Kurds and Whey
Things are heating up between Turkey and Iraq. At times, it seems that Iraq will give in to Turkey’s demands, preventing a Turkish invasion. At other times, it seems that Turkey is intentionally making things difficult for Iraq.
How about this for a twist: Jalal Talabani, President of Iraq, is a Kurd.
Iraq bans the PKK
ANTE UN ATAQUE TURCO
Before a Turkish attack
“Maliki califica al PKK de terrorista y ordena el cierre de sus oficinas en Irak”
El primer ministro iraquí, Nuri al Maliki, ha calificado este martes de grupo terrorista al Partido de los Trabajadores del Kurdistán (PKK) y ha ordenado el cierre de sus oficinas en Irak. El jefe del Gobierno del país árabe se expresó con esta contundencia después de entrevistarse con el ministro de Exteriores de Turquía en Bagdad. Hace una semana que el Ejecutivo de Erdogan obtuvo luz verde del Parlamento para ordenar las incursiones necesarias en el Kurdistán iraquí por un periodo de un año.
Maliki classifies the PKK as “terrorist” and orders the closure of its offices in Iraq
The Iraqi prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, has classified this Tuesday the Party of Workers of Kurdistan (PKK) as a terrorist group and has ordered the closure of its offices in Iraq. The head of government of the Arab state expressed himself with such bluntness after meeting in Baghdad with the Foreign Minister of Turkey. It has been a week since the government of Erdoğan obtained the green light from the Parliament to order necessary incursions against Iraqi Kurdistan for a period of one year.
Related headlines say:
Erdogan reivindica en Londres el derecho a atacar el Kurdistán iraquí
Erdoğan claims in London the right to attack Iraqi Kurdistan
El PKK declara un alto el fuego unilateral bajo la condición de no ser atacado por Ankara
The PKK declares a unilateral ceasefire under the condition of not being attacked by Ankara (assumedly, Turkey)
Turquía advierte a Irak que no debe proteger a los terroristas kurdos
Turkey warns Iraq that it must not protect the Kurdish terrorists
From Libertad Digital.
A delicious critique of Gore by Libertad Digital
Poco después Al Gore, el laureado apóstol del Apocalipsis, volvió a sembrar el pánico por 200.000 euros la sesión.
Soon thereafter Al Gore, the [Nobel] Laureate Apostle of the Apocalypse, returned to spread the panic for 200,000 Euros per session.
(As of 1:04 UTC on October 23, 2007, €200,000 (two hundred thousand Euros) is equal to about $283,781 (two hundred eighty-three thousand seven hundred and eighty-one US dollars.)
What’s a little Turkish invasion?
When Turkey invades northern Iraq (namely, the Kurdish areas) to go after the PKK, the Left will say nary a word in protest. Because in their eyes it is okay for Turkey to invade other countries to deal with terrorists but not okay for The United States to do the same.
That said, I hope the Turks are successful in eradicating the scourge of the PKK once and for all, because once the PKK finishes harrassing Turkey, it will turn on its fellow Kurds and on us.
Let Turkey do our future dirty work for us now.
Benazir is in: let the games begin!
As people may have been aware, Benazir Bhutto recently returned to Pakistan after years in self-imposed exile.
People who may have been following events in Pakistan may be asking themselves: considering that Bhutto has not been whisked away by Pakistani governmental forces nor has been imprisoned nor threatened to be imprisoned, why was Nawaz Sharif, who also eventlt returned from exile, expelled from the country. I’m glad you asked (even though you didn’t).
Nawaz Sharif was exiled by the Pakistani government and so may not return until that sentence has been served. Nawaz’s exile was imposed on him; he had no choice. On the other hand, Benazir went on her own accord and so could come back whenever she wanted. Technically. She left because the government threatened to imprison her and charge her with various charges. She would most likely be found guilty, and then have to serve a sentence. (If she is lucky: her father, who was guilty of much less, was hanged.) Successive governments either renewed that threat or did not rescind it, making her return dangerous for her. But Benazir and President General Pervaiz Musharraf made a deal by which he (and, thus, the rest of the government) would let her return and not put her up for trial. Unfair, yes, but there are reasons behind this madness. Read the rest of this entry »
Another one bites the dust
In recent elections, the government of Poland was ousted. The opposition, characterized as pro-business and pro-EU, said it would pull out of Iraq.
