Archive
Stop NATO news: December 31, 2011
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Central Asia, Afghanistan: U.S. Seeks New Drone Bases
U.S. Air Force Buys Fastest, Largest Hunter-Killer Drone
U.S. Civilians Now Helping Decide Who To Kill With Military Drones
Boeing Wins $3.5 Billion Bid For Long-Range Interceptor Missiles
Pakistan Seizes 250 Containers With U.S., NATO Military Equipment
Almost 3,000 NATO Fatalities: Deadly Cost Of Afghan War
Afghanistan: Eleventh Georgian Soldier Killed, More On The Way
Australia Quadruples Base Used For Afghan War Training
Pacific Command Nomination Signals Pentagon’s Shift To Asia-Pacific
Japan’s Worrisome Return To Militarism
India, Japan To Conduct Joint Naval Maneuvers In Indian Ocean
West Blocking Kosovo Organ Trafficking Probe: Russian UN Envoy
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Central Asia, Afghanistan: U.S. Seeks New Drone Bases
The Nation
December 30, 2011
US looking for new drone bases after Pakistan’s refusal
By Sikandar Shaheen
-Including the covert base in Khost, the US has seven operational military bases located in Kandahar, Herat, Parwan, Helmand and Nimroz provinces.
With the exception of the Khost base that is under the operational command of CIA, the US Army, Air Force and Navy jointly administer the remaining six bases.
-According to officials at a diplomatic mission, the US was actively considering establishing covert military bases in Central Asia for continuing drone-hits in Pakistan but the Central Asian Republics (CARs) refused to provide launching pads owing to Russia’s pressure.
-78 drone attacks in the ongoing year have killed 607 persons including militants and civilians in the Pakistan’s tribal region while 306 drone strikes claimed 3659 lives in this region since 2004.
ISLAMABAD – The CIA-sponsored drone campaign in Pakistan‘s Northwestern Tribal region is likely to remain stalled amid the reports that the US may not find a feasible alternative venue to target Pak-Afghan borderlands after having become entangled in a deadlock with Pakistan over the Mohmand attack row.
Till the middle of last month, the Central intelligence Agency (CIA) oversaw drone hits in Pakistan’s Waziristan region mostly from the Shamsi base in Balochistan province and partly from a US base in Khost province, Afghanistan.
After US AC-130H Spectre gunship choppers targeted a couple of military check posts in Mohmand Agency killing two dozen Pak soldiers on November 26th, Pakistan gave a 15-day deadline to the US to vacate the Shamsi base that followed its evacuation by December 11th. Since then, there has been a complete halt in drone hits.
Including the covert base in Khost, the US has seven operational military bases located in Kandahar, Herat, Parwan, Helmand and Nimroz provinces.
With the exception of the Khost base that is under the operational command of CIA, the US Army, Air Force and Navy jointly administer the remaining six bases.
Reportedly, the United States mulled over using the Shindand base in Helmand, the Bagram base in Parwan and the Camp Leatherneck base in Nimroz province as launching pads for drone hits in Pakistani borderlands but the idea ceased to work owing to the engagements of these bases in extensive aerial operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan’s refusal to allow the CIA to carry on with the covert drone programme in its tribal area in the post-November 26th scenario.
Talking to The Nation, Abdullah Khan, Director of the Conflict Monitoring Centre (CMC), an Islamabad-based think-tank that monitors conflict scenarios in South Asia, said the CIA had the option of using the Khost base for drones but things were to be different compared to the Shamsi base.
“Its not as convenient and easy as it used to be. There are too many operational constraints involved in launching drone strikes from Khost compared to Shamsi. Secondly, given that Pakistan has completely disrupted intelligence sharing on drones, it’s next to impossible for them (CIA) to continue with drones here’” he said.
Elaborating on the operational constraints for the drone programme at the Khost base, Khan said: “It’s not only about drones. There’s a whole lot of surveillance, spying and military movements that were being overseen from Shamsi. That’s not possible from Afghanistan due to the proximity factor. The Khost base had come under a deadly suicide attack last year.”
According to CMC figures, 78 drone attacks in the ongoing year have killed 607 persons including militants and civilians in the Pakistan’s tribal region while 306 drone strikes claimed 3659 lives in this region since 2004.
The last drone hit was reported in the Shawal area of North Waziristan that killed some six to nine persons. The Khost provincial government spokesman Mubarez Zadran expressed ignorance regarding the presence of a covert military base for drones in Khost. “This is something nobody would want to speak on.
“Yes, the US military bases are there and that’s no hidden affair but these bases are not being used for drone-hits in Pakistan. I think you better consult US military on this,” he suggested to this scribe.
Neither the US Embassy in Islamabad nor the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) officially comments on the CIA drone programme.
NATO officials in Afghanistan, when contacted on prior occasions, had denied having any involvement with drone hits in Pakistan. According to officials at a diplomatic mission, the US was actively considering to establish covert military bases in Central Asia for continuing drone-hits in Pakistan but the Central Asian Republics (CARs) refused to provide launching pads owing to Russia’s pressure.
Russia has serious disagreements with the US presence in Afghanistan.
In October this year, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to Pakistan along with top military officials had followed a secretive agreement on drones as part of renewed Pak-US military cooperation after a spree of hostility. Unearthed by The Nation on October 22nd, the agreement envisaged resumption of intelligence cooperation between Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and the CIA for hunting down militants on both sides of the border.
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U.S. Air Force Buys Fastest, Largest Hunter-Killer Drone
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-stealth-drone-20111231,0,2148856.story
Los Angeles Times
December 31, 2011
Air Force buys an Avenger, its biggest and fastest armed drone
The new radar-evading aircraft, which cost the Air Force $15 million, has a maximum takeoff weight of 15,800 pounds and can fly at 460 mph. The drone, built near San Diego, is for testing purposes
W.J. Hennigan
-With a length of 44 feet and a maximum takeoff weight of 15,800 pounds, the Avenger can carry more weaponry than its predecessors…
The Avenger…has an internal bomb bay like other modern fighter and bomber jets. It was designed to carry 2,000-pound bombs, as well as missiles, cameras and sensor packages.
The Air Force has bought a new hunter-killer aircraft that is the fastest and largest armed drone in its fleet.
The Avenger, which cost the military $15 million, is the latest version of the Predator drones made by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc., a San Diego-area company that also builds the robotic MQ-9 Reapers for the Air Force and CIA.
The new radar-evading aircraft, also known as the Predator C, is General Atomics’ third version of these drones…
The Avenger represents a major technological advance over the other Predator and Reaper drones that the Obama administration has increasingly relied on to hunt and destroy targets in Central Asia and the Middle East, defense industry analysts said. It may be several months — even years — away from active duty, but the Avenger represents the wave of the future, said Phil Finnegan, an aerospace expert with the Teal Group, a research firm.
“As the U.S. looks at threats beyond Iraq and Afghanistan — where it has complete air dominance — it needs aircraft that are going to be stealthier and faster so they won’t be shot down by enemy air defense,” Finnegan said.
With a length of 44 feet and a maximum takeoff weight of 15,800 pounds, the Avenger can carry more weaponry than its predecessors.
The Reaper, for example, is 36 feet long and has a maximum takeoff weight of 10,500 pounds. The largest bombs it carries weigh 500 pounds and hang from its wings.
The Avenger, on the other hand, has an internal bomb bay like other modern fighter and bomber jets. It was designed to carry 2,000-pound bombs, as well as missiles, cameras and sensor packages.
Both the Reaper and Avenger have 66-foot wingspans and can reach a maximum altitude of about 50,000 feet.
The Reaper can stay aloft for 30 hours at a time –- 10 hours longer than the Avenger. But with the power of a turbofan engine, the Avenger’s top speed is about 460 mph, much faster than the propeller-driven Reaper’s 276 mph.
The Avenger is considered one of the contenders to replace older Predators and Reapers. It’s also likely to be in the running for the Navy’s upcoming carrier-launched drone program.
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U.S. Civilians Now Helping Decide Who To Kill With Military Drones
Business Insider
December 30, 2011
US Civilians Are Now Helping Decide Who To Kill With Military Drones
Robert Johnson
-The Air Force owns 230 Reapers, Predators, and Global Hawks — flying 50 of them at any given time.
But it’s the 730 more drones being added to the fleet over the next 10 years that may explain why military personnel are now being asked to fly four drones at once.
President Obama’s enormous expansion of the U.S. drone program may be pushing too fast for military staffing to keep up.
David S. Cloud of The Los Angeles Times reports the military is now forced to rely on a string of civilian contractors placed at all levels along the “kill chain.” These are the people who analyze incoming drone video and decide when to fire Hellfire missiles.
The practice is not new.
According to Cloud, an American civilian played a “central” role in the Predator attack that accidentally killed 15 Afghans in 2010, information that “surprised” the investigating Army officer.
Manning the drone fleet is a mounting issue in the Air Force.
It takes more staff to fly a drone than an F-15, and with more drones than ever in the air, non-government employees are increasingly employed to analyze video, and keep the UAVs in the air.
The Air Force says it takes 168 people to fly a Predator for 24 hours, and 300 people to keep a Global Hawk aloft for the same time.
The Air Force owns 230 Reapers, Predators, and Global Hawks — flying 50 of them at any given time.
But it’s the 730 more drones being added to the fleet over the next 10 years that may explain why military personnel are now being asked to fly four drones at once.
Announced last week and received with a wealth of concerns, the four drone per pilot program raises further concerns about an already legally muddled program.
Despite public resistance, legal questions, and additional pilot stress, military officials in the U.S. and Britain are already claiming to see “great promise” with the four drone program.
Unless the military drastically increases its recruiting efforts, with the defense cuts a huge improbability, there is likely to be an increasing number of civilians, working for profitable corporations, helping make decisions on when to fire U.S. weapons.
While the Air Force tries to maintain certain standards within its ranks, attempting to root out those with questionable legal backgrounds, and poor “moral standing,” every corporation within the kill chain is guided by its own hiring practices.
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Boeing Wins $3.5 Billion Bid For Long-Range Interceptor Missiles
http://news.yahoo.com/boeing-wins-3-48-billion-u-missile-defense-222356972.html
Reuters
December 30, 2011
Boeing wins $3.48 billion U.S. missile defense contract
Boeing Co beat out Lockheed Martin to retain its position as the prime contractor for the U.S. long-range missile shield, the Pentagon said on Friday.
The U.S. Defense Department said it was awarding Boeing a $3.48 billion, seven-year contract to develop, test, engineer and manufacture missile defense systems.
A team led by Lockheed Martin Corp and Raytheon Co had vied with Boeing to expand and maintain the Ground-based Midcourse Defense, or GMD, hub of layered antimissile protection.
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GMD uses radars and other sensors plus a 20,000-mile fiber optic communications network to cue interceptors in silos in Fort Greely, Alaska and Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.
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(Reporting By Jim Wolf and Karey Wutkowski; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)
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Pakistan Seizes 250 Containers With U.S., NATO Military Equipment
Press Trust of India
December 30, 2011
Pak forces claim seizing US, NATO military equipment
Karachi: Pakistani security forces today claimed that they had seized and confiscated sensitive military equipment in around 250 containers belonging to US and NATO forces.
Television channels reported that the military equipment was seized on security grounds by the paramilitary Pakistan Rangers. According to Ranger officials, the equipment will remain under their control until further orders are received from the government. “The military equipment was found in around 250 containers which have now been parked in a yard at Port Qasim,” a security official said.
The seizure comes at a time when the United States has announced it was planning to withdraw all its military hardware and arms out of Pakistan after the Pakistan government closed its Afghan border for supplies carried out through containers and oil tankers to US and NATO forces in Afghanistan.
The ‘Express News’ channel quoted security sources as saying that the ban on supplies to US and NATO forces in Afghanistan had prompted the US government to weight various options to move around the cargo stranded at various locations in Pakistan. According to these sources, US cargo, stranded in Pakistan, is worth millions of dollars and US authorities have serious concerns over the safety of the cargo as it includes hammer vehicles, dumpers, anti-aircraft guns, special carriers of anti-aircraft guns, vehicles specially built to jam communications, cranes and sophisticated weapons.
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Almost 3,000 NATO Fatalities: Deadly Cost Of Afghan War
http://www.smh.com.au/world/565-the-deadly-cost-of-afghanistan-involvement-20111231-1pg4n.html
Agence France-Presse
December 31, 2011
565: The deadly cost of Afghanistan involvement
Joe Sinclair
Foreign troops fighting in Afghanistan continue to pay a high toll, with more than 560 killed in 2011, the second highest number in the 10-year war against the Taliban-led insurgency.
Commanders from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) say violence is declining following the US military surge which saw an extra 33,000 troops on the ground.
But the UN says violence is up, while recent mass casualty strikes by the Taliban on civilians and coalition troops have fuelled analyst predictions that more bloodshed is likely as NATO hands control for security to Afghan forces.
The death toll of coalition service personnel in 2011 was 565.
According to the independent website icasualties.org, 32 Australian defence personnel have died in Afghanistan since 2002.
A total 417 from the US, 45 from Britain, and 11 from Australia died in 2011, according to an AFP tally based on figures from icasualties.org.
The number is down from a wartime high of 711 in 2010 after the start of the surge but up from 521 in 2009.
The fatality count, which includes 11 Australians, has been worsened by several devastating attacks, including the car bombing of an ISAF convoy in Kabul in October which killed 17, and the shooting down of a helicopter in Wardak, south of the capital, in August in which 30 US troops perished.
But it is Afghan civilians who have paid the highest price.
The deadliest attack saw at least 80 people killed in a shrine bombing in Kabul on the Shi’ite holy day of Ashura in early December.
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Since the US-led invasion toppled the Taliban from power in 2001, a total of 2,846 foreign troops have died in the conflict.
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The UN said the number of civilians killed in violence in Afghanistan rose by 15 per cent in the first six months of this year to 1,462. A full-year report is due out in mid-January.
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Afghanistan: Eleventh Georgian Soldier Killed, More On The Way
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=24325
Civil Georgia
December 31, 2011
Eleventh Georgian Soldier Dies in Afghanistan
Tbilisi: Corporal Besik Niniashvili from the 31st light infantry battalion of the third brigade deployed in the Helmand province of Afghanistan was killed “as a result of a mine explosion”, the Georgian Ministry of Defense said on December 31.
The latest death brings to eleven the total number of Georgian soldiers killed in Afghanistan, since joining the NATO-led operation in November, 2009. Georgian troops in Afghanistan operate without caveats.
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On December 20 the Parliament approved President Saakashvili’s request to send one additional infantry battalion to Afghanistan on top of 936 Georgian soldiers who already serve as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
As a result, after sending one more battalion – that is 749 soldiers – Georgia will become the largest non-NATO contributor to ISAF with total of 1,685 troops.
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Australia Quadruples Base Used For Afghan War Training
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-12-30/cultana-training-base-expansion-agreement/3753122?section=sa
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
December 30, 2011
Agreement reached over controversial military base
Nicola Gage
Traditional owners in South Australia’s north say they have reached an agreement with the Defence Department over a proposed army base expansion.
The department wants to expand the Cultana Training Area near Whyalla to make it one of the biggest military training bases in Australia.
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The department will hold a final meeting in the new year before the Aboriginal Land Use Agreement is signed.
It still needs to acquire the necessary land from affected pastoralists before the expansion will go ahead.
Project history
The expansion was first announced by the Liberal Defence Minister, Robert Hill, in 2005.
The project will see the base nearly quadruple in size, requiring the compulsory acquisition of about 150,000 hectares of land.
