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US drone attack kills four in North Waziristan
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Page 4: Opinion
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-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
We're now one step closer to America's coming civil war
Posted by: DarthVader || 01/08/2013 09:00 || Comments || Link || [336121 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Coming? It has been in play for decades, all that remains is when will it go hot.
Posted by: Don Vito Grundy9910 || 01/08/2013 10:21 Comments || Top||

#2  Washington’s Republicans and Democrats alike have become the toll collectors on the road to serfdom–and the road to Rosario.

Try as I may, I cannot think of a more fitting analogy.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/08/2013 10:24 Comments || Top||

#3  #1 Coming? It has been in play for decades, all that remains is when will it go hot.....
Posted by Don Vito Grundy9910


....again.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/08/2013 10:26 Comments || Top||

#4  The Left openly fantasizes violence against us. All that remains is shooting back.
Posted by: Iblis || 01/08/2013 11:08 Comments || Top||

#5  The left thinks war, civil or otherwise, is a video game. The right, with almost universal personal, familial or community experience with real war, knows it is not.
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/08/2013 13:32 Comments || Top||

#6  Glenmore:

All the more likely the Left will start one, and all the more reason for us to prepare.
Posted by: Iblis || 01/08/2013 14:32 Comments || Top||

#7  Yet as an economic and social enterprise, government creates nothing.

Reminds me of an expression I learned on the pipeline years ago. The back end of the pipeline eats up the front end of the pipeline. In other words, the costs becomes prohibitive to stay in business. The costs of government make it prohibitive to continue. It appears that it is not too big to fail. Hell, it already appears to have failed. It does little well except tax and spend. We have created an elite political class that is unresponsive to the people.
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/08/2013 17:24 Comments || Top||

#8  The first Civil War was a Constitutional issue over States' Rights widin the US Federal Union of States, among other - so will be the Second Civil War, BUT NOW ALSO UNDER VEE OWG + OWG NAU I.E. "GLOBAL FEDERAL UNION".

* IRONY > USA = "GREY/CONFEDERATE ARMY"; PRO-OWG ANTI/NON-AMERICAN WORLD NATIONS = "BLUE/UNION ARMY"???

IOW, ANY US-SPECIFIC "CIVIL WAR II" = JUST THE BEGINNING OF A LARGER "NATIONALISM-VS-GLOBALISM", "GLOBAL-CONFEDERATISM-VS-GLOBAL FEDERALISM", SOVEREIGNTY-VS-ANTI-SOVEREIGNTY CRISES OR CONFLICTS FOR CONTROL OF THE PLANET FOR SPACE???

The pressures or agendas involved are MANY, DYNAMIC, + DIFFERENTIATED, + WID MUCHO "GREY AREAS/LINES".

E.G. NEW YEAR 2013 = THE DRIVE BY US POLITICOS TO IMPOSE OVERT SOCIALISM [OWG, "Globalism"] ON AMERICA + AMERICAN SOCIETY, + OUTSIDE OF THE US CONSTITUTION OR NATIONWIDE POPULAR REFERENDUM(S), IS NOT LIKELY TO STOP IN 2013 IRREGARDLESS OF WHETHER THERE IS MAJOR US-VS-IRAN ANDOR US-VS-CHINA MILITARY CRISIS OR WAR THIS SUMMER.

Whatever the "pecking order" was for $$$, resources, + influence, etc. before OWG + OWG NAU, it'll be MUCH WORSE, NOT BETTER, for all World Govts-States, Societies, + Individuals under OWG + OWG NAU, etc. related.

