All Change Syria

Well Syria has just ended the long phase 1 of the civil war. The rebels have captured Damascus and Bashar al-Assad has taken his family and fled to Moscow and claimed asylum.

Ahmed al-Sharaa - De-facto New Leader Of Syria?

The key to his fall, seems to be his ignoring Turkeys attempts to negotiate a peaceful power swap or arrangement with the rebels. They finally lost patience with his refusal to shed any power, and silently authorised the rebels offensive by not saying no. 

2023 - Another 'Bloody' Year

What can we say ..... 

War in Ukraine And Gaza Conflict.

end of another 'bloody' year ....

Fair Swap?

In the USA and the leftie woke press (like the BBC), the release of the previously largely unknown black lesbian basketball player Brittney Griner, in a prisoner swap, has been greeted as almost like the release of Nelson Mandela .....

Griner For Bout - A Fair Swap?

..... with almost minute by the minute reports of her progress westward.

Educated Decision

There have been a lot of social changes in the Western world over the last one hundred years ...

Votes For Women Started The Changes

  ..... especially from the point of view of women.

Perfidious Pakistan

The Pakistani military and intelligence establishments (Inter Services Intelligence - ISI), are believed by many in the West (and Afghanistan), to have nurtured and helped the Afghani Taliban for the last 30 years .... 

Pakistan And The Taliban - Marching Side By Side?

 ... they have always denied this, but their denials were easy to make and hard for the Western powers to disprove, without exposing intelligence assets to serious risk. Something that they can't afford.

Tactical Retreat Or Total Defeat?

The US led coalition troops have scrambled in recent weeks to get out of Afghanistan, before the arbitrary 11th of September 2021 deadline for their withdrawal, a date set by US President Biden in April 2020 .....

The US Embassy Evacuated At The Fall Of Saigon 1975.

 

.... but also before the inevitable Taliban takeover of Kabul completed its victory ... they have failed the second part, when the Taliban took over on Sunday the 15th ... but it was hardly a surprise was it?

New Barbarism - Old Methods

Skin Flaying, and face flaying has been a punishment or torture since early times ....

The Assyrians Flayed Prisoners Alive

.... Recently, such is the new barbarity of the 21st century, that it seems to once again have become used to torture people, or take mementos of murdered victims.

No Oil On Troubled Waters

I don't care about Qatar's spat with its neighbours about who supports terrorists. They are all doing it. Saudi Arabia, the chief complainant about Qatar, has long supported the Taliban and other hard-line Salafists and Wahabi radical groups.

Hunting With Falcons A Long Tradition ....

 

After all, the 9/11 attackers were Saudis, and so was the planner ..... a fact which has been down played far too often.

Pure Madness

If anything more is needed to confirm how backward the Taliban, IS and others of that ilk really are, its the fact that in 99% of the world polio is eradicated.

Polio Eradication ... Almost

 

Polio is a highly infectious disease, caused by a virus which invades the nervous system, and mainly affects children aged under five, was endemic in many parts of the world as recently as 1995, but a worldwide drive has all but cleared it out, but for the last two countries.

 

Liberté Egalité Fraternité

Liberté Egalité Fraternité

Liberté Egalité Fraternité ..... words meant to promote freedom of conscience, equality and brotherhood for all citizens .... sadly meaningless to some.

Selfish Hostages

There has been an increasing phenomena of westerners heading to war-zones as 'humanitarian' aid workers, where Jihadist's are operating, and knowing full well that they are primary targets for kidnap, ransom or beheading. They put themselves deliberately in harms way, with no regard for the welfare of the others working with them .... their self justifying raison d'être seems to be, that if they don't do it, no Muslims will aid other Muslims. So its up to some Westerner to do it, or perhaps they do it just to gain admiration from family and friends back home ... who knows?  

In any event, these people should be considered a menace to both us and the people they are 'helping', and the question we should be asking is, when European 'humanitarian workers' go to war zones where they are known targets for hostage taking, should we risk lives, or pay huge ransoms, to 'save them'?

Are they not in fact just a little bit mentally unstable, or simply 'attention seekers', going to a place like Syria, Iraq or Afghanistan, knowing that the IS, or Taliban, or Al Queda (e.g. al-Nusra Front), want to capture them, parade them on propaganda video's, and then either get huge ransoms for their lives, or kill them?

If a person willingly puts themselves in harms way, then surely they should willingly accept the consequences of their action. After all, they are actually very selfishly putting their co-aid workers at greater risk of being killed, when the nasty men inevitably come a calling (a fact which apparently bothers them little, or not at all), and often their capture comes with a butchers bill of dead security men, and the other native helpers.

But instead of accepting that they are paying the price for their own stupidity, they come on TV and 'plead for their lives', demanding that 'someone do something', or spouting Islamist propaganda on behalf of their captors.

When and if a ransom is paid (and seemingly only the USA and UK regularly resist doing so ~ although prisoner swaps for soldiers by the US, have sullied that record), by the governments, such as those paid by France and Italy, who have done so on a number of occasions ... the money paid over is used to finance the killings of hundreds, or thousands, of locals. So any good the captives could remotely claim they did by going to the trouble spot, is far outweighed by the blood on their hands, created by their capture and eventual ransoming, or even troops killed in failed rescue attempts.

