On war and soldiers

First off, I can write here with some authority,as I am combat veteran. I served with the Marines in Vietnam during the 1960's. I saw my share and then some. iIshall live with those scars,physical and mental, until I die. Recently I have been watching some movies on the Iraq war. Movies like Jarhead, Redacted, In the Valley of Elah etc. I am amazed at the portrayal of the troops. Once again, like in my war, troops are being demonized. I know from experience how us Nam vets were viewed after such movies as Full Metal Jacket and Platoon. We were the baby killers, the village burners, the monsters. Now the same thing is being done to the valiant men fighting in Iraq.
Both Iraq and Vietnam were great mistakes for America. Both did not need to be fought. Men died needlessly. "War is hell" General William Tecumseh Sherman said, and he is right. Somewhere around the 16th century, we decided to fight war like gentlemen, and developed things like the Geneva Convention(which Bush's government decided didn't apply to the enemy combatants of this war) So lets kill people by rules. Rules which are going to be impossible to follow in the fog of battle. Rules which make no sense to troops fighting an invisible enemy. Colateral damage(killing civilians) is going to happen even in these days of supposedly smart bombs. Friendly fire(one of the greatest oxymorons of all time) is going to happen. Men, no matter how well trained are going to crack. Atrocities happen, both sides, all the time. Take a soldier in Iraq, a National Guardsman, plucked from his family, on his second tour, family suffering, whose tour is extended for 6 months more. How is he going to react? How is a man whose best buddy has been turned into ground round before his eyes by IED going to react next time he sees an Iraqi? How is an Iraqi(or Vietnamese) insurgent going to react after his family has been killed accidentally in the chaos of battle? This is war, those who haven't been will never understand, therefore they have no right to judge. War has produced the massive deaths in trenches in WW I, due to faultly thinking of some general staff. War has produced the Holocaust, which no one did anything to stop. But do not place the weight on the shoulders of the grunt. It is not his to bear. It should be borne by the Hilters, the bin Ladens, the Bushes and Cheneys, the Johnsons and Nixons and the bean counters and liars who persuaded these men they are dying for a righteous cause. Fundamentalist preachers invoke Jesus, Mullahs supplicate Allah. God turns his back away and cries, the tears fall as the soft spring rain drenching my mountains today.
The soldier (we are talking either side here) will bear his scars and sufferings all his life. It will disrupt his marriages, close down his affections, torture his soul, cause him to escape into violence, drugs and alcohol. Due him a service, do not increas his burden anymore, for when the war is over, he will mostly be forgotten and ignored, misunderstood and shunned, relagated to his own private hell which he will either deal with or not. The stories of war, and they must be told, should focus on those who should bear that guilt. God and History will be their final judges.

musings

If you want to change the world or others begin by learning to change yourself.


Never give unsolicited advice, give help and assistance instead. In other words nagging about a leaky roof doesn't stop the leak, going up on the roof and sealing it does.

Jasmine in Tunis

It was a warm July night in 1973. I was sitting at a sidewalk cafe enjoying a Turkish coffee in the Medina Djedid( modern French built part of the city) of Tunis,on Rue habib Boureguiba, the main drag. The scent of jasmine filled the air as a soft breeze wafted off the Mediterranian. Boys had assembled small jasmine blooms, with wire, into bouquets and were selling them to passersby for a pittance. Two men stood out. One, a wealthy Tunisian, dressed in a gold trimmed gandoura(tunisian long robe) of a beautiful burgundy shade, smoked a hookah and enjoyed his coffee. Behind his ear ,below his blood red fez,was a jasmine bouquet, worn like most men wore theirs. From time to time, he removed the flowers and inhaled the heady perfume with a look of exquiste sensual satisfaction. On the curb as another man, beggar, dressed in ragged cast off western clothes. He obviously couldn't afford a seat at the trendy cafe, yet behind his ear too, was a jasmine blossom. He too, removed it occasionally to savor the fragrence. The look on his face was equally satisfying. Perhaps the rich traditionally dressed man bought it for him, but I think, rather, that it was such an inexpensive yet important pleasure, that he too, was drawn to this wonderful custom. Perhaps he had sacrificed his meal, but to him it was worth it.

Nasrudin time!

GRATITUDE
One day, when Nasrudin was working on his farm, a thorn penetrated his foot.
“Dear God”, he said “thank you so much, what a blessing I didn't wear my new shoes.”

This is one of my favorites. What ever happens, I try always to look for the gift in what God has granted me. yes, there is ALWAYS a gift.

