"'My name is such a vanilla, white-girl American name,' said Ashley Holmes of Indianapolis, who changed her name online 'to show how little meaning "Hussein" really has.'"
I assume they see themselves as good-hearted and idealistic, but:
1. How did you become estranged from your own name, to regard it as opposed to yourself as vanilla, white, female, and American, and to think of that combination in a negative way?
2. Why do you think the name "Hussein" has little meaning and that people who have that name appreciate your demonstration that is has little meaning? You're propagating the idea that "Hussein" is a dirty word associated only with Saddam Hussein that ought to be deactivated by repetition, as opposed to an honorable name within a respected tradition.
I assume Ashley Hussein Whitebread-Vanilla will be roundly condemned at Obama's "Fight the Smears" website for propagating the slanderous meme that Obama is a closet Moslem.
Posted by: Mike ||
06/29/2008 09:39 ||
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While the Universe does have a penalty for stupidity, it's not applied consistently.
#2
This isn't stupid, merely foolish, naive, and ultimately meaningless.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
06/29/2008 10:32 Comments ||
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#3
If B.Hussein Obama had an ounce of integrity he would've changed HIS middle name to something "American" long ago. Better people than he have changed their names to avoid social opprobrium. It's just another indicator of BHO's arrogance, and his supporters' stupidity.
#4
Ashley has so little meaning in her insignificant little life that she's doing this to yell "pay attention to meeeeeeee!". I guess better this than tattoos, shaved head, or piercings, but same loser mentality
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/29/2008 12:30 Comments ||
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#6
Since it was deemed a good neologism (though not from me), here it goes again : ethnomasochism.
Seriously, it is a serious cultural issue. Check out the concept of "cultural pessimism", in its racial guise, this is what this is all about; large chunk of vanilla, white girls & boys, not only in the USA, but in France, Germany,... have basically been taught that their skin color is wrong, that their collective History is worthless and shameful, and that the Other is not only different, but he's better, and is not to be judged according to our own set of values (which are wrong and worthless anyway) in any case. Reminds me of that incident mentioned in passing in the Spencer's book about unPC islam, with that vanilla, white-girl american student telling him she found western History so bland and so worthless, and that she was into american indians History, because they were so much more humane and spiritual : they invented democracy, had gender equality,...
Same here. Weren't BO a black guy (though he's actually a metis, but it's being black is a lot more rewarding in his own worldview, probably, and also easier to capitalize on in identity politics & community activism, saul alinsky-style), he would lose a LOT of his appeal for all those vanilla, white new voters, who will flock to him, to convince themselves they're on the right side (plus alot of other, less affected folks, who go through the motions, even while they know deep down it's flawed in face of Reality, but will vote for BO to reassure themselves they're not raaaaaaacccccissssts, after all).
BO is poison, he epithemizes everything's that is wrong about race relationships in the USA, and, yet, he's doing a service of some sort, as he's a chemical revelator, a catalyst for showing what's left in the unavowed and unacknowledged (see the trinity church and what it means, see that girl and what it means). Interesting. I'm actually learning a lot.
#10
1. How did you become estranged from your own name, to regard it as opposed to yourself as vanilla, white, female, and American, and to think of that combination in a negative way?
If I had to guess, I'd say our public education system paved the way for Ms. Holmes.
#11
"If B.Hussein Obama had an ounce of integrity he would've changed HIS middle name to something "American" long ago."
Now in any other forum I visit, I'd be sure this was snarky humor, but here in Rantburg it was almost certainly spoken for real.
Looking forward to seeing when the GOP will ever nominate a non-white, non-male or non-Anglo-named in its ticket... Choose Condoleeza Rice as VP, and you'll be having 2.5 out of 3, beating Obama's score of 2 out of 3, even if only in a VP position.
#12
Contrary to your belief, Aris, most Americans don't care what color our leaders are.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
06/29/2008 20:09 Comments ||
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#13
When Christians convert to the terror cult, they adopt koranic names. So why did Obama - who once signed official documents as "Barry Obama" - not abandon his terror cult nom de dhimmi? Bad judgment in my opinion.
