Headlines

• Total US Debt Soars to Nearly $60 Trillion, Foreshadows New Recession

• Pentagon Cautions on Iraq Strikes Before Obama, Hill Leaders Meet

• Taliban Will Burn Your Palaces in Islamabad, Lahore: Spokesman

Details

Total US Debt Soars to Nearly $60 Trillion, Foreshadows New Recession

America - its government, businesses, and people - are nearly $60 trillion in debt, according to the latest economic data from the St. Louis Federal Reserve. And private debt - not government borrowing - is the biggest reason for the huge deficit. Total US debt at the end of the first quarter of 2014, on March 31 totalled almost $59.4 trillion - up nearly $500 billion from the end of the fourth quarter of 2013, according to the data. Total debt (the combination of government, business, mortgage, and consumer debt) was $2.2 trillion 40 years ago. "In 50 short years, debt has gone from being a luxury for a few to a convenience for many to an addiction for most to a disease for all," James Butler wrote in an Independent Voters Network (IVN) op-ed. "It is a virus that has spread to every aspect of our economy, from a consumer using a credit card to buy a $0.75 candy bar in a vending machine to a government borrowing $17 trillion to keep the lights on." The Congressional Budget Office predicts that the economy will stall by 2017 because Americans will continue spending, but wages and wealth won't be going up - leading to increased income inequality in the country, the Guardian reported. "That ever-increasing gap between income and consumption has been filled by borrowing," the Guardian said. "These were the debt dynamics in the lead-up to the recession. But they are also the dynamics leading out of the crisis, and continuing today with no end in sight." Economists have not agreed on how to stave off the impending crisis. But Americans' addiction to spending on credit will not help.

"The problem is, the more debt we have, the more future income must be used to pay the debt and its interest, which reduces the money we have to spend on things. This works to slow the economy," Butler wrote. "Eventually, the negative effect of the debt load becomes stronger than the positive effect of the added spending and a recession is triggered - or worse." [Source: Russia Today]
It is a given fact that America can never repay its debt-it is struggling just to meet the interest payments. So if the Muslim world wants to rid itself of America's anti-Islamic colonial policies all it has to do it to withdraw its vast dollar reserves from American banks or demand payment of oil and other resources in a currency other than the dollar. But the leaders of the Muslim world do not have the courage to take such bold actions. Only the Khilafah "Caliphate" can exploit America's debt predicament to expel it from the Muslim world and return the ummah to her rightful glory.

Pentagon Cautions on Iraq Strikes Before Obama, Hill Leaders Meet

The nation's two top defence officials signalled caution Wednesday about using airstrikes to hit Islamic militants in Iraq unless military strikes are tied to political changes by Baghdad's embattled government. The warning, from Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, came in Senate testimony hours before President Barack Obama meets with top congressional officials on the status of the US response to the crisis in Iraq, where militant Sunnis have seized large chunks of territory. Mr. Obama is consulting with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.), House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) and Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) as Iraq's government struggles to maintain control over the country. Mr. Hagel and Gen. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told lawmakers that the US needs better intelligence in Iraq before it can launch airstrikes against the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, the militants who swept across northern Iraq and now pose a threat to Baghdad. "It's not as easy as looking at an iPhone video of a convoy and then immediately striking it," Gen. Dempsey told a Senate hearing. Faced with concerns about the efficacy of quick US military intervention, the White House has downplayed prospects of immediate airstrikes, despite growing appeals from Iraq for help in turning back the threat posed by ISIS. Gen. Dempsey and Mr. Hagel both criticized the Iraqi government, led by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, for failing to build an inclusive coalition that included leaders of the Sunni minority. Mr. Maliki's failures, not the decision to pull all US troops out of Iraq in 2011, was the main catalyst for the ISIS advances, they said. [Source: The Wall Street Journal]

Faced with a multitude of crisis from Ukraine to Afghanistan, Iraq now threatens to become a mother of all crises. After spending trillions of dollars and spilling blood for America's political and financial elite, what has the America nation achieved. Allah says:

((إِنَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ يُنفِقُونَ أَمْوَالَهُمْ لِيَصُدُّواْ عَن سَبِيلِ اللّهِ فَسَيُنفِقُونَهَا ثُمَّ تَكُونُ عَلَيْهِمْ حَسْرَةً ثُمَّ يُغْلَبُونَ وَالَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ إِلَى جَهَنَّمَ يُحْشَرُونَ))

"Indeed, those who disbelieve spend their wealth to avert [people] from the way of Allah. So they will spend it; then it will be for them a [source of] regret; then they will be overcome. And those who have disbelieved - unto Hell they will be gathered." [Al-Anfal: 36]

Taliban Will Burn Your Palaces in Islamabad, Lahore: Spokesman

The Taliban on Monday warned foreign firms to leave Pakistan and vowed retaliatory strikes against the government after the Pakistan Army launched a long-awaited offensive in a tribal area. The statement came as Pakistan's major cities braced for a backlash by deploying thousands of soldiers and paramilitaries while placing hospitals on high alert for incoming casualties.

The offensive on North Waziristan was launched a week after a brazen insurgent attack on the Jinnah International Airport in Karachi. "We warn all foreign investors, airlines and multinational corporations that they should immediately suspend their ongoing matters with Pakistan and prepare to leave Pakistan, otherwise they will be responsible for their own loss," spokesman Shahidullah Shahid said in a statement. "This thing is clear to all that the capital gained (by Pakistan) through your activities and trade falls on innocent tribal women and children like fire and iron," he added. The group also vowed to take revenge on the government. "We hold Nawaz Sharif's government and the Punjabi establishment responsible for the loss of tribal Muslims' life and property as a result of this operation," the statement said. "The retaliatory actions of the mujahedeen (militants) will make you a cautionary tale in history." Shahid added the Taliban would ‘burn your palaces in Islamabad and Lahore' referring to the capital city and the prime minister's hometown from where he derives his support base. "Remember that you will once again crave for negotiations and peace, but then it would be too late," he added. [Source: Daily Times]

In an effort to please their American masters the Raheel-Sharif government has started a full scale war in North Waziristan, which is having a huge impact on the local population and adding to Pakistan's internal refugee problems. Rather than joining forces with the Taleban to expel America from the region, Pakistani leadership at the behest of America is waging a war which it simply cannot win. Don't the Pakistani leaders realise that a weakened Pakistan will only serve the interests of America and India?