Wisdom of the sages

"Being fond of the truth, I am an admirer of antiquity"

Confucius

"The side that knows when to fight and when not will take victory. There are roadways no to be traveled, armies not to be attacked,walled cities not to be assaulted"

Sun Tzu

Prediction

Two items in todays news worthy of note and connection. First is that Bibi Netanyahu has been asked to form a government in Israel. Netanyahu is the darling of Israeli right wing crowd and advocates strong measures, rather than compromise,in dealing with outside threats. Secondly, an independent think tank issued a report that Iran has now accumulated sufficient fissonable material to manufacture at least one nuclear device. Expect Netanyahu to authorize a massive airstrike to obliterate Iran's nuclear capabilities.

Anarchy

Among Wikipedia's numerous definitions of anarchy are the following two:

• "Absence of government; a state of lawlessness due to the absence or inefficiency of the supreme power; political disorder."
• "A social state in which there is no governing person or group of persons, but each individual has absolute liberty (without the implication of disorder)."

The first can be symbolized by the current condition of such failed states like Somalia and Sierra Leone. The second is a Utopian definition, whose concept is worshiped by ultra liberals,Neo-punks and fringe intellectuals. The first is what we are approaching in many third world nations. As the nation state dissolves in those areas where it has been forced by colonial aligned borders,as environmental and population issues increase, the future for a large part of the world is some form of anarchy. Powers will be aligned with tribal loyalties,religions,cartels,and mafias all scrambling to exploit whatever they can out of a deteriorting base.
To paraphrase Thomas Homer-Dixon's analogy, successful states will be isolated, like riding in a stretch limo through Skid Row. Robert D.Kaplan's description, though mind boggling, is essentailly true. I quote from "The Coming Anarchy":
"Outside the stretch limo would be a rundown,crowded planet of skinhead Cossacks and juju warriors, influenced by the worst refuse of Western pop culture and ancient tribal hatreds,battling over scraps of overused earth in guerilla conflicts that ripple across continents and intersect in no discernible pattern__ meaning there's no easy-to-define threat."
This Mad Max world, popularized by Hollywood, was always thought to be the aftermath of nuclear conflagration. It seems we have achieved it without dropping the nuke.

Muse

From Robert D. Kaplan "The Coming Anarchy" random House 2001
"it is time to understand"the environment" for what it is:the national security of the 21st century."

Osama bin Jalapeno?

i love hot peppers! ALL KINDS! HOT FOOD! Thai,Indian,Mexican,TexMex,Jamaican, etc. So I was surfing thru chile paste recipes and since lately this blog has been more concerned with current events than anything else,i thought this would fit. Its a year and half old but still................ current! Thank you BBC.

Burning chilli sparks terror fear

The dish uses extra-hot chillies which are deliberately burnt

A pot of burning chilli sparked fears of a biological terror attack in central London.

Firefighters wearing protective breathing apparatus were called to D'Arblay Street, Soho, after reports of noxious smoke filling the air.

Police closed off three roads and evacuated homes following the alert.

Specialist crews broke down the door to the Thai Cottage restaurant at 1900 BST on Monday where they discovered the source - a 9lb pot of chillies.

Nam Prik Pao recipe Heat garlic and shallots in oil and remove to a bowl Place red chillies in the pan with some oil and fry until they go dark in colour. Then set aside Mix shrimp paste with the rest of the ingredients and pound in a mortar and pestle Return the mixture to the heat until it becomes a thick dark coloured paste

The restaurant had been preparing Nam Prik Pao, a red-hot Thai dip which uses extra-hot chillies which are deliberately burnt.

But the smell prompted several members of the public to call the emergency services.

Alpaslan Duven, a Turkish journalist based in the restaurant's building, said: "I was sitting in the office when me and my chief start coughing and I said this was something really dodgy.

"I looked out of the window and saw people rushing and then we heard the sirens."

Supranee Yodmuang, the restaurant supervisor, was above the restaurant when she received a phone call from her boss.

"It was about 4pm when I saw the police who were closing off the roads but I didn't know why.

"My boss rang me and said I had to get out of the building because of a chemical attack."

She added: "Because we're Thai, we're used to the smell of chillies."

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: "The street was closed off for three hours while we were trying to discover the source of the odour."

Towards a New World Order(not pretty)

