alyssazach's blog

Now as the countdown has begun for Iran to declare that they have stopped their uranium enriching activities China has swooped in to calm everyone done.  They are saying that there is no point to start talk of forceful measures.  I think there is a reason to start thinking about this option.  Iran is not the most stable country, and nuclear resources should not be spread.  Such a dangerous weapon should be gradually taken away from countries.  We should not have a MAD strategy for nuclear weapons—it’s just foolish.  I think part of China’s calmness of the situation has to do with their acceptance of all countries being able to defend themselves like the rest can.  I am against the MAD strategy.  I say open diplomacy and not coercive diplomacy is the way to go.  It’s the more honest and direct route.  Using nuclear weapons has a form of persuasion forces decisions to be made for the wrong reasons and is just silly if everyone will be attacked anyways since we all will have them (this is under the MAD strategy). I suggest we approach this situation in a few ways.  The UN should finally crack down on Iran’s activities without the Security Council’s approval.  I know this sounds bad already, but there should be some kind of protocol to follow the Security Council is in a lock with action needs to be done.  I also believe that China needs to release their investment in Iran, because at the moment I strongly believe that the main reason China is even trying to calm down the international community is so that they can protect their wallet. 

This entry is a continuation from my previous one on China and Africa.  This Wednesday China signed a trade agreement with Nigeria.  In the plan China is to give Africa 700 million dollars in total—90 million dollars to go towards fighting Malaria, 500 million dollars for d

Ukraine wanted nuclear weapons and now they have them!  While this may be very pleasing for them, it is scary for the rest of the world.   Nuclear weapons have the potential to destroy the world!  Yet, as I am going through news articles it seems like it’s something that all countries are after!  Iran, Pakistan…India already has it, and now Ukraine.  This is terrible.  What is worse is the level of responsibility Ukraine is holding in respect to having nuclear weapons.  A few students from one of Ukraine’s nuclear engineering universities have admitted to violating a few safety protocols.  Also, just last month the Prime Minister of Ukraine stated “God gave us uranium and today we should use it." Nuclear weapons should not be in the hands of people who plan to use it.  No one should have them!  Another popular slogan in Ukraine is “Long may the Communist Party live...

There was recently supposed to be a meeting between President Bush and a young Japanese girl.  I am not aware of the agenda for the meeting, but at the moment the news is on how the girl has been kidnapped.  Most assume that North Korea has kidnapped the girl, but they doubt that there is a political reason behind this.  This girl’s kidnapping has brought light to an extremely foul North Korean activity.  Since the 1970s North Korea has been abducting children from Japan to learn about Japanese culture and language and to then use them later in life as spies.  North Korea has only assumed responsibility for a few kidnappings in the 70s and 80s, but nothing can be done without their admittance of continual kidnappings.  Nothing can be done for the girl, who is assumed to have been killed, as long as North Korea refuses to admit guiltiness.  I wonder what obligations Japan feels they have toward North Korea to not enlist the military power of the international community.  If Japan has known that this has been going on, extreme measures should have been taken to punish North Korea for human rights violations they committed and for the spies they sent in to Japan.  Only now after the umpteenth child has been kidnapped has one women finally stood up to say something.  She is currently asking America for impose sanctions on North Korea if the children are not returned.

After two years of deliberation, the African Union has proposed an 85-page draft for a peace treaty between the Sudanese government and the rebel groups.  It’s about time!  Reports claim that the treaty seems reasonable, and that peace could possibly be made.  There was supposed to be a meeting between the government and the rebel groups sometime this week, but the African Union was honest when they expressed their doubts that both parties would come to meet each other.  This is definitely progress considering that very little was done before this.  It was also nice to see Darfur back in the news again.  Something that was pretty appalling though was that the Sudanese government refuses to take responsibility for all the massacring, rapes, and beatings that their insurgents have done.  It’s no secret that they have committed these crimes, but still they Sudanese government claims absolutely no responsibility.  In this sense, it makes reconciliation or peace between the two groups quite unlikely between the two groups.  It seems like outside forces find this peace treaty draft more promising than they actually do.  The US has even put their best efforts to help the process along.  President Bush has declared that anyone who threatens the forming peace in the area will have a freeze on their assets.

China has expressed their desire to partner up with West African countries. They mentioned that they would like to take advantage of the resources available in Africa, and that they would be able to manage it well with their corporately skilled country. Funnily enough some Africans have actually started to complain about being flooded with cheap Chinese goods. The aim of their campaign was to say that relations between Africa and China will open up opportunities for Africa.

I read an update on the Iran’s uranium enrichment program. This related to the diplomacy essay I wrote earlier.  Less then 24 hours before the deadline set on Iran to proclaim their end to enriching uranium Iran&#39

It was recently brought to light that the CIA has flown about 1,000 undeclared planes over and landed in Europe to pick up kidnapped suspected terrorists and bring them to other countries to torture them.  The European Parliament feels very betrayed by the US, since we have been doing this behind their back since 2001 even when many European countries are in support of the US’s war against terrorism.  There are several things wrong with this.  First, we are basically prosecuting suspected criminals without a trial, which is very unconstitutional.  Second, they have been doing so against the knowledge of some of the greater European Union.  I understand that many constitutional guidelines can be ignored during a time of war, but that makes it very convenient for the US to do anything they want because they declared a war on Terrorism. Who is Terrorism?  Something even more interesting is that the US had help in transporting these suspects.  Such European countries as Italy, Sweden, and Bosnia had complete knowledge of the US bringing suspected terrorists into their country to torture them for information.  They even bent their human rights sanctions to let the activity go unnoticed and unpunished.  Things are very seriously becoming out of control.  The US has taken the drastic step of violating human rights and constitutional laws, and the country needs to re-evaluate their rationale for doing so.  The victims of this are not proven criminals—they are suspects, and this could lead to the endangerment of the average citizen.