Top 5...St. Patrick's Day edition!

1. Are The Troubles back in Northern Ireland? Probably not, though there have been some worrying signs as of late. First two soldiers were killed and two more wounded by members of RIRA (Real Irish Republican Army) on March 7th. Then, on the 9th, a constable was killed by members of CIRA (Continuity Irish Republican Army). This past Saturday, after police arrested several well known Republicans and were continuing with the investigations, groups of Republicans gathered and began tossing Molotov cocktails (or petrol bombs as the British call them- has a nice ring to it) at the police.

Loyalists should be commended, as there have been no counter-attacks thus far. All the major players from The Troubles have been calling for cooler heads to prevail; Loyalist-in-chief Ian Paisley, Sinn Fein head honcho Gerry Adams, and PIRA (Provisional Irish Republican Army) terrorist turned MP Martin McGuinness each condemned the newest round of violence.

My favorite quote from this whole mess?

Easily the most eerie aspect of the last couple of days for me has been the sound on my car radio of Martin McGuinness, allegedly once a senior IRA commander, sounding just like a Northern Ireland Secretary of State from the Eighties.

2. The Pope is at it again. Every time I want to take a break from talking about that guy with the funny hat, he goes and does something so crazy I just can't resist. His latest move? Claiming that condom use may actually make the African AIDS epidemic worse, and that abstinence is the only way to prevail.

Comprehensive research by the American Psychological Association (and many other groups) shows that abstinence only education and Comprehensive sex education have both been shown to delay sexual activity in youths. The catch is that those who receive comprehensive sex education remain abstinent for much longer than those who receive abstinence only education. And because they have little clue how to protect themselves or the importance of doing so, those who receive abstinence only education are far more likely to catch diseases such as HIV/AIDS.

Even if abstinence before marriage were something important (and that's one hell of a big "if"), the strange paradox is that more couples would remain abstinent if people in positions of authority like the Pope encouraged comprehensive sex education and condom use, rather than turn a blind eye to how the world actually works. The numbers don't lie. Dogma is fine and dandy, but helping people is better.

The Pope can have his dog and pony no-option-but-abstinence-show, but I can't help but wonder how many millions more will contract HIV/AIDS because the Pope lacks the courage to say "don't have sex, but if you do- make sure your soldier has his helmet on."

*Warning- from here on out, the Top 5 have nothing remotely to do with St. Patrick's day. What? Did you really think the Irish are that interesting?*

3. The Soviet Union Russia has announced a major rearmament program. Frightened by recent NATO expansions, instability on their border, and extensive equipment and tactical problems while kicking Georgia's bottom all over the Caucasus this past summer, Russia plans on spending $140 billion to modernize their military. As this BBC article points out, major increases in defense spending were less of a problem when Russia was making money hand over fist with oil sales. Now that oil is at $40/barrel, instead of the nearly $150/barrel from last year, building a new army might be easier said than done.

4. France is set to rejoin NATO's military command. President Sarkozy won a parliamentary vote today, permitting France to re-integrate into the NATO military structure. France pulled out of the NATO military command in 1966. Then President De Gaulle thought the move was the only way to ensure France's sovereignty and independence. France has continued to supply troops to NATO missions however, but ironically enough, because of De Gaulle's move has had no say in the decision making process. Sarkozy is pushing the re-integration as a means to increase French influence in NATO and to give France a say at how their troops are used. There will be little practical difference, as French troops have been tagging along on NATO missions for quite a while, but it is a show of solidarity with the alliance that is sorely needed at this moment.

5. A major change could be en route at the Pentagon. For years, U.S. war-fighting doctrine has called for the DOD to be able to fight two major wars simultaneously. Such planning assumed the military would be engaged in conventional fights from which it could disengage once the fighting was over. However, the wars the U.S. are actually engaged in have vastly different requirements; mainly long term commitments of many troops. These long wars have placed quite a strain on the military in terms of both manpower and equipment.

The new idea is to rebuild the military so that it can handle many and varied operations; from fighting the conventional combatant to the counter-insurgent, and from peacekeeping to protecting U.S. territory. Or, as one defense expert puts it "a multiwar, multioperation, multifront, walk-and-chew-gum construct." Sounds interesting, and much needed. I'll be commenting more on this whenever the new plans are made public.