Steely Dan

.... and his religion is?

They are just pretending to fight for whatever reason. If they really wanted to fight they would have done so already.

Certainly on a world scale this conflict scarcely registers, which supports the theory that it serves to further short term political goals on both sides of the border. This is not to say such brinkmanship is not dangerous, for instance a stray shell may accidentally hit a children's school causing multiple deaths and you quickly have a groundswell of anger where previously there was just frustration.

Surely some mistake!

Is this the same Sri Lanka commended by the human rights council for this piece of self-congratulatory back patting.

http://www.news.lk/home/9860-unhrc-adopts-sri-lankas-resolution

The resolution adopted praised the government of Sri Lanka for its commitment to human rights, while condemning the LTTE. The resolution also allows the government to let aid agencies' have access to camps for the internally displaced "as may be appropriate." This is a significant achievement given that the Swiss-led move sought to obtain free and unhindered access of unnamed 'humanitarian agencies'.

Perhaps the U.N should also be condemning Iran for active interference in Syria.

http://www.debka.com/article/20876/

debkafile's military sources report that these dissidents resorted openly to arms after discovering that Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) officers were masterminding the brutal crackdown against them, lending the Assad regime the experience they had gained in crushing the 2009 anti-regime opposition in Tehran.

So the newspapers propaganda, pulled the Thai Defense ministers pud,

he squealed and cancelled the meeting, now this gives Hun Sen a chance

to look presidential and diplomatic in comparison...

I think the Def Min has just been played....

It certainly looks that way, it's as if Hun Sen has a magic de-coder ring which allows him to anticipate how Thailand will react to every given stimulus. If this ability extends to the military Thailand will end up being the one seeking U.N intervention.

So the tour guide had the gun in order to 'defend tourists'! Is that normal practice for tour guides I wonder? As for the deceased being yakuza, I'd love to know how that conclusion was arrived at, perhaps he wrote it on his arrival/departure card under occupation.

Even if Erdogan hated the appearance of the statue it's symbolism was more important than it's appearance. To personally order it's destruction hardly argues that Erdogan is fit to be the leader of a democracy, especially in light of his threat to expel any Armenians should anyone mention the Armenian genocide to him.

Well that's the least surprised I've been all year. Of course Thailand is running with the ball now that scores are dying every day in several middle eastern Countries so this little spat hardly registers.

P.S For whoever piously lectured us falang about not understanding face and mis-labelling this as an issue of face I can only but quote the following lines from the OT.

"We decided last night to cancel General Prawit (Wongsuwon's) trip to Phnom Penh today after some Cambodia media reported Thailand agreed to ceasefire talks after it admitted defeat and losses," said Colonel Sunsern Kaewkumnerd.

It is a mess though, more so in Europe because cutting all ties with unruly theocracies does not reverse immigration from such places of people potentially hostile to their host Countries.

The Europol Terrorism Situation and Trend Report 2011

By europolice on 19. April 2011

Terrorism continues to pose a high threat to the security of the EU and its citizens and has become more diverse in its methods and impact. That is the conclusion of Europolls annual review of terrorism, presented today in the European Parliament by the agency’s Director, Rob Wainwright.

Europol’s EU Terrorism Situation and Trend Report (TE-SAT) records a total of 249 terrorist attacks in the EU in 2010, in which seven people died and scores of others were injured. Most of these were related to violent separatist, nationalist, or anarchist activities. Three attacks were attributed to Islamist terrorist groups, of which two were aimed at causing mass casualties.

...

http://euro-police.noblogs.org/2011/04/the-europol-terrorism-situation-and-trend-report-2011/

The European prison population stats tell another story. No wonder France are all for sealing their borders.

http://islamineurope.blogspot.com/2008/02/muslim-population-in-european-prisons.html

France - 50%-70%, Spain - 70%

the river of no return, well planned and no election in Thailand.

It has reached the point where it's going deeper and deeper without international UN troops intervention.

Have you seen the latest thread? Dissolution of parliament may be postponed! I think the PAD would be delighted if that happened.

I think I've worked out what the Thai game plan may be. Given that they lost the 1962 temple ruling to Cambodia and may lose the areas immediately surrounding the temple if the border was demarkated by a third party what does Thailand do?

I suspect the answer may be to dispute every kilometer of the disputed border sending a clear signal to Cambodia that even if they prevail with the area surrounding the UNESCO site Thailand will engage in a scorched earth policy if necessary making the entire border a no go zone for tourists. It would then be logistically even more difficult for the UN or any third party to police the whole border whereas a limited mission may have kept the peace in the vicinity of Pra Vihear alone.

Face is such a destructive self-defeating emotion.

OK .. I have to admit it .. I am TIRED.

When I first read the topic I saw ......

"IKEA declares ......"

Maybe the UN should turn the job over to IKEA.

I think IKEA is appropriate as Pakistani scientists seem to have form when it comes to selling self-assembly nuclear capability, and that IS a scary thought.

If 500 prisoners (who should be high security risk) escape it does suggest that either the current Afghan regime is not up to the task of fighting the Taleban, or they don't really have their hearts in it as ridding Afghanistan of 'infidel' involvement is the lesser of two evils for them.

