Defense craze grips the world

A series of armed conflicts has taken place in the world during the recent several years. Israel wages war in Gaza. Turkey conducted an operation against Kurdistan’s gunmen in Iraq. Columbia attacked a FARC camp on the border territory, which aggravated the nation’s ties with Ecuador and Venezuela. Abkhazia and Georgia concentrated their troops on their borders at the end of last week. The conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and Africa still continue.

Photo: Defense craze grips the world

The war in the Gaza Strip led to numerous deaths and put an end to negotiations between Israel and Palestine. As for Latin America, observers say that Colombia’s attack nearly triggered a full-scale war.

Following Colombia’s armed incursion, Ecuador and its ally Venezuela deployed their troops on borders and ceased diplomatic ties with Alvaro Uribe’s regime. The Venezuelan president promised to attack Colombia in return not to let the nation become “the Israel of Latin America.”

The Middle East, Venezuela and Central Africa are ready to wage their wars till final victories. A large number of local conflicts grips the world against the background of forecasts about the global transformation of the world.

A recent report from the Pentagon says that China spent $139 billion on its military needs in 2007 – three times as much as the Chinese authorities recognize. US officials believe that China intends to play a bigger role in international politics, that is why it is highly important for the international community to understand the goals of the Chinese defense politics.

It is worthy of note that the Pentagon touches upon the issue of China’s aggressive plans whereas the US official defense budget triples China’s real defense spending. On the other hand, neither the USA nor the West on the whole can control the current state of affairs in the world. The example of Iraq and North Korea showed that missiles, tanks and other military hardware are best guarantees of survival, security and relative independence.

Such sentiments exerted a considerable influence on the market of arms. Rumors about the start of the new arms race appeared three years ago, when the turnover of the market started increasing very fast.

In addition, different countries start practicing military operation on adjacent territories. This method has been used three times in only ten days: by Israel in the Gaza Strip, by Turkey in Iraq and by Columbia in Ecuador.

Translated by Dmitry Sudakov
Pravda.ru