The following articles are compiled by:

Rick Allinson

Rick@WatchmenWatching.com

 

 

Bolton: Chance Bush will okay strike on Iran is 'close to zero'
Source: Times Online
 

22 January 2008 – Former U.S. ambassador to the UN John Bolton said on Tuesday that there is almost no chance that U.S. President George W. Bush will approve a military strike on Iran before he leaves office in January 2009.  "It's close to zero percent chance that the Bush Administration will authorize military action against Iran before leaving office," he said.

Bolton addressed the Herzliya Conference of the Institute for Policy and Strategy, as part of a panel discussion on Iran's nuclear program.He said the recent American intelligence assessment, according to which Iran halted its nuclear program in 2003, was a politically-motivated report intended to restrict the Bush Administration's room to maneuver. "It seems that for the next few years the United States will be a bystander to the process," Bolton said.

Bolton also said that Israel's "stunningly successful" military strike on Syria last September could constitute a precedent for a similar attack on Iran in the future. The Israel Air Force attacked a structure in northeast Syria that foreign media reports said was a nuclear facility built with North Korean assistance. Syria and North Korea both denied the reports, and Israel has remained silent. Bolton had warned of nuclear cooperation between the two countries before the strike. "Why wouldn't the government of Israel want to take the credit for a stunningly successful military strike?" Bolton asked.

Bolton said Israel and the United States know very well that Syria's close relations with North Korea have not been severed, but refused to elaborate. He said North Korea might sell nuclear know-how and a ready-to-use nuclear bomb to the highest bidder.
"The proliferation of nuclear weapons in the middle east will start with North Korea. It counterfeits money, sells narcotics, and it will do anything for hard money," he said.  

 

RAF scrambled as Russia tests nuclear-capable missiles
Source: Times Online
 

22 January 2008 – RAF fighters scrambled to track Russian long-range bombers joining a naval task force today as Moscow practised strike tactics off the coast of France and Spain and test-launched nuclear-capable missiles.

The fleet of Russian warships, supported by fighter jets and the bombers, engaged in Russia’s biggest naval exercises since the end of the Cold War.

The war games close to two Nato member states were the most forceful reminder to date of President Putin’s determination to flex Russia’s military muscles as relations with the West have deteriorated. The navy boasted that they were Russia’s largest Atlantic exercises since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Nato F16 and Tornado jets tracked two strategic “Blackjack” bombers as they approached the Bay of Biscay to test-fire missiles. A Russian navy spokesman said that SU33 fighterswould make training runs alongside them from the flagship Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier.

The Admiral Kuznetsov is leading a carrier strike group of 11 vessels backed by 47 aircraft that began exercises in the Mediterranean before moving to the Atlantic.

A naval spokesman said: “This is the biggest exercise of its kind in the area since Soviet times.” All the warships and aircraft, which are drawn from Russia’s Northern and Black Sea fleets, were carrying full combat ammunition loads. Long-range “Bear” bombers, ordered by Mr Putin to resume round-the-clock missions in August for the first time in 15 years, will join the exercises today alongside Tu22M3 Backfire strategic bombers and airborne early warning aircraft. 
 

Pre-emptive nuclear strike a key option, Nato told
Source: Guardian

 

22 January 2008 – The west must be ready to resort to a pre-emptive nuclear attack to try to halt the "imminent" spread of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, according to a radical manifesto for a new Nato by five of the west's most senior military officers and strategists.

 

Calling for root-and-branch reform of Nato and a new pact drawing the US, Nato and the European Union together in a "grand strategy" to tackle the challenges of an increasingly brutal world, the former armed forces chiefs from the US, Britain, Germany, France and the Netherlands insist that a "first strike" nuclear option remains an "indispensable instrument" since there is "simply no realistic prospect of a nuclear-free world".

 

The manifesto has been written following discussions with active commanders and policymakers, many of whom are unable or unwilling to publicly air their views. It has been presented to the Pentagon in Washington and to Nato's secretary general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, over the past 10 days. The proposals are likely to be discussed at a Nato summit in Bucharest in April.

 

"The risk of further [nuclear] proliferation is imminent and, with it, the danger that nuclear war fighting, albeit limited in scope, might become possible," the authors argued in the 150-page blueprint for urgent reform of western military strategy and structures. "The first use of nuclear weapons must remain in the quiver of escalation as the ultimate instrument to prevent the use of weapons of mass destruction."

 

The authors - General John Shalikashvili, the former chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff and Nato's ex-supreme commander in Europe, General Klaus Naumann, Germany's former top soldier and ex-chairman of Nato's military committee, General Henk van den Breemen, a former Dutch chief of staff, Admiral Jacques Lanxade, a former French chief of staff, and Lord Inge, field marshal and ex-chief of the general staff and the defence staff in the UK - paint an alarming picture of the threats and challenges confronting the west in the post-9/11 world and deliver a withering verdict on the ability to cope.

 

Comments: Iran, Syria and North Korea have been singled out in the past as being the axis of evil by President Bush and backing up that message is Mr Bolton the former U.S. ambassador to the UN who is suggesting that "The proliferation of nuclear weapons in the middle east will start with North Korea”. Five of the west's most senior military officers and strategists add to that statement by saying in another article that "the risk of further [nuclear] proliferation is imminent and, with it, the danger (of) nuclear war fighting”. The Middle East is a very dangerous place right now and we know the imminent danger that Israel faces from these nuclear threats.

Meanwhile, Russia continues to flex its military (and nuclear) might in clear view of Nato countries. Relations with Russia and the west have not been the best over the last couple of years and Mr Putin is determined to show that Russia is still the same military machine it once was. Round the clock missions (Bear Bombers) have continued since August and you can be sure that NATO is keeping a close watch. Nuclear issues will continue to be a hot topic this year.

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Keep watching (Matt 24:42)!

 

Until next time,

Shalom!

 

 

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