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The Cultana base is used to train soldiers for conditions in Afghanistan.
A soldier was killed there in 2009 during a live-firing training accident.
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Pacific Command Nomination Signals Pentagon’s Shift To Asia-Pacific
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2011-12/30/content_14354600.htm
China Daily
December 30, 2011
Nomination signals Washington’s ‘focus on Asia-Pacific’
By Cui Haipei
-Liu Lin, a researcher with the Academy of Military Science of the People’s Liberation Army, said the nomination of the well-known figure to some extent reflected the US government’s growing attention to Asia-Pacific affairs – Locklear directly commanded the operation in Libya…
“Because there are several emerging countries in the Asia-Pacific region, such as China, India and Indonesia, the USPACOM’s strategic importance is rising rapidly for US troops,” Liu said.
Locklear, a graduate of the US Naval Academy, is currently commander of US Naval Forces Europe, commander of US Naval Forces Africa, and commander of Allied Joint Forces Command in Naples, Italy.
BEIJING: Chinese experts said that US President Barack Obama’s nomination of navy Admiral Samuel Locklear as commander of US Pacific Command (USPACOM) on Wednesday is a sign of the US government’s growing attention to Asia-Pacific affairs.
If confirmed by the Senate, Locklear will replace Admiral Robert Willard as head of the largest of the six US military Unified Combatant Commands.
USPACOM has about 325,000 service members, or about one-fifth of the US military strength, and covers an area stretching from the waters off the US west coast to the western border of India.
Liu Lin, a researcher with the Academy of Military Science of the People’s Liberation Army, said the nomination of the well-known figure to some extent reflected the US government’s growing attention to Asia-Pacific affairs – Locklear directly commanded the operation in Libya which made him popular.
“Because there are several emerging countries in the Asia-Pacific region, such as China, India and Indonesia, the USPACOM’s strategic importance is rising rapidly for US troops,” Liu said.
Locklear, a graduate of the US Naval Academy, is currently commander of US Naval Forces Europe, commander of US Naval Forces Africa, and commander of Allied Joint Forces Command in Naples, Italy.
Since the Obama administration took office in early 2009, it has realized the strategic importance of the region and adopted a back-to-Asia strategy in a bid to maintain the US leadership in both economic and security arenas in Asia, Liu said.
Liu said the admiral, as chief of Pacific Command, would likely continue the policies of his predecessors, and focus on China’s growing economic and military strength and the uncertainty on the Korean Peninsula, especially after Kim Jong-il’s death.
“Actually, soon after the Cold War, the US already decided to transfer its strategic focus to the Asia-Pacific region, but the anti-terrorism war then came to the top of the focus list,” said Liu, adding that Obama announced last month the deployment of up to 2,500 US Marines in Australia, another piece of its Asia-Pacific strategy adjustment.
The disadvantage of Locklear, compared with his predecessor Admiral Robert Willard, appointed in October 2009, is that Locklear has never dealt with any matters in the Asia-Pacific, Liu said.
“These senior military officers to some degree are also diplomats, so before he actually gets familiar with the region, it is too soon to speak of specific impacts of the nomination,” she added.
Xinhua contributed to this story.
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Japan’s Worrisome Return To Militarism
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2011-12/31/content_14361807.htm
China Daily
December 31, 2011
Japan’s case of flawed priority
By Wang Hui
Tokyo’s decision to ease arms exports ban is fraught with danger, for it could start a new arms race in Asia and worsen Mideast security
-Japan has been strengthening its military might since the Cold War days and especially after the first Gulf War under various pretexts, including the need to defend against non-existent enemies and bolster its global presence. That it has been nurturing expansionist ambitions, covertly and overtly, is evident in its Self Defense Force, for it is as good as any sophisticated army, endowed with advanced weapons and equipment and capable of conducting missions overseas whenever necessary.
Japan’s decision to effectively lift the long-standing ban on export of arms is shortsighted, if not dangerous. Worse, it could backfire on domestic, regional and international fronts in the long run.
On Tuesday, Osamu Fujimura, chief secretary of Japan’s Cabinet, announced that Tokyo was easing its decades-old ban on arms exports to pave the way for joint development and production of advanced weapons with other countries.
It is widely perceived that huge defense costs prompted Tokyo to relax the rules, which it had been mulling for years. Such concerns may be seemingly relevant given the financial pinch Japan is feeling in reviving the national economy after the triple disaster of the earthquake, tsunami and the subsequent leak from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The triple disaster dealt a heavy blow to the Japanese economy, which had already been suffering from slow growth since the country’s asset-price bubble burst in the early 1990s.
But compared to the economic benefits that arms exports could bring, the social and political repercussions of lifting the ban would be much greater and might even lead Japan onto a dangerous path. For example, the decision has already sown the seeds of social division. While some right-wing media and groups have lauded it as epoch-making, others have denounced it as being detrimental to Japan’s image as a pacifist power and even violating its pacific constitution.
Indeed, a country that has followed a war-renouncing doctrine for decades could unleash its arms manufacturing capability when it departs from its pacifist path. Japan’s decision to ease the ban on arms exports cannot be interpreted as a move to uphold its pacifist constitution, for it is an open declaration to boost its military might. Fujimura’s statement on Tuesday makes that obvious.
Although Fujimura gave an assurance that Japan would adhere to its pacifist principles, his other statement revealed Japan’s real intentions. “We should acquire the most advanced defense technology to upgrade the capability of Japanese defense industry,” he said.
In fact, Japan has been strengthening its military might since the Cold War days and especially after the first Gulf War under various pretexts, including the need to defend against non-existent enemies and bolster its global presence. That it has been nurturing expansionist ambitions, covertly and overtly, is evident in its Self Defense Force, for it is as good as any sophisticated army, endowed with advanced weapons and equipment and capable of conducting missions overseas whenever necessary.
Japan has sent troops beyond its border since the first Gulf War, and participated in international peacekeeping and humanitarian missions. It has taken steps to fight piracy and joined the United States in the “war on terror”. It has set up a military base in Africa too, without bothering to clarify its intentions. So it’s no surprise that the US has welcomed Japan’s decision to relax the arms exports ban.
As a result of these developments, Japanese society is turning increasingly to the right, and right-wing politicians have made sizable gains in Japanese politics. No wonder, some Japanese are worried that their country would discard its pacifist constitution sooner or later.
The latest move to relax the ban on arms exports will fan military sentiments in Japanese society by giving the country access to cutting-edge military technology. Japan’s defense industry is the most advanced in Asia, capable of manufacturing destroyers with Aegis Combat System, advanced fighters, military satellites and submarines.
A country that is widely believed to have lost its identity in recent years will not help cultivate a normal national psyche by trying to expand its military clout. The gains Japan makes from arms sale will be more than offset by the damaging implication it will have.
The decision is not good for Japan’s Asian neighbors either, because they were already feeling alarmed by its persistent military expansion. There is no guarantee that a country that has never owned up to its past military aggressions would honor its pacifist image and not turn its military machine against another country.
Japan’s unrepentant attitude toward its militaristic past has been a constant hurdle for it to have normal and smooth relations with its Asian neighbors. Its ambition to strengthen its military only adds to the suspicion of its neighbors and intensifies the distrust between them.
On the global front, there is already speculation about India’s eagerness to buy arms from Japan. And India has been the leading arms procurer in the world over the past five years. Besides, some Japanese media outlets are worried that some of the weapons Japan makes could be sold to Israel, creating tension between Japan and the Arab world.
If any of these fears come true, the least it will do is to trigger a new arms race in Asia and make the security outlook in the Middle East bleaker.
The author is a senior writer with China Daily.
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India, Japan To Conduct Joint Naval Maneuvers In Indian Ocean
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20111229x1.html
Japan Times/Kyodo News
December 29, 2011
MSDF to join security exercises
Japan, India hike defense, economic ties
NEW DELHI: Japan and India have agreed to bolster cooperation on security and economic issues, according to a joint statement Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and his Indian counterpart signed Wednesday in New Delhi.
Noda and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that the Maritime Self-Defense Force and the Indian Navy will conduct joint exercises next year to beef up maritime security in the Indian Ocean, and protect a major sea lane Japan uses to import crude oil from the Middle East, according to the statement.
Noda’s trip to New Delhi is part of Japan’s efforts to strengthen ties with India ahead of the 60th anniversary next year of the establishment of diplomatic ties and amid China’s growing military and economic might in the region.
The two leaders also agreed that Tokyo will invest $4.5 billion over the next five years to promote the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor project, aimed at developing an industrial zone that spans six Indian states.
On the economic front, Noda and Singh agreed to boost trade and investment based on a free-trade agreement between the two nations that took effect in August.
They also agreed to try to resume talks on a bilateral pact on civil nuclear energy cooperation. The talks were suspended after the Fukushima disaster.
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As for natural resources, Noda and Singh expressed hope that Japanese and Indian companies will form joint ventures to produce and trade rare earth metals.
The visit is the first by a Japanese prime minister to India since December 2009, when Yukio Hatoyama went. Singh visited Japan in October last year, and accepted Noda’s invitation to visit again in 2012.
Senior officials from Japan, the United States and India held their first trilateral meeting last week and are thought to have discussed maritime security.
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West Blocking Kosovo Organ Trafficking Probe: Russian UN Envoy
http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics-article.php?yyyy=2011&mm=12&dd=30&nav_id=78057
Tanjug News Agency
December 30, 2011
West refuses to probe organ trafficking – Russian envoy
-”I fear that after five or six years of confidential investigations they will announce that they were not able to discover anything, that witnesses are deceased or murdered in the meantime, and that everything is over,” Churkin explained.
He underlined that Russia did not want silence to wrap this monstrous crime, but that for some reason that were unknown to him, there was a certain resistance in his western colleagues regarding a full investigation into the crime contained in the report by Council of Europe Special Rapporteur Dick Marty.
MOSCOW: Russian Ambassador to UN Vitaly Churkin says he does not understand why the West refuses to carry out an investigation into human organ trafficking in Kosovo.
“We are very upset over this fact. We do not understand why our western colleagues in the UN refuse to implement measures which would confirm legitimacy of the EULEX investigation in Kosovo and find perpetrators of these crimes,” he told Russia Today.
The Russian envoy stressed that the Serbian delegation in the UN in cooperation with Russian diplomats had drafted a relatively simple resolution which envisaged appointment of a special representative of the UN secretary general in charge of control of the EULEX mission and protection of witnesses.
“I believe that EULEX mechanism is insufficient for implementation of an appropriate investigation, protection of witnesses and reporting to the UN Security Council. I fear that after five or six years of confidential investigations they will announce that they were not able to discover anything, that witnesses are deceased or murdered in the meantime, and that everything is over,” Churkin explained.
He underlined that Russia did not want silence to wrap this monstrous crime, but that for some reason that were unknown to him, there was a certain resistance in his western colleagues regarding a full investigation into the crime contained in the report by Council of Europe Special Rapporteur Dick Marty.
“Nevertheless I think that we will continue to work in this direction in 2012 as well, and that this resolution will be accepted so that the crime would not be forgotten,” Churkin concluded.
Members and leaders of the ethnic Albanian KLA are suspected to be the perpetrators of the atrocities, targetting kidnapped Serb and other civilians in Kosovo in 1999 and 2000.
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Julia Ward Howe: Mother’s Day Proclamation 1870
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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
American writers on peace and against war
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Julia Ward Howe
Mother’s Day Proclamation (1870)
Arise, then, women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts,
Whether our baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
“We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.”
From the bosom of the devastated Earth a voice goes up with our own.
It says: “Disarm! Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice.”
Blood does not wipe out dishonor, nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace,
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God.
In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And at the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.
Stop NATO news: December 30, 2011
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U.S. Aircraft Carrier Crosses Strait Of Hormuz Toward Iran
154 Warplanes: U.S. Signs $29 Billion Deal With Saudis For F-15s
United Arab Emirates: First Overseas Deployment Of Advanced U.S. Interceptors
Russia: Main Goal Of U.S., NATO In Libya Was To Murder Gaddafi
Afghan Soldier Slays Two NATO Counterparts
NATO Loses Soldier In Southern Afghanistan
Georgia Expects Chicago Summit To Advance NATO Integration
Kosovo Serbs: The Right To A Homeland
Russian UN Envoy Warns Of International Destabilization In New Year
Egypt: Military Junta Versus U.S. “NGOs”
Raytheon Gets Contract For U.S. And NATO Interceptor Missiles
NATO Endorses New Stage Of Partnership Plan With Azerbaijan
Pentagon To Hold Military Consultations With Azerbaijan
U.S. Ambassador Applauds Caspian-Caucasus-Europe Pipeline
Japan-India Military Ties Cause Of Concern To China
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U.S. Aircraft Carrier Crosses Strait Of Hormuz Toward Iran
http://rt.com/news/usa-navy-iran-oil-903/
RT
December 29, 2011
US navy crosses Strait of Hormuz after Iranian oil threats
An Iranian warplane has spotted a US aircraft carrier during Tehran’s ongoing navy drill in the Persian Gulf, reports IRNA news agency. The US fleet’s maneuvers come after Iran threatened to block the oil flow through the Strait of Hormuz.
Tehran’s surveillance jet has shot a video and pictures of the American carrier, which was later identified as John C. Stennis. The US Fifth Fleet keeps a military base in Bahrain, while the ship was spotted in the Gulf of Oman after crossing the Strait of Hormuz.
“An Iranian vessel and surveillance plane have tracked, filmed and photographed a US aircraft carrier as it was entering the Gulf of Oman from the Persian Gulf,” said Adm. Habibollah Sayyari, Iran’s navy chief, as cited by the official IRNA.
“The foreign fleet will be warned by Iranian forces if it enters the area of the drill,” added Sayyari.
The US navy confirmed on Thursday the aircraft carrier John C. Stennis had indeed headed for the Gulf of Oman, accompanied by guided-missile cruiser Mobile Bay and several other vessels. But that was “a pre-planned, routine transit” as the group was to provide air support to allied troops in Afghanistan, said Lt. Rebecca Rebarich, the spokesperson for the US Fifth Fleet.
Since Saturday, Iran has been conducting a 10-day navy drill in international waters near the Strait of Hormuz, the gateway for up to 40 per cent of world’s oil supply with the US and EU among major customers. Tehran has promised to block the strait if Washington sanctions Iran’s oil exports out of suspicions it is developing nuclear weapons.
While Tehran seems to be reaffirming its naval might in the region, Reuters reports all of its marine capabilities cannot be compared with the US Fifth Fleet located in the Persian Gulf, which lists over 20 ocean-range warships and 15,000 personnel.
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154 Warplanes: U.S. Signs $29 Billion Deal With Saudis For F-15s
http://en.rian.ru/mlitary_news/20111229/170552831.html
Russian Information Agency Novosti
December 29, 2011
U.S. inks $29.4 bln F-15 deal with Saudi Arabia
Washington: The U.S. has concluded a $29.4 billion deal with Saudi Arabia to supply 84 new F-15 fighter jets and upgrade 70 other F-15s already in service with the Saudi air force, White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Joshua Earnest said.
Manufactured by Boeing, the F-15SA is “the most sophisticated and capable aircraft in the world,” he said.
“The United States and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have signed a government-to-government agreement under the Foreign Military Sales program to provide advanced F-15SA combat aircraft to the Royal Saudi Air Force,” the spokesman said.
“Valued at $29.4 billion, this agreement includes the modernization of 70 existing aircraft as well as munitions, spare parts, training, maintenance and logistics,” he added.
