Thursday, June 24, 2010

Obama Fires General for Insubordination

General Stanley McChrystal should be court-martialed.

UCMJ Article 88 states:

"Any commissioned officer who uses contemptuous words against the President, the Vice President, Congress, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of a military department, the Secretary of Transportation, or the Governor or legislature of any State, Territory, Commonwealth, or possession in which he is on duty or present shall be punished as a court-martial may direct."

In time of war . . . perhaps death by firing squad would be the appropriate sentence.

Monday, June 14, 2010

Russia Can Supply S-300 to Iran

The UN Resolution applying sanctions to Iran does not prohibit the sale by Russia of the S-300 anti-aircraft system.

In the text of text of resolution 1929 (2010):

Paragraph 8
8. Decides that all States shall prevent the direct or indirect supply, sale or transfer to Iran, from or through their territories or by their nationals or individuals subject to their jurisdiction, or using their flag vessels or aircraft, and whether or not originating in their territories, of any battle tanks, armoured combat vehicles, large calibre artillery systems, combat aircraft, attack helicopters, warships, missiles or missile systems as defined for the purpose of the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms, or related materiel, including spare parts, or items as determined by the Security Council or the Committee established pursuant to resolution 1737 (2006) (“the Committee”), decides further that all States shall prevent the provision to Iran by their nationals or from or through their territories of technical training, financial resources or services, advice, other services or assistance related to the supply, sale, transfer, provision, manufacture, maintenance or use of such arms and related materiel, and, in this context, calls upon all States to exercise vigilance and restraint over the supply, sale, transfer, provision, manufacture and use of all other arms and related materiel;

Note the reference to the Register of Conventional Arms

http://www.un.org/Depts/ddar/Register/Register.html
http://www.un.org/Depts/ddar/Register/Categories.html

VII. Missiles and missile launchers (in the Register Categories)

Guided or unguided rockets, ballistic or cruise missiles capable of delivering a warhead or weapon of destruction to a range of at least 25 kilometres, and means designed or modified specifically for launching such missiles or rockets, if not covered by categories I through VI. For the purpose of the Register, this category:

(a) Also includes remotely piloted vehicles with the characteristics for missiles as defined above;

(b) Does not include ground-to-air missiles.

Read that again. The resolution does not include ground-to-air missiles.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

US Gets Sanctions Resolution Approved

The UN Security Council voted on Wednesday, 9 June 2010, to impose a fourth round of sanctions on Iran for failing to halt its nuclear enrichment program. The sanctions are less rigorous than the US had advocated.

By going along with the sanctions proposed by the US, Russia and China have removed the possibility of an attack by Israel and the US for the immediate future. The US must be seen to give the new sanctions time to work. Iran is safe from attack for months, if not years.

By going along with the new sanctions, Russia and China have created a situation where President Obama certainly cannot justify an attack on Iran until after the November elections, and so he will not be able to use Iran as a campaign issue to keep Democrats in control of Congress. Nor will the US administration be able to Iran as a distraction from its failure to fix the economy, plug the BP Deepwater Horizon oil leak, or hide from the Gaza blockade issue.

Further, US businesses are complaining that the new sanctions will harm them more than they will harm Iran.

Russia has stated that it will retaliate if sanctions hurt Russian interests.

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20100609/159365818.html


As well, Russia has said that its long-standing contract to supply surface-to-air missiles to Iran will not be affected by new UN sanctions.
Russia agreed to supply Iran with S-300 systems several years ago but has not delivered them.
The US and Israel are concerned the S-300 missiles, designed to counter both aircraft and cruise missiles, might be used to protect Iran's nuclear facilities from attack.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stressed the missiles were not subject to the limits set by the UN on cooperation with Iran.
Lavrov also said Moscow was in talks on building further nuclear reactors in Iran.

Monday, June 7, 2010

Hilary Clinton Shoots Her Mouth Off -- Again

The US secretary of state said on 6 June 2010 that world powers have the required number of votes to pass the sanctions resolution against Iran for what the US characterizes as continuing to enrich uranium in defiance of repeated Security Council ultimatums.

Clinton said she expected Iran would "pull some stunt in the next couple of days" to try to divert the resolution vote.

Iran's President Ahmadinejad will visit China later this week to discuss the threat of new UN sanctions over Iran's nuclear program.
Ahmadinejad will be attending Expo Shanghai 2010, but will also meet top Chinese officials to discuss Iran's nuclear program, the threat of sanctions and a fuel swap deal for a Tehran research reactor brokered by Brazil and Turkey last month, Iranian
state television reported on Monday.
China, which has emerged in recent years as Iran's main trading partner, continues to insist on diplomacy to resolve the standoff over Tehran's nuclear program but US officials say they have Beijing's support for the sanctions resolution.

Before heading to China, Iran's President Ahmadinejad was due to hold a round of meetings in Istanbul where he was attending a regional security and confidence building conference on June 6.
He was expected to meet Prime Minister Vladimir Putin of Russia, another Security Council permanent member, media reports said.
He was also due to meet Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss the nuclear fuel swap deal.

On May 17, Turkey and Brazil brokered a deal with under which Iran agreed to ship 1,200 kilograms (2,640 pounds) of its low-enriched uranium (LEU) to Turkey in return for high-enriched uranium fuel for the Tehran reactor which would be supplied later by Russia and France.

The deal was scorned immediately by the US which has ratcheted up diplomatic pressure for a fourth set of UN sanctions.
US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton said world powers have the necessary votes at the Security Council.
Sooner or later, it's time for Hilary Clinton to put up or shut up.