lundi 2 mai 2011

R.I.P. Ben Laden (Bon débarras)

Ben Laden, hier soir, a été retrouvé et tué par une unité des forces spéciales états-uniennes au Pakistan, tout près d’Islamabad et loin de la frontière Afghane.  Une fois l’euphorie passée, une question doit être posée : depuis combien de temps séjournait-il dans la banlieue d’Islamabad et comment le gouvernement Pakistanais  pouvait-il l’ignorer?
Être assis sur une clôture barbelée n’est pourtant pas confortable.  Or voilà la position du Pakistan depuis des lunes.  A-t-on besoin d’un allié aussi peu fiable?  Évidemment le Pakistan possède La Bombe!

24 commentaires:

  1. Maybe here Paul you forget the 'secrecy' thing that is typical of Islamic people (or Calabria and Sicily).
    [Flavia for example is very devoted to secrecy, while I tend to say all]


    I ean, a cordon made of secrecy is a good tool to hide anybody. Until ones betrays (for money or for getting away with it or for both) or when intelligence succeeds with infiltration, penetration.

    Just shot it lol.

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  2. Un autre homme célèbre est décédé hier aussi. Henry Cooper.

    Son crochet du gauche qui a envoye Cassius Clay au tapis dans la nuit de 18 juin 1963 vivra dans l'histoire pour toujours.

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  3. @MoR: you may have a point.
    Philippe: I confess that I had not connected Sir Cooper with boxing nor with Mohamed Ali. I have never been a big boxing fan.

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  4. Paul, you reminded me of this little piece of Tom Lehrer brilliance. Here it is, in case you've forgotten it, or you missed it the first time around:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRLON3ddZIw

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  5. That is indeed a clever piece that could be paraprased to fit the present situation. I did miss it.

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  6. Jenny, I thought of the same thing. Great minds are on the same wavelength here. :D

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  7. I think it is incumbent upon American intelligence and our diplomats to keep in mind that Pakistan is a clan and tribe set-up. It will always be difficult to have Pakistan as a partner because Pakistan is many Pakistans. This is not exclusive to Pakistan either.

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  8. i heard thomas friedman say tonight that the u.s. is friends with pakistan on monday, wednesday and friday, enemies on tuesday and thursday and on sunday nobody's sure what we are. but for a billion in aid we get 3 days a week.

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  9. Pakistan, as many other countries in Asia and Africa, is a conglomerate of tribes loyal to their elders who are loyal to the highest bidder of the moment. Their shifting loyalties make them very difficult to trust indeed. We are here in the land of «backsheesh».

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  10. Allow me to blabber in my way lol.

    Pakistan is the ancient world, period. And it is Muslim India. Personally - I had a few students from there at the UN IT classes – it is an incredibly fascinating conglomerate of cultures, as Paul said, with the elders .... their tribes …sheer magic. I spent a month in Muslim Indian Cashmere (before the war, in the end of 1970’s) with Flavia, and she was too totally bewitched.

    I hope my Hindu Indian friends will not read this lol, but all that is Pakistan is amazing (Pakistan is a fake name for India) and the area (well the folks: there were migrations after Indian unity) that the British preferred and trusted more in their rule. And, I may be wrong, most of the cadres of the Raj (British Empire in India, no need to say that) were Muslim or sort of (Kim by Kipling and almost ALL this great English writer’s work is a bit of a hymn too to the people that are now inhabiting Pakistan.

    This being said, of course Pakistani cannot be trusted.

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  11. Pakistani are a little bit like Sicilians Cheri, a bit like your Joe (frankly I could never really survive in Sicily if I had problems out here).

    I mean they cannot be trusted in the way we trust an American or a German, or a Swiss, or a Northern French (allow me to add North and central Italy too also because they are possibly the pro-capite richest Europeans possibly).

