The Red Harvest
Pakistan Uncut is following operations against the rebellious Red Mosque in Pakistan. He has background, links to news items, pictures, maps and video. From the sound of it the Berkeley student movement, even in its salad days, had nothing on this.
The shootout erupted after six months of tension over the activities of the hardline Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, which has kidnapped several Chinese and Pakistani civilians as part of a freelance anti-vice campaign.
Students carrying Kalashnikovs and wearing gas masks took up positions behind sandbags and dirt bunkers chanting “Jihad! Jihad! (Holy war)”, as police in riot vans fired volleys of tear gas.
At least one of the blogs I've looked at is cheering the assault on, basically taking the attitude that "it's about time". But, as you might expect, the sympathizers of the militants in the Red Mosque are feeding the fight. Adniki (hat tip: The Noisy Room) reports that reinforcements are flooding in from all over.
The 'crack' III Brigade of the Pakistan Army's 10th corps is likely to be mobilised against jihadists reported to have entered Islamabad in droves and to have joined forces with militant Islamic students from the Lal Masjid, according to well placed sources.
The mosque and the two madrassas (religious schools) attached to it - one for men, the other for women - have been at the centre of a months-long standoff with the Pakistani authorities. Armed students at the mosque and religious schools linked to it have defied the authorities for months in a campaign for Islamic Sharia law.
Like Iraq, the affair is unlikely to end until the the opponent can send no more reinforcements. With Pakistan's Northwest Frontier crawling with Taliban and al-Qaeda and the fact that this confrontation was long in coming, I would be truly surprised if the Red Mosque weren't reinforced or if diversionary attacks were not launched against the Pakistani government. A massive source of enemy reinforcements is very near at hand, and I wonder, how "crack" the Pakistani forces really are. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
posted by wretchardthecat at 7/03/2007 05:16:00 PM
9 Comments:
A target-rich environment for an outside party?
I'm lying on my back now
the stars look all too near
flowers on the razor wire
I know you're here
we are few
and far between
I was thinking about her skin
love is a many splintered thing
don't be afraid now
just walk on in
(flowers on the razor wire)
(walk on in)
her eyes were cobalt red
her voice was cobalt blue
I see no purple light
crashing out of you
so just walk on in
(flowers on the razor wire)
(walk on in)
her lovers queued up in the hallway
I heard them scratching at the door
I tried to tell her
about Marx and Engels, God and Angels
I don't really know what for
but she looked goo din ribbons
so just walk on in
she looked good in ribbons
so just walk on in
tie a red red red red red red ribbon
love is a many splintered thing
tie a red red red red ribbon
don't be afraid
just walk on in
just walk on in
(incoming...)
(incoming...)
just walk on in
just walk on in
flowers on the razor wire
just walk on in...
"Ribbons" - Vision Thing - Sisters of Mercy
What's the fallout if indeed, Musharaff falls as I think likely, and Osama and the Taliban gain control of Pakistan's nukes (also highly likely)?
What happens then?
I assume the pressure to hit Pakistan first before they hit us will be overwhelming.
What happens is that for a fleeting second dedicated liberals experience a moment of doubt that Global Warming truly constitutes the major crisis facing the world today. There will be just the slightest hesitation, the merest quaver in the voices of the truly certain as the crepitating sound of a mental world falling in on itself builds up. Then there will be regrets they did not devote their considerable mental energies to examining the problem, instead of leaving the matter to frail faculties of GWB. Then finally we will have the beginnings of a scream; indistinguishable from a low keening at first, then building up in intensity to a crescendo. Perhaps at the end we will have Gordon Brown muttering to himself "where did I say wrong?"
If Pakistan bites the nuclear dust, it'll be coming from the direction of India. Courtesy of the brand new groovy-cool technology we just gave them.
If it's timed right, India could take out Pakistan at the same time Israel takes out Iran, leaving the U.S. to give Russia and China an extremely cold beady-eyed stare daring them to just try it.
Nahncee,
Would to God that chaos unleashed by a jihadist takeover in Pakistan would end that surgically clean. If the Wahaabis take over in Pakistan I'd be keeping my powder dry if I was a coalition troop in Afghanistan.
Well, one can only hope that there is a plan to end their nuclear program in a Flash(c) if there is a danger that the weapons can get into the hands of the jihadi. We'd have to do it, because the internal consequences to India would be horrendous.
On the other hand a demonstration of willingness to use some of the real power of this Arsenal of Democracy might be instructive.
Two potential outcomes: Things get real quiet and stay that way for a long time or the world comes to an end.
Wretchard,
The Brave and Dedicated Liberals will first express dismay. Then they will deplore it. Then they will blame Rove and draw cartoon figures of him being Frog Marched to the slam.
Then some jihadi will detonate a bomb in Madrid or Paris or London or New York or Tel Aviv or Toronto…
Then the Brave and Dedicated Liberals will brush this nuisance off and search for ‘root causes’. President Kucinich will start sending food and financial aid to Iran or anyone else suspected of harboring the poor and disaffected. The ‘Department of Peace’ will explode in goodwill toward all men and climate issues or whatever!!!
Wretchard, you simply cannot move fast enough to act upon the whims of ‘The Conflicted Liberal’. Our tolerance point was met over six years ago. Theirs moves as theirs moves.
I am starting to think their line in the sand is a mirage!!!
When I catch a glimpse of that line I instantly attempt to get a fix on it - only a hope, I know - on the wavering horizon. Then, minutes later, it is lost to a dust storm and all I can see is some endangered fly buzzing around the great expanse that once contained a decision point…
I hope the good people of Pakistan defeat these Taliban types or they will be finished as a 'real' country...
absurd thought -
God of the Universe says
let extremists rule
they will drag your country
back to seventh century
.
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