The Russophobe & Russophile Conundrum

It is hardly news that the Ukraine has been -and seemingly

continues to be- teetering on the brink of a geopolitical crevasse.

But whose fault is that?

The West blames Russian meddling for much of Ukraine’s

turmoil. Conversely, Russia is adamant that Ukraine’s plight is

attributable to the West’s perverse wrong-doing. So, who is right?

That may depend on whether the respondent is a Russophobe or

a Russophile.

So, what do Russophobes and Russophiles have in common?

Almost nothing except that both stumble in blinkered attitudes

about Russia. Their approaches are diametrically opposite. Both

groups address the identical realities. But because of their

predispositions, both reach wholly different conclusions. One

approach must be right and the other must be wrong. Right?
Wrong!

The raw reality is that geopolitical affairs are notoriously
complex, convoluted and contradictory. There can be multiple
correct answers to a single question. Russia’s behavior regarding
the Ukraine and the West’s hostile reaction thereto are a splendid,
but distressing, case in point.

In actuality, facts –be they in Russia, in the Ukraine or in the
West – are always subject to compound interpretations. Realities
differ based on divergent perspectives. Precisely how facts are
marshalled, analyzed and comprehended often depends upon
whose ox is being gored.

Let’s start with the Ukraine. It is lurching perilously toward

bankruptcy. Is that also Russia’s fault? Or is that approaching

economic disaster a product of Ukraine’s traditionally corrupt

politicians and equally avaricious oligarchs? Not incidentally,

Viktor Yanukovych, Ukraine’s ousted President, owned a yacht

aptly named “the Bandido.”

That said, the Ukraine owes $7.5 billion to Russia for the natural

gas that Ukrainians consumed in costly gulps. Did that
mountainous debt arise from the already high gas price ($268.50
per thousand cubic meters) that Russia charged Ukraine in 2013?

[That price recently went up this month by 44% to $385.50 per
cubic meter.] Or is the existing massive debt to Russia attributable
to the Ukrainians’ astoundingly profligate use of gas that Kiev
heavily subsidizes?

Alternatively, is that gas debt issue muddled by the inexplicable

circumstance in which the Ukraine still does not have meters at

the points where gas pipelines enter Ukraine from Russia? That

absurd situation renders suspect all discourse about “use versus

abuse” or about “quantity versus price.” An unblinkered
perspective points the finger of fault in every direction.

Indeed, is the International Monetary Fund (arguably an appendage

of the West) not also accountable in that scurrilous matter? Did the

IMF not approve a loan of $15.1 billion to Ukraine in 2010 for the

express purpose of putting Ukraine on the path to fiscal s
ustainability by reforming the gas sector?

But Ukraine has plenty of daunting problems not attributable to
either Russia or the West. Ever since independence, Ukraine has
been split into the industrial, Russian-speaking East, the
Ukrainian-speaking, pro-European, nationalist-oriented West and
the ethnically Russian Crimea.

It is little recognized that Ukraine’s East and West not only speak

different languages, but also attend different churches and pay

obeisance to different national heroes. But at least a major

commonality between East and West was that both deemed Kiev

to be their bona fide capitol. Now even that has changed.

Once Yanukovych was ousted, the Rada (Ukraine’s Parliament

which meets in Kiev) voted to strike Russian from the list of
Ukraine’s official languages. That unseemly provocation to
Russian-speaking Ukrainians can hardly be attributed to Russian
meddling in Ukrainian affairs. But Russian-speaking Ukrainians
did detect the hand of the West [aka C.I.A.] in that mischievous
maneuver.

That circumstance prompted Russian speakers in Karkiv, the first

capitol of Soviet Ukraine, to demonstrate against Kiev’s “fascist

collaborators” with NATO and the West. It was hardly
coincidental that the Karkiv protest was conducted adjacent to that
city’s prominent statue of Lenin.

So, on to the West and its hostility to Russia’s alleged escapades in

and around the Ukraine. Perhaps Germany’s ambivalent reaction is

the most illuminating. Indeed, Germany’s reluctance to support

sanctions is a major factor limiting the viability of the West’s

economic counter-attack against Russia’s undertakings in and

around the Ukraine.

Pointedly, Germany alone exported $48 billion worth of vehicles,

tools and chemicals to Russia in 2013. Compare that to the
relatively meagre $40 billion in trade that the United States does
with Russia. Furthermore, trade between Russia and the EU is ten
times greater than that between the USA and Russia.