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United Arab Emirates: First Overseas Deployment Of Advanced U.S. Interceptors
Bloomberg News
December 29, 2011
UAE Said to Sign Lockheed Missile Deal Valued to $3.49 Billion
The U.S. and the United Arab Emirates have signed a deal valued at as much as $3.49 billion for the first international sale of Lockheed Martin Corp.’s newest missile interceptor, according to government officials.
The initial installment of a so-called “undefinitized contract action” is valued at about $1.96 billion, according to a U.S. government official. The Pentagon may announce the contract action as soon as next week, said the official, who was not authorized to discuss the signing prior to its announcement.
The interceptors are a centerpiece…that the Obama administration plans to deploy in the Middle East against Iran…Batteries of land-based interceptors would be linked to the U.S. Navy’s detection systems on Aegis-class destroyers and cruisers.
Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense, or Thaad, missile interceptors are produced in Troy, Alabama, and the fire control equipment and launchers are made in Camden, Arkansas. Lockheed Martin is based in Bethesda, Maryland.
Raytheon Co., of Waltham, Massachusetts, provides the radar, and Honeywell Inc., of Morris Township, New Jersey, makes the missile’s mission computer. Aerojet, part of GenCorp Inc., based in Rancho Cordova, California, makes the Thaad rocket motor. The U.S. subsidiary of the U.K.’s BAE Systems Plc produces the missile seeker.
Lockheed Martin spokeswoman Jennifer Whitlow said the company was continuing to work with the Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency on the contract. She declined to discuss the timing of any announcement.
Proposed in 2008
The UAE would be the first Thaad international buyer. In September 2008, when it was first proposed for congressional approval, the Pentagon said the deal would be valued at up to $6.95 billion if all options were exercised.
In August 2010 the UAE scaled back the sale by about one-third. It “adjusted its requirement” to 96 interceptors from 144.
The UAE also reduced its purchase – from four to two – of Raytheon’s AN/TPY-2 mobile search and tracking radar. The new radar plan supports two missile batteries, rather than three, according to a Missile Defense Agency document.
Editors: Steven Komarow, Leslie Hoffecker
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Russia: Main Goal Of U.S., NATO In Libya Was To Murder Gaddafi
http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/article2758804.ece
The Hindu
December 30, 2011
U.S. behind deliberate murder of Qadhafi: Russia
Vladimir Radyuhin
Russia has accused the United States and NATO of large-scale violations of human rights during the military operation in Libya, including the deliberate murder of its leader Muammar Gaddafi and the killing of hundreds of civilians.
The NATO forces “made the overthrow and murder of the Colonel their main goal,” said the Russian Foreign Ministry in its first report on the state of human rights in the world.
Citing unnamed sources, the report said the order to liquidate Qadhafi was given to U.S., French and British commandos. The Russian Foreign Ministry details numerous instances of mass killings of hundreds of civilians and destruction of infrastructure in NATO bombing raids in Libya.
The U.S. is the main target of the Russian report, which also criticises the human rights record in Britain, Canada, Finland, the Baltic states and Georgia.
Russia took President Barack Obama to task for his failure to shut the “odious” prison at Guantanamo Bay and accused the White House of sheltering officials guilty of torture.
“The situation in the United States is a far cry from the ideals proclaimed by Washington,” said the Russian Foreign Ministry in a 90-page report posted on its website.
“Old systemic problems of American society are growing more serious, including racial discrimination, xenophobia, overcrowded prisons, unjustified capital punishment, including the execution of innocent people, imperfect electoral system and corruption, ” said the report.
RHETORIC
The report was released as Moscow hardened its rhetoric against the U.S. on such issues as missile defence and interference in Russian internal affairs. The new head of the Russian Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, Alexei Pushkov, said the “reset” in Russian-U.S. relations had come to an end.
“The U.S. had desisted from discussing the domestic situation in Russia as part of the ‘reset’. Clinton violated this tacit agreement,” said Mr. Pushkov. “I think we have entered a phase when the U.S. will no longer show restraint towards Russia.”
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Afghan Soldier Slays Two NATO Counterparts
http://blogs.voanews.com/breaking-news/2011/12/29/man-in-afghan-army-uniform-kills-2-nato-troops/
Voice of America News
December 29, 2011
Man in Afghan Army Uniform Kills 2 NATO Troops
NATO says a man wearing an Afghan National Army uniform has killed two coalition service members in eastern Afghanistan.
NATO did not give further details of Thursday’s incident and only said that the individual turned his weapon against two NATO soldiers, killing them.
The victims’ nationalities were not identified.
Meanwhile in southern Afghanistan, a roadside bomb killed 10 Afghan police officers on Thursday.
Provincial officials say the police had just left a training center and were headed home when their vehicle hit a landmine in the Nad Ali district of Helmand province.
New police recruits were among those killed. One police officer was wounded in the attack.
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NATO Loses Soldier In Southern Afghanistan
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2011-12/30/c_131336069.htm
Xinhua News Agency
December 30, 2011
IED blast kills NATO soldier in Afghanistan
KABUL: A soldier with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) lost his life in an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blast in Afghanistan on Friday, bringing the number of casualties to 26 so far this month, the alliance said in a statement released here.
“An International Security Assistance Force service member died following an improvised explosive device attack in southern Afghanistan, today,” the statement confirmed.
However, it did not identify the nationality of the victim, saying it is ISAF policy to defer casualty identification procedures to the relevant national authorities.
Troops mostly from U.S., Britain and Australia have been stationed in southern provinces of Afghanistan.
More than 560 soldiers with majority of them Americans have been killed in Afghanistan since January this year.
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Georgia Expects Chicago Summit To Advance NATO Integration
http://en.trend.az/regions/scaucasus/georgia/1975295.html
Trend News Agency
December 29, 2011
Georgia expects clearer signals on NATO integration in 2012
N. Kirtskhalia
Tbilisi: 2011 has been an important year in Georgia’s integration into NATO and the EU, Georgian Deputy Prime Minister Giorgi Baramidze said on Thursday.
Baramidze said Georgia effectively uses such a tool as the NATO-Georgia Commission and has already held about 20 meetings within it.
“The NATO Secretary General’s visit to Georgia and mentioning Georgia among country-candidates for Alliance’s membership were important,” Baramidze said stressing that this happened for the first time. He also stressed that the decision of the NATO Bucharest summit that Georgia will be a NATO member remains in force.
“Our task in 2012 is maintaining a high rate of integration into the NATO and EU,” Baramidze stressed.
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Kosovo Serbs: The Right To A Homeland
http://english.ruvr.ru/2011/12/29/63118604.html
Voice of Russia
December 29, 2011
Kosovo Serbs: the right to a Motherland
Alexander Vatutin
The outgoing year was a challenging one for Serbs living in densely populated areas of Kosovo and Metohija as they fought for their ethnic identity and the right to live in the land of their ancestors. The authorities in the Republic of Kosovo with the capital Pristina have been doing whatever they can to establish control over Kosovo and Metohija and continue the policy of “shadow” genocide irrespective of international agreements. The Voice of Russia’s Alexander Vatutin reports.
Pristina makes no secret of its intention of gaining complete sovereignty over the whole of Kosovo. Given that the West is turning a blind eye to that, it is using the situation to its maximum advantage and most of the efforts in the direction of this goal were taken this year. Kosovo’s Prime Minister Hashim Thaci said earlier that the Albanian authorities had no intention of granting Serb enclaves the right to self-determination.
Ethnic conflict expert Pavel Kandel has this to say.
“The Albanians will slowly press Kosovo Serbs out of the province. The birthrate among Albanians is fairly high. Given the current social tensions when half of young Albanians in the province are jobless, the easiest way to deal with the crisis is to put the blame on foreign neighbors.”
Pristina attempted to get the administrative border of Kosovo and Serbia under its control. Pristina’s authorities backed by the EU-led international police force used force against Kosovo Serbs who refuse to accept Pristina’s sovereignty over their territories. The clashes that started this summer reached a culmination point at the end of November when KFOR international forces deployed in the province under the UN mandate readily supported the Albanians.
On February 15th 2012 Kosovo Serbs will take part in a referendum in which they will be asked whether they were willing to recognize Kosovo-Albanian authorities in the north of Kosovo. The positive outcome of the vote could lead to further actions of disobedience and the declaration of independence of Kosovo and Metohija. Belgrade might be unprepared for such a turn.
Driven to despair, Kosovo Serbs turned to Russia for Russian citizenship. Russia has to reject their request because Russian legislation doesn’t stipulate this. However, Russian diplomacy has other means of influencing the events.
Balkan expert Pyotr Iskenderov comments.
“Russian diplomats could insist on restructuring the entire peacekeeping presence in the Balkans.”
Eager to enter the EU, Belgrade de facto left Kosovo Serbs to their own devices. All throughout the year, Serbia made it a point to convince Brussels that it wouldn’t meddle in the conflict between the Albanian majority and the Serb minority in Kosovo. However, in accordance with Resolution 1244 of the UN Security Council which was adopted in 1999 and is still in effect, Serbia has the right to deploy troops in the Serb-populated areas of Kosovo. Apparently, Belgrade finds the mere thought of this appalling.
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Russian UN Envoy Warns Of International Destabilization In New Year
http://english.ruvr.ru/2011/12/29/63126152.html
Itar-Tass
December 29, 2011
Churkin warns of intn’l destabilization in 2012
The ever-increasing confrontation between the West and Iran could drastically destabilize the international situation in 2012, Russia’s UN envoy Vitaly Churkin said in an interview with the Russia Today news channel aired on Thursday.
Russia is doing its best to prevent such a scenario, Churkin said, adding that in 2012, Iran may say ‘No’ to its dialogue with the IAEA in order to allay concerns about the military nature of its nuclear program.
Churkin expressed hope that next year will see a resumption of the six-party talks on the Iranian nuclear program.
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Egypt: Military Junta Versus U.S. “NGOs”
http://rt.com/news/egypt-police-raid-ngo-953/
RT
December 29, 2011
US price tag on Egyptian revolution?
Police in Cairo have today raided 17 civil society organizations as the country’s military rulers seek to find out exactly who has been funding the Egyptian revolution.
As several of the pro-democracy and human rights groups were at the forefront of the revolution that swept through the country last January, Egyptian authorities have become increasingly interested in the foreign funding many of these groups receive.
At least three of the human rights groups targeted in Thursday’s operation, the National Democratic Institute (NDI), Freedom House, and the International Republican Institute (IRI), are based in the US.
“Security forces who said they were from the public prosecutor are raiding our offices as we speak. They are grabbing all the papers and laptops as well,” said one person working at NDI, who gave her name as Rawda, told Reuters.
The Washington-based IRI, which has served as an election monitor in Egypt’s ongoing parliamentary elections, reacted harshly to the raids.
“IRI has been working with Egyptians since 2005; it is ironic that even during the Mubarak era IRI was not subjected to such aggressive action,” a statement by the group read, Al Arabiya reports.
However, as the continuing violent crackdown by security forces against the protests has left 17 dead and more than 700 injured this month alone, Egypt’s military is becoming increasingly fearful of foreign interference in the country’s internal affairs.
In October, Egypt’s justice minister commissioned two judges to investigate allegations of foreign funding. The minister said that any organization found guilty of the practice would be charged with “betraying Egypt by deliberately promoting political strife,” Al Arabiya cites him as saying.
Their fears might not be entirely unfounded.
A few weeks after the regime of Hosni Mubarak was toppled, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is said to have set aside some $65 million dollars for “democratic development” programs in Egypt.
In response, former-prime minister Essas Sharaf established a fact-finding committee in July to identify and then blacklist any non-governmental organizations which had actively solicited funds from USAID.
But while it remains to be seen if Thursday’s raids are connected to the committee’s findings, the Egyptian army might be attempting to determine just who they will be handing power over to when they finally step aside next year.
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Raytheon Gets Contract For U.S. And NATO Interceptor Missiles
United Press International
December 29, 2011
Raytheon announces new contracts
EL SEGUNDO, Calif.: Raytheon is closing out December with $320 million in orders for its AESA radar and $72 million in contracts for work on U.S. and NATO missile systems.
The identities of the parties who ordered the active electronic beam scanning radar system weren’t disclosed. Nor were details of the contracts, including delivery schedules.
The AESA system enables a radar beam to be directed close to the speed of light for air-to-air and air-to-ground information in near real time. Raytheon said it has delivered more than 300 of the aerial systems to a variety of customers in the United States and overseas.
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The first of the total $72 million missile support awards came from the U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command and are for the Phalanx, SeaRAM and land-based Phalanx, as well as SeaSparrow surface missiles used by NATO.
Under the first contract, Raytheon will provide design engineering and technical support services for Phalanx systems, which provides missile defense for U.S. ships.
The second award calls for the provision of an undisclosed number of SeaSparrow MK57, MOD 12/13 systems, as well as missile launchers and spare parts.
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NATO Endorses New Stage Of Partnership Plan With Azerbaijan
http://en.trend.az/news/politics/1975767.html
Trend News Agency
December 30, 2011
Azerbaijan, NATO endorse Individual Partnership Action Plan’s third stage
Baku: The third stage of the Individual Partnership Action Plan covers cooperation in 2012-2013, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said.
The document consists of four sections: politics and security, defense and military issues, public information, civil emergency planning, science and environmental issues, administrative issues, security of information, resources and legal issues.
The first phase of Azerbaijan’s cooperation with NATO within the Individual Partnership Action Plan was signed in 2005. The two phases of the Plan have been successfully implemented. They were highly appreciated at various levels by NATO officials.
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Pentagon To Hold Military Consultations With Azerbaijan
http://en.apa.az/news.php?id=162799
Azeri Press Agency
December 30, 2011
Azerbaijan and US to hold bilateral military consultations
Rashad Suleymanov
Baku: Azerbaijan and US will hold military consultations, Azerbaijani Defense Ministry’s press service told APA.
The next plenary session of the bilateral military consultations will be held in Washington on January 12-13, 2012.
The issues that will be discussed at the meeting are not publicized.
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U.S. Ambassador Applauds Caspian-Caucasus-Europe Pipeline
http://en.trend.az/capital/energy/1975391.html
Trend News Agency
December 29, 2011
U.S. Ambassador: Southern gas Corridor to play significant role for Southern Caucasus and Europe
V. Zhavoronkova
Baku: The Southern gas corridor will play a significant role not only for the Southern Caucasus but the whole of Europe, the U.S. ambassador to Azerbaijan Matthew Brayza said at the press conference on Thursday.
He stressed that 2011 was an incredibly productive year for the energy sector.
“The issue was to help Turkish and Azerbaijani companies to come together and come to an agreement to transport Azerbaijani gas through Turkey to Europe,” Bryza said.
Bryza added that he expects the increase in investment in this sector in upcoming month.
The Southern gas Corridor is an EU priority energy project aiming at diversifying energy supply routes and sources and increasing EU energy security. It includes the Nabucco gas pipeline, Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) and ITGI (Turkey-Greece-Italy pipeline) projects.
Gas which will be produced during the second stage of Azerbaijani Shah Deniz gas condensate field development is considered as the main source for these projects.
In late October, Azerbaijan and Turkey signed a package of gas contracts which includes cost issues of Azerbaijani gas for Turkey in the Shah Deniz-2 project, volume of gas supplies to Turkey from the field after 2017, as well as a transit agreement for Azerbaijani gas transportation through Turkey.
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Japan-India Military Ties Cause Of Concern To China
Press Trust of India
December 30, 2011
Japan-India ties cause of concern to China: State media
-”From now on, Japan can export weapons to its neighbours and allies such as India, the Philippines and Australia. At first, these may be for maritime security. But offensive weapons may eventually enter the picture, because that’s the only way to fuel its indigenous defence industry.