Are These 'Humanitarians' Or 'Selfish Egoists'?

The latest of these selfish people, were *two Japanese hostages for whom an unprecedented $200m (£130m) was being demanded (Japan has paid $6m (£4m) to the Red Army Faction in the past), and two Italian women, Greta Ramelli, 20, and Vanessa Marzullo, 21, who were 'freed' by the al-Nusra Front after being held captive for 6 months in Syria. What were they doing risking their lives there? Why were they going to the IS captured province of Aleppo? .... Apparently its all covered by the term doing 'humanitarian projects' for the aid group 'Horryaty' (a small medical charity).

Yet as as non-Muslims, and Europeans to boot, they were obviously prime targets, so why go? Needless to say, they were captured and on Jihadi videos, faster than you can shout Allahu Akbar, and putting the pressure on the Italian government.

"We are in big danger and we could be killed," said one of the women, speaking in English. "The government and its militaries are responsible [for] our lives."

What about their responsibility? What about the lives of the local aid workers they risked by going? How many were killed when they were kidnapped? .... its not being reported, but you can bet there was a human blood price.

In the end they were mysteriously freed, but as usual there is a story that a ransom worth up to $15m (£9.9m) was paid via Qatari middlemen. How many bullets bombs and deaths will $15m buy? Well probably only the Syrians will know, but you can bet your live that it will be a lot more than two Italian 'do gooders' ever saved by doing doing 'humanitarian projects'.

The Italian government should at least charge the two women and their families for the full cost of negotiations, ransom and air fare of their release. Maybe that will finally bring home to the do gooders that that there is a price to pay for their reckless behaviours.

*Sadly, both the Japanese hostages were brutally murdered, because the Japanese don't pay ransoms ... unlike the French and Italians who do.

Chai Boys - Afghanistan

The BBC have reported this week on the corruption in the Afghan security forces in Helmand province and elsewhere in Afghanistan ..... in particular they were apparently shocked that young boys are taken by force for the personal pleasure of police commanders .....

 

"Chai Boys" - An Afghan Tradition

.... They are known colloquially as "chai boys," and the practise as 'bacha bazi', literally “boy play". Gosh, Muslim homosexuals everywhere, in a land where its illegal .... who would have thought it after reading the Quran and Hadiths.

Dreaming The Dream

I have discussed thankless jobs before on this blog so you can imagine my pleasure in finding that another of these exceptional roles is being practised at the moment. Its only a 'temporary' position that is only resurrected every couple of decades or so, but I doubt many would say its not both dangerous and thankless.

I give you Mohammad Younas Nawandish, "The Mayor Of Kabul" in Afghanistan. I honestly had never thought that there was anyone foolhardy enough to do this job ..... when the Taliban get back in to the city (around the year 2015 I would guess), it would not be good to have been in that job. Apparently he did not even campaign for the job, because Kabul did not have the resources to hold an election, or because there was no one stupid enough to do the job, so President Karzai simply appointed him.

Mohammad Younas Nawandish - Mayor Of Kabul - has big plans.

No one can say he doesn't have a vision "In three years, we will have Kabul covered with trees, history shows the mountains of Kabul were green 200 years ago. We are trying to repeat history here."....he has ordered his officials to begin planting 30,000 saplings on top of and around Shirdarwaza mountain. The rest of his plans are equally optimistic, and despite accusations of failure and corruption (who isn't both in Afghanistan?), no one else is rushing to take the job from his hands.

You gotta  hail a brave man ...... for as long as he's still here.

Globalising Funerals

There are jobs and there are jobs ...... the bad ones seem to follow Death around as he carries out his gruesome duties. Now I am aware of the Chinese boatman who collects suicides bodies from the Yellow River and either returns them to the families (for a fee), or buries them, so I was much taken by the tale of Abdul Hakim.

Apparently, more by accident than planning he has become the body collector for the Taliban after firefights with the NATO troops (so he's a busy man then), in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar.  For over six years he has collected many many bodies on behalf of the local Taliban, even though they killed his two sons, and also his son-in-law. So far he has tallied the body count as 250 (127 were Taliban, 28 civilians, and the balance government supporters).

A fairly thankless task but I guess someone has to do it ......

What particularly drew my attention though, was the gravestones ..... it was the surprising fact that they were predominately in English.

Afghanistan Cemetery

Maybe its because they are Red Cross cemeteries (ICRC) via the Red Crescent affiliate, but I just assumed that any English would be restricted to an ID number, and that the rest of the details would be in the local language or Arabic.

Globalisation just marches relentlessly on, without us even noticing.

Backward Afghanistan

Our soldiers are fighting in Afghanistan, purportedly to bring some sort of civilisation to this benighted land. 

 

Afghan Women Have Few Rights - But Many Wrongs

An Afghan woman is arrested by the police after being raped, she was charged with 'Adultery' and jailed.

