war Archive

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  War, what is it good for? - by frog

  
  
  
  World military expenditure is now higher than it was during the Cold War. I’m going to let the pictures do the talking read more
  October 17, 2009 8:15 am - 52 Comments
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  In times of war - by frog

  
  
  
  theyworkforyou.co.nz has a sobering post following the election results which notes: Two parties which New Zealand has just elected into power, National and Act, voted in favour of the New Zealand Government joining the USA-led war coalition. This coalition invaded Iraq on 20 March 2003. For those of you that missed my previous post here’s [...] read more
  November 12, 2008 9:35 am - 45 Comments
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  A vote for more foreign war - by frog

  
  
  
  This letter was in the Timaru Herald on Friday: The effrontery! How dare those Greens try to keep us out of other people’s foreign wars. I hear they also radically oppose death, famine and pestilence. read more
  October 20, 2008 10:58 am - 10 Comments
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  Make peace not war - by frog

  
  
  
  And here’s more policy announcements.  Keith Locke and Kennedy Graham launched a 22 page foreign affairs policy tonight at the Canterbury branch of the New Zealand Institute for International Affairs that: Introduces into our trading framework with other countries values like human rights, labour and environmental standards, ecologically-sustainable practices, local values and cultures, the right [...] read more
  September 17, 2008 8:55 pm - 102 Comments
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  Snapper Wars - by frog

  
  
  
  It is inevitable that there will be teething problems when a new technology is rolled out and the Snapper Card, Wellington’s new fare system, is no exception. Open warfare broke out on my bus this morning, as Snapper cardholders were turned away because the bus was not fitted with a Snapper reader. It seems that [...] read more
  August 20, 2008 9:52 am - 37 Comments
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  The Georgia-Brazil power axis - by frog

  
  
  
  An angry Russian beach volleyball player has refused to acknowledge losing to Georgia, claiming her rivals were really Brazilians in disguise. (How do you disguise a Brazilian volleyball player as a Georgian volleyball player?) Maybe Georgia should have spent more time recruiting Brazilian soldiers rather than volleyball players? Or better still spent more time playing [...] read more
  August 14, 2008 11:43 am - 5 Comments
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  95km - by frog

  
  
  
  I obviously haven’t been paying close enough attention.  I just found out the distance from Ergneti in South Ossetia to the Georgian capital Tbilisi is about 95 kms.  That’s like a war between Hamilton and Auckland with Pukekohe trying to breakaway from the northern Bombayians to join the Waikato. (South Ossetia has a slightly smaller [...] read more
  August 12, 2008 4:55 pm - 17 Comments
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  South Ossetia - by frog

  
  
  
  You have to wonder who Georgia’s Mikheil Saakashvili had in his ear to think that attacking the separatists in South Ossetia was going to work.  Maybe he mistakenly thought the support he got from the US in recent years was cavalry rather than show ponies?  Maybe he though that nearly belonging to NATO was close [...] read more
  August 11, 2008 8:48 am - 4 Comments
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  Get ready for the last oil war - by frog

  
  
  
  As you would expect, such a title had to pique my interest. But this article over at Energy Bulletin proved irresistible, despite its dense language. While I am not entirely convinced that an all-out total war for oil, centred around Iran and triggered by their nuclear ‘crisis’ is inevitable, it is hard to articulate a [...] read more
  July 20, 2008 3:16 pm - 15 Comments
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  Saying sorry - by frog

  
  
  
  A few days ago I asked Catherine Delahunty and some of the other Green candidates to send in an occasional post to Frogblog.  I haven’t managed to set up a login for her yet, but she has promptly sent in this post on the Government’s Vietnam veteran apology this afternoon, which I’ll post for her: [...] read more
  May 28, 2008 4:01 pm - 27 Comments
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  Clinton’s mistake - by frog

  
  
  
  The Nation has an interesting article on Hillary Clinton’s floundering nomination campaign, arguing that the mistake she made was not a tactical or strategic one. It wasn’t that she picked the wrong states to focus on, or threw everything into her knock-out punch or fundraised poorly. It was a policy mistake: The biggest factor that [...] read more
  May 12, 2008 9:45 pm - 9 Comments
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  Would John Key send troops to Iran? - by frog

  
  
  
  President Bush is at it again, beating the war drums. This time the boogey-man is Iran, and in his speech today he said Iran threatened the security of all nations and should be confronted “before it’s too late”. It’s an interesting dilemma. First, no-one would like to see more countries get a hold of nuclear weapons. [...] read more
  January 14, 2008 5:10 pm - 62 Comments