“When these countries engage in maritime disputes with China – that’s when the impact of this policy may come to affect us.”
BEIJING: Japan’s move to lift decades-old ban on arms exports as well as its efforts to strengthen ties with India and deepen defence cooperation with it are a cause of concern to China, the state-run media here said.
Japan’s decision, which would allow its companies to take part in arms development projects with countries other than the US, was followed by a USD 15 billion currency swap deal between Japan and India, ‘China Daily’ reported.
Japanese and Indian navies are also expected to hold their first joint drill next year.
The daily noted that Japan had just concluded its first-ever trilateral dialogue with the US and India in Washington.
Japan’s moves toward boosting its military might will send alarming signals across Asia, it quoted Shi Yinhong, a researcher at the China Institute of International Studies in Beijing, as saying.
An arms trade between Japan and India may further deepen tensions in the Asia-Pacific because China is a potential target of the two evolving strategic partnership, Zhao Gancheng, director of the South Asia research department at the Shanghai Institute for International Studies, claimed.
“In terms of political safety, (Japan) wants to counter China by linking with countries such as the US, India and Australia. But on the other hand, it is aware of the fact that Sino-Japanese relations are a prerequisite for its quest to become a normal country. So personally, I think the policy is itself contradictory,” Zhao was quoted as saying.
Nonetheless, Liu Jiangyong, an expert on Japan studies at Tsinghua University, said Tokyo’s incentives are primarily economic.
Liu said the long-term impact of this latest policy change will be detrimental for China.
“From now on, Japan can export weapons to its neighbours and allies such as India, the Philippines and Australia. At first, these may be for maritime security. But offensive weapons may eventually enter the picture, because that’s the only way to fuel its indigenous defence industry,” he said.
“When these countries engage in maritime disputes with China – that’s when the impact of this policy may come to affect us,” Liu said.
Pan Zheng, a researcher at the National Defence University, called the Japanese move “a serious violation of the Peace Constitution”.
The move’s impact, he said, will be extremely significant as “Japan broadens its own military influence through boosting military cooperation with other countries in the name of arms trade”.
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Stephen Crane: There was crimson clash of war
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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
American writers on peace and against war
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Stephen Crane
There was crimson clash of war (1905)
There was crimson clash of war.
Lands turned black and bare;
Women wept;
Babes ran, wondering.
There came one who understood not these things.
He said, “Why is this?”
Whereupon a million strove to answer him.
There was such intricate clamour of tongues,
That still the reason was not.
Interview: Where will America’s imperial hubris lead to in 2012?
Voice of Russia
December 29, 2011
Where does America’s imperial hubris lead to?
John Robles
Photo: EPA
Interview with Rick Rozoff, the manager of the Stop NATO website and mailing list. Recorded on December 21, 2011.
Audio: Click on Download
Can you give us the latest on NATO and your predictions for 2012, as far as the ABM system in Europe and NATO global expansion in general? I know it’s a big question.
The past year, of course, has been a momentous one. I think it’s been a very troubling one in many regards. What we’ve seen this year in regard to NATO and what we’re likely to see an intensification of next year, 2012, is a follow-up on the Strategic Concept, as they call it, adopted at the Lisbon summit in November 2010, which is unveiling – and unleashing – NATO as an increasingly global political and military player. We saw this with the seven-month aerial campaign, air war, against Libya earlier this year where NATO flew an estimated 26,000 air missions against a small country with six million people, over 9,000 of which were combat sorties. We’re seeing that as a template. That’s pretty much how NATO officials and heads of state of major NATO countries have characterized it.
We are likely to see more of that, most prominently – it can’t be missed – in one manner or another in relation to Syria, but with any number of other potential military interventions. Your listeners are probably aware of the fact that the Collective Security Treaty Organization met in Russia two days ago, on the 10th anniversary of the founding of the only security bloc within the Commonwealth of Independent States, that is amongst former Soviet states. And one of the statements – rather straightforward and candid – was a warning about military intervention in the internal affairs of countries beset by domestic problems. That’s clearly an allusion to the Libyan action by the major NATO powers but also in reference to the current crisis in Syria.
On Wednesday a statement by the White House saying that the government of Bashar al-Assad “does not deserve to rule Syria” is an indication that far from being humbled by the recent symbolically important, I suppose, withdrawal of the final U.S. military forces from Iraq of late, that far from being humbled by the debacle in Iraq and the equally catastrophic experience in Afghanistan, the U.S. is still ordering heads of state to resign, as they did earlier this year in Ivory Coast and Libya and may tomorrow in Belarus, or Venezuela and any number of other countries. We still see the imperial hubris of the major Western countries, the U.S. in the first instance, in determining who is or is not fit to govern most every country in the world.
What was the connection with Gbagbo? You mentioned Ivory Coast.
Earlier this year, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Obama and other major US officials ordered Laurent Gbagbo to step down. They didn’t recognize the results of the runoff election last December in Ivory Coast. The irony is – it’s so transparent as to be undeniable – in the U.S. a comparable situation, a far worse situation, existed in 2000 where George W. Bush received half a million votes less than his opponent and through a decision made by the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land, Bush, the recipient of the fewer votes, was designated the elected president of the United States. Something comparable happened with the decision by the elections commission in Ivory Coast but the U.S., which has one set of rules for itself and another for the rest of the world, determined that the decision reached by the court in Ivory Coast was invalid whereas the one in 2000 in the United States was valid, because it was in the United States.
I thought that maybe there was a NATO connection that I hadn’t heard anything about there in Ivory Coast.
There wasn’t a NATO connection, but French military forces were instrumental in assaulting government buildings in Abidjan, the commercial capital of the country, and ultimately, directly in the capture of Gbagbo. NATO countries, if not collectively under the banner of NATO, were certainly instrumental there. I’ve just cited that as part of the pattern over the past year Washington has ordered in so many words heads of state to step down, including Ali Abdullah Saleh, the president of Yemen, Assad in Syria, and Gbagbo in Ivory Coast and Muammar Gaddafi in Libya. There are at least four heads of state that they told to step down this year.
Can you tell our listeners a little bit about Kosovo and Serbia?
Yes I can. I have friends in Kosovo and I have friends from Kosovo, ethnic Serbs and others. The situation is that you have besieged enclaves of the few remaining non-Albanian ethnic minorities in Kosovo. I’ve seen estimates as high as 250,000 ethnic Serbs who have fled the country in terror. Several thousands have been killed, of course, since NATO came in in June of 1999.
I’ve seen comparable figures for Roma people, so-called Gypsies, including Ashkalis and Egyptians, as they are known in Kosovo. Other ethnic minority groups have suffered similarly. And to have, as I saw a few days ago a tape of the so-called “president” of Kosovo meeting with Hillary Clinton at the White House to sign an agreement on protecting the cultural heritage of Kosovo, when several hundred Orthodox monasteries, churches, cemeteries and so forth have been desecrated and destroyed is a degree of unspeakable – it’s not ignorance, Clinton knows pretty well this story. Her husband, after all, is the person responsible for starting a 78-day bombing campaign against Yugoslavia which wrested Kosovo from Yugoslavia and Serbia. This is again the imperial arrogance I was speaking about earlier, that Washington arrogates to itself the exclusive prerogative, or at least in relation to its NATO allies and certain key non-NATO allies, to determine how national boundaries can and cannot be drawn, which political entities are to be recognized as legitimate countries, such as the NATO pseudo-state of Kosovo, but denying that same right to nations like Abkhazia or South Ossetia.
U.S. and NATO are on the march worldwide
U.S. and NATO are on the march worldwide
By Madison Ruppert
Click This comes soon after the United States announced it is going to place 2,500 Marines in Australia, in addition to cutting-edge fighter jets and transport planes, and Australia announced it is going to purchase $950 million in military equipment.
This is a large and quite complex picture that requires a great deal of reading and research and I recommend that everyone check out my sources and come to their own conclusions.
I can only speculate as to the purpose of these geopolitical developments and I would love to hear what my readers think as well so please email me if you care to share your analysis.
I will be going country by country and breaking down these latest developments in order to present to you the most complete information I can, but I am sure this is far more intricate than even I realize at this point.
India-Japan-United States
Japan is reportedly partially lifting its 40-year-long self-imposed ban on the arms trade which began in 1967.
The ban stated that they could not buy or sell arms in concert with nations that had Communist governments or nations at war.
Slowly Japan ceased all military cooperation with every nation, aside from the United States of course.
This is seen as a move to not only expand military cooperation but also to allow for Japan to get in on the controversial European Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) project.
Despite the ban on a great deal of arms transactions, in the 1980s Japanese corporations outfitted the United States with some 15 new technologies for the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI).
The SDI was proposed in 1983 by the president at the time, Ronald Reagan, and was derisively called “Star Wars” by the program’s many detractors.
Now Japan, in a partnership with the Unites States, is in the process of creating a unit for a new, upgraded SM3 [Standard Missile-3] ship missile which is expected to become a key component in the European ABM system, according to the Voice of Russia.
The head of the Center for Japanese Studies, Valery Kistanov, said, “Above all Japan wants to strengthen its military alliance with the US. Japan needs it amid current instability in the Asian Pacific region.
“It is concerned about the so-called Chinese military threat and the situation on the Korean peninsula after the death of Kim Jong-il. The government’s recent move is probably intended to show that Tokyo is loyal and committed to its alliance with the US,” Kistanov added.
There is also the notable factor of a growing close cooperation between Tokyo and Brussels – the location of the headquarters of NATO – which would greatly contribute to a greater presence in the Asia-Pacific region.
This is just another instance of NATO mission creep far beyond what the alliance was originally intended to do and, as you will see, this is expanding to a disturbing degree just as we saw in the case of Libya.
Japan is also greatly strengthening ties with India, starting with a 2008 Joint Declaration on Security Cooperation which was modeled on a 2007 defense cooperation accord with Australia.
This treaty later spawned a similar accord between India and Australia in 2009, leading to circular ties which are now developing into trilateral relations.
Japan is also reinforcing economic ties with India with a free-trade accord known as the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) which became active a mere three months ago.
CEPA covers over 90 percent of trade and even spreads into the sectors of services, rules of origin, intellectual property rights, investment, customs regulations and other related trade issues.
This agreement is intended to strengthen bilateral trade between the two nations in order to reduce trade with China, which still outweighs trade between Japan and India by a large margin.
According to the Japan Times, India is already becoming a preferred nation for Japanese foreign direct investment.
Japan and India have also come to an agreement on development of rare earths after China leveraged its monopoly on the production of rare earths to cut off exports to Japan in the fall of 2010.
Japanese-Indian relations go even deeper with an annual summit meeting between the two prime ministers along with several annual dialogue between their respective foreign ministers, defense ministers, and Japan’s minister of economy, trade and industry and India’s commerce and industry minister.
There are also separate meetings between ministers of energy and other economic talks, dialogue between the Indian foreign and defense secretaries and the Japanese vice minister equivalents, a maritime security dialogue, comprehensive security talks and even military-to-military dialogue which include regular visits between the chiefs of staff of both nations.
To even further cement these relations, Japan, India and the United States have begun trilateral strategic talks which began in Washington just last week.
India and Japan already have their own missile defense cooperation agreements with Israel and the United States but they are also looking to develop defense systems in cooperation with each other as well.
Despite the economic turmoil at home, the so-called leaders of America continue to pour astounding amounts of money into the Israeli missile defense program.
While Japan only has naval interoperability with the United States Navy, former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in a speech in New Delhi, India that the aim should be that “sooner rather than later, Japan’s navy and the Indian navy are seamlessly interconnected.”
Japan is also planning on employing the F-35 next generation fighter jet, which was developed with nine nations including Britain and the United States.
The regulations against arms exports in place previously prevented Japan from joining the development team for the F-35, even though they were asked to join the project.
A remarkable article was published in Gulf News written by Jaswant Singh, who is the former Indian finance minister, foreign minister, and defense minister entitled, “New regional order in Asia is reaction to Chinese hegemony.”
I found this noteworthy due to the phrase “New regional order” which calls to mind the infamous “new world order” concept, which is quite an interesting choice of words indeed.
Speaking of the trilateral relations between India, Japan and the United States, United States Deputy Secretary of State William Burns said it could very well “reshape the international system.”
According to Singh, “Burns and much of the rest of America’s foreign-policy establishment now think that India’s regional influence has become comprehensive,” although he is obviously coming from a highly biased perspective.
It is quite remarkable that Japan and India are now developing the same type of comprehensive military and economic ties that have so long been the hallmark of ties between the United States and Japan.
Singh erroneously claims that the newly formed trilateral alliance is also aimed at helping to mitigate the so-called “gaping hole” which will supposedly be left in the Asian security architecture after the West will remove troops from Afghanistan without establishing peace there.
Of course, this is outright absurd, seeing as there is no indication that the United States or NATO will actually be leaving Afghanistan.
This became clear in November when the spokeswoman for the loya jirga in Afghanistan stated that Washington wanted a complete media blackout over the conditions being set in the new strategic long-term deal between America and Afghanistan.
Many of the loya jirga participants complained that they were not being provided with information about the terms and conditions of the long-term deal and Afghan President Hamid Karzai said that so long as some minor conditions were met they would be prepared to allow U.S. troops to remain in Afghanistan for an unspecified length of time.
One person covering Kabul and provinces for The New York Times, Sharifullah Sahak, said at the time via Twitter that “members with different views [are] saying [the] government should sign the strategic pact for 10, 20, even for 50 years with the US.”
It is quite clear that Singh is parroting the blatantly false line promulgated by NATO and the United States despite all of the proof showing that they have no interest in leaving that theater.
Rick Rozoff of Stop NATO (which puts out a free daily newsletter that is an absolute must read for anyone trying to keep up with the diabolical geopolitical machinations going on every day) says the evolution and expansion of the so-called “Asian NATO” is nothing new.
In fact, he says that he has been writing for at least 10 years on this subject and yet these developments are generally ignored like far too many other important issues that impact us all.
Rozoff points to the fact that Europe was first brought “under the NATO boot” and the alliance having finished that has now moved on to the Middle East and Africa.
“Asia is the only ‘unsubjugated’ part of the world except for Latin America – which is being saved for ‘dessert,’” Rozoff said.
It is clear that Asia is the new focus and this only becomes clearer as we continue to look at recent developments that the West is setting the proverbial sights on the Asia-Pacific region.
It has also become quite obvious to even the casual observer that this is aimed at encircling the countries that will not follow the West’s orders, most notably China, Russia and of course Iran.
During the recent visit of India’s Defense Minister A.K. Antony to Tokyo, it was decided that there would be a joint naval and air force exercise in 2012 between Japan and India, which would be a first.
This is part of the agreement between Japan and India which is aimed at increasing cooperation on “maritime security issues, including anti-piracy measures, freedom of navigation,” in addition to “maintaining the security of the Sea Lanes of Communication to facilitate unhindered trade, bilaterally as well as multilaterally with regional neighbors,” which Singh points out obviously means China.
In early 2012 a “Japan-India Defense Policy Dialogue” will be held in Tokyo along with the many top-level meetings between government and military officials as previously mentioned.
Singh says that these ties will certainly upset China while claiming that China’s role in the South China Sea dispute “has been a wake-up call about the type of regional order that China would establish if it had the power.”
Then again, the “new regional order” being established by NATO isn’t quite as glorious and peaceful as Singh is making it out to be, and the United States has been pretty clearly goading China in the South China Sea dispute.
