Saturday, September 16, 2006
War roundup
As a public service, I thought I'd sort out and piece together a lot of war-related reports, considering so much is happening in Afghanistan, Iraq etc. Here goes:
Seems strange to start a war roundup with a controversy over a pope's remarks about 14th century Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaeologus' observations on the Prophet Mohammad. But we live in very strange times. Observation on Pope Benedict's comments: The word 'clumsy' comes to mind, considerering he says he was talking about 'jihad' but stands by his quoting from a long-dead emperor who was basically condemning Islam in general. ... Of course if a Muslim fanatic issues a fatwa against Benedict, I guess the Pope's point will have been made. ... The papal flap is angering leaders in Turkey -- and that's one country we really don't want to upset right now. Emmanuel College's Lenore G. Martin notes that Turkey is thinking of invading northern Iraq. ... Speaking of Iraq, they're building trenches around Baghdad. ... On to Afghanistan: Not good. And yet not hopeless. The Poles. What can you say? They're stepping up to the plate. A Hub Blog relative recently read 'Fiasco' and says there's a great passage about how hard Poles have fought in Iraq. We shoud be also thanking the Brits and Canadians who are fighting hard in Afghanistan. ... Domestically, the President of the United States of America continues to stump for torture. ... Locally, lefty Blue Mass Group has fired a threatening salvo at righty Hub Politics, escalating local blogger tensions. ...(You're shamelessly and deliberately trying to provoke a local blogger war by including that last item!--ed. I never said what 'war' I was rounding up.) ...
As a public service, I thought I'd sort out and piece together a lot of war-related reports, considering so much is happening in Afghanistan, Iraq etc. Here goes:
Seems strange to start a war roundup with a controversy over a pope's remarks about 14th century Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaeologus' observations on the Prophet Mohammad. But we live in very strange times. Observation on Pope Benedict's comments: The word 'clumsy' comes to mind, considerering he says he was talking about 'jihad' but stands by his quoting from a long-dead emperor who was basically condemning Islam in general. ... Of course if a Muslim fanatic issues a fatwa against Benedict, I guess the Pope's point will have been made. ... The papal flap is angering leaders in Turkey -- and that's one country we really don't want to upset right now. Emmanuel College's Lenore G. Martin notes that Turkey is thinking of invading northern Iraq. ... Speaking of Iraq, they're building trenches around Baghdad. ... On to Afghanistan: Not good. And yet not hopeless. The Poles. What can you say? They're stepping up to the plate. A Hub Blog relative recently read 'Fiasco' and says there's a great passage about how hard Poles have fought in Iraq. We shoud be also thanking the Brits and Canadians who are fighting hard in Afghanistan. ... Domestically, the President of the United States of America continues to stump for torture. ... Locally, lefty Blue Mass Group has fired a threatening salvo at righty Hub Politics, escalating local blogger tensions. ...(You're shamelessly and deliberately trying to provoke a local blogger war by including that last item!--ed. I never said what 'war' I was rounding up.) ...
