Comments (0)

By Nick, May 14, 2013 9:40 am

Nuclear missile officers jobs weigh heavy on them but not for the reasons you’d think.

On May 8 we posted about an article by Robert Burns of the Associated Press, in which he reported that the Air Force removed authority to control – and launch – nuclear missiles from 17 officers of the 91st Missile Wing in Minot, North Dakota after they were given a poor review for a series of mistakes.

In a follow-up piece, Burns asks Is There a Morale Crisis in the US Nuclear Force? He reports:

Inside the missile launch capsules, so called because of their pill-like shape, two officers stand watch, authorized to turn the keys enabled by secret launch codes if the presidential order ever comes. … Publicly, the Air Force insists that its missileers, as they are known within the service, are capable, trustworthy and committed. But Air Force Secretary Michael Donley also acknowledged in congressional testimony that he worries that talk of further shrinking the nation’s nuclear force is having a “corrosive effect” on his troops.

Gen. Mark Welsh, the Air Force chief of staff, said at the same congressional hearing that it’s understandable that young missile officers may be demoralized by the realization that theirs is a shrinking field.

“You say, ‘My goodness, there’s only three (missile wings in the entire Air Force). There’s no opportunity there,’” Welsh said. “That’s actually not the case, but that’s the view when you’re in one of those units.”

While “That’s actually not the case” might be true technically, any opportunity may just be a higher rank and more responsibility in a field that’s, nevertheless, “shrinking.” (Not fast enough to our liking!)

Though it may not be exactly what they mean, one could be forgiven for jumping to the conclusion that Secretary Donley and Gen. Welsh are recommending expanding our nuclear-weapons program to prevent missileers from growing discouraged and help them keep their heads in the game.

I know what you’re thinking: would that their jobs oppressed them because the fate of the world lies on whether or not they push a button. (Or toggle a series of switches or whatever.) But, hey, you’ve got to be pretty hard-hearted towards missileers and their sensitive psyches to deprive them of more nukes.

Burns reports on the real reason for their bleak career prospects (emphasis added).

Bruce Blair, a former missile launch officer and now a national security scholar at Princeton University, said Friday that morale has dropped in part because the ICBM mission that originated in 1959, deterring the Soviet Union from attacking the U.S. or Europe, is less compelling than it was generations ago.

“This dead-end career is not the result of shrinking nuclear arsenals, but rather because the Cold War ended decades ago and because so few senior commander jobs exist within the missile specialty,” Blair said. “Most crews can’t wait to transfer out of missiles into faster-track careers such as space operations, but the Air Force doesn’t make it easy.”

While they wait for those transfers, maybe the Air Force can take a cue from “the missile launch capsules, so called because of their pill-like shape” and dole out Prozac to their missileers. It’s a lot cheaper and less risky than expanding our nuclear-weapons program to boost their morale.

FPIF Latest Content

Comments (0)

By Nick, April 7, 2013 7:46 pm

N. Korea ‘can’t protect foreign embassies after April 10′, Russia ‘not evacuating’
By: Bulov on: 07.04.2013 [02:12 ] (199 reads)

iraqwar.mirror-world.ru (en) RSS feed for articles and news

Comments (0)

By Nick, April 6, 2013 10:00 pm

N. Korea ‘can’t protect foreign embassies after April 10′, Russia ‘not evacuating’
By: Bulov on: 07.04.2013 [02:12 ] (4 reads)

www.iraq-war.ru (en) RSS feed for articles and news

Comments (0)

By Nick, January 22, 2013 1:16 am

In the mid-1960s my family fled the oppressive Baath regime of Syria for liberty’s shores in the United States. Raised in Wisconsin as an American Muslim, I learned that my faith was best served by a nation founded in liberty with a Constitution that guaranteed genuine religious freedom.

As I watched the Arab Awakening unfold in 2011 and 2012, I had high hopes that my co-religionists might finally be lifting the yoke of their oppressive secular dictators for the freedom that I have enjoyed here in the United States. But now as 2013 opens, we are witnessing the frightening ascension of an even greater oppressive force than the dictators who had a stranglehold on the region for almost five decades — Islamism (political Islam).

