. troops in Iraq. Washington has now classified the I.S. as a
"long-term threat" to U.S. interests. U.S. officials have admitted that I.S. fighters are
using U.S. equipment and military vehicles, including personnel carriers and Humvees.
Hagel said the I.S. was "tremendously well-funded" and that the group posed an
"imminent threat" to U.S. interests globally.
A lot of money has entered its coffers through covert and overt funding from the U.S.'
allies in the region, notably Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The U.S. stood aside for more than
two years as the I.S. grew into a potent force fighting the Syrian government. The Qatari
government was forced to issue a statement in late August denying that it had funded
or supported the I.S. The release of Curtis is an illustration of the influence some of the
conservative monarchies continue to have with "jehadist" groups such as al Nusra and
the I.S.
The Iraqi Army is a shadow of the force it once was. The first thing the U.S. did after
its invasion in 2003 was to disband the Iraqi Army, which had been weakened by the
first Gulf War and the draconian United Nations sanctions. The Iraqi Air Force, once
a potent force in the region, was scrapped altogether.
The new Iraqi Army, set up under the overall supervision of the occupying forces,
turned out to be under-equipped, undisciplined and supervised by corrupt officers.
Recent events have shown that the army is incapable of putting up a fight. The fight

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against the I.S. is now spearheaded by various militias, many of them trained by Iran
and the Hizbullah.
On the other hand, the I.S. consists of experienced fighters who had earned their spurs
in Afghanistan, Chechnya and other terrorist hotspots or those trained by Western
intelligence agencies in Turkey, Jordan and other countries. They had defected from
the moderate groups fighting in Syria, which had the support of the West, Turkey and
the Gulf monarchies.
The I.S. maintained that the execution of Foley was directly connected with the targeting
of its forces by the U.S. Air Force. The group had been allowed a free run in Syria
where the West and its regional allies viewed the secular government led by Assad as
the bigger enemy. "In Syria, ancient Christian churches were destroyed, nuns and
bishops were kidnapped and priests were killed. This was widely ignored in large part
because many in the region and in the West were so focussed on attacking the Assad
government," Edmund Ghareeb, an academic from the American University, observed.
More than 190,000 people have been killed in Syria since the Western-backed insurrection
started four years ago.

Notes by vineetpunnoose on www.kiwipaper.com

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