#14
Deacon> "Contrary to your belief, Aris, most Americans don't care what color our leaders are."
You should care: It's one of the metrics useful in determining whether there's racial equality in practice. I.e. given the fact that the last 43 presidents were white males, one would determine gender and racial equality are still lacking.
Among the candidates for the nomination, the Republican lineup still only had white males -- the Democrats had in their own lineup a Hispanic, an African-American, and a woman.
#15
that lecturing asshole attitude is what got you banned - do you always troll places that don't want you?
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/29/2008 21:31 Comments ||
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#16
Importantly, the single equation that many Americans will use will be "If Obama was white, who would be the Democrat senator most like him in policy?"
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/29/2008 14:13 ||
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#1
Nick Kristoff is an idiot.
Tell Mugabe that if he doesn't step down the other African nations will sic the International Criminal Court on him? How rich. Bring back Carla del Ponte to run the prosecution and Mugabe could live to be 100 and never spend a day in court. And in the meantime the ICC could send in the mighty Uruguayans to run the place.
Kristoff recognizes that Mugabe is evil, though he can't say it, and he can't do anything other than some liberal hand-wringing.
If you want Mugabe gone you have to deal with the jokers who will take his place: the Zimbob military. They're well-entrenched and already pretty much run the country today, using Bob as their point man. They've got the guns and they're not going to retire to villas in South Africa.
The Zimbabwean people will have to rise up en masse to solve this problem. That means civil war and a lot of deaths. But there's no other way to get Bob and the military out of power.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/29/2008 14:29 Comments ||
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#2
very true, Dr Steve, but his point that Mugabe is supported by other Africans because he isn't white is also true. I hope Bob and Grace die slowly and painfully, but the military thugs supporting him are just as bad. Looks like an outside force will have to train and arm a coup force
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/29/2008 14:34 Comments ||
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#3
When the white supremacistregime democratic government of Ian Smith fought the communists oppressed Zimbabweans in the 1970s, African countries, Russia, Communinst China, and Cuba rallied against it.
The NYT wakes up to what Mark Steyn said in America Alone: demography determines destiny. Italy has a birthrate of 1.2 and despite the efforts of some it isn't going to get better. If you make it to the end you'll see why America is doing better: our society's flexibility in the job market and the expectation that men will help around the home serve to increase the fertility rate. Just the first few paragraphs of a very, very long piece here:
IT WAS A SPECTACULAR LATE-MAY AFTERNOON IN SOUTHERN ITALY, but the streets of Laviano a gloriously situated hamlet ranged across a few folds in the mountains of the Campania region were deserted. There were no day-trippers from Naples, no tourists to take in the views up the steep slopes, the olive trees on terraces, the ruins of the 11th-century fortress with wild poppies spotting its grassy flanks like flecks of blood. And there were no locals in sight either. The town has housing enough to support a population of 3,000, but fewer than 1,600 live here, and every year the number drops. Rocco Falivena, Lavianos 56-year-old mayor, strolled down the middle of the street, outlining for me the towns demographics and explaining why, although the place is more than a thousand years old, its buildings all look so new. In 1980 an earthquake struck, taking out nearly every structure and killing 300 people, including Falivenas own parents. Then from tragedy arose the scent of possibility, of a future. Money came from the national government in Rome, and from former residents who had emigrated to the U.S. and elsewhere. The locals found jobs rebuilding their town. But when the construction ended, so did the work, and the exodus of residents continued as before.
(Around 1961), Europe represented 12.5 percent of the worlds population. Today it is 7.2 percent, and if current trends continue, by 2050 only 5 percent of the world will be European.
When Falivena took office in 2002 for his second stint as mayor, two numbers caught his attention. Four: that was how many babies were born in the town the year before. And five: the number of children enrolled in first grade at the school, never mind that the school served two additional communities as well. I knew what was my first job, to try to save the school, Falivena told me. Because a village that does not have a school is a dead village. He racked his brain and came up with a desperate idea: pay women to have babies. And not just a token amount, either; in 2003 Falivena let it be known he would pay 10,000 euros (about $15,000) for every woman local or immigrant, married or single who would give birth to and rear a child in the village. The baby bonus, as he calls it, is structured to root new citizens in the town: a mother gets 1,500 euros when her baby is born, then a 1,500-euro payment on each of the childs first four birthdays and a final 2,500 euros the day the child enrolls in first grade. Falivena has a publicists instincts, and he said he hoped the plan would attract media attention. It did, generating news across Italy and as far away as Australia.
