Pakistan Against The World

Not long after 911, then President General for Life Musharraf of the Land of the Pure pleaded with his failing state's trifecta of intolerant militants, Army Cadres and citizens that Pakistan was in a terrible bind. The whole world thought Pakistan totally sucked.

"Four serious accusations were hurled at Pakistan:
A. All the terrorist activity in Afghanistan had its base in Pakistan
B. All the freedom struggle in Indian Held Kashmir was Cross border Terrorism from Pakistan
C. All nuclear proliferation in the world had its source in Pakistan
D. Pakistan is an intolerant militant extremist society "

Years, billions of bucks, buckets of blood and chaos later Great Satan's chief spy guy pretty much copied and pasted the exPresident General's plea as a caveat:

"Let me be very clear: Today, virtually every major terrorist threat
that my agency is aware of has threads back to the tribal areas. Whether it's command and control, training, direction, money, capabilities, there is a connection to the FATA."

Yay. Those famously infamous Tribal Zones - FATA or Federally unAdministered Tribal Area. Currently functioning as impact areas for cruise and heckfire missiles, the Mumbai Massacre now has leads to another tribalist area in Pakistani occupied Kashmir.

And the Pakistani Navy.

Just like RAND Corp pointed out a while back, a nation state that cannot impose the writ of state into her different regions and 'FATA's" is tough to defend. Or sympathize with.

Royal Navy Fan and all around smart guy Arthur Herman nails it with

"The duty of every government is to make sure that terrorists get
them before they can deal them out. Pakistanis will never know peace, or peace with their neighbors in Afghanistan and India, until they finally and ruthlessly root out the terrorists in their midst."

Daemoneoconic Robert Kagan puts a razor sharp point on it too:

"We don't think the world's great nations and countries can be held
hostage by non-state actors," Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said
yesterday. Fair enough. But what is the world to do when those non-state actors operate from the territory of a state and are the creation of that state's intelligence services?

"Reversing decades-old policies of support for these groups may
be impossible for any Pakistani leader, especially when the only forces
capable of rooting them out are the same forces that created them and sustain them."

No surprise then that an alledged ex one star General of Land of the Pure's psuedo army reckons the threat of intervention would magically provide Pakistan with all the goodies needed to unify the nation.

"This is the time, when nobody is going to come from outside to help us
and we have to unite from within. We must stop killing each other. India is unlikely to indulge in some sort of adventure, but if she does then the world will get a surprise that how Pakistanis from Karachi to Khyber get united with the first practical show of aggression from India.

"This is the golden chance to get united in the face of foreign
aggression. Enough with the fighting of American war on terror. What have gained from it? Nothing and oppositely America is showing so much compassion and harmony with India, who has done literally nothing for America in the war against terror, rather India is behind the Balochistan militancy and other terrorist activities in Pakistan.

With the blessing of Allah, Pakistan Army is the guardian of our
borders. They are on their toes, when we sleep and rest assured that Pakistan army is ready to face any aggression and retaliate in befitting manner. India should end this drama now. All those flimsy stories about terrorists coming on boats all the way from Karachi to Mumbai and then creating mayhem so easily."

Perhaps there is another way to finally unify an artificial state.

"Until now, the military and intelligence services have remained more
interested in wielding influence in Afghanistan through the Taliban and fighting India in Kashmir through terrorist groups than in cracking down. Perhaps they need a further incentive -- such as the prospect of seeing parts of their country placed in an international receivership."

Pic "A Slice of Pakistan"

Team Of Rivals

Now that the cat's officially out of the bag with 44's new crew, Nik Gvosdev, a senior editor at The National Interest, and a professor of national-security studies at the U.S. Naval War College, shares that the meetings of the National Security Council should be interesting!

"Defense Secretary Robert Gates remaining at the Pentagon, former rival Senator illary Rodham Clinton now nominated for Foggy Bottom and retired–Marine Commandant James Jones as national- security adviser.

Meanwhile, his campaign foreign-policy adviser, Susan Rice, will
take up the post of U.S. ambassador to the United Nations—and will be given cabinet rank. And we should not forget that the vice president-elect, Joe Biden, is also effectively a member of the foreign-policy team.

Yet, it is hard to imagine this diverse collection of individuals
(and their respective staffs) forming an integrated, seamless national-security apparatus.

What is going to happen at a meeting, for instance, where Susan
Rice’s advocacy of armed intervention to stop civilian deaths (e.g. in a place like Darfur) runs up against Bob Gates’ pronouncement that not every tragedy around the world merits a U.S. military response?