“India’s and China’s rival aspirations to be acknowledged as regional Great Powers, as well as their quest for energy security, are compelling both countries to seek greater maritime security,” Singh writes.
Of course in this case “maritime security” is a not-so-subtle way of saying naval dominance as determined by the clout of alliances and sheer firepower.
Singh acknowledges the Indian approach has been opting “to construct a regional security structure with no Chinese participation,” and isolation isn’t quite the phenomenal strategy Singh seems to be making it out to be.
Cutting a nation out of the equation while encircling it and engaging in saber-rattling is bound to be disruptive, especially when the nation feels threatened.
This is exactly what we’re seeing right now with the NATO ABM program in Europe which is not leaving Russia either happy or reassured, as Rozoff has been extensively pointing out in his newsletters.
China is also not quite pleased with these developments, evidenced by China Daily saying that Japanese Premier Yoshihiko Noda’s visit to India was aimed at containing China.
They cite Lu Yaodong, the director of the department of Japanese diplomacy at the Institute of Japanese Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences who says that the summit between India and Japan is a continuance of the Japanese strategy known as the “Arc of Freedom and Prosperity.”
They also point to an expected dollar swap accord worth up to $10 billion along with possible increased nuclear cooperation between the two nations.
Su Hao, the director of the Asia-Pacific Research Center at the China Foreign Affairs University in Beijing reportedly said that Japan’s move to ease the arms trade restrictions “will complicate security in the Asia-Pacific region,” and thus “will have a negative effect on China,” according to the India Times.
There is also a concern that the Chinese People’s Daily Online reported on June 15, 2011 that the Liberation Army Daily said, “China resolutely opposes any country unrelated to the South China Sea issue meddling in disputes, and it opposes the internationalization of the South China Sea issue.”
This is a pretty clear statement to the United States which has been conducting naval exercises with nations involved in the dispute, arming others and encircling China with their increasing Japanese, Indian and Australian ties.
It is also worrisome that Australia has decided to sell natural uranium to India, which is a total reversal from the previous policy which had been in place since India first developed a nuclear weapons program.
The Australian Greens characterized this as “unethical, illogical and probably illegal,” pointing to the fact that India is not a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, although I think we all know just how much treaties are worth these days.
This comes as there is significant opposition to Indian nuclear power, including hunger strikes, and the Australian Senator for Western Australia Scott Ludlam said that “selling uranium to India will increase the proliferation of nuclear weapons in our region.”
Ludlam also cites the former head of the Indian National Security Advisory Board K. Subrahmanyam who said, “It is to India’s advantage to categorize as many power reactors as possible as civilian ones to be refueled by imported uranium and conserve our native uranium fuel for weapons grade plutonium production.”
It is quite clear that uranium sold to India will just replace other uranium which would go to civilian nuclear programs so more uranium can be devoted to weapons-grade plutonium production and thus nuclear weapons.
Ludlam also said that even the Indian civilian nuclear program was considered dangerous, pointing out, “This trade is illegal, dangerous and opposed by many Indian people including nuclear experts.”
This issue dovetails with the concern over America’s new and quite pronounced military presence in Australia, which in combination with the nuclear proliferation is sure to make China a bit concerned.
There is also the matter of Australia purchasing some $950 million in military equipment from the United States.
The Defense Security Cooperation Agency informed the U.S. Congress earlier in December that Australia will be purchasing 10 C-27J military planes and other equipment like missile warning and radar systems.
Washington approved the sale which is being done under the guise of helping “improve the air mobility and capability of the Australian Defence Force to run humanitarian and disaster relief operations in Southeast Asia,” according to the International Business Times.
They point out that the United States will also be opening a training center in Australia on top of the 2,500 Marines and the cutting edge F-22 fighter jet capable of cyberwarfare and electronic warfare and other military hardware, all of which will supposedly “help U.S. allies and protect American interests in Asia.”
Other items included in the order are: more electronic warfare equipment, portable flight mission planning systems, 23 Rolls Royce AE2100D2 engines, radios, support and test equipment, spares, aircraft ferry and tanker support, training equipment and personnel training, technical data and publications, maintenance trainers and an operational flight simulator.
Is this preparation for innocent humanitarian missions like they claim or could it possibly be building up supplies for a greater encirclement and possible future military action?
The Philippines
The Filipino Presidential Communications Operations Office announced on December 26 that the Gregorio del Pilar (PF-15) set out from Manila to the province of Palawan on December 23 for her first deployment as a warship of the Philippine Navy, after being handed over by the U.S. Coast Guard on May 13, 2011.
The Philippine Navy said that the vessel will act to strengthen the naval security in the Malampaya Oil Fields along with other areas west of the Palawan province.
The Malampaya field is roughly 80 km off the coast of Palawan Island, which Is not too far from the South China Sea as you can see in the following map where “A” is the South China Sea and “B” is Palawan Island.
While there very well might be areas closer to the South China Sea in the Philippines, the newest patrol frigate can sustain a month-long mission without any need to re-provision and is 378 feet long with a beam of 42 feet.
The ship carries 18 officers and 144 enlisted personnel and thus represents yet another aspect of the expansion and encirclement in the region thanks to the United States.
Ukraine
According to the Kyiv Post (Kyiv is an alternate spelling of Kiev), Ukraine hopes that the upcoming NATO summit in Chicago in May of 2012 will strengthen ties between NATO and Kiev.
It cites Oleh Voloshyn, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry’s information policy department director, who said, “We very much hope that next year’s NATO summit in Chicago will be an impetus to the deepening of cooperation between Ukraine and the alliance.”
Voloshyn also said that Ukraine and NATO have been engaging in intensified dialogue this year in a clear effort to bring the Eastern European nation into the alliance to further encircle Russia and China.
“Of course, we will continue to see NATO as our strategic partner in the sphere of security, reform of the armed forces, and in the sphere of tackling the consequences of emergency situations,” Voloshyn added.
The Kyiv Post adds that United States Ambassador to Ukraine John Tefft said that the Ukrainian President, Viktor Yanukovych, would also be invited to attend the NATO summit in Chicago in May.
Bringing Ukraine into NATO could be a huge boon for those seeking to further encircle Russia and continue to expand hegemonic Western control as Ukraine is a relatively large nation which shares a border with Russia.
Armenia
According to Public Radio of Armenia, recently the interdepartmental commission which was coordinating the implementation of the Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP) between Armenia and NATO held its final meeting in 2011.
While Armenia does not border Russia, it is quite close and would provide yet another way to encircle Russia and strengthen NATO’s grip on the region.
Ashot Hovakimyan, the Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister, lauded the effectiveness of the interdepartmental commission’s activity over the past year in presenting the general assessment of its actions.
Armenia’s First Deputy Defense Minister David Tonoyan said that the main areas of cooperation with NATO in the field of defense would be the participation of Armenian so-called peacekeepers in NATO actions along with support from NATO and member states in implementing defense reforms.
During the final sitting, the results of the implementation of the objectives of the IPAP in 2011 were summarized along with the progress made towards expanding cooperation between Armenia and NATO.
If nothing else, this much is clear: NATO and the West are expanding far beyond their original stated intentions when NATO was created and now moving into new regions, expanding ties and military dominance, and overall doing whatever it takes to grow hegemonic control of the world.
The direction this is heading in is far from pleasant, and despite the constant reassurances that this is being done for humanitarian purposes or motivations that seem otherwise innocent, I think by now all of my readers realize this is very unlikely, to say the least.
If you have stories or tips on this issue please email me at Admin@EndtheLie.com along with your analysis and opinion. I very well might use what you have to say in a future article!
More at EndtheLie.com – http://EndtheLie.com/2011/12/29/u-s-and-nato-are-on-the-march-worldwide/#ixzz1hwVZ3KdQ
Stop NATO news: December 29, 2011
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U.S.-Russian Missile Shield Disagreement Intensifies
Russia Delivers New Missile Defense Systems To Belarus
U.S. Interceptor Missile Plans Threat To China’s Nuclear Forces
Purpose Of U.S. Return To Asia Strategy: Control Of “World Island”
India-Japan-U.S. Axis: Containment Of China Strategy
Pakistan: Army Rejects Pentagon Report On Deadly NATO Attack
NATO Increases Cyber Warfare Capabilities
Caucasus And Beyond: New NATO Agenda For All Partners
Russia: NATO Ignores Crimes By Libyan Allies
Russia, Egypt Discuss Investigation Of NATO Libyan Operations
North Africa, Middle East: From Arab Spring To NATO Autumn
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U.S.-Russian Missile Shield Disagreement Intensifies
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/optimism-on-missile-defense-agreement-drops/450561.html
Moscow Times
December 28, 2011
Optimism on Missile Defense Agreement Drops
By Nikolaus von Twickel
-“The basic principle of defining security threats remains the same all along: If new arms are deployed in such a way that they reduce your defense capability, then that is bad. There is no point in further analyzing if these weapons are defensive or offensive.
“You must take into account that missile defense radars and satellites have reconnaissance capabilities. These and other factors are negatives for Russia in the deployment of a European missile shield.”
Moscow will develop and deploy new rockets to counter a U.S.-driven European missile shield as long as NATO frustrates Russia in talks to cooperate over missile defense, according to senior Defense Ministry officials.
The optimism after last year’s Russia-NATO summit in Lisbon has been falling inexorably because the Western alliance is not heeding Moscow’s reservations, Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov told The Moscow Times.
“They listen to us carefully and say they understand our concerns, but at the same time they continue to implement their plans for expanding their missile defense potential,” Antonov said in an e-mailed interview conducted last month.
Antonov pointed out that the United States has stated that it will build a radar station in Turkey, missile interceptor bases in Romania and Poland, and deploy Aegis missile defense ships from a naval base in Spain.
“We are not satisfied with these developments. Our partners are not prepared for the sort of cooperation offered by us — for a joint European missile defense,” he said. “They guarantee that the missile defense system will not be directed at Russia’s strategic nuclear forces, but only in words.”
Alliance officials have said they would like to reach a missile defense deal with Moscow by NATO’s summit in Chicago next May, but the Kremlin has expressed growing antipathy to the project.
President Dmitry Medvedev warned last month that it could upend the “reset” with Washington and lead to a new arms race. In a video address he threatened to drop out of the New START nuclear arms reduction pact and to direct the country’s own ballistic missiles against NATO’s shield.
The head of the Strategic Rocket Forces, Lieutenant General Sergei Karakayev, announced earlier this month that a planned new intercontinental ballistic missile generation would counter the Western missile shield.
The new silo-based, 100-ton missiles “will be better equipped to overcome the U.S. missile shield,” Karakayev told RIA-Novosti.
The yet unnamed liquid-fueled rockets should replace the country’s Soviet-era R36 missiles, codenamed “Satan” by NATO, the general said.
Karakayev said his forces were busy introducing and upgrading other weapons like the Yars, Topol and Bulava missiles, in accordance with Medvedev’s announcement that Moscow would take steps to strengthen national security in light of U.S. actions to deploy the missile shield.
NATO is adamant that Russia has nothing to fear from the missile shield because it is purely defensive.
But Deputy Defense Minister Antonov explained that this does not dispel Moscow’s doubts.
“The basic principle of defining security threats remains the same all along: If new arms are deployed in such a way that they reduce your defense capability, then that is bad. There is no point in further analyzing if these weapons are defensive or offensive,” he said.
“You must take into account that missile defense radars and satellites have reconnaissance capabilities. These and other factors are negatives for Russia in the deployment of a European missile shield,” he said.
Antonov pointed out that Washington had shown a similar stance when it argued strongly against Russian plans to sell “purely defensive” S-300 anti-aircraft missiles to Iran.
Moscow canceled the deal in 2010, saying it would violate UN Security Council sanctions.
Asked about U.S. scientists’ doubts that NATO’s missile shield would ever work as envisaged by Western officials, Antonov said the system’s effectiveness will only be known after it has been put in place and Moscow was obliged to assume it can work.
“We have a duty to take the potential of U.S. anti-missile weapons into account, which, under certain conditions, could intercept our missiles,” he said.
But the deputy minister also stressed that the door for further missile defense cooperation talks remains open.
A career diplomat, Antonov joined the Defense Ministry last February after serving seven years as director of the Foreign Ministry’s security and disarmament department.
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Russia Delivers New Missile Defense Systems To Belarus
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2011-12/29/c_131332223.htm
Xinhua News Agency
December 29, 2011
Belarus receives modern air defense missiles from Russia
MINSK: The Belarusian Air Defense Forces have received the first battery of the Tor-M2 air defense missile systems from Russia, the Belarusian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday.
The ministry said in a statement that the 120th Air Defense Missile Brigade of the Western Operational Tactical Command has received the air defense missile system.
According to the ministry, relevant personnel had been trained in Russia to use the new weaponry.
The new weaponry will greatly improve the combat capability of the Belarusian Air Force and Air Defense troops, the ministry said in the statement.
Russia is the main partner of Belarus in matters relating to supplies of military products, with preferential delivery terms available.
A battery of Tor-M2 air defense missile systems comprising four combat vehicles is capable of intercepting simultaneously 16 targets flying from any directions at speeds under 700 meters per second within a 12-kilometer range at an altitude of up to 10 kilometers at any time and in any weather conditions.
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U.S. Interceptor Missile Plans Threat To China’s Nuclear Forces
http://rt.com/politics/russia-china-us-missile-defense-pacific-803/
RT
December 28, 2011
‘China more at risk from US AMD plans in Pacific’
Robert Bridge
-”A Pacific missile defense system is a matter of a not very distant future. Japan already possesses four and South Korea two destroyers equipped with Aegis systems. The Japanese are planning to increase this number to six.”
-”We cannot view this system only within the framework of negotiations between Russia, the US, and NATO. Because China is a crucial factor affecting the UN Security Council positions.”
Speaking on the presence of US missile defense systems in the Pacific region, Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Vladimir Dvorkin says this shield is more of a threat to the nuclear forces in China than it is to Russia’s.
Major Gen. Dvorkin, a senior fellow at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of World Economy and International Relations, revealed that Japan and South Korea are already equipped with the Aegis missile defense systems.
“A Pacific missile defense system is a matter of a not very distant future,” Dvorkin said at a conference in Moscow. “Japan already possesses four and South Korea two destroyers equipped with Aegis systems. The Japanese are planning to increase this number to six.”
Japan has already intercepted ballistic targets with support from the US, he added.
Given the location of these particular missile defense assets, they pose more of a threat to China’s nuclear forces than Russia’s.
“This is a working missile defense system. And surely it threatens China’s nuclear deterrence potential more than Russia’s,” Dvorkin said.
In light of such findings, the retired major general said China, a growing military power in its own right, must also be involved in the ongoing negotiations on US missile defense in Europe and Asia.
“We cannot view this system only within the framework of negotiations between Russia, the US, and NATO,” Dvorkin said. “Because China is a crucial factor affecting the UN Security Council positions,” he added.
…
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Purpose Of U.S. Return To Asia Strategy: Control Of “World Island”
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90883/7689638.html
China Military Online
December 27, 2011
What is behind US ‘Return-to-Asia’ strategy?
Edited and translated by People’s Daily Online
-The American overall strategy toward China is giving the same priority to cooperation and prevention, but intensifying “security rebalancing” efforts on China, taking comprehensive measures to suppress China, and instigating its allies to pay, contribute and appear to restrain China.
-Some thinkers of the U.S. Navy are quite interested in the English geographer Halford Mackinder’s “Heartland” theory. Mackinder said “Who rules East Europe commands the Heartland; who rules the Heartland commands the World Island (Eurasia).”
