18. mars 2003

Blair wins parliamentary support for war A motion opposing war against Iraq, arguing military force was unjustified, was defeated by 396 votes against 217, 139 of the opponents Labour rebels. The motion backing the government's position was passed by 412 votes against 149, a decision that must be considered a victory for the British Prime Minister. Brits are now expected, as tradition dictate, to rally behind their troops as war commences. 11:53:20 PM    comment []

Coalition of the willing: 45 nations Colin Powell says that 45 nations currently support military action against Iraq, but 15 of them are nations that "for one reason or another do not yet wish to be publicly named." Among the named nations are, unsurprisingly, many former eastern bloc nations who has chosen to ally themselves closely with the United States, and also states like Afghanistan, Macedonia and Albania, who certainly owes the US favours. Also a number of long-term allies like Spain, Italy, Japan, Denmark and of course the United Kingdom is on the list. My own country, Norway, has after a long time of cowardly trying to balance on the edge fallen down on the French-German side, arguing that it would not support a conflict outside the UN. I do note that the last time Norway was allied with France against the United Kingdom, the Napoleonic wars, it went badly. At the time, Norway was part of the Kingdom of Denmark, and the Danes have chosen differently this time around. The US embassador to Norway, long-time Bush ally John Doyle Ong, raised a few eyebrows when he earlier warned Norway that choices have consequences. He stated: "When Norway's security has been threatened, the US has been there... not just three times out of four, but every time" He went on to warn that when a friend lets down a request for help "the relationship changes." 11:01:05 PM    comment []

Human Rights award given to anti-scientology activist The 2003 Leipzig Human Rights Award has been given to Andreas Heldal-Lund, a Norwegian who has worked hard to expose the Church of Scientology through his website Operation Clambake. The controversial American sect has been fighting the website with a wide array of legal and extralegal methods. The latest struggle started when the lawsuit-happy sect tried to bully Google to remove links to the site because material violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. After a bit of back and forth, the search engine found a way not to give in to the litigious sect. 9:53:18 PM    comment []

Hypocrisy II "Moscow believes there are no grounds for saying that a political-diplomatic solution to the situation in Iraq has no chance, that the 'time for diplomacy is over'." (Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko) Does this argument apply to Chechnya, too? 9:20:40 PM    comment []

Is religion a disease on the brain? An upcoming programme on BBC2 Horizon (to be aired in the UK on Thursday 20th) will explore the effects of epilepsy and other neurological disorders on religious experiences. Using magnetic fields, Dr Michael Persinger promises to generate religious feelings even in the brain of arch-atheist Richard Dawkins. That should be interesting. 8:25:03 PM    comment []

US Army web site hacked A US Army web site was hacked through an exploitation of a previously unknown security hole in Microsoft's Internet Information Server (IIS). It is very rare that a vulnerability is discovered by a major site being hacked. The intruder managed to get full control of the target machine. Apparently, the server was not doing anything else than presenting data on the web, and thus the attack should not have left other part of the armed forces' network exposed. 7:48:06 PM    comment []

Unilateral war is nothing new France, which has been effectively sidelined by the "coalition of the willing", is full of rightous indignation over US unilateralism, and complains loudly that Bush is "violating international law." France must have a very short memory. France did join the "coalition of the willing" that attacked Serbia to put an end to Milosevic' (picture) genocide in Kosovo. The bombing campaign culminated in a NATO occuption of Kosovo (until then a part of Jugoslavia and Serbia). NATO did not have any UN Security Council resolution to support its action, not even one that threatened "serious consequences." The attack on Yugoslavia/Serbia was in reaction to Milosovic' repeated acts of aggression against Serbia's neighbours and a threatening genocide against Muslims in Bosnia (already in the past) and Kosovo (ongoing). Russia, a long-time ally of the Serbs, blocked all attempts to bring the conflict under the UN umbrella, so NATO took action alone, unilaterlly. Serbia was no threat to NATO members; the action was justified as being humanitarian. The war was also preemptive. A number of countries who strongly oppose the war against Iraq participated in the bomb attacks on Serbia and the invasion and subsequent occupation of Kosovo, an unilateral attack, a war of aggression, against a sovereign state. Is the humanitarian arguments against ousting Saddam Hussein any weaker than those against Milosovic? Is the Iraqi regime less of a threat to its own population, or its neighbours? The fact of the case is that of all wars fought since WWII, very few has been fought with the blessing of the UN Security Council. And that includes a number of French military adventures (the Viet Nam war, for one, started as a war between Communist insurgents and the French). The Kosovo war is only the latest example. France's sudden concern for international law rings exceptionally hollow in face of its own historical record in unilateral wars. The claim that Bush' coming war against Iraq represents a dangerous precedent in bypassing international law and the UN flies in the face of historical facts. On the contrary, even if we accept the argument that this attack is a violation of international law (which really is an open question), this has been more a rule than an exception for wars after 1945. 5:24:35 PM    comment []

Anti-war group mounts harsh criticism After Bush' ultimatum to Saddam to go into exile or face war, the anti-war coalition has launched very harsh attacks on the US president and his allies. France, Germany and Russia is in the forefront of condemnation, but also the Pope chimed in. 4:04:50 PM    comment []

Bioweapons hazard A study shows that a bomb or missile with one kilogram of Anthrax could kill 123,000 people if it was dropped over a city like New York. However, an increased level of readiness and quick response would drastically reduce mortality. 3:48:31 AM    comment []

Poland to commit troops to Gulf Poland says it is ready to deploy up to 200 troops to the likely Gulf war. While of limited military importance, this is an obvious demonstration of the solidarity with the US (and against France and Germany) in the former East Bloc. 2:47:42 AM    comment []

Australia to commit troops to Gulf Australian Prime Minister John Howard has promised to commit additional troops to the coming Gulf war, despite massive opposition from the public. 1:51:25 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2003 Jan Haugland. Last update: 01.04.2003; 01:33:14.