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Associated Press reports that Pakistan Peoples Party leader and former Pakistan Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto, was assassinated at a rally today.
It is unclear to me right now if she was killed by gunfire from the assassin who then blew himself up, or if she was killed by the explosion.
At least fifteen people were killed in the explosion.
Ironically, Musharraf had declared earlier today that 'No body allowed to sabotage electoral process in country'.
Maybe this doesn't count as sabotage.
What does this mean for the Jan 8 elections? Who's next? Pervez Musharraf will be very quick to cancel the elections and announce another emergency.
Pakistan's prime ministers have had some weird deaths.
Liaquat Ali Khan was assassinated for his policy of moderation vis-a-vis India on the Kashmir issue. HS Suhrawardy, who at best provoked and incited riots, and at worst, did his Nero thing when Bengal burned in 1946 as a consequence of Jinnah's call for a 'Direct Action Day', is believed to have been poisoned. Benazir's father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was executed for allegedly conspiring to murder the father of a dissident Pakistan Peoples Party politician.
I did some poking around and it seems likely that the PPP politician in question was Mahmud Ali Kasuri, the father of Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri, who was until recently Pakistan's Foreign Minister and seen/heard very often on Indian TV news channels.
Benazir Bhutto was assassinated earlier today. Nawaz Sharif really ought to be doing something to save himself.
Benazir and Sharif looted and destroyed the country for the best part of a decade, beginning with Benazir's first innings in 1988. While she couldn't achieve much in her first term, her second term was notable for her husband Asif Ali Zardari being made Minister, and the subsequent nepotism.
Although her death is a sad event and condemnable, in a warped sense, I hope this is the beginning of a clean-up of Pakistan's political system. The country desperately needs a new generation of leaders.
Her government provided military and financial support to the Taliban. The Taliban gave shelter to Osama's al-Qaeda. It is speculated that she was assassinated by the al-Qaeda, something that the White House spokesperson also hinted at.
If it indeed was the al-Qaeda, it reinforces my belief that you cultivate and breed terrorists at your own risk.
The most hilarious part about George Bush's condolence message is when he says
The United States strongly condemns this cowardly act by murderous extremists who are trying to undermine Pakistan's democracy.Pakistan's democracy? Is he referring to what exists right now?
Labels: al-qaeda, bhutto, elections, musharraf, pakistan, taliban, terrorism
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Proof that the al-Qaeda uses Google
By calling US President George Bush a "lying failure", the al-Qaeda number two, Ayman al-Zawahiri, has finally revealed that the organization, and he in particular, use Google extensively.
Anyone who's read his/her email over the last 2-3 years would have got at least a dozen emails, typically forwarded by friends/family, which ask you to type "miserable failure" in Google's search box, press "I'm feeling lucky" and be astounded at how the same result, George W Bush's biography shows up on each of those dozen occasions. That said, we get George Bush's profile at #1 on Yahoo! Search and MSN Live Search as well. So perhaps there is a strong consensus from a 'Wisdom of crowds' theory angle!
Besides, it also vindicates my gut feeling that for most (perhaps in excess of 80%) search queries, the top 3-5 results returned on all search engines are identical and are perhaps differentiated only in terms of the ranking.
In any case, back to the al-Qaeda. I searched for "lying failure" on Google and landed up at a post on 'The Inside Dope' about the Bush administration's incompetent handling of 'Hurricane Katrina'. W.W.W.W.W or Q.E.D.
So much so for "Don't be evil", eh?!
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At last, the murderer of Nick Berg, and possibly even Daniel Pearl, and one of Time Magazine's hundred folks who changed the world in 2005, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed after his house was bombed by US F-16 aircraft yesterday.
In October 2004, he announced that his group would be merging with the al-Qaeda.
Reports from Associated Press, CNN. Obituaries on the BBC (who call him a 'miscreant') and Al-Jazeera.
Profile on Wikipedia.
