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by Peter Huessy
• July 18, 2014 at 5:00 am
There is
presently concern that programs to prevent short- and medium-range
ballistic missiles from reaching Europe will be delayed under pressure to
make concessions to both Russia and Iran, to secure a deal on Iran's
nuclear program,
Once
deployed, an adversary's long-range missiles could be used for coercion,
terror or blackmail. It would seem more prudent to anticipate such
threats before they become a reality.
An
Iranian "Khalij Fars" mobile ballistic missile on parade in
Iran. (Image source: Wikimedia Commons)
Countries stretching from North Korea through South Asia and into
the Middle East are apparently trying to bolster their military
capability by building long range rockets capable of coercing,
terrorizing or blackmailing their neighbors.[1]
In the past month, for example, we have seen Hamas try a new kind of
diplomacy, while launching over 1000 rockets at Israel.
In Iraq, the terrorist army ISIS, now controlling large swaths of
territory in Iraq and Syria, paraded a Syrian Scud missile through the
streets of Al-Raqqah, in an attempt to demonstrate its power.
In Ukraine, rebels used Russian missiles to shoot down a Ukraine
troop transport, killing thirty soldiers.
In Syria, rockets launched by Damascus have forced Turkey, a NATO
member, to deploy missile defenses to protect its civilian population.
by Timon Dias
• July 18, 2014 at 4:30 am
With
Western countries as enemies, why would jihadists need friends?
In Western
Europe, cultural relativism is still the norm. There is no such thing as
better or worse, there is only different. One should not consider
one value superior to another value, no matter what these values actually
are. And it had better be different the way one thinks it should be: not
"politically incorrect."
Former
Netherlands Chief of Defense Peter van Uhm says that he respects jihadist
fighters in Syria because they are fighting for an ideal. That this ideal
refutes every Western ideal that he himself holds dear, apparently does
not affect his apparent respect for jihadists.
Dutch
national law, however, has now been subordinated to European Union law.
Yilmaz,
a well-known Dutch-Turkish jihadist fighting in Syria, will on his return
home to the Netherlands be entitled to a host of special welfare benefits
unavailable to other, normal citizens.
The former Netherlands Chief of Defense, Peter van Uhm -- whose son
was killed by an IED in Afghanistan the day after Van Uhm was appointed
Chief -- recently caused a controversy during a radio show about native
fallen sons. He stated that Dutch youths who have chosen to fight in
Syria should be respected for their idealism and their willingness to
defend the women and children of Syria against Assad.
He later also stated that people judge these youths too easily:
"The question whether their environment and our society have made
sufficient efforts in keeping these people on the right track, is too
rarely asked. You have to understand these young people, otherwise you
cannot hope to help them." Van Uhm later added that he "Could
not approve of their [jihadists'] modus operandi."
by Lawrence A. Franklin
• July 18, 2014 at 4:15 am
The media
also does not mention that Hamas leaders have set up their military headquarters
beneath hospitals and established arms storerooms in mosques.
A
children's health clinic in Ashkelon, Israel, that was hit this week by a
rocket launched from Gaza. (Image source: IDF)
Would Hamas have tailored its air targeting to avoid as much as
possible innocents from becoming casualties? Would Hamas have dropped
millions of leaflets to warn civilian residents before staging bombing
runs? Or made tens of thousands of phone calls telling non-combatants to
flee the areas which are to be attacked, or discriminated between
combatants and non-combatants in a ground war, or abided by the Geneva
Conventions' rules for the treatment of prisoners of war?
Would the group have arrested the Hamas operatives who murderer
Israeli civilians, or investigated "mistakes" that resulted in
civilian casualties?
The American media, by drawing almost exclusive attention to the
wide difference in casualties between Gaza and Israel -- a disparity that
did not ensue from Hamas's lack of trying -- do a disservice to humane
people on the front line of a global war between Islamic extremists and
liberal-democratic civilization.
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