There have been new world orders since the dawn of history. Established empires(Roman,Chinese,Islamic.Ottoman and Hitler's 1000 year Reich) are all new world orders. As wars end, sometimes nations come together to create NWO's(my apologies to the band). The Congress of Vienna after Napolean's demise, The League of Nations after WW I and of course the U.N. All created,at least partially to divide the spoils. Bush 41 hinted at a new order. Of course I am not talking about the lunatic fringe conspiracy theories involving Freemasons,Elders of Zion, Communists etc, I am talking about something tha'ts happening now. These theories are not my own. I have been recently been reading works of Robert D. Kaplan and kind of agree with his analyses. The nation state is no longer the bulwark of the world, they are disolving, and rapidly. World population continues to increase exponentially, especially in developing nations. Food and water are beginning to grow scarce for a lot of the world. Desertification,soil depletion and pollution have driven millions to move into cardboard and tin slums near large cities. The wealthy are beginning to insulate. Private communities with fences and security,private water and electric generation facilities, bubbles,Kaplan calls them. Keep out the poor, the hungry, the thirsty. Its happening in America,private communties,a rise in homelessness that will increase as the economy fails. Supplyside, trickle down Reaganomics is a lie, it makes the rich richer, nothing trickles down but poverty. Expect to see nation states become enclaves of protected civilization and the rest will become kind of an Indian country. Power will be(and already is) in the hands of corporations,various mafias and narcoterrorists and gangs. Multination corporations will become like nation states, so your safe, lets say, if you live in Bechtelland or Exxonistan. Population will begin to come under control after the flood (global warming and massive ice melt) The flood will kill millions of poor in places Calcutta,Bombay,New York and New Orleans. Shanghai and coastal China will suffer,island nations may cease to exist and the privliged will continue the life of plenty behind their walls of modern weaponry. But the barbarians will come, they always do and it is they who will create a new world order to last another 50 or 100 years.

Muse

"She's a ball whats got some bouncin' to do"

Peanut or no peanut

Recently airlines have experienced protests because they serve peanuts. Many people are allergic to peanuts. The recent peanut/salmonella event is also cause. One airline's website made the following comment:

"We'll create a buffer zone of three rows in front of and three rows behind your seat,We'll also advise cabin service to board additional nonpeanut snacks, which will allow our flight attendants to serve these snack items to everyone within this area."

Hmmm smoking section,alcoholic beverage area,peanut section,I'll take the no farting section,please

The Failed State

When we think of failed states, Somalia comes to mind to everyone. But it is one of many and the trend seems to be increasing. many are in Africa,much of Africa are made of failed or failing states. America has recently created two, Afghanistan and Iraq. In the future we will see more and more failed states emerge. there are many causes. The first is the European concept of the nation state, evolved in late 19th and 20th centuries. Colonial powers divided their spheres of influence and drew lines on maps that no relevance to the political realities of the area. Iraq is but one example,but exemplifies the concept. Iraq was created out of the defeated Ottoman empire after WWI. The remnants of the empire's provinces were distributed to the French and British. Iraq was created from 3 separate areas, Kurdistan, the Sunni dominated center and Shia south. Many of todays failed or borderline states are of this type. Another factor is post colonialism. Colonial states, in many cases, retained economic control of the valuable resources and exploited them mercilessly. West Africa is a great example of this. Sierra Leone is a failed state, yet rich in gold,diamonds and bauxite, the profits of which never reach the citizens. The rural areas of these failed states have large and ever growing population,soil in these areas is depleted and refugees from the country flock to the shantytowns surrounding the old colonial capitals. Since the end of the cold war, cheap arms abound. The picture of a third world warrior with his AK 47 is a common one. Talented people have left this area for America and elsewhere and governments of small talent hold little or no control over the surrounding nation(if in fact their even is a government) Loyalties begin to align with age old divisions, tribal, religious,and ethnic. Survival becomes parmount and the perfered occupation is of the brigand,bandit and pirate. As populations grow,as the environment becomes less stable, as food becomes scarce this way of life predominates. Even in civilized countries like America, we have, in out inner cities, gangs and factions that elude police control. I have included a map of failed and failing states,it is interesting to see that America does not come out on top. Canada, Australia and the Scandinavian nation ar listed as most stable. As our economy collapses both here and abroad, I see the failed state as becoming the poster child of the 21st century.

Politics of division

Well, they are at it again. Divisive politics and, yes, brought to you by(Trumpets please) The Republican party! Who'd of thought. Old sore loser McCain saying Obama's off to a bad start, Lindsey Graham agreeing. Obama wasn't bi partisan! Why, because the republicans wouldn't vote to save the economy. They gave Bush43 700 billion to use as bonuses for wall street big shots, but they'll begrudge Obama the same amount. They are taking their orders from Rush Limbaugh, who be glad to se Obama fail. What of America, do we have to fail to make you sore losers happy. Republicans love to squawk abot patriotism, especialyl if that means invading another nation, but when it comes own to the wire, we find their patriotism is in their wallets. The power elite of this country,CEO's,Wall st execs,big oil do not want anything else but business as usual. They are robbing America blind. We are in a crisis, the survival of the nation is at stake and these idiots just want Obama to fail. It's really amazing they haven't just mounted a miliatry coup. They won't let go. Now its the census, thats the real reason why Sen.Gregg withdrew his name for Sec. Commerce. He couldn't deal with Obama's plan to skew the census in the favor of the democrats. You know, that means counting minorities not white people twice. Redistricting,gerrymandering, etc means loss of seats and that means loss of power. Brain dead middle America appartently isn't hurting enough to figure out what going on.
The old politics of hate,misguided patriotism and fundamentalist religion still has alot of non thinking Americans in its grasp. If Obama succeeds, despite attemts to politically asassinate him(wouldn't be surprised if they might try another method of this tactic), anyway if he survives the republican party is a goner. We thought they'd move center, but instead its the politics of Rove and Palin. Even poor pathetic John McCain, the 'maverick", is marching in step with Rove and Limbaugh.