Labels: al-qaeda
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It is now becoming clear that four of the suspected bombers who were behind the cowardly terrorist act in London were in fact British citizens of Pakistani origin.
One of the four apparently went to Pakistan, and possibly Afghanistan, for 'religious training'. What you make of that term is left to your imagination. To me, it equates to terrorist training in military camps run by the various terrorist organizations harboured by the Pakistani government and the Taliban.
As this BBC report indicates, it is only now that Britain is feeling the pinch of being in bed with Pakistan. The US felt it four years ago, even though their relationship with Pakistan was deteriorating following the nuclear tests of 1998.
It is really unfortunate that London, and Londoners, suffered because of the inability of the UK government to read the riot act out to Pervez Musharraf. It is really high time the rest of the world saw Musharraf for what he is, a dictator who actively cultivated and supported the Al-Qaeda and now controls several terrorist organizations which strike at will across the world, including, lest we forget in the midst of the carnage, India. Someone needs to point him to this paper indicating the lack of any correlation between poverty and terrorism so that he is forced to alight from his high horse.
Labels: al-qaeda, musharraf, pakistan, uk
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Even as Londoners recovered from the revelry, hangovers and gloating following the news that the city would host the 2012 Olympic Games, a series of blasts have rocked the city just past noon local time. There were blasts in the London Underground as well as on a bus. More than thirty have died. Scotland Yard, in a statement, confirms the four sites which were attacked.
Follow the story at Yahoo! News, Wikipedia, Google News, Yahoo! UK, and BBC News.
Either the French are really mad on having lost out on the IOC vote or there're some people who really want to make their presence and protest felt against the G-8 summit in Scotland or its those terrorists again.
Update: Turns out a terrorist group linked to the Al-Qaeda has claimed responsibility.
Reports from The International Herald Tribune, The Economist, The New York Times and Slate.
Photo essays from Time and Yahoo! News.
London was affected by a blackout a couple of years ago.
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Pakistan and Iran behind Afghanistan protests against Koran desecration?
A few weeks ago, Newsweek reported that US military investigators had found evidence of prisoner abuse at Guantanamo Bay, including sexual abuse & religious humiliation, in order to make them 'sing'. The accused were obviously just following a trend established by peers elsewhere.
Hell broke loose in the Islamic world, especially Afghanistan & Pakistan, obviously mad at the fact that the report talked of the Koran being flushed down a toilet.
Under a lot of pressure from the Pentagon, Newsweek ended up having to retract its story. It has also now modified its policy on quoting anonymous sources. The Red Cross now says that it provided the Pentagon with reports about US military personnel mishandling or disrespecting the Quran.
Sarah Chayes writes in the NY Times that Iran and Pakistan were very likely behind the rioting in Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, even as the hunt for Osama continues, a former CIA officer feels that Pakistan conveniently delayed acting on the information provided about a senior Al-Qaeda commander who turned out to be Abu Faraj al-Libbi. Apparently they wanted to ensure that the person wasn't Osama himself.
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The announcement of the Abu Zarqawi group's merger with the Al-Qaeda is bound to create ripples in the fight against terrorists. For those who came in late, Abu Zarqawi was almost definitely the brain behind Daniel Pearl's and Nick Berg's gruesome murders. This merger ranks right up with Compaq and HP coming together a few years ago!
Labels: al-qaeda
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According to Newsweek, US counter terrorism officials are considering postponing the presidential election if an al Qaeda attack happens during the election.
Labels: al-qaeda
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Pervez Musharraf talks about al-Qaeda, Kashmir, attacks on him, his dual role as President & army chief and proliferation by Dr. AQ Khan.
Labels: al-qaeda, aq khan, jammu and kashmir, proliferation
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The commission setup by the US government to probe the Sep 11, 2001 attacks is convinced that Saudi Arabia and Pakistan turned a blind eye towards al-Qaeda operations in their countries. The LA Times had already published a story about this.
