For a long time, Libya has remained on the edge of the global community because of its open support for terrorism. Libya was an open and acknowledged supporter of international terrorist groups (and earned a direct attack from the United States way back in 1986 for a bombing carried out by Libyan supported groups in a Berlin disco frequented by American servicemen). This was also followed by the explosion in a Pan Am fight over Lockerbie that killed all 270 on board and for which Libyan agents were blamed (and Libyan men were prosecuted and sentenced for the same crime. The consequence was a series of sanctions.
And then suddenly, a few years back, in 2003, Libya apparently and suddenly turned over a new leaf (suspicion was that it was done after the attack on Iraq under Saddam Hussein which showed the Libyan leader, Gaddafi, that his rule was under threat and could be attacked very easily; however, there were no apparent plans as such for any attack on Libya at that time). As a part of this, Libya stopped all efforts on developing nuclear weapons, and turned over all the plans and parts of its effort over to the US. And in a final effort, Libya agreed to pay compensation to the families of those who were killed in various terrorist activities such as flight bombings and the blast in the Berlin disco:

continue reading "Libya pays final compensation for terror"

The fight over Georgia has been seen as having 2 bigger objectives;
1. Russia wants to ensure that it is seen as the Big Brother of the neighborhood, and is willing to put force to ensure that this happens
2. Georgia has been seen as a region that was being projected as an alternative route for an oil pipeline that would bypass Russian territory
Both of these are issues that impact Russian interests pretty strongly. For a country that used to consider wide swaths of territory in Europe and Asia Minor as its area of influence, the movement by many of these areas towards greater integration with NATO and the United States must be galling. Already, US based in Turkey, Iraq, and Afghanistan ward off Russian influence in the strategic oil-rich regions of Asia. Combine this with the movements by states such as Poland, Ukraine, etc to move to greater integration with NATO must be real painful to the strategic community in Moscow. And then the movement in a region that is actually under Russian control (granted to it by the Commonwealth of Independent States – CIS); South Ossetia, a region in Georgia that is over-whelming tilted towards Russia. Georgia invaded South Ossetia, and launched a bombing campaign that started killing people in the capital of South Ossetia. This would have just been the motive for Russian interests to start a reverse action – they marched in troops, tanks, and even fighter jets and pushed the Georgian forces out of South Ossetia.

continue reading "Russia signs cease-fire accord in Georgia"

The Soviet Union was once a mighty empire, controlling large chunks of land in Europe and Asia, and giving the West a might enemy. And then it all fell apart; the individual states (many of them incorporated by force) wanted their freedom, and Boris Yeltsin wanted his own Russia to rule, and so the Soviet empire ended. And then it fell into decline. And then rose a strongman out of all this, one who had the blood of the all-powerful intelligence agency KGB running through him. On his own he could not do anything; however, he was lucky. Russia had large tracts of oil and gas, and had turned into a large exporter of these, bringing in revenue, and helping regrow the power.
However, in the midst of all this, the world did not stay still. Many of the former Soviet republics did not stay still, moving towards the West (and seemingly away from the clutches of their former all-powerful dictatorial landlord), striking closer relationships with them. At the same time, like any major power (and one that remembers all too well how powerful it is), Russia grew increasingly resentful of this emergence of the West in an area that it treats as its backyard (a close equivalent would be if Mexico suddenly became more hostile to the US and very very friendly towards Russia or China). This may well seem normal for a powerful country to treat its immediate neighbors as its areas of influence, but not so for the country so dominated. Ask Finland, that has fought wars with Russia in the past over this dominance, and ask Afghanistan that does not like being called as an area of Pakistani influence, as if it has no entity of its own.

continue reading "Russia and Georgia – the conflict"

For 2 candidates who represent almost the same wing of the Democratic Party, 2 candidates who have almost always voted for the same bills in the Senate, one can expect that the positions of the 2 candidates on almost all matters would be the same (and it has almost been the same – the difference is more about the style and whether Obama is a new wave as opposed to Clinton who represents more of the same). However, politics and the pressure of remaining behind Obama on the delegates count is forcing Hillary to get more desperate and adopt stands that are illogical such as the push to temporarily have a gas tax holiday:

continue reading "Clinton proposes oil tax waiver, Obama does not"