Photo, above: The Shrine of Hussain ibn Ali (Arabic: مقام الامام الحسين‎) is one of the oldest mosques in the world and a holy site of Shia Islam in the city of Karbala, Iraq. It stands on the site of the grave of Hussain ibn Ali, the second grandson of Muhammad, near the place where he was martyred during the Battle of Karbala in 680 C.E. The tomb of Hussain ibn Ali is one of the holiest places for Shias outside of Mecca and Medina, and many make pilgrimages to the site. Every year, millions of pilgrims visit the city to observe Ashura, which marks the anniversary of Hussain ibn Ali's death.

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW

Co-hosts: Mary Kissel, Wall Street Journal editorial board.  Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents.

Hour One

Thursday  12 June  2014 / Hour 1, Block A: Mona Charen, NRO, in re:  As the World Cup starts, according to Steve Moore, Americans not interested in futbol because the World Cup lasts for a month,  you can’t shoot from mid-field, and so forth.   Eric Cantor. Kevin McCarthy.  Mosul, Tikrit. Cab the president of the United States watch Bagdad burn?  Monica Charen: Yes. Mary Kissel: This is the only president who can.

Thursday  12 June  2014 / Hour 1, Block B:  Edward W Hayes, criminal defense attorney par excellence, in re: World Cup: France, Brazil.  Stop and frisk in New York City subways. Judge Schindlin and the mayor: How many people have to be killed before you do something?  Shootings up 43% in t last three months. It’s disgraceful – these increases are not an accident  - it's a trend.

Thursday  12 June  2014 / Hour 1, Block C: Patrick O'Donnell, author, Dog Company,  & historian, in re: Pointe-du-Hoc; landed near Dog Green, climbed up on Dog White.  Battalion of fresh troops, 600 men from the Rangers, went straight up the incline. How on Earth did they do that?  The Germans never quit shooting.  The families of those heroes: each generations since the American Revolution has been great, including the present one.  A  lot of WWII veterans I've interviewed say this. I had the honor of leading  tour to Normandy with veterans.  Mary Kissel: With each succeeding generation we're farther from that evil and liable to forget; yet we see it no in Iraq and Afghanistan.  PO'D: the events I too part in ten days ago – I was in the battle for Fallujah ; When you disenfranchise a group, such as Sunnis this is what happens The Iranian backing of the Baghdad govt is also a problem. 

Thursday  12 June  2014 / Hour 1, Block D: Varun Goel, head of portfolio management business for Karvy Stock Broking in Mumbai; and Quartz (qz.com) in re: Like the Dow in the 1980s, India’s Sensex is poised to climb four-fold to 100,000. The past year turned out to be quite constructive for Indian equity. Markets made fresh lifetime highs on the back of improving domestic macros indicators, supportive global equity and expected governance improvement in India after the general elections. The benchmark index, the Sensex, crossed 21,200, a level it had not seen in almost six years. Foreign institutional investors reaffirmed their commitment toward Indian equities with more than $20 billion invested in 2013.

This is our new reality: 2014 will bring a new bull cycle into existence. A strong export sector, revival in investment activity, continued recovery in the US, and a stable euro area are significant positives for equity markets.

Despite the many negatives plaguing the economy, corrective measures by the new government can quickly revive growth. The potential growth rate of the economy is currently around 6%. The growth rebound to those levels can take place quickly by reviving the investment demand. Once that has been achieved, the more arduous path of reclaiming the 8% growth can start.

Macro-economic revival in India will open opportunities to make strong returns in the equity markets in the next few years. The agricultural and services sectors continue to show strong traction and gradually even the manufacturing sector should pick-up as consumer demand revives. A real GDP growth of 6% along with inflation of around 7% should lead to a nominal GDP growth of 13%. Sensex earnings growth has improved from 5% in fiscal year 2013 to about 10% in fiscal year 2014 on the back of the rupee’s depreciation.

If the infrastructure cycle revives quickly, the earnings growth revival can even reach 25% on a compounded basis. A multiple re-rating, or review of valuations by investors, is also possible as cost of equity goes down in the next few years. An earnings growth between 20-25% and multiple re-rating from 15 times to 16-17 times in the next few years can lead to a 25% compounding of Sensex returns, which  . . .

