Indo-Pak arms race

Cross-posted at Rosemary's Thoughts.

This does not look good, and the place talking about it is CNN. They were talking of peace a while back, and they still may be. This is not going to help that. No, not at all. Especially since OBL may live in Pakistan!

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- Satellite images show that Pakistan is building a nuclear reactor that can produce weapons-grade plutonium, an American watchdog group said Thursday, warning that it could contribute to an atomic arms race with archrival India.

A picture taken June 3 shows work progressing rapidly on the reactor at the Khushab nuclear site, 100 miles southwest of the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, the Institute of Science for International Security said. [Continue reading.]

Let us hope this does not heat up again...

Oh my! Has Bos'un got an article worth reading!

One of my writers who has been with me from the start has captured this story Wednesday, June 6, 2007. What a day to release a story! If you are interested in NOT getting blown up, this is a must read. Thanks Bos'un (from over at Bosun's Sail Locker.) Have a great day.

Hitler 1938=Ahmadinejad 2007?

I have contemplated this very issue myself, as well as Mr. Podhoretz. Mr. Podhoretz refers our perilous times as WWIV (in the Opinion Journal), regarding the Cold War as WWIII. So do I. Anytime the whole world is involved for its very survival, it should be known as a World War.

What makes WWII different from WWIII is that ideologies are much harder to pinpoint the target. Let us take a look at history to see if we can learn anything.

By 1938, Germany under Adolf Hitler had for some years been rearming in defiance of its obligations under the Versailles treaty and other international agreements. Yet even though Hitler in :"Mein Kampf" had explicitly spelled out the goals he was now preparing to pursue, scarcely anyone took him seriously. To the imminent victims of the war he was soon to start, Hitler's book and his inflammatory speeches were nothing more than braggadocio or, to use the more colorful word Hannah Arendt once applied to Adolf Eichmann, rodomontade: the kind of red meat any politician might throw to his constituents at home. Hitler might sound at times like a madman, but in reality he was a shrewd operator with whom one could--in the notorious term coined by the London Times--"do business." The business that was done under this assumption was the Munich Agreement of 1938, which the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain declared had brought "peace in our time."

Ah, peace in our time. How sweet that would be! Only peace does not come free, especially when your enemy is determined to destroy you in order to achieve their goal. Is Ahmadinejad determined to rid the of Israel, Jewish people, and Americans?

At the outset I stipulated that the weapons with which we are fighting World War IV are not all military--that they also include economic, diplomatic, and other nonmilitary instruments of power. In exerting pressure for reform on countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia, these nonmilitary instruments are the right ones to use. But it should be clear by now to any observer not in denial that Iran is not such a country. As we know from Iran's defiance of the Security Council and the IAEA even while the United States has been warning Ahmadinejad that "all options" remain on the table, ultimatums and threats of force can no more stop him than negotiations and sanctions have managed to do. Like them, all they accomplish is to buy him more time.

In short, the plain and brutal truth is that if Iran is to be prevented from developing a nuclear arsenal, there is no alternative to the actual use of military force--any more than there was an alternative to force if Hitler was to be stopped in 1938.

I believe he is. So why is he the guy that does not get any bad press, and we get all the condemnation? Because it is easy to attack the one you know who will not attack you back. Maybe we should take the gloves off?

Much of the world has greeted Ahmadinejad's promise to wipe Israel off the map with something close to insouciance. In fact, it could almost be said of the Europeans that they have been more upset by Ahmadinejad's denial that a Holocaust took place 60 years ago than by his determination to set off one of his own as soon as he acquires the means to do so. In some of European countries, Holocaust denial is a crime, and the European Union only recently endorsed that position. Yet for all their retrospective remorse over the wholesale slaughter of Jews back then, the Europeans seem no readier to lift a finger to prevent a second Holocaust than they were the first time around.

Not so George W. Bush, a man who knows evil when he sees it and who has demonstrated an unfailingly courageous willingness to endure vilification and contumely in setting his face against it. It now remains to be seen whether this president, battered more mercilessly and with less justification than any other in living memory, and weakened politically by the enemies of his policy in the Middle East in general and Iraq in particular, will find it possible to take the only action that can stop Iran from following through on its evil intentions both toward us and toward Israel. As an American and as a Jew, I pray with all my heart that he will.

All in all, I do not want Iran to become a nuclear weapon broker. I love the Persian people, but it doesn't appear as if they are going to overthrow that regime. And what if they do? Will they continue to destroy the Jewish people as is happening in Lebanon? I do not know. Do you want we should wait and find out? Then shut up about Darfur.

As I am not afraid to stand up for what is right, I can still stand up for Darfur without being a hypocrite. I say we get rid of that Islamofascist dictator as well...

To read the complete article by Mr. Podhoretz, click here. (Free registration required.) It is rather lengthy, but it is worth the time.

Bush to NK: Patience is not Unlimited

April 27, 2007

President Bush and Prime Minister Abe were at Camp David over the weekend. One of the topics of grave concern to Japan is North Korea's nuclear weapons. They are already withholding food and oil from NK.