This, of course, raises two disturbing possibilities. One is that
the Obama administration will become paralyzed on foreign affairs, with infighting reminiscent of the famed split during President Carter’s tenure between then–Secretary of State Cyrus Vance and National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski.

The other is that different parts of the policy establishment will
seek to become independent actors in foreign and defense policy—á la Bill Casey as CIA director during the Reagan Administration.

Robert Gates is the “cleanup crew,” the one in charge of winding
down the Iraq war and putting the Afghan house in order. (In political terms, he also provides cover for the president from his critics—by providing the continuity with the past administration).

Joe Biden is the president’s liaison to the foreign-affairs
apparatus in Congress and the one who can argue to key Democratic members why they can’t afford to undermine the new president in the eyes of the world.

General Jones represents Obama’s outreach to the military, with
assurances that he not only won’t be disarming America anytime soon but also that the advice and perspectives of the uniformed services—perhaps overly discounted in the outgoing administration—will receive a fair and respectful hearing.

Clinton and Rice, each in their own arenas, are charged with
winning support from friends and allies—not token “coalition of the willing support” but serious, James Baker-style assistance.

This approach can work, but two things are required. First, the
president himself must be able to provide clear guidance for the type of world he wants to achieve and what he’s willing to pay to get it. He has to effectively communicate his wishes.

The second is that the people he’s selected must be willing to
carry out what he has requested—and that will also mean staying out of other people’s lanes.

It’s a gamble.

If it works, Obama becomes the new FDR (who also successfully
pulled off the “team of rivals” gambit in foreign affairs). If it fails, Obama becomes the political heir of Jimmy Carter."

Either way, the meetings of the National Security Council should be interesting!

Art - "Team of Rivals"

44's Bad Girl

News that one of Great Satan's adopted brainiac hotties is back in the posse for #44 - to smooth the way for Future Madame Secretary HRC at the State Department has stirred up some pretty vicious gossip (and also makes a great case for cross examination - and drug testing for attorneys that blog hog wild).

"Samantha Power is a pro-Communist and Palestinian sympathizer who advocates the US invading Israel and forcing a Palestinian "solution" onto the Israelis. Her "solution" actually resembles the one that Ahmadenijad proposes for Israel. "

Whoa! Hold up counselor! That is totally incorrect. Not sure what they actually call it in lawyer talk, but in Hillbillyland it is what is known as a severely uninformed opinion in polite company and brazen untruth in whispery gossip.

Alas, the nigh unhinged counselor is not alone - the Sam Pow anti Little Satan myth is spreading a lot like the sooo last year 'Annapolis affliction syndrome' that struck many whose hearts are in the right place yet their factless rants are disproved by their own citations.

One of the main weaponless weapons cats are deploying against Esquire 2008's hot docs of the year is an event at Beserkly University and being quized by Harry Kriesler with a makebelieve quiz about Palestine.

A gotcha "thought exercise" involving an "if one party or another starts looking like they might be moving toward genocide?" quiz.

I actually think in the Palestine - Israel situation, there's
an abundance of information. What we don't need is some kind of early warning mechanism there, what we need is a willingness to put something on the line in helping the situation.

Putting something on the line might mean alienating a domestic
constituency of tremendous political and financial import; it may more crucially mean sacrificing -- or investing, I think, more than sacrificing -- billions of dollars, not in servicing Israel's military, but actually investing in the new state of Palestine, in investing the billions of dollars it would probably take, also, to support what will have to be a mammoth protection force, not of the old Rwanda kind, but a meaningful military presence.

Because it seems to me at this stage (and this is true of actual
genocides as well, and not just major human rights abuses, which were seen there), you have to go in as if you're serious, you have to put something on the line.

Unfortunately, imposition of a solution on unwilling parties is dreadful. It's a terrible thing to do, it's fundamentally undemocratic. But, sadly, we don't just have a democracy here either, we have a liberal democracy.

There are certain sets of principles that guide our policy, or that are
meant to, anyway. It's essential that some set of principles becomes the
benchmark, rather than a deference to [leaders] who are fundamentally
politically destined to destroy the lives of their own people.

And by that I mean what Tom Freidman (GsGf Editorial Note - actually
Samantha botched this bit - it belongs to Amos Oz - not fellow Pulitzer Tom Friedman) has called "Sharafat."