Now, if I were the Iraqi parliament, I would pass legislation condemning the Polish government and mandating that no deals may be made between Iraq and Poland as punishment for Poland for abandoning Iraq, for not seeing the project through, for cutting and running. But, of course, that was just be spiteful; and it will never happen.
I am very disappointed in Poland.
I wonder if our anti-war rhetoricians here realize that with the fewer countries contributing, the more The United States will have to contribute.
I wonder if we are the only ones with the integrity and dependability to see this through. Abandoning such a vital cause is so…European. With this sort of allies, let Europe go to the immigrants. I don’t care. We don’t need such un-dependable friends.
fa innaa naHnu-l-maghribu-l-Haqeeqee
The two-state solution
Much is said about the two-state solution to the drama in the Middle East.
What we may have missed is that a two-state solution is already in effect.
One state is in the West Bank and the other is in the Gaza Strip.
Now the Palestinians have two states instead of just the one proposed!
The “thookdaan” or spittoon
In old households, an interesting implement that existed was a spittoon (called a “thookdaan”). These were important because a common and traditional edible thing, “paan”, was and is often made with tobacco (called “tambaakoo”). Depending on the type, it would have to be spit out after one has chewed it and absorbed its high-inducing properties. To protect the walls and floors, one would spit into the aforementioned spittoon. Most of these were made of metal. (Obviously, the servants would empty and clean it. Almost everyone has servants in Pakistan.)
The need for spittoons can be easily seen by the conditions of the public streets and sidewalks in Pakistan: they are all marred by red stains, residue of people spitting the remains of chewed-up tobacco.
Because paan is not going away anytime soon — although the traditions and rituals around it are no longer as prevalent, eating it still is ubiquitous — perhaps there should be more widespread use and presence of spittoons. America no longer needs spittoons: might as well export them to Pakistan and India, eh?
Random language point: “daan” means “place or container”. A “thookdaan” is a “daan” (“container”) for “thook” (spit, here referring to tobacco-stained saliva). A “paandaan” is a container for the ingredients and acoutrements for making and eating paan.
De “Libertad Digital”
Part of my new job involves translating to and from Spanish. So, I had been looking for something online — a magazine or newspaper — in Spanish which I could use to brush up on my Spanish and practice my reading and comprehension skills. Most of what is online disappointed me: the usual Leftist or anti-American garbage.
But I did find something interesting and unique: Libertad Digital. It an online-only “publication”, free of charge. It is in Spanish and is based in Spain. What makes this unique is that it is libertarian and conservative, much like the rising wing in the Republican Party in The United States. They are also pro-American. Quite refreshing indeed.
Si sabes español y quieres leer algo interesante en español sobre la Red, por favor vaya allá. Su dirección es: http://www.libertaddigital.com/ Ese publicación tiene opiniónistas de todo el mundo incluyendo los EEUU. (Tiene, por ejemplo, una traducción español de artículos de varios escritores americanos.) Hablaré sobre algunos artículos en los siguientes días. Este periódico tiene información y perspectivas que no he leído o visto aquí en los EEUU.
Barack Obama-Cheney
So Obama may be related to the Cheneys.
This is either very good news (“Oh! He’s a WASP!”) or very bad news (“I’m not going to vote for a guy related to Darth Cheney!”).
None of which changes the fact that he has betrayed and lied to the State of Illinois.
Something different: Dan Brown and neo-Gnosticism
I had a coworker who had accepted Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code as gospel truth. This astonishes me to no end. But there you have it: some people are just that impressionable and stupid.
The heresies and lies of Dan Brown, especially as expressed in his magnum opus, The Da Vinci Code, have been refuted and exposed millennia ago. That is: thousands of years ago! But, again and again, they rise up, grip the minds and imaginations and follies of men, and lead them astray down dark paths of lies and untruths.