Labels: al-qaeda
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Bill Clinton defends his strategy of tackling al-Qaeda, Saddam & other issues in an interview to CBS 60 minutes.
Labels: al-qaeda
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In a barbaric and shocking murder bearing eerie resemblance to the killing of Daniel Pearl, the WSJ reporter who was beheaded in Pakistan, a US businessman Nick Berg was cruelly and ruthlessly beheaded and a video of his killing uploaded onto a website by a group headed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who has been linked to the al-Qaeda. The video also held out threats to Bush and Musharraf. While it may be far fetched to connect Omar Sheikh, who is thought to have been behind Pearl's killing and is also a close associate of Maulana Azhar Masood, founder of the Jaish-e-Mohammad, and the Abu Musab & al-Qaeda, purely based on the way the victims were murdered, it is certainly a lead worth pursuing for any investigating agency. Certainly B Raman in Rediff seems to think on similar lines.
Labels: al-qaeda
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Politics
In response to Shekhar Gupta's column in the Indian Express, I dashed off this email to him. Let's see if it draws a response.
Hi Mr Gupta
While I agree it is entirely plausible that political developments in India have been to a certain extent governed by their economic implications, I dont quite share your view that things will become better between India & Pakistan with contribution from this cricket tour.
To me, the bonhomie in the stands, off the field and at a political level, seen in this series is far from reality. The success of the tour is a brilliantly stage managed PR campaign by Musharraf & co. India played into his hands by accepting the tour, going ahead with it while conveying its security fears and now at the end of it all, we have the cricketers saying security was not a problem and that Pakistan was as safe a place as any other to play cricket in.
Now Musharraf, armed with India's verdict on Pakistan being safe, will feel extremely pleased and promptly announce himself as President and Army chief for life, in the national interest. He'll also look the other way when the snow melts and infiltration starts in J & K. The timing of the infiltration, and the obvious response from the Indian army, will coincide with his threat to not be party to the talks if Kashmir wasn't discussed in July. He'll make it appear as though its India's fault all the way. Meanwhile he'll continue to look the other way in Afghanistan even as Osama and al-Zawahiri continue their activities. To placate the US, once in a while he'll ensure some small fry local al-Qaeda/Taliban commander is captured. He'll then roll his fingers on his chair and say 'Musharraf khush hua!'
Ever wondered what the actual White House Presidential Daily Briefing just prior to the Sep 11, 2001 attacks looked like?
Labels: al-qaeda, jammu and kashmir
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Cricket
Triple centuries suddenly seem dime-a-dozen nowadays. 8 out of the 19 triple centuries scored in tests have been made post 1990, 4 of those 8 were made post 2000. Is it an indication about the lack of quality bowling nowadays that everyone and his dog manages to make a triple ton? Consider this. Of the current players, Lara and Tendulkar are in a race to get to 10000 runs, with Lara well in front now on the back of his amazing quadruple ton, the first ever in test cricket. In fact Lara is now exactly 400 runs ahead of Tendulkar. Amazingly enough, both of Lara's triple centuries came at St. John's, Antigua, just as both of Bradman's triple centuries came at Leeds. England's Thorpe is the only English player who was chasing leather on both occasions, including when Lara broke Sir Garfield Sobers' mark of 365 nearly a decade ago. In fact Lara himself is the other player who played in both the tests with Shivnarine Chanderpaul missing out narrowly after he was dropped for this game. Spookily enough, umpire Darrell Hair has been an umpire in both these tests! Anyway, back to the topic: when you leave those two aside, there're no batsmen who've made more than 7000 runs. There're very few current batsmen who've made even 6000 runs. The only ones who have are Inzamam (6890), Dravid (6595) [both as of end of the first day at Rawalpindi] & Ponting (6019). Kallis and Thorpe are just short of 6000 runs.