Say it ain't true.

I was just going over some of the points in the newly agreed upon stimulus bill, adjusted to fit the personalities of democrats and republicans alike. Oh, they pared it down a bit, lets cut out the waste. Great idea! So amongst other things, they pared down the work tax credit from $500 to $400, doled out $15 at a time. Wow $15 is going to really help. Now if you were a Wall street fat cat or bank CEO it would be a bit more, probably $15 billion in bonuses. Now, there was a provision to help retired people,$300, apparently a one time check. We need that, I'm retired and it would help a little,oh wait they pared that down too.. to $250. This is getting to be class warfare here. Make under $75,000 and your screwed. Apparently people who make under $75,000 or $250,000 don't matter much. Again lets take care of the fat cats. Some day this whole thing is gonna blow up! What we need these days is Robin Hood.

Why camels don't have wings

"Daily", said Mullah Nasrudin to his wife, "I become more amazed at the manner in which nature is organized; and the way in which everything upon this
earth is in some way planned for the benefit of mankind."

She asked for an example. "Well, for instance, you note that camels have no wings, by the mercy of Providence."

"How does that help us?"

"Don't you see? If they had wings they might roost on housetops, and destroy the roofs, to say nothing of the noise and the nuisance of their chewing
and spitting their cud."

I heard this story differently.

Nasrudin had just purchased a brand new turban and was out to show it off with one of his students. Suddenly a flock of birds flew overhead, depositing on Nasrudin's new turban a large splatter of bird shit.

"Thanks be to God!" exclaimed the Mullah,"God is so great"

"Mullah"said his student,"How can you thank God when your brand new turban is now ruined"

"I thanks God" said Nasrudin,"because in his infinite wisdon, he did not give camels wings"

Bernie Madoff versus B.P. american justice

We all know the Bernie Madoff story, his Ponzi scheme, and subsequent arrest. Madoff is now suffering a humilating house arrest in his 7 million dollar apartment. While senior citizens, who invested their life savings with him, are eating cat food tuna in Florida. B.P. was a student at very prestigious military university, on scholarship, due to his football talent. I knew his family, so I'm not making this up. In the summer of his freshman year,B.P. made a grave mistake in judgement and was involved in a local armed robbery of a small restaurant. There was much local outcry, as the restaurant had just been bought by one of its waitresses,was a popular local eatery and B.P.'s accomplice was African American. B.P. recieved an 18 year sentence for this crime. His appeal, based on the serverity of the sentence(he pleaded nolo contendre) was lost in legal and bureaucratic shuffling. The sentence exceeded all legal guidelines and was based,probably, on emotions current at the time.I do not condone B.P.'s crime, although, aside from this one mistake, he was pretty good kid. However his life is ruined. A 19 year old kid, at the time of his arrest, he'll be almost 40 when he gets out of prison. He will probably be hardened, angry and antisocial. A life wasted.
Meanwhile Madoff is trying to hide his assests under the bed. Spiriting out jewelry and money. He's 70, by the time he comes to trial, he'll be unable to attend, due to health reasons.( the old Mafia don ploy) If he goes to jail, it will be to some country club federal resort, and not for long. His fortune will remain in tact and those seniors in Florida will continue to enjoy Nine Lives tuna casserole.
We have two seperate justice systems in America, one for the poor and one for the rich. If you can afford a great legal mind(very expensive!) you either get off, or get a slap on the hand. If your poor or a minority, you get slapped into some hellhole, where only the very strong survive(and the others become their wives) I have no doubt that no one will try to bugger Madoff if and when he goes to jail.
As this nations goes to hell, because of the greed of the wealthy, be it Wall street traders,bankers, or members of government, its time to reexamine the American justice system. The Bernie Madoff's of this nation need to pay for their crimes under an eqaul justice system. Madoff, to me, is no different than Jeffery Dahlmer. A monster. But not a monster who will suffer for his monstrousities.

