Nuke 'em! he wrote.
I was a little startled. My friend -- call him Saxo -- doesn't take the War On Terror very seriously, or the Clash of Civilizations. On the other hand, he really doesn't think well of Muslims generally. (Some years ago it was just Arabs, but the scope has expanded, what with Iran and Sudan and Malaysia and whatnot.) I know his family, and so have some sense of what he imbibed around the dinner table, back in the Fifties and early Sixties, and especially after '67. It's easy to see how this happened, to an otherwise intelligent guy, if you know the back-story.
Still -- nuke 'em? And Waziristan? Not exactly a world-historical place. A nasty place, perhaps, but there are lots of nasty places in the world. There's Staten Island, for example. Or Williamsburg. Saxo wouldn't want to nuke them. I think.
I asked Saxo what he had against Waziristan. I would have been surprised if he had mentioned Qaeda, and he didn't. He did mention the plight of women. This was good strategy on Saxo's part. He knows I have a soft spot for women.
It didn't quite click, though. Nuclear feminism? Incinerate the women of Waziristan, in order to save them? I love a paradox as much as the next Hegelian, but that was a little much even for me.
Although I know Saxo quite well, from of old, I can't presume to say what exactly is going on in his brain -- what conversations he's had with whom, or why one thing is more important to him than another. But I did do a little web research.
The gravamen of the Waziristan "issue" seems to be that Pakistan is not much of an ally. They've got this unruly province on their Afghan border, and they can't or won't call them to order.
So the point is...? It's obvious enough: as in Darfur, Something Must Be Done. By "us", of course, and with boots on the ground or bombs from the air, as the case may be. And oddly enough, the people about whom Something Must Be Done are... Muslims.
Pervez Musharraf: the new Prince Sihanouk? I met Sihanouk years ago, and I'm snob enough to mention, oh so casually, that I even had dinner with him. Talk about Old Money.
I haven't met Musharraf. He must be quite a guy, though, to have clawed his way to the top in a pretty competitive milieu. But it's starting to look as though certain components of the imperial camarilla may be dissatisfied with him -- or with his country.
Is it because of what they've done -- or because of who they are?
Comments (8)
Some of my best friends are Zionists. No, really. I recently got an email from an old pal of mine, a guy who fundamentally knows better but can't quite kick the habit. He was fulminating about Waziristan.
Nuke 'em! he wrote.
Is this him?
Posted by Stanley W. Rogouski | March 8, 2007 7:00 AM
Posted on March 8, 2007 07:00
does saxo have hindu pals ???
they are for ever dreaming
of the further dis member ments
of
subcontinental stan country
perhaps he's part of a cell....
a jewel in the
the spontaneous chain of beings
called by insiders:
the isrindu axis...
quite confident
quite anal
quite bloody minded
Posted by owen paine | March 8, 2007 7:26 AM
Posted on March 8, 2007 07:26
WazWHATsistan?
D'ahh, doesn't matter anyway, as long as something is done! for God's sake!
And, btw, don't forget: Save Kantunderstan!
Posted by Mike Flugennock | March 8, 2007 7:15 PM
Posted on March 8, 2007 19:15
FYI, commentary in Pakistani newspaper by a Canadian. Also, an African (Ugandan of Indian descent) take on Darfur in a British magazine.
Posted by sk | March 8, 2007 10:07 PM
Posted on March 8, 2007 22:07
Actually, I saw Musharraf's wonderful performance on John Stewart. He insisted that he was agin' the Taliban because he was concerned about them disturbing the local warlords in Waziristan and such places. Altogether he did indeed seem a remarkable politician (and drank tea proferred with with twinkies, as I remember).
BTW, qua Zionist, I think Israel's loss in the war last summer was the beginning of the end of the state, which I have long thought would not last much longer than my lifetime.
Posted by Saxo | March 15, 2007 10:37 AM
Posted on March 15, 2007 10:37
I appreciate Saxo's good-humored response. Anent the prospects for the Israeli state in its present form -- it does seem to the the product of a rather complex conjuncture of circumstances, which in the nature of the case can hardly last forever. Thought experiment -- suppose next week they bit the bullet and just expelled all the Palestinians. What would happen?
Posted by MJS | March 15, 2007 11:53 AM
Posted on March 15, 2007 11:53
While some Israelis are certainly calling for such an expulsion (and some Americans might want to nuke Waziristan), it seems so unlikely a scenario (if there weren't a left in Israel, expulsion or worse would have happened already) that I don't see the point of the experiment.
But to go along with you a bit, I would simply say that Team America: World Police was just a movie with puppets.
Posted by Saxo | March 16, 2007 10:14 AM
Posted on March 16, 2007 10:14
saxo seems hardly the cumbersome oaf
i expected
and i dare say
you suggested
father S
sounds more gallows then google eyed
but to piggy back on his final remark
what inner other
is pulling his strings
Posted by owen p | March 17, 2007 9:55 AM
Posted on March 17, 2007 09:55