"Our partners in the six-party talks are patient, but our patience is not unlimited," Bush said, referring to disarmament negotiations between the United States, Japan, China, Russia, South Korea and North Korea

For his part, Abe said, "We completely see eye to eye on this matter. They need to respond properly on these issues. Otherwise we will have to take a tougher response on our side."
...
Japan is already withholding economic and food aid to the reclusive communist regime.

There was another amazing action taken:

On another subject, Abe apologized for the Japanese military's actions in forcing women to work in military brothels during World War II. He said he wanted to "express my apologies that they were placed in that circumstance." [Continue reading.]

It may be 60 years late, but better late than never. Thank you.

Source: CNN.

Asian News Part II 4/12/2007

Chinese PM calls for close ties with Japan.

North Korea replaces its prime minister.

U.S. retrieves soldiers' remains.

All eyes on North Korea nuke action.

Asian News 4/11/2007

I am going to keep down to a list today. There are many good articles. Check out the ones that interest you.

N. Korea funds impasse resolved.
Tokyo re-elects nationalist governor.
U.S. presses N. Korea to shut reactor.
Navy plans massive war games off Guam.
Report: Asia upgrading military.
China, Japan pledge closer ties.
Japanese PM sets 1st visit to U.S..
Malaysian political bloggers form alliance.

Have a nice day.

News from Asia: 4/2/2007

These articles were written by CNN.

Myanmar allows foreign media into new capital.
NAY PYI TAW, Myanmar (Reuters) -- Myanmar's secretive military government has allowed foreign journalists into its new capital for the first time since it quit the leafy colonial-era Yangon in October 2005.

"As far as I know, visas were granted to everyone who applied for them this time, including those who used to be on the blacklist," an Information Ministry official said on Monday.

If that link is no longer available, use this one.

China, Russia urge Iran to play ball.
MOSCOW, Russia (AP) -- The presidents of Russia and China have called on Iran to fulfill the U.N. Security Council's resolutions over its disputed nuclear program.

Vladimir Putin and Hu Jintao also said Monday in a joint statement that their countries -- permanent, veto-wielding Security Council members -- were ready to "search for a comprehensive, long-term and mutually acceptable solution to the Iranian nuclear problem."

If that link is no longer available, use this one.

Bank threatens to sue over NK funds.
HONG KONG, China (AP) -- A majority foreign-owned North Korean bank has threatened legal action if money it holds in a Macau bank is transferred to China, a report said Tuesday.

Such a move threatens to derail a U.S.-North Korean deal that was crucial in getting the North to agree to start shutting down its nuclear program.

If that link is no longer available, use this one.

Japan deploys missile near Tokyo.
IRUMA, Japan (Reuters) -- Japan trucked its first ballistic missile interceptors to an air force base north of Tokyo on Friday in an effort to beef up its defenses against its unpredictable neighbor North Korea.

The deployment of Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) launchers, capable of shooting down incoming missiles in the final stage of flight as they near their target, was sparked by Pyongyang's firing of a ballistic missile in 1998 that flew over Japan.

If that link is no longer available, use this one.

News from Asia 3/14/2007

Feb. 26, 2007.
HONG KONG, China (AP) -- A U.S. Treasury Department delegation worked Monday to resolve sanctions against a Macau bank accused of helping North Korea launder money -- a key condition in the North's agreement to give up its nuclear weapons program. [Source: CNN. If that link no longer works, try this one.]

March 4, 2007.
SEOUL, South Korea (Reuters) -- North Korea is fully prepared to shut down its nuclear facilities and allow inspections, a South Korean official said in New York, where envoys from Pyongyang and Washington are set to begin rare talks on improving ties. [Source: CNN. If this link no longer works, try this one.]

March 8, 2007.
HANOI, Vietnam (Reuters) -- Japan and North Korea cut short talks on Thursday about establishing diplomatic ties after wrangling again over historical differences, officials said. [Source: CNN. If this link does not work, try this one.]

March 11, 2007.
TOKYO, Japan (AP) -- Australian Prime Minister John Howard is expected to sign a security declaration with his Japanese counterpart during a four-day trip to Tokyo that started Sunday, officials said. [Source: CNN. If that link is no longer available, try this one.]

March 13, 2007.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The U.S. Treasury Department will bar U.S. banks from doing business with a Macau bank holding frozen North Korean assets believed connected to illegal activities, a U.S. official said on Tuesday. [Source: CNN. Also an earlier CNN report. If the first link does not work, try this one.]

March 14, 2007.
TOKYO, Japan (AP) -- The chief U.N. nuclear inspector, after a one-day trip to Pyongyang, said Wednesday North Korea was "fully committed" to an agreement that requires it to shutter its main nuclear reactor and let in inspectors as soon as the U.S. drops financial sanctions against it. [Source: CNN. If this link does not work, try this one.]

North Korea may test another missle

News from CNN states that North Korea is contemplating a second (it is actually the third, but don't tell them) test of its ballistic missles. It is being reported that Kim Jong Il feels compelled to go ahead with this if the USA does not resolve the financial request he wants.

That's right. It's America's fault if he fires nuclear weapons into Japan or South Korea because we are so greedy and uncaring. I hope you can tell sarcasm when you read it. Just in case you are a Lefty, this was sarcasm.

Hey Kim, go to hell.

If the article is no longer available, try this link.