Somewhat agree, except the part about the Serbs/Croats. The Serbs were trying to keep the multicultural Yugoslavia together, the EU/Germans wanted to break the country apart so they could feast on the pieces, and backed - as they so often do - nationalist fascist and racialist elements to that end.
Milosevic won his court cases against him, and he was poisoned before he could start the spill the beans once he was released. Tudjman however was kept far away from a trial; because his hands were as bloody as Nuttyahoos.
The region is still in turmoil today due to this utterly cynical manoeuvre, although once Russia liberates Odessa, Serbia will be able to join BRICS and have a direct trade route through the Danube.
I'm afraid the situation with the Hindus and Pakistanis is that they BOTH see themselves as superior, and once again Britain has done all that it can to stir up trouble between them for its own Imperial ends. India is mainly at fault in the current situation, especially in Kashmir, but don't think that Pakistan has clean hands either. As the Pakistani defence minister admitted recently, their hands WERE behind many terror attacks; and the West behind them. Ditto, needless to say, many equal Indian atrocities and who encouraged those.
The domination system may never go away, it is mammalian hardwired; but a wise society is wise because it has learned to bend that instinct into socially-beneficial acts and systems: the West has done the opposite, and created a system where that instinct is revelled in, for a small caste 'elite'.
We are not perfect creatures, nor ever will be in any realistic timeframe. But we COULD realise this imperfection, and turn it to society's benefit as a whole, rather than a small number's.
I agree wholeheartedly. We can do better. We actually have on occasion. As for the tribal divisions, I also agree with you, in that the imperialist west has had a hand in almost every instance of these wars. Britain especially, with the U.S. playing their second cousins in the background. I'm more concerned over this latest statement by the Pakistani Railroad minister threatening to lob nukes at India. I hope some cooler, saner heads will prevail here.
Both sides do that each time they have a conflict, last time I was in India (2002 if memory serves, but around then), they were also at the brink of war, and all the Indian media were gung ho about how Pakistan was about to be vaporised.
I remember holding court to a large group of young Indian men after a meditation practise, trying to get them to understand that this isn't just a "Big Bomb", that it would destroy and poison the sacred land for many, many generations to come, after some of them expressed their willingness to go that far. The whole 'Duck and cover' childhood messaging, etc. Being in and around Mumbai for the period I was there was somewhat nerve-wracking, as along with New Delhi this was absolutely Ground Zero.
Would Western deepstate 'influencers' try to instigate such a catastrophe to undermine BRICS? I wouldn't put a single penny against that bet.
And frankly, Indian and Pakistani leadership (Sans Imran Khan, and a few in India too) are as bad as our own. All we can do is pray wiser council prevails.
And that is the crux of it all. Someone, probably someone in the west, is stirring things up in Afghanistan again amongst the Pashto and, by proxy, some of the other factions who are poor and hungry. The tensions between the Muslims and Hindus goes back centuries but they have been stirred up once again because someone stands to gain from it. I want to believe that the cooler heads will prevail once again and things will eventually dial back to the low simmer its always been. Here's hoping.
I heard recently that Russia has just formally recognised the Taliban, which, at least historically, was a Pashtun based group. And the Taliban are very interested in the BRI, which is going to require stability across the area/region. Fingers crossed the Taliban leadership can impose enough discipline, and can crack down on the various western fronts, such as the AQ and IS groups, that mainly cause all the trouble.
(As a side note, the Talib dignitaries that visited Moscow were very impressed by the Russian women - that alone may well cause more social change for women in Afghanistan than every single Western bomb and bullet).
Modi's behaviour is almost guaranteeing future conflicts, with his treatment within India of minorities especially Muslims, and the unilateral revocation of Kashmir's Special Status, and the ethnic-cleansing he initiated there.
And as it seems every time the local Muslims will fight back against these outrages, Pakistan is going to be blamed (From the playbook of Israel's blaming of Iran), I fear it's going to take a miracle.
But they do happen, from time to time.
I'm one of those that thinks "Hope" was the cruellest release from the box by Pandora, but sometimes that's all we have left. xxx
I remember reading about that delegation visiting Moscow as well. I lived in Konduz as a special operations soldier in 2002 (the kind with no uniforms) and learned first hand all of the lies the western governments were telling everyone back home in the west. Although I despised the Taliban for their strict Sharia laws, I was awed by the way the people adapted and shrugged their shoulders. They are a very resilient people. I miss some of my comrades I worked with there. I often wonder what has happened to them after all of these years.