IMO, iff US State-Local Govts are going to demand formal secession from the US Fed in Washington, events which must occur any "Civil War II", it will begin in 2014 as determined by what happens this year in 2013 vee both the US-World Economy + espec FOREIGN POLICY/AFFAIRS AS HISTORY SAYS THAT DOMESTIC ECON MORASS OR CHAOS BY ITSELF IS USUALLY NOT ENUFF TO INDUCE ARMED REVOLUTION = CIVIL WAR.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/08/2013 21:05 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Muslim slave market footage from the 1960′s
Posted by: tipper || 01/08/2013 14:33 || Comments || Link || [336115 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Jeebus, I remember watching the first video on the evening news back then.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/08/2013 21:10 Comments || Top||


Economy
Obama supporters shocked, angry at new tax increases
Moved to Tuesday for further snark...
I love the smell of Schadenfreude in the morning...
Sometimes, watching a Democrat learn something is wonderful, like seeing the family dog finally sit and stay at your command.With President Obama back in office and his life-saving "fiscal cliff" bill jammed through Congress, the new year has brought a surprising turn of events for his sycophantic supporters.
Jeez, it's almost like he...lied or sumthin.
"What happened that my Social Security withholding's in my paycheck just went up?" a poster wrote on the liberal site DemocraticUnderground.com. "My paycheck just went down by an amount that I don't feel comfortable with. I guarantee this decrease is gonna hurt me more than the increase in income taxes will hurt those making over 400 grand. What happened?"
What happened? You're a friggin rube! That's what happened...
"I know to expect between $93 and $94 less in my paycheck on the 15th," wrote the ironically named "RomneyLies."
Lousy friggin Romney! It sucks that he won!
"My boyfriend has had a lot of expenses and is feeling squeezed right now, and having his paycheck shrink really didn't help," wrote "DemocratToTheEnd."
Sounds like the "end" may be closer than she thinks...
"BlueIndyBlue" added: "Many of my friends didn't realize it, either. Our payroll department didn't do a good job of explaining the coming changes."
Lousy bastids in payroll!!
"Bake," who may have been trolling the site, jumped into the thread posted Friday. "My paycheck just went down. So did my wife's. This hurts us. But everybody says it's a good thing, so I guess we just suck it up and get used to it. I call it a tax increase on the middle class. I wonder what they call it. Somebody on this thread called it a 'premium.' Nope. It's a tax, and it just went up."
What do they call it? They call it "fuck you, pay me!"
Some in the thread argued that the new tax -- or the end of the "holiday," which makes it a new tax -- wouldn't really amount to much. One calculated it would cost about $86 a month for most people. "Honeycombe8," though, said that amount is nothing to sneeze at."$86 a month is a lot. That would pay for ... Groceries for a week, as someone said. More than what I pay for parking every month, after my employer's contribution to that. A new computer after a year. A new quality pair of shoes ... every month. Months of my copay for my hormones. A new thick coat (on sale or at discount place). It would pay for what I spend on my dogs every month ... food, vitamins, treats."
As our pygmy governor up here always says when he screws us, "It's only a cup of coffee a day"...
"Really, how am I ever supposed to pay off my student loans if my already small paycheck keeps getting smaller? Help a sister out, Obama," wrote "Meet Virginia." "Nancy Thongkham" was much more furious. "F***ing Obama! F*** you! This taking out more taxes s*** better f***ing help me out!! Very upset to see my paycheck less today!"
FORWARD!
"_Alex™" sounded bummed. "Obama I did not vote for you so you can take away alot of money from my checks." Christian Dixon seemed crestfallen. "I'm starting to regret voting for Obama."
Starting? Wow, and he hasn't even been sworn in yet...
But "Dave" got his dander up over the tax hike: "Obama is the biggest f***ing liar in the world. Why the f*** did I vote for him"?
What are you f***ing asking me for, you f***ing moron? I didn't f***ing vote for him...
Of course, dozens of posters on DemocraticUnderground sought to blame it all (as usual) on President George W. Bush. "Your taxes went up because the leaders need to dig us out of this criminal deficit hole we are in which has been caused because taxes were too low during the Bush years. Everyone has to help by spreading the wealth around a little. Power to the correct people!" posted "Orinoco."
Ah, the "correct" people. Could you point them out to me, Orinoco? I'll bet goddam Bushitler isn't one of them, right?
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/08/2013 15:59 || Comments || Link || [336159 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It's good to face reality, Obama takes, when you realize it, there's a new Republican.

