The Is

So appropriate..

Thailand still reeling form Coup

If, one recalls in the last September the Thai government was overthrown by the military leadership which then promised to hold new elections as soon as possible. The coup itself was a action taken by the military to topple a supposedly corrupt government as the military stated was at odds with the population.
However the interesting thing is that almost a year later the government is still in the hands of the military and now the government really does seem to be at odds with the population especially since the number of protests have increased over the last months. The military government answers to those allegations by issuing statements such as "Sansern said there were 3,000-5,000 protesters, and said that most were "misinformed" about the political situation, and that some were paid to take part." (Al Jazeera)
This most recent Demonstration that now enjoys so much attention left around 270 Demonstrators injured from fighting with the police. This Demonstration was led by a number of Senior officials of the now dissolved Thai Rak Thai party which was also the party of the Prime Minister before he was replaced by the Military government.

Related articles:
Violence at Thai anti-coup protest (Al Jazeera)
Thailand (Stuff)

Peacekeeping

The question is what is the concept of Peacekeeping?
Well really it evolves around military soldiers taking over the position of the protector. This is usually done for the 'poor' and 'defenseless' of course the flaw is as simple as the protocol by which they are operating. Where do you draw that line? The main question is do you draw the line with the common criminal? OR are these 'peace-keepers' allowed to only intervene in other military operations? Can they protect the harmless neighbor being attacked by not so harmless one. Of course the concept of the peace-keeper which is usually being sent into harms way in a trouble zone in which peaceful side by side living seems impossible. Those peace-keepers are being sent into impossible situations in which friend and foe can not be distinguished.
Of course that will also show the worst in the people sent there, who often eventually return after a mission not completed, a mission not supported and people not understanding. However some of the peace-keepers eventually show signs psychological break down this can be seen in many ways.
Some of the men involved in those missions apparently resort to sad acts which are then usually committed by desperate people.
How and why are hard to understand since of course most people have not encountered such stressful situations such as the peace-keeping missions on which we send our peace-keepers. Now if a soldier fires back on instinct and is then pursued for following in stressful situation training then it is not the soldier that is at fault but logically it would be the person who send the soldier there and the person who trained the soldier. However we seem to tend to accuse the soldier of anything he does even if based on instinct instead of considering that the military doctrine has to be reconsidered. Not to mention the reconsideration of the entire concept of peace-keeping especially in the manner in which it is done at this point. Forcing soldiers not just into impossible situations but also confronting them with impossible situations in which we force those soldiers to watch massacres without being permitted to interfere or press charges or do anything but be forced to only watch and do nothing. Especially that to men and women which have been trained to act.

Related Articles:
UN probes 'abuse' in Ivory Coast (BBC)

The Underdog?!

It is curious how interested we are with Underdogs, we consider suicide stupid and not worth mentioning however, if someone is willing to die for ideals for something 'special' then this suicide or be it 'Last Stand' can easily become a legend.
Take for example the movie 300 it does portrait a Last Stand fight which has interesting stories however we like to make it seem more heroic then it was as like to do with many battles during the movie many odd creatures appear of which we know many would not have appeared but it would have been a fight between man and man only not with mis-formed creatures that seem to resemble something that came back from hell and which can take many hits without falling.
However we do seem to like that concept of the underdog winning or at least putting up a severe fight this concept in fact seems so attractive that we create new stories if they are based in Fantasy, History, Present or Future we love the concept of the 'Righteous' winning and seem to always have of course the Righteous is determined by the society in which we live at that time. This Underdog might simply remind us of the 'fact' that if you are fighting for the 'Good' side then we can win or at least severely harm our enemy it also seems to remind us of us being able to be able what ever we want or of our own power really it does not matter why but it is certain that we like to believe certain things of our 'Side'. That 'our' own Side is the 'Good' and 'Righteous' side.

