[Dawn] THE terrorist atrocities perpetrated in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. and Nairobi on the weekend were dissimilar but not exactly disconnected.
For one, both were explicitly directed against non-Mohammedans. The dozen or so men who stormed into the Westgate shopping mall in the Kenyan capital reportedly queried potential victims about their faith before singling out their victims. Outside the All Saints Church in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... capital, no such interrogation was deemed necessary.
The pattern of the Nairobi siege has been compared with the Mumbai rampage of 2008. The suicide kabooms in Peshawar, on the other hand, resemble the targeting of Shia imambargahs and Ahmadi places of worship. In both cases, however, commentators purportedly representing the perpetrators have harped on the theme of foreign military intervention as a primary motivational factor.
The Somali militia Al-Shabaab ... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda... , which has grabbed credit for the Nairobi carnage, has said it was a response to Kenya's military role in neighbouring Somalia, where a ramshackle regime in Mogadishu barely survives in the presence of troops contributed by the African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... (AU). The Shabaab militia, though, has a particular beef with Kenyan forces, which have collaborated with local warlords to substantially restrict its remit.
In Pakistain, it was initially reported that the Junoodul Hifsa, which is linked to the local Taliban, claimed the responsibility (subsequently denied by the Taliban). Reportedly, it said it had been provoked by the American drone strikes in the tribal areas -- without elaborating, obviously, on the connection between the All Saints churchgoers and the CIA's Predators, because there is none.
Sadly, but not altogether surprisingly, Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who is the lightweight's lightweight... , whose party wields provincial power in KP, chose to implicitly harp on the same theme, while also linking the attack to elements opposed to the prospect of peace talks between the Taliban and the government in Islamabad, without specifying who he had in mind.
It is intriguing that the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) reportedly denied involvement in the attack, but in itself it proves nothing. It is hardly a secret, after all, that groups loosely affiliated with the Taliban pursue relatively independent agendas, so even if the TTP is not being entirely disingenuous, it is perfectly conceivable one of its associates may have decided to commit mass murder without clearing its plans with the TTP hierarchy.
It may well also be the case that whoever authorised the unutterably vile act was indeed determined, inter alia, to thwart any sort of grinding of the peace processor. If so, they are likely to have been pleased by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... 's indication from London that in the wake of the monumental tragedy, conciliatory talks were off the agenda.
Perhaps he felt he had little choice. After all, many sensible voices in Pakistain oppose negotiations with dedicated killers as pointless, and arguably irresponsible. After all, in any civilised state, some things must be non-negotiable. Such as the sanctity of life.
Talks ought not to be written off completely as long as there is the slightest chance that they could lead to a modus vivendi that does not entail submitting to obscurantist blackmail. But given that the prospects of successful negotiations are incredibly slim, is there a Plan B in place? A dozen years after the 9/11 backlash, has the notion sunk in that Pakistain and terrorism cannot indefinitely coexist?
Pakistain cannot, surely, want to lapse into another Somalia. The lessons are tangential, no doubt, but ought not to be ignored. The African state fell into disarray following the ouster of Siad Barre in 1991, and was overrun by competing militias under rival warlords, a trend that UN and US intervention in the mid-1990s -- including an ill-fated contingent of Pak peacekeepers -- singularly failed to arrest.
A semblance of stability was eventually restored by the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), which fell short of a satisfactory solution, but temporarily brought peace to Mogadishu by sidelining the warlords. Its nomenclature alone may have sufficed, though, to provoke a disastrous US-backed Æthiopian invasion, which led to the ascendancy of Al-Shabaab, which had until then been a relatively minor component of the ICU.
There have since then been competing factions within Al-Shabaab, which affiliated itself with Al Qaeda a few years ago, with Somali nationalists -- who primarily opposed a foreign presence on their soil -- lately weeded out by the votaries of global jihad, who have attracted adherents, including British and US-born Somalis, from across the world. Both Al-Shabaab and the Kenyan authorities claim that the Westgate faceless myrmidons were a disparate bunch in terms of nationality.
The vast area Al-Shabaab once controlled within Somalia has also been shrinking, largely because of military operations by Kenyan and other AU forces in collaboration with warlords whose loyalties are easily bought. What's more, its leadership and ranks have lately been depleted by a vendetta against nationalists averse to the agenda of global jihadism.
The militia is likely to have been aware that the shopping mall it targeted in Nairobi is Israeli-owned, but it appears Westgate was chosen because it is magnet for Westerners as well as the Kenyan elite.
Its ruthlessness inevitably made the world pay attention. And Kenya, whose president and vice-president have both been implicated by the International Criminal Court ... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ... in the violence that followed elections five years ago, has received offers of additional support from the UK, US and Israel.
Pakistain and Somalia are very different entities but, although it is clear that US intervention has not had a salutary effect in either case, stemming the bloodshed in both cases deserves more concerted engagement at a local level than, most tragically, has hitherto been the case.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/26/2013 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] THE state's complacency when it comes to battling militancy and extremism on the legal front is well known. When gunnies know they'll be able to work the system in such a way that they can evade justice, they will only be further emboldened. Speaking of extremism, 2007's Lal Masjid stand-off was a major turning point in this country's history, when the bad boy threat confronting Pakistain was fully exposed. However, there is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened... one of the major architects of the fiasco, Maulvi Abdul Aziz, chief holy man of Lal Masjid, has been cleared in all cases, with the last acquittal coming on Monday. Since 2001 the preacher had faced numerous charges, with cases of murder, kidnapping and abduction filed in 2007. It should be remembered that the Lal Masjid holy mans, led by Abdul Aziz, were running a fiefdom within Islamabad, complete with 'Sharia courts' and roving bands of stick-wielding madressah student-enforcers. They had raided massage parlours and threatened shopkeepers in the federal capital, while in the build-up to the mosque stand-off law enforcement personnel were also killed and kidnapped. Yet the acquittals came about because the state failed to ensure protection for the witnesses; 60 turned hostile. When there's no testimony, how can a case be built, especially when witnesses are intimidated by Death Eaters?
