[taliban] why they’ll never be defeated

Syed Saleem Shahzad, of the Asia Times, rode with Abdul Jalil, of the Taliban, whose multiple roles include coordinating between the Taliban and those government officials who are sympathetic. He relates how, when he has to travel in high-risk areas, a friendly, highly placed government official from Kandahar takes him in his jeep - complete with official license plates. He adds that much of the material he sources comes from the government.

Commenting on the Taliban's tactics, he said, "We follow the techniques of remote-controlled explosive devices used by the Iraqi resistance. But our technology is different. The Iraqis improvise with various explosive materials and then link it to a remote control. Our source of explosives is anti-personal and anti-tank mines. These were in the possession of various warlords who looted them after the fall of the communist government in Kabul. They either sold or donated the mines to us."

"These mines are our main source and we link them with remote controls and effectively blow up our targets. But this is not the only source - the other source is American bombs. Many of the bombs they drop from the air do not explode. I am an expert in defusing these unexploded bombs, and there are many others like me. We extract all the explosives inside the bomb shells and use them for sacrifice [suicide] attacks," said Abdul Jalil.

Nice one, huh? Afghanistan is their home. There are only two places they’re going, in their own minds, the Taliban – either home or to the 72 virgins. They are not going to lose. They have never lost in Afghanistan. Why oh why can’t the Defence Department wake up, why couldn’t they learn the Russian lesson, what on earth are they trying to prove there and why did they drag Canada into it?

This blog is in full support of the troops and is deeply angered by their shoddy equipment and short-changing by the DofD but it equally asks Rumsfeld/Gates: ‘Just what the hell do you think you’re playing at over there?’

Please read the whole article here …

[in the fsu] anything can happen … and usually does

This is as close as I can find at short notice

Just back from work and you know I usually don’t talk shop beyond vague references. This is an exception. It’s a perfect example of how, in this country, things can change so suddenly, without the least warning, both for the good and for disaster.

So, finished up with the ladies [mentioned in the last post] and went out into the global warming – slush everywhere and trucks kicking it up all over the clothes. Managed to escape that and tore across to the Ministry, where I was late, cleaned the boots on the electric machine inside the door, skipped upstairs and the look on the secretary’s face said it all. Something had come up and he’d had to deal with it. Result - no conference.

About to go home when in came the most ravishing Ayisha you could imagine and before I could stop myself … well … the Min’s sec, this lady and I ensconced ourselves in the kitchenette, coffee and what have you was served and the serious business of meeting my new friend took almost an hour.

The Min’s aide popped his head in, then out again, as did the Min’s sec and there I was with the hard task of entertaining a lady who spoke no English. And she was something. Turns out she was the Press Secretary, so you can imagine her charm but further we shall never know because apparently there was a hunt on in the building for her. She’d gone missing.

So, in high spirits I departed, stuck out a hand, caught a car and it was the mangiest broken down vehicle, driven by a chap clearly out of work and so the fragility of life here came home yet again. All the way to my place, there was every chance he’d mug me but actually he turned out quite nice, as most of them do and now here I am writing to you.

But it could well have been otherwise. That’s the point in the FSU – you just never know and it keeps you on your toes. It was Dame Edna Everage’s alter-ego who said: “Anything can happen … and you know … it usually does.”

[exercise] when there's no alternative

Photo courtesy Mosnews

These are the sorts of people I'm obliged to spend a substantial portion of my waking hours with each day. Actually the ones I deal with are around four years older and there are usually fifteen or so and hundreds more on the stairs outside the room.

However, that is not the point of this post. The point is that there are hardly any obese or thunder-thighed girls in the FSU for the simple reason that they exercise naturally – walking to the bus, walking up and down stairs seven times a day, walking around shops for hours, dancing half the night and so on. I’ve asked many how difficult it is to stay so trim and they think nothing of it.

[langley] abandon hope, all ye who enter here

Hannah Arendt, writing in 1963 of Adolph Eichmann in Jerusalem, was moved to describe what she saw as:

The fearsome, word-and-thought-defying banality of evil.

This seemingly out of place word, ‘banality’, seems very much to be part and parcel of true evil. Leaving aside the films and books for one moment, it seems to me that this is what it’s all about. Nothingness.

Of course the CIA are anything but evil – they’re an altruistic, kindly lot of do-gooders, dedicated to peace on earth and yet – look at the photo and the textures and colour scheme they’ve adopted. These are the colours of cold efficiency, of clinical dispassion, of tiled rooms and the absence of style, the absence of any feeling whatsoever. What a cheerless foyer to a great public building. How dispiriting.

When we eventually see ‘abandon hope, all ye who enter here’, this is the sort of portal I have in mind.

[exercise] forget all the substitutes - make the move

Morning exercises – don’t you love the chap in the background, watching?

The peerless Bryan Appleyard has done it again. He’s come up with one hell of a topic:

I see calorie restriction is becoming fashionable. I looked into this phenomenon while researching my new book. The idea is that you restrict your calorie-intake to about 30 per cent of normal levels. Since the thirties, animal research has shown that this prolongs life.

