Pakistan: Military vs. Government

Pakistan's military has issued threats upon it's own government, stating "This has very serious ramifications with potentially grievous consequences for the country." after Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani was critical of how the military has handled the political situation.

Since gaining independence in 1947, the military has maintained a majority of control in the country. Already have three coups within that time. After Osama bin Laden was killed in the country, last May, the Prime Minister had asked the United States to protect Pakistan from yet a fourth, but nothing came out of the threats then.

 Defense secretary Naeem Khalid Lodhi has been removed from his position by Prime Minister Gilani, for "gross misconduct". Lodhi was considered to be much more loyal to the military than the Pakistani government, and is accused of trying to cause strife between the two.

Pakistan's military has on various and increasing occasions involved itself in fire fights against United States and NATO forces, bringing real question to the strength of their cooperation against Taliban fighters in Afghanistan. The finding of bin Laden near one of the main Pakistani military bases only highlighted that not all was going well.

Increased Clashes in Yemen

With all of the protests and rebellions occurring around the world Yemen seems at times to be forgotten. The official conflict began almost a year ago, and has been mostly peaceful protests against the regime of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Saleh's government has faced difficulties before. Back in 2004, Zaidi Shias, rebelled against the elected government citing that they were being persecuted by the majority Shiite government and country.

President Saleh has officially handed power over to Vice President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi. He signed an agreement to step down, in November, and continues to serve as honorary President until polls are held in February. The UN and Saleh's opposition are unhappy with the US written agreement, as it contains an amnesty clause for Saleh. The latest violence threatens the peaceful transition though.

In parts of Yemen, there is out right civil war, though most of the fighting is not actually against the government. It is almost between the different ethnic groups: the now familiar Sunnis versus Shia Muslims, though in Yemen the Houthis are at war with the Sunnis as well.

United States military forces have at times taken part in this conflict, mostly through air strikes against Al Qaeda linked rebel groups. The US is considered a strong ally of Saleh's government. Yemen is positioned in a very key strategic location, south of Saudi Arabia, along the Gulf of Aden, and stuck between the Red and Arabian Seas.

The Saber Rattles in North Korea

It has been released that, on Wednesday, North Korea test fired three short range missiles into the East Sea. Oddly the weapons fired appeared to be ground to ground missiles. Possibly just general North Korean saber rattling, or maybe an actual test to improve or see how new weapons work.

The US 7th Air Force announced that it will be deploying twelve F-16s to Gunsan, South Korea. The air base, located about one hundred and fifty miles south of Seoul, will be the home for the 55th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron and it's two hundred and forty airmen. Their mission is to "maintain stability in the region". Whether this was in response to the missile tests, or was already in the works is unclear.

The region has really been unstable since the Korean War, but has gained increased scrutiny due to the passing of Kim Jong Il and the installment of his son, Kim Jong Un, as the new dictator. People who did not mourn the death either at all or 'properly' are now being punished by the regime (thanks to BBUMH for that info).

Since his take over Un, has made the expected saber rattling, which is likely the purpose of the missile tests. The fighter deployment could have been in the works since then. Other possible reasons for the deployment, could include the increased hostilities with Iran or the ring around China that the Obama administration has been forming.

Also curious is that once again we see US forces announcing their own movement, rather than the Pentagon Washington DC or the President's administration. In December, it was the US 5th Fleet that initially responded, not anyone from DC, to threats by Iran to close the Strait of Hormuz. Eventually Washington did join in, but this brings about it's own dangerous questions of how much the US military and Obama administration are seeing eye to eye, or is the military just being given a freer hand?

Pam's Story

In a recent email, I read about a woman named Pam, who knows the pain of considering abortion. More than 24 years ago, she and her husband Bob were serving as missionaries to the Philippines and praying for a fifth child. Pam contracted amoebic dysentery, an infection of the intestine caused by a parasite found in contaminated food or drink. She went into a coma and was treated with strong antibiotics before they discovered she was pregnant.

Doctors urged her to abort the baby for her own safety and told her that the medicines had caused irreversible damage to her baby. She refused the abortion and cited her Christian faith as the reason for her hope that her son would be born without the devastating disabilities physicians predicted. Pam said the doctors didn't think of it as a life, they thought of it as a mass of fetal tissue.

While pregnant, Pam nearly lost their baby four times but refused to consider abortion. She recalled making a pledge to God with her husband: If you will give us a son, we'll name him Timothy and we'll make him a preacher.

Pam ultimately spent the last two months of her pregnancy in bed and eventually gave birth to a healthy baby boy August 14, 1987. Pam's youngest son is indeed a preacher. He preaches in prisons, makes hospital visits, and serves with his father's ministry in the Philippines. He also plays football. Pam's son is Tim Tebow.

