THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: President Barack Obama has set a course for confrontation with Beijing, as he described an East Asian summit as the best mechanism for tackling the region's seething row over the South China Sea.
The Chinese government has declared that the long-running dispute should be off-limits at talks to be held on Saturday, which will be attended by Mr Obama, China's Premier Wen Jiabao and 16 other nations including several with claims over the waterway.
But Mr Obama said the gathering, held this year on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, "can be the premier arena for us to be able to work together on a wide range of issues - maritime security or non-proliferation".
The president has irritated China with a drive to enhance the US role as a regional power, positioning Marines in northern Australia and pushing for a potentially transformational trans-Pacific trade pact.
Beijing sees the initiatives as intruding into its own sphere of influence, with the dispute over the South China Sea putting the two major world powers' differences into stark focus.
On Friday, Wen again warned against interference by "external forces" in the wrangle. » | Telegraph’s Foreign Staff | Friday, November 18, 2011
My comment:
Obama is playing with fire. Two of the dumbest things he did this week were telling the world that the US is not afraid of China, and then going to Australia and advertising the fact that the US was going to expand its military in the region to protect the Australians from the Chinese. Is there no end to this man's cack-handedness? Is there no end to his naïveté? Is there no end to his lack of understanding?
If the US is truly not afraid of China, it is worrying, because it should be. Meddling in the region which is traditionally China's sphere of influence will lead to no good place. Is Obama trying to set the stage for the third world war, or what?
US Will Shift Focus from Middle East to Asia Pacific, Barack Obama Declares
Barack Obama has pledged to expand America's military in the Asia Pacific as a "top priority" as he declared the US intends to shift its focus from the Middle East.
Read the article and comment here | Jonathan Pearlman in Canberra | Thursday, November 17, 2011
Etats-Unis: les mariages homosexuels autorisés à l'armée
TRIBUNE DE GENÈVE: Dix jours après l’abolition du tabou gay dans l’armée, les aumôniers militaires peuvent célébrer des mariages homosexuels dans les Etats américains qui reconnaissent ces unions.
Les aumôniers militaires peuvent désormais célébrer des mariages homosexuels dans les Etats américains qui reconnaissent les unions entre deux personnes du même sexe, a annoncé vendredi le Pentagone, dix jours après l’abolition du tabou gay dans l’armée.
L’Etat fédéral américain ne reconnaît pas le mariage entre personnes du même sexe, ce qui interdit aux conjoints de militaires homosexuels de bénéficier des mêmes droits et prestations que les conjoints hétérosexuels, comme de vivre sur une base militaire ou de bénéficier de la couverture maladie pour les familles de militaires.
Mais une directive du département de la Défense publiée vendredi prévoit «qu’un aumônier militaire peut participer ou officier à une cérémonie privée, sur ou en dehors d’une base militaire, tant que cette cérémonie n’est pas interdite par la loi locale ou de l’Etat». » | KEYSTONE | Samedi 01 Octobre 2011
Monday, May 16, 2011
Demilitarizing Entire American Economy Our Last Hope – Activist
Demonstrators against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan listen to speakers during an anti-war protest in Washington, DC
Friday, May 06, 2011
Pakistan Wants US Military Out
RUSSIA TODAY: The Pakistani army has ordered reductions in the number of US military personnel operating inside Pakistan in what is being seen as a response to the unilateral US raid which killed Osama Bin Laden.
The nation’s army has faced heavy domestic criticism for allowing US forces to enter and unilaterally operate within Pakistan – many calling it a violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty. In addition, many argue the army may have been harboring Bin Laden all along.
The Pakistani army has called on the US to reduce its forces to the minimum essential levels. Currently, the US bases around 275 declared military personnel in Pakistan. » | Thursday, May 05, 2011
Monday, August 23, 2010
American Soldier, Convert to Islam, Teaching Taliban Fighters Bomb-making Skills
MAIL ON SUNDAY: A captured American soldier is training Taliban fighters bomb-making and ambush skills, according to one of his captors and Afghan intelligence officials.
Private Bowe Bergdahl disappeared in June 2009 while based in eastern Afghanistan and is thought to be the only U.S. serviceman in captivity.
The 24-year-old has converted to Islam and now has the Muslim name Abdullah, one of his captors told The Sunday Times.
A Taliban deputy district commander in Paktika, who called himself Haji Nadeem, told the newspaper that Bergdahl taught him how to dismantle a mobile phone and turn it into a remote control for a roadside bomb.
Nadeem claimed he also received basic ambush training from the U.S. soldier.
