UnSaid

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and a Happy Hanukkah

My Kingdom is not of this world
- Jesus Christ

Something I liked:

Jesus Christ pointed out, “The kingdom of God is within you” (The Bible: Luke – 17, 21). In a similar vein, an ancient Tamil saint admonishes in these words – “O! Those unwise persons, who seek light from the heavens above, see this within yourselves”.

A little off topic but nevertheless relevant:

As in the case of the injured who is finally enabled to walk normally through the medium of physiotherapy, exercises and medicines, the spiritual aspirant also has to involve himself through proven techniques of obtaining spiritual strength. Exercises in right living, lifestyle and spiritual evolution through various physical and mental exercises (sadhana) have been prescribed by various schools.

Bhagawad Gita refers to this as a process of discarding passion, desire and anger (II 56 and V, 28). Such exercises for the body, mind and the spirit enable one to discover light and divinity within. This is the state, described by Gita as that state of “joy within, comfort within and light within” — antasukah, antararamah, antarjyoti (V, 24)

Updated : To add Hanukkah celebrations

This really depends upon whose side you are looking at it from. But can they really be humans?

One of the greatest living US writers has praised terrorists as “very brave people” and used drug culture slang to describe the “amazing high” suicide bombers must feel before blowing themselves up.

Vonnegut said it was “sweet and honourable” to die for what you believe in, and rejected the idea that terrorists were motivated by twisted religious beliefs.

“They are dying for their own self-respect,” he said. “It’s a terrible thing to deprive someone of their self-respect. It’s like your culture is nothing, your race is nothing, you’re nothing.”

Asked if he thought of terrorists as soldiers, Vonnegut, a decorated World War II veteran, said: “I regard them as very brave people, yes.”

Ignoring to get into the arguments whether the terrorists deserve medals of bravery or not, it makes one think whether there is a genuine human angle to solving the problem of terrorism which people have not been looking at in the humdum of all the war drumbeats? Is today’s terrorism because someone’s culture has been trampled upon or because their cultural ambitions have been trampled upon? Or just because people are playing power games with their illiterate (or misguided) followers? What can they think that they can realistically achieve to get through terrorism than normal discourse? Can terrorists ever let development take place in their regions, or even they are false prophets not unlike any other politician, except far more lethal?

Reality Cafe has it that the Americans used psuedo Chemical weapons in Fallujah.

Is this just another way to win the hearts and minds of people? Not sure if the American public would ever get to know of this by the mainstream media.

Wonder Why then people get so surprised that the insurgency hasn’t died down yet? The Jihadis are being helped by their enemies (or I should say media savvy recruiting partners) time and again, will then anyone be surprised if they have another star Jihadi after al-Zarqawi is gone?

There can be an argument that the Jihadis will not think twice before using even Nuclear Weapons on Americans. But then, that is the difference. That is the reason why ‘the willing’ claim to have gone into Iraq in the first place, the third place rather (after supposed presence of WMDs ,and saving the region from Saddam).

Did the White House think that they can get results sooner in Iraq if they push the armed forces to go to this length? Is this another in series of the worthless handling of Iraq right from start? I’m sure if the White House just went to sleep for a long while, the armed forces would take care of the things there by themselves. I’m sure my neighbourhood’s 10-year olds’ gang will give a better leadership.

How many times have I stopped myself from saying that an intelligent enemy is better than a foolish friend, but well…I can’t think of a reason why the Americans chose the foolish friend who wouldn’t let go of an intelligent enemy. That is not to say that Iraqis (and for that matter, the World) be left to their fate at this juncture, but it is certainly hoped that the World and the Americans find a sound person\people to bring it to a closure. Surely there has to be someone capable who will look at all the things before committing to a cause and not be blinded by stupid buddies or lack of personal cerebral capabilities.

Updated: The US declassified documents themselves classify WP as a chemical weapon.

WARNING: (U) THIS IS AN INFORMATION REPORT, NOT FINALLY EVALUATED
INTELLIGENCE. REPORT CLASSIFIED

———————————————————————
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
———————————————————————

DOI: (U) 910300.

REQS: (U) T-8C2-2650-01-90.

SOURCE: [ (b)(1) sec 1.3(a)(4) ][ (b)(7)(D) ]

SUMMARY: IRAQ HAS POSSIBLY EMPLOYED PHOSPHOROUS
CHEMICAL
WEAPONS AGAINST THE KURDISH POPULATION IN AREAS ALONG THE
IRAQI-TURKISH-IRANIAN BORDERS. KURDISH RESISTANCE IS LOSING ITS
STRUGGLE AGAINST SADDAM HUSSEIN’S FORCES. KURDISH REBELS AND
REFUGEES’ PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS AND PERCEPTIONS ARE PROVIDED.

TEXT: 1. DURING APRIL 1991, THE SOURCE TELEPHONED
BROTHER (SUBSOURCE) [ (b)(1) sec 1.3(a)(4) ][ (b)(7)(D) ]

. DURING THIS PHONE CONVERSATION,
THE SOURCE WAS ABLE TO OBTAIN THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION ON THE
PRESENT SITUATION IN KURDISH AREAS ALONG THE IRAQI-TURKISH-IRANIAN
BORDERS —
A. IRAQ’S POSSIBLE EMPLOYMENT OF PHOSPHOROUS CHEMICAL
WEAPONS — IN LATE FEBRUARY 1991, FOLLOWING THE COALITION FORCES’
OVERWHELMING VICTORY OVER IRAQ, KURDISH REBELS STEPPED UP THEIR
STRUGGLE AGAINST IRAQI FORCES IN NORTHERN IRAQ. DURING THE BRUTAL
CRACKDOWN THAT FOLLOWED THE KURDISH UPRISING, IRAQI FORCES LOYAL
TO
PRESIDENT SADDAM ((HUSSEIN)) MAY HAVE POSSIBLY USED WHITE
PHOSPHOROUS (WP) CHEMICAL WEAPONS AGAINST KURDISH REBELS AND THE
POPULACE IN ERBIL (GEOCOORD:3412N/04401E) (VICINITY OF IRANIAN
BORDER) AND DOHUK (GEOCOORD:3652N/04301E) (VICINITY OF IRAQI
BORDER) PROVINCES, IRAQ. THE WP CHEMICAL WAS DELIVERED BY
ARTILLERY ROUNDS AND HELICOPTER GUNSHIPS (NO FURTHER INFORMATION
AT
THIS TIME). APPARENTLY, THIS TIME IRAQ DID NOT USE NERVE GAS AS
THEY DID IN 1988, IN HALABJA (GEOCOORD:3511N/04559E), IRAQ,
BECAUSE
THEY WERE AFRAID OF POSSIBLE RETALIATION FROM THE UNITED STATES
(U.S.) LED COALITION. THESE REPORTS OF POSSIBLE WP CHEMICAL WEAPON
ATTACKS SPREAD QUICKLY AMONG THE KURDISH POPULACE IN ERBIL AND
DOHUK. AS A RESULT, HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF KURDS FLED FROM THESE
TWO AREAS AND CROSSED THE IRAQI BORDER INTO TURKEY.

I’m sure Saddam would not have declassified some of his documents himself, and that really is the difference. Why do we keep forgetting the blurred line?