Target Centermass

Day: January 6, 2006

  • Japan Alters Course in Quest for UNSC Seat

    Japan has split from its long-time allies in the campaign for expansion of the United Nations Security Council, deciding to direct efforts more toward its own case for a permanent seat.

    Japan has tactically split from its joint effort with India, Germany and Brazil to win a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council, diplomats confirmed yesterday.

    Although Japan says it will continue to work closely with the three countries, in an alliance known as the G4, it decided not to join them in a new UN General Assembly resolution filed on Thursday.

    The three allies have reiterated their call for the 15-member Security Council to be expanded to 25, with six new permanent seats but no new vetoes yet. But Japan says it wants to pursue negotiations with the US first and has also initiated talks with its regional rival China.

    The US supports only two “or so” new permanent members, including Japan, the UN’s second largest financial contributor. Japanese diplomats also fear tabling another General Assembly resolution would further alienate African Union countries, who have tabled a separate proposal.

    The 53-member AU proposal is unlikely to succeed, but any final deal will need African support to win the necessary two-thirds ap-proval in the 191-member General Assembly.

    While this may scuttle current expansion plans and certainly will undermine them, I believe this increases the likelihood of some sort of expansion actually being enacted. Such expansion, however, will probably not be to the extent that had previously been proposed.

    Previous blogging on the expansion efforts:

  • A Million Congratulations

    … to the denizens of Argghhh!!!, one of the best milblogs out there, on passing the one-million-visitor mark on their Site Meter.

    Hooah!

  • ‘Bout Fracking Time

    SciFi Channel’s Battlestar Galactica is starting back up in about thirty minutes, finally bringing an end to a mid-season hiatus for the best show on television. See y’all later.

  • Homeland Security Tweaks Local Grants

    It seems that Department of Homeland Security has finally decided to narrow the field in its financial gifts to local governments, cutting down the list of recipients to larger urban areas and key targets vital to actual security.

    In Washington, D.C., Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff outlined revisions to distributing $765 million this year under the Urban Area Security initiative, which funneled $855 million to 50 communities nationwide in 2005.

    […]

    Some congressional critics have complained that in the past, the program has given too much money to communities that seem to face smaller risks of attacks. Chertoff acknowledged that history.

    “The fact of the matter is, our security is much too important to be determined with funding decisions that are driven by arbitrary formulas or political formulas or a desire to give everybody a little bit of something,” he said.

    The program, he said, is “not a popularity contest, not party favors to be distributed as widely as possible, but a funding program that is dedicated to a risk-based set of priorities, where we’re going to focus on your ability to show highest risk and your ability to show you can put the money to good use.”

    […]

    Chertoff’s announcement reflected his efforts to give his department an all-hazards mission, even though it was created as a direct result of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The revisions, outlined in documents sent to state and local officials, would address the kind of destruction and lack of preparedness seen with Hurricane Katrina.

    I expect a degree of localized hey-what-about-us opposition to this long-overdue narrowing of focus, but a single paragraph in the pending State of the Union address by President Bush could effectively nullify opposition to the policy change — not that I expect such a maneuver to occur. I’m just saying that it should, as the federal homeland security payouts to date have been awash with tales of silliness.

    While I honestly feel that the Islamist bastards will someday bring the war to our suburban malls (and I’ve repeatedly stated that I’m surprised they haven’t already), we must sincerely look at the fact that they still seem to still be focused on making the Big Headlines and prepare accordingly … though not exclusively.