Small Idea of My Husband's World
I belong to a few email groups, and this letter was sent to the group today. What a kind group leader to remember what city you are in and your profession.
Pakistan fighting wrong enemy
Taliban seize post as police busy beating lawyers
PETER GOODSPEED
As police beat up lawyers outside courthouses in Pakistan yesterday,
Islamist radicals seized three police stations and a military post in
the town of Matta in the picturesque Swat valley, just a few hours'
drive northwest of Islamabad.
The two images capture the conflict raging in Pakistan.
In Swat, the radicals hoisted black and white jihadi flags over the
captured security buildings and vowed to establish a system of shariah
law in the mountainous region frequently described as the "Switzerland
of South Asia."
Rejecting a British-style justice system they see as foreign,
expensive and corrupt, the rebels, who regard themselves as Pakistani
Taliban, are determined to create a thuggish theocratic state.
In urban Pakistan, meanwhile, up to 3,000 of the country's 12,000
lawyers have been jailed since Saturday as President Pervez Musharraf
moves to crush all opposition to his declaration of a national state
of emergency.
The President claimed to put the country under martial law to stem a
surge in terrorism and extremism.
However, the chief targets of the security forces during the past four
days have been Pakistan's Supreme Court, lawyers, opposition
politicians, human rights activists and a muzzled press.
It is perhaps not surprising that Gen. Musharraf's crackdown on
"judicial activism" has been counterbalanced by an expansion of
Taliban influence in the troubled tribal areas.
Instead of curbing Islamic extremism, the state of emergency may aid
an insurgency by fighters allied with al-Qaeda and the Taliban. As
security forces beat and gas pro-democracy and pro-Western dissidents,
they have little energy or time for counterinsurgency operations.
Instead of hunting terrorists, police are focused on arresting lawyers
who object to suspension of the rule of law.
Yet after eight years in power with virtually no restraints,
Pakistan's military has done little to quash discontent in the tribal
areas bordering Afghanistan.
In that time, domestic terrorism has increased. Foreign and homegrown
jihadis flocked to sanctuaries in northwestern Pakistan, where alQaeda
and a resurgent Taliban plot and prepare for a comeback.
The military has suffered a series of humiliating defeats at the hands
of radicals, whose latest victory in Swat came when more than two
dozen police and soldiers offered no resistance.
After being paraded in public and declaring they "did not want to
fight these Muslim brothers who are striving for the enforcement of
Islamic shariah," they were allowed to go home.
It's a pattern that's been repeated since August, when more than 250
government troops surrendered to a smaller group of terrorists in
Waziristan without firing a shot.
There are suggestions the mass surrenders indicate the military's
growing disillusionment with Gen. Musharraf. Reluctant to fight their
fellow countrymen in a war that is portrayed as something ordered by
Washington, some rank-and-file soldiers simply give up.
Senior officers have always been ambivalent about fighting Islamist
radicals. Many still regard the Taliban as former allies and a hedge
against U.S. and Indian influence in Afghanistan.
As a result, the homegrown terrorists who have hidden Osama bin Laden
and the Taliban's top leaders since 2001 are no longer restricted to
the untamed border regions. They have infiltrated more settled areas
and the largest cities.
In Swat, a previously quiet tourist district, fighters respond to the
exhortations of Maulana Fazlullah, a former madrassa student who
rallies supporters through his pirate FM radio station.
His followers, backed by fighters from Uzbekistan, Afghanistan and
Waziristan, have succeeded in driving government authority from the
region. They have closed a half-dozen girls' schools and regularly set
up checkpoints and direct traffic.
They have set fire to shops selling Western music and Indian films and
beaten barbers who shave beards. More recently they blew up one of
Swat's top tourist attractions — a 1,300-year-old carving of a seated
Buddha cut into a 45-metre-high rock face.
"The military-led government will be hard put to show results and
convince the world and the Pakistani people that enforcement of the
emergency has paid dividends and helped make gains against the
militants," an editorial in the Karachi newspaper Dawn predicted
yesterday.
"The world would not be wrong in coming to the conclusion the generals
used the war on terror as a ploy to strengthen their stranglehold over
the country."
Below is the letter he sent the group, and then an article about the city my hubby is in.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Below is an article from yesterday's Canada National Post. This area
of Pakistan, Swat, is where Bluebirdy's husband works as a translator.