Hamid Karzai's outfit

What's with Karzai's getup anyway. How quaint,one is tempted to say. Very ethnic, Afghani chic!
Not! It appears to be an attempt at symbolizing unity. Although he is from the same Pashtun clan that has provided Afghanistan's kings, he must want to appear as an everyman. OK,the cloak is chapan, its Uzbek,Turkic people. Its usually not worn as a cape and is usually belted. The hat is a Karakul(means black fur, in Turkic also) and is worn by a lots of Tajiks( an Indo Iranian people) Afghanis wear turbans or Pakols( the beret like hat of the mujaheddin), not karakuls. Oh yeah, a western suit,like hey guys,I'm hip, I like hip hop and pizza too! And the shirt, well looks like a cut down thobe or dishdasha, like they wear in Saudi and the Emirates. Western, Islamic, and culturally aware all in one. Maybe it works in Kabul. Maybe everyone will start wearing these things,just like Iraqi's all sported Saddam style moustaches.
But lets say I showed up to big event wearing a bishops mitre, a cowboy shirt, kilt and gothic motorcycle boots. Would that work? Is this what Afghani's see? Some do.

And now a word from our sponsor,

Nasrudin!

Nasrudin is with his cronies drinking coffee:

They are discussing death, "When you are in your casket and friends and family are mourning upon you, what would you like to hear them say about you?"

The first crony says, "I would like to hear them say that I was a great doctor of my time, and a great family man."

The second says, " I would like to hear that I was a wonderful husband and school teacher which made a huge difference in our children of tomorrow."

Nasrudin says, " I would like to hear them say... LOOK!! HE'S MOVING!!!"

" I can see Russia from my mosque!"

Well, Uzbekistan anyway. What ever happened to Mullah Omar,infamous one eyed head of the Taliban? We never hear about him anymore. Yet he is just as important as Osama bin Laden. Two peas in a pod.They compliment each others existence. So who is Amir Mullah Muhammed Omar. Nothing more then the Sarah Palin of Afghanistan. He comes from a rural,tribal(read redneck) area of southern Afghanistan. He was a local Mullah( teacher,dispenser of Islamic law). Not well educated, even in Islamic religious tradition, he has no world view and longs for a time 1400 years ago when the prophet Muhammad walked the earth. He claims to be imposing the Shariat.(Islamic law) But his interpertation of it is rigid and highly influence by something called the Pashtunwali. The Pastunwali is the ancient code of ethics for the Pashtun Afghan tribesmen. It is more than medieval, it harkens back to the old codes of the steppe nomads, lke the Yasa of Genghiz Khan.The Taliban(the name comes the Arabic talib, student) is composed of many young Pashtuns,products of war, refugee camps and madresses(Islamic schools). These young men know nothing of th history and tradiitons of their land. These old tribal traditions and old crafts have been lost in the 20 years of civil war. Brainwashed in fundamentalist medresses,having no talent or occupation,they became his army and his government. They knew little of women, and succumbed to Omar's fear that sex and adultery pollute Islamic ( a hell of alot more uptight than a Massachusetts puritan.) He makes the Ayatollah Khomeini look like a liberal, hippy,pinko fag. His brand of Islam hails from the ultraconservative Wahabi teaching of Saudi Arabia. Only his are a hell of alot more conservative. Women are shut in the house with no education. War widows now have no way to earn a living. Most of Afghanistan's modern schools had women teachers,he closed them all.
His brand of Islam coupled with bin Laden's world view make up the philosphy of both the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Without Osama, Mullah Omar would have been one in a hundred minor Afghani resistance leaders. Without Omar,bin Laden would not have been able to have a base(Al Qaeda means the base in Arabic) to build his empire.
He is equal to, and just as dangerous as Osama,maybe more. He has declared himself to be Amir al Muminin, the commander of the faithful. Maybe a meanless title to us, but to Islam it is the very title Muhammad's successors used as Caliph(Khalifa, successor, leader of the world of Islam, the Ummah) He claims ultimate leadership of the whole Islamic community. Together, both him and bin Laden have trained thousands of soldiers and exported them to Islamic nations to stir unrest and lead a revoltution to build islamic states through out Dar al Islam( the world of Islam) Osama bin Laden accepts and endoreses this position and bows spiritually to Mullah as his leader, his Caliph. Fundamentalist Islam is not mainstream Islam, not intellectual thinking Islam. It is the rhetoric of demi gods who appeal to the poor and oppressed Arabs and other Islamic nationaliiies in refugee camps and war torn nations. They appeal to the Afghan, whose country was destoryed .They appeal to thousands of Afghan refugees in camps. They appeal to refugee Palestinians and Muslims locked in nationalistic wars, like Chechnya,Bosnia,Sinkiang(Chinese Turkestan), Algerians, Indonesians, Somalis and a host more. They envision once again driving the Jews and Crusaders out. Its not everyones Islam for sure, but it adherents are growing.
This is why Mullah Omar should share billing with Osama bin Laden as "most wanted"