The Virtue Police

Certain officers of the Virtue Police in Saudi Arabia have been arrested because of the death of a suspect. The duties of the Virtue Police include the protection of the flock to stray. In other words they are responsible for the religious well being of the people. If someone is at 'risk' of straying this police is responsible that a) he/she does not do so and b) that he/she does not affect others with their wayward thinking. The wayward thinking is identified by the way one cloths if it is in the manner the suspect talks or any other 'give-aways' or hints.
The most interesting thing is that the US has always been standing close and very protective over its harmless and defenseless ally Saudi Arabia which would never dare to touch an innocent man on the basis of an unprovable suspicion. Which is based on an even less provable idea.
No neither the US nor Saudi Arabian Governments would ever do such things but there are those other very dangerous countries that have neither money nor weapons those have to be kept under control so that they can never threaten the defenseless that own the most sophisticated weapons.

Related articles
Saudi 'virtue police' trial delay (BBC)

Russia and Austria

A Russian space agency official has been arrested in Austria because he is being suspected of espionage. Russia has expressed how strongly they feel regarding the arrest and insist that the official be released since they claim that he was under the protection of diplomatic immunity. Since he was attending a UN meeting and stated that because of that the official is to be released. The Russian official was arrested together with an Austrian Military officer who is suspected of having handed on the information to the Russian official.
This is one more event creating even more tension between Europe and Russia.

Free 'spy', Russia tells Austria (BBC)

International Cooperation in space...a dream?

The Russian space agency offered NASA to work together on the goal of creating a station on the moon. But while the Russians show a great interest and willingness in cooperation NASA does not. In fact NASA has denied the offer and does not seem to be interested in contemplating this issue any further. This is another event in a series of events which once more strain the relations between the US and Russia. The Anti-missile system was one of the major issue causing conflicts which by the Russian leadership was condemned as an expansionist strategy which would only insure MAD. Russia also threatened to stop supporting the agreement between Russia and the EU concerning the build down of conventional weaponry. The EU and NATO responded to that threat with great concern and strongly emphasized the gravity of the situation.
The US leadership responded only by saying that the anti-missile system was intended to protect allied countries against the Iranian threat. Further that these missiles would not pose any threat the security of Russia since they would be deployed in small number to only cover against the Iranian missiles and not against the hundreds of Russian Missiles which in great number could simply penetrate the Anti-missile shield.
Scientists turned to Star Trek for answers concerning certain issues of space travel since the health risk of traveling in space is tremendous the only solution is to insure that most or all of the radiation can not enter the spacecraft. For this the Deflector which serves in Star Trek that and some other purposes offered itself, and now scientists now look at ways in which the Deflector could be implemented.
At the same time scientists suddenly fear the miss-use and even in-humane use of the Robots that are being designed now and want to establish rights, laws and other protective measures for the Robots and humans involved before the Technology surpasses the legal framework once more.

The Wall is back...

Yes, the American forces have decided some weeks ago that it would be a good solution to build a wall straight across Baghdad. This wall then is intended to separate the waring parties in Baghdad and thus solve the issue of the conflict in the Iraqi Capital. This of course has spawned a series of violent outbreaks in Baghdad and several very strong protests. The US leadership however decided to continue on its course and hold steady on its chosen course.
The US Congress decided that the US forces should withdraw within a certain time frame shortly after all these events transpired. The Iraqi government protested that the US should not withdraw just yet since they represent the military presence in the Middle East. The Iranian government while all this occurs shows willingness to talk but also maintains a hard-line policy and which unsettles its neighbors and insures that the US leadership continue to consider Iran more as a threat then a potential Allie.
While a bit east North Korea admits how direly it needs the supplies given by the aid organizations, and China suddenly wants to have close ties with Taiwan after so many decades of tension. Japan while this is happening explains that it has no responsibility to compensate the 'pleasure women' which had wanted compensation from the Japanese government for the forced 'pleasure' they had to supply to the Japanese troops during World War 2. The reason why Japan does not have to pay is that the Chinese government accepted that no further claims could be made when the Japanese-Chinese diplomatic relations returned to a strained peace in 1976.
Finally in all these issues the war and or at least the wish to gain remains a very important issue and remains at the center stage. Or in some places it is even more the issue of not losing to much, or more then already has been lost. The war in Iraq or rather the US involvment has to end because simply the US economy can not sustain this war much longer especially now when it begins to cave-in.

