#1
Its "soft power" is distinctly limited: Surveys show that the country is generally neither liked nor trusted worldwide and certainly not seen as a model to follow
#3
..oh, it only took about a thousand years for the Renaissance to kick in. These invaders occupied much of what was once the Eastern portion of the empire thereafter. Their thousand year mark was in the 19th Century. Other than importing tech trinkets from the West, there doesn't seem to be much of an awakening other than kicking off another round of conquering and subjugating the infidel in their cosmos.
#5
The one thing Jimmy Carter did right (by being incompetent oddly enough) was to encourage the gleeful expansion of the Soviet Union. And expansion that could not be maintained once Reagan got into power.
I hope Islamists are facing a similar predicament and we elect someone with balls and clear-vision.
Of course that may do little to help us when a whole generation (a rather populace one at that) is baffled with trigger-warnings and nihilism.
#6
Still no answer as to why Syrian refugees are more deserving than those from the Congo civil wars (over lithium for laptop and cell batteries) or the poor souls in South Sudan or elsewhere in the Sahel.
#8
rjs, The problem is not the balls of our leader. Bush had them. It is the leader's ability to sell the need to conduct a decades long struggle, not unlike the cold war, to a public that doesn't yet recognize the threat.
#9
Consider that, increasingly, the public is woefully ignorant of the must rudimentary lessons of history, or even the events at all. Further, it rarely has reasoning skills about causation and consequence, and has the attention span of a pet gerbil.
The rot here at home after decades of education and entitlement policies is pervasive. While the interior spaces still have some muscle on the bone of American culture, the coastal hive cities are mostly useless fat and waste products, consuming energy but producing only sclerosis in the body politic.
#11
Procopius2k, The Koran has instructions (from God himself) in Arabic (the language of Mohammad) on how to wipe your arse. There is no room for interpretation and critical thinking required to create a Renaissance. But you knew that.
#12
Nimble Spemble, Bush had them when the US was 95% behind him. He even had them when the country was turned against Iraq by a hostile media and time because he committed to the Surge and saved the day.
His gamble on restoring Democracy in Iraq failed because it depended upon those that followed to have common sense. Apparently that isn't something we can take for granted these days.
But I wasn't really talking about him anyway.
The bright side of the Iraqi fiasco is that we gave them a real chance and the locals shit on it. Preferring jihad and death. My sympathy has ran dry for all but the Kurds at this point.
#13
The infographic says 80% come from the top 10 refugee producing nations. Isn't it about time those 10 nations are considered failures and open to anyone with imperial ambitions ready to colonize. The worst imperialists would probably be better than what those 10 have going on now.
#2
Bycreating so much pain the bammer is handing the whitehouse back to the pubs.
Donk or Beltway Trunks, it's the same party leadership pick for you by the oligarchs. People are bitchn' about Trump not being conservative. Unless there is a separate Conservative Party, you're not going to get one regardless.
[DAWN] THE murder of the eyewitness in the Sabeen Mahmud case has once again underscored the urgent need for a witness protection programme.
Ghulam Abbas was working as a part-time driver for Ms Mahmud, the well-known rights activist, and was present at the scene when she was bumped off in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... on April 24.
Although it has not yet been confirmed whether the two murders are connected, police have disclosed that during the trial of those accused of Ms Mahmud's liquidation, the slain driver had identified some of the men, a fact that increases the likelihood of precisely such a link.
Even if Mr Abbas's death does not affect the bearing that his testimony will have on the outcome of the legal proceedings, it is certain to intimidate witnesses in other high-profile cases.
Witnesses are vital for successful investigation and prosecution of crime, particularly in countries like Pakistain where the forensic science regime is not very well developed.
The protection of witnesses is therefore a basic requirement to secure their cooperation and give them the confidence to come forward. On the contrary, however, the intimidation of witnesses continues without let or hindrance, perverting the course of justice and allowing many suspects, even those accused of heinous crimes, to go free.
The case of Wali Khan Babar illustrates the gravity of the threat. Six witnesses to the murder of the young journalist in 2011 were themselves eliminated one after another over the course of less than two years.
According to a study carried out by the Punjab 1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots.... police, more than 80pc of terrorism cases resulted in the acquittal of the accused because witnesses either retracted their testimony or refused to appear in court because of intimidation by criminals.
