War with Iran coming soon?

Upon looking at the mainstream media it seems that the American Government is looking towards starting a future conflict with Iran, although not actually directly calling for open conflict it seems that they are controlling the situation in the same way before the Iraq War.

A while ago the IAEA published a report stating that the Iranian Government and Military were still actively working towards creating a nuclear weapons program in direct opposition to the international treaty it is still a member of that prohibits the development of nuclear weapons unless permission has been given for purposes of national defence. Politicians and media outlets in the United States immediately jumped upon this report as reasoning to begin talk of heavier sanctions against the Iranian economy with some in that group calling for military action to be undertaken against select targets that are apparently aiding Iran with it's nuclear weapons program.

The thing is that the IAEA report has come under attack for being filled with misinformation and taking information from one unchecked source much like how the intelligence for the illegal weapons in program was discovered. The current head of the IAEA Yukiya Amano credibility has also been questioned with the recent revelation from wikileaks that he was hand-picked from Washington in return for his loyalty

Yukiya Amano

In a meeting with Ambassador on the eve of the two-week Board of Governors (BoG) and General Conference (GC) marathon of mid-September, IAEA Director General-designate Yukiya Amano thanked the U.S. for having supported his candidacy and took pains to emphasize his support for U.S. strategic objectives for the Agency.  Amano reminded the Ambassador on several occasions that he would need to make concessions to the G-77, which correctly required him to be fair-minded and independent, but that he was solidly in the U.S. court on every key strategic decision, from high-level personnel appointments to the handling of Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program. - Diplomatic cable 

It seems that an organization once credited with criticizing the United States for it's poor intelligence gathering in regards to Iraq and for invading Iraq on this poor evidence has been corrupted to follow the neo-conservative path to further conflict in return for a few concessions in the G-77.

The war drum also continued upon the uncovering of news that the Iranian Government attempted to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador to the United States. According to the American Government and Iranian-American Mannsor Arbabsiar attempted to hire an informant inside a Mexican drug cartel to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador by planting a bomb outside a popular restaurant in Washington DC. Obvious questions arise when the matter is looked into properly, why would the Qud force Iran's most elite division of it's military responsible for several hundred successful operations across the world resort to a 56 year old Iranian-American used car salesman from Texas to hire a Mexican drug cartel to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador to America whilst he is in Washington DC? How does the death of a Saudi Ambassador benefit the Iranian Government and if they wanted the ambassador dead why did they give such an important task to an unknown and untrusted individual when they could of given the task to a trusted individual within the organization or someone from their trusted proxies and allies in Hezbollah, Hamas and other Pro-Iranian organizations across the Middle East, such an incident reminds me of the build-up to the war in Iraq when officials of the American Government claimed that Saddam had the ability to launch a biological assault against the United States using drone weapons when in reality all Iraq had was old Soviet targeting drones that could barely function let alone carry out any sort of attack against any nation.

Mannsor  Arbabsiar

Lawyers representing some of the families effected by 9/11 are now calling for a federal judge to rule that Iran was culpable in the terrorist attacks committed those days claiming that the Iranian Government had knowlledge of the attacks and helped train fighters that took part in them. This completely flies in the face of all logic and reason when considering that Al-Qaeda and the Shi'ite regime of Iran are natural enemies. Iran have despised Al-Qaeda especially since 1998 when the terrorist group murdered a large group of Iranian officials and even co-operated with American forces during the invasion of Afghanistan and forced one of Osama Bin Laden's son to leave the country in 2002. It appears that misinformation and scaremongering is driving the United States closer to a conflict with Iran.

- http://wikileaks.org/cable/2009/10/09UNVIEVIENNA478.html#
- http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2011/11/iran-and-the-iaea.html
- http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/lawyers_ask_nyc_judge_to_find_iran_Eu0cgc8KhaQaxvSILr10rJ

Libya after Gaddafi

Previously in the Libyan conflict it was the overwhelming urge to either kill or capture Colonel Gaddafi that kept the differing ethnicities and factions in Libya together, they had a united front that they all agreed on and could co-operate together to achieve however the death of Gaddafi could now mean disaster for the region as it did for another country after the death of their dictator.

The differing ethnic divisions of Libya are reminiscent of the ethnic divisions once present in the Former Yugoslavia and similarities continue to exist between the two countries. Gaddafi and Tito both ruled and maintained the unity of their country with an ion fist using security forces to ruthlessly crush any dissent and although Tito was not assassinated his death still effected the once unbreakable bond between the different ethnicities in the Former Yugoslavia and the region erupted in flames, a period of time known for horrific ethnic cleansing and the NATO bombing campaign of Serbia.