Running down the road,

going to a doctors appointment, I engaged in one of my favorite fantasies. I win the lottery( of course, I don't even play the lottery, but recently
I entered publishers clearing house stuff) OK truck and TV cameras roll, I win a couple of million. Wow! build me a new house , , go to Kashgar, to India, buy a cherry red '40 Ford coupe all restored.Go back to Okinawa, maybe even Vietnam and put a few loose ghosts to rest. No booze, no drugs, I,m clean and wouldnt go there for a couple of mill. World cruise.
Anyway it was a simple visit,new doctor now that insurance is running out. Local clinic, a quicky.WRONG a very nice doctor and thorough exam( even though I brought records) He discovers more skin cancer. OK been there, done that..ole pussy kind o cancer.. basal cell. No sweat.Not TODAY, today its melanoma, and a biospsy is taken. this shit can kill you.
So running down the road, going back home, its a whole math thing. My chances of this biopsy being positive, of being relatively advanced, being untreatable and killing me in six months are far better than winning a lottery.
So that puts my new found lottery riches in different perspective. I am back to being mortal, old and not in the best of health now. A couplamill. Hmm Jenny needs a new house built. a brand new storage barn with kennels, her bills paid and some kind of retirement set up for her. So thats maybe half my winnings. OK leave some money to some needy friends( my ex fiancee Judith, comes to mind, shes struggled all her life.) My ex wife, A Charity endowment of some kind, Native American schools come to mind. Oh shit, I only have $500 left! Oh well.
Later, much later I wonder why a country clinic took the time to check when my fancy and expensive HMO never follows up on by basal cell carcinoma by checking me. Why this country clinic took the biopsy today not made another appointent for next week and the HMO does.I won't get on a healthcare thing, but it does make ya wonder.

Nasrudin

From time to time, I will be posting some stories about Mulla Nasrudin. No,he is not some evil Taliban, stoning adultresses. He probably existed in the 12th or 13th century in an area of Persia called Khorasan. He was a Sufi teacher and local mulla. His zen like parables spread throughout Persia,Central Asia and Turkey. Today a book has been written in the west using Nasrudin's philosophy to guide corporate management. The thesis is so oxymoronic that one thinks the Mulla just might approve. Anyway here is our first Nasrudin story.

Thankful not to loose myself

One day there was news in every corner of the town about the Mullah's donkey which he lost it. When his neighbours heard the news they got sad and decided to go to mullah's house and help him to find his donkey. So they came to mullah's house and they saw that mullah is very happy and very thankful from god! They find it very interesting and asked mullah: " Mullah aren't you sad about loses of your donkey?" Mullah laughed and said I am happier because god helped me that I was not riding it other wise I was lost as well.

Selu's World

Selu is a female German Shepherd/Siberian husky mix. I got her from a lady up in the hills who had 40-50 or so similar dogs. There were at least three litters present scampering about the piles of empty Pepsi cans and trailer insulation that littered the property.(One full Ford F150 bed full of Pespi cans. Of course the F-150 had no engine or tires) Anyway it took us an hour and a half to capture one little scared 7 week old girl, later to be Selu. All her dogs were afraid of people, even this lady could not cox them out. They were half wild,like barn cats. Selu has always been wary of people. She is impossible to catch outside, thinks long and hard before crossing the threshold to the house. Yet at times,her times, she like to cuddle. She's a receiver not a giver. You might get one tongue swipe if youre lucky.Her eyes never set to long anywhere. The roam, probe,seek,question all about her. The guard rarely relaxes. You never catch her sleeping, she's awake by the time you get there,her ears never sleep. Yet nose to nose,eyeball to eyeball, she is majestic creature.One gold eye, one blue, darting incessently. Yet the face is calm, breathing controlled. There's a very faint and subtle sub tone, I could rip your face off in 2 seconds. You can feel it. There is a noblity in this dog, a wild creature, who gives you limited access. There's a loyality too,she knows I am a benefactor. She accepts me, maybe even loves me in dog emotions, but trust, no never, not completely. A wild animal has to be ever vigilant or it will be eaten, or starve to death. Selu will neither starve or be eaten.

Some interesting facts

1. In the late 90's the government of Iran supported warlords in the Herat area and the Northern Alliance in an attempt to oust the Taliban. Iran was concerned with the Taliban's treatment of the ethnic Hazara people, who were Shia Muslims.
2. Iran was extremely concerned with drugs being exported by the Taliban and Al Qaeda, the monies of which they used to finance terror. Iran actually built an electric fence in the Herat area. As of 2000 it is thought Iran had at least 1.5 million addicts.
3.After 9/11 Iran gave the Karzai government support, prefering it to the Taliban.
4. Pakistan supported the Taliban from the outset.
5. Pakistan was only one of 3 nations to recognize the Taliban government.
6. Pakistan's main concern has always been India and has always supported an Afghanistan that was anti India. A fundamentalist regime in Kabul would support Pakistani attempts to de stabilize Kashmir.
7. The Northwest Provinces( where Taliban and Al Qaeda remants have regrouped) has always been considered to be part of Aghanistan until the British partition of India and the drawing of the Durrand line as the Afghani-Pakistani border.
Given these facts,America's policy in the region seems to based on ignorance rather than any understanding of local issues.

