Doorstop

There’s a door in our hallway that naturally closes. It has to be kept open with a doorstop - in our case, an antique Chinese casting of small dog.

I remember back around the time when Benazir Bhutto was assassinated, Pakistan was regarded as ours, to do with as we wished. We had been conducting drone strikes (inside Pakistan) as a part of our effort in Afghanistan. Pakistan had been voicing its objections, but our foreign policy experts chose to continue with the strikes anyway because, they reasoned, Pakistan couldn’t do much about it. We essentially viewed it as a failed and deeply divided state - the lesser half, heavily dependent on U.S. foreign aid. Since then, Pakistan has made strides in coming together - and not necessarily in our favor.

The Ray Davis affair shows that things have changed significantly; that Pakistan is now asserting itself in a way it has never done before. It doesn’t do to declare any nation a failed state simply because we happen not to like it. And , yes, we do not like the Taliban; and, yes, we do not like AQ; and, yes, we do not like Islamic extremism; shariah; and, yes, we do not like people who do not like us and pray daily for their god to hasten our demise.

At some point, Pakistan had to chose between itself and us. It has chosen itself. The Ray Davis affair has brought the rift between us into sharp focus. Surely, we have offered untold sums to settle the matter quietly. And, while this might have worked in the past, it’s not working now. The people of Pakistan see America as a hated intruder; as interloper; as propping up illegitimate and corrupt governments that only serve to oppress to undermine their true desires.

The rulers of Pakistan have had to go along with the people’s wishes in order to remain in power. Another factor is the money we’ve been doling out. It doesn’t buy as much as it used to. Even the lowliest Pakistani citizen senses that America’s power is waning; that it will no longer do to try to keep themselves warm in the fading glow of dying embers.

On the other hand, Islam is on the rise. In order to survive, it has become necessary to throw in with Islam which appears to have even the once great America shaking in it’s boots.

Hanging the bastard publicly will serve as yet another signal that America’s days in the region are essentially over.

Things have indeed changed since Obama took power in America. Some would argue it was inevitable; that the door had been torn from its hinges long ago (translation: Bush). And now the doorstop has been discarded as well.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

On the Flooding in Pakistan

Now that the world’s only superpower has been sufficiently hobbled to the wild cheers of it’s enemies, these self-same enemies are lamenting that they themselves are going down. Where are all the others to help? China? Russia? Venezuela? Brazil?

Predictably, America still bears much of the blame: not enough aid, expertise, outpouring, generosity, etc. In addition, it’s America’s fault that so much rain has fallen in the first place. It’s all a trick by the Great Satan to punish Muslims. It’s been proven and widely flaunted by the Americans themselves, after all; that ‘global warming’ causes such catastrophes and that America is first and foremost responsible for ‘global warming‘. All the more reason to double down on the ‘Great Satan’, to bring him to his knees and rid the world of this singular evil.

No doubt, this is the template by which the next crop of mosque sermons will be written. At least, in America, a man - a brother - has now come to power; a man who has been the first from that nation to acknowledge that eight years of Bush’s policies - indeed, the whole history of America’s shameful rise on the backs of the poor - has been instrumental in bringing us to this sad point. Israel, that shining abomination (on the hill) - by the grace of this singularly enlightened individual - can now no longer expect the West’s illicit support for its shameful insistence on maintaining its heathen stain on the sacred land of the faithful.

He (Obama) has come out in favor of building a holy mosque, near Ground Zero no less; which is destined to rise much faster, much higher, than the star-struck replacement for what has been brought down and reduced to ash in the name of Allah. Our flag, our minaret(s), will point proudly skyward on the day of the tenth anniversary of our heroic victory over capitalist blight - thanks to the ceaseless efforts of the enlightened one. The mean remnant of unbelievers will fail to stop our progress in bringing to the world shariah by which we will then proceed to cleanse all mankind of its sin.

As for our dead and dying, we grieve as is natural. It is Allah’s will. They are the martyrs who in both large and small ways have sacrificed (or are in the process of sacrificing) their existence for the greater glory of Islam - the only true religion. For even as we die our quiet deaths, America’s fall will reverberate around the world and usher in righteousness.

Allah Akbar!