Multiple Terrorist Attacks in the Middle East

After the attacks in Lahore, Pakistan yesterday, two bombs have exploded a city marketplace. Shortly after the marketplace attacks, a suicide bomber drove a car loaded with explosives into a military checkpoint. According to a Taliban deputy, the Lahore attacks were in response to the military's ongoing operations in the Northern province of Swat to suppress the Taliban uprising. After the Lahore attacks, the Taliban warned of further violence.

In South-East Iran a blast has crippled a mosque in the city of Zahedan. A border city with Pakistan, Zahedan is often the site of political unrest and drug violence. The attack could not come at a more sensitive time; the first round of the presidential election is a little over two weeks away.

Obama Administration shows some Palestinian Love

Hillary Clinton has made an unusually stern statement concerning the growth of Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory. Benjamin Netanyahu has said this is natural expansion and will continue as long as Israel continues to grow in population. The Obama administration has taken a stance in opposition to this expansion, one that is likely to be well received by the Palestinians. This comes in contrast the Bush Administration's policy of ignorance on Israeli expansion. This is also the first time in decades the US has made public a significant disagreement with Israel.

Hamas Shows its Global Reach

Two of the founders of the charity "Holy Land Foundation" have been imprisoned after being found guilty of sending funds to the terrorist organization Hamas. Hamas controls the Gaza Strip in the Palestinian territory. The defendants claimed none of the money they send to Hamas was for violence; rather the money was for social programs which Hamas has developed. The jury ruled the two guilty of supporting a terrorist organization; there was no way to tell if the money was used on social programs or diverted to militant causes.

North Korea -- What to do?

I refrained from posting about this yesterday when North Korea set off their second nuclear test in three years because of the lack of definitive information about the test. This nuclear test was carried out in the northern province of Kilju, the same location of the 2006 test. There is no official determination of the yield of the weapon tested, Russia has reported up to 40 Kilotons, other reports indicate as low as 4 Kilotons. The 2006 test was a low yield bomb of 1 kiloton (equivalent to 1,000 sticks of dynamite, considered relatively low for a nuclear weapon). Aidan Foster-Carter perceptively writes that North Korea is clearly not going to be the next Libya and give up their nuclear weapons program. Assuming that North Korea, under no condition, is going to give up their nuclear program, then we must find another way to negotiate with North Korea. The past six years of so-called Six Party Talks has yielded no results other than an empty promise of North Korea abandoning its nuclear program. With that promise now void, another strategy must be devised.
New negotiations with Pyongyong must take on a different tone now, one that encompasses much more than their youthful nuclear program. Most who follow North Korea in the news know about their starving population and the "secret" forced labor camps which are inhabited by those who dare speak against the government. With these conditions in mind, the US and other states must find a different way to negotiate with the DPRK.
We must realize that putting sanctions on North Korea again, will not do much, except further starve the citizens. There needs to be a way to integrate them into the global system in a meaningful way so that they will stop threatening those around them and they loosen the stranglehold on the economy and citizens.
We have to do a couple of things in my opinion:
1. Actually find a credible negotiator (preferably Kim Jong Il himself)
2. Ask exactly what they want; if it is a nuclear program, we need to draft an agreement which allows IAEA inspectors to all of the nuclear facilities, there need to be efficient safeguards (PALs, etc), there needs to be an agreement to prevent the distribution of nuclear material or dual-use technologies.
3. In return for being brought into the international community, there needs to be some sort of assurance that the citizens are allowed additional freedoms, especially easy access to food.

Other things are also needed, but this is just a start. I do not think many people really understand what Kim Jong Il really wants out of this program. We need to understand his thinking before we can effectively negotiate. If we can reach a mutual agreement it is easier to assuage the tensions on the Korean Peninsula.