Bombing of Belgrade. NATO could find itself getting involved  in another ethnically driven civil war.

Libya could easily slip into a full blown nationalist civil war promoted by the ethnic divides in the country, reports have already circulated that bickering has erupted from within the ranks of the rebels with the rebels from cities in the East like Benghazi claiming that they deserve a major role in the shaping of the country as they were the first to rise up against the Gaddafi regime while the Berber's in the Nafusa Mountains are saying that they are being repressed once again and they held a key role in the taking of Tripoli and the rebels that fought in Misratah are claiming that they deserve a large role in the future politics in the country as the fought in some of the toughest street fighting in the country that tipped the balance of the conflict against Gaddafi. 

Rebels celebrate Gaddafi s death

It's just not the tribes that are causing rising tensions in the country, in the civil war over a dozen militia units, some existing before the revolution and some formed during the revolution pledged their support to over-turn Gaddafi, the major stepping stone to avoiding another bloody ethnically driven civil war is for the National Transitional Council to be able to peacefully merge the existing Militia units into one organized new Libyan Military a goal that seems highly unlikely given the fact that current weapon stores liberated from the forces of Gaddafi has been taken back to regional militia strongholds instead of being given to the NTC.

Only time will tell if the National Transitional Council can over-come these ethnic challenges in time to create an interim government and organize the countries first democratic elections in as little as eight months.

UK-US Relations.

During the Second World War the United Kingdom and the United States grew a 'special relationship' strongly co-operating on military operations.and the end of the 'special relationship with France. 

Neither the sure prevention of war, nor the continuous rise of world organization will be gained without what I have called the fraternal association of the English-speaking peoples ...a special relationship between the British Commonwealth and Empire and the United States. Fraternal association requires not only the growing friendship and mutual understanding between our two vast but kindred systems of society, but the continuance of the intimate relationship between our military advisers, leading to common study of potential dangers, the similarity of weapons and manuals of instructions, and to the interchange of officers and cadets at technical colleges. It should carry with it the continuance of the present facilities for mutual security by the joint use of all Naval and Air Force bases in the possession of either country all over the world. There is however an important question we must ask ourselves. Would a special relationship between the United States and the British Commonwealth be inconsistent with our over-riding loyalties to the World Organisation? I reply that, on the contrary, it is probably the only means by which that organisation will achieve its full stature and strength. - Winston Churchill 

Winston Churchill/Harry Truman

During the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, the special relationship became even more vital for the United States who began to operate large numbers of military units and aircraft inside US bases within the United Kingdom. During this time the United Kingdom was called the 'largest aircraft carrier in the world' acting as a base for US bombers to strike at the Soviet Union with shorter-range aircraft able to launch nuclear weapons.


The launching of US aircraft from the United States has caused much controversy in the past when in 1986, the United States Air Force used RAF bases to launch F-111 aircraft to strike positions in Libya another controversy was using UK Airbases to re-fuel flights containing people abducted by the CIA. 

Thatcher/Reagan

Recently the United States showed the latest disregard for the national security of the United Kingdom when they agreed to give sensitive information to the Russians. In an incident released by wikileaks it was confirmed that the United States agreed to give information about every Trident missile the United States supplies to the United Kingdom. In 2009 the United Kingdom refused a diplomatic request to release this information to the United States, although it seems the United States has ignored this and carried on with the request by the Russian's who have attempted to gauge the specific size and details of the United Kingdom's nuclear arsenal. In one single move the United States has ignored the refusals of the UK Government 

Another potential leak of information is with the completion of the national census. The involvement of US Company Lockheed Martin providing and managing the computer system used to extract the contents of the filled-in forms and store the results. The US Patriot act means that the US Government can examine any piece of information from US Companies like Lockheed Martin. This means that theoretically that information from the census could be openly available to the US Government and intelligence agencies like the CIA.

It's clear to me that the diplomatic relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom needs to be re-evaluated and reset so it benefits both sides not just one.

Emerging Scientific Powers.

Yesterday the Royal Society published the analysis of a report into scientific output and investments of countries across the world. The report showed that emerging countries like China and Brazil are rapidly expanding their role in the scientific community and investing more funding into it's development, while growth in the scientific community of the United States, the United Kingdom and other European countries has slowed down considerably.

In 1996 the United States published 292,513 Scientific papers, around ten times more then China's 25,474 papers however since then China has invested billions into expanding it's educational system and actively promoted for pupils to move into the field of science. In 2008 China published 184,080 scientific papers a massive increase since 1996. The United States still out-published China producing 316,317 Scientific papers however it's a minor increase when compared to China's sevenfold increase in scientific output.