Even dyed-in-the-wool Russophobics cannot fail to see that Europe

is dramatically more economically intertwined with Russia than is

America. That naked reality means that American sanctions against

Russia will be virtually toothless absent unified European collaboration.

Even more critically, German businessmen stridently oppose harsh

sanctions. Chancellor Merkel is well attuned to the sobering fact
that retaliatory sanctions would imperil 300,000 German jobs that
could rapidly disappear in the absence of Russian trade.

But that is merely the tip of an economic iceberg that could ram
thebow of Germany’s commercial ship of state. Germans own
6,200 businesses that operate in Russia where they have invested
almost $40 billion. Those investments would be jeopradized by
serious anti-Russian sanctions.

Most critically to Germany, it depends upon Russia for about
35% of the gas and oil that heats Germany and greases the German

economy. Absent those energy supplies, Germany’s physical and

economic well-being would be sorely afflicted, if not imperiled.

Ms. Merkel cannot countenance and will not inflict such adversity

upon her constituents.

While Ms. Merkel is certainly no Russophile, she is a geopolitical

pragmatist. She understands the Russian mentality. She grew up in

communist East Germany. She knows that the Crimea became part

of Russia when it was conquered during the reign of

Catherine-The-Great. It is not happenstance that the latter was a

German-born princess whose portrait now sits handsomely on

Ms. Merkel’s desk.

Chancellor Merkel also knows that Vladimir Putin was a KGB

spy in Dresden, that he speaks German fluently and that a portrait

of Peter-The-Great hangs in Vladimir’s office. It is also no

coincidence that Peter-The-Great is Vladimir Putin’s role model

of an expansionist emperor. So, Ms. Merkel has no illusions about

Russian aspirations or why the cagey Mr. Putin will not willingly 

consent to the Ukraine's slide into the E.U.’s orbit.

That said, other E.U. nations would suffer even greater ills if the

spigot to their energy supplies was suddenly turned off. Estonia,

Latvia, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Bulgaria are all

99% dependent on Russian gas. Even Poland, Austria, Romania

and Greece rely on Russia for more than 59% of the gas they
need to function. Do American leaders seriously think that these
E.U. nations will turn their backs on Russia simply to gratify
America’s Russophobic predispositions?

While speaking of predispositions about Russian behavior, it is

worth noting that the other three B.R.I.C. nations (Brazil, India

and China, i.e. about 40% of the world’s population) have been

at pains not to decry Russia’s Ukranian escapades. Those nations

are neither Russophiles nor Russophobic.

Rather, those nations practice geopolitics in the very same
arena in which Russia plays a not unsimilar game by similar
self-regulating rules. China’s aggressive conduct in the East and
South China Seas comes immediately to mind. In that context, is
it any wonder that China chooses to happily spectate while Russia
and the West compete on the Ukrainian playing field.

In sum, it is unlikely that Russophiles and Russophobes will ever
agree on what the real facts are about Russia and West’s conduct
regarding the Ukraine. But both should both be advised, as Tom
Clancy pointed out in The Hunt For Red October: “... that one
must know something of the truth in order to lie convincingly.”

 

My Mideast Martini

Given a geographical orientation in the Mideast, what is dry, hazy,

enticing and intoxicating? Under rational and reasonable circumstances,

the correct answer would be "a very dirty martini."  But.more often

than not, the Mideast is neither rational nor reasonable. So, a very
dirty martini is the wrong answer to my question. 

On the other hand, a very dirty martini is the right answer to the

question of what alcoholic drink did we order upon arrival at our

understated, but elegant hotel located smack dab in the center of

Dubai's financial district? A very dirty martini is the correct answer

to that query. But that geographical location, i.e. Dubai, is also the

answer to my initial interrogatory concerning something that is dry,

hazy, enticing and -for a great many- quite intoxicating. And yet, by

every considered account, Dubai is also neither rational nor reasonable.

Here's why.

For starters, Dubai is one of those geographically and demographically

small entities that comprise the United Arab Emirates. Indeed, the

people who populate these seven separate political entities are

respectively ruled by their own Emir who would otherwise be called

a king by any standard designation.However, it is Arab DNA that 

suffuses the lifeblood and provides the substance that arguably

characterizes the local citizenry. And therein lies the rub.

