Tsar's Take

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As always, Tsar Lazar is keeping an eye on those wacky islamo-fascists.

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Tsar Lazar's Koranimal Karnival

Pomoze Bog.

From our good friends and allies at the Saudi Arabian Arab News comes the “Mother of All Ironies”:

Editorial: Bali Again

No one has yet claimed responsibility but as with the blasts of three years ago, the attacks on Saturday bore all the hallmarks of Jemaah Islamiyah, the Al-Qaeda-linked southeast Asian organization that carried out October 2002 Bali attacks. … The attacks prove that the terrorists will stop at nothing to make their mission known and their demands heard. Despite hundreds of arrests, including those of some key leaders which have weakened the terrorists, they remain one of the single greatest threats to society. It is anywhere and it is everywhere, though apparently nowhere. The hopes of all sane people are that the terrorists in Bali and elsewhere will not get their way. True, they have claimed lives and have maimed and they have frightened the public, both locals and foreigners. The only response can be all-out war.

No mention, of course, that al-Qaeda has been heavily subsidized by Saudi petrodollars over the years. Does the call for “all-out war” include the Tancredo Doctrine? Somehow, I doubt it.

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As the ACLU moves to ban all mention of Christianity from schools, it is good to know that somewhere in the world, mention of the Deity is highly prized. Yeah, right.

Islam-Friendly Curriculum Soon to Be Taught in Filipino Schools

ALKHOBAR, 3 October 2005 — Filipino schools in the Middle East will soon be asked to introduce the new Philippine curriculum which includes the Arabic language and Islamic values, a visiting education official from Manila has said. Undersecretary Manaros Boransing, who is responsible for Mindanao affairs, said the new curriculum is prescribed under Department of Education (DepEd) Order No. 51 series of 2004, which provides for the integration of the madrasa curriculum into the Philippine system of education. … The basic secular education of English, math, science, Filipino and makabayan will be taught in addition to the Islamic education, which would include the Qur’an, Shariah and Hadith. … The Philippine government had been battling separatist groups seeking to establish an independent Islamic state in the country’s south for decades.

I am sure the move towards such deep cultural sensitivity will bring about complete reconciliation and peace in the Philippines

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From the UAE’s Khaleej Times comes a piece that reminds me of what Uncle Ho used to say about the anti-war crowd during the Viet Nam war. It is brought to us by the Arab version of Peter Arnette.

America or the Empire

DEEP down, US President George W. Bush should grasp the seriousness of his debacle. If true, then he must also appreciate the time element in averting the worse case scenario, which he, along with an increasingly alienated number of ideologues are imposing on their country. Iraq is a multifaceted disaster, and its calamitous effects are hurting America on an uncountable number of levels. … The US army is stretched too thin, bogged down in a war gone awry. Even many of America’s part time soldiers, the National Guard, whose sole mission is to tend to the nation’s needs in times of crisis, were deployed in Iraq. The consequences of such indiscretions were exhibited in the Katrina disaster to a humiliating degree. … If the war was a faltering empire’s attempt to thrust itself in a highly strategic geopolitical location and thus gain control over precious energy sources, then the war was a strategic blunder. It is threatening the stability of an entire region, concurrently exposing the inadequacies of US military capabilities. … Even a pompous president with a divine mission must recognise a disaster when he sees one. It is improbable that Bush actually believes his own rhetoric of a world full of promise, which he supposedly moulded — in Iraq, Afghanistan, Egypt, Lebanon and Gaza. Americans are definitely distancing themselves from the inflated projection of the administration’s fantastic achievements. Despite the duplicity and ignorance of the media, an estimated 300,000 antiwar protesters descended on Washington DC on September 24, demanding an immediate end to the Iraq war. They included representatives of 250 American families who lost loved ones in Iraq. Also coming in droves were hundreds of war veterans, many of them disabled in Iraq. They all came seeking answers, and an end to this incessant war madness that has engulfed their nation. But Bush is unlikely to yield. He too has a crowd for which he cares deeply, convoluted interest groups that are a bizarre mix of business elites and corporate contractors, religious fanatics and top military brass….
Ramzy Baroud, a veteran Arab American journalist, teaches mass communication at Australia’s Curtin University of Technology, Malaysia Campus. His forthcoming book, Writings on the Second Palestinian Uprising is being published by Pluto Press, London

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It’s really great having such staunch allies in the war on terror…

Yemen court acquits Iraqis of spying, bombing plot

3 October 2005 SANAA - A Yemeni court acquitted four Iraqis on Monday who had been charged with plotting to bomb the U.S. and British embassies in Sanaa and of spying for the government of ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Judge Mohammed Al Baadani issued the sentence a week before the court was due to rule on the case, saying the evidence against the men was inconclusive. … “This case has no legal justification and should not have made it to court,” the judge told the courtroom as the Iraqis cheered, crying: “God is Greatest, long live justice”. … Security sources had said three of the Iraqis were arrested in 2003 with bags of explosives in their possession. The men had worked as teachers in Yemen since 2002. Like most Arab countries, Yemen was opposed to the 2003 U.S.-led war on Iraq but it has cooperated closely with the United States in its war on terror.

