Tuesday, March 22, 2011

No more weapons into Libya. I thought there was a ban on weapon sales to Libya.

That means both sides are going to RUN OUT of weapons and munitions.  I suppose they can throw stones at each other, but, there won't be any sales of weapons into Libya.

The No Fly Zone and assault against Libyan ground forces by NATO is to protect the people that cannot protect themselves.  It is okay of the Libyans aren't good soldiers.

It is the emergence of the New Government that will be the 'turning point.'  Not some arbitrary 'dead' Gadaffi.

When the New Government is known and can be recognized at an international level the shift will come, until then there is plenty of humanitarian aid and help in organizing that government. 

There isn't going to be a prolonged war in Libya.  No ground troops are necessary.  There won't be weapons to conduct war.

Libya has to be completely disarmed.  Gadaffi is a known terrorist.  No more.  He is killing his own people.  There are no more arms to Libya on either side.

Russia announces ban on arms sales to Libya (click title to entry - thank you)

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia will ban all weapons sales to Libya, the Kremlin said in a statement on Thursday, effectively suspending billions of dollars worth of arms contracts with the government of Muammar Gaddafi.
The Kremlin decree brings Moscow in line with an arms embargo and other punitive measures imposed in a February 26 United Nations Security Council resolution against Libya, where rebels are fighting to oust long-time leader Gaddafi....


There was a ship stopped in Turkey today or yesterday from Iran carring weapons of one kind or another.  The crew was arrested. 

There is international agreement across the board with very few exceptions and those exceptions are making very poor examples to good diplomacy and willingness to have a 'stable' Middle East..  They'll be monitored.  Nothing is going into Libya.

From what I have read elsewhere this was a United Nations sanctioned shipment that was suppose to comply with UN Sanctions of Iran.  Well, guess what?  It didn't.

'Turkey Finds Weapons on Iran Cargo Plane, Arrests Crew' (click here)


Turkey found weapons on an Iranian aircraft that was forced to land in the southeast of the country on March 19 and arrested the plane’s crew, the Dogan news agency reported Tuesday.

The cargo plane was headed to Syria from Iran, the news agency in Istanbul said on its Web site.

Turkish officials found weapons including rocket launchers, mortars and automatic rifles, Dogan said. The Iranian plane, an Ilyushin Il-76TD, has been impounded at the airport in the city of Diyarbakir, it said.

The government is checking whether the consignment was registered with international aviation authorities, Dogan said.
...



If countries, like Iran, aren't going to HONOR the fact the rest of the world is trying to save lives and settle unrest peacefully without genocide or less, then there will be consequences.  I am sure The West won't mind if they confiscate every shipment of ANYTHING coming near Libya that hasn't been cleared as humanitarain aid. 

Gadaffi and the opposition government can try to have a war, but, it isn't going to be easy.

Is peaceful resolve to differences that difficult for USA citizens to get their minds around?  If it is they need to ask why!

Gadaffi is pledging victory and all sorts of nonsense, but, that is all it is.  He got the capacity anymore.

This is a picture of what REMAINS of "Boussetta Libyan navy base."

What?  Where does anyone in Libya think they are going?

Eventually there won't be anywhere 'viable' to strike.  Gidaffi's command and control is destroyed.  What is everyone thinking?

 

Libya: Where Will Allied Forces Strike Next?  (click here)

8:28pm UK, Tuesday March 22, 2011
Sam Kiley, security editor, in Tobruk

His air defences have been wrecked, his navy blockaded into ports and his own palace compound under attack - what is left of Colonel Gaddafi's structures for the coalition to strike?

A narrow interpretation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973 would conclude: not much.
The main threat to mass casualties among Libyan civilians and rebel areas - the colonel's air force - has been removed....

It is interesting what less than 150 sorties will do !

Gadaffi never even repaired his own home after being bombed by Reagan. 

As long as the topic of peace and non-violence are at the forefront of Middle East restructuring...

Palestinian child is carried into Gaza hospital.

Kassam rockets have been fired into Israel for days and days, even before the actions in Libya, yet as soon as Israel finds the cell responsible and removes that danger from their citizens, this is what makes the newsprint.

When are the Kassam rockets going to stop flying into Israel from Hamas?  When does that happen?  When does Hamas stop their violence?  Because even after Israel has removed the cell firing the Kassam rockes there is another one starting the same thing all over again.

IAF strikes Gaza rocket launching cell; Hamas says 4 dead (click title to entry - thank you)




IDF says it struck terrorists attempting to attack Israeli targets; hits come after Palestinians say 4 civilians, including 3 children killed during earlier attack; 2 Kassams fired at Ashkelon.