Voyage to Mars

Under President George W. Bush, the United States and specifically NASA, saw an increase in space exploration. Bush even mentioned the possibility of revisiting the moon, and NASA obliged with plans for a new class of space shuttle that could make the trip on it's own. Enter President Obama, who not only scaled NASA back, but ended manned exploration of space. To start the year of 2012, China announced that it will have a man on the moon by 2018. In response to that, Buzz Aldrin, second man to walk on the moon (in case you didn't know) wrote this extremely well put and thought out article, that we all should read. Not only does he go into why we should go to Mars, but details what kind of space craft we would need.

Personally, I think we've more important things to worry about right this moment. However we must be sure never to lose our wonder and desire to explore. Maybe now is the time. We definitely should begin planning as if we don't start, we'll never get there. Would truly be depressing to see the US lose it's edge.

Missing Your Snow? Alaska Isn't

Missing your snow this year? Alaska is taking it for you. Whilst most of the United States is having a drier than normal winter, Alaska is having one of the snowiest on record. So far this season Anchorage has seen eighty-eight inches, almost three times the normal thirty. The record for snow in this point in the season had been seventy-seven. And the all time record for the whole season is in danger, at one hundred and thirty-two, set back in 1954-1955. Cordova has already seen over one hundred and seventy-two inches, and the town of Valdez has totaled over three hundred and twelve.

The Alaskan National Guard has already been at the scene for awhile, trying to help keep communities alive. Unfortunately there is a snow shovel shortage, and many of the Guardsmen have been forced to use standard shovels, wearing themselves out all the faster. Piles of snow have reached monumental levels, and places that have them are using load haulers to dump the snow in front of machines that are specifically designed to melt snow. To add to the problems, temperatures have warmed up to the mid thirties. Not enough to help melt the snow, but enough to make avalanches likely.

Down in St. Paul Harbour, on Kodiak Island, part of the Aleutian Islands, three boats sank due to the excessive weight of the snow on them. Meanwhile, a US Coast Guard icebreaker is doing it all it can to make a way for a Russian oil tanker to get to Nome. The city is almost completely out of gasoline reserves, that have only been kept going through airlifts. Hopefully sometime Friday the ships will make it through the last fifty miles of ice and supply the beleaguered city.

You May Suck as a Pirate

Piracy has been more and more of a problem the last few years. The main area of issue has been off southeast Africa. Generally they attack a large cargo ship, which is lightly manned, from a small boat carrying from six up to a full dozen men. Whenever possible the navies of the world arrest the pirates, hopefully before, but sometimes after they attack ships. Rescues, like the one carried out by the United States Navy last week are not that uncommon anymore.

Early Thursday pirates attacked a ship off the coast of Mogadishu. This time it didn't go so well for them. When the pirates attacked the ship with small arms fire, they were shot back at and then surrendered when the ship's helicopter launched. Seems that they failed to notice that this was a Spanish naval vessel, the Patino (pictued above). To any pirates out there, you may want to be more careful than these guys, when picking a target.

Iranian Scientist Assassinated

Considering it was a bomb that killed the Iranian scientist, that car looks pretty good. Whoever did do this, knew their stuff and made very sure that they wouldn't get much more than their target. Two other people were killed, but they were in the car. Which is why we will call it an assassination, not a terrorist attack or simply even a killing. This was nothing but a short and simple hit against a specific person. And of course it took Iran less than five minutes to start blaming it on those "Evil Zionists" aka Israel.

Now why would Israel wish to do such a thing? Maybe because Iran is building up a nuclear stockpile and has stated they wish to see Israel wiped from the earth? No, that couldn't be it. Interestingly enough though, Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, did have ties to and had supported opponents of Ahmadinejad, which could have made him a target for the Iranian government. Scientists connected with nuclear projects in Iran do have a tendency of dying violently. In January 2010 Massoud Ali Mohammadi had the same issue of a bomb under his car. Majid Shahriari bit it under the same circumstances in November 2010. A group of motorcycled "assailants" beat Daryoush Rezaie to death in July 2011. And these are just the ones that have been told to us. We won't ever really know who did this, could've been Luxembourg or Laos for all we really know.

Whoever did, such an act is only going to increase tensions, that are already extremely high, between Iran and the rest of the world. Iran's nuclear program is a top sore spot internationally, with even Russia verbally disapproving.  The sanctions placed by most countries on them, have given Iran excuse to make threats to close the Strait of Hormuz, through which a sixth of the western world's oil flows; as well as threaten US naval vessels. Even the United States rescuing of Iranian sailors has been met with some hostility.

