significant
defence relationships
“A statement signed by India's defense minister,
Pranab Mukherjee, and the U.S. defense secretary, Donald
Rumsfeld, in Washington on Tuesday night [28/06/2005]
said that the United States and India had "entered
a new era" and declared that the two countries'
defense relationship had advanced to "unprecedented
levels of cooperation." ”
—
“ However, he also sensed a shadow of shared U.S.
and Indian unease over China lingering over the document,
which he said would be the subject of close scrutiny
in Beijing. "China is like the ghost at the banquet
- an unspoken presence that no one wants to talk about,"
Mansingh said.” [Quoted from iht.com]
“Strong exports and home-building has kept the
US economy growing faster than expected, official figures
show.
Gross domestic product (GDP) rose at an annual rate
of 3.8% in January-March 2005, above the initial 3.1%
estimate and in line with the previous quarter.”
[Quoted from bbc.co.uk]
fusion - a future alternative power source
Meanwhile fusion power takes an essential step.
Here is a useful summary article:
“The objective of the ITER machine is to demonstrate
the scientific feasibility of fusion, with extended
controlled burn and, marginally, ignition, for a duration
sufficient to achieve stationary conditions on all time-scale
characteristics of plasma processes and plasma-wall
interactions. To do so the installation will produce
500 MW of fusion power during pulses of at least 400
seconds.
“The Six international Parties that are co-operating
to develop ITER are: China, EU,
Japan, Russia, South Korea, and the United States.
The negotiations take place under the auspices of the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Canada was
also a party to the negotiations, but withdrew in December
2003.” [Quoted from finfacts.com]
Only by removing the dreadful dependency
on fossil fuels and developing enuf technology and power
to bring the world to a better standard of living will
the pressures from primitivism and survival leave a route
forward to greater human civilisation.
terrorists, criminals
and the world policeman
ensuring
terrorists fail
Meanwhile, George W. Bush lays
out the realities to the primitivist jihadi and left cultists. Provided
link contains a javascript link to a video of explicit
and timely speech from GW Bush. Full
transcript.
“Some of the violence you see in Iraq is being
carried out by ruthless killers who are converging on
Iraq to fight the advance of peace and freedom. Our
military reports that we have killed or captured hundreds
of foreign fighters in Iraq who have come from Saudi
Arabia and Syria, Iran, Egypt, Sudan, Yemen, Libya and
others. They are making common cause with criminal elements,
Iraqi insurgents, and remnants of Saddam Hussein's regime
who want to restore the old order. They fight because
they know that the survival of their hateful ideology
is at stake. They know that as freedom takes root in
Iraq, it will inspire millions across the Middle East
to claim their liberty, as well. And when the Middle
East grows in democracy and prosperity and hope, the
terrorists will lose their sponsors, lose their recruits,
and lose their hopes for turning that region into a
base for attacks on America and our allies around the
world.
“Some wonder whether Iraq is a central front
in the war on terror. Among the terrorists, there is
no debate. Hear the words of Osama Bin Laden: "This
Third World War is raging" in Iraq. "The whole
world is watching this war." He says it will end
in "victory and glory, or misery and humiliation."
“The terrorists know that the outcome will leave
them emboldened, or defeated. So they are waging a campaign
of murder and destruction. And there is no limit to
the innocent lives they are willing to take.”
—
“These are savage acts of violence, but they have
not brought the terrorists any closer to achieving their
strategic objectives. The terrorists -- both foreign
and Iraqi -- failed to stop the transfer of sovereignty.
They failed to break our Coalition and force a mass
withdrawal by our allies. They failed to incite an Iraqi
civil war. They failed to prevent free elections. They
failed to stop the formation of a democratic Iraqi government
that represents all of Iraq's diverse population. And
they failed to stop Iraqis from signing up in large
number with the police forces and the army to defend
their new democracy.
“The lesson of this experience is clear: The
terrorists can kill the innocent, but they cannot stop
the advance of freedom. The only way our enemies can
succeed is if we forget the lessons of September the
11th, if we abandon the Iraqi people to men like Zarqawi,
and if we yield the future of the Middle East to men
like Bin Laden. For the sake of our nation's security,
this will not happen on my watch.”
are
terrorist groups politically relevant beyond their nuisance
value?
“What does it mean to win a war against guerilla
insurgents? What does it mean for a guerilla insurgency
to triumph? The one answer that is popularly advanced
-- one that is implicit in Scoblete's argument -- is
that guerillas win if they simply remain in existence. This
site lists more than 383 armed guerilla groups extant
in the world today. Clearly all of them exist and just
[as] clearly not all of them are triumphant. There are,
for instance 27 armed guerilla groups in India, 9 in
Britain (the most famous of which is the Irish Republican
Army) and 11 in the United States. Yet no one asks whether
it is premature to declare the Westminster Parliament
in control of the Northern Ireland or wonder whether
Los Matcheteros will take over the Washington DC. And
the reason is simple: while the IRA and Los Matcheteros
are still likely to exist in 2010, there is little or
no chance that these organizations will seize state
power in all or even part of Britain or the United States.
Seizing state power over a definite territory is the
explicit objective of nearly every guerilla armed force
in the world today: if they can achieve that, they win.
If they cannot achieve that and have no realistic prospect
of ever achieving that, they are defeated, however long
they may continue to exist." [Quoted from Belmont
Club]
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