So, does reality hurt, Yup?

Does it hurt Obams, Nope?

That's reality, sooo what're you gonna do?

Realize Obama LIES (Gasp), well we told you, and you wouldn't listen, Suck it up.


NOW (Maybe) you'll listen, we in the South have great experience with (Call him what you want, it's still the same) and we told you.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 01/07/2013 17:07 Comments || Top||

#2  but hey, you get free birth control
Posted by: jan at work || 01/07/2013 17:41 Comments || Top||

#3  The amusing thing about our current predicament is that the one thing that would revive the GOP is a series of hefty tax hikes. All the liberals who whine about the rich not paying their fair share will end up with sticker shock once they find out that they are “rich” and the “fair share” they were insisting upon somebody else paying is a significant chunk of what they thought was hard-earned cash that belonged to them. Bottom line is that things have to get worse before they get better. Remember the line about people being liberal until they get mugged? That’s what liberals need - a good mugging by the IRS.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 01/07/2013 18:27 Comments || Top||

#4  ZF: It wouldn't take a whole lot of work for the GOP to come up with something that a) Zero would have a lot of problems arguing against, and b) would hit the NE Corridor and CA disproportionately hard. That the GOP hasn't done this is testament to either their stupidity or their lack of imagination. Or maybe their duplicity. Certainly the taxation-via-inflation that Zero really wants to engage in after his token 'soak the rich' rhetoric will be much more damaging to the poor than the rich, unless the rich have been setting up Scrooge-McDuck style swimming pools for their money.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 01/07/2013 18:32 Comments || Top||

#5  "Obama supporters shocked, angry at new tax increases"

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

*gasp*

*deep breath*

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Serves ya' right, you MORONS.

Look on the bright side - Bambi said he'd raise taxes only on the rich. Your taxes went up, therefore you're rich! :-D
Posted by: Barbara || 01/07/2013 18:50 Comments || Top||

#6  You want big government, you'll pay for it. One way (taxes) or another (inflation).
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/07/2013 19:38 Comments || Top||

#7  surprised that so many Obama voters have paychecks
Posted by: Frank G || 01/07/2013 19:56 Comments || Top||

#8  Bambi said he'd raise taxes only on the rich. Your taxes went up, therefore you're rich!

I am so stealing this, Barbara!
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/07/2013 20:21 Comments || Top||

#9  Good point, Frank.

Glenmore, use it with my blessings. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara || 01/07/2013 22:22 Comments || Top||

#10  Do they take SS out of welfare checks? I've never been on welfare, so I have no idea.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 01/07/2013 22:51 Comments || Top||

#11  Do they take SS out of welfare checks? I've never been on welfare, so I have no idea.

Plenty of Obama supporters work. The majority of able-bodied blacks and Hispanics work. They just like getting the racial/ethnic preferences that give them a leg up in college admissions and recruiting. Checking the black/Hispanic box is a lot like being born a Bush, but even better, because even a Bush needs personal connections - people who know other people, whereas any black/Hispanic automatically "knows" people in every little nook of these United States because of the disparate impact court judgments that require colleges and other institutions to favor blacks/Hispanics in academic admissions and hiring.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 01/07/2013 23:13 Comments || Top||

#12  I had a liberal friend that was a huge supporter of Obamacare. Later, she was bemoaning the fact that her premiums went up by $60 a month. I mentioned that she needed to support those that Obamacare expanded to support. She was working and had a little more to spread around.

Needless to say she wasn't amused and doesn't talk to me any more.
Posted by: DarthVader || 01/08/2013 1:12 Comments || Top||

#13  D *** NG IT, you call that "getting my $$$ for Nuthin' + my Chicks or Weed for free", Mr. President.

Clearly, these don't think so.