Iran's defiance

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stated that Iran is willing to enter negotiations with the UN and western countries if they also suspend their nuclear fuel production. Until now the US and UN have challenged Iran to suspend the enrichment of nuclear fuel, now with the deadline approaching Iran stated that it will suspend its enrichment if the western countries asking the same from Iran do the same. The white House responded with a statement delivered by White House spokesman Tony Snow who said: "Do you believe that's a serious offer?"
Clarifying that the US is not willing to suspend its own enrichment process to aid the negotiations. The US is also pressing for a more aggressive strategy if Iran does not suspend its enrichment before the deadline. Many experts have warned before military intervention because it could cause another great war in a region in which any war can't be afforded.

Relevant Artilces
Iran seeks 'constructive dialogue' (Al Jazeera)
Iran defiant on nuclear programme (BBC)
Iran (Paladin101)
Iran presses the US (Paladin101)

Tension in Israel

Excavations near the third holiest side in of the Islam in Jerusalem have caused a great deal of tension in Israel. Those tensions also became visible in Muslim countries which protested against the excavation, Turkey now wants to send a inspection team which then is to find if or if not the excavation means harm to the holy side. Israels government has maintained that the excavations do not pose any danger for the holy side and that there is no reason for tension. Further Israel's government has stated that it is happy to host the inspection team since they had nothing to hide.
The Israeli Antiquity Authority has also installed web-cams which supply a 24-Hour feed to show that there is no harm done to the Muslim structure.

Relevant sides
Turkey and webcams survey al-Aqsa (Al Jazeera)
The Israel Antiquities Authority (life-feed)

Iran

The Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared at a rally Iran did not intend to stop its nuclear program. Further that it also did not intend to violate international conventions, concerning nuclear weapons. A semi-official news agency named Mehr has also reported that the Red Guard had a form of flying 'suicide drones' at their disposal that would be able to fly at US Military ships ram them. Triggering there by an explosion, this technology sounds like a somewhat less advanced version of the Cruise Missile. Which could also be nuclear tipped since Iran does have nuclear fuel available yet considering statements until now make that unlikely. Thus making conventional explosives the most likely armament, yet it is by now in Iran's capability to produce nuclear tips for these missiles.
Further the US has continued to accuse Iran of supporting Iraqi resistance fighters with technology as well as resources. Iran until now has also denied doing so, further the bombs have grown sufficiently sophisticated that they are able to penetrate Abraham Tanks. Which represents the backbone of the US tanks.

Relevant Articles
US accuses Iran over Iraq bombs (BBC)
Iran insists on nuclear programme (BBC)
Rally used to promote nuclear Iran (Al Jazeera)

Iraq..again...

Iraq has been a hot issue with Iran pressing the US to leave, the US population doing the same as well as many other countries. Now this of course has been answered by President Bush with the statement that the US-Troops would remain in Iraq until 'the Job' is done. Further a recent survey showed that 90% of the Iraqi population (Al Jazeera) believe that their country is worse off then it was before the war in 2003.
This and many other concerns such as the enormous strain on the economy which the war is causing indicates that the leadership of the US is the only party really wishing that the US-Troops remain, why is unclear.

Here is a relating article
Survey indicates Iraqis in despair

Guantanamo

What is in Guantanamo? A Prison which is run by the US government, this prison has been criticized repeatedly because of human rights violations. Further the many countries asked the US to close the prison and to move the inmates to other more humane high security facilities.

Recently a Prisoner appealed to the US Supreme court and won that appeal, sadly the case was dismissed on the basis of a new Anti-Terrorism law which took juristiction from the Federal court.