Chinese Space Programme

The Report also found that China is not the only emerging country that is actively promoting and funding the improvement of scientific research across the globe. Iran is the fastest growing country in terms of scientific publications, rapidly expanding from publishing just 736 Scientific Papers in 1996 to 13,238 in 2008. The Iranian Government has also boosted R&D spending planning to increase it to 4% by 2030 from just 0.59% in GDP in 2006

Iran University of Science and Technology

China and the rest of the emerging scientific powers still have a few more years of funding and modernization to go to over-take the quality of science seen in the United Kingdom and the United States though and scientists need to work together to solve issues like climate change and the rapidly growing population.

Emerging countries are simply taking a more active role in their scientific community, with the current economic crisis still in full-effect countries like China, Turkey, Singapore and Brazil are increasing funding and assistance to their scientific communities and getting good results while funding from projects in the United States and the United Kingdom has been on the decline with educational systems not providing enough motivation for people to get involved with the field of science.

University of Science and Technology in China

China has already replaced the United Kingdom becoming the worlds second largest producer of research and already people are predicting that China could replace the United States as the worlds largest producer by around 2013-2020. The reasons for these predictions are quite clear, China has been increasing 20% per year since 1999 and the country spends over $100bn on scientific research. The educational system in China is also another factor for China's rapid growth in the scientific community, as in 2006 approximately 1.5 million students graduated from Chinese Universities with fields focused on engineering and science.

In the passing decades with governments in Europe and North America taking part in vast austerity measures and emerging countries in Asia and South America increasing government spending including that in the educational and R&D sector it's becoming increasingly clear that European and North American scientific facilities will soon have a new series of rivals to compete and work with in the future.

What next in Libya?

After Libyan Rebel Forces launched a successful offensive operation against Pro-Gaddafi forces, supported by NATO air-strikes that liberated the coastal towns of Ras Lanuf, Brega, Uqayla and Bin Jawad. What next for NATO and the Libyan Rebels?


Early on into the no-fly operation over Libya, the Libyan Rebels have been on the defensive. Defending from assaults from Loyalist forces and launching counter-offensives against towns that used to be under their control, these actions were supported by the NATO air-forces operating over the country who have launched strikes destroying large amounts of Loyalist armour and artillery that have been attacking Rebel positions and endangering civilian lives.


After the fall of Ras Lanuf, Brega, Uqayla and Bin Jawad the situation on the ground changes, the Rebels that have been on the defensive and counter-offensive in the past, however when assaulting Loyalist towns and cities like the birthplace of Gaddafi the Loyalists become the defenders and the Rebels becoming the attackers. Instead of protecting civilians are the Rebels endangering civilian lives by assaulting cities with old inaccurate rocket artillery?

Rebel Artillery

NATO Commanders are discussing the future role of their air-operations over the country. Should they actively support the Rebels against Loyalist forces? Even though the United Nations Resolution clearly states that protecting civilian lives in the country takes priority over choosing sides in the conflict? Would it be illegal for NATO forces to strike Loyalist forces defending cities like Sirte? What about the possibility that this conflict can be solved without virtually forcing the conflict to turn into a civil war and creating a possible East/West divide of the country like it was under Italian control?

Map of current NATO operations

An offer of mediation and peace was accepted by Gaddafi before the no-fly zone was formed. Venezuela and the government of Hugo Chavez made a proposal for mediation between Gaddafi and the Rebels. This offer was being looked at by the Arab League while being brushed along by France and the United States, France led by an unpopular President who wishes to use this conflict to increase his support in the country and the United States a country which has had an anti-libya stance for decades and even tried to assassinate Gaddafi in 1986 when they bombed his compound. 


The Venezuelan offer of mediation seems like the only decent proposal so far. It gives room for international mediation to solve this crisis people and adopt a stable democracy after Gaddafi. It also creates room for Gaddafi to leave the country peacefully without any jealous retribution and execution like after the Romanian Revolution in the 90's.

Forgotten situation in Ivory Coast?

Currently over 1 million people have fled the Ivory Coast after Incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo refused to hand-over power to political rival Alassane Ouattara being internationally recognized as the winner of the countries recent elections, with the African Union concluding an investigation into the countries election that concluded the facts.

Alassane Ouattara

Pro-Gbagbo thugs have attacked foreigners supporting the political rival forcing many countries to send transport to the country to help their foreign national's flee the country. One of the countries doing this is Mali who has sent countless buses to the country to help an estimated 2 million of it's citizens flee from persecution from the country. Even the presence of a United Nations Peace-Keeping force in the nation has not worked to ease tensions in the fragile country, as Pro-Gbagbo thugs murder and mug foreign nationals along with known supports of Alassane.