APPARENTLY, SOME DEMOLEFTIES ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/08/2013 1:40 Comments || Top||

#14  Is it time to introduce them to the idea that money doesn't grow on trees?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/08/2013 2:04 Comments || Top||

#15  Malcontents and non-true believers. You get what you pay for.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/08/2013 3:26 Comments || Top||

#16  A carbon tax would be another good way for people to see why leftism has wrought
Posted by: lord garth || 01/08/2013 6:52 Comments || Top||

#17  Did any of the complainers say they voted for the wrong guy? Wished for Mitt? That would be to suggest they made a mistake in voting for 0.

It's still somebody else's fault, and it always will be.
Posted by: Bobby || 01/08/2013 7:56 Comments || Top||

#18  Your taxes went up because ... taxes were too low during the Bush years.

I'm sure all the readers understood that to mean their taxes went up because Bush didn't tax the rich enough. It never occured to them that Bush cut their taxes, too.

Besides which, isn't this the re-instatement of somthing 0 temporarily cut as part of the "Stimulus"?
Posted by: Bobby || 01/08/2013 8:05 Comments || Top||

#19  I'm disabled (Real, Stroke,) and Over 65 so I'm waiting untl the 22nd of this month to see WHAT I get.

We shall see, I'm hardly rich, but I do have some cash in the bank, but I don't mind paying my share, as long as others pay too.

Now IF the others DON'T pay, hell no.

Posted by: Redneck Jim || 01/08/2013 8:49 Comments || Top||

#20  Paycheck, Obama voter? Guess there must be some but i had assumed the bulk came from the idle rich and the leach classes. These are probably Loyal Union guys realizing they were used.
Posted by: Rjschwarz || 01/08/2013 10:41 Comments || Top||

#21  DEFINATELY NOT an Obama voter.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 01/08/2013 12:01 Comments || Top||

#22  "doesn't talk to me any more"

Lucky you, Darth. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara || 01/08/2013 12:12 Comments || Top||

#23  "Your taxes went up because the leaders need to dig us out of this criminal deficit hole we are in which has been caused because taxes were too low during the Bush years"

The "deficit hole" is because GWB and Congress spent too much money.

One of the great lamentations of the Left about the days following 9/11 is that the President "didn't do enough to rally the nation", meaning that he didn't propose more taxes and fees to pay for 'homeland security'. Whether or not he should have, Washington still went on a spending spree. I don't recall the Left being too upset about it (except for miltary spending).
Posted by: Pappy || 01/08/2013 14:03 Comments || Top||

#24  I'd say to these Obama voters who are having trouble with this, "You made your bed, now lay in it, STFU and quit whining. Better yet, take it up with the guy you voted for."
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/08/2013 17:04 Comments || Top||

#25  Barbara, I am also going to steal that line. Priceless.
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/08/2013 17:06 Comments || Top||

#26  Needless to say she wasn't amused and doesn't talk to me any more.

Sadly, this is becoming more and more common as we try to talk sense to family and friends. I believe lotp has commented on it at length.

Class warfare *sounds* like big fun - hey, let's tax the rich guys 'cause they've certainly got more money than me! But as pointed out elsewhere, they don't have enough money and arithmetic always wins in the end. Expect a lot of tears and whining as Obama voters slowly figure out who the rubes actually are.
Posted by: SteveS || 01/08/2013 22:10 Comments || Top||


Fifth Column
Belmont Club: If Only Stalin Knew
Which I've always heard related as 'if only the Czar knew' but Stalin was the Czar of his day... and it's been a phrase I've been thinking of a lot as I've watched the Hagel Controversy unfold.
Alan Dershowitz's belated realization that he's been swindled would have been funny if it were not so tragic. He writes that Chuck Hagel's nomination as secretary of defense "risks increasing the likelihood that Iran will develop nuclear weapons. It poses that risk because Hagel is well known for his opposition both to sanctions against Iran and to employing the military option if necessary." In this he is undoubtedly correct.
The burden is now on Senator Hagel to persuade the Senate, the American people, and the leaders of Iran that he is fully supportive of the President's commitment not to contain a nuclear armed Iran, but to prevent such a catastrophe from occurring, even if that requires the use of military force to achieve that commendable goal.
But as to causes he is completely wrong. Dershowitz's statement ignores the obvious. If the president were so committed to preventing a nuclear Iran, then why did he nominate Hagel in the first place? The president could have selected any qualified candidate. That he chose Hagel can only indicate that is the true policy he wants to implement.

