The Week in Review

Middle East

Terrorists kill six in Israel: Arab terrorists killed six people and wounded around 25 on Thursday in attacks that took place in southern Israel along the border with the Sinai Peninsula. Two buses were fired upon with automatic and anti-tank weapons, and then a military vehicle ran over a roadside bomb that had been planted to target those who were first on the scene to assist those hurt in the initial attacks. A senior Israeli official said the gunmen had infiltrated from the Gaza Strip through Egypt’s Sinai. A security vacuum has developed in the Sinai since the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak, and according to Israeli intelligence, Egypt is “losing control” over the region. “It was a grave terrorist incident that took place in several locations,” Defense Minister Ehud Barak said in a statement. “It reflects the weakening of Egypt’s hold in the Sinai and the broadening of activities by terror elements.” Israel has since been put on its highest terror alert.

U.S. points finger at biggest threat to Iraq: Militias backed by Iran are the greatest security threat to Iraq, the top spokesman for American forces in Iraq, Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Buchanan, said August 16. These groups are larger, better organized and better funded than terrorists linked to al Qaeda, Buchanan said. “The Quds force [the elite unit of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard] is providing direct support in terms of manning, equipping, provision of intelligence,” he said. Meanwhile, Iran is also dictating Iraq’s foreign policy. While much of the world, including Arab states, has condemned Syrian President Bashar Assad for his violence against his people, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki is following Iran’s lead and supporting Assad. Iraq has called for Syria to “reach a dialogue with the opposition,” urging the “armed gangs” not to “sabotage” the state. “Mr. Maliki’s support for Mr. Assad has illustrated how much Iraq’s position in the Middle East has shifted toward an axis led by Iran,” writes the New York Times. Iraqi Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi admitted this week that “The occupation of Iraq by the U.S. did only good things for Iran. Iran became more influential than it ever dreamed.”

Rebels make gains in Libya: As the conflict in Libya raged on this week, heavy fighting hit Zawiya, a strategic coastal city 30 miles west of Tripoli, with rebel fighters shutting down the regime’s last operational oil refinery. By Thursday, rebel forces said most of Zawiya was under their control. In recent weeks, the rebels have gained control of substantial territory, including several coastal towns, and tightened the siege on the capital. Meanwhile, the suspicious death of Libyan rebel military leader Abdel Fattah Younis, announced at the end of last month, has thrown doubt on the reliability of the National Transitional Council. “The rebels that the West has been counting on to replace the Qadhafi regime apparently cannot even control their base territory in eastern Libya, let alone govern the entire country,” wrote Stratfor. “The decision to frame the National Transitional Council as an optimal replacement to the Qadhafi regime was made in haste, when policymakers had very little information on the identity of the rebel forces. … [T]he countries that pushed for the air campaign felt that anything was better than Qadhafi. … But Younis’s death has created a whole new set of questions, the most fundamental of which is this: Who exactly will govern Libya if Qadhafi is forced to step down?” (August 2). On Monday, Stratfor further pointed out: “[W]hat regime changes that might come of the civil wars in Libya and Syria are not going to be clearly victorious, those that are victorious are not going to be clearly democratic and those that are democratic are obviously not going to be liberal.” Keep an eye on Libya for the outcome to this conflict to be favorable to Iran.

Europe

France, Germany announce European economic government: German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced proposals for a common European economic government after they met on August 16. On Wednesday, they sent plans to European Council President Herman Van Rompuy for eurozone leaders to meet twice a year, with a president being elected to chair the meetings. They said they would support Van Rompuy as the first president. The two leaders announced they would put forward proposals for a common EU financial transaction tax in September, and promised to create a common corporate tax rate between the two nations by 2013. They also said they wanted eurozone members to change their constitutions, adding a rule that requires governments to aim for balanced budgets. The meeting failed to calm financial markets, but that doesn’t make it insignificant. The proposals would give Germany the power to dictate constitutional changes to eurozone nations. The financial transaction tax would be a major stride toward a superstate. The ability to raise its own funds through taxation is a major part of a state’s power. The Franco-German cooperate tax harmonization is a step in the same direction, and the agreement could easily grow to encompass the whole eurozone. The Franco-German agreements also marginalize Britain. The UK is a staunch opponent of the financial transaction tax. On August 16, the leader of Britain’s Conservative members of the European Parliament called for the British government to clearly state that it will veto any plans for a transaction tax. The proposed eurozone meetings will create an official, regular meeting of EU leaders that does not include Britain. As the eurozone tries to become a superstate, Britain is being pushed to the sidelines