Laurent Gbagbo

The on-going violence has had a terrible effect on the already battered economy of the Ivory Coast. As the nation's banks and business have been forced to close due to the on-going violence and chaos on the streets, journalists in the country have reports massive streams of traffic going up to 9 miles as people desperately try and flee the country. Like in Libya, Laurent Gbagbo has not been afraid to use the military and countless civilians have been murdered at the hands of his military and political criminal's, reports are even streaming that mercenaries are being hired out to carry out the most brutal crimes against civilians.

While this horrible violence goes in on the country where are the main-stream media and international community? The United States, EU and the African Union have all had strong words for the Libyan regime and have rapidly called and carried out military action in the country, whilst the international media has had a field day reporting on the current fighting in Libya between Pro and Anti-Government forces in the country, today they report on Syria and the government action's to crack down on anti-government protesters in their country, meanwhile hundreds of people are dying in the Ivory Coast.

It seems that the international community has suddenly misplaced it's spine when it comes to the Ivory Coast. While direct foreign military intervention in Libya would create a power-vacuum as the current political structure of the rebels and the current Libyan Government mean's that finding a replacement leader and political system for the country would involve placing a temporary coalition government in charge like in Iraq, the Ivory Coast already has an active political scene and a legal leader that can be easily placed in charge with the assistance of a decently sized UN force that can perform a quick blitz operation against  Laurent Gbagbo to replace him with the legal leader then actively protect the population against a civil war.

Pro-Union Protests in the United States

The recent Pro-Union protests in the United States has shown that the political system in the United States no-longer care about the people it's meant to serve but the massive corporations that contribute funding for their re-election campaigns.


This can be seen in the US State of Wisconsin. When Governor Scott Walker went ahead on the states highly unpopular bill that greatly curtailed the rights of Public Worker Union's in the state. This bill was passed even considering that Democratic members were not present when the bill was voted into action. Governor Scott Walker supported his own actions by stating that this bill will save the state vital money needed to curtail the states growing deficit.


Although that just adds more questions. If Scott Walker is on a mission to rescue the State's Finances from the disaster of a massive uncontrollable deficit then why has Wisconsin recently spent money on a bill meaning that companies won't have to pay any taxes for the first two years once they move into the state. While medicare, local government and the educational system in the state seem to be the targets for the upcoming cuts to the states budget.


That's one of the reason Governor Walker wishes to cut the right of Public sector workers to actively strike. When he starts cutting public services like education, healthcare and other public services like libraries and food-stamp programmes he would of greatly curtailed the organized efforts of the Union's to actively protest against these viscous cuts and expected redundancies. Another reason for the Union busting bill also came into view when a American blogger managed to record a phone conversation with the Governor whilst pretending to be one of the Koch brothers (a group of billionaires that founded Scott Walkers election campaign)  


In the phone call Governor Walker panders to the Fake Koch's every word, agreeing to loosen the power of Union's so that the Koch brothers have an easier time making job cuts in the various plants and offices they have in his state, completely disregarding the fact that their personal wealth has increased billions over the past few years and remain's unaffected by the global recession which continues to hit the middle/lower class hard. Governor Walker even toyed with the idea of sending a few 'troublemakers' with weapons to incite violence in the protesters in a bid to change the media's outlook on the Pro-Union protests breaking out all over his state.


http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/02/scott-walker-koch-brother-crank-call-wisconsin

Hypocrisy in leaked documents.

After Libyan State TV revealed footage of various corpses that it stated were civilian casualties from the latest round of NATO Air-Strikes meant to destroy air-defence and command structures belonging to Libyan regime. The Associated Press was given several classified documents from the United States Intelligence services, the reports included information from a senior Gaddafi aide that he was ordered to organize the removal of bodies from various morgues across the country to pose as civilian casualties from NATO bombing runs. 

Clearly this leak needs to be investigated? Leaking information to the national press during a time of conflict with Libya? Even though this information was key to clearing the propaganda from the Libyan Government. The person who leaked these documents is a threat to the national security of the United States, they need to be tracked down urgently, arrested and held in solitary confinement for several months without charge.

I'm comparing this leak to the files apparently released by Bradley Manning. He's being charged with leaked the same type of information, although in Bradley Manning's case it seems that showing war-crimes that would of gone unreported to the world's attention is not in the interest of the US Government and Obama, seeing that Obama ran his entire election campaign on not continuing the apparent 'mistakes' carried out by the previous administration and even hinted at investigating several actions undertook by senior officials by the US Government during the conflict in Iraq? 

So it appears your allowed to leak classified information to the international press during a time of conflict but only if these leaks support the interests of the United States Government and don't show their military in a bad light.