Although the Sindh Assembly passed witness protection legislation in 2013, the law is obviously not being implemented. Witness protection programmes need planning, commitment and sufficient funds to be truly effective. It is a small price to pay, however, for ensuring that hardened criminals are sent behind bars.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/10/2015 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[DAWN] THE call by Fata parliamentarians to have the region they represent merged with and administered by the province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... has once again shone a spotlight on that most ignored of governance, judicial and constitutional issues: the status of Fata as an integral part of Pak territory but deliberately kept outside the normal administrative and constitutional scheme of things. What the Fata parliamentarians have proposed also carries extra significance because the MNAs are directly elected by the people of Fata. As such, the parliamentarians' recommendations carry more weight than the decidedly less representative and anachronistic system of tribal maliks and jirgas. In truth, however, the parliamentarians have proposed a halfway house: merging Fata and Frontier Regions with KP and administering those areas as a Provincially Administered Tribal Area. It is quite possible that the call for a separate province altogether, while deemed desirable was considered unfeasible, given the impact that it would have on the federation, from the composition of the Senate to that of bodies such as the Council of Common Interests.
Whether Fata and the Frontier Regions are to be submerged into an existing province or given the standing of an autonomous province, this cannot be denied: the region needs fundamental reforms that go far beyond anything proposed over the last decade. The amendments to the FCR, the extension of the Political Parties Act and sundry tweaks to the administration of Fata since 2010 have done little to change the governance dynamics of the tribal areas. It is simply unacceptable that a region that has borne the brunt of Death Eater rule and military operations for over a decade now should be treated as a zone cut off and separate from the rest of Pakistain. The very least Fata deserves is the sustained economic and administrative assistance of the state -- and an iron-clad commitment to ensuring that at the end of the darkness that has engulfed Fata, there will be light for its people. If Fata has been asked to sacrifice so much -- vast sections of its people made homeless for years, the entire region treated as a laboratory for non-state actors and religious wars over the decades -- surely its people deserve to be acknowledged as full and equal citizens of Pakistain.
Ultimately, though, whether change for the better will in fact come to Fata depends on if the national institutions are able to agree on the necessary balance between the security of the country and the socio-economic needs of its people. Fata's second-tier status has since the very beginning been linked to its proximity with Afghanistan. So long as the latter remains unstable and the border between the two countries remains porous, there will be a powerful lobby advocating a virtual wall between Fata and the rest of Pakistain. Arguably, however, it is that very wall that led to Fata becoming a hotbed of militancy and a threat to the rest of the country and the region.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/10/2015 00:00 ||
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Even if David Kay is right, what are we going to do when Iran cheats? Mr. Kay talks about the arms control treaties with the Soviets. When we caught Russia cheating (three new missiles and three new warheads when the agreement limited each side to testing one new missile and one new warhead) President Reagan responded by launching the arms build up that toppled the Soviet Union. What is Obama's plan? Fudge the intelligence until he is out of office?
Please highlight your comments to distinguish them from the text of the article.
#4
Here's a thought. What if the Iranians already have a few nukes, provided by the Norks, Russians, Chinese, you name the vendor. So what's to inspect or monitor, the jig is already up. Perhaps the Champ knows this and the entire effort is little more than lifting the sanctions and getting on down the road.
#5
#3 it's all window dressing. Reid did away with the filibuster rule except in the case of SCOTUS nominees. McConnell brought it back when there is no need for it simply to cover his assets - as in, see it's not my fault, the rules make me do it.
#6
There are two little factoid he entirely ignores.
The Soviets were somewhat sane. Sure they were evil and all that but they still had the same basic morals.
The Iranian mullahs really truely believe that starting a nuclear war is something they can win and it will bring back the 12'th Iman from his hidey-hole in some well somewhere. The enemies of 'Islam' will be subdued and they can engage in their favorite pastime - murdering and exterminating Jews and Infidels.. It would be well worth a few million dead of their countrymen to achieve this goal (as long as it isn't them or theirs.).
Deturrance worked with the Soviets because they believed the cost of a nuclear exchange would be far to high.
It won't work with the Iranian Mulahs - they don't really care and 10 or 20, or a 100 million 'martyrs' to bring back the 12'th Iman is a bargain in their eyes.
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.