No, this piece is not an anti-Arab diatribe. But, yes, the rub is

that Dubai, the most well-known, most glitzy and most glamorous 

of the Emirates, is actually not populated by Arab citizens.

Say what? You heard me correctly. But did you really input 

what I said? The operative word is "citizens."

You see, Dubai is Arab only superficially. Yes, Dubai's ruling 

Emir is an Arab. Yes, Dubai's official language is Arabic. Yes,

Dubai's culture is Arabic. Yes, Dubai's street signs are in Arabic.

Yes, Dubai is located on the eastern edge of the Arabian peninsula.

And, yes, Dubai borders the Arabian Sea to the east. 

But, no, the laborers whose hands built the Burj Khalifa,

which -for the moment- is still the world's tallest building, 

were mostly not Arabs. The men who sweated profusely while

assembling the glitz of The Burj al-Arab, the world's only seven

star hotel, were not Arab. The ears of those who tune in to five

of Dubai's seven radio stations are not Arab. The hands of the

artisans who craft much of the wares in  Dubai's souks are

rarely Arab.

In stark actuality, the tongues that discourse as vendors in
Dubai's munificent malls and as salespersons in Dubai's omnipresent
shops do not wag in Arab mouths. The servers in Dubai's restaurants 
and the housekeepers and porters in Dubai's hotels are not Arabs. 

Dubai's taxi and limo drivers are not Arabs. Dubai's legendary indoor

ski slope is not operated by Arabs. And the masses of people who 

empty their wallets to wantonly spend Dhirams (3.8 for a dollar) are

not Arabs. So who are they?  

The short answer is that they are not Arabs. But, you know
that by now. The longer answer is a bit more complicated.
You see, until recent times, Dubai was little more than a sand
and sun-drenched Mideast backwater peeking out into the Persian
Gulf. And, yes, the Arabs still call it the Arabian Sea. But why
quibble about the name of body of water through which a very
substantial portion of the world's oil supply must pass?

No matter, the discovery of oil and gas turned the region
into a veritable gold mine. O.K., so gold mine is not  the
most apt choice of words. But the black gold called oil
-through the alchemy of economics- did  ultimately
metamorphose into Dubai's gold souk and into the associated
glitz and supremely superficial glamor that is modern Dubai  

As a growing metropolis with bundles of cash to spend,
Dubai needed workers. So, the word went out to the east.
In this scenario, the east is synonymous with India, Pakistan
and Bangladesh where there were-and are- much too many people
and much to little cash. What happened was simple. Those without
the cash moved to Dubai to the work to get the cash to send back
to their relatives who needed the cash to survive. All the rest is
commentary.

On balance, the Emiratis are the citizens of Dubai with much of
the real cash. They dole it out to the Indians, the Pakistanis, the

Bangladeshis and to assorted foreign nationals who make up the 

overarching majority of Dubai's population of approximately 

2.1 million not-so-lost souls. Most pointedly, about 51% of all

the people in Dubai are Indian. A great many of them hail from

the Indian state of Kerala.

Additionally, Pakistanis alone comprise about 20% of Dubai's

populace. The combination of Indians, Pakistanis & Bangladeshis 

roaming around Dubai means that, while English is the omnipresent

language of tourism, Hindi, Urdu, Malayalam, Tamil, Punjabi and

Bengali are among the languages most often spoken by those who

actually live in Dubai. 

Another 3% or so of Dubai's residents are "Western" foreignors
from here and there, mostly from there which means the Ukraine,
eastern Europe and/or wherever else there is a shortage of both jobs
and cash. 

Additionally, about 16% of Dubai's population (288,000 poor souls)
live in what is less than graphically described as "collective labor
accommodations." These folks are also mostly  Asians.

The bottom line is that, depending upon whose statistics you rely,
at least 91% or more of those living in Dubai are not of Dubai. 
That means that substantially less than one in ten people living
in Dubai are bone fide, DNA-qualified, Arabic-speaking Emiratis.

So, if you want glitz, if you desperately need to get some
rays or to feel the heat (the temperature hovered around 100
degrees yesterday in Dubai) or if you simply want to witness
how a copious supply of costly desalinated water can turn sand
into a flowering garden of Eden, then check out Dubai. You will
not be disappointed, not unless you also want to hear some Arabic.

