The Pakistani version of the Children's Crusade. In the original they all ended up dead or slaves, so the outcome is hopeful.
[Dawn] AS these words are being written, Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who ain't the sharpest bulb on the national tree... and his Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaaf supporters are en route to the tribal areas as part of a 'peace march' to protest American drone strikes in the Wazoo agencies. Earlier, there was some ambiguity about the state's willingness to provide security to the marchers. The South Waziristan Agency administration had denied permission for the march, citing its inability to provide security to participants. Yet Interior Minister Rehman Malik Pak politician, Interior Minister under the Gilani government. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Nawaz Sharif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. He had to give up the interior ministry job because he held dual Brit citizenship. on Saturday reportedly stated that no impediments were being created for the PTI rally, while the Dera Ismail Khan ... the Pearl of Pashtunistan ... authorities said they would make 'fool-proof' security arrangements. These are welcome developments indicating that better sense has prevailed in government circles. Now, the state should not create panic by issuing warnings, and work on ensuring maximum possible security for the participants. While the wisdom of the march itself is debatable, the fact remains that it is the democratic right of every political party to hold rallies and public meetings. Having said that, the PTI needs to cooperate with the authorities as safety of the marchers is of paramount importance.
Looking beyond the PTI march, the state cannot make the excuse that rallies or meetings should be cancelled because of bully boy threats. Issuing advance threat warnings and later saying 'we told you so' is the easy way out for the government in order to shirk its responsibilities. The authorities can also use the existence of threats to disallow religious processions in Muharram and Rabiul Awwal. Yet the snuffies cannot be allowed to set the agenda. People have the right to peacefully assemble for political, religious or other purposes and the state must guarantee their safety. Providing security to the PTI march was the right move; hopefully the state will not be reluctant to provide protection to its citizens in similar cases.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/08/2012 00:00 ||
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The Arab world wasted hundreds of billions of dollars and lost tens of thousands of innocent lives fighting Israel, which they considered is their sworn enemy, an enemy whose existence they never recognized. The Arab world has many enemies and Israel should have been at the bottom of the list. The real enemies of the Arab world are corruption, lack of good education, lack of good health care, lack of freedom, lack of respect for the human lives and finally, the Arab world had many dictators who used the Arab-Israeli conflict to suppress their own people.
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ION RENSE > IRAN NAVY COMMANDER: 75 MILYUHN IRANIANS READY FOR DEFENSE, in case of major ground invasion.
and
* SAME > IRAN: ISRAEL WILL LOSE 10,000 TROOPS IFF IRAN INVADED.
"Israel" also read, US of A + prolly safe to say UK-NATO???
Once again, to paraph 1960's = 1980's OLIVER STONE'S "PLATOON" > "There were other Battalions in the Valley - we weren't the only one, but somewhere out there was an entire Enemy Regiment.
This is the story ...
> Of a future Soldier-King named Francis.
> A Valley called the Little Big Horn.
> A Texas-sized Asteroid.
> And a Sword called EXCALIBUR!
[MADONNA's "LIVE TO TELL", JEFFERSON AIRPLANE'S "WHITE RABBIT"[Theme from "PLATOON" here].
Syria's cross-border attacks on Turkey in the past week look increasingly like they could be an intentional escalation meant to send a clear message to Ankara and beyond, that the crisis is simply too explosive to risk foreign military intervention.
With Turkey eager to defuse the crisis, the spillover of fighting is giving new life to a longshot political solution, with the Turks floating the idea of making President Bashar Assad's longtime vice-president, Farouk al-Sharaa, interim leader if the president steps aside.
A military option -- which would involve foreign powers that already have expressed a deep reluctance to getting involved in the crisis -- is still not on the table, analysts say, despite six consecutive days of Turkish retaliation against bombardment from inside Syria.
"Syria is aware that Turkey cannot go a step further," said Ali Tekin, assistant professor of International Relations at Ankara's Bilkent University. "The Turkish people don't want a war and there are no vital national interests at stake to warrant a war. Syria sees this."
The Syrian conflict has taken a prominent role in the U.S. presidential election at a time when the U.S. and its allies have shown little appetite for getting involved.
On Monday, Republican candidate Mitt Romney said the U.S. should work with other countries to arm the Syrian rebels, allowing the rebels to drive Assad from power themselves. Romney did not call for the U.S. to directly arm the Syrian rebels.
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Read, RUSSIA , + in lessor Iran + China but espec Russia.
Syria being Syria, Baby Assad + Boyz will keep bombing both Rebs + Kurds on either side of the Syria-Turkey border, but expects Turkey to not militarily escalate to anything major unless Ankara is willing to risk drawing the military ire of Russia + Iran.
The Sharpton character comes up with insane excuses, the Chris Matthews character is in the manic phase, etc.
Posted by: lord garth ||
10/08/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
My GF and I tried to watch the full SNL episode last night on Hulu. We really enjoyed the opening mock debate and the MSNBC parody, but we couldn't stomach the rest. Thank God the writers have the politicians to practically hand them material they can't miss with--their own material is about as original and sophisticated as "Pull my finger!"
Posted by: Dar ||
10/08/2012 13:16 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.
Wazoo
