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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