 

For that option, you might want to check out Jeddah or Riyadh in
Saudi Arabia. Regrettably, I am persona non grata in that Semitic
nation across the desert from Dubai. But then you may be more
uniquely qualified than I to savor that estimable experience.

 

In the meantime, how does a very nice, very dirty and very 
intoxicating Mideast martini sound to you?

The Six Day War, Gaza, Hamas & Mideast Peace

It seems like yesterday, but it was forty seven years ago.

The date was 5 June 1967.  I had just enjoyed a sumptuous,

very early morning breakfast at the General Von Steuben

Hotel in Wiesbaden, Germany. An American Air Force

Officer and two Jordanian military men were seated at an

adjacent table in that Officer's Club. They were busily

discussing the transfer of American armor to Jordan.

My ears should have been burning.

 

Two hours later I was aboard an aircraft that had departed

Rhein-Mein Air Force Base near Frankfurt on its way to

McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey. Shortly after takeoff,

the pilot made an abrupt announcement. I shall never forget

his words. He said: “War has broken out in Israel. At the

rate Egyptian planes are destroying Tel Aviv, there will be

no Israel by the time we land.”  

 

That flight lasted an almost interminable eight hours. The
pilot never gave a single update to that terrifying newsflash.
My very first question upon setting foot on American soil
was: “Is there still an Israel?”

 

By then the world was well aware that all the initial reports 
from Egypt about its crushing military successes were flat-out
fabrications of fact. Yes, war had erupted on June 5, 1967.
Israel had launched preemptive strikes against Egyptian airfields.
Israeli forces were unmistakably dominant. The Egyptian air
force had been decimated. A wave of relief washed over me. 
That was forty seven years ago. Now rewind the clock back
almost precisely four years to 1963.

 

Back then a friend and I were leisurely hiking down an unpaved
Israeli road that abruptly ended in a double furrow. Adjacent to that
furrow was what looked like a small kiosk. That kiosk was manned
by a lone U.N.-helmeted Swedish soldier. His post was exactly on
the Gaza Strip. There was no separation wall. There was no security
fence. Only that double furrow marked the border.

 

It was hot that day. My friend and I were thirsty. We approached
the swedish border guard and asked if he had some water for us.
He politely told us that if we needed water, we could get some just
up the road at the nearby kibbutz known as Nahal Oz. So, off
we went.

 

Upon entering the kibbutz, someone called out to me:
“Elovitz, what the hell are you doing here on the Gaza Strip?”
I was stunned. I turned to my companion and exclaimed: 
“I don’t know anyone on the Gaza Strip.” To which my friend
smugly responded: “Well, whoever she is, she knows you!”

 

As it happens, I had met and befriended that woman a number
of years earlier at summer camp in the north woods of
Wisconsin. She told me that her Jewish parents, who worried
that she would not marry a nice Jewish boy, had sent her to
Israel. “So, what happened?” I asked. “Well,” she delicately
and gracefully responded, “you know that Swedish border
guard who sent you here to get water? I married him!”

 

Just last month I returned from an very brief visit to Israel. Kibbutz

Nahal Oz is still there. But the double furrows that marked the Gaza

Strip border are gone. That kiosk with the Swedish border guard no

longer exists. Nahal Oz now has a population of about 290 souls,
but their kibbutz has been privatized.  

 

Regrettably, I did not ascertain the well-being or status of my friend

from Minneapolis who married that Swede. More importantly, the

Gaza Strip has been controlled by Hamas since 2007. Rewind back

to 1967 and The Six Day War aka Milhemet Sheshet HaYamim.

 

Israel’s preemptive land attack launched against Egypt actually
started exactly opposite Kibbutz Nahal Oz. That is where an Israeli
armored division, commanded by Major General Israel Tal, crossed
the Gaza border at both Nahal Oz and Khan Yunis.

 

Simultaneously and father south in the Sinai, Major General
Ariel Sharon (a future Israeli Prime Minister) was leading another 

armored division in a successful assault on heavily fortified
Egyptian positions. Within six days, Israel had captured all of the
Sinai peninsula, expressly including the Gaza Strip.

 

After the Yom Kippur War of 1973 and the ensuing 1979 peace
treaty with Egypt, Israel returned the Sinai, but not Gaza, to Egypt.
It is anecdotally rumored that Egypt refused to take back Gaza
because it did not want to deal with its Palestinian populace. As a
result, Israel occupied the Gaza Strip from 1967 until 2005. That
is when the Israelis unilaterally departed. Enter Hamas.

