Le plus ca change...

UPDATED AGAIN

Iran Missile Test Bluff: Old Rockets, Bogus Video

Not just photoshopped.

UPDATED AND RENAMED

Attack of the photoshopped missiles.

Meanwhile, Sarkozy is doing his bit.

I just love watching international politics. Everybody, and I mean - E-V-E-R-Y-B-O-D-Y - plays the game.

Indeed, here's some interesting articles about Ethiopia, that unfortunate country located at one of the most strategic locales on the planet, one of the world's favourite spots for rape, pillage and plunder, proving once again that history is just one damned thing after another and it never ends.

West Ignoring Ethiopian War Crimes

"London, Brussels and Washington provide billions of dollars in aid and military assistance to Ethiopia every year but are overlooking the issue, Gagnon said.

The report says that following an April 2007 attack on a Chinese oil installation by the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) that killed more than 70 Chinese and Ethiopian civilians, the army responded with "brutal force" against ethnic Somali civilians in the Ogaden Area of the Somali Region.

According to HRW, the army has executed at least 150 people -- many of them in demonstration killings -- forcibly displaced tens of thousands of people, burned dozens of villages and conscripted civilians into militias to the fight the ONLF."

Ethiopia on the Path to Self Destruction

"Ethiopia is one of the oldest most suffering nations in this planet. It went through hell in the Second World War under Mussolini’s fascist aggression.

It emerged from the war to confront a number of civil wars where external and internal actors coalesced to make the people, country and nation suffer.

Its elite imported undigested ideas that simply became a reason to impose terror. It fell for a virulent form of ethnic and vernacular decomposition that has undermined Ethiopian citizenship rather than build it, despite the claim to the contrary by those who imposed this particular form of ethnocentrism."

And well, surprise, surprise... Ethiopia Dismisses HRW on War Crimes

"According to the report, unveiled here Thursday and titled "Collective Punishment, War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity in the Ogaden Area of Ethiopia's Somali Regional State," the government is responsible for an "economic blockade against its people".

The rights watchdog documented what it considered as dramatic unchecked violence against civilians since June 2007, when the Ethiopian army launched a counter-insurgency campaign against rebels..."

Russian Ships at the Mercy of Pirates

Way too much to quote at length here, so I offer just a few snippets. Suffice to say, Russia is still in the game, despite having lost most of its mighty empire. I'm posting these primarily to show the midget minds on the left that it has never been only about the US, or even only about oil. However, oil and whatever else is needed to maintain an economy is what drives every country on the planet, so why should the US be any different?

"In Soviet times, the navy maintained an almost global posture, reacting promptly when Soviet commercials ships were seized. In the late 1960s, a group of Soviet warships sailed to the coast of West Africa to free two tugboats seized off the coast of Ghana."

"With the fall of the Soviet empire, the Russian navy has also had to withdraw from its bases in Cuba, Poland, Finland, East Germany, Egypt, Yemen, Libya, Somali and Ethiopia."

"Among others, the key military base in Vietnam's Cam Ranh Bay was closed. The base had a landing strip as well as naval repair and maintenance facilities, which were frequently used by Russian navy groupings operating in the Pacific and Indian Oceans during the Cold War.

The Russian navy's current list of overseas facilities includes only a repair shop in Tartus on Syria's Mediterranean Sea coast and telecommunications facilities in Vileiki, Belarus; Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan; and Havana, Cuba; as well as a naval equipment testing facility in Kyrgyzstan."

"The number of ocean-going warships has also dwindled. The Russian navy's assessment of the global piracy threat designates the following areas of the world as being prone:

• East Africa (Somali, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Tanzania) West Africa (Nigeria, Senegal, Angola, Ghana), Indian Ocean


• South East Asia and South China Sea (Malacca Strait, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand)


• South America and the Caribbean (Brazil, Columbia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Guyana)

Such a widespread occurrence of piracy makes it "rather difficult" to keep combat ships deployed in areas where the threat exists even though the navy remains the most efficient tool for dealing with piracy..."

"In reality, however, most of incidents occur off the coast of Somalia.."

"Still, the Russian navy maintains no presence near this hot spot, leaving it to .... US, French and German warships, to come to rescue of vessels hijacked by pirates.."

"The [Russian] navy believes participation in international war games is very useful... "

"But for now, Russian ships and their unarmed crews remain at the mercy of pirates in the high seas until someone comes to their rescue."

The Cold War continues. Strategies are drawn. Tactics ensue. Le plus ca change le plus ca le meme chose.

h/t to John Murney for that last link.