Mar 18 2006
The Face Of Our True Enemy
For those spooked by Arab businessmen in the US, it is important to show what the true face of our enemy is so there is no confusion and misguided efforts. Pakistan’s Waziristand province and Tribal regions have become the main organizing focus of Al Qaeda and The Taliban as these animals use their barbaric methods to impose their view of a perfect society:
“They create an environment of fear, pretend they are in charge. We can’t let those Taliban impose what they want. That’s why in some places we used force.â€
Pakistani troops recently attacked a Taliban militia group that occupied parts of Miranshah, the main town in restive North Waziristan tribal agency, killing 170 militants, military officials say. The rebels fled to the mountains.
Qayyum said some 120 pro-government tribal chiefs had been assassinated by extremists in recent months.
…
“I’ve been in Tank (a town outside South Waziristan tribal agency) recently. Barbers are not allowed to shave beards. You can’t play music, even at weddings. No more traditional fairs,†said a retired Pakistani army colonel, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Azmat Hayat Khan, a professor at Peshawar University, said a council of tribal elders recently met in a village just outside the city. “The programme was destruction of TV sets.â€
He added: “The local Taliban start by threatening tribal chiefs. To gain in popularity, they pretend to fight crime. Execute so-called bandits, show the bodies.â€
…
But for Rahimullah Yousafzai, a journalist and expert on regional affairs, “the worrying thing is that it’s spreading. They recently burned TVs in the district of Swat, and it’s not even in the tribal zones.â€
Know thy enemy, so you may destroy them. I hope to see some serious efforts this spring to clear out this hornets nest. Something has to be done. Pakistan is too important in the Global War On Terror. Not to mention they have nuclear weapons. The country cannot be consumed by our enemies. Another perspective on this is found in a Pakistani newspaper here.
Troubling flu outbreak
http://www.recombinomics.com/News/03170601/H5N1_Georgia_Soldiers.html
THE 10TH CENTURY AND THE 20TH
Written by Dr. Jack Wheeler
Friday, 17 March 2006
When I was an undergraduate at UCLA, my favorite professor was Dr. H. L. Kostanick. He taught political geography. He never used a lectern or notes. Always dressed impeccably in a coat, tie, and sweater vest, he would stand before us, hands in his pockets, and explain the world to us.
Every lecture, no matter about what part of the world, was fascinating. But most memorable of all was his lecture on the Middle East. “Ladies and gentlemen, the most critical thing to understand about conflict in the Middle East,” he told us, “is that it is not a conflict between Arab and Jew. It is a conflict between the 10th century and the 20th.”
Dr. Kostanick (who was not Jewish – his family was from Macedonia in northern Greece) delivered that lecture in 1965. It was the first thing I thought of when I saw Dr. Wafa Sultan on Al-Jazeera TV.
You likely have heard about her by now. Born in Syria and fluent in Arabic, she got her medical degree at Aleppo University. With her husband she migrated to America and now lives in Southern California. She had a debate with an Egyptian professor of Islamic Studies, Ibrahim Al-Khouli in Arabic, and Al-Jazeera broadcast it with English subtitles.
Just like Dr. Kostanick, Dr. Sultan denied that there was a clash of civilizations. The clash is instead, she says, is “between civilization and backwardness, between the civilized and the primitive, between barbarity and rationality. It is a clash between freedom and oppression, between democracy and dictatorship. It is a clash between human rights on the one hand, and the violation of those rights on the other.”
She was just getting started.
Many of you have heard about this and have asked me how they could see the debate. Here’s the link: Wafa Sultan video
Read the rest at To The Point News
SBD