Our Friends and Neighbors

Continuing the Proud Tradition of US Foreign Policy Blunders

Russia and Putin (Who Has a Good Soul!)
So the Russians are hopping mad at El Presidente for his harebrained scheme to build a system of useless missile interceptors to use against so-called Rogue States, like North Korea or Iran, which, in his rather wild imagination, have the potential to assemble functional ICBM systems out of string and posterboard and launch them at the United States.

Of course, the idea that countries which can barely fashion a working fission device on the ground under ideal conditions (or in Iran's case, might be able to DREAM of such success, in twenty years...) could suddenly put one on top of a missile capable of soaring around the globe and hitting a target in the continental United States is patently stupid... and the fact that we could instantly and brutally wipe anyone who did such a sub-moronic thing off the face of the earth with a searing nuclear hellstorm would seem, to me, to be a more effective deterrent against an attack by such magical pony riding super-terrorist-states than a missle interceptor system that has never worked, not once, in any real world conditions.

Sigh.

For reasons having entirely to do with national pride, I imagine, and not the 'threat' our pitiful system poses (none), the Russians are mad. Maybe it's the fact that we pulled out of the treaty banning such systems unilaterally. Maybe it's the fact that we're building the interceptors on their doorstep, in countries they formerly controlled in the Warsaw Pact.

For whatever reason, poking them with a stick is a really bad idea... so, of course, that's what Bush is doing, trying to arrange to deploy them not just on the border of the old USSR... but inside it!

However Putin warned that if Ukraine followed the lead of ex-Soviet-bloc countries in eastern Europe and hosted missile-defense facilities "to neutralize our nuclear potential" that Russia would be forced to respond.

"It is terrible even to think that in response to this ... Russia cannot theoretically exclude aiming our offensive-missile systems at Ukraine," Putin said.

Moscow sees the expansion of NATO, as well as the deployment of a US anti-missile shield in central Europe, as threats to Russian security.

Putin last year threatened to aim missiles at European cities if elements of the anti-missile shield were deployed in Poland and the Czech Republic.

Ahh, El Presidente... is there anything you can't turn into the threat of World War III?

Source: Raw Story

Saudi Arabia, Bush Loves Your Oil So
Ahh, Saudi Arabia. Rich with oil, though that's running low... even richer in depravity and corruption.

Home of Osama Bin Laden and the treasury for Al Qaeda, run in a chaotic and murderous fashion by an authoritarian oligarchy, barely clinging to power with the force of U.S. arms... a nightmarish theocracy, where it seems the Dark Ages are hip again. Who says history isn't cyclical?

A leading human rights group appealed to Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah on Thursday to stop the execution of a woman accused of witchcraft and performing supernatural acts.



The New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a statement that the kingdom's religious police who arrested and interrogated Fawza Falih, and the judges who tried her in the northern town of Quraiyat never gave her the opportunity to prove her innocence in the face of "absurd charges that have no basis in law."

Falih's case underscores shortcomings in Saudi Arabia's Islamic legal system in which rules of evidence are shaky, lawyers are not always present and sentences often depend on the whim of judges.

The most frequent victims are women, who already suffer severe restrictions on daily life in Saudi Arabia: They cannot drive, appear before a judge without a male representative, or travel abroad without a male guardian's permission.

This must also be ok, after all -- Bush has had King Abdullah over for long romantic walks! Complete with hand-holding!

Surely that's worth a few murdered women, right?

Source: Raw Story

England
England has decided they're tired of their image, I guess, because they're trying to be the 21st century Texas, with an official ruling that tasers are ok to use on kids -- despite research showing that tasers cause heart attacks in kids.

Yeah.

It is the decision not to ban their use against minors that is likely to raise serious concerns.

Home Office Police Minister Tony McNulty said medical assessments had confirmed the risk of death or serious injury from Tasers was "low".

But he failed to mention Government advisers had also warned of a potential risk to children.

The Defence Scientific Advisory Council medical committee told the Home Office that not enough was known about the health risks of using the weapons against children.

Honestly, Texas, you should be offended. These guys are stealing your schtick! It's not much, and it's certainly not funny, but it really is all you've got.

The committee, which is made up of independent scientists and doctors, said that limited research suggested there was a risk children could suffer "a serious cardiac event".


It recommended that officers should be "particularly vigilant" for any Taser-induced adverse response and said guidance should be amended to "identify children and adults of small stature" as being at potentially greater risk from the cardiac effects of Tasers.

The Government scientists were also asked to test whether the weapons could cause a miscarriage if used on a pregnant woman.

While not saying whether police would be allowed to Taser an expectant mother, the Home Office said the DSAC committee had "specifically asked" for computer simulations to be carried out to analyse the effect on "a pregnant female".

Amnesty International claims Tasers have been responsible for 220 deaths in America since 2001. Many cities and police forces there have banned their use against minors

Just stop it, you limey punks! Leave Texas alone!

Source: The Daily Mail

Iraq and Afghanistan
For our puppet government edition, we move to Iraq and Afghanistan, where our puppet regimes are allowing health conditions to continue to deteriorate, and massive plagues to spread unchecked.

At least 275 children in southern Iraq have been infected with a disfiguring skin disease, an outbreak some health officials are blaming on the war's devastating effect on the public health system.



