COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Dot Head Speaks. Maybe Now the Pakis Will Listen.


You cannot get more provocative than this:

Al-Qaeda issues Pakistan threat BBC

Zawahiri is thought to be in hiding on the Afghan-Pakistan border
Al-Qaeda's second-in-command has purportedly called for attacks against Pakistan in revenge for the army's assault on Islamabad's Red Mosque.
In a video recording released on an Islamist website, a voice said to be that of Ayman al-Zawahiri calls the siege of the mosque a crime.

"Your salvation is only through jihad [holy war]," the speaker on the tape says, over an image of Zawahiri.

At least 83 people died when troops cleared the mosque of militants.

"This crime can only be washed away by repentance or blood," says the voice on the tape.

Zawahiri and al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden are believed to be hiding in the rugged mountainous tribal area along the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.


12 comments:

  1. Pakistan's Military
    Active troops: 619,000 (Ranked 7th)
    Total troops: 1,449,000 (Ranked 12th)
    Paramilitary: 302,000

    But loyal to whom?

    The motto of the Pakistani Army reads: "Iman, Taqwa, Jihad fi Sabilillah". Translated into English, it means
    "Faith, Piety, Jihad in the path of Allah".

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  2. I wonder if this is a case of "shitting where you eat"?

    All eyes on Waziristan, I guess.

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  3. I prefer the 101st Airborne's motto: "Death From Above."

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  4. As to mottos that carry a message
    "Who Dares Wins"
    has always been one of my favorites.

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  5. CLASSIFIED REPORT: AL QAEDA AT PRE-9/11 STRENGTH

    WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. intelligence analysts have concluded al-Qaida has rebuilt its operating capability to a level not seen since just before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, The Associated Press has learned.

    Counterterrorism analysts produced the document, titled "Al-Qaida better positioned to strike the West." The document pays special heed to the terror group's safe haven in Pakistan and makes a range of observations about the threat posed to the United States and its allies, officials said.
    ---
    Reminders:
    1. We have an Air Force, Aircraft Carriers, Ship and Sub Launched Missiles.
    a. Bubba is available for instructions on how to fire them.

    2. The Borders are not secure.

    3. Sen Lieberman says we know exactly where the training camps are in Iran that are responsible for killing hundreds of our soldiers.
    a. Joe will give the order to launch, if asked.

    (not that anybody's listening: He's still trying to remember all the promises and threats he made in 2002, almost all of which have slipped his limited noggin.)
    Say the Curse!
    Bush the Wuss!

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  6. ""This crime can only be washed away by repentance or blood," says the voice on the tape."
    ---
    Why couldn't Candy and "w" execute the first choice and wash away our sins?
    Whirrled Peas!
    ---
    Directions:

    "Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out ..." (Acts 3:19).

    The greatest need for any sinner is have his sins blotted out, but a man will never have the pardon of sin while he is in love with his sin. There must be a hatred of sin, a loathing of it, a turning from it. Repentance is a revolution in dealing with our attitude and view towards sin and righteousness. Repentance is not something one does with his hands, but it is an inward attitude of the soul. Sin must become, in the eyes of the sinner, exceedingly sinful.

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  7. Deja vue, all over again.

    No, it's not 1938 Europe
    not even 1940 Europe
    It's not 1947 Berlin
    or Indo-China from 1948-1978.

    No, anigos, we're gonna Party like it's 1999!

    Just swap Warizistan for Afghanistan and there you have it!

    Shop on America, shop on!

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  8. Defense Secretary Robert Gates appears to recognize what's necessary, politically and strategically. He is said to favor an announcement by September that the U.S. will withdraw some troops from Iraq before year-end as a sign that it is committed to a "post-surge" redeployment. The opportunity for a modest drawdown will arise this fall, when two battalions, roughly 5,000 troops, are scheduled to rotate out of Iraq. One of those is a Marine battalion in Anbar province, where the administration has been touting U.S. success. A good way to underline the gains in Anbar would be to reduce U.S. troop levels there.

    Another moment for compromise is the United Nations authorization for the U.S. troop presence in Iraq, which must be renewed this year. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki wants a plan to reduce the number of American troops in his country as much as any member of Congress does.

    Here's the real opportunity for "timelines" on withdrawal -- ones jointly negotiated by U.S. and Iraqi diplomats, rather than imposed by Congress. In a perverse sense, that's the greatest gift America can bestow on the Iraqi government -- to engineer the joint "liberation" of Iraq from U.S. occupation, but "slowly, slowly," as the Arabs like to say.


    Boy oh boy, the rest of the world is finally catching up, couple years behind yhe curve, but ...

    Better late than never, well not really. but sooner the President gets out in front of the "Political" settlement, between the US & Iraq, the faster we win.

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  9. Remarkable pictures of one of the most hellish places on earth.

    Never seen before, these astonishing photographs bring to life the nightmare of Passchendaele, the battle that, between July and November 1917, claimed a staggering 2,121 lives a day and in total some quarter of a million Allied soldiers.

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  10. It used to be said of the Palestinians that "they never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity." Sadly, that has been true for the Bush administration during the past year in its failure to shape a bipartisan policy on Iraq.

    The release of the Baker-Hamilton report last December provided an opportunity; Bush missed it. Another chance arose in late May, when Bush himself proclaimed that his strategy for the future was "Plan B-H," meaning Baker-Hamilton; but he didn't follow through.

    The president should have gathered the members of the Iraq Study Group in the Rose Garden the next day and dispatched them to visit members of Congress. Sorry, Mr. President, but Democratic ISG members Vernon Jordan and Leon Panetta would be more effective lobbyists right now than anyone from the White House.


    Missing Opportunities

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  11. "Who Dares Wins"

    We dared and lost.

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