Here is the full article
US judge dismisses Guantanamo case

Israel

Now Israel is facing two great conflicts, the conflict with the Palestinians and the brewing conflict with Iran over whether or or not the Holocaust actually took place. In the latter conflict Israel has the support of European countries as well as other countries around the globe.
The Conflict with Palestine has been wearing on for many years now and claimed even more lives. Many countries have spoken against this conflict and that Israel 'would not be doing enough to settle the conflict' and some even suspect that Israel's ambitions could be compared to those of Austria in 1914 when Austria tried to destroy Serbia to get rid of a threat. If any of those allegations are correct is hard to say since the conflict has been wearing on for many years. Recently South African Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu wanted to shed some light into this issue by starting a 'fact' finding search in Israel as to why the conflict with Palestine began. Israel declined his request, which does put Israel in a disadvantageous position in International relations. Further the UN has been criticizing the Israeli human rights abuses by shelling the Gaza Strip.

Articles relating to this event:
Israel 'blocks Tutu Gaza mission' (BBC)
Israel 'turns down' Tutu mission (Al Jazeera)

Further the conference in Iran concerning the Holocaust or rather it's concern with the non-existence of it. Has caused great concern and many have spoken out against the conference as well as questioned how anyone could ever question that event. Which cost millions of lives which further was also well documented. The survivors which were able to tell the tales where then once more support the events actual occurrence further one has to remember that the facilities speak for them self. Labor and concentration camps by the way they were constructed clearly speak for them self. This then again begs the question why would anyone doubt the events actual occurrence. The participants of this conference are among others people that have been convicted for certain related crimes in France and Germany.
Here is a link to another article
Iran defends Holocaust conference (BBC)

Iran presses the US

Iran presses the US to leave Iraq for many month now, this began with the US asking Iran for help in Iraq to insure the safety of the civilian population. Initially Iran declined but then stated later that they would be willing to support Iraq as an independent nation without or with only a reduced number of US soldiers. Which as the Iranian leadership termed it were intruders which would, because they were intruders never be able to insure peace in Iraq. But rather create more problems. The US leadership responded by insuring that the US support for Iraq had not changed and the US president stated that US troops would remain in Iraq until 'the Job is done'. Which if the Iranian prediction is true will never occur. Iran now offered to help the US withdrawing by supplementing the reduced US troops with Iranian troops. Iran states that since their men are more closely involved due to the proximity of their homes to the problem zone and due to greater social, ethnic and religious similarities Iranian troops would have a greater chance of not being seen as an occupational force. As which the US troops are often seen internationally at this point. The Iranian leadership attempted to communicate directly to the US population and the US government was repeatedly attacked for its policies further the letter stated repeatedly that the 'noble' people of the US were not responsible for those problems at this point because their leaders had made the mistakes leading here.
How the US will react to the increasing pressure is to be seen.

Here are links to some related articles
Iran 'will help US to leave Iraq' (BBC)
Iraq Policy (Paladin101)
Iraq (Paladin101)
Iran and Iraq (Paladin101)
The US government uses 'the' term now too (Paladin101)
Iraq... (Paladin101)
US-Jet Down? (Paladin101)
Trail Flawed (Paladin101)

Nuclear Submarines to stay in UK?

Tony Blair stated that it would be dangerous for Britain to stop having a contingent of nuclear weapons, this would not reflect a Cold War way of thought he says but rather the facing of the reality that nuclear weapons can be obtained by many forces today. This indicates that the new school of thought is that we are surrounded by nuclear and/or other catastrophic weapons aka Biological and chemical weapons. That everywhere one of those weapons could wait and that the only protection against that threat are more of those weapons. That then in turn are placed in 'strategic' positions which allow us to shoot anyone who might be responsible for the devastating strike against us. Further this school of thought does not indicate action but reaction, that the strike can and will happen, and that all we can do is to be able to destroy anyone who might be responsible.