Words may be true or false, but actions rarely lie. And Dershowitz recognizes the danger, but not the truth. Not yet anyway. His problem is not with Hagel, a mere creature of Obama. The problem is with Obama himself. This must be obvious to a man of his intelligence. But to admit this would be to concede a fundamental error in judgment on his part. It would mean eating not just a little bit of crow, but four courses of it.

Dershowitz supported Obama. He now laments that:
Those of us who voted for President Obama and who want to be certain that Iran is never allowed to develop nuclear weapons, as the President promised, have legitimate concerns about this nomination. We hope that these concerns can be allayed by the President and his nominee, but if they are not, it will be the highest of patriotic duties to oppose Senator Hagel's nomination.
It's kinda late for that.
There's also a digression with the shocking... shocking! idea that Generallissimo Franscisco Chavez (who's still not dead) really didn't care what Noam Chomsky thought was right or wrong.
It is not as if one could oppose Hagel because he could conduct an independent defense policy. He cannot. The only logical basis for objecting to his nomination must that in him the administration has concretely manifested its actual intentions. Thus, Hagel is just the beginning 'the first sip, the first foretaste of a bitter cup which will be proffered to you year by year unless, by a supreme recovery of moral health you wake up and smell the coffee' because he is an indicator of where Obama wants to go. There's more -- much more where that came from.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 01/08/2013 11:42 || Comments || Link || [336105 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Doesn't smell like coffee to me, more like BS.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 01/08/2013 12:38 Comments || Top||

#2  Ed Koch's story is a bit different.

He's surprised that Obama is turning on Israel so early but he'd always expected him to renege on his promises of support.

Koch endorsed Obama in order to appease him since he expected him to win anyway.
Posted by: Elmerert Hupens2660 || 01/08/2013 12:38 Comments || Top||

#3  So Koch supported Obama as part of his own personal Molotov-Ribbentroff pact?

Did he think he was Molotov or Ribbentroff?
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 01/08/2013 12:53 Comments || Top||

#4  Did he think he was Molotov or Ribbentroff?

Man, I came *this* close to spritzing coffee over that one!
Posted by: SteveS || 01/08/2013 14:35 Comments || Top||

#5  Not Molotov-Ribbentropp, think 'Pact of Umar'.

And Koch wasn't playing Umar.
Posted by: Elmerert Hupens2660 || 01/08/2013 16:14 Comments || Top||

#6  Useful idiots.
Posted by: Dopey Sinatra9196 || 01/08/2013 19:06 Comments || Top||

#7  Dershowitz supported Obama. He now laments that...

Heh. Looks like a lotta that shit going around these days...
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/08/2013 19:11 Comments || Top||

#8  "Usefulless idiots"

FTFY, DS.
Posted by: Barbara || 01/08/2013 19:16 Comments || Top||

#9  Again, unless SHTF between the Sunni GCC Govts + local Shia populations, Iran as times before will remain on the strategic defensive in 2013 - in Iran's view = strategeery, the burden remains on the US + Israel, etal. to attack Iran first.

