For years the U.S. has been carrying out Predator strikes against Islamist terrorists in Pakistan — but only in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. The rest of Pakistan has been out of bounds, including Baluchistan, where in the city of Quetta, the Afghan Taliban have established their operational headquarters. That may be changing. The New York Times reports today: “American officials are talking with Pakistan about the possibility of striking in Baluchistan for the first time — a controversial move since it is outside the tribal areas — because that is where Afghan Taliban leaders are believed to hide.”
It’s about time. In a Times op-ed today, RAND’s Seth Jones quotes a Marine he met in Helmand Province: “The Taliban sanctuary in Baluchistan is catastrophic for us. Local Taliban fighters get strategic and operational guidance from across the border, as well as supplies and technical components for their improvised explosive devices.”
I heard similar sentiments when I was in Afghanistan in October. Indeed, one senior American officer told me that many Afghans can’t figure out why we are giving a pass to Mullah Omar and the senior Afghan Taliban leadership when we are targeting leaders of al-Qaeda and even the Pakistani Taliban (including their leader, Baitullah Mehsud, who was killed in a U.S. strike in August). This has led to the spread of conspiracy theories suggesting that the Americans are somehow in cahoots with the Afghan Taliban. Crazy, I know, but those are the kinds of wild theories that are believed in tribal societies like Afghanistan.
In reality, I suspect, we have refrained from strikes on the Taliban leadership for fear of offending the Pakistani government. But if we’re going to get serious about turning around the situation on the ground in Afghanistan, we have to take the gloves off and send the Predators over Quetta.
Mr. Hazony, the supposed 80/20 split is a fabricated number from decades ago which represents nothing except an attempt by the secular left to claim that their views represent 80%. This is no more true than to say that the Haredi views represent 80%. My guess is today there are more Haredim than hardcore leftists. But it all depends on how you define things, doesn’t it. What constitutes secularism anymore? What constitutes religious?
These words mean no more than trying to define what proportion of Muslims are “moderates” or “radicals”. Everyone defines their terms in whatever way suits their needs, so the polls are rendered meaningless (like the one that was recently taken that purportedly showed that only 7% of Muslims are radicals).
What really matters is how much matzah gets eaten at Passover. This is the true indicator. Measure that and ponder the deep meaning.
Yaakov Kirschen is an excellent example of the “conservative” Israeli you describe. What’s astounding is the con job Ha’aretz has pulled off presenting itself as somehow representative of Israel.
This stickling for government support for a ritual prohibition is nobody’s business but the citizens of Israel.
It’s strikingly inconsistent, however, with the position of most Jewish organizations in the US, who are vigorous in objecting even to expressions of “civic religion” in our historically Protestant country, and, moreover, quite willing to appeal to the unelected judiciary for this redress.
Ellen,
What really matters is how much matzah gets eaten at Passover. This is the true indicator. Measure that and ponder the deep meaning.
What a crock. After you deplore the lack of precision in definitions you go ahead and confuse matters yourself. There are two separate issues here.
One is that there are secular jews who are traditional, in the sense that they don’t mind the rituals of passover, purim, hanukkah, etc. I am a militant atheist and yet like matzot and eat them outside of pesach too.
The other is freedom from religion. Those who don’t want anything to do with it should not be forced to observe it. This is a PRINCIPLE which should not be affected by the % of seculars and religious. Like all the the religiously inclined, you have no comprehension of this. Religions that must be enforced by govt are weak, corruptible religions and this is exactly what religion is in israel too. The religious parties are the most corrupted, just consider all the scandals of their MK’s and ministers. Nobody beats them in numbers and gall.
The only reason these rituals are enforced by the govt is because of the pivotal political role the charedim play in israeli coalitional politics well beyond their size in the society. It is not due to a belief that it’s good or important or moral or whatever. It is a price that politicians can pay to get into power, relative to other concessions which they deem more important.
oao
http://fallofknowledgeandreason.blogspot.com/
Its only bread .
no, crackers