As to that last line, truer words were never spoken.

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Yet another example of Enlightened Political Outlook from the Arab MSM in which Arab states are warned about The Great Satan’s interference:

The Arab world and its dead meat leadership

It is not plausible, prudent or even logical that the close to 300 million Arabs living in the Arab World, even in their fragmented situation of some 22 “sovereign states” should sit idly and watch the situation in Iraq leading to no perceivable end. Moreover, the ongoing theater of death and uncontrollable violence in Mesopotamia would trigger a sense of alarm among most Arabs that any of their fragile regimes could fall into the same quagmire. … In fact, as we are obviously seeing in Iraq, the American intervention in Iraq has not produced any reasons for hope that the Iraqis will have any chance for reaping the fruits of the bounties and resources their country is endowed with. Oh, one will not fail to take note of the collapse of the oppressive regime of Saddam Hussein, which is by all means worthy of praise to Allah. But the continuing martial venue and the unorthodox practices of the self proclaimed foreign liberators in facing up to a legitimate resistance and the sudden presence of a dubious “Islamic” activism have not altogether assured the observer that the occupiers are any better off in terms of relinquishing repressive tactics from their methodology in dealing with what appears to be as obvious outcomes of their very own misguided adventure.

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From the Pakistan Observer comes these comments shedding light on the Katrina/Rita disasters:

Emptying of US cities

HURRICANE Rita is on rampage in border areas of Texas and Louisiana as well as the already Katrina battered city of New Orleans. Texas capital of Housten turned a haunted place as millions of its residents abandoned the city to escape Rita’s fury. Hurricane Rita has hit New Orleans as it was still battling Katrina’s devastation. Its streets are under three to five feet of water with flood water gushing out of the lake. The mighty United States is helplessly watching devastation of its cities and towns by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita despite all its military and economic strength and scientific and technological advancement. Its citizens are on the move to escape Nature’s fury. There is hardly any difference in their haplessness and that of those who had to flee from US bombs, missiles and rockets elsewhere in the world. The American people are apparently facing divine retribution for the follies of their leaders. Mother Nature is, perhaps, in action ultimately and the situation has an unambiguous message that man howsoever powerful is weaker than Nature. He cannot withstand Nature’s fury and retribution. The devastation caused by Hurricanes, Tsunamis, earthquakes etc, constitute clear manifestation on this count. The Holy Qur’an reveals destruction and extermination of nations through such natural disasters that had ignored Almighty Allah’s commandments. It’s time for the American people to bow before God and seek His forgiveness and protection from the divine retribution. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita are obviously a warning to the effect that man should not arrogate himself against Nature’s mercy and fury. If US can impose death and destruction on other innocent people through its bombs, rockets and missiles, its own people can also face turmoil through natural disasters. The US leadership ought to pause and ponder over the situation, shun its arrogance and retract from the path of aggression, coercion and intimidation against other peoples. It has to invoke the blessings of the mightiest of the mighty to escape Nature’s fury and to save its people from death and destruction currently being faced by them through Hurricanes. We, however, express our sympathy for the victims of the natural disaster. [my emphasis in italics]

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Finally, from the highly objective Aljazeera comes a “special report” titled “Iraq Under Occupation.” Here is the ubiased, unvarnished intro:

US and British occupation of Iraq is regarded as the re-emergence of the old colonialist practices of the western empires in some quarters. The real ambitions underlying the brutal onslaught are still highly questionable - and then there are the blatant lies over weapons of mass destruction originally used to justify the war. There were no great victory marches by the occupiers, nor were they thrown garlands of flowers and greeted in triumph. More US soldiers have died in Iraq since George Bush declared an end to the war on 1 May 2003 prompting the question: Will Iraq turn into a new Vietnam eventually bringing the US to its senses ... or perhaps to its knees? Iraq's history, and along with it that of the Arab Muslim world, speaks of several similar encounters. In the past, enemies attacked from East and West before they were swallowed by the moving sands of the region, or forced to retreat, leaving behind a phoenix-like people who adore life and still accept to die for their freedom. The escalating Iraqi resistance seems to be setting the stage for another act which might usher in a new Arab World or set the clock ticking for the end of yet another empire.

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Don't forget to visit Tsar's site for more unvarnished truth.

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