Blog of Mass Distraction

Wednesday, December 22, 2004

Men of Peace

Libyan dictator Momar Khadafi is enjoying his new found popularity among western leaders. With his agreement to stop nuclear weapons research and renouncing terrorism, the leader of the oil-rich country is being courted by many leaders including Canada's own Paul Martin.
Speaking of dictators, Pakistani dictator/president Musharraf has decided he will go back on his word and maintain his position as head of the army, drawing widespread finger wagging and frowns. Because Musharraf is a key ally to the war on terror, I doubt the US will allow much harm to come to him.
Martin left after some more travel to go to Morocco where he's been keeping the government's jet at his personal disposal. Talk about a waste of money. Almost as big a waste as the 8 billion or so spent on pointless missile defense tests that completely and utterly failed even though there was 2 years of preparation. Speaking of missile defense, Martin has said that the Canadian position on it is that there will be no agreement with the US if there are any plans for the weaponization of space. There is, however, sort of a gray line between the militarization of space and weaponization. While military satellites can be used for tracking and guidance, etc. (militarization), they shouldn't have weapons, kinetic or otherwise (weaponization).
Violence continues in Iraq with some of the deadliest attacks in the past couple of days. In spite of all the violence and bloodshed, Iraqi and American officials claim that elections will be held. The violence is escalating as the elections draw near and the Bush administration has said more troops will be needed because the Iraqi forces are just not equipped to police their own state. In fact there are still Iraqi recruits that are abandoning their posts.
To draw attention away from the horror of Iraq, the Bush administration has recently looked towards the Israel Palestine conflict (along with several other nations). With new elections set to take place for the successor to Arafat, many are saying there is a new opportunity for peace. Sharon's government has also been spared from another election by making a coalition with Peres's Labour party. So it looks as though Sharon's Ghaza pullout plan may go through next year. The possibilities for peace, however, are pretty slim. On the same day that the Knesset approved the pullout plan, more settlements were approved in the West Bank. There is no foreseeable plan to pull settlers out from there. And even though IDF troops will pull out, Israel will still maintain control of all the borders. So instead of being the giant cramped prison that it is now, the Ghaza will be a giant prison with just a perimeter guard. Who really believes that these are the steps towards peace?

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