Friday, November 24 06

Two different revolutions in Georgia (2004) and Ukraine (2005). Nobody is qualified than the International Crisis Group's (ICG) President Evans to reflect on ethical commitments and implementation obstacles of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) framework ('From an Idea to an International Norm'). ICG's Nick Grono speaks on early warning and qualitative determinants predicting civil war. Assassination in the middle east is pathological, and Lebanon's popular 'Cedar Revolution' of 2005 now seems like ancient history. Iraq 'is broke beyond repair', calls for immediate troop withdrawals are unsuprising. U.S. military anticipates major troop withdrawals by accelerating Iraq's own security forces training. Somalia and Ethiopia are fully militarized. In Afghanistan, Taliban resurgence thrives on political incompetence everywhere in new regime. Long-time skeptic China increasingly a leader deploying U.N. peacekeeping troops.