According to the United Nations — citing reports from Iraq's southern province of Qadissiyah — 275 children have been struck with leishmaniasis, which is spread by sand flies. Most have a form that causes skin sores, but others have a type that strikes internal organs and can be fatal.

...

Though the disease was first identified in Iraq more than a century ago, outbreaks were rare during Saddam Hussein's regime. But since the conflict began, experts say the destroyed health system has opened the way for diseases lurking in the environment.

"The war has exacerbated the problems in Iraq that are one or two decades old," said Claire Hajaj, a spokeswoman for UNICEF's Iraq office. "Their health system has been undermined by violence, insecurity and sabotage."

...

Leishmaniasis also surged in Afghanistan after decades of civil war and the 2001 U.S.-led invasion. Though data about the historical number of cases are sketchy, experts say Afghanistan now has about 200,000 cases per year.

In Iraq, WHO officials estimate there are nearly 3,000 leishmaniasis cases per year. But in neighboring Jordan, there are only about 300 cases annually.

Man I just can't see why they didn't greet us as liberators. Don't they know that liberty means war, famine, pestilence and death?

Oh wait, that's the Apocalypse.

Source: Raw Story/AP News

More Iraq
Before the sanctions after the first Gulf War, Iraq had one of the best healthcare systems in the developing world. It was the crown jewel of Saddam Hussein's corrupt and murderous government, one of the ways in which he bought off his population. Nevertheless, it was real and it worked.

The sanctions, enthusiastically continued under Clinton, are often said to have resulted in 500,000 deaths over a decade. Oh, for the days when that seemed like a high number of deaths for Iraq...

So they've gone through a lot under our guidance. From world-class health care to cholera outbreaks, a plague of skin lesions, and now, apparently, there's not even money to get paralyzed kids wheelchairs.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Mothers cradle children in their arms. Fathers smile softly at the helpless bodies they hold. Other parents are bent over from the weight of their teenage kids whose legs fall limp, almost touching the ground. In the absence of basic medical equipment, these parents do this every day.

An Iraqi boy gives a thumbs up after receiving his wheelchair. Brad Blauser, center, created the program.

Khaled is a father of three. On this day, his young daughter, Mariam, is getting fitted for her new wheelchair. Her arms and legs are painfully thin, little more than skin and bone. She's 7 years old, but looks barely half that. She and both her siblings, a sister and brother, suffer from varying degrees of polio. None of them can walk.

Asked how he and his family cope, Khaled chokes up, fighting back tears.

"I am sick of life -- what can I say to you?" he says after a long pause.

One man, Brad Blauser, has vowed to try to make life a little easier for these families by organizing the distribution of wheelchairs, donated and paid for by his charity, Wheelchairs for Iraqi Kids. He first came to Iraq in 2004 as a civilian contractor. Struck by the abject chaos surrounding him and seeing helpless children scooting along the ground, he pledged to find a way to help.

Remind me again, what are we spending all that money on?

Enlisting the help of generous supporters and an Iraqi humanitarian group, "Wheelchairs for Iraqi Kids" was born in August of 2005. Thirty days later, its first 31 chairs were delivered. To date, more than 250 Iraqi families have received the wheelchairs.

Blauser has partnered with a nonprofit group called Reach Out and Care Wheels, which sells him the chairs at a manufacturing price of about $300.

The chairs are made by prisoners at the South Dakota State Penitentiary and ultimately delivered in Iraq by the U.S. military.

"Getting these prisoners involved, it just means the world to them," said Andrew Babcock, the executive director of Reach Out and Care Wheels. "Even the prisoners, I've been there and visited, and they're so excited. They come up with different design ideas and ways to make things better for the kids. They want to know where the chairs are going and what kids we're helping."

Blauser said it's unbelievable to be there when the chairs are delivered.

"The most affecting thing about this whole wheelchairs for children is when the parents realize the gift that is being given to their children and they reach out to hug you." he said. "The tears are running from their eyes and they say, 'We never thought that you could do this.' "

Blauser is helped on the Iraqi missions by the civil affairs division of the U.S. military, which helps organize the safe transport of the families to the distribution point and adjustment of the wheelchairs to fit each child.

He said it gives "the troops something when they go home, something good to remember where they know they have contributed, they know they have done a good thing."

Army Sgt. 1st Class Jason Jurack agrees. "It brings a smile to your face. It really gives a different image to the Army as a whole -- helping people out, putting a smile on local nationals' faces, little kids that need our help."

It's a sentiment that is echoed by Samira Al-Ali, the head of the Iraqi group that finds the children in need. On this day, she tells the soldiers she hopes that this humanitarian act will give them a different image of Iraq, not one of a gun and war, she says. Her words are simple but effective.

"I wish the world would see with their own eyes the children of Iraq and help the children of Iraq, because the children of Iraq have been deprived of everything," she said. "Even a normal child has been deprived of their childhood; a disabled child and their family is dealing with so much more."

Look, it's a good thing this guy's trying to do, there's no doubt about it. But, CNN, it might be helpful to note who's actually RESPONSIBLE for all this mess that some guy with his prison made wheelchairs is trying to clean up a few at a time.

Also, I know the article says the prisoners are happy being used as chattal labor to make wheelchairs, and I'm sure some of them are happier to do that than, say, laundry, but the fact remains, we're using convict labor at home to put a handful of wheelchairs in the hands of children abroad, whose lives we ruined and whose healthcare system we destroyed.

Wow. Go us.

Source: CNN.com