Finally, as we loitered in front of a mustard-colored building up the street from the towns empty main square, a car came by. Falivena a small, muscular man in a polo shirt, with gray hair and a deeply creased, tanned face flagged it down, for the young woman behind the wheel, Salvia Daniela, was one of the very people he was looking for. They exchanged a few words, and we followed Daniela back to her apartment to meet her family. Daniela, who is 31, and her 36-year-old husband, Gerardo Grande, have two children: Pasquale, 10, and Gaia, who is 5 and was one of the first baby bonus babies. Daniela and Grande say they are committed to being a traditional family, but it isnt easy. Grande works for a development company and manages a bar in the evenings so that his wife can devote herself to the home. Their apartment, though cheery (with lots of enlarged photos of the kids), is cramped. The baby bonus helped us, Grande told me. He added, gesturing toward Falivena, We think this man is a great mayor.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/29/2008 00:00 ||
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pay women to have babies. And not just a token amount, either; in 2003 Falivena let it be known he would pay 10,000 euros (about $15,000) for every woman local or immigrant, married or single who would give birth to and rear a child in the village
I wonder how his village didn't get flooded with Muzzies huddled masses of Dar yearning for Western freedoms (the freedom to prey on Westerners)?
Grande works for a development company and manages a bar in the evenings so that his wife can devote herself to the home
(a) Two jobs. Obviously, an enemy of the State deliberately setting up a bad example---what's wrong in applying for welfare?
(b) "so that his wife can devote herself to the home". And a male chauvinist pig to boot.
#2
Things in the US aren't quite so pretty. Native population reproduction is below replacement rate. It is only because of the fecundity of recent immigrants that we are above. This is the supreme existential, spiritual problem. Given the choice, western civilization does not consider itself worth perpetuating. If that's the case, then it isn't. Allahu ackbar.
#3
Given the choice, western civilization does not consider itself worth perpetuating.
Western civilization has until recently considered itself worth perpetuating -- but didn't assume that the civilization and the genetic stock were inherently linked. (Okay, except for some racists it didn't.)
There has been an enormous complacency, loosely grounded in old experience, to the effect that we could fail to conceive and raise up civilized offspring, that we could erode civil courtesy and push the limits of constitutional freedoms, and that civilization would not only do fine it would be even better as a result.
#4
Western civilization has not considered itself worth preserving since the late 1960s when multiculturalism gained control of our educational system and we stopped assimilating immigrants. This has been cooking for a long time.
#5
A hundred years ago a wife generally did not outlive her husband. The complications of child birth coupled with a social compact that gave married women the monopoly on sex so that family, not the state, would take care of the elders financially and medically. Since child mortality rates were also high, that meant you had to produce a pride of kids to ensure your future care and viability. Well, the predominately male medical establishment had pretty much addressed the first two issues by mid century. The franchise was extended to the ladies before quarter century and they set out to 'right' property and inheritances laws to equatable status. Then they set out to champion social issues that brought us Social Security and Medicare to shift the responsibility from family to state. The purpose of family began to lose a lot of its social function. Toss in no fault divorce, cause it was like pulling teeth because of the old monopoly social status, and thus you get state sanctioned polyandry and polygamy and Lawrence vs Texas, and you've pretty much killed off the engine of reproduction.
#6
I'm 39, unmarried with no kids. I've found that American women are obsessed with status, money, and sex, but have NO interest in marriage. I think most of them have NO idea what it means to be a wife or mother. I'd love to start a family, but my parent's generation did a hell of a job permanently destroying the American family. I see cats in my future, but no kids.
#8
Scooter, look where your tennis shoes are made. Inports, man, inports.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
06/29/2008 12:21 Comments ||
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#9
three kids (that I know of....) - I did my part.
