Kurdish autonomous region of Iraq is clearly a 'client' state of the West, of Turkey and to some extent, Israel. It is shamelessly capitalist, taking land from its own people, cheating them, just in order to pump and refine huge quantities of oil. It treats Syrian refugees like animals, forcing them to make anti-Assad statements. It is turning ancient Erbil into some bizarre shopping mall with nothing public in sight. Its military top brass is mainly US/UK-trained and indoctrinated. And it provokes Baghdad, day and night.

The only reason so many are so pissed off at the US is because they see North America as promoting a 'bad deal' for its own masses, not because it is ruining the rest of the world!

In order for the second scenario to win, the world would have to return where the struggle for independence and against Western colonialism and imperialism was lost or abandoned more than 50 years ago. Let's face it: the world was never really completely de-colonized. It would be total hypocrisy to claim otherwise.

In Indonesia, there are many parties, but they are all pro-business and for the elites, and all their candidates, including Jokowi, are pre-selected, and pre-approved, by the regime. So no matter how people vote here, it changes nothing.

It is very clear from the historical record that without British help neither Wahhabism nor the House of Saud would be in existence today. Wahhabism is a British-inspired fundamentalist movement in Islam. Through its defense of the House of Saud, the US also supports Wahhabism directly and indirectly regardless of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Wahhabism is violent, right wing, ultra-conservative, rigid, extremist, reactionary, sexist, and intolerant.

The forces of internationalism, humanism and solidarity will have to be victorious, or soon there will be nothing left of the human race.

Indonesia is now undeniably a ruined country. It has sunk to the level of sub-Saharan African nations. It has malls and luxury hotels in several cities, but in between them it is an absolute nightmare, with all the basic services either missing, or on a totally inadequate level.