I do think in that sense, both political leaders have been
dreadfully irresponsible. And, unfortunately, it does require external
intervention, which, very much like the Rwanda scenario, that thought
experiment, if we had intervened early. Any intervention is going to come under fierce criticism.

But we have to think about lesser evils, especially when the
human stakes are becoming ever more pronounced."

First off, this event was held in April 2002. Hop on the way back machine for a sec and remember what the heck was going on with Palestine and Little Satan.

Comrade 'Papa' Arafat was trapped in his very own Fuhrer bunker in the Palestinian capital of Ramallah and openly calling for a million suicide bombers to march on Jerusalem to liberate all of Palestine from the River to the Sea.

Little Satan was in Gaza and enjoying limited combat ops against Dahlan's new school Fatah/HAMAS experimental rocket brigades that launched some of the very 1st K'Ssam rockets.

The entire world was horrified about the Sedar Massacre and the hard charging Panzer General Sharon launched Operation Defensive Shield - actually taking the fight into West Bank and killing killers cultimating in the Jenin fire fight that Palestine's death cult fanboys had intentionally brought on themselves in an area chock full of innocent civilians. Palestinians cried 'Massacre!" at Jenin before the myth busting got fired up.

Samantha Power was actually advocating the armed intervention of Palestine - not Little Satan.

And as 'thought exercises' go let's just take it a bit further shall we? If Great Satan had intervened in Palestine, West Bank and the Strip would have been subjected to some of the most awesome stuff Great Satan can provide.

Like putting paid to gender apartheid, honor killings and intolerance. Sam Pow's big cash expenditures could sweetly be applied to the entire cultural and social mindset of the most literate Arabs on the face of the earth and may have resulted in a tolerant, functional democracy that resembles Little Satan's hood far more than any of Palestine's despotic, weak and embarrassing neighbors.

Backed with up the world famous M16, the Strip may have become the Riviera of the Med with casino's, strip bars, Xian churches, shopping malls, tanning beds, night clubs, schools, universities, women's centers, internet cafes, industrial centers and hospitals.



Instead of kids watching ersatz Disney like critters on Hate TV advocating the destruction of Little Satan, kids would have grown up with Hannah Montana and the Wiggles - instead of underground rocket factories guys would be tuning in to Girls Gone Wild, Playboy's Girls Next Door and working on their game to score choice hotties and hos at the Mall.



Instead of rocket rich Iranian fiefdoms on Little Satan's periphery, consider Great Satan's fiefdoms prepping for this life instead of racing to the next.


However Samanatha's on the spot make it up as you go answer to a rhetorical quiz is spun - fact is even the Credit Bureau will give a cat a break after seven years!


Max Boot( love that name!!) disputes some of Commentary's anti Samantha articles used as citations in a few knee jerking rants with one of his own. He also points out that Samantha is not anti Little Satan - in fact - she may be a neocon in humanitarian clothing.

"I’ve known Power for six years and have never heard her say
anything that I would construe as anti-Israel. In fact, at a December 2006 forum at Harvard’s Kennedy School at which we were both panelists, she rather forcefully dismissed a claim by a Jewish anti-Zionist in the audience who tried to equate Israeli policy with South African apartheid—a favorite trope of the hard left.

"I don’t agree with Power on everything. In particular, I am astounded
that someone who has campaigned so eloquently and rightly to stop genocide would advocate a troop pullout from Iraq that could very well result in a genocide. But I’ve also found Power to be one of the more reasonable, sane, and centrist foreign policy thinkers on the Democratic side. Her award-winning book A Problem from Hell: America in the Age of Genocide could have been written by a neocon."

This is significant.

Samantha's Pulitzer Prize winning book is chock full of jerks, creeps and genocidal maniacs from around the world yet there is nary a mention of Little Satan or Palestine in any way or context comparable with real monsters that are genocidal.

Samantha does have an affinity for the UN that is a lot like fellow Pulitzer Fred Kaplan but she also quotes Ambassador John Bolton's "Surrender is Not an Option" about "Why not pay for what we want and get what we pay for ' argument.



It's also interesting that Samantha - who knows real monsters - would refer to her soon to be boss as a monster during Donkey Party's primary. (The resulting fallout from that was a lot like the ancient Spinal Tap movie.)

Maybe, Madame Secretary HRC will recommend Samantha as ambassador to real monsters - like Sudan.



There are plenty of things to argue with Samantha about.



Fashioning falsehoods about Dr Power advocating armed intervention in Little Satan isn't one of them.





art "44's Bad Grrl - Samantha Power"

Rumor Mill

All the jazz about Piracy offshore the number one failed state in the entire world also fires up 'conspiracy' theories.

