World Events

[nemafakei]

Remember that it's not just a case of alienating Iraq, but also many parts of the middle east, and were the US to lose most middle-east oil supplies, their economy would end up rather dented.

[Digital Guerrilla]

That is certainly correct Nema also it is less expensive than drilling in the Alaskain wildness oil drilling from the desert is easier than drilling in the Alaskain tundra. No Iraq is not America's only source of oil but removing Saddam garantees a cheaper oil price their is no dispute about that think about the economics of the overall sitution in terms of world affairs.

[Digital Guerrilla]

Interesting development in Iraq....

[Digital Guerrilla]

The Syrian government is being pressured by the US these being the reasons:

1. Syria is said to be haboring Saddam's former regime members

2. Damascus has reserves of chemical weapons. Syria also has missle capibliies to carry said payloads for launching attacks aginst enemies.

3. Syria supports terrorists.

Only having these three reasons the US could very well be marching into Syria what are anyone's thoughts about the sitution.

(note to any global mod please move this to the Politics boards it would be better suited in that group of threads-thanks)

[Acriku]

*Awaiting movement to PRP*

If these assertions are found to be true, I think they would be very good reasons to do something about it. Invading seems too early, but diplomatic relations to get rid of these supposed weapons and terrorists.

[Gobalopper]

It's unlikely to happen as there is not much support both publically and in the gov't. Invading Syria without some sort of diplomacy first would set a very bad example.

[Digital Guerrilla]

I agree as far a military action against Syria but it is not only about Syria but the remaining issuses with North Korea and Iran and each country's purusit of weapons of mass destruction. I think all of this has implications of connection to Bush's plan to settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict now the Saddam has been removed from power.

[Gobalopper]

From -> http://www.columbiapoliticalreview.com/filibuster/archive.asp#1050288437001

(1) A high-profile Iranian conservative calls for a reexamination of Iran's relationship with Israel.

(2) North Korea may enter multilateral talks -- the kind that the Bush administration has demanded -- about its nuclear program.

(3) Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas has picked a reformist cabinet. (Arafat, the power-hungry jerk, has rejected it.)

(4) Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, ally and champion of settlement builders, may uproot his West Bank base "faster than people think."

All of the above have happened since the war started, all of the above positive things in regards to problems in other areas of the world. Notice Iran and NK softening their stance.

[SurlyPIG]

I am curious to see how the anti-war crowd would account for those 'coincidences' Gob mentioned.

[quoudam72]

US officials have generally denied that any war plans were in the offing but said there were a "variety of options" including possibly (diplomatic or economic )sanctions, to straighten out Syria.

In Madrid, Syria's ambassador to Spain said earlier that U.S. accusations that Syria was harbouring terrorists were an insult. "It's an insult to my country, an insult to a country that is a member of the U.N. Security Council and an insult to a peaceful country that is struggling and working for a lasting peace in the Middle East," the ambassador, Mohsen Bilal, told Spain's Cadena Ser radio.

[Acriku]

France is a member of the Security Council, so what value does it have to be one, to be insulted as one? ;)

[emprworm]

my brother and i were talking on the phone last night, and about France's nuclear capabilities and at one point in the conversation my brother said "well you know that our government has probably developed war plans against France simply because they are a nuclear power" and at that very moment we heard the click sound telling us that our phone was being monitored.

if you live in the USA you probably know that NORAD and the NSA regularly tap into phone lines based upon "Key words" that are spoken. So we triggered an NSA tap on our phone by saying "War plans against France"

lol!!

(true story)

[quoudam72]

The US has "recently" shut down a pipeline between Iraq and Syria details about where it has been shut down have not been released yet. The Syrian government has always said the pipeline was being "tested" and not commissioned for full use. Sources in the oil industry have said that the pipeline was halted in the early days of the U.S.-led offensive against Iraq, which began on March 19. Rumsfield did not say when the pipeline flow was stopped, which U.S. forces shut down the pipeline or the location where it was shut down.

[Gobalopper]

Actually the early reports were wrong and the pipeline wasn't shutdown until Kirkuk was taken. And yesterday I read that Bush "vetoed" early planning of a war plan against Syria.

[quoudam72]

There is a slight problem with the arms market these days or am I the only one who notices? Russia has recently been accused of illegal arms deliveries to Iraq. Many countries that are considered "Third World" have look into modernization of their armies. It is a known fact that America only sells outdated models of their arms and they do not sell them to everyone you have to be a member of their arms club. With this in mind alot of countries buy weapons from Russia. The Russian defense giant Rosoboronexport along with the military and technical cooperation committee say that they are commercial organizations, only understanding the language of commerce.