The truth about Iran.

Iran is often viewed by the mainstream media as an evil dictatorship intent on developing nuclear missiles with the possibility of using them against Israel, this opinion is often viewed as fact and often ignores the clear hand that various countries including the United Kingdom have had in shaping the history of Iran.

In 1951 the Iranian Prime Minister Haj Ali Razmara was assassinated whilst attending a memorial service. A parliamentary vote took place and Dr. Mohammad Mosaddegh. After he took power he nationalized the countries oil industry which was extremely popular with the Iranian people, however the United Kingdom had controlled Iranian oil since 1913 and working together with the United States actively embargoed Iranian oil  and the CIA on request of MI6 started Operation Ajax which achieved it's goal in 1953 when Mohammad was assassinated and replaced with Mohammad Reza Pahlavi taking over as Shah of Iran. During Mohamad's reign with support from the United States the country became more autocratic and while the countries infrastructure was rapidly modernized all forms of political opposition was crushed with assistance from the US trained SAVAK. 

Dr. Mohammad Mosaddegh

After years of autocratic rule in Iran, political oppression and the view of the people that the country was a puppet of the United States and swerving away from it's Islamic values. In this time the Shah of Iran requested support from the United States however the CIA reported that a revolution was unlikely and the Shah would remain in power for at least 10 years.

The uprisings in Iran continued and continuing strikes paralysed the countries. The intelligence agency of Iran SAVAK attempted to quell the protests but the extremely high number of protesters in multiple cities and towns across the entire country meat that their was too many people to arrest and the security services were overwhelmed..The Shah attempted to quell the problems with the economy cut spending, these cutbacks led to a sharp rise in layoffs mostly among the young unskilled workers living in the city slums, these unemployed youth then joined the protests. The Shah of Iran tried one last ploy in attempt to keep power. Jafar Sharif-Emani was installed as the countries Prime Minister and reversed some of the Shah's policies. Casino's across the country were close, the imperial calendar was abolished and opposing political parties were legalized however the protests continued and by September the nation was rapidly losing control and major protests across the country were becoming a regular occurrence. The Shah introduced martial law and banned all public demonstrations however protests continued and on September the 8th security forces opened fire and dozens of civilians were killed.

Protests in Tehran

Various public blunders of the security services including the death of several high ranking Islamic officials and the Cinema Rex Fire which killed over 400 people and was blamed on the government as the centre was an important meeting point for protestors, this made the movement to other-throw that Shah viable in the minds in many Iranians boosting the support of the anti-government protests even more and leading to a general strike that resulted in the paralysis of the economy with vital industries being shut down and virtually sealing the Shah's fate. On December the 10th and 11th an estimated 6-9 million people took part in anti-shah demonstrations across the entire country and took part in marches, the Shah's position in the country had now deteriorated to the point when he no longer wanted to remain in power and only wanted to stay in Iran, however this was turned down by the opposition. In late December he agreed to leave the country temporarily but this was turned down by the opposition again. On January the 16th the Shah and the Empress left Iran and went into exile

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

The events of the Islamic revolution led to the Iran-Iraq war. Saddam Hussein was interested in elevating Iraq into a strong regional power and a successful invasion of Iran would enlarge Iraq's oil and natural gas reserves and provide a substantial boost to the Iraqi economy. At the same time Ruhollah Khomeni believed that Muslims, participially the Shias in Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait were oppressed and should follow the example of the Iranian people and rise up against their governments to join a united Islamic Republic. At the same time a severe officer purge effected the Iranian military and a shortage of spare parts for Iran's American-made equipment crippled Iran's once mighty military and it was transformed into force comprised of mostly of poorly armed militia.

Relations between the two countries rapidly declined until in March 1980, Iran downgraded it's diplomatic ties with Iraq to the temporary level, withdrew it's ambassador and demanded that Iraq do the same. The tensions between the two nations in April when Iraq blamed the Iranian government for carrying out the attempted assassination of the Iraq Deputy Prime Minister Tarqiq Aziz. Three days later the bombing of a funeral procession being held to bury students who had died in the earlier attack was again blamed on Iran. On September the 22nd 1980, the Iraqi air force attacking Iran, assaulting ten airfields in Iran, although this air-raid failed to achieve the strategic objective of destroying the Iranian air force on the ground. The following day the Iraqi Army initiated a ground offensive of Iran along a massive front measuring over 300 miles, in three focused offensive fronts.

