#1
#5 German declares war on the United States is only because of an even greater bad decision made a priori by the Japanese to attack the United States. The military government in Tokyo assumed wrongly that the United States would go to war if they invaded the resource areas of the European colonies in the south like Indonesia. They believed they had to neutralize the American forces in the territory of the Philippines in that act. After the Japanese had occupied French Indochina, the Roosevelt administration had invoked a trade embargo cutting off oil and other resources from Japan. However, Congress and the population were not in a war hawk mode. The extension of the first time non-wartime draft had just barely passed Congress a couple of months before. The American population was not interested in going to war to protect European colonies in the Pacific. In fact, the Philippines were already schedule for independence by '46 as the concept of 'colonies' had become an anathema to the American public.
#4
4-Stalin signs a non-aggression treaty with Germany in August 1939. Stalin thought this would keep Germany at bay until Russia could launch its own mighty offensive in 1943. Germany attacked first, in June of 1941. The Russians weren't ready and took a major beating (30-million dead). Russia almost lost the war.
I don't get this one. Russia bought themselves time. Not enough because Hitler was more treacherous then they were but any time had to be helpful. So how is that a huge blunder?
#5
Also it isn't mentioned in the article but a commentor mentions it. The unrestricted immigration of South Asians into West Europe which has drastically changed the demographics there is a bigger blunder than most of the ones listed.
I would also say treating Communism as anything less than equal to National Socialism may have been a suicidal blunder for the West.
#6
...in that line, substituting Marxism and its sects for Christianity. The latter has had some historical short comings, but the former is a cultural killer beyond 'biblical' plagues.
[ClarionProject] Islam, said El-Sisi needs a modern understanding and should not rely on a discourse that has not changed for 800 years.
A taste:
General El-Sisi, the commander of the Egyptian Armed Forces and current head of state, is essentially calling for a reformation in Islam. His bold declaration comes as the Egyptian people approved a constitution in a vote that the Moslem Brüderbund boycotted.
The speech, which went unnoticed in the Western media, took place at the Armed Forces' Department of Moral Affairs. In the speech, El-Sisi said:
"Religious discourse is the greatest battle and challenge facing the Egyptian people, pointing to the need for a new vision and a modern, comprehensive understanding of the religion of Islam--rather than relying on a discourse that has not changed for 800 years."
Notice what El-Sisi did not say. He did not say Zionism or Western oppression is the greatest threat to Egypt, nor did he point to a specific group like Al-Qaeda or the Moslem Brüderbund. He accurately framed the struggle as an ideological one within Islam.
When he refers to the "discourse that has not changed for 800 years," he's referring to when the most qualified Islamic scholars of that time ruled that all questions about interpretation had been settled. The "gates" of ijtihad, the independent interpretation of Islam, ended by the year 1258. He wants the "gates" reopened, allowing for the critical examination that an Islamic reformation needs.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/24/2014 00:00 ||
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[11132 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
#1
Dang! A bold move by the general. Islam badly needs a reformation to adapt to the modern world, but I would have expected the call to come out of the clergy rather than the military. Egypt has been a very interesting place lately.
#4
Except Islam cannot be reformed (Koran is increated remember? ) and it stands on the teachings and near divinization of a murderer and paedophile. Such a bad tree cannot give good fruit. The only way to deal is with Islam is by making it as dead as the Ancient Greek religion.
Modern progressives think that it is easier to change people than to change infrastructure. The classical city shaped infrastructure to accommodate how people lived, while progressives use infrastructure as a tool of social change to bully urban residents into changing how they live.
Bloomberg did this in blunt fashion by eliminating elevators to force people to get in shape by using the stairs and by blocking off streets to force people to abandon cars and use public transportation. Instead the number of cars in the city increased and so did the obesity rate.
Progressives are adept at politically manipulating people with propaganda, but this skill doesn't translate well at the policy level. Obama won over younger voters, but can't get them to enroll in ObamaCare. Politics is an abstract for most people. Policy is a reality.
Politics is the image they want to have. Policy is how much money they have in the bank.
[DAWN] THE mourners are back on the streets. There is a sense of déjà vu as we look at the moving pictures of men, women and kiddies sitting with the remains of their loved ones in the biting cold of Quetta, waiting for justice. We saw these images before a little over a year ago, when the heirs of the Alamdar Road bombings began a protest sit-in that was replicated nationwide. That protest may have brought down the incompetent government that ruled Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... at the time, but for the province's Hazara Shias and for other citizens who have been victims of terrorism, little has changed. Sectarian and jihadi Death Eaters still operate with impunity as indicated by the attack on pilgrims returning from Iran on Tuesday in Mastung, which triggered the latest protests. Meanwhile, ...back at the pound, the little lost dog had finished eating the rat terrier... the federal government continues to show little by way of leadership or resolve, much like the previous dispensation. Expectedly, protests have spread to other cities, with main arteries blocked in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... , Lahore, Islamabad and other locations. This has resulted in traffic gridlock and business closures; yet how else can peaceful citizens express their outrage at the government's inability or unwillingness to tackle terrorism? Regrettable as the inconvenience to citizens is, there is apparently no other way to grab the government's attention.
To his credit, the Balochistan chief minister did visit the protesters on Wednesday. Yet to meet the protesters' demands -- which are also the demands of many Paks -- of punishing the perpetrators of Tuesday's outrage and uprooting terrorism, it is the federal government and security establishment that will need to take meaningful action. As we've said before, the fight must be taken to the Death Eaters. If the state fails to take solid action, such displays of public disaffection will only intensify. The people have buried too many loved ones mowed down by terrorists.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/24/2014 00:00 ||
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[11127 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
Unfortunately some Analysts believe that Islamabad + ISI may have had a major role in the deadly attack on the Shia bus.
Sunni Pakistan is NOT happy - not happy at all - about the Bammer's new rapprochement wid Iran over in Syria = Middle East.
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.
[ClarionProject] Islam, said El-Sisi needs a modern understanding and should not rely on a discourse that has not changed for 800 years.
