For the past few days much of the world's attention has been focused on a new outbreak of protests and unrest in Egypt. The protesters have been fighting with police and military forces since the 19th for control of Tahrir Square in Cairo, the symbolic heart of the January revolution against President Hosni Mubarak, citing the recent conduct of the military council that is currently in control of the transitional government as the cause of their anger. The 18 member council has been accused of delaying upcoming parliamentary elections that would create a new government and have said things about maintaining a leading role in the post-elections government. Many protesters say they feel betrayed by the military government. During the revolution the army was a major partner in the ousting of Mr. Mubarak but now the military is seen as just another self-interested faction bent on concentrating and keeping power and is quickly losing legitimacy with the Egyptian people.
2)The Republican Debate
In the latest of the 27 Republican debates scheduled for this primary season, the 8 candidates faced off over national security issues like terrorism, Iran, and illegal immigration. I thought several of the candidates performed well, including Newt Gingrich who after his recent rise in the polls had his turn as the focus for much of the questions and criticism in the debate but he managed to express his views well despite that and was even bold enough to take what is a controversial position in the Republican Party on illegal immigration. The debate was an opportunity for Herman Cain to show that he had shored up his knowledge of foreign policy after being highly criticized for his recent remarks many have likened to the blunders made by Sarah Palin during the 2008 election and he managed to avoid making any huge mistakes but overall it was not a great showing for the beleaguered candidate. My favorites from the debate were Ron Paul and John Huntsman who were critical of their fellow candidates for wanting to extend the U.S. presence in Afghanistan, taking harsh stances on Iran, and endorsing the use of racial profiling of Muslims to catch suspected terrorists. John Huntsman had a particularly heated exchange with Mitt Romney over the war in Afghanistan and was able to show off the foreign policy experience he gained from being ambassador to China.
3)Russia and Belarus
President Dmitri Medvedev of Russia announced on Wednesday that if the United States continues with its plans for developing a missile-defense shield in Europe, his country will withdraw from the New Start treaty and place its own missiles in places like Belarus and along the border with Poland. The shield, meant to help protect the U.S. from long-range missiles launched from the Middle East or North Africa, has been vigorously opposed by Russia since the idea's conception in 2002.
Belarus, on the other hand, recently announced that it is going back on the agreement it made in December 2010 to hand over its stockpile of highly enriched Uranium to Russia by the beginning of 2012. It is the only former Soviet republic besides Russia to have any weapons-grade uranium after the U.S. was able to secure nearly all of the enriched fuel in the region quickly after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. Belarus, however, refused to hand over its stockpile and has since used it as a bargaining chip in diplomacy to get foreign aid and loans. President Aleksandr Lukashenko, who is called Europe's last dictator, has said that the transfer will not be restarted until the United States lifts sanctions against his country that have been in place since earlier this year after his fraudulent election and harsh crackdown on the opposition party in December.
4) Yemen
Belarus, on the other hand, recently announced that it is going back on the agreement it made in December 2010 to hand over its stockpile of highly enriched Uranium to Russia by the beginning of 2012. It is the only former Soviet republic besides Russia to have any weapons-grade uranium after the U.S. was able to secure nearly all of the enriched fuel in the region quickly after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. Belarus, however, refused to hand over its stockpile and has since used it as a bargaining chip in diplomacy to get foreign aid and loans. President Aleksandr Lukashenko, who is called Europe's last dictator, has said that the transfer will not be restarted until the United States lifts sanctions against his country that have been in place since earlier this year after his fraudulent election and harsh crackdown on the opposition party in December.
4) Yemen
President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen signed an agreement today saying that he will relinquish power to his vice-president and that elections for a new president will occur within 90 days. The announcement comes more than 10 months after the protests in Yemen began and make Mr. Saleh the fourth Middle Eastern leader to be removed since the protests of the "Arab Spring" began earlier this year. However this is a very different situation from Libya, Tunisia, or Egypt because of the entire government being thrown out and replaced, in Yemen it is simply Saleh resigning. His vice president is still there, his government is still there, and the family members that he appointed to top state positions are still there. For this reason, the Yemeni protesters say this agreement is not enough and that they will continue to protest until more lasting change is achieved. They are also bothered by immunity clauses for Mr. Saleh, whom they want prosecuted in international court.
5)Biblical News
The Vatican today announced the findings of a study of a new section of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The study was authored by top officials from the Middle Eastern Institute of Biblical Study in partnership with American rapper Kanye West and the translations confirmed West's 2004claim that Jesus walks.
5 comments:
After watching the republican debate, all that I can say is that the debate benefited some and hurt others. Newt Gingrich has risen to the top and took the opportunity to show how skilled he is at debating. I think that his comment about military budget cuts was reasonable to the audience. His support for military budget cuts was cleverly stated when he managed to say that Apple technology changes so much it is no use to try to build a new weapons system. However, one potential trouble for him could be his refusal to throw out illegal immigrants. This could come back to haunt him because he is in a party that vehemently is opposed to anything that looks like amnesty to illegal immigrants.
My favorite part of the debate was hearing Cain speak. Already he is on a downward slope and the debate did not help much. Cain needed to show that he had a strong grasp on the foreign policy to be taken seriously but instead he overstated the entry of terrorist into the US. Cain said something like this: “Number one, we know that terrorists have come into this country by way of Mexico.” First there is no evidence that terrorist are entering the US through Mexico. US official have concerns about the terrorist using the US-Mexico border to enter, but no investigation has proven that right. His inability to step up in the debate is going to hurt him a lot especially when already his poll numbers are sinking.
I think what Newt Gringrich was trying to say about Apple was that there are serious issues with the way Pentagon operates. If Apple is able to turn out new products within nine months, why does it take the government years upon decades to come up with new technology? He was not saying there is not use to try to build a new weapons system, he was trying to say that there is a flaw within the way the technology sector of our government is working. Why can't our government be as efficient as private companies in developing new technology? That was his point.
The point that I was trying to make was that he was comparing the two which is the part that i thought was very clever. Mostly emphasizing on how he managed to respond to the military budget cuts.
Perhaps I did word that sentence weirdly, but yeah I agree that apple produces products fast while new weapons take around 10-15 years. Gingrich does declare that something wrong with the system.
here is the quote:
“If it takes 15 to 20 years to build a weapons system when Apple changes technology every nine months, there’s something profoundly wrong with the system”
But thanks for trying to clarify for me anyways
Your third section (about Russia, Belarus & the US) concerns me. I have to admit that I haven't stayed up to date on my current events over the Thanksgiving break, so I'm not as knowledgeable about the subject as I would like to be (please excuse me if I mistype or overlook a detail).
That being said, problems from the Cold War era freak me out. Why we're still building a missile shield, I do not know. It seems a bit futile to me, but I do have a strong anti-military/anti-war stance on the topic.
From what you've said, it seems like it would be a much smarter idea if we simply dropped it and stopped construction. Not only would dropping the project earn us brownie points internationally, but it would also save us thousands of dollars that we could put towards reviving our troubled economy.
While appeasing rulers of other nations is definitely not the answer in all cases (*coughWWIIcough*), I feel like compromises on the minutiae is logical & necessary. Hopefully our leaders see it the same way & don't get us into even more trouble.
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