I find it especially frustrating because when these heresies and lies rise up, as they are periodically wont to do, they are considered to be new, to be rediscovered truths, to be an expose of established authorities (and, particularly, of the demonic or diabolical or evil foundations thereof). I believe I can tell how early Church leaders must have felt.
Anyone who has studied religion, and particularly Christianity, would recognize the recycled Gnostic claptrap that Brown parades around as fact. Whether today or a few centuries after the ascension of our Lord, no one with any serious background in Christianity takes the Gnostics seriously. They simply mixed in pre-Christian mysticism and myths with Christianity and added to it a dash of “exposing” the “real” origins and purposes of the authorities. But the whole Gnostic edifice was built on heresies and lies and even deliberate misinformation.
And it also astonishes me how, in the same line of thought and tendencies, people will grasp onto spurious texts, holding them to be more true than the commonly-accepted texts of the Gospel. They claim we support our texts because they support our agendas and purposes and desires and vain imaginings and plots, all the while evidently oblivious to the fact that this is precisely why they accept, support, or believe in the spurious texts they uphold. Indeed, we accept the traditional (and authoritative) canon of the Gospel because it has been taught to us as the truth, because we received it as authoritative and as true by those to whom the preservation of authority and truth has been entrusted by God Himself. I, for one, am not going to jump onto the bandwagon of some Sacred Feminine-embracing crackpot neo-Gnostic heretic.
What amuses me (or, rather, would amuse me were it not tragic at the same time) is that these heretics accuse the established authorities of what they do themselves. They accuse the established authorities of claiming a monopoly on truth, which is precisely what Gnosticism is about: they have the knowledge (“gnosis”) of the real truth, knowledge of which will lead one to salvation, ignorance of which will doom one to loss. They are, in this respect, no better than those whom they oppose. They also accuse the established authorities of hiding or suppressing the truth, while at the same time Gnostics quite gleefully hide the truth from the ignorant masses, taking delight in their superiority and in their status as the saved elite. They look down on the “sheeple”.
As I mentioned, the Gnostic heresies, with what contemporary modifications, reappear periodically. The only reason this resurgence has been as widespread as it has been has been because of groundwork the New Age movement established for the reception of such ideas. (Many ideas, practices, and teachings of the New Age movement(s) are themselves part of regularly recurring elements in the fringe of established religion.) The other reason has to do with the highly entertaining, gripping, and convincing setting in which one can find them through Dan Brown’s work.
He must be so proud of himself, a firebrand prophet against the millennia-old Gospel of Jesus Christ, when all he is, is a talented hack. I bet even serious Gnostics may be a little annoyed how no one listened to them but now, all of a sudden, are listening to the words of some fiction-writer.
Which reminds me of another fiction-writer (specifically, science fiction) who, on a bet or dare, created a psychiatric quasi-religious treatment method which is taken quite seriously by many.
To every thing there is a season
Is it not interesting that our leftist opponents believe that we need to work with our allies, to not offend them, to be coöperative and conciliatory, and then they try to push through a resolution (non-binding at that: so what’s the use?) that will do nothing but offend and alienate a key ally?
There is no doubt whatsoever that the Armenians suffered a genocide at the hand of Ottoman Turks. And it is important that we recognize this fact. But, I submit to you, that there is a time and place for everything. Now is not the time; Congress is not the place.
We should not deny the genocide, but at the same time we need to realize the damage our actions can cause us. Turkey is–whether we like it or not–a key ally. We need Turkey. Especially with Iran beginning to rise as a potential military threat, we will sorely need Turkey to smash Iran. And trust me, people’s pride can be such an element that they would be willing to suffer immense destruction rather than submit to one whom they believe has offended them.
It is almost like we want to punish an ally for helping us with the Iraq War. They may not have helped us during the liberation, but they help us now.
Lack of posting: why
One of the reasons I have not posted lately is because every other day I compose long, multi-part posts. And then I delete them. Either they start rambling or I feel the issue they discuss is not an issue I necessarily want to discuss.
Muslihoon 