Ah yes - the charming thing about conspiracy is that when a machination is real - no one ever suspects. When it is fantasy - every one 'knows' (Biblical sense - not included).

Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed, the general manager of Al -Arabiya, recently shared a few pirate rumors from the most rumor rich hood of them all - the ME.

"It is still incomprehensible as to how mere gangs of possibly
illiterate bandits are able to highjack large sophisticated ships in an area teeming with international naval fleets?

The answer to this question is divided between those who said that these operations were carried out by Little Satan's marine commandos, and others who fear that they were carried out by Iranian marine commandos.

Little Satan pretending to be pirates?

"Some from the onset promoted the idea that the Israelis were the
actual pirates under the guise of the Somalis. And what is their reason for this? They claim that the Israelis want to impose their presence and could find no other regional issue allowing them to do so except to offer Israeli assistance in confronting these pirates."

However, the brainiacs behind this rumor are unhappily unaware that Little Satan, like all the other nations and navies can nautically trek about Red Sea as long as they remain in international waters 15km off the shores of Yemen and Somalia.

"There is no need for the Israelis to masquerade as Somali pirates,
since their navy has for decades been able to sail across the Mandeb Strait without fear of being fired on by Yemenis or any others."

The Mandeb Strait is considered international waters and not under the sovereignty of any local government, except the Suez Canal which is under full sovereignty of the Egyptian government.

Therefore there is no logical justification for the Israelis to do this
for the purpose of securing a military presence in a region which it knows better than its own inhabitants do."

Perhaps Persian provocateurs? Another 'strategic/tactical minority?'

"The second group believes that these pirates are nothing more then just an extension of the Iran-sponsored militias in the region, like Hamas and Hizballah. From the behavior and goals of the pirates they deduce that they are just another front for the regional war with Iran.

They say that the capabilities of these pirates are proof of this;
since the pirates are not just another poorly-armed gang. They say that the pirates are in possession of early information with regards to navigation route and that they select accurate targets, and were able to undertake operations like professionally trained marine commandos. The pirates board large ships from small boats, then take full control of the ship until they sail it into port.

When they hijacked the Saudi Arabian super-tanker the "Sirius
Star", the pirates took complete control of the ship so quickly that the crew was not even able to make a distress call.

This second group sees this as proof that these pirates are more
than what they seem, for they were able to hijack a ship equipped with advanced warning systems, a super-tanker that is so large that it takes one hour to traverse its deck on foot. Moreover it took the pirates two days to sail this ship to the Somali coast with the help of advanced guidance and navigation.

This is like stealing a giraffe from the zoo in broad daylight and sneaking her home without anybody noticing anything.

Yet why would the Iranians initiate conflict in the open seas where
American naval strength prevails, especially since Iran has a weak presence in the Gulf Sea, which is close to their own regional waters?

In our world where conflicts are ongoing and the hiring of armed
militias is a reality, these Somali bandits might carry out operations for a power like Iran, Israel, or even the Great Satan.

However, it is well known that such an act will eventually backfire, since these pirates will eventually bite the hand that feeds them."

Pic - "Rumours Mill" by Siebe

Mumbai Massacre

Almost two days after terrorists attacked the Indian financial hub of Mumbai, the military is still working to root out the remnants of the assault teams at two hotels and a Jewish center. More than 125 people, including six foreigners, have been killed and 327 more have been wounded. The number is expected to go up, as Indian commandos have recovered an additional 30 dead at the Taj Mahal hotel as fighting has resumed.

Mumbai Massacre is way different from other mohammedist type attacks - instead of massive truck bombs or scores of munition enhanced makebelieve martyrs, Mumbai was more like a military op.

So far, no one has made the connection with the Beslan school massacre carried out by Chechen and foreign creeps and jihadis that tormented an entire town in Russia.

Perhaps they should.

The operational prep for such an attack is amazing.

Operational security for such a horrific event is tough to maintain and requires organization, discipline and exceptional motivation.

First off - the planning, training and equiping of an attack like this involved tons of data, raw intell and onsite knowledge.

An estimated 12 to 25 terrorists are believed to have entered Mumbai by sea. After landing, the attack teams knocked out the local police, (killing Mumbai's chief anti terror cop along with his especially trained cadre) then split into spearhead teams to attack 'soft', weak and helpless innocents at hotels, cafes, cinemas, even hospitals. Civilians were gunned down and taken hostage, while terrorists looked for people carrying foreign passports.

