Several days ago, the Pakistani government learned that a madrasa in a village called Chingai was being used by "terrorists". But rather than sending in the police or the military to arrest those involved and try them for their crimes (whatever they might have been), they bombed it, killing 80 people.
That's bad enough, but it gets worse. It turns out that not all of the people the Pakistani government sentenced to death without trial were terrorists. In Chingai, villagers are digging bits of children out of the rubble. Among the dead was Maulana Liaqatullah, the leader of the madrasa. He was a radical Islamist, a supporter of the Taleban with "links" to Al Qaeda - but even in Pakistan that doesn't justify execution without trial. These people were murdered, by a lawless government that bombs its own people - and what sort of government does that?
And as if that isn't bad enough, ABC is reporting that according to Pakistani intelligence sources, the airstrike was an attempt to assassinate Al Qaeda number 2 Ayman al Zawahiri, and was carried out not by Pakistani helicopter gunships, but by a US drone.
You can just imagine how this is going down in Pakistan. The one thing worse than a government which bombs its own people is one which has foreigners do it for them. So people are on the streets chanting "death to Bush" and calling for jihad against America, and tomorrow, they'll be helping Al Qaeda. Way to win the war on terror, guys.
Neil:
ReplyDelete"These people were involved in a war against democracy..."
Ahhh... the democratic light of Pakistan glows bright with the great democratic leader - President Pervez Musharraf.
Perhaps what Neil is trying to say is: Kill 'em all, let God sort 'em out.
ReplyDeleteOh damn.. someone's launched a new war on grammar.. as if the War on Terror wasn't enough to occupy us, there's a new front against Democracy.
ReplyDeleteI think you'll find Husky that it's actually a war on *Granma*, being fought by the NZRL on behalf of Greg Fien.
ReplyDeleteBombing a school! How can ANYONE support such a monstrosity...?
ReplyDeleteDoes anything else need to be said?
So indicative of the Left these days. The people killed were being trained to go and fight the democractically elected government of Afgahnistan. And apparently the Left doesn't considered that a "war againsr democracy".
ReplyDeleteGood thing the next POTUS is more liklety to be another Clinon than Fisk or Chomsky.
No Neil, I consider being trained to fight against a democratically elected government a *common* war.
ReplyDeleteTo many thinking minds:
- the Patriot Acts
- arbitrary indefinate detention and waterboarding
- illegal spying on citizens
- removal of right to protest at or near political events
- turture flights and 'disappeared' prisoners
constitute a better definition of a War on Democracy. Care to refute?
from the Daily Telegraph
ReplyDelete==============================
Madrassa not a terror camp, say survivors
By Isambard Wilkinson in Peshawar
Last Updated: 2:51am GMT 03/11/2006
The only three survivors of the Chenagai madrassa attack, which killed 80 people on Monday, claim that the students there had received no military training and were nearly all locals from the Bajaur tribal district.
[snip]
The Daily Telegraph spoke to the three boys as Pakistan came under intensified pressure last night to produce evidence to support its claim that the destroyed seminary was "a terrorist training camp".
The boys said that the students at the madrassa near Khar in the country's remote tribal areas of the North West Frontier Province were mainly seven to 15 years of age.
Zaid Wali, 14, who lost a leg and six fingers in the attack, said that he had joined the madrassa two days before it was hit by missiles.
[snip]
His uncle, Adam Khan, repeated a common opinion that the army should have arrested the students instead of blowing them up. He also echoed the view that it was an American attack.
Noor Rehman, 16, had part of his foot blown off and was badly burnt in the attack while Abu Bakr, 20, had his legs crushed and was peppered with shrapnel. "This is all rubbish that we were militants. If we were, then why did they not come and arrest us?"
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