Islamism combines the autocracy of the secular Arabist dictators with unrestrained religious supremacy. The primary battle front, where Islamists suffocate their enemies, is on religious liberty. The plight begins in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, where the royal family, in a bid to maintain power, essentially gave control of religious life to the radical Wahhabi elements within the country. The petro dollars of the Kingdom have spread this lethal Islamist ideology around the world. They are joined by the Qatari through arms like the Al Jazeera Media Group, which, after decades of failure, just recently acquired access to more than 40 million American homes through the purchase of Al Gore’s Current TV.

The recipe is simple: Islamists are government theocrats who promote a particular version of an Islamic doctrine in order to impose their fascist interpretation upon all citizens. They use elections and so-called “democracy” in order to empower a single version of Shariah — their interpretation of Islam’s legal framework for the “Islamic state.” Islamists exploit their own perceived divine mandate to justify a litany of draconian laws upon their people. The most obvious permutation of those laws leaves no room for religious tolerance let alone religious liberty.

Make no mistake, the victims of Islamist control are both religious minorities and those with dissident beliefs, whether Muslim or non-Muslim who are against the theocrats.

Throughout the region we are seeing a significant increase of oppression of religious freedoms. In Pakistan this week, the Ambassador to the United States has been indicted by the Pakistani Supreme Court under blasphemy laws for simply saying that the country needs to rework its blasphemy law.

In Iran, we continue to see case after case of devout Christians, Baha’i, and Islamic apostates who face death penalties for expressing their religious beliefs. It is not a coincidence that this plight coincides with a government that at the same time is pounding its collective Islamist chest in seeking nuclear arms and feeding the genocide against an entire dissident citizenry in Syria.

On Monday, a 32-year-old Christian pastor, former Muslim, and American citizen, Saeed Abedini will stand trial for supposedly “compromising national security.” His real crime to the Iranian theocrats is his own human expression of religious freedom through the development of an underground network of home churches. He will face the infamous Islamist Judge Abbas Pir-Abassi, known for sending innocent dissident believers to Iran’s dungeons.

In Egypt, with the ink hardly dry on the new Egyptian Islamist Constitution, the Muslim Brotherhood has wasted no time in bringing their Islamist justice to the people of Egypt. Nadia Mohammed Ali was sentenced this week to prison along with her children and the clerks who documented their Christian identity cards. The plight of Christians signals the future of religious freedom for all in Egypt. Ali and her children are now imprisoned simply for their chosen faith of Christianity.

The silence from devout Muslims around the world must end. It is time to rise up as free-thinking Muslims against governments and groups like the Muslim Brotherhood which exploit the faith of Islam for their own supremacist mission. The essential fuel of Islamist political parties and systems is the idea of the “Islamic state.” Nadia and her family are canaries in the coal mine of the Islamic state. The silence from the White House also must end. We must stand with Nadia as human beings. An Obama Doctrine is nowhere to be found and at this point the administration is unlikely to ever lay out a coherent foreign policy strategy with regards to religious liberty in the Middle East. Real global leadership for human rights needs a Liberty Doctrine. Free-thinking Muslims, however, are most directly positioned to repair this rupture within our collective soul.

The stifling of religious freedom is a natural evolution of an Islamist system fueled by an obsession upon one faith and its divine mandate. As a Muslim, I know the Islamist state will never evolve into genuine democracy. I reject the entire notion of the Islamic state and I see no other way to defeat Islamism but through the separation of mosque and state. Mollifying Islamism into some kind of tolerant form is a fool’s endeavor with example after example in Islamic history of failure. That is why my family came to the U.S.

In the U.S., I learned that whether I am in the minority or the majority, the only way to realize religious freedom is to live in a society where its governmental laws are based in reason and government stays out of the business of determining which religious legalisms are righteous. There are sadly hundreds to thousands more cases like these of courageous religious minorities and also dissident Sunni and Shiite Muslims from within the majority in countries like Egypt and Iran who are at the tip of the spear. They are often alone cutting through the battle raging inside the soul of Islam and Muslim communities across the world.