The quality of bowling, especially in the last half a dozen years or so with the retirements/waning of Ambrose, Walsh, Donald, Wasim, Waqar, Warne, Kumble etc. has been at an all-time low. Yet how do you explain the fact that there're hardly any batsmen who've made more than 6000 runs. All of these batsmen made their debuts sometime in the last decade (Inzamam in 1992 is the earliest of the lot while Kallis & Ponting would be the latest debutants).
Politics
The now declassified full text of the intelligence briefing of 6 August 2001, prepared for US President George Bush, concerning al-Qaeda threat to the United States.
Technology
Forbes Magazine profiles Google's GMail
Labels: al-qaeda
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Cricket
A historic win at Multan, built around Sehwag's triple-century, the first ever for India in Pakistan, is hopefully only the starting phase of the upward movement of the Indian side. The aim must be to get to the #2 slot, currently occupied by South Africa, within the next year. Between August 2003 and now, Australia's rating has gone down by 2 points, South Africa's by 7 and New Zealand's by 6 points while India's rating has increased by 7 points. South Africa are currently on 112 points and in 2nd place. The difference, as of yesterday, between India and South Africa was 12 points. Surely it will not be improbable to continue the improvement and defeat South Africa and Australia at home, along with a win over Bangladesh. Considering that South Africa defeated India on its last tour here, a win for India would result in a substantial points increase. However, what must happen first is to continue the winning ways and win the series, without losing any of the next two tests. On quite a few occasions, India has let slip 1-0 leads or hasnt been able to maintain the momentum after a win. In the West Indies, India lost 2-1 from being 1-0 up and 3 tests to go. In England, the team picked itself up from the 2nd test and won the third but could only draw the final test. In Australia we let slip a 1-0 lead, handed Australia the 3rd test, did all the running in the final test but couldn't nail down the series win.
Technology
Google has announced the launch of its email product, called gmail. I really like their logo where they juxtapose the M in mail to make it look like an envelope. Gmail claims to offer users huge mailboxes and better mail search.
Politics
Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf has riled India for the second time in a month with his statement yesterday that he'd no longer be party to the peace process if there is no progress in Indo-Pak talks on the issue of Kashmir. While Pakistani officials deny it, this is what he exactly said: The foreign ministers will meet in July-August. If we don't move forward, I am not in the process. Earlier during a videoconference address during the India Today conclave, he had insisted that Kashmir was the central issue. Effectively his argument during the conclave called for both sides putting all ideas on the table and then rejecting those that do not find favour with one side or the other. While this sounds extremely sensible and sane, it'd mean that you'd have a clean table halfway through the discussion, because, in my opinion, the intersection of Pakistani and Indian thoughts on the peace process is a null set. Musharraf's bellicose sabre-rattling may be born out of domestic compulsions, especially as it comes in the wake of the military offensive in Waziristan against suspected Al-Qaeda militants and commanders. However, he is smart enough to recognize that the Indian government had committed itself to the peace process the moment the NDA/BJP started shouting from the rooftops that they were responsible for the thaw in relations, which led to the feel good factor. Now the BJP/NDA cannot force the government to backtrack on the peace process, neither can the government stay mum because clearly it has to react to Musharraf's recent diatribes. Effectively, its advantage Musharraf now!
Humour
Here are the top 10 April Fool's day hoaxes of all time and a chronological index of April Fool's day hoaxes.
Labels: al-qaeda, google, jammu and kashmir
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Politics
The defeat of Spanish PM Jose Maria Aznar in the elections last week which took place in the aftermath of the Madrid bomb blasts was significant because the new government has made it clear that it would pull its troops out of Iraq unless the UN was given charge. PM elect Jose Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has, ever since Spain decided to join the coalition of the willing, made it clear that his party, the Socialist party, was opposed to sending Spanish troops to help with the war against Saddam Hussein.