US Sergeant Converts to Islam, Marries Iraqi Woman
Monday, May 24, 2010
Obama Honors West Point Grads - Full Video
West Point Speech: This Is Not the Obama of 2008
FOREIGN POLICY: President Obama's West Point speech on Saturday provides a great example of the structural continuities in American foreign policy. As president and commander-in-chief, Obama now embraces and owns policies that he previously eschewed. For example, after running his campaign denouncing the Iraq War and doubting the surge, he is now essentially declaring Iraq a victory ("this is what success looks like: an Iraq that provides no safe-haven to terrorists; a democratic Iraq that is sovereign, stable, and self-reliant.") After spending much of his first year in office downplaying if not ignoring democracy and human rights promotion, he is now making democracy and human rights promotion one of the four pillars of his national security strategy. After previously rhetorically distancing himself from American exceptionalism, he now says that a "fundamental part of our strategy is America's support for those universal rights that formed the creed of our founding." >>> Will Inboden | Monday, May 24, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Too Fat to Fight
TAGES ANZEIGER: Jeder vierte Jugendliche in den USA hat Übergewicht. Für die US-Armee ist dieser Trend eine Gefahr für die nationale Sicherheit.
Untauglich für die Armee: Eine übergewichtige Familie in New York. Bild: Tages Anzeiger
Amerikas Jugend ist mittlerweile so dick, dass sich selbst das US-Militär Sorgen macht. Der Bericht einer Gruppe von pensionierten Armeeangehörigen bezeichnet die Fettleibigkeit als eine Gefahr für die nationale Sicherheit. 27 Prozent der US-Bürger zwischen 17 und 24 Jahren können der Armee nicht beitreten, weil sie übergewichtig sind. Das sind 9 Millionen Männer und Frauen. Jedes Jahr ist das Militär gezwungen, 1200 Rekruten wegen Gewichtsproblemen zu entlassen. «Too fat to fight», «Zu fett, um zu kämpfen» ist das Verdikt und der Titel des Berichts.
«Wenn so viele junge Erwachsene wegen ihres Gewichts nicht kämpfen können, betrifft dies unsere nationale Sicherheit und Bereitschaft», sagt der pensionierte General Jamie Barnett gegenüber der «USA Today». Er ist Teil des Nonprofitunternehmens «Mission: Readiness, Military Leaders for Kids», das aus 130 zurückgetretenen Generälen, Admirälen und anderen Militärkadern besteht. Kalorienreiche Schulkantinen >>> jak | Dienstag, 20. April 2010
Gay Protesters Interrupt Obama at California Fundraiser for Barbara Boxer
Photograph: Los Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES TIMES: After a long day of work in Washington and a long transcontinental flight to Los Angeles, President Obama told a crowd of Democratic donors in Los Angeles Monday night that he was "fired up!"
Turns out so were some of the crowd members.
The president's 29-minute speech was interrupted several times by gay protesters impatient with the lack of progress in repealing the military's "Don't Ask-Don't Tell" policy regarding gays.
Obama and Vice President Joe Biden have both often urged patience on gay-lesbian and transgender advocates, promising to repeal the policy in time. But tonight the protesters would have no more talk of patience, rejecting the president's repeated promise that he would repeal the policy and at one point breaking out into the trademark Obama chant of "Yes We Can!" >>> | Monday, April 19, 2010
Thursday, April 08, 2010
Taleban Release New Footage of US Soldier Bowe Bergdahl
TIMES ONLINE: The Taleban have released a video of the only American soldier in captivity, offering to release him as part of a prisoner exchange.
Bowe Bergdahl, who was taken hostage in Afghanistan last June, is pictured saying he wants to return to his family in Idaho and that the war in Afghanistan is not worth the number of lives that have been lost or wasted in prison.
His voice falteringly, Mr Bergdahl dressed in an army shirt and fatigues, clasps his hands together and pleads: “The pain in my heart to see my family again doesn’t get any smaller. Release me. Please, I’m begging you, bring me home.”
The footage shows the soldier with a beard and doing press-ups to demonstrate that he is in good physical condition. He tells the camera that he is strong and is “given the freedom to exercise; and to be a human being, even though he is a prisoner. >>> Joanna Sugden | Thursday, April 08, 2010
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
US General Apologises for Gay Dutch Troops Slur
THE TELEGRAPH: An American general has apologised for his claim that the presence of homosexual troops was responsible for the Dutch army's failure to prevent the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.
John Sheehan, a former US General and Nato commander, caused outrage two weeks ago when he alleged that open homosexuality in the Dutch ranks had so damaged military morale that the country's army was powerless to prevent genocide in Bosnia.
He claimed, before a US Senate hearing, that Henk van den Breemen, the Dutch chief of the defence staff in 1995, had told him of problems related to gay troops.
"I am sorry that my public recollection of those discussions of 15 years ago inaccurately reflected your thinking on some specific social issues on the military," he wrote in a letter to the Dutch general.
