Author Archives: Marc Ginsberg

Vive La France “Hollandaise”?

Marc GinsbergAdmittedly, I am an unabashed Francophile and will miss Nicholas Sarkozy for purely selfish foreign policy reasons. Sarkozy has been a steadfast U.S. ally and reliable trans-Atlantic partner no matter his shortcomings at home. So with the vote tally completed last evening in Paris, Francois Hollande will ride triumphantly into the Élysée Presidential Palace as the first Socialist president in over 24 years with a mandate to end German-style austerity force fed by the European Union's paymasters. Hollande faces many hurdles: he must reverse an unemployment rate rocketing north of 10% that is 50% higher than Germany's at 5% yet fulfill a campaign pledge not to mess with France's social safety net by cutting government spending. Tall orders for the callow Hollande, who built his winning margin on a promise to bring the French "change you can believe in." But delivering change requires Hollande to tackle France's mounting fiscal challenges, which he can only do by jettisoning the eurozone bailout pact Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel force fed on France and its EU partners. That will require Hollande to devise a magic formula to rein in France's deficit without torching any hope for economic growth.
Posted on May 7, 2012 By Marc Ginsberg
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Gaddafi’s Gone – All Hail the TNC!

The Libyan people have paid a heavy price to bring about this day of euphoria since their uprising began in mid-February. Tens of thousands of Libyans are dead and wounded, or homeless. Most of Libya's cities abutting the Mediterranean between Tripoli and Benghazi have been destroyed. The country is awash in militias, self-anointed revolutionaries, and a population thirsting for justice and a better life in a free society. All tall orders for Libya's triumphant governing Transitional National Council (TNC).
Posted on October 21, 2011 By Marc Ginsberg
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Syria’s Double Diplomatic Muscle

Harkening back to the grand old days of Sino-Soviet diplomatic chicanery, Moscow and Beijing yesterday jointly vetoed a watered-down United Nations Security Council resolution condemning Syria for its escalating brutality against democracy protestors. With the draft resolution in the diplomatic oven for months as violence throughout Syria escalated, the pitiful display of international indifference to the plight of the Syrian people says a lot about who is on what side of Arabs seeking greater freedom. Memo to the Syrian people: It's Russian-built tanks and military aircraft which are targeting you.
Posted on October 6, 2011 By Marc Ginsberg
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Mideast Milosevic

Bashar al-Assad has become the latest Mideast Milosevic. Amnesty International released a report this week documenting "systematic persecution on a vast scale" by Bashar al Assad's Syrian secret police and paramilitary forces against Syria's democracy movement. Amnesty's report portrays a gruesome catalogue of documented and independently corroborated atrocities committed in the name of Assad and his subordinates against the Syrian people by his regime. Almost 2,500 persons have been killed by Assad's forces since the start of the uprising and untold thousands more have been tortured, imprisoned, or wounded. No of this, however, accurately portrays the full extent of the atrocities Assad's henchmen are committing throughout Syria day in and day out. Amnesty's report includes video smuggled out of Syria of 45 bodies of detainees who were tortured and dumped on roadsides. "The accounts of torture we have received are horrific. We believe the Syrian government to be systematically persecuting its own people on a vast scale" so said Amnesty's Syrian researcher Neil Sammonds and Damascus-based courageous human rights lawyer Razan Zeitouneh.
Posted on September 2, 2011 By Marc Ginsberg
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A Field Guide to Libya’s New Interim Government

As Gaddafi's fantasyland Jamahiriya (state of the masses) crumbles under the rebel assault, who are likely to emerge as the legitimate faces of the new nascent provisional government of Libya? Tonight, the executive members of the provisional revolutionary authority aka The Transitional National Council, or, a tad more accurately, the National Transitional Council (NTC) arrived from their redoubt in Benghazi to Tripoli to assume command of the capital and the war-ravaged nation. Their momentous arrival in Tripoli occurs against the backdrop of blackouts, food and medicine shortages, lawlessness, and continued combat raging in pockets throughout the capital, all the meanwhile a defiant Gaddafi continues to broadcast messages decrying the rebels. It is an understatement that the NTC has its work cut out for it. Libya's future will greatly depend on this group of Libyans united in their opposition to the regime, but incipiently divided by tribal, geographic, ethnic and religious divisions which surely will emerge in the days ahead.
Posted on August 26, 2011 By Marc Ginsberg
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Tripoli Minus Gaddafi

Although there are conflicting reports out of Tripoli tonight regarding Col. Gaddafi's whereabouts, there is little doubt that the opposition forces loyal to the Libyan Transitional National Council (TNC) are on the verge of delivering an historic coup de grace to the Green Revolution. As forces loyal to the TNC seize more and more of central Tripoli, there is bound to be recriminations against Gaddafi loyalists who face the prospect of instant mob street justice. Moreover, there are reportedly hundreds, if not thousands, of forces and citizens of Tripoli residually loyal to Gaddafi, and bloody street-to-street fighting may ensue -- which would be tragic. Convincing these Gaddafi dead-enders to surrender with a modicum of leniency may hasten a transition and avoid needless conflict that could further destroy the capital and dramatically increase civilian casualties, including the thousands of hapless and defenseless migrant workers caught in Tripoli's cross-fire.
Posted on August 22, 2011 By Marc Ginsberg
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