Mackinder’s followers have applied this strategy to Asia, and believed that controlling South China Sea will make the U.S. air force and navy command East Asia, and consequently command the “World Island”.
-Currently, the situation in Europe is under American control, and the situation in the Middle East is beneficial to the United States. The world’s geographic center is transferring from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and the Asia-Pacific region has become the world’s political and economic center.
Recently, the PLA Daily interviewed Lin Zhiyuan, an expert on U.S. issues at the Department of World Military Research under the Academy of Military Sciences on the U.S. strategy to “return to Asia.”
Reporter: While talking about Asia recently, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, “The United States is back,” making it clear that the United States has paid more attention to the Asian-Pacific region than ever, and it will shift its strategic focus to Asia in the future. What do you think of the move?
Lin Zhiyuan: It aims to fully restore U.S. influence in the Asia-Pacific region. The United States implements a global strategy, which has respective focuses on deployment.
Since the end of the Cold War, the United States started to shift its strategic focus to Asia. However, the American focus on Asia was always interrupted by some major events, such as Asia’s financial crisis and the war on terrorism. Especially over the past 10 years, the United States paid all attention to anti-terrorism and got entangled in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but made slow progress in Asia.
Today’s United States has taken “reviving the United States, leading the world” as its core objective. It changed the past practice of giving top priority to anti-terrorism, withdrew troops gradually from battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan, accelerated its pace of shifting strategic focus to Asia, and has taken a number of substantial measures.
Reporter: At the 12th round of China-U.S. defense consultation held recently, the U.S. Undersecretary of Defense Michael Flournoy said the Pentagon does not regard China as an “enemy.” The China-U.S. relation is distinctive and certainly not “hostile relation.” What’s your opinion?
Lin Zhiyuan: There have been various versions about China-U.S. relations, which is basically a “neither friend nor foe” relationship. It is a particular relationship between the world’s only superpower and a rising great power, and the most important geopolitical relationship.
The American overall strategy toward China is giving the same priority to cooperation and prevention, but intensifying “security rebalancing” efforts on China, taking comprehensive measures to suppress China, and instigating its allies to pay, contribute and appear to restrain China.
At the same time, the United States has strengthened penetration in China’s surrounding regions through humanitarian aid, military exchanges and arms sales. It has taken various actions in order to show its leadership and appeal to allies.
Reporter: The South China Sea issue has become increasingly sensitive and tense at present. Does America’s returning to the Asia-Pacific region mean it will pay more attention to or get involved in the South China Sea issue?
Lin Zhiyuan: Some thinkers of the U.S. Navy are quite interested in the English geographer Halford Mackinder’s “Heartland” theory. Mackinder said “Who rules East Europe commands the Heartland; who rules the Heartland commands the World Island (Eurasia).”
Mackinder’s followers have applied this strategy to Asia, and believed that controlling South China Sea will make the U.S. air force and navy command East Asia, and consequently command the “World Island”.
Reporter: In fact, the United States has never been away from Asia. What kind of impact will the so-called “return to Asia” strategy bring to the Asia-Pacific region?
Lin Zhiyuan: Currently, the situation in Europe is under American control, and the situation in the Middle East is beneficial to the United States. The world’s geographic center is transferring from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and the Asia-Pacific region has become the world’s political and economic center.
The United States is eager to find a new way to consolidate its dominant position in this region. As for the interior political situation, the American political struggle has entered a critical stage and the economy remains depressed. Under such circumstance, the Obama administration needs to be more aggressive in military [matters] and diplomacy in order to create favorable conditions to win the presidential election. Therefore, the American global strategy shows a layout of stabilizing in Europe, “shrinking” appropriately in the Middle East and “expanding” in the Asia-Pacific region.
The strategic adjustment of the United States will pose a great challenge to the geopolitical situation in the Asia-Pacific region and even the world order. The American intervention in some regions’ hot spots will result in a more complicated strategic environment for China’s peaceful rise.
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India-Japan-U.S. Axis: Containment Of China Strategy
Press Trust of India
December 28, 2011
Japanese Premier Noda’s India trip part of Japan’s strategy to contain China’
-”Japan and India have comprehensively boosted regional cooperation in recent years, not only in security but also in economic ties. And the cooperation has been moving from bilateral to multilateral, trying to include the United States, Australia and India in its ‘Arc of Freedom and Prosperity.’”
-The report also noted that Noda’s visit to India comes after the first round of trilateral talks in Washington last week among the US, India and Japan, and an India-Japan Defence Ministers’ meeting in Tokyo in November.
-”Japan must have gained the approval of the US before it announced it was lifting the ban. This suggests that the two countries are working in coordination to adjust their Asia-Pacific strategy. So, it (the relaxation of the ban) will have a negative effect on China.”
BEIJING: Japanese Premier Yoshihiko Noda’s ongoing India visit aimed at boosting bilateral strategic ties was part of Tokyo’s attempt to strengthen its alliances with Asia-Pacific nations to “contain” China, the official media here claimed today.
Boosting ties with India is part of Japan’s strategy of strengthening alliances with Asia-Pacific nations with an eye on China, state-run China Daily quoted security analysts as saying.
The India-Japan summit is a continuance of Japan’s “Arc of Freedom and Prosperity” strategy, which has been widely interpreted as an effort to contain China, Lu Yaodong, director of the department of Japanese diplomacy at the Institute of Japanese Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the daily.
Citing reports that Noda and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh are expected to sign a currency swap accord worth up to USD 10 billion besides discussing nuclear cooperation, the daily referred to Noda’s comments that he would discuss political, security, economic and human exchange and Japan’s readiness to help infrastructure projects in India with Singh.
“Japan and India have comprehensively boosted regional cooperation in recent years, not only in security but also in economic ties. And the cooperation has been moving from bilateral to multilateral, trying to include the United States, Australia and India in its ‘Arc of Freedom and Prosperity’,” Lu said.
The “Arc of Freedom and Prosperity” is a pillar of Japan’s diplomacy initiated in 2007 by former Foreign Affairs Minister Taro Aso. It has been interpreted as an effort to make allies to contain the rise of China in the Asia-Pacific region, he said.
The report also noted that Noda’s visit to India comes after the first round of trilateral talks in Washington last week among the US, India and Japan, and an India-Japan Defence Ministers’ meeting in Tokyo in November.
There has been a renaissance in Japan-India relations since the 1990s, following their non-alignment during the Cold War, Takenori Horimoto, a professor of contemporary South Asian politics at Shobi University said.
With New Delhi’s post-Cold War economic liberalisation policies, India has become a new market for Japan, Horimoto said.
“Meanwhile, the rise of China has meant that both Japan and India have increasingly eyed each other as potential strategic partners in the last five years,” he said.
Difficulties in the US domestic economy have made it rely more on its Asian alliances to boost its presence in the Asia-Pacific region, after the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq and its gradual withdrawal from Afghanistan, the newspaper quoted the analysts as saying.
Another report in the same newspaper said Japan’s decision to lift ban on arms exports would also pose a threat to China.
“The lifting of the ban paves the way for Japan’s air and marine forces to upgrade their hardware capability. So if we look at it over the long term, it will pose threats to China,” Yang Bojiang, a professor of Japanese studies at the University of International Relations in Beijing, said.
The change could possibly reshuffle the international arms trade, and Japan’s competitiveness in electrical equipment for military use may squeeze Russia’s market share, he said.
“For Japan, it now breaks into a politically restricted area. But for the Asia-Pacific region, uncertainties have increased,” Yang said.
Su Hao, director of the Asia-Pacific research centre at China Foreign Affairs University in Beijing, told the daily that Japan’s relaxation of the arms export ban will complicate security in the Asia-Pacific region.
“As a further step to become a normal country, the allowance of arms exports will provide Japan a new way to boost ties with countries in East and Southeast Asia, ” Su said.
“More important, Japan must have gained the approval of the US before it announced it was lifting the ban. This suggests that the two countries are working in coordination to adjust their Asia-Pacific strategy. So, it (the relaxation of the ban) will have a negative effect on China,” he said.
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Pakistan: Army Rejects Pentagon Report On Deadly NATO Attack
The Nation
December 29, 2011
Army finds fault with US probe head
By Sikandar Shaheen
ISLAMABAD: Rejecting the detailed NATO probe on last month’s border attack, the Pakistan Army has questioned the validity of the findings supervised by a military man who held command of allied forces in Afghanistan.
The military has expressed serious reservations over US Air Force Brigadier General Stephen Clark’s leading the Mohmand attack probe while refusing to show any compliance for the launch of a fresh investigation.
The development reportedly followed an exchange of written communication between the Pentagon and Pakistan’s military headquarters (GHQ) amid reports that the latter has raised serious questions over the authenticity of the NATO report under the supervision of Brigadier General Clark.
According to informed officials, the Pakistan military holds Clark as one of the commanders responsible for the November 26 deadly attack on two Pakistani military pickets – Volcano and Boulder – that killed 24 soldiers.
As head of Air Force Special Operations Forces (AFSOF), Clark remained Colonel Commandant of the 27 Special Operations Forces (SOF) Wing that carries out ground and aerial operations in Afghanistan. The 16 Squadron Wing of the United States Air Force (USAF), that saw its gunship choppers bombarding the Pakistani pickets, was also headed by Brigadier General Clark in his official capacity as the chief pilot.
The Squadron 16, it is learnt, directly oversees the operational command of the sophisticated gunship choppers AC-130 H Spectre that were used in the Mohmand Agency attack. Apart from heading the combat mission in Afghanistan, Brigadier General Clark also remained the Commander of 4th SOF at the USAF.
Citing the afore-stated factors, Pakistan’s military, in the Wednesday’s correspondence with the Pentagon, is reported to have pointed out Stephen Clark’s unsuitability for leading a sensitive probe that, according to military circles, compromised his objective position owing to his direct professional linkages with allied combat forces in Afghanistan. “He is not neutral. Given that he himself commands the Special Operations Forces, we have grounds to believe that the November 26 episode did not happen without Clark’s consent. He is as much to be held responsible as General Allen is,” military officials said.
When contacted on Wednesday, the NATO Air Operations spokesperson in Afghanistan Christopher DeWitt told this scribe that Pentagon was in a better position to address any queries on Brigadier General Stephen Clark. Pentagon spokesperson George Little was not accessible at his official cell phone nor did he return the emails.
…
Earlier last Friday, the Pakistan Army had rejected the initial findings of the investigation on Mohmand Agency attack released by the Pentagon. A military statement had said that a detailed response (to the report) would be given as and when the formal report was received. This newspaper had reported Sunday that NATO was unlikely to share the detailed report with Pakistani military, sensing adverse reaction from the latter. This development followed the requests by the US Central Command (CENTCOM) Chief General David Mattis which had been turned down for a meeting with Pakistan Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. Reportedly, General Mattis wanted to visit Pakistan to brief the country’s military top brass on November 26 attack.
Pakistani officials say that the military refused to cooperate on last month’s probe because the probe’s findings in the presence of General John Allen, the NATO Commander in Afghanistan, and Brigadier General Clark were “pretty obvious”. Military circles believe that an impartial inquiry was not possible without putting into probe General Allen, Clark and Afghan National Army’s Head General Sher Muhammad Karimi.
Our special correspondent from Washington adds: While dropping hints of disciplinary action against those responsible for last month’s NATO attack that killed 26 Pakistani soldiers, the US military said Tuesday that Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani has been briefed on its investigation into the deadly incident.
…
A summary of the report was released Thursday by the officer who led the investigation, Brigadier General Stephen Clark.
…
It took the NATO-led force 90 minutes to halt air strikes after a Pakistani liaison officer first alerted US and coalition counterparts that Pakistani troops were coming under fire from American aircraft, the report said.
The probe also said the US military had failed to notify the Pakistanis in advance of the night raid near the border and that a coalition officer mistakenly gave the wrong location of the US troops to his Pakistani counterpart.
…
====
NATO Increases Cyber Warfare Capabilities
http://www.neurope.eu/article/nato-increases-cyber-security
New Europe
December 28, 2011
NATO increases cyber security
According to a report by Advance magazine, Finmeccanica and Northrop Grumman Corporation signed a Teaming Agreement in order to respond to the proposal for the NATO Computer Incident Response Capability (NCIRC) – Full Operating Capability (FOC).
This extensive managed service aims to provide information assurance to around 50 NATO sites and headquarters throughout 28 countries worldwide.
…The project is intended to meet the level of ambition of NATO Head of States as set out during the Lisbon Summit in November 2010.
Alberto de Benedictis, Chief Executive Finmeccanica UK and responsible for Finmeccanica Cyber Solutions, said: “This is a strong partnership which combines the capabilities, resources and expertise of both organisations spanning the UK, US and Italy and resulting in a superior proposal which best meets the requirements of this key NATO Programme.”
Mike Papay, vice president of Cyber Initiatives, Northrop Grumman Information Systems, said: “Northrop Grumman has a strong track record of providing the most advanced, integrated cyber security solutions across all domains for the US military, civilian government and private industry.
“Protecting networks from the growing cyber threat is a global challenge and we look forward to bringing to this industry partnership the resources, experience and expertise from across our company to ensure the best possible solution for the customer in this strategically important NATO programme.”
====
Caucasus And Beyond: New NATO Agenda For All Partners
http://en.apa.az/news.php?id=162657
Azeri Press Agency
December 28, 2011
Romanian Ambassador: “NATO is concerned about the protracted conflicts in the South Caucasus”
Rashad Suleymanov
NATO’s new partnership menu will be available for all partners from 2012
Baku: NATO’s new partnership menu will be available to all partners in 2012, Romanian Ambassador to Azerbaijan Daniel Christian Chiobanu said, APA reports.
The ambassador said the new partnership menu included more than 1600 events. “The partner countries will have new two-year individual partnership plans in this framework”.
Chiobanu said NATO was concerned about the protracted conflicts in the South Caucasus. “As a neighbor of this region, Romania is interested in the settlement of these conflicts. It also supports the integration of the regional countries into the Euro-Atlantic space”.
The ambassador called Azerbaijan an important partner for the alliance and said Romania was ready to organize dialogue between NATO and Azerbaijan.
The Romanian embassy in Baku is the NATO coordinator for Azerbaijan.
====
Russia: NATO Ignores Crimes By Libyan Allies
http://english.ruvr.ru/2011/12/28/63072900.html
Russian Information Agency Novosti
December 28, 2011
Russia: NATO ignored Libyan rebels crime
NATO has been ignoring crimes by the former Libyan rebels, says a report on injustice and violations around the globe published by Russia’s Foreign Ministry.
The document claims that the Coalition troops haven’t reacted to ethnic murders and allowing the rebels to kill Gaddafi despite calls for tolerance.
The first days of the Libyan campaign killed some 100 civilians, says the report.
Moscow wants an objective probe into the facts conducted by the Human Rights Court.
====
Russia, Egypt Discuss Investigation Of NATO Libyan Operations
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2011-12/28/c_131332138.htm
Xinhua News Agency
December 28, 2011
Russia, Egypt discuss investigation of NATO operations in Libya
MOSCOW: Egypt may join Russia in demanding an investigation of NATO operations in Libya, Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amrsaid said Wednesday.
Speaking to reporters after talks with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Amr said Moscow and Cairo have been discussing the idea proposed by Russia “with full seriousness.”
“We are considering this issue and consulting with Russian colleagues and will make a decision later,” Amr was quoted by RIA Novosti news agency as saying.
Lavrov reiterated that Moscow demanded an investigation of NATO actions after media reports said airstrikes killed dozens of civilians in Libya.