POTUS Bammer = USA could be facing military crisis between April-June 2013 vee both Iran + China, of which the most dangerous will be CHINA.
A US-VS-CHINA MIL CRISIS CAN BEGIN IN NE ASIA, BUT OVER TIME CAN SPREAD DIRECTLY ANDOR INDIRECTLY TO THE WHOLE OF EAST, SOUTH, WEST, + CENTRAL ASIA + MIDDLE EAST, ESPEC AS "POST-US", "WORLD #1" WANNABE CHINA ATTEMPTS TO PERMANENTLY SETTLE VARIOUS STRATEGIC ACCESS ISSUES VEE DIFFERENT NATIONS + REGIONS AT ROUGHLY THE SAME TIME.

IOW, US-VS-CHINA MILITARY CRISIS = ultimately come down to CHINA'S GEOPOL EXPANSION + US ROLLBACK IN POWER-N-INFLUENCE ACROSS THE WORLD.

Suits the ANTI-US, PRO-OWG-NWO GLOBALISTS JUST FINE. Ditto as per OWG Caliphate-happy Rising Iran + Radical Islam.

ONCE THE US STARTS GOING DOWN, IT'LL BE TIME FOR THE OWG NUCLEAR? JIHADIS = ISLAM-SPECIFIC THEO-SOCIALISTS/THEO-GLOBALISTS TO START BEHEADING THE OWG SECULAR COMMIES-SOCIALISTS-GLOBALISTS.

'Tis NOT good for GUAM-CNMI or even HAWAII.

Lest we fergit, 1960's GUAM TAOTAMONAS = "AS THE US RETREATS ACROSS THE PACIFIC IT WILL DESIRE TO DENY ITS ENEMIES USAGE OF KEY OR STRATEGIC ISLANDS ..."

[HUGO CHAVEZ + US "LAND/ISLAND-SINKING" TECTONIC = EARTHQUAKE BOMBS here].

Whats that you say - youse like WATER, NOT LAND?

* IIRC TOPIX, WORLD NEWS, MIL FORUMS > US, NEW ZEALAND DEVELOPED/TESTED "TSUNAMI BOMB" DURING WW2. "Project SEAL".

[MOSES-VS-WHAT-HAS-GOD-DONE-FOR-US-LATELY-ANGRY-ISRAELIS IN THE DESERT here].

But I digress ...
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/08/2013 20:22 Comments || Top||

#10  "Perfect Storm", Celine Dion "Titanic" theme, + the Battleship OKLAHOMA.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/08/2013 20:25 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
California: Living the Turquoise Dream
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 01/08/2013 14:04 || Comments || Link || [336104 views] Top|| File under:

#1  You mean the "cash cow" is dying? The golden goose is croaking?
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/08/2013 17:29 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Patterns of response
[Dawn] COUNTING a few major attacks claimed by the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) during the last three months in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
and Fata delineate three clear tactical patterns. (It must be noted that during the same time Rawalpindi, Quetta, 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...
and other parts of Pakistain were also hit).

Headlines during this period included the finding of the severed heads of a police brass hat and a soldier of the Frontier Constabulary in the Gulshanabad area of Matani in the suburbs of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.

On Oct 26, gunnies rubbed out two members of an anti-Taliban peace committee in Swat
...a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistain, located 99 mi from Islamabad. It is inhabited mostly by Pashto speakers. The place has gone steadily downhill since the days when Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat...
valley. About a week later, a local leader of the newly formed Qaumi Watan Party and the head of an anti-Taliban amn lashkar (peace committee) was killed along with four other people in a suicide kaboom in Buner.

Four days later, a jacket wallah went kaboom! near a police van in Peshawar's Qissa Khawani bazaar, killing a police brass hat, two bodyguards and two civilians.

On Dec 19, beturbanned goon attacks on polio
...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set...
workers in Charsadda, Nowshera and Peshawar (besides Bloody Karachi) left several workers, including women, dead. On Dec 22, a suicide attack in Peshawar left senior minister and leader of the Awami National Party, Bashir Ahmed Bilour, and seven others dead.

On Dec 27, hundreds of Death Eaters equipped with sophisticated weapons attacked a Levies post in Frontier Region Peshawar, killing two while

22 others were kidnapped; their bullet-ridden bodies were found on Dec 30 in the same area.