What really got me was CNN's statements on it. "Iran uses the term 'Zionist' to refer to Israel. The nation has been engaged in a war of words with Israel, whom it accuses of trying to destabilize the republic." War of words? Really?! Iran constantly threatens Israel, refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist, denies the Holocaust happened, and (as already menioned) wants Israel wiped from the earth; and all you can say is "war of words"? From now on we'll just go with Iran has a slight dislike towards Israel, or they're having a small disagreement.

However, I did approve of CNN's comment that "Israel does not comment on such claims" of being connected to violent acts of assassination. They truly don't, not even to deny it. In the past (and I really wish I could find this article again) the closest they've come to it, was a former head of Mossad saying that, "There aren't such things as coincidences, but when so many things come together you have to believe there's a guiding force. Maybe even the hand of God."

Middle East Rundown 1-10-12

As Ahmadinejad visits his good old buddy Chavez in Venezuela, the two have found time from the their busy schedules to take a moment and discuss bombing Washington D.C. The press has been so nice to them going with the story that they were just joking. Anyone else remember the crap Reagan for joking about bombing things? God forbid Bush had joked about bombing anywhere. And if Obama, well actually if Obama said he was bombing D.C. himself, he'd probably get cheers from the press.

Meanwhile back home in Iran, the IAEA has confirmed that Iran is truly enriching uranium at it's Fordo site, well beyond the percentage required for peaceful energy purposes. Seems that we were totally on top of things with this article. Even Russia has expressed "regret" that Iran continues on this path that only idiots wouldn't recognize as being towards nuclear armament.

Remember when the US Navy rescued Iranians the other day? Well it kind of got repeated. Only this time it was the US Coast Guard rescuing stranded Iranian fisherman, who's boat was sinking, in the Persian Gulf. Iran has yet to comment to this one, but don't be surprised if they say the US sabotaged or sank the boat on purpose.

Hold on! What the hell is the US Coast Guard doing in the Persian Gulf? As @prfekrdumbrella tweeted, "Which of the 57 states are defending in the Persian Gulf?" A most excellent question. Since when does the United States have coast on the Persian Gulf? US Navy being there, that's what they're there for. Coast Guard? Aren't they for things a little closer to home?

Moving on to Bahrain. Protesters there gathered by the thousands in front of the United Nation buildings to demand that the UN help them against their government and it's oppressive ways of teargas and stun guns. Don't hold your breath there. It's taken the UN eight months to decide they should meet to discuss Syria, where thousands of people have been killed.

Speaking of Syria, President Bashar al-Assad made a televised address blaming basically the entire world for instigating the trouble his government is having. Not exactly new, but he did add the Arab League to his list of those responsible for encouraging terrorist acts in Syria. As mentioned the UN has finally decide that the Security Council should address the troubles there. So in another couple of years maybe they'll decide on action there.

Scottish Independence

Most of you when you hear Scottish independence are likely picturing Mel Gibson, as William Wallace, shouting "Freedom!" in the movie Braveheart. Whilst not the most entirely historically accurate movie (William Wallace was actually in France for most of the war) it has endured itself into the hearts of most who've seen it. All the Hollywood glory and everything not withstanding, Scotland once again seeks to be an independent nation.

Now there's not the fighting that the movie so clearly shows, or in the sense of the Irish Republican Army that seeks independence for Northern Ireland even til this day. No, Scotland is seeking it's freedom purely through political action. In 1934, the Scottish National Party was formed and in 2007 and again in last May it won major elections. In 2011 it actually gained a majority of the Scottish Parliament. As of today they have officially announced that in the fall of 2014 there will be a referendum for all of Scotland to vote on whether or not they wish to be free and independent of England.

One of the biggest reasons for Scotland to seek independence is economic. Scotland has many natural resources and the SNP feels that Scotland, not England should decide how they are used. Towards this the British Parliament has proposed and is discussing the 'Scotland Bill', which would give Scotland control of one third of it's own budget, rather than it being dictated to them. The SNP has refused to engage on the bill, as they do not see it as coming near enough.

Some major issues that would arise from Scottish independence would include, how close ties would be to England. Most likely Scotland would end up as part of the Commonwealth system that Canada and Australia are part of. Also of importance would be defense. Scotland would have to form it's own military, and all of England's nuclear weaponry is based in Scotland. Other questions would include how to treat the border and should Scotland come up with it's own currency or stick to the pound. Truly any kind of actual independence would require a long drawn out process.

So we are left with three and a half years for the people of Scotland to decide whether or not they wish to remain under English control. That seems a very long time from now, but SNP leaders want to allow the people to be very sure on this issue, and it'll give them time to make their case. Opposers of independence wish to have the vote much more quickly.

The best news in the situation is that both the nationalists and unionists have made it clear they would much rather this be something that is voted once a generation, rather than becoming a mess like that of Quebec in Canada, where independence referendums occur every couple years.