What made things worse for the ex-PM Jose Maria Aznar was that having been at a battle against Basque ETA terrorists, his government, rather rapidly, blamed that terrorist organization for the blasts in Madrid. The Spaniard next-door however wasnt convinced that it was an ETA attack. Basque ETA disclaimed any linkage to the blast. Analysts felt that ETA's involvement was unlikely because their typical modus operandi involved targetting politicians and giving warnings of bombs placed in public places. Additionally, if Basque ETA was behind the attack, it would only strengthen public support for Aznar's stand against them. The plot thickened when Al Qaeda claimed responsibility, as a response to the Spanish government's collaboration with the US and its allies.
Then Spaniards realized that it was possibly Islamic terrorism at work and decided that Al Qaeda was determined to hurt them because of the Aznar government's policy towards Iraq and the war against global terror. [This part of the war sponsored by the United States of America] They voted the Aznar government out of power. Alternately, they were angry that the government misled them by fixing the blame on Basque ETA and failing to see the terrorists.
It is a very significant development because it shows that electoral results can swing when events of this nature occur. Given that the terrorists have shown their ability to strike at will, anywhere, the chances that their actions could result in governments opposed to action against terrorism coming to power increase drastically, thereby strengthening the terrorist movements. Spain's rejection of Aznar's government could be taken as evidence of George Bush’s friendlessness as well as possibly trigger off dissent amongst the coalition forces.
Colin Powell's visit to India has had its fair share of questions on nuclear proliferation, Indo-Pak ties etc. He also answered questions on the various protectionist bills/laws being enacted at state and federal levels in the USA in reaction to jobs being outsourced to countries like India, China, Phillipines etc. Powell repeated his government's line, that India erecting high trade barriers was not helpful in Indo-US trade and that if India proceeded to lower the barriers, the US would also be able to address the issue of restrictions being placed on outsourcing. However, the central problem with an argument which attempts to link up outsourcing to open markets is that discussions on lowering existing barriers is typically done at the WTO. However, the stance by various governments/groups in the US against BPO is a case of a new barrier being erected. Keeping in mind that until recently, there were no such restrictions placed on BPO in the US, effectively, the demand is that India lower its duties and tariffs if it wants the US to not introduce fresh controls. Such a proposal also totally ignores the problems faced due to barriers & regulations placed on industrial and agricultural products placed by the US and other leading developed nations, in the form of agricultural product subsidies.
That famously maverick politician, Subramanian Swamy offers his views on why Nehru's secularism model failed.
Link of the day
Google has launched a new service called Google Local which can be used to locate services etc. in the neighbourhood as well as providing maps to help people get to where they want to.
The plight of customer care:
Labels: al-qaeda, google, outsourcing
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Cricket
The first final of the tri (or bi?) series is over. India overwhelmed by Australia with 7 wickets and nearly 10 overs to spare. Pity there're no bonus points in finals, we could have got one! An abysmal batting display (the 3rd in 3 consecutive games now!) meant that India were never quite in the hunt after losing 4 wickets within the first 15 and 6 within the first 25 overs! Perhaps, as the experts have opined, this has been a tour far too long. The BCCI deserves a rap for accepting a schedule of this nature. 12 one-day games when the third team was clearly never going to make the finals is ridiculous. Perhaps in these tournaments (unless it is a World Cup or the ICC Champions Trophy), once it has been determined who progresses to the next round, there should be no more matches. That'll prevent a whole bunch of meaningless "contents".
I had a look at the performances by the Indian batsmen in losing games against Australia, starting from the 2003 World Cup, including today's no-show.
The opening partnerships were: 22, 4, 0, 103, 8, 103, 1, 20, 6
The approximate score after 15 overs was: 45/4, 80/3, 70/2, 90/0, 55/2, 85/0, 80/2, 60/4, 52/4
* approximate score since I couldn't find the exact 15 over score sometimes.