National borders

Borders are a European invention, a line drawn in the sand. Mostly they don't give much substance to linguistic and national reason. Nomads abhor them, as to them, borders don't exist. Who can say exactly where the border between Mali and Algeria is, deep in the Sahara? Perhaps only the Taureg knows, deriving a satisfaction when moving his flock from one nation to another with no one around for hundreds of square miles.
European drawn borders are the source or fuel or many current conflicts. A great example is Iraq, a creation of those wonderful fuckersup of everything, the Brits. After WW I ended, the Ottoman empire was broken up. The League of Nations created the concept of mandates, whereby "enlightened" European nations would kind of guide a backward primitive nation towards statehood. A rather ethnocentric excercise, considering the high state of medieval Islamic culture.(Major cities, like Baghdad had running water at a time when the English were throwing their feces out the window in the street). Anyway, they had to give Lebanon and Syria to the French, so they created Iraq out of thin air. The name existed, two Iraqs, actually, Iraq Ajami which included western Iran, and Iraq Arabi, where the Arabic language was dominant. Although Baghdad served for years as the capital of the Abbasid caliphate, its culture was very much influence by Persia. So when the Brits drew lines in the sand after 1918, they included in their Iraq, 3 very different areas,each having the qualifications for statehood. A Shia,and Iranian inluenced south(the main Shia holy places are in the south of Iraq. A Sunni central area and desert in the west and a Kurdish north. (Kurds are not Semites, but Indo Iranian people) A recipe for disaster for sure. As King they appointed Faisal ibn Hussein ibn Ali al Hashimi, one of the sons of the Sharif of Mecca.( The another son, Abdullah became King of another British creation, TransJordan) Then of course Palestine, which Arabs always considered part of Syria. They promised it to the The Sharif o Mecca and his sons, and also, in the Balfour Declaration, to Chaim Weitzman and his Zionists. In the end, they kept it for themselves, greatly pissing off both Arabs and Jews and starting the ball rolling for the current Middle Eastern crisis.
In the 19th century, in order to secure India from Russian expansion in Central Asia, the Brits began to mess with the inner affairs of Afghanistan. They fought three wars up there against the tribesmen of Afghanistan and, as always, started drawing lines. They took away the Khyber pass and Peshawar from the Afghan kingdom and made it part of India, they peeled off the Muslim section of Kashmir from Afghan control, again to be part of India. Much of what today is Pakistan is made up of territories taken from the Afghanis. So, the Northwest Frontier provinces(NWFP) that now provide sanctuary for bin Laden and Al Qaida, are technically considered part of Afghanistan and inhabited by Pashtun tribes. Pashtuns are majority tribe of Afghanistan and have always provided the rulers. No wonder Osama feels at home up in those hills. The Islamabad government of Pakistan has little or no control up there, and even though they take American monies and arms, have little desire to antagonize these tribes. So its another border dispute we have gotten drawn into, that affords no real solution. All our presence does up there is piss off the inhabitants and, judging from the experience of the British(3 Afghan wars) and the Soviets( the 70's) its a losing propostion. When will we ever learn.

God has awesome tits!

I have a good friend who I exchange e mails with on a regular basis. She is a very spiritual lady. So I like Green Tara,
a Tibetan emanation of Quan Yin, a bodhisattva of infinite compassion. Nice lady, I keep her statue at my holy place and i got her T shirt. Since god is infinite, we have to make up ways to visual him/her/it, cause its beyond our understanding. So our gods and avatars, usually some kind of human form, sometimes animal. Tara come from India and besides her many other holy qualities she has great tits.. nekkid too! and green and thats good cause i spent 6 years with Mother Green herself, The United States Marines( que band.. Marine hymn).
So having read the Tibetan book of the dead a little i have a vague idea of the journey your light must make, The ultimate union is at the end, super blasted into the very essence of the godhead. but most people dont get that far and suffer low rebirth(read rat, cockroach,slug) So temptations appear on your path. Once I was talking with some friends about that and said ,Man if a roomful of Gothic Schoolgirls, uniform and all, fishnets cleavage,Demonia boots,appears i am toast. If you go in that room you are reborn as a pubic louse on the asshole of a Bangkok back alley whore. So Tara appears, topless, to spirit me away. Ain't god great!