The Iranian Navy and Air Force began counter-offensive operations, targeting vital Iraqi oil infrastructure severely damaging the ability of Iraq to export oil.  The Iranian air force assaulted more diverse targets including dams, petrochemical facilities and even a nuclear reactor within Iraq. The Iraqi invasion soon encountered resistance to the invasion and their advance into Iran was stalled around March 1981. The Iraqi air force attempted to destroy the Iranian air force on the ground and destroy the infrastructure of the Iranian air force, however they destroyed to destroy a large number of aircraft. The Iraqi air-force only had Mig-23's, Tu-22's and Su-20's that were ineffective in a country as large as Iran. The Iranian air force countered these assaults using F-4's and attacked Iraqi targets, within a few days the Iranian air force had gained air supremacy over Iran allowing them to conduct ground attack missions with dedicated fighter-bomber aircraft and helicopters. The Iraqi Military was also surprised that the people of Iran rallied around their country and formed a stiff resistance against the Iraqi invaders. An estimated 200,000 volunteers arrived to the front lines and added to the Iranian defence of the country, providing a serious setback to the Iraqi military campaign.

Iranian Militia 

For about a year after the Iraqi offensive stalled there was little change of movement in the front, however in March 1982 Iran took the offensive and the Iraqi military was forced to retreat and by June of 1982 an Iranian counter-offensive had recovered the areas lost to Iraq in the earlier stages of the war, one of the most significant battle of the Iranian counter-offensive being the liberation of Khorramshahr which was seen as a turning point in the war as it was one of the earlier cities captured in the initial Iraqi offensive against Iran. Saddam then decided to totally withdraw his armed forces from Iran and decided that they should be deployed along the international border between Iraq and Iran most likely because Saddam believed that his army was too demoralized to fight another defensive battle inside Iran. 

Iranian F-14

On the 13th of July the Iranian military crossed the border into Iran in force, aiming towards the city of Basra, however the Iraqi army was more organized and had entrenched itself in formidable defences. Unlike the hastily improvised defences that the Iraqi army had quickly constructed and manned in Iran during the occupation of the conquered parts of Iran the border defences were well developed before the Iran-Iraq war and the Iraqi's used a highly advanced network of bunkers and artillery bases. In response to the deteriorating situation Saddam had also doubled the size of the Iraqi army from 500,000 to a total size of 1,000,000.

To counter the extremely well prepared Iraqi defences the Iranian military had been using combined-arms operations to a great effect while attacking Iraqi positions. Gigantic human wave attacks with support from artillery, aircraft and tanks, however the Iranian military began to suffer from a lack of ammunition and supplies and soon the massive human wave attacks were being launched without proper of any support from combined arms meant that the mass assaults by the Iranian military began to look like more like assaults undertaken during the first world war, even more so considering the Iraqi military began using chemical and biological weapons against Iranian positions, the combination of these factors decimated the ranks of the youth volunteers many of them children. After the failure of the Iranian summer offensive in 1982, Iran believed that only a major operation across the entire length of the front would bring the victory that they wanted. Iran however lacked the organization for the type of massive assault, although Iran was getting supplied from North Korea, Libya and China. Iraq had more supplies like the USSR and NATO nations, France, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Spain, Italy. Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Germany and the United States. In February of 1984, Saddam ordered aerial and missile strikes to be permitted against eleven cities in Iran, the bombardment lasted until 22nd of the same month and in response Iran retaliated with similar strikes against urban centres in Iraq, from that occasion similar firing exchanges against urban centres continued through the course of the war. On the 15th of February, the Iranians launched a major attack against the cenre of the front, around 250,00 Iranians faced 250,000 Iraq's. The Iranian then carried out two other offensives aimed to capture the vital town of Kut al-Amara and to cut the key highway linking Baghdad and Basara, however the Iranian offensive stopped 15 miles short of the vital highway, however the next Iranian offensive operation met with greater success. The Iraqi defences under continuous strain since the start of the Iranian offensive nearly collapsed several times, however the Iraqi's managed to stabilize the front but not before the Iranians captured part of the Majnun. Despite a heavy Iraqi counter-attack combining the use of mustard gas and sarin nerve gas the Iranians held their ground. 

Iranian troops dug in.

A new factor of the war started when Iraq started attacking Iranian tankers and the Iranian oil terminal and Kharg island in 1984. Iran retaliated by attacking tankers carrying Iraqi oil from Kuwait and any tanker of the Persian gulf states support the nation in Iraq. Both Iran and Iraq started attacking oil tankers and merchant ships, including those neutral nations in an attempt to deprive the opponent of trade. Iraq declared that all ships going to or from Iranian ports in the North of Iran were subject to attack with Iraq. Iraq used F-1 Mirage and Mig-23 aircraft armed with Exocet anti-ship missiles to back up this thread. After repeated Iraqi attacks on Iran's main exporting facility on Khark Island, Iran attacked a Kuwaiti tank near Bahrain and a Saudi tank in Saudi waters. Attacks like this on ships on non-combat nations continued and increased after those incidents and was dubbed the 'tanker war'. During this time period the United States actively supported Iraq, causing several high profile incidents including the Iraqi air-force attack on a US naval vessel. Another major incident of this war was the illegal shoot down of Iran Air 665, this tragic event took place when a United States warship fired upon an Iran Air Airbus A300 when the tracking system of the ship had incorrectly labelled the aircraft as an F-14. In the following years both sides advanced very little and withstood massive casualties and both sides agreed to a peace on the 20th of August 1988. 