No, no, no, no, no, no – that’s not the way to go. Quite the opposite. What is not mentioned once with the animal research is that in their natural habitat [as distinct from in a cage in a laboratory] they would exercise – naturally. Here’s the list for homo sapiens, in no particular order:

# Exercise
# Love - to and from
# Conversation
# Intellectual stimulation
# Eating a balanced diet heartily
# Sleeping big time
# Keeping in touch with your spirituality
# Relaxing with a diversion of some kind e.g. sex or a book

Forget the pills, forget the calorie restriction, forget all of that. Exercise! Go to the gym, as so many other boomers do and after the initial shock, if you stick at it, everything improves on the list above. Appetite, heartiness, optimism and so on all improve and there’s one huge bonus if you combine aerobic and anaerobic exercise, [i.e. heart routines and lifting weights], quite apart from the social interaction.

Exercise becomes a drug – hence all the gym rats who can’t do without their daily fix. It’s a narcotic and the buzz afterwards lasts a boomer a good hour and a half, during which time he’s in grave danger from the female of the species. He’s … er … desirable again. Plus … and this is the biggy … he feels so proud of himself and the buzz rubs off on those around him.

If you’ve done none for years, if you think you’d look ludicrous – seriously, no one’s going to think that. They’re going to admire your spirit. Aside from watching the heart carefully, [and there are so many ways to monitor that], there is no known downside to exercise. You just have to make that massive move to get up off the posterior and start it.

[canada] election on the cards

It’s all action over at Stephen Harper’s ice palace:

Mr. Dion faces the possibility that Prime Minister Stephen Harper will try to engineer a quick election before he, Dion, can properly unite his party and organize for a vote. Across Canada, 26 per cent said they would be less likely to vote Liberal now that Mr. Dion is leader, and 20 per cent said they would be more likely; 47 per cent said their vote would be unaffected.

Mr. Dion moved immediately yesterday to prepare for a possible election when he announced the formation of his transition team. "I am a quick learner," he told reporters in his first press conference as leader. "We don't have a lot of time, as you know. We may be in an election at any time."

C’mon Stephen, c’mon. Sorry, sorry – mustn’t show any bias, must I?

[catastrophe] now what time does the film start

Nourishing lunch

What does the following news do to you on a Monday morning whilst you’re briskly getting ready for work?

The Red Cross has sent out an urgent plea for water, food and medicine today as Philippine officials said more than 1000 people were dead or missing after mudslides swallowed up whole villages. The Government's National Disaster Coordinating Centre confirmed 425 dead from the mudslides around Mayon volcano trigged by super typhoon Durian rains. It listed a further 599 people as missing in the same eastern region of Bicol.

I asked a lady about this once while we were finishing lunch, prior to going to a matinee – not this particular disaster, of course, another one – and she replied, ‘Yes, shocking, isn’t it? One more tea before we go?’

To which I replied something along the lines of, ‘That’s 1000 people dead, you know. 1000.’

‘Yes, it’s terrible the things which happen in the world,’ and by now she was looking at me strangely. ‘James, when’s the film start?’

‘It's easy to see them as statistics, rather than as people, isn't it?’ I mused.

‘Who?’

‘The 1000 who died.’

Slightly exasperated, she muttered, ‘Well why don’t you go and help them, if you feel that way. Look, they’re there and we’re here. I feel terrible but what can we do? Is there some Bandaid concert or something? How much do they need?’

‘12:30.’

‘Pardon?’

‘12:30. The film starts at 12:30, so we’ve forty five minutes. We’d best get a move on.’

[She did later contribute a sizable donation, to be fair and followed the story in the papers until the papers lost interest.]

[in brief] thought for the day

You can't cheat an honest man. He has to have larceny in his heart in the first place.

[country quiz 4] 10 more tricky ones for you

1] If you crossed the Panama Canal from the Atlantic (Caribbean) to the Pacific, in which general direction would you be going?

2] If you saw the letters BWI after a country on a postal address, where would you expect the letter to be delivered?

3] If you were in Molokai, in which country would you be?

4] In which city is Marco Polo airport?

5] In which city is the HQ of the Central Bank of China?

6] In which country is water considered so precious that it gives name to the currency: the Pula?

7] London's Fleet Street runs from the Strand to Ludgate Circus and has become the former home of British journalism. What is it named after?

8] Name the eastern-most and western-most state in the United States.

9] Jebel Musa is acknowledged to be one of the Pillars of Hercules, the end of the world according to Mediterranean cultures. What is the other one?

10] Valencia Island is off the coast of which European country?

Answers here …

[bryan appleyard] why the right blogs are more successful

Bryan has this to say about the success of the “rightish” British blogs:

[The] left's rhetoric has been inhibited by a variety of self-imposed restraints - broadly those known as 'politically correctness', but also by certain, as it were, theological dogmas such as the need to blame America for everything and to insist that America can only do evil. PC and dogmatism have progressively tightened the gag on the rhetoric of the left so that, in effect, they can say less and less about more and more.

The right, by contrast, has not really acquired any such fixed dogmas. It is more pluralist. The reason for this is the left's dogmatism and package of prejudices combined with an “if you're not for us, you're against us” mindset. This restricts entry to the left club and excludes anybody who might dissent too readily from the prevailing orthodoxy.

My take: The left is incessantly on about rights and legislating for inclusion, citing a mythical 'pie in the sky' of which they want their slice. The right realizes there are no rights, save what we create for ourselves by dint of hard work. We make our own contacts, we conduct our own business, we 'makes' our money, we protect those dear to us and ourselves. Providing everyone else also has a 'trade' mentality, it works well. Along the way, our network of contacts gives us all the protection we're ever likely to get.