 

A terrorist cell make up of one adult and three children?  I do believe the IDF has very poor intelligence.  Not that Israel wasn't acting in defense of their own citizens, but, these children were not firing Kassam rockets.

If Hamas embraces life for its citizens than it needs to arrest those that attempt to kill Israelis within Israel sovereign land.  Where is the authority within Hamas to stop the rockets from entering Israel?  If Hamas is capable of saying they want a truce then why are they not capable of carrying one out?

Hamas repeats commitment to keep unofficial truce  (click here)



Following recent rocket, mortar attacks, armed wing of Hamas says, "If enemy agrees to avoid escalation, aggression, we will also abide."...


Enemy?  Israel is Hamas's enemy?  When is Israel going to stop being seen as an enemy to Hamas.  It was Ariel Sharon that moved settlements from Gaza to allow Palestinians their land.  Israel is not the enemy.  Israel is Hamas's scapegoat.

What is meant by the erosion of the IFT to deter Gaza violence, is that Hamas does not have control of their violent factions.  There is no internal control in Gaza.  The only control Israel has to Hamas violence from Gaza is to act in aggression to stem the violence before it escalates.  The people of Israel do not see Hamas as a 'governing' entity capable of anything but allowing violence without end.  Hamas should not even be allowed to be a political party if they cannot deliver a governing capacity to the people of Gaza.

Analysis: Gaza escalation shows IDF deterrence eroding (click here)




...The escalation in violence along the border, that continued Sunday with an antitank missile that was fired at an IDF Merkava tank, dates back to last Wednesday when the IDF, “in a rare move,” struck a Hamas position, killing two Hamas operatives, in retaliation for a rocket strike earlier that day.

The strike on Wednesday was rare for two reasons.

First, it was carried out in the middle of the day when, hitherto, most retaliatory attacks by the IDF to Palestinian rocket fire had taken place at night.

Second, the target chosen was a manned Hamas position – when, until then, it had been possible to count the number of Hamas operatives killed by the IDF in airstrikes since Operation Cast Lead on little more than one hand.

The IDF chose this target to try to teach Hamas a lesson that would lead it to crack down on other groups, like Islamic Jihad, which has been behind most of the terrorist activity coming out of Gaza since Cast Lead....


Israel does not have to teach anyone a lesson.  Israel should be concentrating on non-proliferation of tensions between all the people along its borders and seek only to defend its citizens from violence crossing its borders.  To 'teach' anyone a 'lesson' that they have learned for decades only reinforces their fear and anger and adds relentless time to the duration of that hatred.

Enough from everyone.  EVERYONE.
"Remember Budros!"

I am not buying into the fear mongering in the media about al Qaeda regardless of what the military Psy-Ops might be pumping out.

Anti-government protesters shout slogans during a demonstration demanding the resignation of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh (below).

The story of oppression among Arab countries is long and distringished and started a long time ago when oil and gas became a commodity in the West.  The 'idea' of control over nations resources became paramount to so called "American interests."  If the media believes they are going to pander to fear AGAIN, they are grossly mistaken.

To make the dynamics of the 'long lived' Oil Leadership of these countries perfectly clear all one has to do is look to the gross negligence of the people in Nigeria, a peaceful people.  When their nightmare was realized and oil companies paid damages the monies went to a corrupt government with no relief for the people of that country. 

This is a peaceful Arab movement of non-violence.  I am not about to throw support to any military invasion by The West in support of old regimes that oppressed the people which brought about these protesters and their demands.

Just because there are sanctions and military enforcement to limit Gadaffi's ability to kill his own people is NOT license to garner support for invasions and long term military commitments.  ABSOLUTELY NOT.  There is absolutely NO EVIDENCE these movements are anything but non-violent seeking a change in government to rid them of oppression.

To demand nations 'meet the approval' of The West or else; is not what any of this is about.  The USA intelligence has a lot of work to do for new assessments and protections of this country and its allies.  Those protections do not include invasion known to increase extremism and spawn al Qaeda cells in any region any foreign military establishes a presence.   American arrogance is not going to win out this time so every Republican can reap the profits of war while soldiers die in the process. 

 THERE IS NO WAY !

I am looking forward to new friends and continued alliances with benevolent people, not 'new battlefields' or 'ground assaults.'  If the Middle East was more secrure without Facebook and Twitter, then that is an even more interesting reality.

...Joining widespread (click title to entry - thank you) international condemnation of the mass killing of civilians, the Arab League urged Sanaa on Tuesday to make "concerted efforts to safeguard national unity and the right to free expression."
With tanks deployed outside key installations in the capital, Saleh warned earlier on Tuesday that a coup attempt in Yemen could spark civil war, a day after two soldiers were reported killed in a clash between rival units.
US Defence Secretary William Gates told reporters in Moscow that Yemen's "instability and diversion of attention from dealing with AQAP (Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula) is certainly my primary concern about the situation."...