 

Hamas came to complete power in the Gaza Strip by staging a

violent coup in June 2007. That is when Hamas overthrew its

rival Fatah party's executive authority. But Hamas had earlier

won a popular vote in the January 2006 parliamentary elections.

That effectively sealed the deal for Hamas’ control of Gaza that

continues to this day.

 

But, Hamas is now in its most weakened state of affairs in years. 

That situation is related to the dramatic rise of Field Marshal Sisi

in Egypt coupled with the downfall of President Morsi and his

Muslim Brotherhood (of which Hamas is an offshoot). As a

consequence, Hamas has now agreed to establish a unified

Palestinian government with Fatah in the West Bank. How that

will play out is an open question.

 

But some matters are not subject to debate. It is now three and

a half years since the Arab Spring sprung. The Mideast is a mess.

Syria is a war zone. Anarchy and chaos reign in Libya. Egypt is

on the brink of an authoritarian abyss. The Palestinians and

Israelis cannot seem to find even a scintilla of light at the end of

their tunnel of tensions. But U.S. Secretary of State Kerry

seemed unable to even find the tunnel...unless reference is made

to one of the Hamas-built tunnels under Gaza into Egypt!

 

In short, the path to peace and stability across the new Mideast 

remains unusually treacherous. That path is a severely rutted and

deeply potholed road. It runs directly through the countless

enmities and relentless rancor that infested the old Mideast.

 

All of which reminds me of a pertinent anecdote about an old

Israeli. He was unhurriedly strolling down a Tel Aviv beach

when he spotted something glinting in the sand. Curious, the

old Israeli bent down, picked up a glinting bottle and began

rubbing away the encrusted sand. Suddenly, there was a

WHOOSH and a Genie appeared.

 

The Genie looked at the old Israeli and exclaimed: “Master,

you have freed me from containment in the bottle. I can grant

you one wish.”

 

Both surprised and amused, the old Israeli responded: “How

come only one wish? I thought Genies granted three wishes?”

 

To which the Genie replied: “My Dear Master, I am just a Genie

in training.One wish is my limit. What is your wish?”

 

The old Israeli paused and thought for a moment. He then pulled

a badly crumpled piece of paper from his pocket. He carefully

unfolded the paper on which was printed a map of Israel and the 

Mideast. The Israeli showed the deeply creased map to the

Genie and declared: “I wish for peace in the troubled Mideast.”

 

The Genie pondered the map for a moment and declared:

“Honorable Master, that is an extremely significant wish. But,

as a genie in training, I’m not sure I do that. Do you have an

alternative wish?”

 

The old Israeli thought for a moment and responded: “My wife,

Rivka, and I have been married for fifty years, but we haven’t

had sex for ten years. I want to have sex. That is my wish.”

 

The Genie paused, carefully scrutinized the gray-haired, deeply

wrinkled and somewhat bent, old Israeli and then sheepishly asked:

"Can I see that Mideast map again?”

 

Blind Satellites, Sightless Radar & Flight MH370

Back in the fifties, Walter Cronkite narrated a series of television
docudramas known as “You Are There!” Those programs reenacted
major events in history. Early episodes examined “The Assassination
Of Julius Caesar,” “The Boston Tea Party” and “The Final Hours
Of Joan Of Arc.”

Perhaps fittingly, the very first episode was The Landing of
the Hindenberg at Lakehurst, New Jersey.The Hindenburg
disaster happened on 6 May 1937. That is when German airship
LZ129 caught fire and was destroyed during its attempt to dock
at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station. Of the 97 people on board,
there were 35 fatalities.

That disaster was the subject of spectacular news coverage.
There were at least seven wholly divergent theories about
what really caused that fatal fire. Those hypotheses ranged
from sabotage, to lightning, to structural failure to a deliberate
act of suicide. The cause of the Hindenberg disaster remains
an unsolved mystery. Fast forward to 8 March 2014 and a
continuing contemporary mystery.

In the early hours of that date, Malaysian Flight MH370
was cruising high above the Gulf of Thailand between Vietnam
and Malaysia. Then, suddenly, it was not there. It was not anywhere.
It had simply disappeared.  But, ala Walter Cronkite and “You Are
There,” I was there! In fact, I was on a ship sailing almost directly
below Malaysia MH370 when it mysteriously went silent.

