Belarus Says to Prepare Against U.S. Attack

Reuters ^ | December 26, 2003 | Reuters

[Land_of_Lincoln_John]

MINSK (Reuters) - President Alexander Lukashenko, isolated by the West for his lack of political and economic reforms, said on Friday Belarus must be prepared to defend itself against U.S. attack.

Lukashenko, once called Europe's last dictator by U.S. officials, has criticized Washington's military campaign against Iraq, saying it had created a precedent whereby undesirable leaders could be unseated with military force.

"Belarus has to be vigilant and pay particular attention to strengthening its fighting efficiency. The world has returned to times when war and brute force were real instruments of foreign policy," Official news agency BelTA quoted him as saying.

"The United States declared its particular right to use military force toward countries that dare to implement independent foreign and internal policies," he said.

Washington and the European Union, which will share a border with Belarus when it absorbs Poland, Latvia and Lithuania next year, have criticized Lukashenko for breaching human rights, cracking down on the opposition, suppressing demonstrations and having a poor record on press freedom.

Belarus, an impoverished former Soviet country of 10 million, had achieved considerable progress in reforming its armed forces, Lukashenko said, pledging to increase state financing for the military next year.

"We are not going to do any saber-rattling. We are not going to threaten anybody. We are talking only about defending our motherland," he said.

[Drango]

Belarus today. France tomorrow.

[atomic conspiracy]

"criticized Washington's military campaign against Iraq, saying it had created a precedent whereby undesirable leaders could be unseated with military force."

Obviously, he has never heard of Hitler, Mussolini, Tojo, Napoleon, Cromwell, etc.; to say nothing of those such as Somoza and Batista who were curiously exempt from the sacrosanct status the left assigns to other dictators.

[Luke Skyfreeper]

Dictator-looking-for-some-threat,-any-possible-threat,-to-get-his-people-to-rally-behind-him alert...

[BCrago66]

I think Belaurus is protected from attack by virtue of the fact that most people forgot it existed.

[Libertina]

Like the Mouse that Roared... A good way to get aid (when the lose the war ;)

[babaloo999]

Is the Bishop of East Anglia involved in any way? If so, they could be in over their heads.

[vladog]

Troop of Boy Scouts should be able to do the job in a week or so.

[mac_truck]

How many nukes does Belarus control?

[DarkWaters]

He is an admirer of Joseph Stalin. The only way that man will leave is via a bullet to the head or poison for the heart.

[pctech]

I'm one of those who never knew it existed. When I saw the name I thought it was the name of the creator of the TV series JAG.

[IronJack]

Washington's military campaign against Iraq ... had created a precedent whereby undesirable leaders could be unseated with military force.

Yeah. We wouldn't want THAT, would we?

[Malcolm]

LOL, sounds like the Argentine "Malvinas Syndrome." Things are going crappy on the homefront, or someone does not know that the old ways of commie-ism have past away in Europe, behold all government things have become new," i.e., democratic, so let's look for enemies abroad. Yeah, right. No democratic nation has to fear attack by the US, unless you are doing something to merit that attack. Uh, what are you doing that would invite an attack, Ivan???

[MomwithHope]

We have hosted a young girl (11) from Belarus for the last 2 summers. It is a program through ABRO (the American Belarussian Relief Organization) www.abro.org
They bring over 600 children to the US each summer for 6 weeks to give their bodies a break from the radiation. Over 60% or Chernobyl radiation fell in Belarus. I can tell you from what this girl shared with us that the Belarussian people are pro-American, They love Bush and believe him to be a good man and they do not like Lukashenko.

[stradivarius]

Makes you wonder what they're up to that they're trying so hard to hide... are they selling old Soviet nukes on the black market?

[MediaMole]

As of July 1996, a total of 63 of the initial 81 single-warhead mobile SS-25 Topol missiles, had been withdrawn, with the remaining 18 yet to be removed to Russia. However, Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka announced that Belarus would suspend the withdrawal of nuclear missiles from Belarus to Russia. Lukashenka said the decision to withdraw the weapons was a political mistake made by the previous leadership, and that it was unnecessary since Belarus and Russia may soon unite. The weapons had been dismantled and were no longer a military threat, and were finally returned to Russia in late November 1996.

Belarus became a non-nuclear weapons state in November 1996.

Belarus special weapons

[John Beresford Tipton]

"Is the Bishop of East Anglia involved"

Oh, Oh,
The Angles too?
A nasty bunch:
some of them are right and some of them are obtuse, but very few are sharp or acute.

[GladesGuru]

"why does cargo go by ship, and a shipment goes by car?"

Because people got tired of waiting for the arrival of the non-stop flight of the air freight company.

[jagrmeister]

Alexander Lukashenko + 1 Bunker Buster bomb = No more dictators in Europe.

[jimtorr]

I think Gallager, in the best tradition of comedians worldwide, stole that routine from George Carlin.

My favorite bit from '90's comedians is, "I'm a bit of a phsycic. I can see the future, but only way out to the sides. I'm a peripheral visionary." That comic, whose name I can't remember right now, gets my award for comedic word play.