US Supporting Sharia? Yaaay.
Ok. I've been VERY neglectful of this blog. Here is start at a new start...
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Following the Bush administration's willful ignorance of the real ideological nature of Islam, sharia and jihad, comes the active accommodation and perhaps collaboration of B. Hussein Obama, as exemplified by the following from the Telegraph UK:
US privately backs Pakistan's 'Sharia law for peace' deal with Taliban
American officials have privately backed Pakistan's "Sharia law for peace" deal with Taliban militants in the Swat Valley despite publicly criticising it as a "negative development".
By Dean Nelson, Javed Siddiq in Islamabad and Emal Khan in Peshawar
Last Updated: 7:25PM GMT 17 Feb 2009
The deal, under which Sharia law will be introduced in the Malakhand and Kohistan districts of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province if Taliban militants end their armed campaign in the Swat Valley, has been met with alarm by Nato chiefs and British and American officials.
Nato fears the deal would create a new "safe haven" for extremists, said a spokesman on Tuesday night, while a statement from Britain's High Commission in Islamabad said: "Previous peace deals have not provided a comprehensive and long-term solution to Swat's problems. We need to be confident that they will end violence, not create space for further violence."
President Barack Obama's special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan voiced the greatest concern about the strength of Taliban militants in Swat as he ended his first visit to the region since taking up his post.
"I talked to people from Swat and they were, frankly, quite terrified. Swat has really deeply affected the people of Pakistan, not just in Peshawar but in Lahore and Islamabad," he said, while a Defence Department official described the deal as a "negative development".
On Tuesday night however, US officials in Islamabad privately backed the deal as an attempt to drive a wedge between Swat's Taliban, which is focused on its demand for Sharia law, and the al-Qaeda-linked Taliban led by Baitullah Mehsud, the notorious commander who controls much of North and South Waziristan and other tribal areas along the Afghan border.
Or, translated, "we know it is bad for the people who live there and probably a bad idea in the long term, but we're going to pay meaningless lip service to our concerns, while actually treating this as a cynical tactical divide-and-conquer game - and trusting to luck that it will somehow work."
Because of course trusting Pakistan's view of things worked out SO well for us in Afghanistan in the 80's and 90s.
[Don't know what I mean by the above? The cliff notes version is that our backing of the Mujahedeen during the Soviet occupation was filtered via Pakistan, and though it accomplished the then-worthwhile goal of humiliating and defeating the Soviets, Pakistan diverted a lot of resources away from the most effective commanders, such as the brilliant and relatively moderate Ahmad Shah Massoud, and towards the most religiously fanatical, including later the Taliban.]
***
Following the Bush administration's willful ignorance of the real ideological nature of Islam, sharia and jihad, comes the active accommodation and perhaps collaboration of B. Hussein Obama, as exemplified by the following from the Telegraph UK:
US privately backs Pakistan's 'Sharia law for peace' deal with Taliban
American officials have privately backed Pakistan's "Sharia law for peace" deal with Taliban militants in the Swat Valley despite publicly criticising it as a "negative development".
By Dean Nelson, Javed Siddiq in Islamabad and Emal Khan in Peshawar
Last Updated: 7:25PM GMT 17 Feb 2009
The deal, under which Sharia law will be introduced in the Malakhand and Kohistan districts of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province if Taliban militants end their armed campaign in the Swat Valley, has been met with alarm by Nato chiefs and British and American officials.
Nato fears the deal would create a new "safe haven" for extremists, said a spokesman on Tuesday night, while a statement from Britain's High Commission in Islamabad said: "Previous peace deals have not provided a comprehensive and long-term solution to Swat's problems. We need to be confident that they will end violence, not create space for further violence."
President Barack Obama's special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan voiced the greatest concern about the strength of Taliban militants in Swat as he ended his first visit to the region since taking up his post.
"I talked to people from Swat and they were, frankly, quite terrified. Swat has really deeply affected the people of Pakistan, not just in Peshawar but in Lahore and Islamabad," he said, while a Defence Department official described the deal as a "negative development".
On Tuesday night however, US officials in Islamabad privately backed the deal as an attempt to drive a wedge between Swat's Taliban, which is focused on its demand for Sharia law, and the al-Qaeda-linked Taliban led by Baitullah Mehsud, the notorious commander who controls much of North and South Waziristan and other tribal areas along the Afghan border.
Or, translated, "we know it is bad for the people who live there and probably a bad idea in the long term, but we're going to pay meaningless lip service to our concerns, while actually treating this as a cynical tactical divide-and-conquer game - and trusting to luck that it will somehow work."
Because of course trusting Pakistan's view of things worked out SO well for us in Afghanistan in the 80's and 90s.
[Don't know what I mean by the above? The cliff notes version is that our backing of the Mujahedeen during the Soviet occupation was filtered via Pakistan, and though it accomplished the then-worthwhile goal of humiliating and defeating the Soviets, Pakistan diverted a lot of resources away from the most effective commanders, such as the brilliant and relatively moderate Ahmad Shah Massoud, and towards the most religiously fanatical, including later the Taliban.]