As leaders of the free world, our nation can choose to abandon these canaries in the Islamist coal mine or we can lift up their plights as beacons of freedom that can ultimately defeat Islamism. It is time to call out the governmental oppressors of innocents like Nadia Mohammed Ali in Egypt or Saeed Abedini in Iran for what they are–ruthless fascist theocrats (Islamists) who use religion as a tool to destroy the spirit of their citizenry.

If the United States stands for anything we need to vigorously and consistently stand for the protection of religious freedom abroad that is not only enshrined in our own founding documents, but in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which we are supposed to protect.

By M. Zuhdi Jasser
Fox News

M. Zuhdi Jasser is the author of the recently released book, “A Battle for the Soul of Islam” and is President and founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy based in Phoenix, Ariz. He is also a Commissioner on the U.S. Commission for International Religious Freedom (the opinions here are his own).

Assyrian International News Agency

Comments (0)

By Nick, October 15, 2012 5:05 pm

By Saleem al-Wazzan.

This article was originally published by Niqash. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News.

The number of squatters in Basra is growing by the day and tens of thousands live in local shanty towns. The settlements are impeding development projects like hospitals and sewage but politicians are allegedly protecting squatters’ rights in return for votes.

Iraq’s southern city of Basra is now one of the nation’s most prosperous and in comparison to some areas, one of its safest. Hardly surprising then, that there’s been a flow of refugees and displaced people to Basra. And this has resulted in a number of problems – one of the most obvious is the growing number of shanty towns or squatter settlements built by the new immigrants to Basra.

Recent reports suggest the number of squatter houses has gone from around 30,000 in 2010 to about 44,000 now – some estimates go even higher, suggesting there may be around 60,000 squatter houses in Basra currently, with around 150 families arriving in the area monthly. And they come with an estimated 58,000 unlicensed small retailers and workshops, according to the latest statement from Basra’s governor, Khalaf Abdul Samad.

Part of the reason for the growth in the squatter towns is the fact that people are still moving around Iraq to either escape violence or seek jobs. The fact that existing political parties in opposition in the state government are unable to come up with a clear policy toward ration cards held by Iraqis and where they may be validated and then used to claim various staple goods is another reason why the displaced families are able to move around so freely and to settle at will.

But now there are complaints that the settlements are starting to impede genuine development in the area. “When we started on work for the sewage project for neighbourhood of Sabkhat al-Arab we were surprised to discover that there were 35 squatter houses occupying the place we were supposed to build on,” says one local contractor, Hatem al-Mohsen. Al-Mohsen says he then asked the local government to deal with the squatter housing, so that they could begin work on the sewage project.

Iraq Business News

Comments (0)

By Nick, October 15, 2012 5:05 pm

By Saleem al-Wazzan.

This article was originally published by Niqash. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News.

The number of squatters in Basra is growing by the day and tens of thousands live in local shanty towns. The settlements are impeding development projects like hospitals and sewage but politicians are allegedly protecting squatters’ rights in return for votes.

Iraq’s southern city of Basra is now one of the nation’s most prosperous and in comparison to some areas, one of its safest. Hardly surprising then, that there’s been a flow of refugees and displaced people to Basra. And this has resulted in a number of problems – one of the most obvious is the growing number of shanty towns or squatter settlements built by the new immigrants to Basra.

Recent reports suggest the number of squatter houses has gone from around 30,000 in 2010 to about 44,000 now – some estimates go even higher, suggesting there may be around 60,000 squatter houses in Basra currently, with around 150 families arriving in the area monthly. And they come with an estimated 58,000 unlicensed small retailers and workshops, according to the latest statement from Basra’s governor, Khalaf Abdul Samad.

Part of the reason for the growth in the squatter towns is the fact that people are still moving around Iraq to either escape violence or seek jobs. The fact that existing political parties in opposition in the state government are unable to come up with a clear policy toward ration cards held by Iraqis and where they may be validated and then used to claim various staple goods is another reason why the displaced families are able to move around so freely and to settle at will.