Hour Two

Thursday  12 June  2014 / Hour 2, Block A:  Ed Royce, chairman, House Foreign Affairs Committee,  in re:  Emergency – especially Jordan, and Golan Heights and Gaza – the fire from northern Iraq is spreading. The black flag of al Qaeda is [metastasizing] for a caliphate across Syria, Iraq, Jordan; the collapse of the Iraqi army. For the last four months this US Adm has repeatedly refused the pleas of  Baghdad and US allies and the US Congress to target the al Qaeda strikes. How can a bunch of guys with machine guns on pick-up trucks do this?  Failure of air cover. The way you suppress an al Q insurgency like this is with drone strikes . AL Qaeda called ISIS "vicious" Not only has Baghdad called for the suppression of al Qaeda, but so have we in Congress. Till today, still no response from the WH after four months. What’s being taken off the table: the ICBM program. Ayatollah calling for a massive build-up of three-stage IICBSMS< refuse to discuss it.  Supreme Leader: It’s stupid that they limit their ballistic missile program; the main duty of all Iranian military officials is to triple the number of centrifuges spinning faster and to mass-produce ICBMs.  Samara now under siege.  Our enemies don't fear us and our allies ceasing to trust us.  We don’t have days in which to act. Drone strikes need to occur now. 

Thursday  12 June  2014 / Hour 2, Block B:  Jonathan Schanzer, FDD, in re: Crisis in Iraq is spilling in all directions.  Black flags flowing toward Baghdad – and Samara , the critical Sunni/Shi'a flashpoint because the mosque is sacred to Shi'a.  Will ISIS surround it? Thirty thousand men melt into the night. The only nation offering to help is Iran: "We'll go in and do counterterrorism operations" – yike.  There are capitals  in the West seriously considering this offer. The last state visit of an Iranian president to Turkey was in 1986.  Iran befriending all the Sunni nations in the region; not long before they break out of the sanctions imposed on them, will be the hegemon; all the countries will  have to get in line to [pay obeisance] or pay the price.  Already $100 bil of transactions between Turkey and Iran, sanctions-busting.  Kurdish Peshmerga: will Turks, Iranian, Syrians, permit it to function?  May threaten all three.  Enjoy watching them assert control over some areas for the moment.  ISIS is very clear: want to take over the Levant, not interested in Sykes-Picot borders; eying not just Iraq and Syria but Jordan – which has a deal with Israel and works with the US. 

Thursday  12 June  2014 / Hour 2, Block C: Jeffrey Herf, Distinguished University Professor of History, University of Maryland in College Park, in re: mix of anti-Semitism and imperialism of Nazis; among Sunni - Qutb et al - Zionism viewed as a threat to the religion of Islam.  Shift of anti-Judaism from Europe to the Arab world after WWII.  Melange of antipathy to Jews and the US; Khomeini managed to merge them.  Western leaders simply refuse to see this. Why?  Violations of right, hatred of other, persecution of Christians – most pols are lawyers or studied political science; difficult for them to take fanaticism seriously – think it’s some kind of negotiating tactic. We’re an ironical and cynical people; hard to address the otherness of the Iranian regime and its ideology.  "Occupation of Palestine . . . . Satanic plan to sow the seeds of destruction . . . "  Also, it’s frightening and disturbing; State Dept hopes they’re like us.  The consequences of taking them seriously is quite sober.  A sensitive issue the US govt has not addressed: problem with al Q, ISIS, and others, are motivated by their own interpretation of Islam; Americans afraid to discuss this lest they sound "Islamophobic" – the labor of __ tradition. Won't; speak honestly to the American public, It’s not the religion of Islam, it’s the interpretation.  We come up with euphemism, "the war n terror."  Also, men of affairs in DC assume that if any country acquires nuke it’ll act rationally to preserve itself, like the USSR (which was atheist).  Zealotry is unpredictable. We're at a moment of truth in the Obama Administration; must know that there's been a lot of wishful thinking.  Democracies are able to learn from their mistakes; it’s evident that this Adm has misinterpreted event should the US leave Iraq.  The US was a pacifier between France and Germany could have done that between Iraq and Iran. Now it’s crucial to avoid a complete military collapse. Need to intervene effectively.

Thursday  12 June  2014 / Hour 2, Block D:  Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re:  when the Austrians were defeated, Jews fled Vienna to the neighborhoods where a black market flourished, and then were blamed by Austrians fro the establishment of the black market, which of course they had nothing to do with.  Today is Ann Frank's birthday.  Rise of anti-Semitism in Europe extracts a price the whole society will pay. "Jews are the a barometer of society" – how does a society deal with haters?  Golden Dawn, a blatantly anti-Jewish minister in Hungary, execution of Christians from Nigeria to Iran – no response.  Iraq & ISIS: the ancient fight of Saudis vs Iran is exploding now.   Collapse of regimes.      Mid-June 1914: Archduke.  Ann Frank born in June 1929, 85 years ago, grows up with great hopes.