A Link to a related article
UK nuclear weapons plan unveiled

Iraq Policy

The US-governments answer to problems in Iraq was that the troop number should be increased, President Bush stated that the US-forces would remain in Iraq until the 'job' was done. Iran has pushed the US towards the leaving or at least reducing their military presence in Iraq arguing that peace would not be achievable as long as US troops would remain in Iraq. Further the Iranian leadership stated that it would be willing to aid Iraq, once the US-troops had left, because before that it would be a wasted effort. Since the US-forces were an outside force, that had invaded the daily lives of the Iraqi population. One also has to consider the territory in which Iraq lies changed hands very often and this created an area which had no cultural roots. In the 30's the western powers drew the map for the middle east and did not let the regional population create their own countries. This might have created some of the conflicts in the middle east artificially. Rumsfeld the 'almost' ex-secretary of defense stated that it was apparent that the current Iraq policy was not working, that it might be better for the peace in Iraq to reduce the number of US-soldiers in Iraq and focus more on training the Iraqi police and military force. So that those could eventually deal with the challenges they face. Rumsfeld the person that is facing a legal challenge concerning war crimes and that was often criticized for his 'gun-ho' behavior is now also the first member or 'almost' ex-member of the US government to state this. It is an odd development, it could reflect his lack of risking a political carrier since his has already suffered greatly, maybe that he his trying to get around the legal challenge, but independently of those possibilities he might simply be saying his mind. This is a very new course for Rumsfeld and a challenge to the current administration.

Here are two related articles
Rumsfeld admitted Iraq failings (Al Jazeera)
Rumsfeld urged Iraq tactics shift (BBC)

New Form of war

The US has warned that banking websites and and the stock market could be attacked by the Al-Quaeda. This is the beginning of a new form of warfare, orienting itself on economics instead of of the military or the civilian population this would aim directly at the economic base of the enemy. Making even an army of 50 a very dangerous one which could circumvent the entire American military, and yet still cripple it if successful.
Of course this makes it sound very easy, but the websites are protected by firewalls and heavy encryptions, further those sites are monitored by administrators, that are supposed to stop hackers. This and the fact that the hackers would have a limited amount of time to hack successfully and evade tracking, or be gone from the point at which they would be hacking. The hacking itself is one not easy secondly it would require people with a working knowledge of the programs employed, and of course of the programming language employed. Further the hacker would have to have a working knowledge of security protocols used, all this is not easy, then again it is cheaper then fighting a shooting war. This is a most interesting development.

Here are related articles
US issues cyber attack warning (Al Jazeera)
US warns of al-Qaeda cyber threat (BBC)

Is Russia cleaning house?

Many 'mysterious' deaths have surrounded Russia recently, first a reporter, then a ex-KGB agent and now an ex-Prime Minister. All of which are still under investigation, it does seem odd that all of the people suddenly dying are in some way criticizing the current administration, all of which under circumstances that are hard to explain. The only death that brought showed anything of substance was the attack on the ex-KGB agent after who's death the British government initiated a investigation which now had lead to certain airplanes that fly Moscow London, routes. These events show a very disturbing picture if the Russian government indeed is responsible this means that once more the Russian government restricts speech (was known before) and freedoms and even human rights such as the right to life at will. It would almost seem that the Kremlin is cleaning house with its critics until their either disappeared in fear or dead.

Articles that deal with these events
Russian ex-PM has mystery illness (BBC)
BA passengers in radiation alert (BBC)
Russia (Paladin101)
Spy inquiry hunts further radiation (Al Jazeera)

Iraq

The US-President George W. Bush, has vowed that US-troops will remain in Iraq until the situation is resolved, and the job is finished. This goes contrary with the wish the Iranian leadership expressed, thus this will likely once more complicate the request for aid, of the US to Iran.
If this move is really helpful to Iraq and the peace in this region can not be said at this point, but there are not signs for reduced violence or peace moving in.

Here are links to articles that cover this event in greater detail
Bush vows to 'complete Iraq job' (BBC)
US vows to finish job in Iraq (Al Jazeera)

Links to related articles
Iran and Iraq (Paladin101)
The US government uses 'the' term now too (Paladin101)
Iraq...(Paladin101)
US-Jet down? (Paladin101)