The New Dark Age

18 November 2011 — Stop NATO

• NATO Holds First Live-Fire Test Of Interceptor Missile System
• Video And Text: Cameron of Arabia, Sarkozy of Damascus And Libya Model For Syria
• Britain, France, Germany Push UN Resolution On Syria
• U.S. Seeks News Blackout Of Afghan Strategic Deal
• India Headed For Full SCO Membership: Russian Foreign Minister
• U.S. Air Force Trains NATO, EU For Interoperability
• U.S. Asia-Pacific Strategy Comes Brings Steep Price

NATO Holds First Live-Fire Test Of Interceptor Missile System

http://www.nato.int/cps/en/SID-CE417992-A75DB383/natolive/news_81041.htm

North Atlantic Treaty Organization
November 17, 2011

NATO’s Missile Defence – the first live-fire test

During the German-led exercise Rapid Arrow 2011, the NATO Active Layered Theatre Ballistic Missile Defence Interim Capability (ALTBMD) was succesfully tested. Until now ballistic missile threats were only simulated and did not include firing a real interceptor missile. This time an actual interceptor missile was launched against a target area.

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Speed is of the essence

During the exercise the radar of the US ship The USS Sullivans picked up a target missile and passed that information to a German Patriot Battery at the NATO Missile Firing Installation in Crete, to help it conduct an intercept. Since this communication involves the NATO Command and Control structure, the exercise showed that there’s no delay in the information flow between the US and the NATO Missile Defence systems.

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Missile Defence network

The live fire test, in which the target was successfully acquired and destroyed, is an important step in the development of NATO’s Missile Defence capability. The system consists of the sum of national missile defence assets, networked together. According to Major General (ret) Alessandro Pera, head of NATO’s Active Layered Theatre Ballistic Missile Defence (ALTBMD) Program, it is a good example of NATO’s multinational approach:

‘Together it is more effective than the single sum of the individual assets that the nations provide. So, this is a real example of how we can perform a better mission with the contributions of the single individual countries that by themselves would not be able to perform the entire spectrum of the mission to defend NATO from ballistic missiles,’ Says Major General Pera.

According to Pera the live fire exercise operationally validated NATO’s Missile Defence system. The next step is to improve and broaden the Missile Defence protection from protecting NATO military forces to also protecting its territory and populations.

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Video And Text: Cameron of Arabia, Sarkozy of Damascus And Libya Model For Syria

http://rt.com/news/uk-france-diplomatic-assault-579/

RT
November 17, 2011

Cameron of Arabia, Sarkozy of Damascus

Video

The UK is reportedly being urged by Jordan’s king to lead a ‘diplomatic drive’ to remove the Assad regime in Damascus. France, a key partner in the campaign to kill the Gaddafi regime, is also on the list of would-be captains of an anti-Assad push.

‘The West needs to lead and the international community needs to talk about what to do when the dam bursts in Syria,’ senior Arab diplomatic sources told British media – a sign that no peaceful solution is expected to what Russian FM Lavrov says is now a civil war in Syria.

The news emerged following the talks between British PM David Cameron and the Jordanian King, the first Arab leader to publicly call for Syrian President to step down.

London and Paris were behind a draft UN Security Council resolution, which would have condemned Assad for the bloody crackdown on the opposition in Syria. Russia and China said the proposal was one-sided and failed to mention increasingly deadly violence by the anti-Assad opposition, and vetoed the text.

Recently the Syrian Free Army, a Sunni opposition paramilitary organization claiming 15,000 members, claimed to have attacked a Syrian Army military base in one of the bloodiest days of unrest to date.

The Syrian government blames extremist bandit groups armed with weapons smuggled in by foreign government agents of whipping up the bloodshed and derailing efforts to begin political reforms pledged by Assad.

The European Union has issued several rounds of sanctions against Damascus in a bid to force it stop its crackdown on the opposition. But this has done little to stop the bloodshed which has cost at least 3,500 lives.

Assad now has until Saturday to convince the Arab League he is halting crackdowns on protesters, while radical armed opposition grows against him, lest he face more isolation and sanctions.

At the moment the diplomatic offensive on Syria is verbal and no military activity has been mentioned. But a British/French-led offensive was key to the operation in Libya, where military intervention followed similar diplomatic choreography.

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Britain, France, Germany Push UN Resolution On Syria

http://en.trend.az/regions/met/arabicr/1958542.html

Deutsche Presse-Agentur
November 18, 2011

Britain, France, Germany push for UN resolution on Syria

Germany, Britain and France were trying Thursday to secure a United Nations resolution to condemn human rights violations in Syria and call for an immediate halt to violence in the country, dpa reported.

The draft resolution calls on the regime of President Bashar al-Assad to stop its violent crackdown on pro-democracy protesters…It also calls on Syria to implement an Arab League plan to end the violence.

In October, Russia and China vetoed a similar European-backed resolution threatening sanctions on Syria it failed to stop its military campaign against protesters.

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U.S. Seeks News Blackout Of Afghan Strategic Deal

http://en.trend.az/regions/world/usa/1958547.html

Trend News Agency
November 18, 2011

US wants news blackout on Afghan deal

A senior Afghan official says that Washington wants a complete media blackout over the conditions set in its strategic long-term deal with Kabul, Press TV reported.

Speaking at a press conference in the capital Kabul on Thursday, loya jirga spokeswoman Safia Sediqi said the common complaint among participants of the traditional gathering on the second day of the event was that they were not been provided with any information about the terms and conditions the United States has set out for its long-term deal with Afghanistan, state-funded BBC Persian news network reported.