Hour Three

Thursday  12 June  2014 / Hour 3, Block A: Michael Rubin, author, Dancing with the Devil: The Perils of Engagement, in re:  "Obama is paying the price for abandoning the Arab world" -  headline; Yes -  but not only  the Arab world,  Americans are the finger in the dike preventing a flood of chaos in the world – China in the South China Sea, Ukraine, Middle East, maybe Argentine back in the Falklands."  Is this the Sunni-Shi'a battle?  This is Syria 2.0 – began as internal to Syria, then Russia on one side and Saudis and Qataris on the other.  ISIS jihadis deplane in Hatai, bribe a Turkish border guard and enter Syria.  Iranian Quds fore head is in Baghdad; Turkish intell doing the same thing; conflict to go over he precipice.  Iran is unique with a continuous history for 2,000 years, but half ht e size it thinks it should be.  Washington is so desperate to make a deal with Iran that many of our former allies making deals with Teheran to avoid being crushed.   MR was just in Mosul.  No one predicted the speed of the uprising and overwhelm.  Mosul has always been a hotbed of dissent. At a checkpoint we were beseeched by Iraqi army not to enter Mosul – did; saw refugees on every corner.  Iraqis say: If we’d kept 3,000 forces in Iraq, could have pumped adreneline into Iraqi state and prevent current problem. In Jordan, we have American TDY - temporary duty – but there are a million refugees, water and food prices rising. Hamas in West ban also a threat to Abdullah. What began in Syria has metastasized White House hasn't thought through what would happen id the Saudi kingdom fell. We have hours or days.  Obama say, "all options" – but  he's been saying that for years. He's deputized Iran to take over Iraq. 

Thursday  12 June  2014 / Hour 3, Block B: Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents,  in re:

Thursday  12 June  2014 / Hour 3, Block C: Robert Zimmerman, behindtheblack.com, in re: Rockets. A faulty heater filled the Russian module of ISS with smoke on Tuesday.

The unit was deactivated and the smoke cleared. The Russians will now do some work to repair or replace the unit. The competition heats up: Aerojet Rocketdyne says it can replace the Russian rocket engines used by American rockets for $20 to $25 million per engine.

Including legacy systems and various risk-reduction projects, Aerojet Rocketdyne has spent roughly $300 million working on technologies that will feed into the AR-1, Seymour said during a June 3 roundtable with Aviation Week editors. The effort to build a new, 500,000-lb. thrust liquid oxygen/kerosene propulsion system would take about four years from contract award and cost roughly $800 million to $1 billion. Such an engine is eyed for United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) Atlas V rocket as well as Orbital’s Antares and, possibly, Space Exploration Technology’s Falcon 9 v1.1. This is roughly the same price cited for the cost of standing up U.S. co-production of the RD-180 engine, which is manufactured by NPO Energomash of Russia and sold to ULA for the Atlas V through a joint venture with Pratt & Whitney.

Unfortunately, this announcement is part of a lobbying effort to get Congress to fund the new engine rather than a commitment by Aerojet to build it themselves. Thus, I fully expect them to go over budget and for the engine to cost significantly more once in production, facts that will make it less competitive in the future. The competition heats up: On Monday Boeing unveiled a full mockup of its CST-100 manned capsule. In September NASA will select one or two companies to build manned spacecraft to ferry humans to and from ISS, which explains the recent spate of press shows by these companies each pushing their spacecraft design.

Thursday  12 June  2014 / Hour 3, Block D:   Daniel Henninger, WSJ WONDER LAND, in re: While Obama Fiddles  The fall of Mosul is as big as Russia's seizure of Crimea. But from the Obama presidency, barely a peep.  Barack Obama is fiddling while the world burns. Iraq, Pakistan, Ukraine, Russia, Nigeria, Kenya, Syria. These foreign wildfires, with more surely to come, will burn unabated for two years until the United States has a new president. The one we've got can barely notice or doesn't care.

Last month this is what Barack Obama said to the 1,064 graduating cadets at the U.S. Military Academy: "Four and a half years later, as you graduate, the landscape has changed. We have removed our troops from Iraq. We are winding down our war in Afghanistan. Al Qaeda's leadership on the border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan has been decimated."

That let-the-sunshine-in line must have come back to the cadets, when news came Sunday that the Pakistani Taliban, who operate in that border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan, had carried out a deadly assault on the main airport in Karachi, population 9.4 million. To clarify, the five Taliban Mr. Obama exchanged for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl are Afghan Taliban who operate on the other side of the border.

Within 24 hours of the Taliban attack in Pakistan, Boko Haram's terrorists in Nigeria kidnapped 20 more girls, adding to the 270 still-missing—"our girls," as they were once known. . . .

Hour Four

Thursday  12 June  2014 / Hour 4, Block A: Eight World Cups: My Journey through the Beauty and Dark Side of Soccer by George Vecsey  (1 of 4)

Thursday  12 June  2014 / Hour 4, Block B: Eight World Cups: My Journey through the Beauty and Dark Side of Soccer by George Vecsey  (2 of 4)

Thursday  12 June  2014 / Hour 4, Block C: Eight World Cups: My Journey through the Beauty and Dark Side of Soccer by George Vecsey  (3 of 4)

Thursday  12 June  2014 / Hour 4, Block D: Eight World Cups: My Journey through the Beauty and Dark Side of Soccer by George Vecsey  (4 of 4) 

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