Post Tagged with: "military"
Greece is a huge importer of French and German weaponry
Greece argues that its needs to strong defense spending for two threats. The first is from Turkey. Yet relations have improved and a military confrontation between these two NATO members seem quite remote. The other threat Greece is thought to face is refugees from Northern Africa and Middle East. Yet the kind of weapons Greece buys, like submarines and fighter jets, do not seem like suitable for border protection. Consider that Greece is the world’s third largest arms importer after the behemoths of China and India. Greece was Germany’s number one customer for munitions, accounting for 15% of Germany’s arms sales. Greece is also France’s third largest customer, though the largest in Europe
Rickards on Iran and QE3
Jim Rickards, author of Currency Wars, was on capital Account last night and he thinks both QE3 and war with Iran are distinct possibilities. Take a look
Doug Casey on the Coming War with Iran
It could just be saber rattling during an election year, but Western powers have been provoking Iran for years now – two decades, really. I just saw another report proclaiming that Iran is likely to attack the US, which is about as absurd as the allegations Bush made about Iraq bombing the US, when he fomented that invasion. It’s starting to look rather serious at this point, so I do think the odds favor actual fighting in the not-too-distant future
Korea
The death of North Korea’s Kim Jong-il in the middle of December can be either a bump or grind. More likely, the change of leadership will mark a continuation of the status quo. Not only do North Korea’s elite and military seem firmly in control, but the international focus is North Korea’s acquisition of nuclear weapon capability
Nonlinear Thinking: The Robot Soldier
Great piece from our friends at Al Jazeera. Looks like the military is no longer going to be the “employer of last resort.” Future veterans are going to highly trained in the cutting edge technology that will shape the next hundred years. Gives new meaning to “boots bots on the ground.”
America: What to Do with North Korea?
North Korea’s dear leader, Kim II, died a few days ago. His 3rd son is now in charge, as Kim III, Kim Jong Un (pictured). There is no better time to talk about North Korea than now, as evidenced by some timely expert opinions. So it’s time for me to chip in my two cents. I will briefly but succinctly answer five pertinent questions as follows
Foreign news: Is Amazon employing unemployed in Germany without compensation?
Foreign news links for 27 November 2011. We have a variety of links here today with most focused on the European sovereign debt crisis. Protest and terrorism are two other topics of great interest
News Links: Power to imprison civilians without charge or trial anywhere in the world
News links for 27 November
Israel: “The possibility of a military attack against Iran is closer than the diplomatic option”
Now, this could just be bluster and rhetoric. But then again it may be something else. I think it bears watching. Just following up on the post by Global Macro Monitor this morning, I note from French daily L’Express the following passage
Is Iran About to Get Hot?
Here is something brewing off radar. We’re wondering if this is a factor as to why crude is bid and gold is coming back
In October, Greek officers stormed defence ministry
I had been willing to dismiss the rumours that Greece was forestalling a military coup. Others have since said the change in top brass is standard protocol for a Greek government preparing for its potential loss of power and that the changeover had already been decided upon previously. Nevertheless, it is clear that the military is also in a state of uproar over the austerity and depression
Is Greece heading off a military coup?
We have learned that the Defense Minister is calling for a wholesale change of military leadership. I see this as an extremely alarming development. And in conjunction with Papandreou’s move to call a referendum, it would make sense to think that the Greek government is worried about a coup d’etat