As seen in the light of this narration, the snuffies affiliated with the TTP have clear targets. The first target is the police and security forces -- in their bid to take control of a state or society, beturbanned goons and snuffies always try to defeat the morale of the security forces. Through a well-coordinated and networked chain of attacks, the TTP has succeeded in inflicting heavy losses on the security forces and the police in different parts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

The locations where the attacks took place show that the beturbanned goon network is entrenched in almost all parts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the rest of Pakistain, with a concentration in the suburbs of Peshawar. This means that beturbanned goon organizations can strike at will. This also shows that the state of Pakistain is vulnerable and too weak to provide security to its own institutions, let alone the people.

The second target are those who are under obligation or have made a commitment to help state institutions. Attacks on the leaders of peace committees in those parts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa where military operations were earlier successfully carried out indicate that the beturbanned goon organizations wish to demonstrate that their networks cannot be defeated, no matter how much state force is used.

This also strengthens the discourse of those political parties that claim that any kind of military operation against terrorist networks backfires in all circumstances.

The third target is the people who are publicly expressive of their ideological opposition to the beturbanned goon organizations. They are a target in order to prove that any voice of dissent can be silenced with impunity. Fascist movements around the globe have always attempted to silence all voices of dissent.

In response to the trajectory of terrorism, there appear to have emerged three patterns of thinking that are discernible in the public and in Pakistain's policymaking and political circles.

Firstly, there is a pattern of thought that holds that terrorism in Pakistain appeared after the US sent its forces to Afghanistan following the events of 9/11. This way of thinking concludes that all the losses incurred by the security apparatus, the state, society and humanity inside Pakistain -- and were inflicted by the TTP and other beturbanned goon organizations -- are morally justified and any use of force against those who unleash terror is morally unjustified. Those with this way of thinking strongly suggest dialogue and reconciliation on the terms of the beturbanned goon organizations.

This would mean surrendering the constitution of Pakistain and implementing the beturbanned goon code of life. This would definitely lead Pakistain towards isolation from the modern world. If someone wants a 'khilafat' in Afghanistan, why wouldn't he want it in Pakistain and the whole world?

This way of thinking also ignores the fact that well before 9/11, in 1992, the Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi brought Malakand division to a standstill while demanding the Sharia be implemented. The first case of someone being stoned to death took place in Orakzai Agency
... crawling with holy men, home to Darra Adam Khel, the world's largest illegal arms bazaar. 14 distinct tribes of beturbanned primitives inhabit Orakzai agency's 1500 or so square kilometers...
in 1998.

The second pattern of thinking holds that all terrorism in Pakistain is inflicted by foreign hands, meaning the US, Israel and India, and hence it is impossible to track terrorism and deal with it politically, socio-culturally and militarily. This also implies that Taliban- and Al Qaeda-affiliated organizations are fighting a war of liberation in Afghanistan and a war of Dire Revenge™ in Pakistain; hence, if military action against them is stopped in Pakistain, all terrorism here will vanish.

Thirdly, there is the pattern of thought that suggests that the policies of Pakistain's security establishment over the past four decades -- to use non-state actors for foreign policy objectives, the privatisation of 'jihad', the development of beturbanned goon ideological and military infrastructure across the length and breadth of Pakistain -- in addition to the country's legal and constitutional frameworks and an education system that glorifies war and spreads hatred against other nations and religions, are together responsible for the present reign of terror in Pakistain.

This way of thinking argues that insurgencies and terrorism around the globe have been neutralised through a coordinated policy of using force to tear down the beturbanned goon command structure, beturbanned goon networks and supply lines besides using a political mechanism of reintegration and reconciliation, as well as coordinated economic development.

