Tailban leadway

Taliban militants have been making an unnerving amount of headway in the nuclear armed Pakistan; recently they have even engaged government troops near the capital of Islamabad. This has risen concerns among leaders in America on the effectiveness, strengthen and control the leader of Pakistan has over his own country. These concerns have lead the Americans to take a new approach in dealing with the area, they started to open up talks with the opposition leader of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif. Sharif is believed to have a considerate amount of influence over the countries Islamist and therefore he might be able to help fight the growing control that the Taliban has. Sharif and the president Zardari don’t have a very good history but many leaders hope that the two might make amends and work together to help their country. The biggest concern I see that comes from this crisis is that Pakistan is a nuclear country and it would be extremely bad if the Taliban was able to get their hands on any form of nuclear material or weapon.
Pakistan has been increasing its nuclear bomb making capabilities, and with all the violence and stress that the government is under due to Taliban insurgence the security of the nuclear facilities in in question and of great concern to the world leaders.

Albright warned that the continuing development of Pakistan's atomic weapons programme could trigger a renewed nuclear arms race with India. But he suggested a more immediate threat to nuclear security arose from recent territorial advances in north-west Pakistan by indigenous Taliban and foreign jihadi forces opposed to the Pakistani government and its American and British allies.

The leaders of Pakistan have underplayed the supposed threat to their nuclear faclities saying "The spectre of extremist Taliban taking over a nuclear-armed Pakistan is not only a gross exaggeration, it could also lead to misguided policy prescriptions from Pakistan's allies, including our friends in Washington."

Iraq says no

The Iraqi government has stood up for its self and denied the Americans and extensions on their June 30 deadline for removal of combat troops from Iraqi cities. According to the withdrawal agreement the US is to have all combat troops removed from cities by June 30 and all forces shall leave the country by the end of 2011. The extension request came about due to a recent recurrence of violence, specifically in the northern city of Mosul, and concern over whether the Iraqi security forces are ready to handle the security of these cities on their own. US combat troops were removed from cities back in 2005 and 2006 but returned during the troop surge of 2007 because the Iraqi security forces weren’t prepared to handle the violence, hopes are that they are better trained now. Only full combat troops will be removed, trainer and advisers will stay in the cities to help train security forces. The Iraqi prime minister decided that it would be best for both sides if they just stuck to the withdrawal plan because he needs to show that Iraq is headed towards stability and that his government is working and can protect its own people. In regards to the violence in northern Iraq, leaders believe that they will see a drop in violence once American troops withdrawal, since most of the violence it directed at US troops. This is a good call on the side of the Iraqi prime minister because it shows that he isn’t necessarily just a puppet for the Americans and its good for the Americans because most Americans have grown tired of the war and this is a good step towards ending their involvement.

The Cuba tight rope

Semi good news on the Cuba front, a US official has said that there are plans in place to hold some test meetings between the members of the State department and Cuban officials in Washington. These meetings will be informal water testing meetings, to see if it will be effective to purse official and open talks with the leaders of Cuba. These preliminary talks are to be kept hush-hush because the official policy of the Obama administration was to not make anymore moves until Cuba reciprocated President Obama’s lifting of restrictions on Cuban-Americans who wished to travel to Cuba or send money to relatives on the island. The Cuban situation is much more delicate then I previous thought. On the one hand you have Latin America and Cuban-Americans who have been pressuring the American government to ease its 47-year trade embargo. The leaders of Latin America also have been using the Cuban situation has a test to see how serious America is about dealing with and fixing there relations with Latin America. From there viewpoint it would make sense to go ahead with talks and start easing restrictions with Cuba, but on the other side you have anti-Castro conservative in office and a huge legislative plate to make it through. Obama has so many other legislative issues to deal with that he needs to tread softly with the Cuba talks, so that he doesn’t upset the anti-Castro politicians. It would be horrible if the president couldn’t get some of his most important legislature passed because of this relatively small issue, when compared to most of the other issues this is just a minor one. Good Luck Obama.

Not leaving, Just moving

Today, April 26, 2009, the New York Times reported on the progress of troop withdrawals from Iraqi cities. As everyone knows the US started to remove combat troops from major Iraqi cities back in January. The cities are turned over to the Iraqi security forces; the troops are not leaving Iraq just the cities. Back during the troop surge of 2007 the United States set up nearly 100 small bases in the center of major cities, so that the soldiers could get closer to the people of the city. These are the main bases that are going to be closed and turned over the Iraq security forces that will most likely not use the majority of them. Several larger bases will not close down, such as base camp victory which is on the edge of the city of Baghdad but has been decided that it lays outside the city limits. There will also be a small group of combat troops that will be stationed at the US embassy as security. This won’t violate the terms of the agreement as long as their vehicles stay on embassy grounds and they don’t interfere with the work of the Iraqi security forces. Right now the US is in talks with the Iraqi government to get extensions on troop withdrawal from some of the northern cities, specifically Mosul where there has been an increase in insurgent activity in recent days. They hope to have the decision of the Iraqi leaders by Monday. As in accordance with the agreement between the two countries the US will have to have all of its combat troops removed from within Iraqi cities by June 30, unless they receive any exceptions from the Iraqi government.

The son of START 1

Today I bring news of progress on the US/Russian nuclear talks. As I have stated in previous post the United States and Russia have been on shaky grounds in terms of political relations, but both sides have shown signs of wanted to reestablish good relations. A new nuclear treaty, to replace START 1 which expires in December, is a set forward in this regards. The two sides had stated early in April that they wanted to start talking on this issue and that has finally happen. Negotiators from both sides have begun preliminary talks in Rome on the new nuclear arms reduction treaty. In a joint statement given in front of the US embassy in Rome the representatives from both sides said that the talks had gotten off to a fast start. These are just preliminary talks; the real negations are scheduled to start in May when the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will come to Washington to meet with Secretary of State Hilary Clinton. The biggest problem that will be faced during these negotiations is the planned missile defense system in Europe that the US has planned. Russia feels that these missiles need to be taking in to consideration when the time comes, since once the number of nuclear missiles are reduced it will return conventional missile back to their former glory in the power balance. Russia also wants a reduction in the delivery systems for the warheads too. Despite these issues both sides hope to have a new draft of the treaty by the end of this year, even though that might be kind of difficult. America hoping to use this new arms treaty as a way to bring back some of its creditability in the world that has be lost of the last few years; especially in the morality department. They also hope that it will strengthen their ability to pressure other countries with nuclear ambitions, like North Korea and Iran.