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/29/2008 12:33 Comments ||
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#10
I agree with Scooter. I'm 35, no kids, date alot of chicks but none want to settle. I've been married and divorced and even she did not want kids but did want a career. Seems like all the women I go out with want to live a "Sex in the City" life and play grab ass.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
06/29/2008 13:11 Comments ||
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#11
I'm with Frank, again, damn it. And both my daughters would love to get married and have kids. And one may next summer.
#12
The sad reality is that there is less space every year. That is a planned situation, planned by business to continue business growth. Without population growth, there is no need to expand. No overtime, no priority development, just reuse the old and make repairs and slow down to smell the flowers. So, if Americans don't create sufficient population growth, immigration will have to suffice. That's why the Wall Street Journal is pro immigrant and anti-fence. It's just a matter of greed, tax and spend greed. More spending, more taxes, more for me.
#13
Three for me, two married and grandkids soon, I hope.
Of the four college roommates I kept up with there were twelve kids; so five of us had 15 offspring.
Maybe it was a Chief Illiniwek (U of I, Champaign)thing, but the Chief's banned now, as hostile and abusive.
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/29/2008 14:04 Comments ||
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#14
I'm 39, unmarried with no kids. I've found that American women are obsessed with status, money, and sex, but have NO interest in marriage. I think most of them have NO idea what it means to be a wife or mother. I'd love to start a family, but my parent's generation did a hell of a job permanently destroying the American family. I see cats in my future, but no kids.
I agree with Scooter. I'm 35, no kids, date alot of chicks but none want to settle. I've been married and divorced and even she did not want kids but did want a career. Seems like all the women I go out with want to live a "Sex in the City" life and play grab ass.
You might find this an interesting book to read both (NP! entries by Erik Svane):
Btw, myself : no babies, no future, nothing, just getting old and dying alone, I don't give a crap, why should I? I long for the void, and I just fear to go to Hell (wouldn't that be ironical?). I'm an evolutionary dead-end, I've given up, I don't care, as long as I'm comfortable, I'm already dead anyway, nothing. I'll just see after if there is something more worthwhile, I hope, but, again, Hell, sigh.
#17
2daughters and 3 grandchildren for me. I'm now 55 and wouls like to find someone but can't seem to. No more children, though.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
06/29/2008 14:21 Comments ||
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Thanks for the links, Anon, particularly the second one-should be required reading.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
06/29/2008 16:55 Comments ||
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#19
lol, if I were to have more children it would be an out of body experience.
I have two, one married to the service for now, and he probably will plan on getting a full retirement from the military, and the other working on her 9th year of college. She will be done very soon however.
The trend of most only having 2 or 3 kids is concerning while looking at the anchor baby moms having 6 to 8 most if not all on welfare.
So I feel the quality not just quantity needs to be looked at, and that piece of it all is scary. We're breeding more that want something for nothing, those here that don't aren't reproducing.
Posted by: Jan ||
06/29/2008 17:30 Comments ||
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#20
One trend that eases my anxiety about that, Jan, is the size of many military families.
A lieutenant colonel friend of mine is pregnant with her 6th. She chose a career path that made those pregnancies possible without impacting her ability to contribute to her units -- PhD in electrical engineering, etc. IIRC she was out a total of 5 weeks with the last one, but continued to do a lot of work remotely via computer, phone and occasional visits to the office during that time.
Another friend just retired at LtCol; she and her military husband have 6 kids too. Both PhDs in technical areas.
Another friend of ours, now retiring after 28 years as a full colonel, and his wife have 11. He's also a PhD, applied math, and they homeschool.
And a lot of the more junior officers I know have 3-6 kids, all of them educated, responsible, contributing members of society already (and show signs that will continue into adulthood).
A small percentage of the population, to be sure, but a positive trend nonetheless.
#21
Two trailing daughters and a temporary daughter. All want a good husband and several children (temporary daughter thinks she wants three of her own and three adopted, but she's young and romantic), in a traditional family (although td #2 wants a husband who can manage the homefront when her career gets busier than usual). All they want in a husband is intelligence, good character, and willingness to put as much into home and family as they are. And they plan to marry straight out of college, so y'all now know where they're to be found.
#24
lotp, good to hear about the size of military families growing.
