Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Kites and Pakistan

Yeah, the Pakistanis *really* know how to Par-Tey!


"At least 11 people have died and more than 100 injured at an annual kite flying festival in eastern Pakistan…. The deaths and injuries were caused by stray bullets, sharpened kite-strings, electrocution and people falling off rooftops

The festival is regularly marred by casualties caused by sharp kite strings or celebratory gunshots fired into the air…Kite flyers often use strings made of wire or coated with ground glass to try to cross and cut a rival's string or damage the other kite, often after betting on the outcome…. He also said that a 16-year-old girl and a school boy, 12, died after their throats were slashed by metal kite strings in separate incidents.

A 13-year-old boy fell to his death from the roof of his home as he tried to catch a stray kite, and a 35-year-old woman fell off the roof of her home trying to stop her son from running after a stray kite."


The goons , of course, are on the case!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just remember, these folks have nuclear weapons ...
And the liberals in this country would have us not be concerned because ???

MAH said...

we dont have to run faster than the Pakistanis, we only have to run faster than the Indians...

seriously, I don't think the position of the "liberals" is to ignore or not be concerned about Pakistan. If you've got something specific, I'd be interested in seeing it. AFAIK the democract position is the slow cultural/financial pressure that has been working with China. Very similiar to the GOP position, I'm not sure I could squeeze a fatwa between the two and still see daylight.

Anonymous said...

Point made. What I was trying to say is that I spent a great deal of time "on the ground" in the middle east during the first Gulf War & at other times. My own experience with "the religion of peace" showed me that these folks could give a rats ass about financial and/or cultural pressure. As a matter of fact, they despise our culture beyond description. They are not big on equal rights for women, they really don't like atheists or Hollywood style decadence, or homosexuals etc... etc.. What they do care about is the destruction of the West and our way of life. For them the world is divided into two "houses" the house of islam & the house of war. They will not be satisfied until the whole world is the house of islam & the caliphate is re-established. As for a specific example, take the democrat's desire for us to cut and run from Iraq. That would be the most disaterous thing we could do. The muslims would perceive that as weakness and act accordingly. It was President Clinton's decision to cut and run from Somalia in 93 that convinced bin-laden that we were a "paper tiger". He was quoted as saying that. I have very dear "brothers" that are still in the Army & several of them are either Rangers or Special Forces and they know very well the situation over there as they are there or have been several times and all of them would echo my thoughts. One final thought, I find it very ironic that many of the people in this country who are the most opposed to this country doing anything at all to defend itself or it's interests are the same folks who have never, nor would ever consider putting their asses on the line to defend that which they so richly enjoy. They are also for the most part, the folks whom the muslims would put to the sword before anyone else.

MAH said...

(Surprisingly) I mostly agree. I think what you are seeing in the push to withdraw the troops is not so much an unwillingness to defend the country, but certainly an unwillingness to continue without a plan. A plan, some sense of shared sacrifice in the population, some leadership from the top (beyond the "go shopping" and "dont worry" lines) would go a long way toward reversing opinion on the current deployment of troops. I am moderately well read, and I certainly have the sense that we are wasting time, money, lives and american power to no effect. Even if the plan is "we need to hold Iraq for the next 10 years to keep a foothold in the ME", I might actually buy that and sign on, but as it's presented right now, it just seems like they have been winging it for the last five years.

Don't confuse a lack of confidence in the current non-plan with an unwillingness to defend the country. Even the most tweaked-out, pierced and tattoed circuit boy I know would stand to defend the country *if* the threat were articulated at least as clearly as you have done here.

It's not a failure of will, it's a failure of leadership.

Anonymous said...

I don't agree Mark, I don't think it is a failure of leadership. I think it is a failure of the media to tell the whole story. Most people believe that Iraq is a dismal failure because that is what they see every night on the evening news. The troops are portrayed as criminals even though 99.9999% are good honest heroes. We are forced to fight a passive war by cameramen and editors who are looking for the next big controversy. These "militants" that we are up against will hide behind women and children and shoot at our soldiers from mosques because they know that we won't shoot back. If Nancy Pelosi was not kicking the Prez in the shins every day,we could have been out of there a long time ago. But everytime she opens her mouth, she gives the terrorists more hope that we will give up if they just wait long enough. It's really simple. there is no profit for the dems if we succeed in Iraq. They MUST make Bush look bad. Anyone I talk to that hates Bush does not listen to him Only to what the media say about him. I can pick and choose from What you say in an average day and make someone either love you or hate you.

Anonymous said...

......and we shouldn't be running, period.

Anonymous said...

Very well said anonymous!

Mark, he has just completed my thoughts for me. I can tell you what he says is true based on what my friends returning from Iraq are telling me.
There is SO much success over there. One particular friend of mine who is with 5th Special Forces Group has done 4 tours and tells me that the country is 95% pacified. He would know. Every time he returns the first thing he asks me is "What lies are being told by the media now?" I can also testify to this from my time over there. You almost NEVER here the mainstream media report on all the heroic actions over there. It's a damn shame and it pisses me off to no end!! It's almost criminal if you ask me. And, as I stated in an earlier post, these "enlightened" media elites are able to carry on as they do BECAUSE of the safety provided by the very forces they spurn. They would also number among the firsts heads to roll if the "religion of peace" has it's way ...