It does indicate at a poor performance from the top order where on 7 occasions (out of 9 innings), the team lost the 1st wicket with < 25 on the board. On 5 out of those 7 occasions, the 15 over score was < 75 (which is 5 runs/over). On 3 out of those 5 occasions, 4 wickets had gone in the first 15 overs! That isn't exactly good top order batting, is it? So much so four our much vaunted batting lineup, eh? Come on India, you dont want to go away from Australia with the tails between your legs. Fight, the series is not yet over. Go back to the motivation shown in the Test series!
Politics
The Washington Post editorial says that while the Bush administration has rightly accepted Musharraf as an ally, it must accept the reality that Pakistan's actions threaten U.S. and global security more than al Qaeda or Saddam Hussein ever did.
Link of the day
Ever wondered where all those names spammers use come from? Try a random name generator, play around with the obscurity factor.
Labels: al-qaeda
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Politics
The Hindu's delayed editorial and comment piece on Pakistan's role in nuclear proliferation.
The US VISIT programme causes a guy-next-door Madras based businessman to be thought of as an Al-Qaeda terrorist.
With the government deciding to be majorly patronizing towards PIOs and NRIs, I wrote this wondering if it was time to expand the umbrella even further.
Labels: al-qaeda, aq khan, proliferation
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Politics of Cricket
Ho hum. YAPTC happened this week. YAPTC stands for Yet Another Pakistan Tour Cancellation. Pakistan has been crying itself hoarse over the last year or so about how it is a very safe place to play cricket, barring bombings in cities where matches are scheduled. Over the last year or so, New Zealand took the first flight out after a bomb blast near their hotel, Australia and West Indies opted to play Pakistan in the sweltering heat of Sharjah rather than be targetted by possible Al-Qaeda bombers in Pakistan while Sri Lanka cancelled the series. That leaves us with England and India amongst the major Test playing nations. England aren't due to play in Pakistan until 2005. Assuming Pakistan still plays cricket then [you never know, what if Pervez is overthrown and the Taliban has a resurgence and takes over Pakistan?], it'd be interesting to see if England do make the trip. I'm sure as a willing ally in the war against terrorism, it'll be difficult to categorize Pakistan as a place Beefy preferred to send his mother-in-law to. And then there was one.
India's refusal to tour Pakistan because of political considerations and terrorism in J & K absolutely baffles me. It allows Pakistan to accuse India of mixing sports with politics. The ICC adopts a holier than thou attitude and says the same thing, completely missing the fact that England's boycott of its World Cup game in Zimbabwe was more political than security related. India's official stance against playing in Pakistan should be that it cannot risk sending its players and citizens to a place where there is a VERY big threat perception. As far as I can remember, none of Australia, England, New Zealand, South Africa, Sri Lanka or West Indies have ever gone to war against Pakistan. India has. Four times. That doesn't include a 14 year proxy conflict in J & K and a 10 year proxy conflict in Punjab, which has thankfully ended.
In theory, sports and politics shouldn't mix. Unfortunately, a lot of the time, they do end up in one garbage heap. Look at the officials in the cricket boards/associations of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh. You invariably find ministers or MPs being heads of cricket associations, if not holding positions in the cricket board per se. You also have sportsmen becoming politicians. These are the same people who talk of how sports and politics are not to be mixed up. History is replete with instances of sports and politics mixing up, putting just about everyone involved in a quagmire. Here's a chronology I could come up with.
I'm fairly sure there're more instances, particularly when it involves the USA, USSR, UK, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan etc. Readers are welcome to contribute more instances.
Players have also been targetted in the past. The hockey team which went to Pakistan in 1990 for the World Cup was heckled all the way through their tour. During their game against Holland, slippers were thrown along with generous doses of abuse. Even though the Dutch and the referee offered to abandon the game, the Indian team opted to play on and lost. It ended up with the fairplay trophy. As an aside, isnt this trophy given nowadays? At least in the 1990s we used to bring home this particular trophy regularly, in various sports, especially hockey. Even though the current team is good, we're just far too inconsistent and have a tendency to doze off in the last 10 minutes. The other thing we're consistently doing is beat Pakistan in the league game and lose to them in the medal playoffs, in the final few minutes. Anyway, onto the players. Srikkanth was nearly attacked by a chap who managed to escape the security during the 1989 tour.
