[IsraelTimes] While combating Sinai Islamists, Cairo seeks to organize coalition against IS in Libya; bigwig compares battle to Yom Kippur War
The growing military alliance has also been anchored with a quid-pro-quo: Gulf oil powerhouses Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Kuwait have given Egypt an estimated $30 billion to rescue its damaged economy and in return Egypt’s military provides manpower alongside its Gulf counterparts.
Egypt is making an ambitious bid to place itself at the center of the fight against extremism across the Middle East.
Beyond fighting gunnies in its own Sinai Peninsula, it is trying to organize an international coalition against the Islamic State
Continued on Page 49
A slicing criticism of US State Department spokesmen, Jan Psaki and Marie Harf:
[NationalReview] Never in the history of public relations have an institution and its representatives been so mismatched as at the current U.S. Department of State, where, tasked with articulating America’s position toward Middle East terror outfits, Russian aggression, and the world’s other vicissitudes, are Jen Psaki and Marie Harf, currently in the midst of an interminable Lucy-and-Ethel routine as Foggy Bottom’s spokesperson and deputy spokesperson, respectively. In an administration that has always given the distinct impression of being directed by second-year poli-sci majors from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Psaki and Harf are the only two under the impression that Legally Blonde was a documentary — one that they are apparently trying to recreate, with little success, at Foggy Bottom It gets better at the link
#1
If only our foreign policy was "directed by second-year poli-sci majors from the University of Wisconsin–Madison" - at least it would make some sort of sense then.
#3
And just think - they are representative of the entire State Department as it is now. From it's hapless 'lucky hat' Kerry top to its hapless 'Jen and Marie' bottom.
[DAWN] THE interior minister may play down the number of madressahs in the country that have links with terrorism -- 10pc he said recently -- but the extraordinary measures that are to be taken ahead of the Pakistan Day military parade belie that cautious stance. Unless of course the military knows or suspects something that the civilian government doesnât. As per the announcement, all 39 of the madressahs and two imambargahs in the two-kilometre vicinity of the venue at Shakarparian in the Islamabad Capital Territory are to be vacated a week in advance of the parade which is being held after a gap of eight years. The measure was demanded by the intelligence agencies and security forces and conveyed to the interior ministry that issued instructions to the effect. Meanwhile, the Wafaqul Madaris Al Arabia Pakistan, the umbrella body that oversees the madressahs belonging to the Deobandi sect, has issued a statement denouncing the forcible closure of the seminaries which it said would fuel suspicion against them.
Clearly something is very amiss here. If these are indeed establishments with questionable agendas that could pose a threat to the military parade, why have they been allowed to exist at all in Pakistanâs capital, the seat of its government? And what of the citizenry that has been forced to live in close quarters with such elements? Moreover, after the parade, once the tanks have rolled away, the marching battalions retreated to their barracks, and the dignitaries been whisked off to the safety of their well-guarded abodes, will these evidently dubious institutions be allowed to return to business as usual? Religious extremism is hardly a new phenomenon, and such madressahs did not emerge overnight. Islamabad is also the headquarters for a large chunk of the countryâs vast intelligence apparatus. One may well ask what it was up to during all these years when such seminaries were proliferating in the city without let or hindrance. For an answer one would have to look to the establishmentâs duplicitous and short-sighted strategy of using religious militancy as a tool of foreign policy, a game plan that has in recent times imploded spectacularly, exacting a steep price from civilians and soldiers alike. The only viable way forward is to abjure that ruinous path and regulate madressahs -- all madressahs of every persuasion -- notwithstanding their protests or the threats by affiliated religious parties. Far more is at stake here than a military parade.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/18/2015 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11124 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[Debka] "Out of Obamas intelligence loop on Iran, Israel may be equally reluctant to share its intelligence data on Yemen or even on the situation in Syria and Iraq.
Israel's Netanyahu is not the only Middle East stand-out against Obama's Iranian policy. Other leaders are in even worse relations with Washington. The Obama administration and Egyptian President Abdel-Fatteh El-Sisi are not even on talking terms, much like the late Saudi monarch Abdullah who died last month. His successor, King Salman has yet to make his intentions towards the United States known." It is becoming increasing difficult to give our President the benefit of the doubt. His staff enacts and defends his policies. There is something seriously wrong with this man.
#1
Does he really think when he is out of office Iran will welcome him and Val home like hero's? They will build a shrine to Val but for their Manchurian candidate they will disavow as a mere tool.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
02/18/2015 1:06 Comments ||
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#2
I suspect the roots of the Champ's 'Iranian dialogue' go a bit deeper.
Obama tells Russia's Medvedev more flexibility after election. Link
#5
Israel's Netanyahu is not the only Middle East stand-out against Obama's Iranian policy. Other leaders are in even worse relations with Washington..
Well, the world always wanted the US out of the way...
...The fundamental problem progressives such as Williams face is that the world is not as they would have it. Not at all. Many if not most of them have limited experience in the real world, having spent lives of wealth and privilege, sheltered in progressive educational institutions. They have very superficial knowledge of the world outside these bubbles, and rely, therefore, to a great deal on Hollywood. They incorporate into their personae the largely leftist rubbish pumped out by Hollywood.
In their world, the United States is still 1930's Alabama--or, better said, the Alabama of Hollywood. They want to unleash their inner Atticus Finch. In their world, murderers in the United States are middle aged white male business executives who kill black people instead of what happens in the real world where murderers are overwhelmingly young black men who generally kill black people. In their world, women can kung fu better and be bigger badasses than big burly guys, when, in fact, the opposite is true as shown by the progressives' contradictory and ceaseless calls for government to "protect" women from men. "I am woman! I am strong! Call the cops! Men are looking at me!" In progressive world, the KKK equals the Tea Party, when in the real world, the KKK served as the armed wing of the Democratic Party. In progressive world, Western civilization is the source for all the poverty and evil in the world, when, in fact, the concepts of liberty, justice, and human rights are Western constructs.
#2
Wanting to matter and be compensated that much, particularly when it is beyond your skill and work ethic level, will lead you to this every time.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
02/18/2015 11:54 Comments ||
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#3
I would add that when you perceive the rest of us as bitterly clinging untermensch and simultaneously want to have a "hero grunt" experience, you put yourself in a position of cognitive dissonance that is unresolvable.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
02/18/2015 11:58 Comments ||
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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.