It is a mess though, more so in Europe because cutting all ties with unruly theocracies does not reverse immigration from such places of people potentially hostile to their host Countries.

Hmmm, Austrian Romper-room, as oppose to Keynesian banana-republican ponzi scheme perhaps? To relate this to U.S foreign policy all the billions of dollars of foreign aid and military intervention does need paying for. This is either done through running a GDP surplus or else it's funded on the never never with financial derivatives keeping the lid from flying off the empty pot.

Of course wars and foreign intervention are highly inflationary which is what Keynesians desire in order to keep their Ponzi scheme running. The main cloud on that horizon is the credit worthyness of the U.S as a whole, perhaps this may explain the reluctance to get more involved in Libya, or indeed the planned withdrawal from Iraq. Billions in external aid could be saved by cutting Afghanistan/Pakistan loose and no longer funding Egypt.

I think I can see the punch line though;- By racking up ever increasing debt Obama keeps the economy from collapsing before the next election leaving it to collapse afterwards. This would indeed have the effect of U.S foreign policy being far more insular as the economy goes into cold turkey, meanwhile the geopolitical pot boils over with nothing to keep unstable regimes intact.

Austrian romper-room? Gates of Vienna more like, and the gates have been left wide open in order to suck in more debt slaves to consume.

Or was it " allowed " to happen so that any that are re-captured can justifiably be sent to Guantánamo Bay ?

Wow. Classic.

Why would the U.S. "allow' them to escape?

Obviously because the US government is evil and takes more pleasure in doing the imprisonment itself. Just because they can. (Let's just pretend that you aren't right in that however unpapatable Gitmo may be, it's probably just a wee bit nicer than Afghanistan prisons). Of course they'd release them and then hunt them down. Makes perfect sense.

(Funny thing is, it does make perfect sense to a certain sort of crowd).

I think it was masterminded by a Halal butcher living near Gitmo.

Iran is involved in a proxy war with Israel for years now and in that sense has already attacked Israel.

Not true.

Instead of engaging in your hobby of trying to re-write history try googling 'Iran proxy war'. There are a wealth of links to explore, many of them mainstream. You will find plenty of references for Irans proxy war against Israel and the U.S so take your pick.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article3512014.ece

The Hamas commander, however, confirmed for the first time that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard has been training its men in Tehran for more than two years and is currently honing the skills of 150 fighters

:jap:

The colonial master created this mess called Nigeria.

It's now over to them to try to undo what they created.

Largely true regarding who created the mess. As with Sudan we have an oil rich predominantly Christian south and a Muslim north who are unhappy with the election result - though seeing as the winner won by 10 million clear and outside observers declared this election reasonably fair I think this is just sour grapes.

Splitting the Country along religious grounds may be inevitable in the end with yet another fault line in Henderson's clash of civilisations coming into play.

The west should stay out of this one if possible unless it degenerates into another Sudan.

http://www.debka.com/article/20870/

Bashar Assad's tanks and infantry made their first assaults Sunday, April 24 on Jableh on the Mediterranean and Daraa in the south, after a 48-hour bloodbath by his security forces claiming up to 350 lives failed break the five-week countrywide uprising against his rule. Video-clips show tanks converging on the two towns with soldiers running in their wake while heavy gunfire continued to resound in Hama, al-Nuaimeh near Daraa and Saraqeb, southwest of Aleppo.

Ok Mr Obama, You cut Mubarak loose in favour of the Muslim brotherhood, then you called for the ousting of Gaddafi the secular despot in favour of a coalition including Islamists. Now we have Syria with exactly the same dynamic playing out. Do we get the no fly zone and the calls for Assad's removal or if not how do you avoid being labelled a hypocrite?

If they want to live like cavemen in the mountainous Afghan / Pakistan borger region . Then good. Seal them and cut them off. That is thier corner of the earth so let them do with it what they will.

Exactly, and the same with all other muslim countries who want to live under a law of the middleage. Forget them, and lock the western borders.

Already too late to "lock the western borders." Radicalization of those inside the borders has been taking place for some time now. A glaring example would be the UK 7-7 suicide bombings in which 3 of the four bombers were born in the UK.

Sadly you are 100% correct and the only political party which will go anywhere near the issue is UKIP - Indeed looking at Europe as a whole the gates of Vienna have been stormed with scarcely a shot fired and the UK has drawn about the shortest of short straws with it's colonial links to Pakistan.

I think there is a deficit of hard facts from which to base conclusions on, however I think it's fair to say that had the boot been on the other foot NGO's and human rights organizations would have been whining and condemning Israel based vebatim on uncorroborated Palestian testamony. Perhaps we should try to rise above that level and await more information.

Whatever the internal politics of Tibet were pre-1950, they had their own currency, own flag, own language, own religion and attendant institutions, in other words they were a sovreign nation that much is clear. What is also clear to me having visited the place is the major ecological damage the Chinese have wreaked there, just as they have done in bona fide Chinese provinces. Then we have the concious policy of ethnic dilution in the form of a deliberate policy of encouraging Han Chinese to settle in Tibet to the point where ethnic Tibetans will cease to be a majority in their own land. I won't argue the economics of occupation, save to say that a veil of silence prevails in China over the history of Tibet - Try searching the internet there and see it grind to a halt due to all the monitoring of any external commentary regarding Tibet and nothing will ever justify the annexing of an independant nation just because you are large enough to be immune from external sanction.

