General Musings

Since I've been out of it for nearly a couple of months I thought I'd just set down a couple of thoughts about recent events.

Since I've been gone, Saddam Hussein departed this world with a rather sudden jerk despite my protestations against the death penalty on these hallowed pages. However,, discussion with a number of my friends and a glance at a couple of comments left on the blog shows that most people I know comprise a blood-thirsty lynch mob which I am of course charmed to be associated with.

Other events include Russia's completion of its anti-aircraft missile defence system with Iran, previously mentioned here. This system is probably the best in the world and having purchased twenty-nine units, Iran will station them around all its most sensitive nuclear sites. This is a seriously concerning prospect. The system can engage two targets at once, shoot down cruise missiles and laser guided bombs as well as aircraft at a range of 12km and an altitude of 6km. As far as I can tell, although clearly I'm not an expert military analyst, were Israel to undertake a mission to knock out Iran's nuclear capabilities, her air-force would sustain serious damage. It seems that the U.S. would have to be involved for any mission to be truly effective which would have to involve stealth-bombers to avoid Iran's new air-defence system.

The requirement to act against Iran has been becoming ever clearer with Tehran announcing that it will install cascades of 3000 centrifuges at its Natanz installation by June which could theoretically be able to produce enough uranium for one bomb in less than a year.

What cheers me slightly is that Bush has sent a second aircraft carrier battle group to the Gulf which gives me hope that when the time comes the U.S. will act against this very scary threat to Israel's existence. They have also been rounding up nefarious Iranian agents in Iran who have been fanning the flames of civil war there to thwart the sprouting of any peace in that war-ravaged country.

Finally, among other things I could mention, we have the Palestinians who having now finished killing each other for the moment are very effectively creating world hysteria over Israel's archaeological and construction works outside the Temple Mount. There is of course nothing sinister in these works which are simply to re-build the broken Mughrabi bridge. The work was reported ahead of time to the Waqf which administers the site and the media and diplomatic storm which has ensued is simply nonsensical.

Ad Kaan, more to follow in the coming days.