[Arktwo] Significant events

[Bruce Beach]

Several very significant events
have happened in the last couple of days
which most of you will not have heard about
in the MSM.

18/09/2006

High Court:
Jerusalem's gay pride parade
to be held November 10

(Mayor) Lupolianski has said in the past that such a parade in Jerusalem was
comparable to "a pig's head on Al-Aqsa [mosque]" and that homosexuals are
"deviants."

Nevertheless -
the Court says it is to proceed.
And here I thought -
that my 'poetic' date was dead.
Well,
back to the Sodom and Gomorrah theme -
but I will truly be surprised
if we make it that far.

--------

The U.S.-led war in Iraq is in its fourth year
and it would be an understatement to say
that it is not going well.

Lots of double talk -
about that the US is going to reduce its presence -
or that it must stay and see the problem through.
Whichever -
Bush must be humming the lyrics
from the Sheryl Crow song
"Anything But Down"

	You are a raging sea
	I pull myself out everyday
	I plea insanity
	Cause I can't leave but I can't stay

Bush's approval rating,
is experiencing a recent up tick,
to 40 percent
Israeli PM Olmert's is down to 22%
and the Israeli Minister of Defense
is down to 14%.

Those who are anti-Israel
and anti-Bush
may be all thinking
how sweet this is
with all Israeli troops
supposed to have been out
of Lebanon by Friday Sept. 22
(eve of Jewish New Year)
[although possibly delayed for a week].

Especially sweet they may think,
looking at how
Bush's presentation went over in the UN
and the response from Venezuela and others.

Ten years ago -
that kind of uppity talk from Venezuela
would have had Marines on their doorstep
within a week,
but Bush is bogged down in Iraq.

So,
North Korea and Iran
feel free to rattle their nuclear swords,
and things just get tougher and tougher
for Bush and Israel.

Massive turnout in Lebanon this week
for the Hezbollah celebration.
Said to be 800,000 people who attended -
and I can believe that -
looking at the crowd photographs
taken from a high building.

It is said that a poll showed that
70% of the Lebanese are supportive
of Hezbollah.
Those would be mostly Shiites -
but still -
that doesn't give much credence to the cry -
"the poor innocent Lebanese got bombed".

Nasrallah (the head of Hezbollah in Lebanon) told the crowd that "no army in
the world" would be able to disarm Hezbollah, a key demand of a United
Nations cease-fire resolution

http://tinyurl.com/h329o

Nasrallah has stated
that they now have more rockets
than before the war -
and that any act by UNIFIL members
such as Germany
to try to stop them from receiving more
will be considered an act of war
and they will attack the German ships.

I personally think
that a lot of it is bluster -
and while it appears to me
that Israel largely achieved its objective
in the war -
I think that Hezbollah is on a roll
in rebuilding
and extending its organization
and armaments
and so that Israel has a very narrow window
to take advantage of what it achieved.

Meanwhile -
back on the Palestinian front -
things went from bad to good -
and back to bad -
very quickly this week.
There was much talk of a Unity Government -
in the UN this week.

HOWEVER -
from the following news report -

http://tinyurl.com/zflq7

Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas said Friday that he would
not head a unity government that recognized the "Jewish state."

The comments ... contradict Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas'
statement to the United Nations from the day before.

However, Haniyeh's political adviser, Ahmed Yousef, said "there won't be a
national unity government if Hamas is asked to recognize Israel."

The Quartet - composed of the United States, the European Union, the United
Nations and Russia - endorsed Abbas' efforts to establish a national unity
government with Hamas. It said it hoped the platform of the unity government
would "reflect" the three conditions: Recognizing Israel, renouncing
violence and abiding by interim peace deals. The Quartet also urged Israel
to hand over withheld tax revenues to the Palestinians.

"We consider the absence of a Quartet demand that the new government
recognize Israel as a sign of the willingness to show softening of the
stance vis-à-vis the Palestinians," ... (Ahmed Yousef) said.

[This latter was based upon
mistaken evaluation of the above diplomatic phrase -
"hoped the platform of the unity government would 'reflect' " ]

Just all a part of the smoke screen -
of words, words, words.
But -
what really counts are actions -
as we shall list below.

--------
If you can imagine yourself
as being President of the US
and having these memos
end up on your desk this week.

Memo One:

Your speech at the UN
didn't go well world-wide.
The president of Iran snubbed it
and didn't attend -
The president of Venezuela followed it
with a speech in which he repeatedly said
that you are the Devil.