The two diplomats said Russia and Egypt would continue to pay close attention to the situation in the Middle East and North Africa, demanding that any changes be determined through dialogue “by peaceful means and without external interference.”
Russia’s U.N. ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, last week urged NATO to investigate civilian deaths in Libya, after the New York Times reported dozens of Libyan civilians were killed during NATO’s eight-month military operation.
The action was rejected by the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., who called Moscow’s demand an attempt to distract the international community from current events in Syria.
NATO also said there were no civilian casualties during the operation.
====
North Africa, Middle East: From Arab Spring To NATO Autumn
http://english.ruvr.ru/2011/12/28/63057848.html
Voice of Russia
December 28, 2011
From “Arab Spring” to “Arab Autumn”?
Konstantin Garibov
Experts have called the “Arab Spring” one of the main geopolitical events in 2011. Its first “snowdrop” burst into blossom during the “Jasmine Revolution” in Tunisia in December 2010. A wave of mass protests then occurred in Egypt, Yemen, Libya, Syria and a number of other North African and Middle Eastern countries, something that led to contradictory and unpredictable consequences.
Initiated by the youth, all the revolutions started under the slogans of toppling the rulers who had been at the helm for years. Analysts were quick to call Arabs a subject of big-time politics, with some experts referring to demonstrators’ disappointment with the outcomes of the revolutions. Stanislav Tarasov, a Moscow-based Oriental Studies expert, says that it would be more appropriate to speak of the “Arab Autumn”, not the “Arab Spring.”
“The Arab revolutions are starting to unseat secular regimes, Tarasov says, citing the ouster of Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia, Hosni Mubarak in Egypt and Muammar Gaddafi in Libya. Right now, the Muslim Brotherhood is coming to power in Egypt which, along with the results of the Tunisian presidential elections, may prompt Islamists to seize power in a number of other countries where Tarasov says religious autocracy may well be established in the future. But the main trouble is that the international community has got a new regional hot spot where tensions are yet to be defused,” Tarasov concludes.
Yemen, Tunisia and Egypt were hit by The “Arab Spring” especially hard. Yemen found itself on the verge of a break up, while Tunisia and Egypt faced economic implications, including capital outflow, unemployment growth and a decline in tourism. The situation remains tense in Syria, where the government’s clampdown on the opposition forced many to flee to neighboring Turkey to find refuge. In Libya, tens of thousands of people fled to Tunisia and other Maghreb countries earlier this year. At first, they flocked to these countries to flee a civil war and NATO airstrikes, but afterwards, they fled to escape repressions carried out against Gaddafi loyalists, says Moscow-based expert Alexei Podtserob who is also the former Russian Ambassador to Libya.
“Libya’s facing a possible new civil war and the power transition further exacerbates the situation in the region, Podtserob says. More than 50,000 people have been killed in war-torn Libya since May which is approximately one percent of the country’s 6-million-strong population.”
According to Alexei Podtserob, the Libyan scenario of the “Arab Spring” has seriously ruined the UN’s political image.
“The West, he says, loosely interpreted the UN Security Council (UNSC) resolutions on Libya, using them as a red herring to stage a direct NATO intervention against this North African country, something that seriously damaged the UN’s authority. This is one of the consequences of the “Arab Spring which I would rather call the “Arab Autumn,” he concludes.
From the very beginning, Russia condemned the West’s military interference in Libya’s domestic affairs. A permanent UNSC member, Russia is now using its authority in the Arab world to try to prevent a repeat of the Libyan scenario in Syria. Additionally, Russia is lending support to mediation efforts by the African Union, the Arab League and the Gulf Cooperation Council to improve the situation in Libya, Yemen and Syria. Moscow is actively contributing to the process of rebuilding Libya and a speedy start of a fully-fledged dialogue in Syria.
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William Vaughn Moody: Bullet’s scream went wide of its mark to its homeland’s heart
====
Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
American writers on peace and against war
====
William Vaughn Moody
Member of the Anti-Imperialist League
On a Soldier Fallen in the Philippines (1901)
Streets of the roaring town,
Hush for him, hush, be still!
He comes, who was stricken down
Doing the word of our will.
Hush! Let him have his state,
Give him his soldier’s crown.
The grists of trade can wait
Their grinding at the mill,
But he cannot wait for his honor, now the trumpet has been blown.
Wreathe pride now for his granite brow, lay love on his breast of stone.
Toll! Let the great bells toll
Till the clashing air is dim.
Did we wrong this parted soul?
We will make it up to him.
Toll! Let him never guess
What work we set him to.
Laurel, laurel, yes;
He did what we bade him do.
Praise, and never a whispered hint but the fight he fought was good;
Never a word that the blood on his sword was his country’s own heart’s-blood.
A flag for the soldier’s bier
Who dies that his land may live;
O, banners, banners here,
That he doubt not nor misgive!
That he heed not from the tomb
The evil days draw near
When the nation, robed in gloom,
With its faithless past shall strive.
Let him never dream that his bullet’s scream went wide of its island mark,
Home to the heart of his darling land where she stumbled and sinned in the dark.
Stop NATO news: December 28, 2011
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Japan: NATO’s Gateway Into Asia-Pacific Region
Interceptor Missiles, Stealth Warplanes: Boost To U.S.-Japan Alliance
India-Japan-Australia: U.S. Forges Asian NATO
“Reshape The International System”: India-Japan-U.S. Military Triad
Australia Buys $950 Million Worth Of Military Planes From U.S.
Philippines Deploys New U.S.-Provided Warship
NATO Loses Three Soldiers In Eastern Afghanistan
December: Sixteen NATO Soldiers Killed In Afghanistan By Christmas
Pakistan: Human Rights Commission Rejects NATO Report On Attack
Missile Radar: Turkey Arrests Anti-NATO Protesters
NATO Summit To Boost Integration Of Ukraine: Official
Armenia: NATO Continues Advanced Integration Program
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Japan: NATO’s Gateway Into Asia-Pacific Region
http://english.ruvr.ru/2011/12/27/63015296.html
Voice of Russia
December 27, 2011
Japan, NATO to become closer
Igor Siletsky
On Tuesday, the Japanese government has decided to partially lift a self-imposed 40-year ban on arms exports, which prohibited Japanese arms makers from joint development and export of military technology. Until now the US has been the only country with which Japan cooperated on military technologies. Now, the Land of the Rising Sun has decided to expand its military cooperation which experts see as a bid to join the European ABM project.
The ban imposed in 1967 provided that Japan could not buy weapons from countries governed by Communist regimes and countries which were involved in military conflicts. Gradually Japan stopped military cooperation with all countries except the US.
But cooperation with Washington has never stopped. Back in the 1980s, Japanese companies supplied the US with 15 new technologies for their Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). At present Tokyo, in partnership with Washington, is developing a unit for an upgraded SM3 ship missile. This missile is expected to become one of the key components in the European anti-ballistic missile system. But the ban which prohibited Japan from selling arms to Europe put a question mark over the supplies of these units to Europe. That is why the Japanese government has decided to lift the ban, which will enable Tokyo to cooperate on the development of military technologies with European and other countries.
Are the motives behind Tokyo’s decision mainly political or mainly economic? Japanese defense companies have been lobbying the government to ease the ban as they are hoping to find their niche on the global market. So the economic motives have played their role, the head of the Center for Political studies Vladimir Yevseev says:
“The economic reasons for lifting the ban have made a serious impact. Now the country is going through an extremely difficult period, which was first of all caused by the tragedy at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. So, an opportunity to sell its military developments as part of the plan to create an anti-missile defense in Europe would benefit Tokyo economically.”
At the same time the political motives should be also taken into account. Japan is currently looking for new allies and is trying to strengthen ties with the old ones, the head of the Center for Japanese Studies Valery Kistanov says:
“Above all Japan wants to strengthen its military alliance with the US. Japan needs it amid the current instability in the Asian Pacific region. It is concerned about the so-called Chinese military threat and the situation on the Korean peninsula after the death of Kim Jong-il. The government’s recent move is probably intended to show that Tokyo is loyal and committed to its alliance with the US.”
In all this experts can also see another tendency – Japan’s rapprochement with NATO. A close cooperation between Tokyo and Brussels would contribute to NATO’s expansion into the Asian Pacific region.
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Interceptor Missiles, Stealth Warplanes: Boost To U.S.-Japan Alliance
http://www.menafn.com/qn_news_story.asp?storyid=%7Bf46c5b21-7686-424e-889b-51b5e4a44a36%7D
Yomiuri Shimbun
December 27, 2011
Boost to Japan-U.S. alliance
The government’s decision to establish guidelines on the export of military equipment and technology to other nations reflects the firm resolve of Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, according to analysts, and will deepen Japan’s alliance with the United States.
The new guidelines are intended to relax the three existing rules on weapons exports, and were needed because the restrictions were hindering cooperation on security issues with the United States and other countries, the analysts said.
The F-35 that Japan has decided to employ as its next-generation fighter jet was developed through the cooperation of nine countries, including the United States and Britain. Japan was asked to join the development project, but Tokyo was unable to do so because of the rules on weapons exports.
Easing the rules would make it possible for Japan’s defense industry to take part in similar international projects to develop and produce military equipment and technology.
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India-Japan-Australia: U.S. Forges Asian NATO
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/eo20111228bc.html
Japan Times
December 28, 2011
Build Japan-India naval ties
By Brahma Chellaney
-Today, the fastest growing bilateral relationship in Asia is between India and Japan. Since they unveiled a “strategic and global partnership” in 2006, their political and economic engagement has deepened remarkably.
Their growing congruence of strategic interests led to the 2008 Joint Declaration on Security Cooperation…
-The joint declaration was modeled on Japan’s 2007 defense-cooperation accord with Australia — the only country with which Tokyo has a security-cooperation declaration. Japan, of course, is tied to the United States militarily since 1951 by a treaty. The India-Japan security agreement, in turn, spawned a similar India-Australian accord in 2009.
-To top it off, Japan, India, and the U.S. have initiated a trilateral strategic dialogue, whose first meeting was in Washington last week. Getting the U.S. on board will bolster the convergences of all three partners and boost India-Japan cooperation.
-India and Japan have missile-defense cooperation with Israel and the U.S., respectively. There is no reason why they should not work together on missile defense and on other technologies for mutual security.
NEW DELHI: [T]he visit of Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda to India offers an opportunity to the two natural allies to help promote Asian stability by adding concrete strategic content to their fast-growing relationship. Japan and India need to build close naval collaboration.
The balance of power in Asia will be determined by events principally in two regions: East Asia and the Indian Ocean. Japan and India thus have an important role to play…in the wider Indo-Pacific region.
Asia’s booming economies are bound by sea…Whereas 97 percent of India’s international trade by volume is conducted by sea, almost all of Japan’s international trade is ocean-borne. As energy-poor countries heavily dependent on oil imports from the Persian Gulf region, the two are seriously concerned…
In this light, Japan and India have already agreed to start holding joint naval exercises from the new year. This is just one sign that they now wish to graduate from emphasizing shared values to seeking to jointly protect shared interests. Today, the fastest growing bilateral relationship in Asia is between India and Japan. Since they unveiled a “strategic and global partnership” in 2006, their political and economic engagement has deepened remarkably.
Their growing congruence of strategic interests led to the 2008 Joint Declaration on Security Cooperation, a significant milestone in building Asian power stability…
The joint declaration was modeled on Japan’s 2007 defense-cooperation accord with Australia — the only country with which Tokyo has a security-cooperation declaration. Japan, of course, is tied to the United States militarily since 1951 by a treaty. The India-Japan security agreement, in turn, spawned a similar India-Australian accord in 2009.
…India is already beginning to emerge as a favored destination in Asia for Japanese foreign direct investment.
…Japan and India have agreed to the joint development of rare earths, which are vital for a wide range of green energy technologies and military applications.
Today, the level and frequency of India-Japan official engagement is extraordinary. Noda’s New Delhi visit is part of a bilateral commitment to hold an annual summit meeting of the prime ministers. More important, Japan and India now have a series of annual minister-to-minister dialogues: a strategic dialogue between their foreign ministers; a defense dialogue between their defense ministers; a policy dialogue between India’s commerce and industry minister and Japan’s minister of economy, trade and industry; and separate ministerial-level energy and economic dialogues.
Supporting these high-level discussions is another set of talks, including a two-plus-two dialogue led jointly by India’s foreign and defense secretaries and their Japanese vice minister counterparts, a maritime security dialogue, a comprehensive security dialogue, and military-to-military talks involving regular exchange visits of the chiefs of staff.
To top it off, Japan, India, and the U.S. have initiated a trilateral strategic dialogue, whose first meeting was in Washington last week. Getting the U.S. on board will bolster the convergences of all three partners and boost India-Japan cooperation.
As Japanese Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba said recently, “Japan and the U.S. are deepening a strategic relationship with India,” and the trilateral dialogue is “a specific example of collaboration” among the three leading Asia-Pacific democracies.
Bilaterally, Japan and India need to strengthen their still-fledgling strategic cooperation by embracing two ideas, both of which demand a subtle shift in Japanese thinking and policy. One is to build interoperability between their naval forces. These forces — along with other friendly navies — can…As former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe put it in a recent speech in New Delhi, the aim should be that “sooner rather than later, Japan’s navy and the Indian navy are seamlessly interconnected.” Presently, Japan has naval interoperability only with U.S. forces.
Another idea is for the two countries to jointly develop defense systems. India and Japan have missile-defense cooperation with Israel and the U.S., respectively. There is no reason why they should not work together on missile defense and on other technologies for mutual security. Their defense cooperation must be comprehensive and not be limited to strategic dialogue, maritime cooperation, and occasional naval exercises.
There is no ban on weapon exports in Japan’s U.S.-imposed Constitution, only a long-standing Cabinet decision, which in any event has been loosened. That decision, in fact, related to weapons, not technologies.
Japan and India should remember that the most-stable economic partnerships in the world, including the trans-Atlantic ones and the Japan-U.S. partnership, have been built on the bedrock of security collaboration. Economic ties that lack the support of strategic partnerships tend to be less stable, as is apparent from Japan’s and India’s economic relationships with China.
Through close strategic collaboration, Japan and India must lead the effort…in the Indo-Pacific region.
Brahma Chellaney is a professor at the independent Center for Policy Research in New Delhi.
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“Reshape The International System”: India-Japan-U.S. Military Triad
Gulf News/Project Syndicate
december 28, 2011
New regional order in Asia is reaction to Chinese hegemony
India, Japan and the US build a strategic relationship and other Asian countries band together to counter heavyweight Beijing
By Jaswant Singh*
-India and the US have also been strengthening their strategic relations with Japan, not only bilaterally, but also in a unique trilateral way, which US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns has suggested could “reshape the international system”.
-So far, India’s security relations with Japan and South Korea are somewhat understated. But that is changing. During Indian Defence Minister A.K. Antony’s recent visit to Tokyo, it was agreed that Japan and India would hold their first-ever joint naval and air force exercise in 2012. This elevates bilateral defence cooperation to the role of primary national-security tool, most importantly for Japan, which has broadened its strategic horizon beyond its immediate surroundings and the country’s long-standing alliance with the US.
-A “Japan-India Defence Policy Dialogue” will be held in Tokyo in early 2012, and staff-level talks are to take place between Japan’s Ground Self-Defence Force and the Indian Army, along with staff exchanges between the Japanese Air Self-Defence Force and the Indian Air Force. Indeed, Japan and India are beginning to build the type of comprehensive military cooperation that has long characterised Japan’s ties with the US.