Without explicitly referring to gay Dutch military, General Sheehan acknowledged that a weak United Nations mandate for troops was the problem facing peacekeepers.
"To be clear, the failure on the ground in Srebrenica was no way the fault of individual soldiers," he wrote.
A spokesperson for the Dutch Ministry of Defence said General Van den Breemen was satisfied with the apology. >>> Bruno Waterfield, in Brussels | Tuesday, March 30, 2010
American Bigotry at Its Worst and Most Shameful! And from a Fossil, to Boot: Gay Dutch Soldiers Responsible for Srebrenica Massacre Says US General*
THE TELEGRAPH: A former American general blamed "open homosexuality" in the Dutch army for the failure to prevent the Srebrenica massacre in 1995.
The Dutch government condemned the comments by Gen John Sheehan, a former Nato commander and senior marine officer, as outrageous.
Gen Sheehan made the remarks at a Senate hearing where he argued against plans by President Barack Obama to end a ban on allowing gays to serve openly in the US military.
Gen Sheehan said that after the end of the Cold War, European militaries changed and concluded "there was no longer a need for an active combat capability."
He said this process included "open homosexuality" which resulted in "a focus on peacekeeping operations because they did not believe the Germans were going to attack again or the Soviets were coming back."
"The case in point that I'm referring to is when the Dutch were required to defend Srebrenica against the Serbs," he said, referring to the UN peacekeeping force deployed to protect Bosnian Muslim civilians.
"The battalion was understrength, poorly led, and the Serbs came into town, handcuffed the soldiers to the telephone polls, marched the Muslims off and executed them."
Carl Levin, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, pressed him to clarify his comments.
"Did the Dutch leaders tell you it (the fall of Srebrenica) was because there were gay soldiers there?" asked an incredulous Levin.
"Yes," Sheehan said and added: "They included that as part of the problem." >>> The Telegraph’s Foreign Staff | Friday, March 19, 2010
Dutch Outrage as US General Blames Gay Soldiers for Srebrenica
TIMES ONLINE: A retired American general has blamed the UN's historic failure to protect the Bosnian "safe haven" of Srebrenica on the fact that there were openly gay soldiers in the Dutch peacekeeping battalion assigned to it.
The comments from former Marine Corps general John Sheehan prompted outrage in the Netherlands, where the humiliation in July 1995 of 400 armed Dutch peacekeepers and the subsequent massacre by Serb forces of 8,000 Muslim men and boys remains a subject of acute national sensitivity.
General Sheehan, one of two Nato "supreme commanders" at the time of the massacre, testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee against a proposal to allow homosexuals to serve openly in the US military.
He told the senators how the Armed Forces of various European countries had lost their combat focus after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s and turned to peacekeeping because “they did not believe the Germans were going to attack again or the Soviets were coming back”.
The general said that Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and other nations all took the decision that there was no longer a need for an active combat capability in the military.
"They declared a peace dividend and made a conscious effort to socialize their military - that includes the unionisation of their militaries, it includes open homosexuality. That led to a force that was ill-equipped to go to war," he said.
"The case in point that I’m referring to is when the Dutch were required to defend Srebrenica against the Serbs: the battalion was under-strength, poorly led, and the Serbs came into town, handcuffed the soldiers to the telephone poles, marched the Muslims off, and executed them.
“That was the largest massacre in Europe since World War II." >>> Philippe Naughton | Friday, March 19, 2010
Gay Army Is a Non-issue in Holland
RADIO NETHERLANDS WORLDWIDE: Retired US Marine General John Sheehan got one thing right in his testimony to the US Congress: gays serve in the Dutch military. But it takes a foreigner to point that out. Here in The Netherlands, gays have served in the military for decades.
General Sheehan blamed the fall of the UN enclave in Srebrenica in 1995, which led to the massacre of thousands of Bosnian Muslims, partly on the fact that homosexuals served in the Dutch military.
"That was the largest massacre in Europe since World War Two. The Dutch army allowed homosexuals and you know what happened there." The retired general made these comments during a hearing considering whether to lift the US 'don't ask, don't tell' policy that allows homosexuals to serve in the military only if they keep quiet about it.
What?
The reaction here in The Netherlands has been a universal, 'huh?' From the current Foreign Minister to the Defence Minister at the time of the Srebrenica massacre; from leaders of unions representing soldiers to the former army commander; all have said that General Sheehan's remarks do not have the slightest basis in reality.
The Dutch caretaker Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen said via Twitter that he was amazed at the ex general's comments - saying they reflected more about the discussion around homosexuals in the US army than anything else.
Minister of Defense Eimert van Middelkoop twittered: "scandalous and unbefitting a soldier". And the Dutch ambassador to the US, Renee Jones-Bos, added in a statement on the embassy's website that she "couldn't disagree more'' with Sheehan's claims.