USS Stark after being hit with an Iraqi missile

The Roller-coaster development of the F-35

When the JSF (Joint Strike Fighter Programme) started in 1993 it's goals was to create an advanced Fifth Generation fighter that could be exported to other NATO partners and United States allies (South Korea and Israel). After a tough competition the Lockheed F-35 beat the Boeing X-32. The Department of Defence stating that the VTOL system in the F-35 was more advanced and the engine in the X-32 was subject to poor reliability and overheating.


The F-35 is also meant to cut down on logistics and supplies, the aircraft is designed for coalition warfare. Meaning that various nations can share weapons and various other supplies to cut down maintenance costs during combat..


 "It greatly simplifies logistics, training and doctrine for coalition warfighting." - Richard Aboulafia


Although more then a decade after the Joint Strike Fighter Programme was formed and around eight years after development work on the F-35 has begun little progress seems to have been made. Currently only 13 prototypes of this aircraft exist and the programme has encountered countless set-backs and issues with the aircraft. United States Defence Secretary has even been quoted on stating that if the STOVL (Short-Take-Off and Landing) version of the F-35 could face cancellation. 

"if we cannot fix this variant during this time frame and get it back on track in terms of performance, cost and schedule, then I believe it should be cancelled." - United States Defence Secretary Robert Gates.

"The culture of endless money that has taken hold must be replaced by a culture of restraint," - Robert Gates 

Another issue with the current F-35 programme is the fact that two different engines are being developed for the aircraft. Rolls Royce and General electric are currently being paid to develop a new engine for the F-35 in case the initial Pratt & Whitney engines designed for the aircraft are not up to par. Adding further cost and time on to the F-35 programme. Private military analysts have even called the F-35 programme a bottomless money pit. 

The size differences of aircraft being developed and in use in the USAF

"The incredibly unfortunate phrase 'too big to fail' applies to this aircraft more than any other defense program," - Richard Aboulafia

"It's difficult to think of a civil or military program in the past decade that hasn't experienced similar delays and cost overruns." -  Richard Aboulafia

This comes after previous failures of the F-35 when the aft bulkhead of the F-35 developed cracks after 1,500 hours of durability testing, This is less than one-tenth of the planned fatigue test program, which is designed to prove an 8,000-hour airframe life. The bulkhead in the F-35 was modified in the F-35's weight saving programme switching from the proven forged titanium that is on use on the F-22 to a new aluminium forging process.  

The VTOL system used in the F-35

In 2009 the Department of Defence announced the theft of 1.5 terabytes of data on the F-35 project.  $300 billion dollars of funding down the drain, every system, defense, offense, stealth, everything needed to build one or shoot it down, all gone. nations whose defense capabilities were decades behind the US can now be at par, as the F-35 was estimated to be “air superiority capable” until at least 2040. Data stolen could make production of a comparable aircraft possible in as little as 36 months, particularly with several projects in the offing, Russia/India and in China, each of which are capable of quickly adapting upgraded systems. On top of these current air-defence systems could be easily modified to hunt down and easily take down the F-35, a serious blowback for United States power project across the world.

Is the PLA out of control?

Recently the Chinese Military and Government have been the subject of intense scrutiny by the United States media, some pundits on the right of the political spectrum have claimed that the PLA operate without the control of the Chinese Government. People quote that the Chinese Premier seemed quite surprised when he was asked about the new stealth fighter the Chinese are currently developing. In my opinion these views are incorrect and can be solved quite easily with logic and a basic grasp of the facts.

China is currently and emerging economy, countless economic experts from various countries across the world agree that it's only a matter of time before the Chinese economy out-paces and overwhelms the United States economy and the Chinese become the worlds largest economic super-power, however one thing is missing from this picture. Military power and projection, currently the United States military has the largest and most advanced army, navy and air-force in the world it's military budget is far larger then all the current countries combined and it's naval fleet is larger in both size and displacement then the entire navy of every single country currently in the European Union. It's fact that the United States is the foremost military power currently in the world.