Asia’s economic dynamism is beginning to find a parallel in the region’s diplomacy, particularly where security is concerned. Indeed, we may now be “present at the creation”, as former US Secretary of State Dean Acheson called his memoir, which described the construction of the post-Second World War global security order.
This time, what is being created is a security order for Asia that reflects its new-found primacy in world affairs, though what that order will ultimately look like remains to be determined.
Security has moved to the top of the regional agenda not only in response to China’s rise, but also because America and the West will be leaving a gaping hole in Asia’s security architecture when they remove their troops from Afghanistan, without first having established peace there.
Perhaps of greater importance for long-term security, the US-Pakistan relationship continues to plumb new depths, while Iran’s relations with the West go from bad to worse…
Bit by bit, initiative by initiative, many of the region’s powers are struggling to forge a coherent cooperative framework to enhance their security. For example, Australia’s Labour government has agreed to sell natural uranium to India, reversing a policy that had been in place ever since India developed its nuclear-weapons capacity.
Almost simultaneously, US President Barack Obama announced the stationing of US Marines in northern Australia. No one has explicitly linked the two moves, but they are arguably related strategically, as Australia seeks to boost its ties with both the US and Asia’s other giant, India.
Unique trilateral relations
India and the US have also been strengthening their strategic relations with Japan, not only bilaterally, but also in a unique trilateral way, which US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns has suggested could “reshape the international system”.
Burns, and much of the rest of America’s foreign-policy establishment, now thinks that India’s regional influence has become comprehensive; its “Look East” strategy, announced earlier this year, is being translated into “Act East” policies.
So far, India’s security relations with Japan and South Korea are somewhat understated. But that is changing. During Indian Defence Minister A.K. Antony’s recent visit to Tokyo, it was agreed that Japan and India would hold their first-ever joint naval and air force exercise in 2012. This elevates bilateral defence cooperation to the role of primary national-security tool, most importantly for Japan, which has broadened its strategic horizon beyond its immediate surroundings and the country’s long-standing alliance with the US.
Indeed, Japan and India have now agreed to cooperate on “maritime security issues, including anti-piracy measures, freedom of navigation” and on “maintaining the security of the Sea Lanes of Communication to facilitate unhindered trade, bilaterally as well as multilaterally with regional neighbours” — meaning, of course, China.
A “Japan-India Defence Policy Dialogue” will be held in Tokyo in early 2012, and staff-level talks are to take place between Japan’s Ground Self-Defence Force and the Indian Army, along with staff exchanges between the Japanese Air Self-Defence Force and the Indian Air Force. Indeed, Japan and India are beginning to build the type of comprehensive military cooperation that has long characterised Japan’s ties with the US.
This development will, undoubtedly, disturb China, which has been making ever more strident moves…
The core issue is maritime security — and not only in the South China Sea.
“The Indian Ocean,” said the US author Robert Kaplan, “is where the rivalry between the United States and China in the Pacific interlocks with the regional rivalry between China and India, and also with America’s fight against terrorism in the Middle East, which includes America’s attempt to contain Iran.”
India’s own sphere
India’s and China’s rival aspirations to be acknowledged as regional Great Powers, as well as their quest for energy security, are compelling both countries to seek greater maritime security.
India, however, has a clear advantage, as its recent Look East policies show that it can forge enhanced security ties not only with the US, but also with the region’s other key powers — even Indonesia.
Stephen P. Cohen, a renowned analyst of India, has argued that, since the country gained independence, its “officials have inculcated the precepts of George Washington’s Farewell Address of 1796: that India, like the United States, inhabits its own geographical sphere, in India’s case between the Himalayas and the Wide Indian Ocean, and thus [it] is in a position of both dominance and detachment. During the Cold War, this meant non-engagement; now it means that Indians see themselves with their own separate status as a rising power”.
The problem, of course, is that China views itself the same way. So, how are Asia’s two giants to live in neighbourly accord without encroaching on the other’s space? So far, the response has been to construct a regional security structure with no Chinese participation.
…
*Jaswant Singh, a former Indian finance minister, foreign minister, and defence minister, is the author of Jinnah: India – Partition – Independence.
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Australia Buys $950 Million Worth Of Military Planes From U.S.
http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/271191/20111222/australia-buys-950-million-worth-military-planes.htm
International Business Times
December 22, 2011
Australia Buys $950 Million Worth of Military Planes from U.S.
By Vittorio Hernandez
Australia will purchase from the United States 10 military planes and other equipment worth $950 million. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency informed the U.S. Congress on Wednesday on the sales of C-27J aircraft, missile warning systems and radar.
The new acquisition is expected to help improve the air mobility and capability of the Australian Defence Force to run humanitarian and disaster relief operations in Southeast Asia.
The announcement of Washington’s approval of the sale came a month after the Australia visit of U.S. President Barack Obama who unveiled plans to send up to 2,500 American Marines to Australia where a training centre will be opened to help U.S. allies and protect American interests in Asia.
…
Canberra also ordered from Washington 23 Rolls-Royce AE2100D2 engines, radios, electronic warfare equipment, portable flight mission planning systems, support and test equipment, spares, aircraft ferry and tanker support, personnel training and training equipment, publications and technical data, an operational flight simulator and maintenance trainers.
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Philippines Deploys New U.S.-Provided Warship
http://www.pia.gov.ph/?m=1&t=1&id=69698
Philippine Information Agency
December 26, 2011
BRP Gregorio del Pilar deploys to Palawan
ISABELA CITY, Basilan: Barko ng Republika ng Pilipinas (BRP) Gregorio del Pilar (PF-15) sailed from Manila for the province of Palawan on December 23, 2011 for her first deployment as a warship of the Philippine Navy.
The 6th Civil Relations Group of the AFP said in a press release the Weather High Endurance Cutter will augment the naval security in the Malampaya Oil Fields and in other service contract areas west of Palawan.
The military said PF-15 is the newest patrol frigate of the Philippine Navy. She has a length of 378 feet and beam of 42 feet. She can sustain a month-long mission without re-provisioning. The ship has a compliment of 18 officers and 144 enlisted personnel.
As part of Naval Forces West’s naval assets, PF-15’s primary role as a multi-mission vessel is the conduct of maritime security patrols and search and rescue missions.
PF-15 was transferred to the Philippine Navy by the U.S. Coast Guard on May 13, 2011. BRP Gregorio del Pilar was commissioned and christened into the naval service last December 14, 2011 at Pier 13 in South Harbor, Manila with His Excellency, President Benigno S. Aquino III gracing the occasion.
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NATO Loses Three Soldiers In Eastern Afghanistan
http://en.trend.az/regions/world/afghanistan/1974635.html
Trend News Agency
December 28, 2011
3 NATO service members killed in East Afghanistan
Three NATO service members were killed Tuesday in a blast in eastern Afghanistan, the military alliance confirmed on Wednesday morning, Xinhua reported.
“Three International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) service members died following an improvised explosive device (IED) attack in eastern Afghanistan yesterday,” the NATO-led ISAF said in a press release.
However, the brief release did not reveal the nationalities of the victims under ISAF policy, only saying “it is ISAF policy to defer casualty identification procedures to the relevant national authorities.”
Troops mostly from the United States have been stationed in eastern Afghanistan within the framework of ISAF to curb Taliban- linked insurgency there.
Afghan Taliban has launched massive IED attacks against ISAF and Afghan national security force in recent years.
A total of 558 NATO soldiers, most of them Americans, have been killed in Afghanistan since beginning this year.
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December: Sixteen NATO Soldiers Killed In Afghanistan By Christmas
http://www.thenews.pl/1/10/Artykul/81099,Five-Polish-soldiers-laid-to-rest-after-Taliban-attack-
Polish Radio
December 24, 2011
Five Polish soldiers laid to rest after Taliban attack
Funeral ceremonies are being held in Poland, Christmas Eve, for the five soldiers who died on Wednesday in Afghanistan after a Taliban land mine exploded under their military vehicle.
…
Senior Corporal Piotr Ciesielski, First Class Private Lukasz Krawiec, Private First Class Marcin Szczurowski, First Class Private Marek Tomala and Private Krystian Banach died when six-vehicle convoy, including Polish and American soldiers, was travelling along the main road between Kabul and Kandahar.
The attack was the deadliest against Polish forces since they began their mission as part of the international ISAF mission nine years ago.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the blast, saying “a Polish tank” was blown up and all its occupants killed.
Sixteen NATO troops have been killed this month alone in Afghanistan.
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Pakistan: Human Rights Commission Rejects NATO Report On Attack
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2011%5C12%5C28%5Cstory_28-12-2011_pg7_27
Associated Press of Pakistan
December 28, 2011
IHRC rejects NATO probe into border attack
ISLAMABAD: The International Human Rights Commission (IHRC) has officially rejected the findings of a US-NATO investigation into the recent attack on a border outpost.
“There is nothing new in the report,” said World Chairman and Ambassador at Large IHRC Dr Muhammad Shahid Amin Khan, on Tuesday and added the commission was expecting that US and NATO will conceal the real facts.
“We had demanded fair investigations and that an official apology from the White House, Pentagon, State Department and NATO should be tendered to the Pakistan and Pakistan Army,” he said. “They must acknowledge the greater contribution of Pakistan in the war against terror and efforts for lasting peace in the region. Just admitting the mistake is not enough without punishing the culprits, that hampered the efforts for peace and counter-terrorism,” he said.
On behalf of the IHRC and international community, he said, he would like to present condolences to the Army, the brave soldiers and officials of the Pakistan Army, especially to the bereaved families of the martyred soldiers, who died during the NATO-US attack.
“I also send a strong message on behalf of the IHRC to the US ambassador to the United Nations Susan Elizabeth Rice and the NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen and demand strict action against the violations of NATO forces”, Khan said.
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Missile Radar: Turkey Arrests Anti-NATO Protesters
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/217984.html
Press TV
December 27, 2011
Turkey arrests anti-NATO protesters
Turkish police have arrested 16 protesters during a demonstration against Ankara’s plan to host a NATO missile system in the country, Press TV reports.
According to informed sources in Turkey, police attacked the demonstration in the southwestern city of Antalya on Tuesday.
The demonstrators, who were mainly high school students, issued a statement calling for “a free Turkey,” the sources said.
Over the past weeks, Turkish activists in different cities across the country have held demonstrations to voice their opposition to the deployment of the system, located in the eastern province of Malatya, saying that they do not want Turkey to turn into “a base for the US and Israel.”
Last week, police cracked down on a demonstration held in the northwestern city of Edirne.
Ankara announced its agreement to deploy the US-made system in September and according to the Turkish media, the system will be operational next week.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has said that the missile system is not against any country, although commentators say that Turkey faces no missile threat from its neighbors, and did not need to accept the system.
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NATO Summit To Boost Integration Of Ukraine: Official
http://www.kyivpost.com/news/nation/detail/119712/
Interfax-Ukraine
December 27, 2011
Kyiv hopes NATO summit in May will help deepen Ukraine’s cooperation with alliance
Ukraine hopes that the NATO summit in Chicago in May 2012 will serve as an impetus to deepening cooperation between Kyiv and the alliance, the director of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry’s information policy department, Oleh Voloshyn, has said.
“We very much hope that next year’s NATO summit in Chicago will be an impetus to the deepening of cooperation between Ukraine and the alliance,” he said at a press briefing in Kyiv on Tuesday.
Speaking about Ukraine’s relations with NATO, he said that the sides intensified their dialog this year.
“Of course, we will continue to see NATO as our strategic partner in the sphere of security, reform of the armed forces, and in the sphere of tackling the consequences of emergency situations,” Voloshyn said.
Earlier, U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine John Tefft said in an interview with the Day newspaper that Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych would be invited to the NATO summit in Chicago.
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Armenia: NATO Continues Advanced Integration Program
http://www.armradio.am/eng/news/?part=off&id=21706
Public Radio of Armenia
December 28, 2011
Results of implementation of Armenia-NATO IPAP discussed at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
The interdepartmental commission coordinating the implementation of the Armenia-NATO Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP) held its final sitting in 2011.
Deputy Foreign Minister Ashot Hovakimyan presented the general assessment of the work done in the passing year and hailed the effectiveness of the activity of the interdepartmental commission.
First Deputy Defense Minister David Tonoyan presented the main directions of cooperation with the Alliance in the field of defense, particularly emphasizing the participation of Armenian peacekeepers in NATO actions and the support form NATO and its member states in the implementation of defense reforms.
The results of implementation of IPAP objectives in 2011 were summed up, the progress towards expansion of cooperation was emphasized during the sitting.
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American writers on peace and against war
Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
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Conrad Aiken: Vast symphonic dance of death
Stephen Vincent Benét: The dead march from the last to the next blind war
Ambrose Bierce: Warlike America
Ambrose Bierce: Killed At Resaca
Ambrose Bierce: An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
Robert Bly: War, writers and government money
Randolph Bourne: Selections on war
Randolph Bourne: The War and the Intellectuals
Randolph Bourne: War and the State
Randolph Bourne: Willing war means willing all the evils that are organically bound up with it
Randolph Bourne: Conscience and Intelligence in War
Randolph Bourne: Twilight of Idols
Randolph Bourne: Below the Battle
Louis Bromfield: NATO, Permanent War Panic and America’s Messiah Complex
William Cullen Bryant: Christmas 1875
Stephen Crane: There was crimson clash of war
John Dos Passos: Three Soldiers
John Dos Passos on Randolph Bourne: War is the health of the state
Theodore Dreiser and Smedley Butler: War is a Racket
W.E.B. Du Bois: Work for Peace
Paul Laurence Dunbar: Birds of peace and deadened hearts
William Faulkner: There is only the question: When will I be blown up?
Frank Harris: Henri Barbusse and the war against war
Nathaniel Hawthorne on war: Drinking out of skulls till the Millennium
Ernest Hemingway: All armies are the same
Ernest Hemingway: Combat the murder that is war
Oliver Wendell Holmes: Hymn to Peace
Julia Ward Howe: Mother’s Day Proclamation 1870
William Dean Howells: Spanish Prisoners of War
William James: The Moral Equivalent of War
William James: The Philippine Tangle
Sidney Lanier: War by other means
Richard Le Gallienne: The Illusion of War
Sinclair Lewis: It Can(‘t) Happen Here
Edgar Lee Masters: “The honor of the flag must be upheld”
Edgar Lee Masters: The Philippine Conquest
Herman Melville: Trophies of Peace
H.L. Mencken: New wars will bring about an unparalleled butchery of men
William Vaughn Moody: Bullet’s scream went wide of its mark to its homeland’s heart
Eugene O’Neill: The hell that follows war
Edgar Allan Poe: The Valley of Unrest
Carl Sandburg: What it costs to move two buttons one inch on the war map
George Santayana on war and militarism
Upton Sinclair: How wars start, how they can be prevented
Henry David Thoreau: Taxes enable the State to commit violence and shed innocent blood
Mark Twain: Grotesque self-deception of war
Mark Twain: To the Person Sitting in Darkness
Mark Twain: Only dead men dare tell the whole truth about war
Mark Twain: Man is the only animal that deals in that atrocity of atrocities, War
Mark Twain: An inglorious peace is better than a dishonorable war
Mark Twain on Western military threat to China: I am a Boxer
Thorstein Veblen: Habituation to war entails a body of predatory habits of thought
John Greenleaf Whittier: If this be Peace, pray what is War?
John Greenleaf Whittier: The Peace Convention at Brussels
John Greenleaf Whittier: Nobler than the sword’s shall be the sickle’s accolade