But now there are complaints that the settlements are starting to impede genuine development in the area. “When we started on work for the sewage project for neighbourhood of Sabkhat al-Arab we were surprised to discover that there were 35 squatter houses occupying the place we were supposed to build on,” says one local contractor, Hatem al-Mohsen. Al-Mohsen says he then asked the local government to deal with the squatter housing, so that they could begin work on the sewage project.

Iraq Business News

Comments (0)

By Nick, September 27, 2012 3:50 pm

By John  Lee.

UNESCO‘s Iraq Office and the Governorate of Ninewa signed an agreement to start a project under which UNESCO will carry out a complete set of studies to protect one of the region’s historical icons: Al Hadba Minaret.

After several meetings and an expert mission, UNESCO Iraq Director Mohamed Djelid met on Friday, 20 September 2012, with Ninewa Governor Aseel Abdel Aziz Al Nujaifi in the city of Erbil to sign the “Executive Cooperation Programme for the Study and Documentation for the stability and conservation of Al-Hadba Minaret”.

Under this project, UNESCO will undertake a comprehensive research of the materials, geological bedding and structural analysis during a 12 month period, before deciding on the type of treatment that should be applied. Main priority areas of intervention were identified following a visual inspection by a UNESCO expert during a site visit on June 2012.

Located in Mosul, Al Hadba minaret represents the most outstanding feature of the Great Nurid Mosque built in 1172. Leaning 253 cm off the perpendicular axe for several years, the Minaret suffers from serious structural weakness and it risks collapsing.

This conservation programme, the first of its kind in the region in 20 years, will guide the governorate of Ninewa and the city of Mosul to make the correct decisions and take suitable measures in order to protect the leaning minaret that has brought fame to the northern city.

(Source: UNESCO)

Iraq Business News

Comments (0)

By Nick, August 16, 2012 3:01 pm

Assyrian International News Agency

Comments (0)

By Nick, July 18, 2012 9:52 am

In March at Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Charles Blair wrote:

Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile is thought to be massive. One of only eight nations that is not a member of the Chemical Weapons Convention … Syria has a chemical arsenal that includes several hundred tons of blistering agents along with likely large stockpiles of deadly nerve agents, including VX, the most toxic of all chemical weapons.

On July 13 the Wall Street Journal reported that U.S. officials were alarmed by reports that Syria has begun moving some of its chemical weapons out of storage facilities. Then, the BBC reports, Nawaf al-Fares, Syria’s defecting ambassador to Iraq, said that, if cornered President Bashar al-Assad ”will not hesitate to use chemical weapons.” Worse, “There is information, unconfirmed information of course, that chemical weapons have been used partially in the city of Homs.”

On the other hand, at the Atlantic, Sara Sorcher thinks that, in fact, “Assad’s strong hold on power has so far, from a chemical-weapons standpoint, staved off a potential disaster without an easy fix.” Her concern is reflected in the subtitle to the piece:

What happens to Bashar al-Assad’s stockpile — one of the largest in the world — if the deeply divided and untrained rebels overthrow his regime?

Blair aired the same concern in March.

While it is uncertain whether the Syrian regime would consider using WMD against its domestic opponents, Syrian insurgents … are increasingly sectarian and radicalized; indeed, many observers fear the uprising is being “hijacked” by jihadists. Terrorist groups active in the Syrian uprising have already demonstrated little compunction about the acquisition and use of WMD. In short, should Syria devolve into full-blown civil-war, the security of its WMD should be of profound concern, as sectarian insurgents and Islamist terrorist groups may stand poised to seize chemical and perhaps even biological weapons.

Furthermore, Sorcher writes, “the latest development underscores what some worry is a fundamental lack of preparation in Washington for what might happen next.” She quotes Leonard Spector, deputy director of the Monterey Institute of International Studies’ James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, who

… argues the U.S. should encourage the sites’ trained custodians–who may be contemplating defection–to remain in place. “You want to advise them that if they stick to their mission of protecting these sites … that they will be treated in a special category that will get some protection,” Spector said, calling on Washington to advise the Syrian opposition to get this message out. However, Syria’s opposition is still disorganized, and the West retains a lingering distrust of opposition groups with possible extremist ties.

