M. Süheyl Konuksay

  The easily visible downward spiral is not specific to the USA but there is nothing to worry about. All through history empires formed, grew, got rich and a small minority accumulated more wealth than the masses. Those masses also got fat and lazy and reluctant to uphold the original foundation principles of the empire while the rich elites cared for nothing but their wealth. But of course this was what happened in history and as the saying goes history only repeats itself for the incompetent. Certainly, modern US having the best think tanks, uncountable number of universities, the world famous system of checks and balances, and a passable electoral system has the means to avoid this downward spiral. I am certain that the following principles are already being implemented all over the country and applied to foreign relations: The distribution of wealth within the country will be somewhat normalized not by usurping what the wealthy has but by creating more wealth. To create more we...

There is not one but several differences between formal and informal imperialism. I will itemize what imperialism2.0 has and formal version (imperialism1.0) has not (the list is not in any kind of order): IMF (No, not the Imposible Mission Force I mean the real thing International Monetary Fund)  IMF -- International Monetary Fund Home Page WB (World Bank)  World Bank Group - International Development, Poverty, & Sustainability NATO (You do not need a link for this one, obsolete for years) Reserve Currencies  Reserve currency - Wikipedia Credit Rating Agencies  Credit rating agency - Wikipedia UN Security Council  United Nations Security Council veto power NGOs which are funded mostly by government backed organizations or people. Imperialism1.0 had no NGOs. Terror groups are used to eliminate other terror groups created by imperslism2.0 in the beginning. Imperialism1.0 would just send an army to the country to be “protected”, imperalism2.0 arms and trains te...

  There is an original American game called chicken. Two cars drive heading at each other or down a cliff at high speed and the first to steer aside loses or they crash. Somebody dies. It is a very irresponsible juvenile game and no sensible mature person will play. We do not have an equivalent game in Turkey and it is not because cars are more expensive here. But there is a game we used to play before our customs and culture were declared unfashionable by the powers to be. It is called “cirit” (The Javelin)  The Turkish sport of cirit  Played on horseback with wooden blunt javelins the two teams line up maybe 100 metres apart like the medieval armies did and one horseman reaches to the opposing line and challenges somebody and runs back to his line. The pursuer has to hit him with a thrown javelin to make a point. If he hits the horse he loses. If the other catches the javelin in the air he loses but the interesting part is that he wins extra points from the referees if ...

  Once upon a time, as I was told, a very virtuous lady lived in Istanbul. She was so careful of her chastity that no gossip about her was neither made nor heard by a single soul. One day she had to visit a friend at one of the Prince Islands  Prince Islands - Wikipedia  and this being the time before steamships let alone mobile telephony when she had to return she was supposed to take whatever boat was available at the pier. Incidentally the only boat left was one rowboat owned by the most lecherous man Istanbul has ever known in her millennia long history. He was so lascivious that it was almost certain that the virgin riding his boat would land deflowered or the widow with rosy cheeks. Our lady who is the symbol of chastity had to take that boat or spend the night out of her house which of course was unthinkable. So she said to the ferryman “I know who you are and you know who I am so be good and I will pay you accordingly, if you are out of line it will not be good fo...