Damage to the vehicles in the convoy has been held up by Blackwater as proof that its security guards were defending themselves against an insurgent ambush when they fired into a busy intersection, leaving 17 Iraqi civilians dead.
…
The repairs essentially destroyed evidence that Justice Department investigators hoped to examine in a criminal case that has drawn worldwide attention. The Sept. 16 shooting has strained U.S. relations with the Iraqi government, which wants Blackwater expelled from the country. It also has become a flash point in the debate over whether contractors are immune from legal consequences for their actions in a war zone.

However, something about their Cultural Progression over 1,000’s of years has failed to generate a Middle Management Skill-set, at least as far as I saw. I travelled at night by bus, and every night the process of launching a bus towards a destination looked as chaotic as if it was the first time they had ever attempted it.

Also, the pace of Life there is fully 1/3 slower than the West – which is a beautiful thing to un-wind into coming from Assembly-line and Caffeine-driven America, but words like ’speedy’ and ‘fast’ just don’t go with India.

So, I see India having an early advantage in partnering with the West and integrating into the English-speaking Business environment, but there’s not much there to grow the initial good start.

In the long run, however, China is a Juggernaut. In contrast to India, they’ve spent 1,000’s of years developing a very sophisticated middle-management/civil service infrastructure. They need almost no outside resources and have an intensity about them that the Indians don’t.

Plus, the Asian investment mentality is much different than ours. I once asked a Japanese Multi-millionaire how he planned to make money with his first American plant (he had nine in Japan) when his Market (precision metal fabrication) was relatively saturated and he had less than a 1% share. He said, “Not to worry. We are only in year 4 of our 100 year plan!”

Iran, Again
The War Party is pushing us into attacking
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=12189

“This is an election season, and so we have an opportunity to influence the public debate: it’s the season when politicians are open to pressure from us plebeians. No matter whom you support, or which party you identify with, it’s important to make your views known. It’s an outrage that none of the supposed “front-runners” in the presidential race have made a statement on the Hormuz “incident” – or, at least, no such statement has been reported as of this writing, nearly 48 hours later.

How disengaged from world events this election is becoming, with no real discussion of the important issues and everything taking a back seat to the Chris Matthews “horse race” school of reporting. Here we are on the brink of war, and all they can talk about is Mitt Romney’s Mormonism and Hillary’s one recorded moment of authenticity. The Iraq war has been pushed to the background: the “surge,” we are told, is “working.” Move along – nothing to see here. As for the Hormuz incident: why aren’t the candidates being asked about it?

When it comes to directly answering the question of whether the President will come to Congress before launching an attack on Iran, this administration has a long history of evasions. I think it is fair to say, however – given the passage of the Kyl-Lieberman resolution and the White House’s expansive conception of presidential authority in wartime – that the answer is clearly and emphatically no. Senator Jim Webb (D-Virginia) has introduced legislation that would require the President to seek congressional authorization before taking military action against Iran, but that is stuck in committee, and failed to gain much support among the Democratic presidential aspirants. To be fair to Hillary Clinton, she signed on as a co-sponsor of the legislation: the only problem is, she’s just as likely to vote for war with Iran as she is to vote nay. Only two major party candidates that I know of rule out aggression aimed at Iran – and have spoken out loud and clear on the issue – and that is Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul.

So what about Obama, the alleged “peace” candidate now being held up as the alternative to Hillary – and where is John Edwards on this question of a looming war with Iran? These guys are nowhere to be found when it comes to facing down the War Party when and where it counts – and, worse, their “antiwar” supporters are letting them get away with it!”