Stoiber: Germany must get tougher: The European sovereign debt crisis could contribute to the breakup of the European Union if not properly managed, said EU adviser and anti-bureaucracy czar Edmund Stoiber in an interview with Die Weltmagazine on Monday. “We live in a borderless continent. This is a big challenge,” said the former Bavarian prime minister (translation ours throughout). To solve the euro crisis, Stoiber advised swift and automatic sanctions against any EU member nation that violates the financial standards set for it by Germany. “We ultimately give this money, not because we are a noble knight, but we give this money out of personal interest,” said Stoiber. “Therefore, we must impose conditions.” As to what these conditions should be, Stoiber explained that no nation should be allowed to run an annual deficit greater than 3 percent of its gross domestic product or an existing debt level greater than 60 percent of its gdp. As editor in chief Gerald Flurry wrote back in February, “Germany will use this crisis to force Europe to unite more tightly.”

Germany takes charge of EU anti-piracy mission: Germany took command of the EU’s anti-piracy mission August 13. The main focus of the mission is to protect UN food shipments to Somali refugees. Over the next couple of months Germany will substantially increase its contribution to the mission, sending the frigate Köln as well as Orion reconnaissance planes. Expect Germany to expand its military role in the world through organizations like the United Nations.

Asia

Russo-Chinese military cooperation grows still closer: On Monday, China’s People’s Daily reported on a visit made by Gen. Chen Bingde, chief of the General Staff of the Chinese army, to Russia earlier this month. The six-day visit featured high-level meetings between top-tier military officials from both nations. “As their bilateral relations have developed from ‘friendly neighboring relations’ into a ‘constructive partnership’ and then into ‘strategic cooperative partnership,’ the two countries have made great efforts to promote the healthy and rapid development of bilateral military ties in a comprehensive way,” the state-sponsored newspaper said. For the first time, Russia and China also agreed to conduct General Staff-level military exchanges, a milestone that the Daily said “indicated that the cooperation in the realm of military operations between China and Russia will continue to develop deeply and widely.” The report also said the military relationship between Russia and China has grown to an uncommon level of strength. The degree of cooperation between the two countries, the top-tier level of the training, and the large number of military students sent by each country to the other “could rarely be seen in the military cooperation between any other large countries,” the Daily said. As the nations of Asia see European states uniting, expect this uncommonly close Russo-Chinese military cooperation to further intensify.

Russia unveils new stealth fighter: On Tuesday, Russia’s new stealth fighter jet, the Sukhio T-50, made its public debut. The jet, developed by Russia and India, was unveiled at the maks 2011 air show near Moscow, and is expected to become a staple of defense for both Moscow and Delhi by 2014 or 2015. The two governments have spent around $6 billion to develop the T-50, and Gen. Alexander Zelin, head of Russia’s air force, says the jets will match the U.S. F-22 Raptor.

China overtakes the U.S. in satellite launches: China performed a record number of satellite launches in 2010, overtaking the United States’ output for the first time in history, according to a report published Wednesday by aerospace consulting company Futron Corp. Russia remains at the top of the list because of its lead position in the commercial launch market, in which Moscow’s reliable and inexpensive rockets attract an unmatched level of business. “Russia was the worldwide leader in launches, and is poised for increased activity,” the report said. “Russia, China and Japan have improved their own space competitiveness by 12 percent, 27 percent and 45 percent, respectively, over their relative starting points from when Futron’s benchmarking process began in 2008.”