"I take pride in the fact that lesbians and gays have served openly and with distinction in the Dutch military forces for decades, such as in Afghanistan at the moment',' she said. >>> John Tyler | Friday, March 19, 2010
Former US General: ‘Gays Make Dutch Military Weak’
NRC HANDELSBLAD INTERNATIONAL: A former American general has blamed homosexuals serving in the Dutch military for the fall of Srebrenica.
Fifteen years after the safe area of Srebrenica fell to Serb militias, an American general has found the cause: homosexuals had weakened the Dutch UN battalion charged with protecting the enclave. John Sheehan, a former high-ranking Nato official, said this on Thursday when he publicly addressed the American president Barack Obama’s plans to allow gays to serve in the military.
According to the charges brought against the Bosnian-Serb leader Radovan Karadzic at the special tribunal in The Hague, 9,210 Muslim men were killed in Srebrenica and its surrounding area in 1995. A Dutch UN battalion had been charged with the task of protecting the valley against the Serbs. A study by the Dutch research institute NIOD has found that the soldiers did not have an adequate mandate to act and the battalion was insufficiently prepared.
Speaking in the American Senate, Sheehan said European countries tried to “socialise” their armed forces by letting people serve in the army too easily, which left them weakened. >>> NRC Handelsblad News Staff | Friday, March 19, 2010
Friday, March 12, 2010
Gay Love: Two US Gay Military Men (Avec sous-titres français)
US Air Force Recruiters End Ban on Tattoos on Saluting Arm
THE GUARDIAN: Military chiefs overturn rule on arm tattoos after 26 US air force recruits are barred from basic training
Military chiefs have scrapped a ban on tattoos decorating the saluting arm of recruits joining the US air force, following a backlash among heavily inked young Americans signing up for duty.
The air force recruiting service instituted a policy on 25 November prohibiting tattoos below the elbow on the right arm of recruits, citing "military image". The service did not want tattoos to be visible when its airmen salute.
Within a week, the rule meant that 26 recruits were turned away from basic training, causing confusion among 17,000 people due to join the service under a delayed entry program, which allows for a hiatus of up to 12 months between signing up and reporting for duty.
By the end of last week, military bosses had relented. In a statement to the in-house Air Force Times, the recruiting service's commander, Brigadier General Alfred Stewart, said that "regrettably", recruits had been caught in the middle of the change. He said: "At this time, recruiting service is revising guidance recently sent to the field." >>> Andrew Clark in New York | Sunday, December 06, 2009
Monday, November 23, 2009
Video: US Deserter Seeks German Asylum
BBC: A US Army deserter is to meet German politicians in Berlin as he tries to secure asylum in the country.
Andre Shepherd left his military base, in southern Germany, in April 2007, after serving in Iraq. Eighteen months later, he applied for asylum on moral grounds, claiming the Iraq war was illegal. Tristana Moore reports. Watch video >>> | Monday, November 23, 2009
Friday, November 20, 2009
Anwar al-Awlaki. Photo: Fox News
Hasan E-Mail to Radical Imam: 'I Can't Wait to Join You' in the Afterlife
FOX NEWS: The Army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people in the Fort Hood massacre told a radical Muslim imam, "I can't wait to join you" in the afterlife, in one of several e-mails exchanged between the two men, ABC News reported on Thursday.
An unnamed official "with top secret access" told the network 18 e-mails were exchanged between Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan and Anwar al-Awlaki, who encouraged Muslims to kill U.S. troops in Iraq, from Dec. 2008 until June of this year.
Other e-mails, the official said, included discussion of when jihad is considered "appropriate," and if it is acceptable for innocent people to die in suicide attacks.
"Hasan told Awlaki he couldn't wait to join him in the discussions they would [be] having over non-alcoholic wine in the afterlife," ABC quoted the official as saying.
Hasan — with an annual salary around $92,000 — also wrote, "My strength is my financial capabilities," the source said. Investigators have found the Army major donated as much as $30,000 per year to Islamic "charities." American authorities have found several such charities to be conduits to terrorist networks. >>> FoxNews & AP | Friday, November 20, 2009
Friday, November 13, 2009
Political Correctness Claims Thirteen Lives at Fort Hood
EXAMINER.COM: Yet another practitioner of the religion of peace has gone on a murderous rampage, this time at the US Army post at Fort Hood, Texas. The suffocating blanket of political correctness that dominates America and its military ensured that the perpetrator could operate in open and carry out his attack with ease. It is becoming apparent that anyone could have seen that he was an enemy of the United States and an aspiring terrorist, but the government and media template will be that he was simply a troubled individual acting alone, and that the attack had nothing to do with his Muslim faith. >>> Todd Keister | Thursday, November 12, 2009