It is now up to the state and society of Pakistain to make a choice.
Posted by: Fred || 01/08/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336086 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Science & Technology
The Siege of Baghdad and China’s Rise
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/08/2013 02:15 || Comments || Link || [336088 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Outstanding article. When will America awake from its slumber?. The leadership and the will are asleep at the wheel. Better to reach for the stars than this death of complacency.
Posted by: Dale || 01/08/2013 7:44 Comments || Top||

#2  Thanks for posting g(r)om.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/08/2013 8:22 Comments || Top||

#3  We aim to please.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/08/2013 8:48 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Assad Thumbing His Nose at Exit Talk
[An Nahar] Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Scourge of Qusayr...
's first speech since June showed he remains confident enough in his military strength after 21 months of conflict to thumb his nose at demands for his exit, analysts say.

Assad broke his silence after the regime weathered a storm of devastating events over the summer and autumn, said Thomas Pierret, Syria specialist and professor at the University of Edinburgh.

They included a kaboom that killed four top security officials, the rebels' capture of half of second city Aleppo and the loss of control over the Turkish and Iraqi borders.

"Today, the situation is stabilizing a bit. The regime won't win the war, but it knows it will still go on for some time," Pierret said.

"All of these developments are giving breathing space to a regime doomed in the future, which explains the timing of the speech.

"The international situation is also reassuring to Assad. After seeming to back the National Coalition and the new Free Syrian Army command, the West is again working with the Russians on a political solution though they know it is very unrealistic," said Pierret.

"These developments are a lifeline for a regime that is condemned in the medium term.

"It is the discourse of war. Assad is totally inflexible and resistant to the idea of a genuine process of political transition."

Karim Bitar, research director at the Gay Paree Institute for International and Strategic Relations, said it was likely that Assad knew that the United States and Russia were holding talks on Syria.

"And these talks will give him a respite and he should be able to cling to power until at least the end of his mandate in 2014, as he waits for what he calls the 'Arab Spring bubble' to pop," Bitar said.

But Bitar said that ultimately the human toll of a conflict that has claimed more than 60,000 lives, according to the latest U.N. figures, meant that Assad's blueprint was too "little, too late."

"Too much blood has been spilled for the rebels to agree to stop here. Assad's proposal is far below what could be accepted by the rebels," he said.
Posted by: Fred || 01/08/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336106 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  Partition is being protrayed or inferred as the most likely best option for formal ceasefire - PROB IS, NOBODY WANTS IT.

Not Baby Assad, not the FSA, not the Kurds or AL-Qaeda or Kurdish Hezbollah.

NO ONE.

NADA.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/08/2013 1:37 Comments || Top||

#2  I take it Assad is expected to fall next.
OK wake me when he does.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 01/08/2013 16:42 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
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2al-Qaeda in Pakistan
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Two weeks of WOT
Tue 2013-01-08
  US drone attack kills four in North Waziristan
Mon 2013-01-07
  Syria Opposition Rejects Assad's Reconciliation Plan
Sun 2013-01-06
  Dronezap in South Wazoo send 18 TTP Jihadis to their rewards
Sat 2013-01-05
  Syria jets, troops wage offensive on rebels near capital
Fri 2013-01-04
  New U.S. Drone Strike Kills Three Qaida Suspects in Yemen
Thu 2013-01-03
  Iran to Citizens: Flee Isfahan
Wed 2013-01-02
  Fourteen Killed as Nigerian Troops Clash with Islamists
Tue 2013-01-01
  Pakistan: Six charity workers shot dead
Mon 2012-12-31
  Qaeda in Yemen offers bounty for killing US ambassador, troops
Sun 2012-12-30
  Pakistan reports 21 tribal policemen kidnapped, found dead
Sat 2012-12-29
  At Least 15 Killed in Sect Attack in North Nigeria
Fri 2012-12-28
  Militants kill two, kidnap 22 Pakistani soldiers
Thu 2012-12-27
  Somalia sets 100 days for Al Shabab militants to surrender
Wed 2012-12-26
  6 Killed in Attack on Nigerian Church
Tue 2012-12-25
  Drone Strikes Kill Six Qaida Suspects in Yemen

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