Mistakes in Aghanistan

I see the President wants to increase troop strength and aid to Hamid Karzai's government and train more troops. It ain't gonna work. Didn't work in Vietnam, didn't work in Iraq and won't work in Afghanistan. In forming the new Afghan government we bypassed leaders of the resistance against the Soviets, and heroes to the Afghani people and selected an expatriate, who never shed a drop of blood or sweat or his nation's independence. Not a winner of hearts and minds. The Afghans see us no diferent than the Soviets, we are occupiers. Generals, incluing Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan,the early Persian empire, the brits and the Russians all lost in Afghanistan. What makes us any different. Afghanistan is a tribal nation that thinks in parts, not the whole. Its Pashtuns,Tajiks.Uzbeks,Hazara,Beluchis and many more that matter. Islam matters and the Mullahs have issued Fatwa for war on America. Afghanistan has been usually rules by Pashtuns,and this time won't be diferent. They'll fight us in the mountains and the deserts and like with the Russians, they will prevail. Afterwards,unity of purpose lost, the tribes and actions will descen on each other like locusts until a strongman takes charge. Such is Afghanistan.

Winning the war on terror in Afghanistan

President Obama has made the war in Afghanistan a priority, but unless he makes some major tactical and political changes he will lose. Here's why.
1. Osama bin Laden is Robin Hood. That is how much of Dar ul Islam ( The Islamic world) sees him. They do not hate the American way of life, democracy, hollywood etc enough to kill over it. They perceive America as a threat to Islam in general. Bush used to throw out platitudes about the "vast number of moderate Muslims who do not support terrorism". Muslims wonder about things we don't see. Why is an Iraqi,Iranian or Libyan nuclear bomb not permissible but an Israeli one is? Why does Georgia get US support, but not Chechnya,Why does Serbia and Croatia matter but not Bosnia. Because of religion, they think. We do not support Islamic nations. As long as we march hand in hand with Israel, sanction their version of terrorism, and supply them with the best arms, there will be terror. An unnamed Palestinian once said," Do you think we'd use suicide bombers if we had an air force?"
2. The Middle eastern regimes that theUSA supports are dictatorships, out of date monarchies and "self determination"in Iraq and Afghanistan means a non Islamic goverment.
3. The USA fumbled the beginning of the Afghan war by waiting one month before striking. Osama and his cronies had moved most their crap to the mountains by September 12th. In the late 80's and early 90's the Afghan's fought a long and victorious war against the Soviets. It produced many heros,names sung in poems, repeated in prayers. Hamid Karzai and his advisors were not there! They are expatriates who did not fight for the cause. Although Karzai is Pashtun, most of his goverment is Tajik. This means something in Afghanistan and it why Karzai is viewed as the mayor of Kabul, nothing more. The Afghans see American troops in their country as they saw Russian troops 20 years ago. We cannot win with Karzai.
4. Pakistan's maim concern is India, therefore it wants an Islamic state in Aghanistan that hates India. Number one priority here,folks, they'll take our money and weapons and put them in Kashmir. The people in the northern hills are mostly Pashtuns, the tribe that has usually dominates Afghanistan. Oh, they give us lip service,the Pakistani army, but when they move, they move very slow and only after a phone call.
Iraq, Aghanistan, just about anywhere, really doesnt want to be America. We cant,t get that thru our heads. We inherited it from the Brits, I guess. In Vietnam, I heard,"Inside every Vietnamese, there is an American trying to get out" WRONG! Some people, believe it or not don't want McDonalds, The Super Bowl, Lindsay Lohan or Walmart. Thats probably the first thing we need to learn.

To "win" the war on terror we need to rethink our policies towards the Islamic world. Really it makes sense, we need oil and they have it, so be nice. An equitable peace must be found for the Israeli-Palestinian problem, besides continued Israeli aggression. Hamas, Fatah, Hizbollah, aren't going to go away. They need to be listened to and dealt with.
And answer one question for me, please. Why is it that in the 80's an 90's they were Afghan freeom fighters and now they are terrorists. We usually define terrorist organizations as non state players. Whether we like their politics or not, most of these organizations support some kind of nationalist agenda. SO our definition is, if we like your politics you arefreedom fighters, if not youre a terrorist. Is anybody in America aware of social programs of Hizbollah?
I do not support terrorism, I was shocked by 9/11 and knew people who died there. I believe in a homeland for the Jewish people. I just don,t agree with the way the whole Middle east thing is being managed. Whoever advised President Obama that more troops will win in Afghanistan needs to read history. The key to Middle east peace is going to require some major diplomatic work to get the Israelis and Arabs on the same page.
In the end, it really is, for us. about the oil.

Musing

When it comes to the story of our lives, nothing is true.