The Chinese Government knows this and it wishes to cement it's place as the dominant region power in South East Asia however it cannot do this. The PLA is underdeveloped, lacking major armour, artillery, naval and air-support relying on vast amounts of man-power and old artillery in an attempt to overwhelm the enemy in a tactic that was last tried by the Soviet Union during the Second World War.

The PLA was quite content with it's military doctrine until a few decades ago until several major events happened which quite violently shock the PLA to it's core and awakened it to the latest tactics in modern warefare. In the 90's the United States Air-Force managed to successfully defeat the defences of the Former Yugoslavia and Iraq without suffering major losses to enemy defences. The PLA then realized that their military would not last long in a defensive war against the United States unless they drastically modernized their military, so began a massive modernization scheme.

The modernization of the PLA came at quite a good time for the Chinese Government. The world economy was quite healthy and the world economy demanded cheap produce from China, the Chinese economy was booming. The Chinese Government could afford to spend vast fortunes on development programmes for aircraft, armour and naval vessels. At the same time Russia was still suffering from the collapse of the Soviet Union, worse effected was the Russian aircraft sector, the fall of communism had completely decimated the Russian economy and no money was left for researching new aircraft for the Russian air-force. Most effected is by the collapse of the Soviet Union was the company Mikoyan, after the Russian economy was saved from total collapse the Russian Air-Force sent out multiple contracts for new aircraft to modernize the new Russian Air-Force. Mikovan submitted several plans however all were rejected, finally after several attempts the company submitted an advanced fifth generation aircraft as part of a competition to decide the next fighter for the Russian air-force. The Mig 1.44 was created and developed with Mikovan placing a lot of effort into the plane however it was rejected and another plane now underdevelopment as the PAK FA was chosen. Mikovan at that time was deeply annoyed with the Russian Government and was in deep need of contracts. The Chinese Government was in need of advanced technology, the logical conclusion is that the Chinese Government requested and paid for the assistance of several highly skilled developers from Mikovan to help design a new fighter aircraft for the PLAAF. Milovan was quite desperate for contracts so supplied them with details from the Mig.144 and the J-20 was created.

The Chinese Military has undergone further modernization. Currently the PLAAF (Chinese Air-Force) have employed modern aircraft such as the J-10 aircraft into their inventory an aircraft that has the same capabilities as the American F-16 and similar aircraft in Taiwan. The Chinese Army has also undergone modernization with new Tanks, Infantry fighting vehicles, armoured personal carriers, artillery and small arms under production for use by the front line troops. The Navy has also undergone similar modernization with recent Chinese frigates and submarines catching up with the latest technology being used by NATO forces.

All this modernization has been focused towards one major goal. For decades the Chinese government has had it's foreign and economic policy be dictated by the United States. It's carrier groups and large amount of allies in the region have created a hostile environment in the eyes of the political elite in the Chinese Government, much like the Russian government see NATO as a force being used to surround and destroy the Russian Federation. China simply wants to ward the United States away from South East Asia and replace the United States as the dominant regional super-power both economically and militarily and the Chinese have some good reason to.

Currently the United States government patrols the waters and skies of South East Asia. They have specially designed vessels that monitor movements by air and naval units in the vicinity. The United States navy has been caught several times snooping around several major PLA Naval bases including the base of operations from the Chinese Nuclear Submarine fleet when a spy ship was intercepted and several Chinese trawling vessels attempted to stop the vessel.

Imagine a scenario. The Chinese military send it's most advanced warships, submarines, aircraft and military units to Cuba. While in Cuba they perform naval, air and land exercises with the Cuban military and perform these drills quite close to the coast of the United States (although still within respected waters). How would the United States Government and Media react to this massive showing of force right outside it's doorstep?

That's what the Chinese Government feels every single time the United States Military perform a massive military exercise with Taiwan, a country with extremely poor relations with China (several incidents have occurred when sides have exchanged heavy weapons fire) .

Imagine if the Chinese 'decided to follow the same tactics of the United States Navy and gather some intel on the capabilities of several major facilities belonging to the United States Navy. Imagine of several Chinese 'fishing' vessel were caught outside several major United States naval bases and was found to be recording information on levels of security and levels of supplies and readiness in case of a sudden Pearl Harbour like attack. I

The Chinese Government face a lot of harassment from the United States Military. It's extremely active presence in South East Asia is seen as a risk to Chinese national security, in response to decades to harassment and the rise of the Chinese economy the Chinese Government has undergone a vast modernization programme for the PLA to improve it's power project in South East Asia, aiming to become the largest military power in the world and complete the Chinese take over from the United States as the worlds most powerful nation. The PLA is not out of control, in fact it's totally in control and on the path of becoming the most powerful armed forces in the world.