 

Pakistan Supports Taliban To Kill British Troops

As this blog has discussed before, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) is actually working to undermine the democratic Pakistani regime in its fight with the Taliban, by secretly funding and supporting the Afghanistan version of that Islamist organisation, in its attacks on Western soldiers. This support for the Taliban started under General Zia Ul Haq (the General who Islamicized the Pakistanis constitution to its eternal harm), in the 1980's and has been going on ever since.

It's supporting attacks on the US and UK (its nominal allies), in the paranoiac belief that this counters some imagined Indian influence in Afghanistan (they are not actually able to articulate circumstances in which Hindu India has any sway over the Islamic madmen of the Taliban, but hey why take that risk, and anyway killing 'infidel' soldiers via the proxies of the Taliban is OK, because the West is too stupid to do anything about this).

This ISI inspired paranoia over India's 'influence' is so prevalent in Pakistani military and 'Intelligence' circles, that they will not release the required number of troops to actually defeat the Taliban inside Pakistan .... which just further serves the aims of the Islamist's inside and outside Pakistan.

Once again this ISI support has been publicised, but nothing will be done to stop Pakistan (and our so called Middle Eastern allies), from funding the Taliban, in its attacks on Western troops.

Can anyone explain why we support a regime that actively murders our soldiers, or what we ever hope to achieve in Afghanistan, when Muslim states are actively ensuring that we will fail, and that Afghanistan will immediately revert back to a failed despotic state after we leave?

Another Foot In Another Bishops Mouth

Once the Church of England (CoE) gets going, it can't stop sticking its collective foot in its mouth.

Rowan Williams

Last year Rowan Williams suggested that elements of Sharia Law should be incorporated into UK law, and got slated into an apology. Now the Reverand Stephen Venner, the Church of England’s new Bishop to the Forces to the armed forces has had to apologise over comments he made in the Daily Telegraph about how the Taliban could be admired for their "conviction to their faith".

A Potpourri Of Political Moralities

A little follow up blog, on stories that seem to have developed legs .... albeit strange ones!

Recently I mentioned the Asian Labour Peer, Lord Ahmed, in connection to a blog about 'Freedom of Speech' being eroded in the UK, to satisfy radical Muslim 'sensibilities' ..... News this week that the same Lord Ahmed has been jailed for careless driving. So British social policy was set by a man who doesn't obey the laws of this land?

UK Justice Secretary Jack Straw, who has featured in these pages before when Condoleezza Rice couldn't visit parts of his Blackburn constituency because of protests from Muslims, was in the news this week, when Nigerian fraudsters hacked into his constituency computer and issued 'begging e-mails' to everyone on its address book. The e-mails claimed he had lost his wallet on charity work in Africa, and needed $3,500 US dollars to get home.... if only it was true, instead the man charged with administering law in the UK and protecting us, is not even safe from criminal activities at his own office.

Hazel Blears, who was in these pages when she expressed her fear and concern that the British National Party (BNP) is making inroads into the "white working-class voters " in the inner cities (again!). Has now been caught short on the road to Damascus and announced that British values 'must be defended' now .... oddly, thats the line the BNP also take.

And finally, this Blog has reported frequently on the fact that British passport holders of Asian descent are taking 'killing holidays' to Iraq and Afghanistan to attack or support attacks on British Troops.

These people are surely 'traitors'? But in PC Britain, not one politician has spoken out on this "non subject", presumably for fear of being classed a "Racist". Can you imagine if Britons of German descent had popped over to the continent to fight against British troops, and then come home for a well earned 'R&R' in Bradford or Oldham?

Well this week more of the press reported on this story, and I am interested to see how far behind public opinion the UK's cowardly MP's are. The story hit both national and regional newspapers without apparent comment from those in charge of this country.

Oddly, according to the aforesaid Ms Blears new credo, MP's should be defending British "core values", which I have always assumed included not attacking our soldiers. In her role as "Communities Secretary", she said that there were clear boundaries about what was acceptable in British society and that "At times leaders have been reluctant to challenge absolutely unacceptable behaviour - forced marriage, female genital mutilation or homophobia - because they are concerned about upsetting people's cultural sensitivities." ...... err what about being a traitor?

Happy Christmas?

I didn't blog on Christmas Day as I was too busy cooking (for one.... sigh), but I have looked at the news this morning, and sadly the world still spins...... 

Guns And Santa Costume

and the inhumanity of mankind still shines out .....

Charity Worker killed for being "Christian"

Finally, a short acknowledgement of the murder by Muslims of a 'Christian' (in every sense of the word) woman in Afghanistan. She was an aid worker trying to alleviate poverty for disabled people in a Muslim land (Muslims charities often seem to just build more Saudi sponsored Mosques), and her crime was "being a Christian".

What a sad way to end a largely blameless and selfless life, Gayle Williams, 34, was living in a nasty place, doing work that Muslims often won't do, and yet the Taliban felt was the enemy of Islam, and should die ... She asked to be buried in Kabul even though she is aware that the graves will be despoiled when the UK and US (aka NATO) leaves.

Sooner or later, someone in the Western Governments is going to get it, and realise that we are feeding, clothing and arming the mortal enemies of everything we consider 'civilised' ....