With key pillars of the Coalition of the Willing starting to defect, the US seems to be pressing allies for cannon fodder in some unlikely corners of "New Europe." Sifet Podzic, chief of the Joint Command of the Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), has announced that BiH won’t increase its troops in Iraq. However, he added that participation in peacekeeping missions would not be voluntary any more, but will be made compulsory for all servicemen. (Focus News Agency, March 3) Bosnia sent its first unit to Iraq—36 troops, including Muslims, Croats and Serbs—in the summer of 2005. (BBC, June 1, 2005)

Days after a Russian general unsubtly threatened to nuke Poland and the Czech Republic following the announcement that they would host US anti-missile bases, comes the disturbing news that US radar stations related to the missile defense program are slated for the Caucasus. This March 2 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty report indicates the Russians are playing it cool. But this has got to be viewed by the Kremlin as a further US encirclement of the Motherland, even if the ostensible enemy is Iran—which is still years away from a nuclear weapon, recall.

The latest entry in the global wave of anti-Semitism which the left is always trying to tell us is "illusory." This sort of thing seems to be especially popular in Russia of late. From JTA, March 2:

Vandals scrawled swastikas and anti-Semitic slogans on the walls of Vladivostok's main synagogue Friday. It was the second time in less than six months that the building has been defaced, the Associated Press reported.

"Zionists are the true incarnation of Satan," Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced in a lecture to Sudanese officials and intellectuals during his visit to Khartoum March 1. "The Zionist regime is the symbol of hedonism and the incarnation of the soul of the oppressive powers," he added, his comments greeted by shouts of "God is Great!," the Iranian state news agency IRNA reported.

The Bosnian Serb Republic issued a formal apology Feb. 28 for crimes committed in Bosnia's 1992-5 civil war, and especially the Srebrenica massacre. But the statement stopped short of using the word "genocide." (Jurnalo, Germany, Feb. 28) Meanwhile, Sarajevo Univeristy and the International University of Sarajevo shut their doors in a one-day strike March 2 in protest of the World Court's acquittal of Serbia on genocide charges. International University spokesman Emir Hadzikadunic said the positions of both the World Court and the Serb Republic were hypocritical. "Everyone knows that the Serb Republic is a genocide creation," he said. (Javno, Croatia, March 2)

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's new security plan for Baghdad grants military commanders sweeping powers to arrest people and restrict their basic freedoms of speech and association, Human Rights Watch says in a March 2 statement. On Feb. 13, al-Maliki issued martial law powers giving military commanders authority to conduct warrantless arrests, monitor private communications, and restrict civil society groups in Baghdad. Gen. Qanbar Hashim, commander of Baghdad operations, announced the decree as part of the Iraqi government's latest plan to curb the escalating civil war in the country. The decree also grants Gen. Qanbar full control over the Defense and Interior Ministry forces, apparently a move to crack down on sectarian attacks committed by these forces.

On March 2, residents from Um Salamoneh and nearby villages outside Bethlehem joined with international and Israeli supporters in a nonviolent protest against the seizure of Palestinian farmland for construction of Israel's illegal "separation wall." The protesters conducted Friday prayers on the farmland, and then moved to a nearby settler-only road, which they blocked until the Israeli army arrived at the scene and a small scuffle broke out. No injuries were reported.

At least six explosions rocked the Somali capital, Mogadishu, March 2, a day after 35 Ugandan troops flew in as the advance guard of a 8,000-strong African Union "peacekeeping" force. Witnesses said the explosions came from mortar shells, and wounded six people, including two children. A day earlier, one was killed on both sides in an armed attack at the home of Mogadishu's port director, Abdi Jinow, whose gaurds returned fire. Early that morning, the body of unidentified who had been tortured was found near Mogadishu waterfront. Violence is unabated since Feb. 28, when the transition government's Interior Minister Mohamed Mohamud Guled announced a massive operation to restore order in the capital, the scene of growing insurgent activity. (AP, March 2 via Gulf News, UAE, and SomaliNet; SomaliNet, March 1)