The operation to retake the mosque was indeed botched by the Musharraf regime. But that is a different debate; the Lal Masjid holy mans' activities before and during the stand-off were crimes against the state, hence these crimes and the handling of the crisis should not be bundled together. The state must consider what sort of message such acquittals send. It appears that the government is indicating that it is OK to set up a parallel justice system, indulge in criminality and militancy and get away with it.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/26/2013 00:00 ||
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[Townhall.com] Jesus said youre going to Hell if you didnt treat the lesser of his brothers and sisters He said he was hungry, you didnt give him food stamps He was thirsty, you didnt purify the water he said he was naked, you didnt give him Social Security.
This is a complete distortion of Christian social teaching, no? The analogy isnt even applicable. Why? Because Im pretty sure that the programs Rangel is lionizing here didnt even exist in Jesus day. In any case, Rangel is essentially saying that if a so-called "Christian" disagrees with the premise of expanding government benefits to poor people (never mind that government dependency is oftentimes destructive and counter-productive) he/she is therefore indifferent to those living in poverty. This, my friends, is a non sequitur. At the same time, Rangel further implies that welfare state programs are the only programs that exist in the United States that could possibly lift poor people out of poverty. Not true. In fact, fifty years of empirical evidence suggests that the Great Society programs championed by LBJ and the intelligentsia (the very ones Rangels seems to be advocating for here) have actually hindered progress. Read some books by Dr. Thomas Sowell: He's studied these issues his entire life.
Furthermore, and contrary to popular opinion, Republicans dont want to cut these programs so the less fortunate will starve; they want to cut these programs to empower those struggling financially by getting them back to work and into the labor market. Remember, nearly one in six Americans collect food stamps today. Thats roughly 50 million people (!), many of whom are openly and unapologetically gaming the system. (Look no further than surfer/guitarist/beach bum Jason Greenslate living the high life in California). And yet any attempt by Republicans to rein in this out-of-control program is criticized as discriminatory and anti-American. How? Mere opposition to an anti-poverty government program doesnt somehow magically make one pro-poverty. Republicans do indeed have some ideas for lifting up the poor. The problem is, Democrats dont want to hear them.
By the way, its amusing that Schultz breathlessly asks Rangel whether or not he thinks Republicans have lost the moral and religious high ground by the way they vote? Say, arent Democrats the ones who tried to strip the word God from their official party platform at the 2012 DNC and explicitly endorsed abortion-on-demand? The Republican Party at least happily affirms the existence of God and the dignity of human life. Can the Democratic Party say the same thing? Nope. So perhaps progressives should be the ones to re-think their own political allegiances, not Republicans. I'm catching a whiff of democrat desperation.
They worship at the altar of guaranteed magic government paychecks.
Baal, no matter how you slice it.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
09/26/2013 8:39 Comments ||
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#3
Charlie took the usual Constitutional oath. Just a reminder that Dante's inner 9th circle of hell is reserved for treachery, just down the hall from the 8th circle with your friends at MSNBC.
#9
Charity is a noble thing. Charity is good. We should try to help people who are less fortunate. But charity is supposed to be voluntary. It's supposed to be from the heart. When the government puts a gun to your head and demands your money it's not charity. It's just plain old robbery.
The whole issue of using Big Government to accomplish "the Kingdom of Heaven" is PRECISELY the trap laid for Jesus by the Devil during the Third Temptation. Having eschewed the use of God's power to feed the people (first temptation) or to draw attention to himself (second temptation), the third was based on the same reasoning pointed out in the article: if you're not going to use God's power in THOSE ways, then THE ONLY OTHER WAY was to use the power of the state. Jesus saw through this and said NO. Rangel, Obama, and many "progressive" democrat "christians" are NOT christians because, unlike Christ himself, THEY SAID YES.
Unlike the first two temptations, which require miraculous power to commit, and thus unique to Jesus, EVERYONE can fall to the temptation to worship the Devil to gain power. If you really wanna be like Jesus, you don't even THINK of bolding going where HE feared to tread...
Of course, after those temptations, Jesus went on to perform even bigger miracles than what the Devil suggested. Instead of miraculously being saved from falling, He defied gravity from the outset, never letting it command him, and walked on water (better). Instead of feeding Himself, he fed thousands. Twice. (better).
The only temptation He never tried to do better than the devil suggested was the third, which was to use Government power to advance His agenda. Indeed, by dying at the hands of The Government, He even repudiated the need to control it to keep it off His back.
As for moral high ground: Since when was wholesale lying and deception on the part of the Democrats "holding the moral high ground"? When was massive democratic FALSE WITNESS against your neighbor holding the moral high ground?
#14
Ptah, you are no doubt correct but Rangel is not speaking to actual Christians but to those that love to throw the term hypocricy around and he provided just enough for those folks to make like annoying for others.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Nawaz Sharif
[Dawn] THE state's complacency when it comes to battling militancy and extremism on the legal front is well known. When 