Africa/Latin America

Africa’s newest nation goes militant: Just a month after its birth, the Republic of South Sudan is offering to send troops to fight against Islamic militants in Somalia. On Monday, South Sudanese caretaker foreign minister Deng Alor Kuol announced an offer to send African Union troops to Somalia to back the weak interim government against the Iranian-backed Al-Shabaab militia. “It is part of our responsibility to help our Somali brothers and sisters to achieve peace,” he told the bbc’s Focus on Africa program. As the states of South Sudan, Ethiopia and Kenya—in which Christianity is influential—come into more conflict with the predominately Islamic nations of Sudan, Eritrea, Djibouti and Somalia, expect Germany and the Vatican to get increasingly involved in African affairs. As Trumpet columnist Ron Fraser explained in his article “South Sudan—Future EU Vassal State?”, South Sudan may effectively become a vassal state to a Catholic-dominated EU.

Look who’s expanding the Panama Canal: The United States may have dug the Panama Canal originally, but it is Europe that is looking to expand it to a size appropriate for the modern world. Right now, with its two lanes of locks that can handle ships up to 965 feet long and 106 feet wide, the canal operates at or near its capacity of about 35 ships a day. Soon, however, the canal will be able to handle ships up to 25 percent longer and 50 percent wider. A consortium headed by Italian construction and civil engineering giant Impregilo is currently undertaking an assignment to add a new third set of locks that will help eliminate backlogs. Joining the Italian firm in this project is Spain’s Sacyr Vallehermoso, Portuagal’s Somague, Belgium’s Jan de Nul and Panama’s Cisa. All told, the canal’s expansion is supposed to cost $5.25 billion and is scheduled for completion in 2014. Expect the nations of Europe to start taking a much keener interest in Latin American trade routes in the near future.

Anglo-America

Rivers across England are drying up: “Desperate rescue operations are under way on the River Teme in Shropshire,” reports the Telegraph. “At the other end of the country, villagers in Dorset say water levels on their rivers and streams are among the lowest in living memory. And stretches of the River Kennet at Denford near Hungerford, Berkshire, have virtually dried up” (August 15). Nations around the world continue to experience weather curses.

Cohabitation a threat to children and society: Two new studies released this week say that cohabitation is an emerging threat to the health of children and society. In the latter half of the 20th century, “divorce posed the biggest threat to marriage in the United States,” said sociology professor W. Bradford Wilcox and 17 other scholars. This is no longer the case. “Today, the rise of cohabiting households with children is the largest unrecognized threat to the quality and stability of children’s family lives,” the scholars wrote in another report. Instead of getting divorced, people simply aren’t marrying; rather, they are just living together for as long as they consider it convenient. For children, however, there is nothing convenient about this new arrangement. In one study of children ages 6 to 11, about 16 percent of children in cohabiting homes had “serious emotional problems.” This was true of only 4 percent of children living with married biological or adoptive parents. The number of Americans who have children and live together without marrying has increased twelvefold since 1970. As marriage fails nationwide, family life is crumbling with it—and the consequences are proving to be devastating.

A bad example for Australia: Australian Federal Finance Minister Penny Wong is setting a bad example by announcing her plans to have a baby with her lesbian partner, said nsw Christian Democrats leader Fred Nile. On Tuesday of last week, Senator Wong announced that her partner is due to give birth in December after becoming pregnant through ivf. Mr. Nile has opposed the announcement, saying, “I’m totally against a baby being brought up by two mothers—the baby has human rights.” “She needn’t have made it public,” he said. “It just promotes their lesbian lifestyle and trying to make it natural where it’s unnatural.” Great swaths of the populations of Britain, Canada, the U.S. and Australia have embraced the homosexual agenda. Yet, without strong, traditional families, the foundation upon which all successful nations rest on is broken.