I guess I just see the indigents at my work.
My son would make the best dad, coach and husband, but he will most likely wait until he's out. While I'm proud of him, I would love it if he passed on the proverbial torch to another, but he's still wanting to go back to Baghdad.
My daughter is so wrapped up with her program and what she's doing she hasn't been seeing anyone seriously and probably won't be having kids anytime soon either.
Posted by: Jan ||
06/29/2008 21:34 Comments ||
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THE facts about your security are being torn to shreds by activist liars. And they think that you're too stupid to know the difference. Let's lay out the worst current examples of media make-believe and election-year truth-trashing:
Whopper No. 1: America is less safe today than it was on Sept. 10, 2001.
Oh, really? Where's the evidence? The Clinton years saw New York City attacked and Americans slaughtered by terrorists around the globe. Nothing was done to protect us. And the true end of the Clinton era came on 9/11.
A record to be proud of.
Countless aspects of the Bush-Cheney administration deserve merciless criticism. But fair is fair: Since 9/11, we haven't suffered a single successful terrorist attack on our homeland. Not one. Explain to me, please, how this shows we're less safe. What factual measurement applies, other than the absence of attacks?
God knows, the terrorists desperately wanted to strike our homeland. And they couldn't. Are we supposed to believe that was an accident?
Whopper No. 2: Al Qaeda is stronger than ever.
Al Qaeda just suffered a strategic defeat in Iraq that may prove decisive. It can't launch attacks beyond its regional lairs. The cowardly Osama bin Laden can't show his face (remember his Clinton-era pep rallies?).
Yes, terrorists can still murder innocents on their home court. I personally prefer that to them killing Americans in Manhattan and Washington. Even in Iraq, al Qaeda's been beaten down to violent-fugitive status. By what objective measurement is al Qaeda stronger today than it was when it had an entire country for its base and its tentacles reached all the way to Florida and the Midwest?
Whopper No. 3: Success in Iraq is an illusion - the surge failed.
Folks, this is something only a New York Times columnist could believe. Every single significant indicator, from Iraqi government progress through the performance of Iraqi security forces to the plummeting level of violence, has changed for the better - remarkably so.
If current trend-lines continue, it may not be long before Baghdad is safer for Iraqi citizens than the Washington-Baltimore metroplex is for US citizens. Iraq's government is working, its economy is booming - and its military has driven the concentrations of terrorists and militia from every one of Iraq's major cities.
And our troops are coming home. Where's the failure?
Whopper No. 4: Iran is stronger than ever.
Tell that to the Iraqis, who've rejected Iranian meddling in their affairs, who've smashed the Iran-backed Shia militias and who didn't take long to figure out that Tehran's foreign policy was imperialist and anti-Arab. The people of Iraq don't intend to trade Saddam for Ahmadinejad. Iran has lost in Iraq. At this point, all the Iranians can do is to kill a handful of innocent Iraqis now and then. Think that wins them friends and influence?
Whopper No. 5: The US-European relationship is a disaster.
In fact, Washington and the major European capitals have built new, sturdier bridges to replace old ones that badly needed burning. The Europeans grudgingly figured out that they need us - as we need them. The big break in 2003 cleared a lot of bad air (there was no break with Europe's young democracies). Relations today are sounder than they were in the fiddle-while-Rome-burns Clinton era.
Oh, and NATO has become a serious military alliance - fighting in Afghanistan, patrolling the high seas and conducting special operations against terrorists. The Germans announced this week that they're sending another thousand troops to Afghanistan. France is re-engaging with NATO's military side. Where's the disaster, mon ami?
Whopper No. 6: As president, Barack Obama would bring positive change to our foreign policy - and John McCain's too old to get it.
Hmm: Take a gander at Obama's senior foreign-policy advisers: Madeleine Albright (71), Warren Christopher (82), Anthony Lake (69), Lee Hamilton (77), Richard Clarke (57) ... if you added up their ages and fed the number into a time-machine, you'd land in Europe in the middle of the Black Death.
