Short takes, 11/03/06

Short takes is Freedom Fighter's way of cramming a lot into a small space..kind of like the young gentleman above. Here's a brief rundown of some of today's matters of interest:

• Russia continues to block any meaningful UN sanctions against Iran, and today submitted extensive changes to soften and shorten a proposed U.N. draft resolution.

"The Russians gave us a complete line-in, line-out version of edits," said U.S. Ambassador John Bolton. "We will distribute our line-in, line-out text later this afternoon."

Sounds like more gridlock to me. I doubt, in the end, that anything meaningful will come of it.

• The jihad in East Africa is heating up, as I predicted. The Somali Islamists say they will strike first, both against what's left of the interim Somali government and their ally, Christian Ethiopia. Want to bet they're getting arms from Iran? At the same time, the jihadi government in the Sudan is stepping up its offensive in Darfur. If successful, the jihadis will be able to attack Ethiopia from the North as well as the East, as a prelude to striking through East Africa. The United States has already warned its citizens of potential suicide bombings in neighbouring Kenya and Ethiopia.
  
  

• The Thais have caved in to jihad,unfortunately. The new Prime minister has promised more government acquiensence to Muslims in the three Southern provinces, even to the extent of allowing sharia law.

Kudos to the Bush Administration for cutting off their military aid needed to fight the Muslim insurgency.

• The EU has warned Turkey over its potential membership, having just issued a report critical of political and human rights reforms in the country. Turkey has become increasingly Islamist under the Erdogan regime. I guess, just maybe, they're having second thoughts on bringing a Muslim nation into the Eu club with full access to the borders.
  

• Judgment day looms for Saddam Hussein as a verdict is expected this Sunday, ending this longstanding judicial farce. The Iraqi government has cancelled all military leaves in expectation of violence once the verdict is announced.
  

• Iran test-fired 3 new missiles in the Persian Gulf
  today and warned that this should be a clear message to the US not to conduct any more military exercises in the area.

"Our enemies should keep their hostility out of the Persian Gulf," said Adm. Sardar Fadavi, the deputy chief of the Revolutionary Guards navy.

Anybody still think that `diplomacy' is going to fix this?