Newsweek apparently reported that at Guantanamo Bay, some of the interrogators put copies of the Koran on toilets to humiliate the Muslim detainees. Yeah, that will break their will if torture doesn't - anyways, the reports have set off riots in Afghanistan and unhappiness in Pakistan. Four dead in the Jalalabad riots - how to make friends and influence people indeed.
Three hundred and seventy civilians have been killed in various terrorist attacks in Iraq in the past week. The US Marines are fighting near the Syrian border trying to root out some terrorists, and in this story in the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel (Indiana, isn't it?) the marines seem to be surprised that the insurgents have some brains and that they were prepared for an attack. When exactly was this mission accomplished supposed to be over?
Three hundred and seventy civilians have been killed in various terrorist attacks in Iraq in the past week. The US Marines are fighting near the Syrian border trying to root out some terrorists, and in this story in the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel (Indiana, isn't it?) the marines seem to be surprised that the insurgents have some brains and that they were prepared for an attack. When exactly was this mission accomplished supposed to be over?
Yes, I have to agree that now the troops are in there, Iraq needs to be stabilised unless the international community wants it to be a failed state, and yes, it is good that there is a semi democratic government in place, and 'freedom is marching on'. I agree with all that, sort of kind of, but still disagree with the decisions made in 2002 and early 2003 to start a premeditated war (warheads hitting London in forty five minutes, yeah right), and the decisions made since that have alienated the Iraqi population, and given air to the flame of the insurgency, and freedom does not mean freedom to maybe avoid suicide bombings if you are in the wrong place at the wrong time.
But I guess it is good that the front line of the war on terrorism is so far away from the American mainland, even if the invasion created the circumstances for terrorism to flourish there. And notice how the quagmire word doesn't come up anymore, instead the historical buzzword recently seems to be Vietnamisation - and we all know how successful that policy was, thirtieth anniversary since the fall of Saigon recently and all that...
Hmm, the eighties were not a high point of English soccer, and especially spectator safety. Of course I remember Hillsborough, and I kind of sort of remember Heysel, but today it is twenty years since fifty six people were killed in a fire at Bradford City. This piece, by one of the survivors, who lost his grandfather, father, uncle and brother in the fire, is heartrending. And, even more amazingly, in a tragic way, he was actually also at Hillsborough in 1989 - on the other end of the ground from the carnage, but still, I can hardly begin to imagine what it would have been like. It was bad enough watching on TV.
Eh, not much you can do to even think of swinging the entry around to anything happy happy after reading as much about the Bradford thing as I have just done.
Paul
But I guess it is good that the front line of the war on terrorism is so far away from the American mainland, even if the invasion created the circumstances for terrorism to flourish there. And notice how the quagmire word doesn't come up anymore, instead the historical buzzword recently seems to be Vietnamisation - and we all know how successful that policy was, thirtieth anniversary since the fall of Saigon recently and all that...
Hmm, the eighties were not a high point of English soccer, and especially spectator safety. Of course I remember Hillsborough, and I kind of sort of remember Heysel, but today it is twenty years since fifty six people were killed in a fire at Bradford City. This piece, by one of the survivors, who lost his grandfather, father, uncle and brother in the fire, is heartrending. And, even more amazingly, in a tragic way, he was actually also at Hillsborough in 1989 - on the other end of the ground from the carnage, but still, I can hardly begin to imagine what it would have been like. It was bad enough watching on TV.
Eh, not much you can do to even think of swinging the entry around to anything happy happy after reading as much about the Bradford thing as I have just done.
Paul
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