There is a known criminal in the Governor's office, so what is to be expected?

This is a direct assault on collective bargaining at any level.  The 'idea' that unions have to have 50% membership among any group of people is a ridiculous idea.  The union benefits all the people receiving salaries from University of Florida.  It is not just the members that receive benefits of a negotiated contract.  For that reason alone, many people 'sit out' the 'membership' status of unions and simply take the benefits.  It isn't as though non-members are opposed to collective bargaining, it is quite the contrary, but, here again is manipulation of 'perception' to bring about destruction of the Middle Class.

Now, university professors are going to be held accountable for 'student performance.'  That is impossible.  In the primary and secondary schools students are NOT adults and are required by law to attend school.  It is expected young Americans will achieve basic competencies in math, English and basic skills in physicial education and science in a public education.  The 'orientation' to religion doesn't belong in the public schools.  But, that is besides the point. 

Even in the public schools at the secondary level there are drop outs at the age of 16.  Those are burgeoning adults making their own decisions frequently with their parents consent.  There has to be an understanding that performance based pay only carries through primary school.  Once young Americans achieve the age of 15 and 16 their decision making and loyality to their education changes.  They make congnitive decisions to particpate and do well or wash out.  Not that is what is best, but, it occurs and it is legal.

To believe any university professor is capable of effecting the grades of their students when they aren't even required to attend classes or provide written excuses from parents whom are held accountable for their attendance is completely bizarre.  University professors cannot be held accountable for the outcome of their students when those students are not babes in the woods, participate in adult behavior such as work, marriage, child bearing and rearing, even alcohol consumption and illegal behaviors such as drug additions.

These are outrageous laws that pander to the plutocracy by 'manequinns' in the Republican ranks that have no 'ideas' but only rhetoric to turn into hideous laws that have no research or statisitics to validate the law will improve any learning environment.  Republican lawmakers are incompetent and unable to move in productive directions because of their ideology and this is more of the same.

...The Senate (click title to entry - thank you) also passed a bill to eliminate teacher tenure for those hired after July 1. In addition, the bill would base teacher pay largely upon the performance of students.
Susan Hegeman, the United Faculty of Florida’s UF chapter membership chairwoman, called the new proposals a “dramatic assault on unions.”
“A lot of conservative lawmakers see unions as the last remaining threat to their power,” Hegeman said.
She is concerned that if the union is decertified and its collective bargaining rights terminated,  conditions governing employment at UF will be left strictly up to the university.
“As to whether they will be willing to take into consideration faculty needs,” Hegeman said, “I do not think that they will.”
In order to maintain protection from the new legislation, Hegeman said that UFF-UF must increase its current membership by about 30 percent.
According to Hegeman, new legislation calls for decertification of those unions with less than 50 percent faculty membership....

I do believe all this mess is litigable.  Teachers are not mind readers or magicians.  They cannot be held responsible for behavior so much as the opportunity for students to learn.  The motivation is important but does not fall into the 'job description' in a way that requires teachers to 'police' the lives of students, but, only the lack of cheating by those students in an exam.

The courts are going to be burdened by all this mess because Republican ideologues are incompetent.  And if that doesn't cost money, think again.

As long as they aren't falling out of the skies like flies I am NOT really worried.



The F-15s are the older model.  There can be occassion problems with them.  This is simply an indication the USA military needs to review these planes for 'readiness.'

The human beings that control the plane are safe and the military did its job in taking care of their own, it looks like we are in good shape. 


Eagles on the Skids  (click here)


…And now Japan halts F-15 flights…


Xinhua News Agency
November 06, 2007


TOKYO — Japan’s air force has grounded its F– 15 fighter jets following a crash of the same type of aircraft in the United States on Nov. 3, Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba said.
The Japanese Air Self-Defense Force has suspended flights of F-15 aircraft since Nov. 5, Kyodo News quoted Ishiba as saying. The suspension will last until the cause of the U.S. crash is determined, he said....





US fighter jet crashes in Libya: profile of the F-15E (click title to entry - thank you)

Here is a profile of the F-15E fighter jet – the US warplane that crashed in a Libyan field after suffering "mechanical failures".


11:27AM GMT 22 Mar 2011


The F-15E Strike Eagle is described by Boeing, its manufacturer, as “a superior next generation multi-role strike fighter”.
It is the backbone of the US Air Force (USAF) and made its first flight in 1986. The USAF has 227 in total....
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