National Security | News-Opinion
TOP NEWS: Nat’l Security / Foreign Affairs: June 13, 2012
- UN official calls Syria conflict ‘civil war’
- How the Euro Will End
- Clinton accuses Russia of selling attack helicopters to Syria
- U.S.-Pakistan Talks Hit Snag
- Anti Putin-protests defy Kremlin’s pressure
More news and excerpts below
UN official calls Syria conflict ‘civil war’
Al Jazeera - The head of the United Nations’ peacekeeping operations has said that the situation in Syria now amounts to a full-scale civil war as witnesses on the ground described fresh shelling on Homs and heavy fighting in other cities.
How the Euro Will End
Gerald P. O’Driscoll, WSJ - For such reasons, when the euro was created in 1999, Milton Friedman famously predicted its demise within a decade. He was wrong about the timing, but he may yet be proven right about the fact.
Clinton accuses Russia of selling attack helicopters to Syria
Colum Lynch and Liz Sly, Washington Post - The Obama administration on Tuesday accused Russia of planning to supply new attack helicopters to Syria, a move that U.S. officials warned would dramatically escalate the crisis and belie Moscow’s claim that it is not supporting President Bashar al-Assad’s violent crackdown on dissent.
U.S.-Pakistan Talks Hit Snag
Adam Entous and Siobhan Gorman, WSJ - U.S. and Pakistani officials have held secret exploratory talks on a new counterterrorism partnership, but that initiative and others are held up by the impasse over an American apology for the deaths last year of 24 Pakistani troops, both countries said.
Anti Putin-protests defy Kremlin’s pressure
The Economist - In the immediate sense, the new law and the raid were meant to dampen the mood and limit attendance at the next opposition demonstration, scheduled for yesterday, a public holiday in Russia. The effect, if anything, was the opposite.
===More News===
This Time, Europe Really Is on the Brink
Niall Ferguson and Nouriel Roubini, Der Spiegel - The failure of German public opinion to grasp the dire state of affairs in Europe today is inviting a repeat of precisely the crisis of the mid 20th century that European integration was designed to avoid.
Two Worlds Cracking Up
Thomas Friedman, NY Times - It turns out that Turkey these days is neither a bridge nor a gully. It’s an island — an island of relative stability between two great geopolitical systems that are cracking apart: the euro zone that came into being after the cold war, and the Arab state system that came into being after World War I are both coming unglued.
Greece Votes Itself in the Foot
Stathis Kalyvas, Foreign Affairs - The outcome of the June 17 Greek legislative elections will not only determine whether Greece exits the eurozone, but it could also seal the fate of the entire postwar European project.
Car bombs targeting Shiites kill 65 in Iraq
Sinan Salaheddin, Associated Press via Google News - A coordinated wave of car bombs struck Shiite pilgrims in Baghdad and several other cities Wednesday, killing at least 65 people and wounding more than 200 in one of the deadliest days in Iraq since U.S. troops withdrew from the country.
A Good Deal for Tehran
Daniel Schwammenthal, WSJ - After the usual games of brinkmanship and lowering expectations, Tehran just raised hopes again ahead of next week’s round of nuclear talks in Moscow.
Egyptian officials say Mubarak’s health shows ‘slight’ improvement, but he refuses prison food
Associated Press via The Washington Post - Hosni Mubarak’s condition showed “slight” improvement on Wednesday and the ousted president was visited in his prison hospital by a physiotherapist to treat him for bed sores. But security officials said he is refusing prison food and is suspicious of his doctors.
Aung San Suu Kyi Set for Triumphant Return to Europe
Thomas Fuller, NY Times - The Myanmar opposition leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, returns to Europe after 24 years and will be welcomed with the pomp and circumstance normally reserved for a visiting head of state.
Venezuelans consider the unthinkable: a government without Chavez
Juan Forero, Washington Post - But despite the brief appearance of the president of old, Hugo Chavez’s weeks of ruling via Twitter while recovering from his latest cancer surgery have left even some of his supporters wondering whether he will live through another six-year term.
