12 Jun 09
see http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31256414/displaymode/1247/?beginSlide=1&beginChapter=1&beginTab=1
Look at the man's expression. His great uncle was 19 in 1945. That relative suffered post traumatic stress syndrome because off what he saw in the same place as this image.
I think it says a lot about the man in this picture that gives me reason to hope for the future. I don't agree with everything he has done or wants to do. But I do not doubt his character.
I felt similarly about George Herbert Walker Bush, who was my boss' boss' boss at the time. I may not have agreed with all his ideas, but I never doubted his fundamental decency.
14 Jun 09
Originally posted by robbie carrobieI believe I predicted that most Pakistanis would come to reject the Taliban and support the country's military establishment against them.
yes my friend, Pakistan as you are probably aware, is now in a state of a kind of civil war :'(
This has been part of a pattern of rural tribesmen vs. more cosmopolitan urban folks for many years.
14 Jun 09
Originally posted by Scriabinits really interesting Scriabin, for as far as i am aware, the Taliban itself, was a product of Pakistani ideology and a government sponsored militia, of which both the U.S and Pakistani governments were instrumental in supporting during the soviet occupation, which rather ironically provided not only the impetus for 'Jihad', but the manpower as well as thousands flocked over the border to escape the carnage. I myself have witnessed the recruitment drives in Azad Kashmir, with the Mujahadeen which is a separate issue, but lets be frank, the Kashmiris themselves loath both the Pakistanis and the Indians for they simply want self autonomy. It seems in the case of the Taliban that the baby was born, and when the soviets withdrew, the Pakistanis were left holding the baby and were looking for child maintenance payments from the U.S. but by that time the baby had grown up and now in a kind of Oedipus scenario, is destined to try to kill its father!
I believe I predicted that most Pakistanis would come to reject the Taliban and support the country's military establishment against them.
This has been part of a pattern of rural tribesmen vs. more cosmopolitan urban folks for many years.
what i would like to learn from you my friend, is how you knew this? is there a precedent elsewhere that enabled you to draw comparisons, a pattern or some other indication?