Pak Begs to Differ, Begs for $upport

On the 10th anniversary of 9-11, Pakistan's govt tried to take out an ad in the NYT, but settled on the WSJ. Never ones to question the bounds of taste, they'd apparently never heard about the idea of fools rushing in where wiser men fear to tread.

My 9-11 Flashback

10 years ago, I was chatting online in the EFnet #politics chatroom on IRC, when the planes struck the towers. The logs of our chat were recorded here:

http://www.ircpolitics.org/911-logs.html

You can see my comments from back then, posted under the name "sanman"
Even as it was still happening, right away I blurted that I knew it was Osama.
Memories have come flooding back.

What a grim and tragic anniversary.

Rajiv Srinivasan on 9/11 and the War on Terror

Rajiv Srinivasan writes about his memory of 9/11, and his participation in the war on terror.

It may not be our own Rajeev, but I'm still impressed that the fellow fought for his country, the USA. A better example than the whining immigrants whom the Left like to use as convenient cudgels to batter values of patriotism and civic duty.

Captured Osama Notes Show 9/11 Train Attack Plot

Notes captured during the raid that killed Bin Laden show that he was plotting new attacks against rail targets for the 10th anniversary of September 11, 2001.



Who knows what else is on the cards for 4 months from now?

May Surprise: Osama Confirmed Killed

No, apparently it's not an April Fool's joke. Today on May 1st, 2011, the US conducted an raid that killed Osama Bin Laden in his hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan. After obtaining DNA confirmation, the announcement has just been made by US President Obama:



So Bin Laden has not lived to celebrate a 10th anniversary of the attacks of September 11, 2001. At least the Americans finally got their key enemy, even if there are plenty of others who can fill his place.

Can India claim the same for those who have terrorized and continue to terrorize it?
When will Manmohan ever make such speeches?

I suspect that the growing desperation of Pakistan over the War on Terror contributed to this raid. They must have finally realized that it was no longer worth it for them to continue allowing Bin Laden sanctuary on Pak soil. But is AlQaeda going to just go away because Osama has been killed? Only time will tell.

Obama's Speech on Afghan Situation

Obama has given a speech on the state of the situation in Afghanistan. From it, I quote the following:

It's important to remember why we remain in Afghanistan. It was Afghanistan where al Qaeda plotted the 9/11 attacks that murdered 3,000 innocent people. It is the tribal regions along the Afghan-Pakistan border from which terrorists have launched more attacks against our homeland and our allies. And if an even wider insurgency were to engulf Afghanistan, that would give al Qaeda even more space to plan these attacks.

And that's why, from the start, I've been very clear about our core goal. It's not to defeat every last threat to the security of Afghanistan, because, ultimately, it is Afghans who must secure their country. And it's not nation-building, because it is Afghans who must build their nation. Rather, we are focused on disrupting, dismantling and defeating al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and preventing its capacity to threaten America and our allies in the future.

This sounds like an ill-conceived strategy for never-ending fighting there. Since AlQaeda cannot be driven out from Afghanistan while that country remains in chaos without effective government, then the US will be stuck in never-ending skirmishing with AlQaeda and its local jihadi allies, the Taliban. Meanwhile Pak will sit back and keep watching the US aid money rolling in, becoming ever more stubborn and uncooperative while lining their pockets.

Rather than playing a never ending "disrupting" game of hide-and-seek with AlQaeda and its local jihadi affiliates, the US should instead focus on "draining the swamp". And that then brings us to the real solution to this seemingly intractable problem - changing the borders of that chaotic area. Only re-drawing the borders of that place will heal it, because the chaos of that place dates back to the time of British colonial wars of conquest against that region. Britain attempted to conquer the Pathans, and it wasn't very successful, even though it then claimed that the Pathans had been made part of British India. Pakistan then later claimed to have inherited those Pathan lands from British India's partition, and obviously their claim is just as hollow as Britain's was.

When Jinnah sent the Pathans to attack Kashmir in 1948, it was precisely because of his fears that the restive Pathans would follow the Kashmiris' example in also opting out of Pakistan. He was simply attempting to deflect Pathan nationalism and restiveness against the convenient "evil Hindoo Indian" bogeyman, in order to avoid having to deal with Pathan nationalism himself. The Pathan issue is thus the real root cause of the Kashmir dispute.

Likewise, when the Afghan War against the Soviet Union resulted in increased militarization and gun culture among the Pathans, the Pakistani leadership again sought out a new stunt of creating Taliban to invade Afghanistan. They didn't need to invoke an Indian bogeyman to start that misadventure, because they were eagerly proclaiming their desire to re-create a "Silk Road" into Central Asia. But since non-Pathans of northern Afghanistan were not going to be rolled over so easily, Pakistan kept injecting the Taliban with more toxic Islamist 'steroids' to increase their aggressiveness. This made conditions ripe for AlQaeda to thrive, and led to their infamous attacks on the US on 9/11. Now Pakistan is stuck riding out this latest cycle of misadventure, in its never-ending attempt to hang onto the Pathans. The Pathan issue is thus the real cause of the USA's fruitless War on Terror.

Hanging onto the Pathans is only fueling Pakistan's stuntsmanship, as it lurches from one crazy stunt to the next for an ultimately futile goal. Instead of prolonging the misery and chaos of that region, the US needs to simply restore the borders back to their rightful state, so that order can again prevail, and AlQaeda can be purged from its safe havens in the area. Separating the Pathans and the Baloch from the Punjabi grip, and allowing the Pathans to reunify across both sides of the artificial Durand Line, and likewise allowing the Tajiks and Uzbeks of Afghanistan to reunify with their respective motherlands of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, will bring a wave of peace across that region - a peace that was taken away by the British and their Great Game so long ago.

Peace meets Love in Punjab

And the *other* residents, i.e. the Hindus and Sikhs are made to endure a curfew and rioting in
what is essentially a turf war between two belligerent competing supremacist ideologies!

Although, in this particular instance - the ROL seems to be the recipient of ROP irrationality gone berserk.

Where is the Hindu hater John Dayal now? Where is the "Hindutva genocide of 2000 Muslims" mythology manufacturer Cedric Prakash?

They're both uncharacteristically quiet - except, that their silence is quite in tune with the Vatican's cowardice when it comes to confronting violent Mohammedans. The padre's superciliousness, dehumanizing and demonising attitude is only evident against Hindus.

In the long term, though - the two binary death cults will be fighting for turf on Indian soil. It is already happening in Kerala
and some North eastern states -with Bangladeshi Mohammedan infiltrators overwhelming the local Christist converts, hitherto
comprising the majority.

Sangrur, Sep.13: The district administration of Sangrur in Punjab had to impose curfew at Malerkotla city on Monday, after a mob vandalised a church and set it on fire here last night.

The torching of the church was caused by some rumours of desecration of the holy Quran in the United States.
.....

"The situation is peaceful, the situation is under control and barring yesterday's mishap no untoward incident has taken place.
....
An incensed mob torched the property of a church and violence erupted late on Sunday after hearsay that the copies of Quran had been set on fire in Michigan, USA.

Why There? Babur Knows.

A New York bus ad campaign against the Ground Zero mosque has been approved.

In regards to why the mosque should be built there - Babur would be able to answer that.

Pat Condell on Ground Zero Mosque

As usual, Pat Condell expresses moral outrage concisely, decisively and incisively: