OK I’m going to have to weigh in on this one. A girl who was promoting the education of young girls was shot in Pakistan. Horrible. *Someone* claims it was the Taliban who shot her. They might have but I think we should investigate the matter before we jump to any conclusions. Let’s face it, the US is trying to get public support for it’s drone attacks on Pakistan which is very wrong. Something we should not support.
They like to throw around the name of the Taliban. The Taliban did this or the Taliban did that. All those bad things the Taliban did, didn’t matter when Unical was wining and dining them trying to win the contract for the oil pipeline in Afghanistan. All the bad things the Taliban did only started to matter when they ended up giving the contract for the oil pipeline to Bridas, a firm from Argentina. After the allied invasion of Afghanistan, that decision was of course reversed.
I’m not saying the Taliban aren’t nutbars. I’m saying some of our allies in that area are nutbars too. How do we know one of our allies in that culture didn’t do it? After all, our “ally” the newly imposed president of Afghanistan made it illegal for women to ever charge their husband with rape and made it illegal for a woman to leave her house without a male escort. That is caveman era. That is not a civilized society. Yet that is what OUR allies did. The ones WE put in power.
Last year our allies in Saudi Arabia arrested a woman for posting a video of herself driving a car on YouTube. No offence, but it is a very backward culture and woman don’t have many rights there. It’s hard to conceive that even in North America there was a time when woman didn’t have the right to vote and there were actually people opposing the idea of giving them the right to vote. In time our culture evolved. Woke up to reality more like it.
There was an article in the local paper about a wonderful teenager in Kelowna who started up a non profit organization helping young girls in Afghanistan get an education. Everyone, including myself, thought it was a wonderful thing. I was however, concerned for her safety because educating girls is not a popular concept in that culture including among our allies there. It’s something we need to work on. Bombing civilians and "suspected" terrorists with drones is not the way to do it.
Jamaat ud-Dawa, a charitable organization affiliated with the Islamist militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, used Twitter to condemn the attack on Ms. Yousafzai as a “shameful, despicable, barbaric attempt.” Understandably, “People are afraid of the [security] agencies and of the terrorist groups – people don’t know who are their real enemies.” We do know this - schools are better than bombs.
Come on, give this conspiracy shit a rest.
ReplyDelete" *Someone* claims it was the Taliban who shot her. They might have but I think we should investigate the matter before we jump to any conclusions. Let’s face it, the US is trying to get public support for it’s drone attacks on Pakistan which is very wrong. Something we should not support."
That someone would be the Pakistani chapter of the Taliban who have PUBLICALLY said, "Yeah it was us, we did it, we're sorry we didn't actually kill her and if she survives we'll do it again". WTF do you want??? Seriously, is ANYTHING to be taken at face value with you? Is EVERYTHING a clever plot by hidden puppet masters? These guys had been threatening this kid with death for a couple years now, they finally got around to taking a shot or three at it. Good thing their marksmanship sucks.
As far as "support" for drone strikes goes, meh, you been reading the lamestream media again. We don't need support, we already have it. Why did you think that after all the "protests" we are still doing it? Why do you think the Pakistani's are still allowing it? And make no mistake, they ARE allowing it. OBL was paying them money to hide out down the street from the Pak Mil Academy, we are paying them to continue drone strikes. Big surprise. Not. Come on , a kid can figure this shit out. The "tribal area's" have never been under the control of the Pakistani Government. You think they like that? Think about it, NO GOVERNMENT, especially a bunch of corrupt little third world fucks, likes NOT having control. They want all the control they can get. If there was a store that sold it they'd go buy more.
So, how much of a problem do you think they really have with us dropping Hellfire missiles on people we both have a problem with? Not much.
As far as "innocent civilians" goes, here's how this works. Various intelligence is generated that indicates the bad guys location. Who knows how, I don't. That kind of thing would be classified information but it's not news that these guys LOVE their cell/SAT phones. They know we control all that shit and they talk on them anyway. How hard is that? When they get hit, the first thing that happens is all the weapons get policed up ('cause they're worth money, among other reasons) and those armed terrorists become innocent civilians who never did any harm in their lives. You think they don't know what suckers the western public is for that shit? That stuff is SOP.
Even CNN's Piers Morgan, who I mostly can't stand with his smarmy Brit moral superiority BS is on board for this, and I quote/WTTE "Anyone who questions America's right to be warring against these guys who in addition to terrorism are trying to assassinate little girls should STFU".
And for once he and I agree.
Sorry, after Operation Mass appeal and the reporting of the third tower falling before it fell, I don't trust the British media at all. It's quite possible the taliban has officially come out publically and clammed responsibility for shooting the girl. If that's true it shows how insane they are and we were for doing business with them. It's just so hard to know who's the official voice for them when Pakistan is filled with US intelligence agents and contractors tied to the French bombing there. You know, the guys Sarkozy was accused of killing because they changed their mind about buying arms from France:
Deletehttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2081679/Sarkozy-named-arms-deal-corruption-scandal-ahead-presidential-elections.html
However, the fact that then West was wining and dining the Taliban for the right to build the oil pipeline through Afghanistan is not a conspiracy theory, it is a historical fact. The conspiracy theory would be the claim US troops have to help Afghans cultivate opium because if the US troops won't do it the Taliban will. That wasn't just a conspiracy theory it was a bold faced lie. The Taliban stopped opium production when they were in power and the allies have returned Afghanistan to being the largest opium producers in the world. That is a historical fact.
BTW do they sell turkey at the grocery stores in Iraq for thanksgiving?
Piers Morgan is hardly "the British media".
DeleteIt's not only possible, it's been public for the last 3 days.
How did I know you would find it impossible to stay on topic and would reflexively bring up pipelines and opium even though they have no connection to what we are talking about.......:rolleyes:
Who is the official voice has absolutely no logical connection to Pakistan being supposedly filled with US Intelligence agent and Frenchmen, but I guess it was a way for you to mention that as well.
How you know it's really them is simple, they announce it on known Jihadi websites.
American Thanksgiving is in November bro, you should know that. And I won't be here for it thank God, gonna head out for a spot of leave soon.
Because opium and pipelines have everything to do with it. Those two frauds need to be addressed. Just like that bombing in Pakistan that implicated the former French president and their secret service. I don’t support the use of drones on civilians or “suspected” terrorists in Pakistan or anywhere else. American thanksgiving? Contractors give up their holidays as well as their citizenship? I was just curious if you can actually buy turkeys in Iraq. I was just making sure it wasn’t a North American thing.
DeleteOpium and pipelines have everything to do with us and our troops. That includes drones killing people from foreign countries just because. Many of our allies feel the same way as whoever shot this innocent young girl. In fact the Taliban used to be our allies until they changed their mind on the oil pipeline just like how Gaddafi changed his mind on the French reactor.
DeleteSince I'm concerned about organized crime in Canada, government agencies bringing tons of cocaine into the US and Canada under Operation Fast and Furious and the Military's support of increased opium production in Afghanistan is totally relevant to the purpose of my blog and web site. That is why I will continue to bring it up. Killing bad guys without a trial is in opposition to the US constitution and what the founding fathers fought for. That's because any corrupt government can they arbitrarily deem someone a bad guy and kill them just like in the gulag. You were the one that sent me the link to the suspicious death of the Saudi prince's ex wife. Saying we're killing the Taliban because we support woman's rights is being dishonest.
"Killing bad guys without a trial is in opposition to the US constitution and what the founding fathers fought for."
DeleteNot when we call them enemy combatants. If we were just assassinating them, different thing. On the battlefield, not so much.
That is where we disagree. You argue to remove or suspend the constitution. I refuse to do that. Like it or not, that road leads to the Gulag.
DeleteWe've had this conversation before. There's no suspension of the Constitution involved. The Constitution does not apply to non-Americans outside the US. International Law may, but they don't have any rights under the US Constitution. The SCOTUS has ruled that. You can not like it, or think that somehow the US Constitution should apply to everyone all around the world all you want but it doesn't change anything.
DeleteNon-American citizens only have rights under the US Constitution WHEN they're actually in the US.
(coughguantanamocoughcough)
And even then those rights are not exactly identical to those of US citizens if they are not permanent residents or are in the country illegally.
"BTW do they sell turkey at the grocery stores in Iraq for thanksgiving?"
ReplyDeleteAll the Iraqi Christians have been terrorized into leaving, or shot dead. Moslems don't do Thanksgiving, one doubts, Agent K...
Aside from the holiday, I was just wondering if they have turkey there.
DeleteYes, WE (Americans) will have turkey here. We always have turkey at Thanksgiving. But turkeys we have year 'round. :D
DeleteI thought you said you were from Canada? I was wondering if the locals could buy turkey in the grocery stores in Iraq not the contractors or the tourists.
DeleteLocals buy local Middle Eastern style stuff. This is Iraq, not one of the Gulf States where people actually have money.
DeleteTurkeys? Nope. These folks eat chicken or lamb. This place is a desert, no beef around here really and certainly no pork, "the preferred meat of crusaders and infidels".
Oh by the way....There aren't any tourists here. You have no idea how funny that was.
DeleteThere are also no grocery stores here in the sense that anyone in North America or Western Europe would think of.
No bad on you, this is actually a really good example of how people in countries that we would think of as part of western civilization have no clue as to what these folks/life here is really like. Everything you think you know from meeting immigrants who live in Canada, watching National Geographic, the news, reading books, etc. or whatever other "source" of information, is virtually worthless compared to and when you get your feet on the ground and spend a few years here. And it's not something that can really be explained, you try to use words to do it and people want to argue with you (from their vast base of personal knowledge and experience) about what they've "heard". LOL.
It's like discussing sex with a virgin.
I was actually kinda sarcastically referring to foreign soldiers in Iraq as tourists. I had a friend in the US Military who said earlier on when there was massive amounts of troops deployed there it was kinda the club med of assignments. No doubt that has drastically changed with a skeleton crew left behind. I have been to Egypt. Loved it. Cairo was a big modern city but Aswan was really cool. They had small shops lining up both sides of a narrow street that looked like something out of an India Jones movie. I lived on falafels in pita bread made in old stone ovens. It was awesome.