The loya jirga, called by President Hamid Karzai, kicked off in the Afghan capital Kabul on Wednesday. The four-day meeting discusses Afghanistan’s relationship with the United States, and is mainly centered on long-term US bases in Afghanistan after US-led foreign troops withdraw in 2014.

Afghan religious and political figures have voiced strong opposition to US plans to set up long-term or permanent military bases in the war-torn country.

The United States has failed to achieve its goals after 10 years of war in Afghanistan. Many parts of the Asian country still remain insecure despite the presence of nearly 150,000 US-led foreign forces there.

Experts believe Washington’s new strategy of establishing long-term military bases will only serve to raise anti-US sentiment among Afghans and neighboring countries.

Afghan people are against the plan, dismissing it as a ploy for indefinite neo-colonial occupation.

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India Headed For Full SCO Membership: Russian Foreign Minister

http://www.rbcnews.com/free/20111117160429.shtml

RosBusinessConsulting
November 17, 2011

India headed for full SCO membership, minister claims

Moscow: India could soon join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) as a full member, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters at a press conference after meeting his Indian counterpart Somanahalli Krishna.

‘Russia endorses upgrading India’s status within the SCO from an observer to a full member,’ Lavrov said.

SCO currently counts Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan among its full members.

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U.S. Air Force Trains NATO, EU For Interoperability

http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123280320

U.S. Air Force
November 17, 2011

Air Force Negotiation Center of Excellence conducts EU, NATO training
by Jodi Jordan
Air Force Culture and Language Center

MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, Ala. (AFNS) –

[At the ] Air Force Negotiation Center of Excellence, part of Air University’s Spaatz Center for Officer Education, here…Dr. Stef Eisen is the Air Force’s authority on negotiation. He recently teamed with the Air Force General Counsel Office Dispute Resolution Division to bring a one-day course on the negotiations skill set to an international audience at the first-ever European Union/NATO Negotiations Training event in Brussels, Belgium, in October.

The event was hosted by the Air Force General Counsel’s International Law Division and is the latest in a series of collaborations between AU, NCE and the General Counsel office.

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It was the positive reaction to NCE training at the Pentagon Action Officer Course that led to the request for Eisen to travel to Brussels, O’Sullivan said.

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During the two, one-day executive-level seminars, more than 20 top-level decision makers from EU and NATO staffs participated in discussions and exercises designed to hone their negotiating ability. Each seminar examined negotiating strategies, decision-making, conflict management and the cross-cultural challenges presented when negotiating in the EU and NATO environments.

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Dr. Octavia Froto, a senior adviser in EU affairs, was one of the participants. She cited the unique nature of the training, which she characterized as ‘critical’ in the international environment.

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‘In today’s context, military leaders work in an inherently joint, coalition, host nation, and/or civilian agency environment. This means military leaders are often charged with mission success working with people they have no direct authority over,’ he said. ‘Successfully accomplishing the mission in this environment demands the ability to collaborate and influence, in short, the ability to negotiate.’

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U.S. Asia-Pacific Strategy Comes Brings Steep Price

http://www.globaltimes.cn/NEWS/tabid/99/ID/684596/US-Asia-Pacific-strategy-brings-steep-price.aspx

Global Times
November 18, 2011

US Asia-Pacific strategy brings steep price

The latest East Asia Summit will be held on November 19 in Bali, Indonesia. Taking it to signify its return to Asia-Pacific, the US seeks to turn the Summit into a forum concerning the South China Sea dispute. China has showed strong opposition to this move.

Coupled with strengthened US-Australia and US-Philippines military alliances, this move is only a part of US new Asia-Pacific strategy. These acts bring great pressure to China and it is now expected that China will take some countermeasures.

The US is carrying out smart power diplomacy that takes China as its target in Asia. Stopping it is not realistic, but it is equally unrealistic to expect China to stand idly by and indulge Asian countries as they join the US alliance to guard against China one by one. Confronted with such frictions, which has the most resources and means at its disposal? Is an all-out confrontation possible? These should be the real concerns.

A prominent change is that the US is intensifying action in the Asia-Pacific region and is encouraging China’s neighboring countries to challenge China. This is a new application of soft power.

If an ‘anti-China alliance’ is really built in Asia, the US should provide more economic benefits to its followers. It should convince those countries that joining the US is more profitable. Only providing verbal support for sovereignty issues in disputed waters and signing agreements to provide security protection is far from enough.

A new impetus for economic growth is absent from the stagnant US economy. Its strategic demand to contain China conflicts with the realistic view of using China to stimulate economic recovery.

The strategic nature of competition between China and the US in the Asia-Pacific will be murky for the time being. However, China has gained more stakes when dealing with the US. It is hard to say whether the US holds more advantages in China’s neighboring area. The potential for economic cooperation between China and its neighboring countries is great. China should learn to use this to protect its political interests. Any country which chooses to be a pawn in the US chess game will lose the opportunity to benefit from China’s economy. This will surely make US protection less attractive.

Naval disputes are only a small part of East Asian affairs. The US and other countries seek to defend private interests by taking advantage of them. As long as China increases its input, it will make countries either pay the price for their decision or make them back the doctrine of solving maritime disputes through cooperation.

East Asian affairs should be handled under the coordination of relevant countries. No one dominant force is wanted. China has more resources to oppose the US ambition of dominating the region than US has to fulfill it. As long as China is patient, there will no room for those who choose to depend economically on China while looking to the US to guarantee their security.