18 March 2010

BUB: Around the World in a Single Post - Headscratcher Edition

For this BUB, we're looking at things that make you go "hmmmm..."


Following their recent change in government in the recent election, the Ukraine has announced their intention to "stay out of all military alliances".

The government of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has issued a formal statement of intent that it is planning legislation to keep Ukraine out of all military alliances. This would provide a legal block to the possibility of Ukraine joining NATO.

During Yanukovych's recent election campaign, keeping Ukraine out of NATO was one of his campaign promises.

Ukraine's previous president Viktor Yushchenko had pushed to get Ukraine into NATO, much to the ire of neighboring Russia. Moscow opposes any eastward expansion of NATO.

The statement of intent released by the government says that the proposed legislation would "enshrine Ukraine's nonaligned status in law."


Does that include PfP? What about UK peacekeeping events? Hmmmmm....
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India is building their own missile shield, but had a recent failed test.

India's bid to bolster its defenses with a missile shield has suffered a major setback, officials say, following a botched test launch this week.

The test was effectively abandoned after one of the two missiles in the operation deviated off course because of a snag in the system, officials said.

"The flight test was planned to demonstrate the interception of a tactical ballistic missile in the endo-atmospheric (inside the atmosphere) region," said a senior official of the Defense Research Development Organization, which is developing the missile shield.

The anonymous official, cited by the India Express daily, said the attacker missile, from the Prithvi family, took off normally but, after 20 seconds of flight, veered off its path, unable to reach its required altitude of 68.3 miles.


Are they trying to scare the Pakistanis? Contain the Chinese? Demonstrate their own independence? And if the missile failed because of a "snag in the system" who do they call for tech support? Hmmmmm....
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The latest US assessment is that both South Korea and Japan are capable of developing their own nukes.

The US defense report described Korea and Japan as being capable of developing nuclear devices.
The claim comes from the Joint Operating Environment 2010 report released by the US Joint Forces Command in February.
The report claims that Korea and Japan have the technology to create nuclear weapons.


Not sure this is a surprise, but at least we've admitted it in writing. What does this do to current US defense treaties in the area, since our nuclear umbrella was part of their security safeguards? Hmmmmm....
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Perhaps the Koreans and Japanese can attend the planned Nuclear Disarmament Conference this Spring, in Tehran. Yes, Tehran.

The Islamic Republic of Iran is scheduled to hold an international conference on nuclear disarmament in mid April.

The conference, dubbed as "Nuclear Energy For All, Nuclear Weapon For None", will be held in Iran on April 17-18.

Foreign ministers, representatives and nuclear experts from 60 countries are due to participate in the event to discuss challenges on nuclear disarmament, countries' commitments to the issue and the aftermaths of not destroying weapons of mass-destruction.

In February, Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani announced in Japan that Iran is scheduled to hold an international gathering on global disarmament in Tehran in the next two months to be attended by internationally renowned elites and experts, adding that participants are slated to assess the causes and reasons underlying the lack of heed and attention to the implementation of nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) regulations, Article 6 in particular.


Hmmmmm.... Yes, just hmmmmm....
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And I'll bet you never see a protest from any leftist holier-than-thou organization about the Israeli Man who was killed by a Gaza-launched rocket.

A rocket fired by Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip killed a man inside Israel Thursday, Israeli medics said, in the first death from a rocket attack since Israel's Gaza offensive last year.
Magen David Adom, Israel's emergency service, said the man killed was about 30 years old and appeared to be a farm worker from Thailand employed in an agricultural community just north of Gaza.
Such rocket fire was once common but has become rare since the Israeli military's Gaza campaign, which brought about a steep drop in the number of attacks launched from the Palestinian territory.
Thursday's attack came on the same day as a visit to Gaza by Europe's top diplomat, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton. It was the first such trip by a senior official in more than a year.
Ashton had just crossed into Gaza when the attack took place.


You know better... Hmmmmm....
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By: Brant

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