I'm afraid you're right about Modi and that scares me a little. He is always looking for an excuse to pick on the Muslims and this may be the spark he wants. I hope not because the Muslims will fight back if pushed too hard and things could escalate quickly with factions from around the region running to joint the new fight. I can see Al Qaeda factions and Daesh factions running down there to join up. Not something anyone wants. At least the sane ones anyway. Let's keep our fingers crossed that things will settle down in the coming days.
I visited Quetta on a study tour in 2000 (And was sold a Taliban outfit by a Pashtun trader there - he didn't bother to mention it was Taliban colours on the turban lol, it was much later I learned why there were so many raised eyebrows when I wore it lol, the bastard :'D ). Pakistan is easily the most extreme culture I've ever experienced, but it has it's good sides too. It's their system, I guess.
Islam is not for me, but I can admire many aspects of it, and those good and decent people who live up to the Sharia restrictions on bad behaviour - such as Gen Soleimani - are, or in his case sadly were - very noble people.
I prefer it to militant Christianity, that's for sure.
Although given a choice, I'd strongly prefer the pagan Hindu system (Not so much Modi's imposed near-monotheism, however).
That whole region creates natural warriors, the Punjab's Sikhs only a fool would attack. There were many stories about normal Afghan farmers watching Britain's and US's best special forces sneak around with great amusement. If we had behaved considerably better - not restarted the opium trade would have been good move, along with curbing the EXTREME corruption of the imposed occupation regime - we might have had a considerably easier time of it. Needless to say, 'we' were only there TO cause regional problems, to prepare for the planned attack on Iran, and regarded the locals as little better than cattle. Well, once again an arrogant empire learned the bitter way.
If Modi doesn't stop all his BS - and there's no sign he is even considering that - it's hard to avoid the conclusion an explosion is due to take place. Both within India, and also around India. And with his dalliance with BRICS, the Western powers will do all they can to facilitate that.
It's an unholy mess. TBH, I wouldn't trust the Congress Party one inch either. Like us in Britain, there are simply no good choices for elections.
At least Ireland has Sinn Fein, the lucky so and sos. And by damn they deserve a break after the last few centuries.
Don't know how Daesh and AQ involvement will go down in Afghanistan, certainly they are rightly seen as western backed terrorist groups by the authorities, - but then if they were genuinely fighting for Islam and oppressed civilians (Which would be a first), maybe leeway would be given.
Somewhat agree, except the part about the Serbs/Croats. The Serbs were trying to keep the multicultural Yugoslavia together, the EU/Germans wanted to break the country apart so they could feast on the pieces, and backed - as they so often do - nationalist fascist and racialist elements to that end.
Milosevic won his court cases against him, and he was poisoned before he could start the spill the beans once he was released. Tudjman however was kept far away from a trial; because his hands were as bloody as Nuttyahoos.
The region is still in turmoil today due to this utterly cynical manoeuvre, although once Russia liberates Odessa, Serbia will be able to join BRICS and have a direct trade route through the Danube.
I'm afraid the situation with the Hindus and Pakistanis is that they BOTH see themselves as superior, and once again Britain has done all that it can to stir up trouble between them for its own Imperial ends. India is mainly at fault in the current situation, especially in Kashmir, but don't think that Pakistan has clean hands either. As the Pakistani defence minister admitted recently, their hands WERE behind many terror attacks; and the West behind them. Ditto, needless to say, many equal Indian atrocities and who encouraged those.
The domination system may never go away, it is mammalian hardwired; but a wise society is wise because it has learned to bend that instinct into socially-beneficial acts and systems: the West has done the opposite, and created a system where that instinct is revelled in, for a small caste 'elite'.
We are not perfect creatures, nor ever will be in any realistic timeframe. But we COULD realise this imperfection, and turn it to society's benefit as a whole, rather than a small number's.
I agree wholeheartedly. We can do better. We actually have on occasion. As for the tribal divisions, I also agree with you, in that the imperialist west has had a hand in almost every instance of these wars. Britain especially, with the U.S. playing their second cousins in the background. I'm more concerned over this latest statement by the Pakistani Railroad minister threatening to lob nukes at India. I hope some cooler, saner heads will prevail here.
Both sides do that each time they have a conflict, last time I was in India (2002 if memory serves, but around then), they were also at the brink of war, and all the Indian media were gung ho about how Pakistan was about to be vaporised.
I remember holding court to a large group of young Indian men after a meditation practise, trying to get them to understand that this isn't just a "Big Bomb", that it would destroy and poison the sacred land for many, many generations to come, after some of them expressed their willingness to go that far. The whole 'Duck and cover' childhood messaging, etc. Being in and around Mumbai for the period I was there was somewhat nerve-wracking, as along with New Delhi this was absolutely Ground Zero.