Memo Two:

The Republican leaders in Congress
rolled over
and you are going to get your bill
permitting torture -
but most of the American population
doesn't think it is a high point
in the way of a legislative agenda.

Memo Three:

Iran and the IAEA have stonewalled you again
regarding any deadlines
for Iran to wind down its nuke activities,
and you can believe
they are going to stonewall
your new deadline of Oct 5th.

http://tinyurl.com/lejje

Memo Four:

North Korea has jumped on
the Iran nuke bandwagon
and is pressing forward with its nuke plans.

Memo Five:

Some interesting anniversaries
in Iraq this week.
The number of US soldiers killed
has now surpassed the number killed
at the WTC -
AND the number of Iraqi civilians
being killed EVERY month
has now also passed that number.

Memo Six:

Your popularity in the polls is not great.
In fact,
Republicans standing for election
don't want to be associated with your policies
about Iraq and Iran -
and because it is such a mess -
they would prefer that the subjects
not even come up.

Memo Seven:

The Muslims in America
would like to hear some nice Ramadan
(which began this week)
message from you -
(sort of like a Christmas message)
but the rest of the American people
are still trying to digest
the Pope's speech about Muhammad.

Memo Eight:

TORs have fallen off the news radar screen
but they will still be a triggering factor
for Israel
if Russia starts to fulfill its contract
to ship the ones to Iran
that Iran has paid for.

http://tinyurl.com/er9u7

In that regards -
I have saved the two best memos for last.

Memo Nine:

http://tinyurl.com/jxtjk

Ukraine sells Kolchuga to Iran

The Kolchuga is intended to detect the take-off and formation of aircraft
groups at ranges beyond those of existing radar, as well as determine the
course and speed of targets while designating them for air-defence systems.
It can identify aerial targets through their emissions and identify the mode
of aircraft weapon control systems.

Three Kolchuga stations would normally operate along with a command vehicle
to provide accurate triangulation on a target. The system is claimed to have
a range of 600 km (narrow beam) or 200 km (wide beam) along a front of 1,000
km.

It is not known how many Kolchuga stations Iran has acquired. However,
sources told Jane's that each costs about USD25 million, with deliveries
either recent or imminent.

[The neat thing about the Kolchunga -
is that it completely defeats
the stealthiness of
the Stealth aircraft.

The big concern in warfare today -
is that someone will suddenly make
a technological breakthrough
that turns everything else on its head.]

------------
Memo Ten:

And now -
here is a humdinger.

http://tinyurl.com/l6flo

When he met US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice in New York Thursday,
Sept. 21, Turkish foreign minister Abdullah Gul said: “When we talk about
Kirkuk, everybody supposes we want to bring the Kurdish-Turkish issue to the
foreground. However, we instead see the uncertainty there as a general issue
of Iraq. We are concerned that instability and turmoil in Kirkuk could cause
more troubles in Iraq.”
----------

So in summary -
for the week -
Mr. President:

A. The governments of
Iraq, Lebanon, and Palestine -
whom you are trying to support -
have lost control to terrorist groups:

Iraq (Shiite and Sunni factions)
Lebanon (Shiite Hezbollah)
Palestine (Sunni Hamas)

(Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan -
are having their own problems).

B. Things are about to blow up
on the Iran / Turkey / Kurd front.

C. Your and Olmert's home front
political situations are pretty much
in the toilet.

D. 1. Russian TORs
	the SA-15 GAUNTLET (Tor M-1, 9M330)
   2. North Korean missiles and nukes
   3. Iranian missiles and nukes
   4. The Ukrainian Kolchuga
are threatening to upset
military technological balance.

E. Venezuela, the Democrats,
and just a whole lot of other people in the world -
are getting ready to treat you very nastily.

----------
Personally,
I would like to hold out
for my 'poetic' Nov. the 10th -
but things look awfully bad
for the next ten days
leading up to Oct. 5th.

Whatever you may think about these things -
it is unlikely that I have spotted
what future historians
will think to have been the key
determining or triggering factors.

The timing will be -
whatever the timing will be -
but things are certainly moving along.

Tomorrow another day of planned
intense preparation at the Ark.
Attended a meeting yesterday -
of non-Ark believers -
and mentioned but a fraction of my concerns.
The intensity of the ridicule
would have astounded you.

If we truly knew
the intensity of military preparation
about the world -
I think that would also astound us.

http://tinyurl.com/fm3lq

Here I 'preach' to the converted -
but there are very few who think this way.

Peace and love,
Bruce
DawnSayer@webpal.org