Taiwan: Missile Needed To Buy Time in Attack

Posted by Matt in February 10th, 2008 | no comment

During a rare public discussion of the Hsiung Feng 2E (Brave Wind) land attack cruise missile, Taiwanese Vice Defense Minister Ko Chen-heng said the weapon is needed to allow time for U.S. forces to arrive to protect Taiwan from a Chinese attack.
â€œI wonâ€™t deny thereâ€™s a development plan, but canâ€™t say whether it has been [...]

England’s crisis is ours, too

Posted by Matt in February 10th, 2008 | no comment

Published in Britain, Europe, Islam

The United Kingdom, from common language and shared heritage, offers us our best window into what is happening in Europe. This is especially so when we try to come to grips — if we have the courage to do so — with the historically sudden irruption, and rapid spread, of Islam across Europe.
There are parallel [...]

Chavez threatens to halt oil sales to US

Posted by Matt in February 10th, 2008 | no comment

Published in Oil, Venezuela

President Hugo Chavez on Sunday threatened to cut off oil sales to the United States in an “economic war” if Exxon Mobil Corp. wins court judgments to seize billions of dollars in Venezuelan assets.
Exxon Mobil has gone after the assets of state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA in U.S., British and Dutch courts as [...]

Israeli officials: Hezbollah smuggling rockets into south Lebanon under U.N.’s nose

Posted by Matt in February 10th, 2008 | no comment

Published in Middle East, hezbollah, Lebanon

Hezbollah guerrillas have smuggled hundreds, if not thousands, of rockets and anti-tank missiles into southern Lebanon without being detected by U.N. observers, senior Israeli security officials believe.
Beefed-up U.N. forces were stationed in south Lebanon after the monthlong war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, partially to keep the guerrilla group from smuggling weapons into the [...]

Russia Wants Multinational Arms Control

Posted by Matt in February 10th, 2008 | no comment

Published in Russia, arms_control

Russia Wants Multinational Arms Control
The Associated PressÂ - 3 hours ago
… war arms control treaties and replace them with new, multilateral agreements to combat nuclear proliferation, a senior Russian official said Sunday. …
‘Davos’ of world security policy opens in Munich RussiaToday
US defence chief, Russian deputy PM trade nuclear quips AFP
all 161 news articlesÂ Â»

Gates Cautions on NATO’s Survival

Posted by Matt in February 10th, 2008 | 1 comment

Published in Europe, NATO

Survival of the NATO alliance, a cornerstone of American security policy for six decades, is at stake in the debate over how the United States and Europe should share the burden of fighting Islamic extremism in Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday.
“We must not â€” we cannot â€” become a two-tiered alliance of those [...]

The New Cold War: How the Kremlin Menaces Both Russia and the West

Posted by Matt in February 10th, 2008 | no comment

Published in New Cold War, Russia, West, cold_war

No enemy is too small. In an eye-opening passage, Lucas chronicles how the Russian state has crushed aspirations towards a cultural renaissance among the tiny 600,000 Mari people in central Russia, apparently for getting too close to Estonia. He warns us in particular on the issue of gas, Russiaâ€™s main export to the rest of [...]

Druze leader warns of anarchy, war in Lebanon

Posted by Matt in February 10th, 2008 | no comment

Published in Middle East, Lebanon

Walid Jumblatt urges Hizbullah to break its alliance with Syria. ‘You want war? We welcome war,’ he says in televised address
A leading member of Lebanon’s anti-Syrian governing coalition on Sunday warned of anarchy and raised the specter of war in the country, which is suffering its worst political crisis since the 1975-90 civil war.
Druze leader [...]