Pakistan is a tribal country that has a lot of guns. You have violent Islamic insurgency in that country that has killed a lot of people and fought the army to a standstill. You have a dictator running the country who has almost been killed several times. Some of those attempts on Musharraf’s life raise Click Here to continue reading.
This from The Canadian Press…
Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated Thursday by an attacker who shot her after a campaign rally and then blew himself up. Her death stoked new chaos across the nuclear-armed nation, an important ally for the West in the war on terrorism.
Al Qaeda has taken credit but some people speculate that they had help from the Army.
Here is a you tube clip…..
I don’t know that this will have much long term impact on Pakistan, but you never know. Some people have more effect on history with their death then with their life.
Don’t be fooled by Russia apparent recent resurgence. In reality, the nation has no where to go but down. Consider how India and China are kicking Russia around. This from Strategy Page….
India and China are both playing rough with their largest arms supplier; Russia. China and India both have price disputes with Russia, and India is also upset that Russia is supplying China with RD93 jet engines for Chinese made fighters that are being sold to Pakistan. Both China and Russia are threatening to halt purchases if Russia does not back off on attempts to raise prices on contracts that have already been agreed to. China is playing a weak position here, because of a Western embargo on arms sales to China (because of China being a sometimes brutal police state and behaving badly by selling weapons to all manner of nasty people). India is in a stronger position, and is buying more and more weapons from Western suppliers. Currently, India is in the market for 126 top-line fighters. India has told Russia that if those RD93 equipped Chinese fighters keep going to Pakistan, Russia can forget about its chances of winning the competition (worth over $6 billion) for the 126 fighters.
How did it get to this?
Read the rest of the article.
Finally, on Oct. 1, a letter arrived. It was from Glendale’s Neighborhood Services administrator.
“Dear Owner,” it began. “The city of Glendale is committed to maintaining a community with quality streetscapes that include the care and well-being of protected indigenous trees.”
The letter informed them they had improperly pruned 13 trees, some of them on city property because they were near the street, and some on their own property. The fine was listed on Page 2, where the Collards were informed they would be charged “two times the value of the damaged tree(s).”
“Total: $347,600.”
“I about passed out,” says Ann.
She’d been worried they might get fined as much as, say, $3,000.
Read the whole story. Hat tip: On the level.
We don’t like Mark Steyn. But the fact that he is facing serious legal trouble in Canada because of something he wrote is just ridicules. It makes you think of what Solzhenitsyn said.
We have been avoiding posting Solzhenisyn’s Harvard Address because everyone has read it. Or at least, anyone who is likely to find it interesting has read it.
But by the same token, we knew that we would have to post it sooner or later. How can you not make one of the most famous essays of the last hundred years an essay of the week?
You’ll remember that Defense Tech and Military.com were on top of the story of worries over the M4’s reliability in the dusty conditions found in Iraq and Afghanistan. Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn insisted the Army conduct side-by-side testing between the M4, SCAR, 416 and XM8 in an “extreme” dust environment.
Well, the tests are complete and it seems the M4 came in dead last against its competitors. And, guess what…the Army’s not budging. The M4 is still the best.
For those who do not keep up on military lingo, M4 is just an shorter version of the M16
One of the things that lead to the down fall of the Roman Empire was the fact that rich Romans no longer wanted to fight their own wars. The Abbasid’s lost power because they came to rely on their Mamluk armies to do their fighting for them. And so it goes throughout history. The separation of a nation’s elites and those who do the nations fighting invariable spells disaster for the elites.
In “On Forgetting the Obvious” Robert D. Kaplan highlights the growing divided between America’s military and the educated elite that rules the country.
This from The Evening Standard….
Although unhappy, her parents tolerated their daughter’s dismissal-of Islam as a “teenage phase”.
But when she opted to get baptised, while studying at Manchester University, her family were incensed and the death threats began.
Her father arrived at her home with 40 men and threatened to kill her for betraying Islam.
“I saw my uncle and around 40 men storming up the street clutching axes, hammers, knives and bits of wood,” she said.
“My dad was shouting through the letter box, “I’m going to kill you”, while the others smashed on the window and beat the door.
“They were shouting, ‘We’re going to kill you’ and ‘Traitor’.
“It was terrifying. I was convinced I was going to either die, but suddenly after about ten minutes the noise stopped and the men suddenly went away.”
Since then Hannah, who gives talks to churches on Islam, has been on the run from her family, often being forced to flee her home with only a few minutes’ notice.
After receiving the latest text threat from her brother, in June, she finally went to the police.
No one has been arrested or charged in connection with the death threats, but officers have put her on an “at risk” register and have given her a panic number to call if she fears for her own safety.
I imagine that she is so much safer now that she has a panic number to call. I thought that police services all over the world had an emergecy number if people feared for their safety. What good does it do her to give her another number to call?
Have you ever wondered what the end of civilization looks like? Have you ever wondered what causes civilization to collapse? Read this essay and all your questions will be answered. Read the Police Inspector’s blog if you think that this essay is describing an isolated problem. In fact, his latest post will put a more personal touch on the essay.