Short Takes: Worth Reading, 07/09/08

Short takes is my way of cramming a lot into a small space for you..kind of like the young gentleman above is doing! Here's a brief rundown of some of today's items of interest for Joshua's Army:

*The Iranians proved how well the so-called 'sanctions' were working by performing a missile test of the new Shahab 3 missiles with a range of over 1,200 miles. Meanwhile on the `Today' show Barack Obama reacted to Matt Lauer's question about the Iranian missile tests by hemming and hawing and a general call for more sanctions...providing that doesn't get the Iranians too mad, of course!

*The US and Czecholslovakia have just signed a deal for US missile defense bases on Czech soil, which made the Russians absolutely livid. They threatened a "military-technical response" over the matter if the missile defense system is deployed.. What Putin was intending was obviously to intimidate the Czechs from going through with the deal and the Poles from signing similar deal with the US, where negotiations have been held up. Istead,it made the Czechs even more determined to go through with it , and had exactly the opposite effect on the Poles, who now have now decided they want in.Russia's harsh rhetoric udoubtedly reminded both countries of what it was like to live under Russian diktat.

*Speaking about the Russians, one thing I'll say for them - they stick to their old friends. The latest on Zimbabwe is that Russia is opposing a US-led sanctions drive. The Russians no doubt recall the good old days, when Robert Mugabe, South Africa's ANC and Nelson Mandela were their operatives in attempting to create communist satellite slave states in southern Africa.

*Earlier today there was a terrorist attack just outside the US embassy in Istanbul that killed six people in a very security conscious part of the city. The Turkish press is already reporting 'Al-Qaeda links' to the attack.

*Hamas and Fatah are apparently getting closer to a united front. The two mobs apparently had a sitdown, according to the Maan news agency, with `moderate' Fatah finance minister Selim Fayyad secretly meeting with Hamas leaders in the West Bank....just as I foretold a long time ago.