As odd as this may sound, a few of us Rantburg Readers look forward to the Rantburg Defender Scimitar page and the colorful pictorial commentary by GulfBravo.... And now for the fourth day in a row, No Good Morning from the Rantburg Mods is painful. I miss the page...After all I have a Short Attention Span and it served me well for the nearly 25 year that I worked for the Federal Government.
Ah the memories!
We love the RDS&TP, too. Unfortunately, this past week was a perfect storm: While Fred took longer than expected to recover from a minor, optional surgery (he's fine, just enough suffering to build character), Dr. Steve had urgent doctor stuff to deal with, badanov has been chasing down whatever computer problem was leaving those queer messages y'all have been reporting, and Pappy is coping with the Sequester. The rest of us lack the requisite skillz.
So it may be a few days more before the RDS&TP returns in all its glory, but return it will.
#4
Not to worry I have a stash of Birthday Gam Shots waiting for the return of the RDS&TP. I will phase the past dates in over several days with each current days DGS, that way old guys like me will not OD!
#5
Fred, Scooter, Badanov and I have done bloids in the past. Turns out to be a lot of work and something that almost always is done late at night, when we see what's in the hopper for the next day.
I don't have much in the way of excuses; work is busy right now and (except when Fred is out) my time is limited.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/15/2013 17:16 Comments ||
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#6
We understand, guyz. (The "z" makes it include gals too. ;-p )
Thanks for all you do. Anything that good is worth waiting for.
And speedy recovery, Fred.
Posted by: Barbara ||
04/15/2013 18:04 Comments ||
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#7
At least nobody got blowed up in Boston. One of my co-workers finished an hour before the booms, reported a hard time getting out of the airport.
Imagine that!
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/15/2013 20:55 Comments ||
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#8
badanov has been chasing down whatever computer problem was leaving those queer messages y'all have been reporting
That the ones using Java-exploits on the main-page? Most I had was slowdown as my Antivirus caught it each time, turned off Java in Firefox, fixed the problem.
Posted by: Charles ||
04/15/2013 21:09 Comments ||
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[Dawn] PERVEZ Musharraf's admission on a foreign TV channel that Pakistain was in the know about US drone strikes inside this country during his rule only confirms what has been suspected for a long time. The retired general's frank disclosure is in stark contrast to the state's long-standing policy -- including the period of Gen Musharraf's rule -- of denying any role in the drone war. The statement shows, among other things, that the state can be economical with the truth, showing one face in public, and another in private. There have been indications in the past about Pakistains knowledge of the strikes, such as WikiLeaks cables stating that the Americans kept the government informed, as well as the vacation by the US military of the Shamsi airbase in Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... in the aftermath of the Salala incident; the base was believed to be a launching pad for drone strikes. It is difficult to say when (and if) information-sharing on drones ceased, though the CIA is believed to have stopped obtaining advance Pak approval sometime in 2008. The Raymond Davis affair in 2011 further soured relations between the US and Pak intelligence set-ups, thus affecting how the drone war was being executed.
Regardless of when the Americans decided to go solo with drones, the fact remains that unilateral strikes create multiple problems for Pakistain. Their legal status is murky. There are no substantiated figures for collateral damage but estimates have suggested that hundreds of civilians have died in drone strikes, along with suspected myrmidons. Collateral damage adds to creating more cut-throats while unilateral strikes fuel anti-Americanism in Pakistain. The UN has taken serious note of the situation, with its special rapporteur on counterterrorism and human rights ...which often include carefully measured allowances of freedom at the convenience of the state... saying that the strikes violate Pakistain's illusory sovereignty. Within the US establishment itself, some bigwigs have questioned the long-term effectiveness of the drone campaign.
Drones have taken out some high-profile myrmidons, but they have arguably done more harm than good to counterterrorism efforts. If drones are needed, Pakistain must give its approval while the weapons must be used only in areas that cannot be accessed by Pak troops. If the drone campaign had tacit government approval during the Musharraf era the issue of violated illusory sovereignty did not arise. That is why the Americans need to take Pakistain on board if drones are indispensable. Once there is cooperation, the government must take ownership of the drone war and tell the public why the strikes are necessary. Basically, more openness is required from both Washington and Islamabad.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/15/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11128 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
Pakistan was times asked nicely by the post-9-11 US to turn over OSAMA + Qaeda Boyz, but refused, hence the unilateral action(s) by POTUS Dubya.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/15/2013 8:13 Comments ||
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#4
The retired general's frank disclosure is in stark contrast to the state's long-standing policy -- including the period of Gen Musharraf's rule -- of denying any role in the drone war.....
....or the whereabouts of the late Osama bin Laden.
#2
According to the left wing leaders we have in politics....... We're not supposed to judge all Muslims by the acts of a few "crazies".
But the acts of a few American crazies is enough to judge all Americans who own guns!
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