    But pls just go to South of Italy, or to South France - Toulouse, Antibes, Marseilles (Northern Med shore door to North Africa!) their origin is ALL Greek Paul. So, they can (even just metaphorically) rob and cheat you before you even realise that since they had to survive (and took blows amd stones) for thousands of years.

    So Pakistan can't absolutely be trusted unless in my view we try hard to understand them. So one solution, hard to say, could be to have specialists (the US know this very well) who lived there for long (or are of Indian Muslim origin) and who understand such diverse cultural codes.

    Since, that they have diverse moral codes, it doesn't mean they are not 'ethical'.

    They are absolutely ethical. Only, differently ethical.

    One mistake imo is that we think ethics is non relative, that Western values are eternal and work everywhere. That is a fruit of our Christian religion, that doesn't even 'conceive' other views.

    A mistake in my book that may imply a big prize to pay.

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  12. I realised it was too much as usual. Sorry for taking all the space Paul.

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  13. Your remarks, MoR, are right to the point. Those people are bargainers and they do drive a hard bargain that they will respect...until a better one comes their way that they feel is more beneficial for them and theirs. As long as it is good for them and theirs, ethics are respected.
    When we will have understood and accepted that it is a permanent bargaining relationship we may get somewhere.

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  14. Exactly, Paul. And said in a much more sober way than I did I'd add.

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  15. WE are all asking the very same question!

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  16. So there is a consensus emerging here.

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  17. There is. Maybe Philippe here can help us. He was born I imagine in the deep of the African continent, and later, at 18 as far as I understood, moved to Canada. Africa, I mean, is tribal too.

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  18. Good idea, MoR, I hope Philippe reads this and answers.

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  19. @Paul and Giovanni - I'm flattered you think I might add anything of interest to this discussion. In fact, I know little about Pakistan other than that it produces very good cricket players, and that it, as well as Afghanistan, used to be called the North-West frontier during the time of the British Raj.

    While I know no more of what's now going on in that region than anyone else who has access to the internet, I do see it through the prism of colonialism, no doubt because I'm a product of a British colonial society, and have since spent much time reflecting on that experience.

    Hence I've developed a keen nose for old-fashioned English-speaking white-man's colonialism, and know it when I see it. So, when I look at the American adventure in Iraq and Afghanistan, and now Pakistan, I simply see old-fashioned English-speaking white-man's colonialism having a last fling.

    I suspect that the peoples of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, know old-fashioned English-speaking white-man's colonialism when they see it too, and therefore know what Americans (and Britons) in their lands are really up to. The Pakistanis being "unreliable" shouldn't therefore be that surprising.

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  20. It does sound a bit like:"You can't trust those bloody colonials". And yes I believe that the USAers have rapidly gone from colonised to colonisers and have demonstrated it often since 1776.

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  21. @Philippe

    A great contribution Phil. Your mind always proceeds clearly and elegantly (in a natural way) to clarify points. While mine is a bit flooding. The English-speaking white-man's colonialism, now become America. In fact America is Europe’s heir, no surprise about that. The problem is: do many Americans realise they are colonialists? Since they always mix ideals with it, which to a cynical Europen … ok you got it.

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  22. @MoR - "......do many Americans realise they are colonialists?........"

    I suspect not, if only because today's colonialism is disguised.

    "......they always mix ideals with it......."

    I think all colonialism is idealistic in the minds of the colonisers at the beginning. Later, the ordinary citizens of the colonial power start to catch-on as to what their leaders are really up to. But this can take a generation or more.

    Idealism does depend on ignorance. In this connection the American media do a superb job in keeping the attention of their readers and gaze of their viewers away from certain facts, which, if they became widely known would cause people to think differently, which, in turn, would threaten the established economic and social order.

    Something like this began to happen in the 1970s after Vietnam. However, the upholders of the established order quickly re-took control, and, well..............need I say more?

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  23. The USAers are in deep denial of their colonialist tendencies. This will remain a problem until they own up to it.
    An alcoholic can not be cured until he admits that he is an alcoholic.

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