She has called it "the most dangerous city on earth." I am
posting this article not for any political discussion but to give you
all some background about what Bluebirdy and her husband are dealing
with. And of course, let's keep Bluebirdy's husband in our prayers that
he stay safe.
C.
of Pakistan, Swat, is where Bluebirdy's husband works as a translator.
She has called it "the most dangerous city on earth." I am
posting this article not for any political discussion but to give you
all some background about what Bluebirdy and her husband are dealing
with. And of course, let's keep Bluebirdy's husband in our prayers that
he stay safe.
C.
Pakistan fighting wrong enemy
Taliban seize post as police busy beating lawyers
PETER GOODSPEED
As police beat up lawyers outside courthouses in Pakistan yesterday,
Islamist radicals seized three police stations and a military post in
the town of Matta in the picturesque Swat valley, just a few hours'
drive northwest of Islamabad.
The two images capture the conflict raging in Pakistan.
In Swat, the radicals hoisted black and white jihadi flags over the
captured security buildings and vowed to establish a system of shariah
law in the mountainous region frequently described as the "Switzerland
of South Asia."
Rejecting a British-style justice system they see as foreign,
expensive and corrupt, the rebels, who regard themselves as Pakistani
Taliban, are determined to create a thuggish theocratic state.
In urban Pakistan, meanwhile, up to 3,000 of the country's 12,000
lawyers have been jailed since Saturday as President Pervez Musharraf
moves to crush all opposition to his declaration of a national state
of emergency.
The President claimed to put the country under martial law to stem a
surge in terrorism and extremism.
However, the chief targets of the security forces during the past four
days have been Pakistan's Supreme Court, lawyers, opposition
politicians, human rights activists and a muzzled press.
It is perhaps not surprising that Gen. Musharraf's crackdown on
"judicial activism" has been counterbalanced by an expansion of
Taliban influence in the troubled tribal areas.
Instead of curbing Islamic extremism, the state of emergency may aid
an insurgency by fighters allied with al-Qaeda and the Taliban. As
security forces beat and gas pro-democracy and pro-Western dissidents,
they have little energy or time for counterinsurgency operations.
Instead of hunting terrorists, police are focused on arresting lawyers
who object to suspension of the rule of law.
Yet after eight years in power with virtually no restraints,
Pakistan's military has done little to quash discontent in the tribal
areas bordering Afghanistan.
In that time, domestic terrorism has increased. Foreign and homegrown
jihadis flocked to sanctuaries in northwestern Pakistan, where alQaeda
and a resurgent Taliban plot and prepare for a comeback.
The military has suffered a series of humiliating defeats at the hands
of radicals, whose latest victory in Swat came when more than two
dozen police and soldiers offered no resistance.
After being paraded in public and declaring they "did not want to
fight these Muslim brothers who are striving for the enforcement of
Islamic shariah," they were allowed to go home.
It's a pattern that's been repeated since August, when more than 250
government troops surrendered to a smaller group of terrorists in
Waziristan without firing a shot.
There are suggestions the mass surrenders indicate the military's
growing disillusionment with Gen. Musharraf. Reluctant to fight their
fellow countrymen in a war that is portrayed as something ordered by
Washington, some rank-and-file soldiers simply give up.
Senior officers have always been ambivalent about fighting Islamist
radicals. Many still regard the Taliban as former allies and a hedge
against U.S. and Indian influence in Afghanistan.
As a result, the homegrown terrorists who have hidden Osama bin Laden
and the Taliban's top leaders since 2001 are no longer restricted to
the untamed border regions. They have infiltrated more settled areas
and the largest cities.
In Swat, a previously quiet tourist district, fighters respond to the
exhortations of Maulana Fazlullah, a former madrassa student who
rallies supporters through his pirate FM radio station.
His followers, backed by fighters from Uzbekistan, Afghanistan and
Waziristan, have succeeded in driving government authority from the
region. They have closed a half-dozen girls' schools and regularly set
up checkpoints and direct traffic.
They have set fire to shops selling Western music and Indian films and
beaten barbers who shave beards. More recently they blew up one of
Swat's top tourist attractions — a 1,300-year-old carving of a seated
Buddha cut into a 45-metre-high rock face.
"The military-led government will be hard put to show results and
convince the world and the Pakistani people that enforcement of the
emergency has paid dividends and helped make gains against the
militants," an editorial in the Karachi newspaper Dawn predicted
yesterday.
"The world would not be wrong in coming to the conclusion the generals
used the war on terror as a ploy to strengthen their stranglehold over
the country."
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