This brings the concern of the American administration because Russia not only supplies it's enemies but also it's allies the Saudis for one. America thinks of Russia as a two-face friend talks nice in your face but secretly sells arms to it's enemies. Here is the picture Putin rules the country, in which retired cunning generals shared their military knowledge with Saddam Hussein for money; in which scientists sold nuclear technologies to Iran; in which the army waged one of the dirtiest wars in the world - in Chechnya. In the past year (2002) Russia exported arms in the sum of 4,8 billion dollars. What does Russia have to offer one might ask here is a short list mobile anti-tank missile complexes, grenade launchers, night vision devices, ABM systems and heavy armoured vehicles. Who's buying India (Su-30 pursuit planes), China (Su-30 pursuit planes & Russian diesel submarines and torpedo-boat destroyers), Sudan (MiG), Malaysia (anti-aircraft missile complex) and Saudi Arabia as mentioned before. How does America deal with the Russian military export besides fighting Russian arms on the battle field?

[Digital Guerrilla]

Around the world in 8 posts:

1. Beijing Renmin Wang/People Net (Communist Party, online), April 12: Hawks in Washington proclaim that the Iraq war shows that whether

[Navaros]

could the "Axis of Evil" members be trying to take advantage of the present sitution between the US and Iraq. What does anyone else think?

if North Korea had smart military commanders, that's exactly what they WOULD have done. the would have nuked the Hell out of the USA as soon as the War on Iraq started. that would have been the best military decision Nortk Korea could ever had made

now the USA is just gonna build up for several more years and then go beat the crap out of North Korea because they didn't act when they had the chance

it won't happen now, too late. the War on Iraq is over.

[Digital Guerrilla]

could the "Axis of Evil" members be trying to take advantage of the present sitution between the US and Iraq. What does anyone else think?

if North Korea had smart military commanders, that's exactly what they WOULD have done. the would have nuked the Hell out of the USA as soon as the War on Iraq started. that would have been the best military decision Nortk Korea could ever had made

now the USA is just gonna build up for several more years and then go beat the crap out of North Korea because they didn't act when they had the chance

it won't happen now, too late. the War on Iraq is over.

Arohk you do realize that would have been like.......SUICIDE for North Korea!!!! ::)

[Digital Guerrilla]

It would be interesting to know that the Korean War never ended. This Sunday past (07/27/03) was the 50th anniversary of the armistice that "suspended armed hostilities" after three years of bloody war (Korean War 1950-53). An "armistice" is an agreement to "cease open conflict". It is not a peace treaty. To the average American the Koren War has been over 50 years, but to the North Koreans the "Fatherland Liberation War", as known by North Koreans never ended. A peace tready is needed to change the status of the war if nuclear proliferation is to be prevented. Italy, China, Britain and Australia along with the European Union, have established diplomatic relations with North Korea. Fifty years of war is long enough, American policy makers in Washington should pursue diplomacy as well.

[Digital Guerrilla]

The U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) is exploring the possibility of a space transport vehicle that could deliver troops anywhere in the world in two hours or less. The USMC is attempting to interest the Special Operations Command, the Air Force Space Command, and the National Space Initiative (a joint effort between NASA and the Pentagon) in what it is calling the Small Unit Space Transport and Insertion (SUSTAIN) program. The USMC hopes that SUSTAIN would reach initial operating capability in the 2025-2030 timeframe. The USMC has also established a link with the U.S. Strategic Command called the Marine Forces Strategic Command (MARFORSTRAT) to solidify its space operations.

[Dunenewt]

They are also developing a bomber (Called Hypersoar) which skips along the Earth's atmosphere at 120,00 feet and at a speed of over Mach 7.

Another thing in developement by USA (using Russian technology) is a Mach 25 plane which is invisible to any type of Radar. Its not a 'stealth' plane but it is surrounded in a 'cloud' of plasma gases.

Note:Germany had plans for a Mach 18 bomber in WW2 which luckily was never built.

[Digital Guerrilla]

The Jemaah Islamiah militant Muslim group, who has with links to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, has emerged as a prime suspect in the bomb blast on Tuesday at a luxury hotel in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta. The same methods used in the bombing attack of last October's Bali bomb blast that killed 202 people and wounded hundreds are what has made Jemaah Islamiah the main suspect.