Quite an interesting dynamic to the protests. Al Jazeera gives a different view of events reporting that the protests started with the Kurds;

As they had on previous Fridays, the protests began in the northeast, home to the majority of Syria's Kurds, the largest ethnic minority in the country.

And then the protests are joined by residents of the Palestinian Arab encampments.

Another insightful observation;

"All the young men, all the women, all the teenagers. We are a tribal society here."

This may explain why the arab countries are still supporting and backing the Syrian regime. There is a fear of more instability and a descent into uncontrolled tribalism and a fracturing of the national boundaries created by foreign occupiers, particularly the Ottoman Empire followed by the leftover colonial stewardship of the Europeans.

Turkey and Iran have a vested interest in Syria as they have their own Kurdish problem.

Al Jazeera reported; Earlier this month, al-Assad tried to win support among this long-hostile demographic by restoring citizenship to up to 300,000 stateless Kurds.

This isn't going to make Iran or Turkey happy as their goal is to keep the Kurds marginalized and effectively stateless.

The Syrians are probably considering a few options now that will most likely include;

1. Look to cause trouble somewhere else to distract the public opinion.

2. Launch a peace initiative with Israel, sticking it to the Palestinian Arabs and offering payback for the uprisings that have heavily implicated the palestinian Arabs in Syria.

Israel, must be ripped apart by two competing sets of emotions: Delight that the chickens have come home to roost in Syria and Fear of what happens if a hostile but known entity collapses and is replaced by an unknown group that will most likely be influenced by Iran. I anticipate that both Iran and Turkey are going to be frantically considering options as the Kurds have ongoing feuds with the two countries. Both Iran and Turkey will want to see Syria crush any attempt by the Kurds to express themselves.If the Kurds succeed this will create a massive political headache for Iran and Turkey as they will face demands from their own kurdish populations.

The irony of it all. Assad's well established weapon smuggling operations have been turned against him. I've read that Saudi money has facilitated this. Agreed Israel must be unsure of what lies ahead; they may find shiite terrorists are replaced by Sunni terrorists after the smoke clears, however if Israel were to somehow support the Kurds this would be a great way of turning Iran's dirty war back on itself through arming Kurdish insurgents.

There is another consideration here; The proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia may be spilling over into another theatre and this may even lead to outright clashes between the two which would result in the middle east going up like a powder keg based on Sunni and Shia divisions - In which case we can all sit back and watch from the sidelines as happened with the Iran/Iraq war.

Over the past month, more than 100 projectiles were fired from Gaza into Israel, including 12 Grad rockets and dozens of Qassam rockets and mortar shells. Violence escalated last week after an Israeli school bus was attack. In retaliation, IDF strikes in Gaza resulted in the death of five militants.

Again. These news count only rockets fired and lack accuracy.

A total of 19 Palestinians were killed and 66 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza in a flare-up of violence after an anti-tank missile fired by from the coastal strip hit an Israeli school bus on April 7.

http://news.yahoo.co..._20110414130829

So you condone firing rockets at civilians as long as they aren't accurate? That's insane.

Hamas will continue to fire rockets at Israel for so long as Israel receives more heat for retaliating than Hamas does for it's aggression. If external aid to Gaza was contingent on them not attacking Israeli civilians and the U.N refused to debate any Israeli retaliation to said attacks they would stop pretty quickly. But our peace loving liberal left will fight tooth and nail to stop this happening, humanitarians that they are.

This article is a couple of years old, but is still relevant today.

http://www.slate.com/id/2239339/

This is, and always was, a sick relationship, and it is now becoming dangerously diseased. It's not possible to found a working, trusting, fighting alliance on such a basis. Under communism, the factory workers of Eastern Europe had a joke: "We pretend to work, and they pretend to pay us." In this instance, the Pakistanis don't even pretend that their main military thrust is directed against the common foe, but we do continue to pay them. If we only knew it, the true humiliation and indignity is ours, not theirs.

An Alternative solution is to cut off all aid to Pakistan under the proviso that once the attacks and hostile interference in Afghanistan end, aid will resume. At the same time, deny all visas for Pakistanis seeking entry into the west. They can still be free to visit wonderful destinations like Russia and China where the locals will no doubt greet visible minorities and muslims in the warm friendly fashion that the Russians and Chinese are famous for. That should give the Pakistanis some incentive to behave.

And if a terror attack is launched from Pakistani soil with the tacit support of the Pakistani military or intelligence services, then a few Cruise missiles sent to the Presidential Palace and the military HQ in Lahore will provide some incentive to behave.

Exactly. Why send ground troops thousands of miles over mountainous territory to root out the terrorists, who would no doubt use human shields making the number of civilian casualties the same as using drones did? It is also obvious Pakistani society is so riddled with fanatics that a proportion of whatever aid you send then gets channeled to your enemy, so why bother at all?