With Ganguly and Tendulkar being targetted by the Lashkar-e-toiba for kidnap, who is to say they wouldn't strike in "home" territory? I know there're sceptics among you who say. 'Ganguly le le, Kashmir de de' or even rejoice at the fact that the allegedly non-playing captain's absence finally offers scope for Yuvraj/Kaif to play or India playing an extra bowler. Thats rather frivolous.
The point is that we should not tour Pakistan. Purely for security reasons. Nothing else.
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Politics
The destruction of an ancient land is almost complete. The land of the Tigris-Euphrates & the land which was part of Mesopotamia is soon destined to be nothing but a never ending war-zone. If the single point agenda is to cleanse Iraq off its authoritarian regime (and really, no one disagrees that Saddam is definitely someone who needs to go) then I'm very sure the CIA has a lot of ways to go about doing it. Why indulge in a war which more or less affects economies of just about every country in the world? Can the US and UK governments be sued for doing something which affects other countries' economies? Apparently in Belgium anyone can file a suit on anyone, irrespective of nationality etc. Someone should try doing that against Bush and Blair.
Even more hilarious was Blair's address to the UK and Iraqis. He said "We shall help Iraq move towards democracy and put the money from Iraqi oil in a UN trust fund so it benefits Iraq and no-one else.".
Now there're a couple of problems there. Apparently the trust fund is to be administered by the United Nations, the very same United Nations which the US and the UK felt had abdicated its responsibility towards disarming Saddam Hussain. So they trust the UN with Iraqi oil money, but not the attempts by the UN in disarmament? Secondly, it is going to be extremely difficult to transition Iraq to democracy. We've already seen that in Afghanistan. Hamid Karzai and his government are literally living on a day-to-day basis. The economy is in ruins, the Taliban and Al-Qaeda continue to have a lot of strongholds in various pockets, especially the ones bordering (and inside) Pakistan. Obviously I do hope Iraq becomes a good mature democracy in the course of time, but I really do have my doubts over the the United States' and Britain's intentions. The process of rebuilding Iraq could be nothing more than a front for huge contracts for US and UK companies.
Cricket
So we're now in the finals of the World Cup !! I think this is a brilliant achievement and I'd be more than satisfied even if we only ended up runners-up, as long as we fought well in the finals against the Aussies. No pressure on you guys, but remember, if you don't return with the Cup, we'll never forgive you *hehehe*. On an aside note, that Tendulkar chap is something. He kept bowling ripping legbreaks, bowled quite a few trash balls etc. and then slipped in an inswinging yorker to get an lbw ! What can't he do? Oh yes, he can't score a World Cup century against decent opposition (his WC centuries have been against the might of Kenya [twice], Namibia and Sri Lanka). Lets hope he changes this script in the final. It'd be an absolute travesty of justice if jokers like Tom Moody got two World Cup winner medals but Tendulkar or Dravid or Ganguly or Kumble or Srinath etc. didn't get any.
If England's reasons for not touring Zimbabwe (aside the security issue) was also cited to be the moral issue of a death of democracy and the regime of Robert Mugabe, I'd like to know what type of a political system goes through with assisting an attack on another country when there is a HUGE if not overwhelming section of the country who does not want war with Iraq. I thought democracy was meant to be a government by, for and of the people. If the people's voices are disregarded in an attempt to free some other country from a dictator's clutches, what is the difference between Saddam and Blair, both of who disregard public opinion? I hope Zimbabwe refuses to tour England this summer on moral grounds, citing Britain's assistance to the dismemberment of Iraq.
Labels: 2003 world cup, al-qaeda
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