More important: These are the people whose watch saw the first attack on the World Trade Center, Mogadishu, Rwanda, the Srebrenica massacre, a pass for the Russians on Chechnya, the Khobar Towers bombing, the attacks on our embassies in Africa, the near-sinking of the USS Cole - oh, and the US bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade.
Their legacy climaxed on 9/11.
You couldn't assemble a team in Washington with more strategic failures to its credit.
Whopper No. 7: Our troops are all coming home as psychos victimized by their participation in military atrocities.
Tell it to the Marines.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/29/2008 00:39 ||
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#1
we haven't suffered a single successful terrorist attack on our homeland
Except for a few shooting incidents, here and there.
#3
Ralph's entertaining, but his BDS is really amusing. He tosses in the obligatory broad hyperbolic swipe at the Bushhitler crowd, then proceeds to implicitly document how effective they've been. Time to man up, Ralphie, don your Shinseki beret, mount your Crusader, and go inspect those reconstruction projects that are proceeding without security being established first.
Peshawar -- literally 'High Fort' in Persian -- now stands encircled. Haji Mangal Bagh Afridi controls most of what is west of Peshawar. Dara Adam Khel, a mere 35 kilometres south of Peshawar, is controlled by Baitullah Mehsud's loyalists. Charsadda and Shabqadar, both less than 30 kilometres north of Peshawar, are controlled by Commander Umar Khalid, TTP's (Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan) leader in Mohmand agency. Two weeks ago, Javed Aziz Khan of The News reported that Sheikhan, Sarband, Regi and Nasir Bagh were under Mangal Bagh's absolute control while Mathra, Michni, Daudzai and Khazana were under Umar Khalid's control.
What is the real plan? Is the 'High Fort' being surrounded with the intent of an assault? After all, Pakistan army's XI Corp -- some 60,000 soldiers -- commanded by the brave Lieutenant-General Masood Aslam is headquartered in Peshawar (in 1971, Masood Aslam was wounded fighting in Chumb-Jaurian sector. He has served in Siachen and has been the recipient of Sitara-i-Jurat for his extraordinary service and bravery). Peshawar also has the Bala Hisar Fort, the Frontier Corps' headquarters, where Major-General Mohammad Alam Khattak (Tamgha-i-Basalat) is the commander. Peshawar has the 7th Infantry Division, the Golden Arrow Division, Pakistan's 'oldest and the most battle-hardened division'.
Peshawar also has the Central Police Office. Malik Naveed Khan is in command but has neither human capital nor much else. The Sarband Police Station, which is right next to Khyber agency, according to Javed Aziz Khan, has a total of six bullet-proof jackets and not a single armoured personnel carrier (APC). The Matani Police Station has one APC but that is almost always at the workshop. Is Peshawar under siege? Athar Minallah, my dear friend, insists that there are Taliban in Bradford and in Birmingham. Question: What really prevents Bradford from falling into Taliban's hands? It is not the 10the Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment; it is the civilian administrative apparatus. Cripple that civilian administrative machinery and Bradford Taliban will take over the City Hall, Bradford Cathedral and also the National Media Museum. And, in absence of an effective civilian administrative setup, almost all residents of Bradford will rush towards the Taliban for protection as well as for the dispensation of justice.
South Waziristan now belongs to Baitullah Mehsud. Hafiz Gul Bahadur is the Taliban supreme commander in North Waziristan. Maulvi Faqir Mohammad controls Bajaur. Mangal Bagh and Haji Namdar reign over Khyber. Commander Umar Khalid is the boss in Mohmand. That's some 20,000 sq-km of physical Pakistan terrain. Is this terrorism or is it an insurgency? Should the state of Pakistan devise a counter-terrorism or a counter-insurgency strategy?
To be certain, violence is the common denominator in terrorism and insurgency. But, rarely will terrorists attempt to actually control physical terrain. In essence, what the state of Pakistan faces is not terrorism but an active insurgency.
A retired army brigadier, as knowledgeable in FATA as anyone I know, insists that the roots of this insurgency can actually be traced back to 1997. In 1999, this brigadier, with his FATA insurgency fact-file under his arm, had walked up to the DG-ISI but no one was ready to pay much heed. Then came 9/11 and that pushed the Talibanisation of NWFP some two years behind.