Indian Coast Guard, Navy, Mumbai maritime police, and customs units have scoured the waters off Mumbai in search of a "mommie ship" that transported one or more smaller Gemini inflatable boats used by the attackers. Unverified reports alledge one of the craft land in Colaba in southern Mumbai and vomited eight to 10 fighters.

Two ships that have been boarded are strongly suspected of being involved in the attacks: the Kuber, an Indian fishing boat, and the MV Alpha, a Vietnamese cargo ship. Both ships appear to have been directly involved. The Kuber was hijacked on Nov. 13, and its captain was found murdered. Four crewmen are reported to still be missing.

Indian security officials found what they believe is evidence linking the boat to the attack, as well as linking the attackers to Pakistan.

"A GPS map of south Mumbai was found along with a satellite phone
on the ship, Coast Guard officials confirmed.
There were reports that this phone was used to make calls to
Karachi immediately before the shootings began in Mumbai."

Indian police also detained three terrorists from the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, a terror group closely allied with al Qaeda. The three men are said to be Pakistani nationals, and claimed to have been part of a 12-man team that launched from the MV Alpha. They said the MV Alpha departed from Karachi.

The Mumbai attack is something different. Foreign assault teams that likely trained and originated from outside the country infiltrated a major city to conduct multiple attacks on carefully chosen targets.

The primary weapon was the gunman, not the suicide bomber. The attack itself has paralyzed a city of 18 million.

And two days after the attack began, Indian forces are still killing killers.

pic - "Les Impressions Mumbai" by Florintine Asch

Thankful

Off all the millions of things to be thankful for - the things that come so easily to recite and the majority that doesn't. Me Maws, Paw paws, rowdy little boy cuz'ses that want to wrestle and beat the living daylights out of you, low deductable auto insurance - all the great stuff that makes life so sweet.

Perhaps the most awesome blessing anyone could have to be thankful for is America.

Everything else seems to fall into place.

Pic - 4am Mall Call 2005

Girls Of Riyadh

Saudiland's recent smoke and mirrors event at UN featuring that wicked old despot king of intolerance himself Abdullah is a risible exercise in the absurb.

Dr David Keyes at the Adelson Institue for Strategic Studies points out how retarded the entire event was:

"Abdullah should be awarded a medal not because he called for plurality, tolerance, and moderation, but because he did so with a straight face. That the ruler of one of the most repressive and despotic nations on Earth convinced anyone to listen to his peroration points only to our willful delusion and profound moral ineptitude."

As Abdullah waxed poetic at the U.N., the West should be working furiously to undermine his regime. Liberty must not be sacrificed on the altar of perceived economic stability. The Saudi people are being radicalized and alienated under the oppressive thumb of King Abdullah and the Wahhabist imams he subsidizes.

For Saudi Arabia to preside over a U.N. conference on tolerance is akin to Iraq being offered the chair of the U.N. Committee on Disarmament (with as Iran co-chair!) or Libya being elected to lead the U.N. Human Rights Committee. Never before have such ferocious foxes guarded such naïve hens.


Any sane discussion about tolerance would feature Saudi Arabia as the precise opposite of what is desired. Abdullah would be roundly castigated and one leader after another would denounce his regime. But that would be asking too much, for it would require a modicum of moral clarity and the ability to stand up for something other than immediate economic gain."

Total control and all it's trappings that despotpedia can provide - like a computerized police state, secret police, 'Ministries of Virtue and Vice Prevention" along with secret trials, secret prisons and secret executions actually fires up desires and wishes that are human - and universal.

Like the hottie naughty underground best seller "Girls Of Riyadh" by Rajaa Alsanea. A sexy sex confessional written as an online blog, set among the closeted female society of modern Saudi Arabia.

Every Friday after prayers, the unnamed narrator 'posts' the latest sexual exploits and experiences of her four upper-class female friends as they text and flirt with men, pop abroad for cosmetic surgery and wear designer clothes – all conducted under cover of the veil.

The book's own success mirrors that of the girls' secret existence: initially unavailable in Saudi, it became an underground smash hit and has topped the Arabic language best-seller lists.

Alsanea's narrative both mimics and is entrenched within its characters' Web and text-speak; as a novel, it lacks depth, characterisation and narrative drive (remind you of anyone else?!).

Yet it boldly explodes Western preconceptions of life in one of Mohammedism's most repressive societies and, as such, surely resembles an act of enormous courage and hope.