05 October 2008

Global Defence News That's Not Really on American Radars

Japan
Japan continues to take baby steps toward military participation in international missions. Their newly-assertive imperialist plot to make the world safe for Toyota and Sony involves an overwhelming force to participate in a monitoring operation in the Sudan:
Japan will send two army officers to Sudan, probably this month, to take part in a United Nations operation monitoring a peace agreement that ended Africa's longest-running civil war, the Foreign Ministry said on Friday.


England
Even the British media admit that Queen's reinforcements to Afghanistan are too few and too late. As the author also rightly notes, a major problem is not how many troops are deployed, but where.
So we are sending more troops to Afghanistan. Yesterday, the British government announced a major new deployment. Another 230 soldiers will be heading east. Yes, a whole 230. This is apparently worthy of a speech by the defence secretary to parliament. The Taliban must be laughing into their beards.


France
The Yanks and Limeys no longer have a monopoly on shady arms deals bubbling into the public eye. The French are prosecuting an entire cast of characters with a circular connection to a host of under-the-table arms deals, bribes, smuggled weapons, and questionable politics:
The 468-page French indictment makes seamy reading: secret arms deals feeding bloodshed in an oil-rich African country. Envelopes of cash changing hands in a Paris mansion. A cast of defendants ranging from a debt-ridden tycoon to a Chinese opera singer.

Kalashnikov rifles and Soviet-made land mines poured by the planeful into Angola as it fought a civil war. In exchange, Angolan oil flowed to multinational companies. And a pair of savvy negotiators allegedly reaped millions of undeclared dollars in profits.


By: Widow 6-7

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