DeleteTourists with guns, gotcha ;)
DeleteRegarding the original post:
Taliban's "Radio Mullah" sent jihad hit squad after Pakistani schoolgirl
PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Oct. 12, 2012 (Reuters) — One of the Taliban's most feared commanders, Maulana Fazlullah, carefully briefed two killers from his special hit squad on their next target.
The gunmen weren't going after any army officer, politician or Western diplomat. Their target was a 14-year-old Pakistani schoolgirl who had angered the Taliban by speaking out for "Western"-style girls' education.
Tuesday's shooting of Malala Yousufzai was the culmination of years of campaigning that had pitted the fearless, smiling young girl against one of Pakistan's most ruthless Taliban commanders.
Their story began in 2009, when Fazlullah, known as Radio Mullah for his fiery radio broadcasts, took over Swat Valley, and ordered the closure of girls' schools, including Yousufzai's.
Outraged, the then-11-year-old kept a blog for the BBC under a pen name and later launched a campaign for girls' education. It won her Pakistan's highest civilian honor and death threats from the Taliban.
Yousufzai was not blind to the dangers. In her hometown of Mingora, Fazlullah's Taliban fighters dumped bodies near where her family lived.
"I heard my father talking about another three bodies lying at Green Chowk," she wrote in her diary, referring to a nearby roundabout....
Yousufzai continued speaking out despite the danger. As her fame grew, Fazlullah tried everything he could to silence her. The Taliban published death threats in the newspapers and slipped them under her door. But she ignored them.
The Taliban say that's why they sent assassins, despite a tribal code forbidding the killing of women.
"We had no intentions to kill her but were forced when she would not stop (speaking against us)," said Sirajuddin Ahmad, a spokesman of Swat Taliban now based in Afghanistan's Kunar province.
He said the Taliban held a meeting a few months ago at which they unanimously agreed to kill her. The task was then given to military commanders to carry out....
On Tuesday, the two men stopped the bus she was riding home in. They asked for Yousufzai by name. Although the frightened girls said she wasn't there, the men fired at her and also hit two other girls in the van. One of them remains in critical condition.
Shot in the head and the neck, Yousufzai still lies unconscious in hospital, unaware that world leaders from U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to U.S. President Barack Obama have pledged support. Schoolchildren in Swat prayed for her recovery.
"The American people are shocked by this deplorable shooting of a girl who was targeted because she dared to attend school," a statement from the White House said.
On Wednesday, the singer Madonna dedicated a song to Yousufzai during a L.A. concert. In a gesture that bemused many Pakistanis, she performed a striptease that revealed Yousufzai's first name, Malala, written across her back.
Her would-be killers said they had no idea their attack would propel their victim, already a national hero, into a global icon.
"Actually the media gave it so much importance and now even Ban Ki-moon used dirty language against us," Ahmad said. The international community stayed silent when the Pakistani security forces killed women during a crackdown, he complained.
What? He called you a savage?
Now that they had failed to kill Yousufzai, they would target her father, Ahmad said.
Ziauddin Yousufzai, the headmaster of a girls' school, is on their hit list for speaking against them, his activities to promote peace in the region and for encouraging his daughter.
"We have a clear-cut stance. Anyone who takes side with the government against us will have to die at our hands," Ahmad warned. "You will see. Other important people will soon become victims."
From continued media reports on the matter it does appear that the Pakistan Taliban has claimed responsibility for shooting the young girl which is not only tragic but absolutely insane. However, I still am totally oppose to using drones to murder civilians or suspected terrorists in Pakistan or anywhere else. It gives that corrupt organization whose main order of business is drug trafficking and arms dealing too much power to abuse. It is too easy for them to kill innocent civilians when two nations are not at war and it is too easy for them to label anyone they want as a suspected terrorist and murder them with out a trial. Why they could even label a rival drug dealer as a suspected terrorist and murder them without a word of accountability.
ReplyDeleteWhen we see what they did in Iran in Operation Ajax and in the October Surprise, we see how serious this concern really is. Likewise when we see the allegations of Sarkozy and the French intelligence agencies being involved in a terrorist bombing in Pakistan that killed people for changing their mind on a French arms deal we see another flaming example of how wrong the arbitrary use of drones when two nations are not at war really is. No offense, but we are starting this discussion from opposite sides of the fence. You’re serving in Iraq which I sincerely believe was an illegal invasion based on a premeditated lie.
If it makes you feel any better, I was not in favor of invading Iraq a second time.
ReplyDeleteIf we were going to do so, we should have inflicted much more damage/casualties on the Iraqi Army during the initial period rather than paying off unit commanders to surrender (which we did) and the moment we had Saddam and his 2 sons we should all have been hauling ass for the airport.
Politicians of either party cannot resist the temptation to (try and) "nation build". Clinton did it, Bush did it. It never works. And we never learn. Were it up to me the Defense Department would be renamed the War Department, as it once was. And the only way we'd ever keep the peace anywhere is by going there, killing everyone who needed killing, and then leaving rather than occupying.