Would Western deepstate 'influencers' try to instigate such a catastrophe to undermine BRICS? I wouldn't put a single penny against that bet.
And frankly, Indian and Pakistani leadership (Sans Imran Khan, and a few in India too) are as bad as our own. All we can do is pray wiser council prevails.
And that is the crux of it all. Someone, probably someone in the west, is stirring things up in Afghanistan again amongst the Pashto and, by proxy, some of the other factions who are poor and hungry. The tensions between the Muslims and Hindus goes back centuries but they have been stirred up once again because someone stands to gain from it. I want to believe that the cooler heads will prevail once again and things will eventually dial back to the low simmer its always been. Here's hoping.
I heard recently that Russia has just formally recognised the Taliban, which, at least historically, was a Pashtun based group. And the Taliban are very interested in the BRI, which is going to require stability across the area/region. Fingers crossed the Taliban leadership can impose enough discipline, and can crack down on the various western fronts, such as the AQ and IS groups, that mainly cause all the trouble.
(As a side note, the Talib dignitaries that visited Moscow were very impressed by the Russian women - that alone may well cause more social change for women in Afghanistan than every single Western bomb and bullet).
Modi's behaviour is almost guaranteeing future conflicts, with his treatment within India of minorities especially Muslims, and the unilateral revocation of Kashmir's Special Status, and the ethnic-cleansing he initiated there.
And as it seems every time the local Muslims will fight back against these outrages, Pakistan is going to be blamed (From the playbook of Israel's blaming of Iran), I fear it's going to take a miracle.
But they do happen, from time to time.
I'm one of those that thinks "Hope" was the cruellest release from the box by Pandora, but sometimes that's all we have left. xxx
I remember reading about that delegation visiting Moscow as well. I lived in Konduz as a special operations soldier in 2002 (the kind with no uniforms) and learned first hand all of the lies the western governments were telling everyone back home in the west. Although I despised the Taliban for their strict Sharia laws, I was awed by the way the people adapted and shrugged their shoulders. They are a very resilient people. I miss some of my comrades I worked with there. I often wonder what has happened to them after all of these years.
I'm afraid you're right about Modi and that scares me a little. He is always looking for an excuse to pick on the Muslims and this may be the spark he wants. I hope not because the Muslims will fight back if pushed too hard and things could escalate quickly with factions from around the region running to joint the new fight. I can see Al Qaeda factions and Daesh factions running down there to join up. Not something anyone wants. At least the sane ones anyway. Let's keep our fingers crossed that things will settle down in the coming days.
I visited Quetta on a study tour in 2000 (And was sold a Taliban outfit by a Pashtun trader there - he didn't bother to mention it was Taliban colours on the turban lol, it was much later I learned why there were so many raised eyebrows when I wore it lol, the bastard :'D ). Pakistan is easily the most extreme culture I've ever experienced, but it has it's good sides too. It's their system, I guess.
Islam is not for me, but I can admire many aspects of it, and those good and decent people who live up to the Sharia restrictions on bad behaviour - such as Gen Soleimani - are, or in his case sadly were - very noble people.
I prefer it to militant Christianity, that's for sure.
Although given a choice, I'd strongly prefer the pagan Hindu system (Not so much Modi's imposed near-monotheism, however).
That whole region creates natural warriors, the Punjab's Sikhs only a fool would attack. There were many stories about normal Afghan farmers watching Britain's and US's best special forces sneak around with great amusement. If we had behaved considerably better - not restarted the opium trade would have been good move, along with curbing the EXTREME corruption of the imposed occupation regime - we might have had a considerably easier time of it. Needless to say, 'we' were only there TO cause regional problems, to prepare for the planned attack on Iran, and regarded the locals as little better than cattle. Well, once again an arrogant empire learned the bitter way.
If Modi doesn't stop all his BS - and there's no sign he is even considering that - it's hard to avoid the conclusion an explosion is due to take place. Both within India, and also around India. And with his dalliance with BRICS, the Western powers will do all they can to facilitate that.
It's an unholy mess. TBH, I wouldn't trust the Congress Party one inch either. Like us in Britain, there are simply no good choices for elections.
At least Ireland has Sinn Fein, the lucky so and sos. And by damn they deserve a break after the last few centuries.
Don't know how Daesh and AQ involvement will go down in Afghanistan, certainly they are rightly seen as western backed terrorist groups by the authorities, - but then if they were genuinely fighting for Islam and oppressed civilians (Which would be a first), maybe leeway would be given.
It's an unholy mess.