If not for the fear that Assad might use WMD, the case could be made to prop him up if only to keep WMD out of the hands of insurgents who range from unpredictable to outright malevolent. The situation parallels that of another state somewhat. With its enmity for India, the West fears that Pakistan might not be able to restrain itself from launching nuclear weapons at India. Still that’s preferable to the West’s greater fear: that Islamic militants will seize Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal.

A state acquires weapons, especially WMD, not just for national security, but to ensure the survivability of the ruling regime or prevailing mode of government (such as democracy or communism). But, it may fail to anticipate conditions that can result in WMD being seized — or just plain lost in the shuffle, as when the Soviet Union dissolved — and used against it.

‘Twas ever thus with weapons. It’s just that, with WMD, the danger is exponentially amplified.

FPIF Latest Content

Comments (0)

By Nick, May 24, 2012 7:21 am

Japanese Parliamentarian Kuniko Tanioka is not a rebel. Her assessment of Japanese policy after the Fukushima nuclear accident may not be popular with the Japanese government or nuclear industry, but she is a representative of a team formed within the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) to deal with the countless issues that have arisen since 3/11. The DPJ, the current ruling party, and the only party other than the Liberal Democratic Party to hold the Diet in more than 50 years, is part of a coalition government. It is subject to great pressure from the United States, Tanioka explained in a recent presentation at Institute for Policy Studies, and in charge of a system woefully unprepared to handle crises like the Fukushima Daiichi accident.

According to Tanioka, there is no legislative structure in place to deal with the long-term effects of a nuclear disaster of this scale, and Tanioka’s team works to provide reports and information, and draft bills into the Diet in order to cope with all of the lingering problems and human security issues stemming from last March. This is the first time the Diet has had a probing commission for this type of disaster, and the DPJ team is under constant internal and external pressure to downplay the situation and protect the interests of nuclear power.

The last of the operational reactors in Japan closed earlier this month, but some government officials are already pushing to restart several reactors in northern Japan, claiming that without them there will be electricity shortages. Of course, asserts Tanioka, the industry is pressuring the government because it doesn’t want Japan to prove that it can make it without reactors. This is not the main consideration, however, says Tanioka. The safety of the people and the environment should be first, and the conditions to restart must be stringent, including new standards that go beyond the engineering of the reactors, that include filtered vents, safe buildings for plant workers in case of accidents, and detailed evacuation plans for surrounding areas.

Tanioka’s talk comes on the heels of a Japanese delegation to the UN asking for international assistance with the radiation that continues to emanate from Fukushima. In reactors 1 through 3, the radiation is still too high for anyone to enter, and if there were further malfunctions, there is little hope for stabilization. She cited the need for more U.S. support, and noted that the only voices speaking to the Obama administration are industry representatives.

The U.S. and Japanese nuclear industries are inseparable, as many U.S. providers are owned by Japanese firms. Until the shutdown of Tomari on May 5, Japan was one of the largest consumers of nuclear energy in the world. If Japan were to become totally nuclear-free, this would be a massive hit to the global nuclear industry. 

Tanioka wants Americans to understand several issues. First, there is a need for greater transparency and a wider scope for medical research into the effects of radiation. Even with all of the time since Chernobyl, this data is not forthcoming – blocked by a handful of experts who hold all the cards.  A wider exchange of data within the academic world would support the expansion of preventative treatments for radiation exposure, and more effective supplements and procedures for those who have already been exposed.

More importantly, both the Japanese national government in Tokyo and the Fukushima prefectural government, along with TEPCO and a host of industry scientists, insist that radiation levels near the Fukushima Daiichi plant are safe for humans. Tanioka disagrees, and spoke of  the devastating effects of nuclear accidents on citizens. Life in the affected areas has entirely lost any sense of normalcy. There have been more than 200,000 evacuees, and for them, and for those who have stayed, their lives are disrupted on a scale that is difficult to comprehend. Even simple joys, such as gardening in their now radioactive soil, are gone – the result of shoddy regulation in an industry focused only on profits, and an unhealthy dependence on this dangerous energy source.

Erin Chandler is an intern at Foreign Policy in Focus.

FPIF Latest Content