The threat of Islamic fundamentalism rising up in and pouring out from Central Asia, is a popular theme of those who design Western security – or hydrocarbon – strategies. It is in order to exagerrate the threat from Central Asia that the US and UK use the Karimov regime to torture “Confessions” out of Central Asian “Al-Qaida” members.
Al-Jazeera has this week been running a feature documentary by Michael Andersen, a Danish journalist who really does know Central Asia, It should be required viewing for anyone with an interest in the “War on Terror”. You can still catch it on Al-Jazeera today and tomorrow, or throught this link.
Arsalan, could you provide me with just one racist statement that I have made, please.
technicolour, I don’t think I attempted to portray Muslims as mad suicidal extremists, did I?
Arsalan, they’ll just think they haven’t pissed you off enough yet.
Btw, want to say, me, I dislike the Iraqi resistance intensely. Why they could not have come up with something more amusing (shooting the Americans with paintball guns filled with pink paint pellets for example) I do not know.
No offence to anyone who died screaming and all. But one loses interest in violence.
No, asoba, and didn’t mean to suggest you did. I was gathering some threads from previous posts.
Angrylarry every statement or belief you attributed to me, which wasn’t based on anything I said was a racist comment you said. Because they were based on your prejudice of Muslims and not on what I said.
I have already told you this.
And I have also explained why I call it racism and not sectarianism. So if you want any further explanations, go and read what I wrote on other threads.
I see it as beneath me to repeat myself for you and that goes for both of you if you are two.
Al Hub aas-salam
Sha-lom ve a-ha-vah
That was me. Arsalan, I hope I haven’t attributed anything to you. I appreciate and vale your perspective, and I’m sorry for being flippant.
And no need to be suspicious (viz steelback/apostate etc) of my being linked to asoba or larry. If you look back on this board (or just ask Craig) you’ll find I’ve been posting for far longer than is sensible, quite on my own.
I agree there is something of a connection, though it is apolitical. It seems to be a wormy desire to get at facts, however that is displayed. I hope I listen to them when I get them.
Otherwise, postings of opinions here are really, quite informative. I go back to my ‘Muslim’ and ‘Jewish’ and ‘indigenous’ friends with some interesting perspectives, though I’m not sure I want to tell anyone about them.
Tech
Bro,
I can’t see why you would think you have said anything to upset me?
I don’t mind people disagreeing with me, but to the best of my knowledge I can’t remember us disagreeing on anything?
What I said to Larry in the original reply that Angry quoted was a repeat of what the Algerian resistance said as a reply to criticism of the French colonialists.
The Algerians managed to end colonialism by using young women to plant bombs in Cafes containing French soldiers.
The French accused such tactics of being barbaric. The Algerians replied, give us your planes and tanks to fight you with and then we will stop using such tactics.
Larry kept repeating the old slogan. “They are killing us because they want to die”, My response was the quote of the Algerian to the French colonialists.
What I meant to say to the Americans is Muslims are using the only weapon we have against you which is our very lives. A day will come when we will have the weapons you have, then we will fight you with such weapons. When that day comes, you will have to find another slogan to use against us.
But I don’t like writing these long paragraphs when I mean a single sentence.
I think I am going to set up my own forum so we can continue discussions. Because of the different threads at different levels sometimes things get confusing here. It will not be an Angry sober type blog used to backbite and bitch. It will be one where people can post threads, and then discuss them with others.
Any ideas for a name?
Hey, Arsalan, you mixed up angrysoba and larry and accused them of having a ‘racist twist’. I’d say one of them does (without necessarily realising it), and the other does not, at all. But good that you’re not offended.
Me, I would not kill, except by accident. There are always other, more interesting ways to deal with violence. This is why I find protestations of violence:
“Muslims are using the only weapon we have against you which is our very lives. A day will come when we will have the weapons you have, then we will fight you with such weapons”
very dull. Before that day comes, why don’t you find something better to tackle things with?
“I think I am going to set up my own forum so we can continue discussions… Any ideas for a name?”
The Far From Soba Blog!
😀
Sorry for using ‘you’. I didn’t mean to. Obviously the issue was hypothetical.