How do we get out of it? It is obvious that jirgas are meaningless and so are peace agreements. The best suggestion that I have heard so far is as follows: give the militants every sort of indemnity that they ask for. Forgive each and every one of their past crimes. Accept a hundred other conditions put up by the militants. All in exchange for just one. And, that condition is that no one -- absolutely no one -- will be allowed to run a parallel administration.
Where is the government going wrong? Well, the government blinks while the Taliban -- the government's ex-proxies -- freely exhibit their muscle (for instance, they enter Peshawar at will and take from Peshawar whatever they want). Remember, tribal loyalties belong to whoever has the muscle. Act now or sayonara Peshawar. Adiós Peshawar. Au revoir Peshawar. Mach's gut Peshawar. Aloha Peshawar. Arrivederci Peshawar. Zai jian Peshawar. Just what language do our decision makers understand?
This article starring:
BAITULLAH MEHSUD
Taliban
Hafiz Gul Bahadur
HAJI MANGAL BAGH AFRIDI
Taliban
Haji Namdar
Lieutenant-General Masood Aslam
Major-General Mohammad Alam Khattak
Malik Naveed Khan
Maulvi Faqir Mohammad
OMAR KHALID
Taliban
Posted by: john frum ||
06/29/2008 09:39 ||
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has neither human capital nor much else
That abut says it all...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
06/29/2008 12:54 Comments ||
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And when Peshawar goes, so does our line of communication with Afghanistan. That's the place where we should have declared victory and withdrawn. This is going to end badly.
These are the two questions and answers that I found interesting:
Who assassinated Imad Mughniyeh in Damascus last February?
The car bomb that killed Iran's key covert operative in Hizbullah is still echoing in the Middle East. Suspicion immediately focused on Israel. But on February 27, a London-based newspaper called Al-Quds al-Arabi, with very good sources in Damascus, alleged that several Arab nations had conspired with Mossad to assassinate Mughniyeh.
Adding to the speculation are reports that shortly before his death, Mughniyeh was attempting to heal a split within Hizbullah between the group's leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, and its former leader, Sheikh Sobhi Tufeili. Tufeili's power base is the Bekaa Valley, which has lost influence in Hizbullah to Shiites from South Lebanon. According to one Arab source, Mughniyeh - traveling under his longtime pseudonym, "Hajj Radwan" - paid a visit shortly before his death to Tufeili's village of Brital, just south of Baalbek.
Mughniyeh usually traveled without bodyguards, believing that his protection was the surgical alteration of his features, which prevented even old friends from recognizing "Hajj Radwan." For that reason, the Syrians insisted they weren't at fault. But a sign of tension was Tehran's announcement that a joint commission would investigate the killing, a statement that was promptly denied by Damascus.
What about Syria's secret nuclear reactor, which was destroyed by the Israelis on September 6, 2007?
Oddly enough, that attack on what CIA analysts called the "Enigma Building" may have helped the peace talks. The Israelis felt that their decisive action helped restore the credibility of their deterrence policy. The Syrians appreciated that Israeli and American silence allowed them time to cover their tracks. Finally, the fact that Assad kept the nuclear effort a secret, and that he managed the post-attack pressures, showed Israelis that he was truly master of his own house, and thus a plausible negotiating partner.
Mostly conventional MSM propaganda about poor, misunderstood Syria.
DAMASCUS, Syria In the evenings, the glitterati of Damascus gather at Z-Bar, a zinc and crystal confection perched on the roof of one of the city's hotels. As the cocktails flow and the music pumps, the green neon lights of a dozen mosques twinkle down on the revelers from the nearby mountainside.
By day, any one of a half-dozen cafes serves flavored lattes to trendy young Syrians. The latest European fashions are on sale in newly opened stores. Shiny glass offices house private banks, and flashy late-model cars zip among the battered yellow taxis.
Despite the Bush administration's efforts to isolate Syria for allegedly supporting terrorism, the country is flourishingat least on the surface. In the eight years since President Bashar Assad took office, Syria has opened up its economy to private ownership and foreign investment, breathing new life into a country long stifled by its Baathist socialist rules.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/29/2008 00:00 ||
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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.
