Saturday, December 17, 2005

A rogue regime opposed to peace (and Election results)

"What the Iranian president has shown us today is that he is clearly outside the international consensus, he is clearly outside international norms and international legitimacy, and in so doing he has shown the Iranian government for what it is -- a rogue regime opposed to peace and stability and a threat to all its neighboring countries,"

Mark Regev, spokesman for Israel's Foreign Ministry

Source

Hamas wins 73% of vote in Nablus local elections Source

"If the Hamas was ever to become a dominant force in Palestinian politics, that would be the end of the peace process,"

Mark Regev, spokesman for Israel's Foreign Ministry

Source

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

"How undiplomatic."



"And I just want to return to the point that I made earlier. In 1989, in 1990 and 1991 when I was lucky enough to be the Soviet specialist at the end of the Cold War. Doesn't really kind of get better than that. (Laughter.) I really looked back and I thought, what we were really doing was harvesting those good decisions that had been taken back in the '40s. And we were, in effect, harvesting good decisions that frankly Ronald Reagan had made in 1982 and '83 and '84 when he held fast and essentially said that the Soviet Union was an artifact of history that was going to go away. And I remember people saying, "How undiplomatic. My goodness. How could you say that about a great power like the Soviet Union. But you know, it was speaking the truth."....

...."But there are so many events in history that one day seemed impossible and now we look back on them as inevitable. And they weren't inevitable. They came about because the United States of America married power and principle together, because the United States understood that its values and its interests were inextricably linked and because the United States was willing to speak the truth, that men and women wherever they are, whoever they are, are endowed by their creator to have these rights"....


Secretary Condoleezza Rice
The Heritage Foundation
Washington, DC
December 13, 2005

Source


Monday, December 12, 2005

Polls and Elections in Iraq.


What do Iraqis think?

An interesting item in the poll is the "Q17 - Which structure should Iraq have in future?". The Constitution that was passed calls for the Federal Iraq, yet the poll says that 70% would like "One unified Iraq with central government in Baghdad" as oppose to 17.6% that call for "A group of regional states with their own regional governments and a federal government in Baghdad".

National Survey of Iraq, Nov 2005

Thursday, December 01, 2005

History is repeating itself?

Hamas started by Israelis to fight Yaser Arafat, Afghanistan mujahendines and Al Queida were trained by the US to fight the Soviets. When they turn their guns against the former masters though they become know as Islamic Radicals. I wonder where this folly ends up!