Target Centermass

Day: December 8, 2005

  • Aussie Troops Likely to Stay in Iraq Past May

    With the contributions of supposed allies remaining at nonexistant or token, true friends like Australia continue to step up to the plate.

    Australian troops guarding Japanese engineers in Iraq are likely to remain beyond their May deadline, Prime Minister John Howard said on Friday after Japan extended the mandate for its non-combat troops for up to a year.

    Australia, a strong ally of the United States, has about 1,300 military personnel in and around Iraq, including forces training the Iraqi military and 450 troops providing security for the Japanese military engineers in southern Al Muthanna province.

    Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said on Thursday the country’s non-combat troops in Iraq would remain there for up to a year after their current mandate expires on December 14.

    “That doesn’t mean automatically that the Japanese unit will stay there the entire 12 months. They will certainly stay until May and could well stay beyond May,” Howard told local radio.

    “I think it’s unlikely that we will be out by May, it’s far more likely that — and this will depend a great deal on how things unfold — that we will be there for a longer period.”

    While seemingly a small commitment, it is actually a sizable gesture as Australia, along with Britain and other members of the Commonwealth, are prepping to expand their role in Afghanistan (see here).

    The move will probably not play well on the Australian homefront, especially politically.

    Australia’s main opposition Labor has repeatedly called for the government to adopt an exit strategy for Iraq and Labor’s defense spokesman Robert McClelland said on Friday that Australia should be focusing on fighting terrorism in its own region.

    “Coalition forces must not be perceived in Iraq as an open-ended security safety net,” McClelland said in a statement.

    When Howard decided in March to send the extra 450 troops to Iraq to protect the Japanese engineers, an opinion poll published in the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper found 55 percent of Australians were opposed, while only 37 percent were in favor.

    A www.ninemsn.com.au poll in August showed that almost 80 percent of Australians believed the country’s troops should be withdrawn from Iraq by next year.

    Australia was among the first to join the Iraq war and has promised to keep forces there until Iraq can manage its own security.

    “I see no point in flagging withdrawal at the very time when the government and the people of Iraq need reassurances of support,” said Howard, but adding that he does not want Australia’s troops to stay in Iraq any longer than necessary.

    Despite any lingering or enhanced unpopularity, I do not see this as having a lasting effect against Prime Minister Howard. I have always felt the Aussies to be kindred spirits to Texans, and I think this spirit is ideally exemplified by an Australian rescued from captivity by thugs in Iraq, Douglas Wood.

    Is this a bad time to remind readers that the Democratic presidential campaign of John Kerry, through the candidate’s sister, tried to undermine our relations with our Australian allies?

  • Iran President: Israel Should Move to Europe

    The new Iranian president quickly showed himself to be a hardliner true to the spirit of the radical 1979 takeover by calling for the destruction of Israel. Now, he is showing himself to be as deluded as too many in the Moslem world are by denying the Holocaust, one of the cornerstones for Israel’s creation.

    Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, reignited the controversy provoked by his recent calls for Israel to be “wiped off the map” yesterday by casting doubt on the historical authenticity of the Holocaust and demanding that an alternative Jewish homeland be established in Europe.

    In remarks that sparked outrage in Washington and Jerusalem, Mr Ahmadinejad rejected the “claim” that millions of Jews were murdered by the Nazis, but called on those who believe to set up a Jewish state in countries such as Germany and Austria.

    He told journalists at an international Islamic conference in Mecca: “Some European countries insist on saying that Hitler killed millions of innocent Jews in furnaces and they insist on it to the extent that if anyone proves something contrary to that they condemn that person and throw them in jail. Although we don’t accept this claim, if we suppose it is true, our question for the Europeans is: ‘Is the killing of innocent Jewish people by Hitler the reason for their support to the occupiers of Jerusalem?’

    “If the Europeans are honest they should give some of their provinces in Europe – like in Germany, Austria or other countries – to the Zionists and the Zionists can establish their state in Europe. You offer part of Europe and we will support it.”

    Okay, let’s get this straight: the Holocaust didn’t happen so Israel shouldn’t exist but, if it did happen, Israel shouldn’t exist in the Middle East. Well, apparently this guy could find a sad way to twist the statement “water is wet” into a reason for Israel to not exist.

    Under Ahmadinejad, Iran is pushing at breakneck speed towards two goals — becoming a power with nuclear weapons and positioning itself as the key opponent to Israel in the eyes of the Moslem world.

    Israel quickly responded to the Holocaust-denying, move-Israel claptrap.

    Last night an Israeli government spokesman, Raanan Gissin, decried “the consensus that exists in many circles in the Arab world that the Jewish people … do not have the right to establish a Jewish, democratic state in their ancestral homeland”. He added: “Just to remind Mr Ahmadinejad, we’ve been here long before his ancestors were here.”

    Had this Israeli spokesman been typing up his response on an internet forum, the previous statement would have been closed with the following:

    Osiraq, beotch!

    Perhaps unfortunately, while appropriate, such a closing is not yet welcome in diplospeak. Also, definitely unfortunate is the fact that a repeat of Osiraq, Iranian-style, would be rather difficult for the Israelis.

  • Seven Killed, 50 Hurt in Bangladesh Bomb Blast

    Just in case you hadn’t heard, and that seems very likely, there was a bloody suicide bombing today in Bangladesh. It should not be a surprise that apparently radical Islamists are to blame.

    At least seven people were killed and more than 50 wounded in Bangladesh on Thursday in a suicide bomb attack during the morning rush hour on a crowded street in a district town, police said.

    Two bombs went off within the space of a few minutes in Netrokona, 360 km (220 miles) north of the capital Dhaka.

    Police said the wounded included three policemen. Many of the victims were people on their way to work at offices, colleges and markets, witnesses said.

    No one claimed responsibility for the blasts, but police blamed Islamist suicide bombers fighting for the introduction of sharia law in the mainly Muslim democracy.

    Police said they found a suicide bomber among the wounded, with an unexploded bomb strapped to his body. He was taken to hospital unconscious, police added.

    Another suicide bomber was believed to be among the dead.

    “Two of the dead, including a woman, have been identified, but identities of the rest are yet to be ascertained,” one police officer said.

    “We have reasons to believe that one among the dead was a suicide bomber, who arrived on the spot on a bicycle just moments before the blast,” he added.

    The bombs exploded near the local office of a cultural organization, Udichi, which police believe was the target. At least one member of the group was among the dead, said a police officer.

    Ten people were killed and over 50 were injured when a bomb exploded at an open-air concert of Udichi in western Jessore town in March 1999.

    Many Islamic groups dislike Udichi, which organizes open-air shows of drama, music and poetry recitals. It pursues a strong secular philosophy.

    Thursday’s deaths took the number of people killed by suspected suicide bombers to 25 in three weeks, including judges, lawyers and policemen.

    Bangladesh has been hit by a wave of bomb attacks since August by militants of banned groups, including the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, which seeks to turn mainly Muslim Bangladesh into a sharia-based Islamic state.

    Secular, not anti-Islamic but secular, entertainment is a worthy target that must be destroyed in the eyes of the Islamists. The radicals of the religion comprise a global virus, seemingly unable to live peacably in any place on the globe where they find themselves in sizable numbers but unable to behead and stone at will.