It is now almost three months since that Boeing 777 with
239 passengers vanished out of the thin air in which it was flying.
Its whereabouts remain a mystery unsolved by any of the many
theories and hypotheses concerning how it disappeared, why it simply
vanished and where it is.

Then on 27 May 2014, Malaysia finally released a forty-seven page
report prepared by Inmarsat. The report features hourly “handshakes”
– aka network log-on confirmations – after MH 370 disappeared from
civilian radar screens on that fateful night over the Gulf of Thailand.

Interestingly, Inmarsat’s Chief Engineer noted that: “These 47 pages
represent all the data communication logs we have in relation for
MH370 and that last flight.” But, quite pointedly, he candidly also
confirmed that Malaysia's release of Inmarsat's satellite data "would
not be enough for independent researchers to replicate the calculations."
Why so?

It is now crystal clear that the needed assumptions, algorithms
and metadata to validate the investigators' conclusion are blatantly
and flagrantly absent from the materials released by Malaysian
authorities. As such, the mystery of Malaysian Flight MH370 has
been obtusely compounded and dramatically obfuscated.

Is that because, as many speculate, some governments refuse
to release all the data or other needed information on the satellite
system because of commercial or national security reasons?
The public may never know. A pity it is!

But, as many of you may be aware, I have been and continue to
be among those who are vociferously incredulous at the malignant
disinformation, premeditated misinformation and preposterous
obfuscation that has surrounded missing Malaysian Flight MH370.

It is thus that I took particular notice of recent comments by Ofer
Doron, CEO of Israel Aerospace Industries’ HALAL plant.  He
addressed Israel’s use of surveillance satellites in general and the
Ofeq-10 satellite in particular. The Ofeq-10, produced by Israel
Aerospace Industries, is one of the world’s most advanced satellites
and is capable of producing high quality imagery under any climatic
conditions.

Israel now has optical surveillance satellites and radar surveillance
satellites in space. Indeed, only a small fraternity of nations possess
such space capabilities. Israel –and presumably other nations- can
now position a satellite wherever they want and see whatever they
want to see.

Even more poignantly, one of the aspects currently evolving in the field
of surveillance satellites is the issue of sub-meter resolution imagery
capabilities, namely – images with the resolution of less than one meter.
Only three countries have these capabilities, i.e. America, France and Israel.

Doron noted that Israel belongs to a very small club of very high resolution
imagery capabilities. That is an issue that is becoming increasingly important
to intelligence. In fact, a new satellite Israel intends to launch will put it in
second place. Doron says China and Russia lag far behind.

The Israeli satellites are different in their operating philosophy, too.
While other countries scan large areas, the Israeli satellites are
intelligence-oriented.  Doron noted that: “We manufacture satellites
for intelligence purposes, namely – for the purpose of photographing
the targets where they are located.”

The satellite market is also a geopolitical market. Not unlike the
purchase of fighter aircraft, the purchasing of satellites often is mostly
a political decision. Whoever buys a satellite, buys it for national needs,
be they civil or defense. Doron even noted that: “We are working with
France on a scientific surveillance satellite branded ‘Venus’ that would
be capable of telling…whether you need to irrigate or fertilize a field –
all from space.”

So, extrapolating from all this highly sophisticated satellite technology
(which provides the capacity for a satellite to see wherever and whatever
it wants to see), the matter of missing Malaysia Flight MH 370 resurrects
itself as follows:  

1.   Multiple nations possess unusually advanced satellite technology

2.   Nations use satellites not only for civilian purposes, but most especially

     for military objectives

3.   No nation wittingly reveals the full extent of its military capabilities

4.   Concealing what a satellite saw about MH370 is arguably a
     matter of national security

5.   Malaysia Flight MH 370 disappeared somewhere near the
    Strait of Malacca

6.   The Strait of Malacca is the world’s most heavily-trafficked
     commercial chokepoint

7.   Depending on who is counting, about seventy-four thousand
    ships– most with radar- pass thru the Strait of Malacca each year

8.   Passage through the Strait of Malacca is absolutely critical to the
     very survival of China, Japan and So. Korea

9.   Multiple satellites & radars were assuredly focused on, at and
     above the Strait of Malacca as MH370 flew over it.

       

But somehow not one satellite and not a single radar saw anything and
nobody knows nothing. Horse Hockey!