Just as all of this is hypothetical, of course. A day will come when I will have a trillion dollars and can cure world hunger. Then you’ll see! 🙂
arsalan,
Yes I have a name – I came up with it first in 2005 after the Underground ‘power disruptions’ (cough) but it may have been taken by somebody else but who cares, it is;
“Mind The Gap” 😉
“Mind The Gap” (between your ears…)
Craig Murray, I was wondering what Ahmed Rashid’s book on the IMU was like. I have never found that book although I have read Taliban and Descent Into Chaos (I believe you have a couple of walk-on parts in the latter).
I think Ahmed Rashid is a great journalist. What are your thoughts on him and his books?
that is a great name, but you posted it just after I created it. sorry.
But I will call one of the sub sections
Mind the gap
I was thinking about a news section
a info section
etc
http://www.iwannaforum.com/unite
angrysoba, is that you posting with a link to your name & without one?
the thing is made.
you can post and discuess if you want.
I will add subsections sometime next week because I am really busy right now.
Maybe I can get some ideas from you guys.
“Richard, and?”
Reality-check, is all. If someone wants to speculate on how we’d behave if the sky fell on our heads, it might be fruitful to start by looking at how we behaved last time the sky fell on our heads.
Just trying to be helpful.
“angrysoba, is that you posting with a link to your name & without one?”
Yep. PC problems.
Don’t tell me you read something a bit more suspicious into it (i.e I was changing to my Larry persona or something).
AS: No! Richard; sorry, very demanding, in that crappy ‘if I type this quickly I can persuade myself I’m just taking a break without letting it take over’ kind of way. I just meant, when did the Russians let off a dirty bomb?, but was too lazy to google it.
I actually think Ahmed Rashed is a twit. The main reason why I think this is because AngryLarry likes him. It is not possible for AngryLarry to like someone who is not a twit.
The secondary reason why he is a twit is he repeats the old neocon line of calling any resistance however non-violent as terrorism.
The way he does this is accuss the Non-Violent political Party, Hizb ut Tahrir of working in calibration with the Islamic Army of Uzbekistan.
These two groups have completely different methods and aims. Only a Neocon of the type that accuses J witnesses of working for Al Qaida can confuse the two.
arsalan, don’t go!
OK, which of ‘larry’ or ‘angrysoba’ has done which? Which one accused the ‘Non-Violent political Party, Hizb ut Tahrir of working in calibration with the Islamic Army of Uzbekistan.’?
What’s more, what would it matter?
Tech sorry
Ahmed Rashed says HT and IMU are one.
Angrysober likes Ahmed Rashed.
Ahmed Rashed is a twit, and AngrySober only likes twits.
sorry that was IAU
NOr is it:
Not everyone Angrysober likes is a twit, but most twits are people he likes
Or is it:
Not everyone Angrysober likes is a twit, but most twits are people he likes
sorry for the double, I’m using an old Keyboard because this cordless one I tried is crap.
Neither Larry nor I have accused Hizb-ut-Tahrir of collaborating with the IMU as far as I know. Arsalan doesn’t like the journalist Ahmed Rashid because according to AG, Ahmed Rashid accuses HuT of collaborating with the IMU.
Ahmed Rashid’s an interesting writer. He does wear his heart on his sleeve and he is prone to broad brush interpretations and simple factual errors, but he is someone who has travelled widely within Taliban-era Afghanistan and has been reporting on and criticising the Pakistani government for a long time. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar put a price on Ahmed Rashid’s head and he’s had squabbles with Dostum and with Ishmail Khan. He clearly is someone who has been close to the events and I respect his reporting.
He did support the war in Afghanistan on the basis that getting rid of the Taliban could only be a good thing and he hoped (along with Ashraf Ghani) that a NATO victory there would usher in a mass reconstruction of the country aided and funded by international donors but was shocked to see that no such aid and funding arrived. Tariq Ali has, unkindly, called him a “prize cock” of NATO. And some people are no doubt suspicious of his ties to Hamid Karzai and the late Abdul Haq.
I think he’s worth reading, and I am sure you know of him, technicolour.