New Media

Just so we’re all on the same page, killing dangerous jihad-obsessed fanatics hunkered down along the Pakistan frontier with drone-fired Hellfire missiles is good.

The US has recently stepped up its drone attacks as the CIA hunts a bomber who killed seven CIA employees late last year in the border area.

In contrast, there seems to be a problem with killing a dangerous jihad-obsessed fanatic enjoying a stay at a Dubai luxury hotel.

Britain’s relations with Israel are entering a period of crisis over the apparent use of cloned UK passports in the assassination of a Hamas official in Dubai.

OK, got it. Keep the game in bounds, gentlemen. After all, what distinguishes us is that we play by the rules — as opposed to the enemy, who uses children as human shields.

No retreat. No “reconciliation” with psychotic thugs. No backroom deals with those who intend to turn Afghanistan into a vast refugee camp full of militant religious fanatics.

That’s the view from pretty well everyone in Afghanistan worth quoting about President Hamid Karzai’s clumsy and self-defeating efforts to somehow bring the Taliban into the fold of the government.

“The sacrifices you have made here, and all your taxpayers’ money. What for? You will have to ask that,” Mr. Abdullah said in an interview.

He said Canada would not be trespassing on Afghanistan’s sovereignty if it moves to block a “reconciliation” deal that circumvents Afghanistan’s parliamentary system. More importantly, he said, Canada is burdened by a duty to its own citizens to see that it does not happen.

“You have more than a right to stay firm in that,” Mr. Abdullah said. “Not just for the sake of any Afghan persons or an Afghan movement, but for the sake of the sacrifices you have made here. You are not in the business of betraying your own people. In that sense, it is an obligation.”

The full story by Terry Glavin, reporting from Afghanistan, is at the National Post, ‘STAY FIRM’ AGAINST TALIBAN: ABDULLAH. Read every word.

Does the Iranian regime finally understand for whom the bell tolls? Forget the “poverty Olympics” for a moment. Here’s a protest that really ought to get some attention:

“What binds this movement is the demand for free elections, free media and respect for civil rights,” Karroubi said in a statement last week.

The opposition leaders say Iran’s constitution guarantees civil rights that are being violated by the nation’s rulers. If the movement goes beyond those demands, it will be “stabbing in the dark,” Mousavi said in an interview on his own Web site last week in which he emphasized respect for the constitution.

Mousavi also demanded the release of all political prisoners. The courts responded by handing down death sentences against 10 protesters, after two men were hanged last month for their alleged involvement in street clashes. On Wednesday, several people were arrested, a top police commander said, adding to the hundreds who have been detained. Just in recent weeks, at least 12 journalists and dozens of activists have been taken into custody.

These brutalities are par for the course. Now the thugs are adding insult to injury. I expect if the government of Canada tried the next particular trick up the Ayatollah’s sleeves, I personally know some people who would take the next plane to Ottawa to torch the parliament building:

On the eve of the demonstration, the Iranian government said it would permanently suspend Google’s e-mail service in the country, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

Further Reading
Iran braces for 22 Bahman
Student Activist: People concerned about blatant regime brutality

Why the international community is in a fight to the finish in Afghanistan:

By all means, try to reason with the Taliban. But you’ll want to know, going in, that its jihad is a revolt against the very idea of reason. The only reason the Taliban makes a promise is to break it. It’s why no one has yet devised a negotiating stratagem more elegantly effective than “put the gun down or we will kill you.”

You can’t sit down and talk with them. You can’t win them over with moral arguments about Afghans ought to be able to exercise universal human rights. You can’t even bribe them.

In the headlong rush to surrender by some diplomats and deluded “peace” groups, what’s missing is recognition that such a surrender will not be accepted. They will kill everyone who gets in their way — meaning the typical Afghan villager that wants nothing to do with the Taliban’s nihilistic interpretation of Islam, or the troops and aid workers from around the world who just want to help Afghanistan develop into something like a normal country.

No more games. No “Let’s make a deal.” In Afghanistan, slow and steady wins the race: Clear, hold, build.

Your friends may start wondering just who’s side you’re on. In Afghanistan, Karzai’s plan to bribe the Taliban into submission may just alienate everyone else in the country. I’ve noted the comments of our Ambassador to Afghanistan about this plan on the Canada-Afghanistan Solidarity Commmittee site:

“There’s no point developing some kind of a fund to which former insurgents are eligible if we’re not equally providing support to Afghans who are not part of the insurgency now,” he said.

“So we don’t want to create the impression that somehow if you’re a member of the insurgency that you would be uniquely be able to benefit from the fund.”

Further Reading:
* Talking to the Taliban/ANA Update

* Wrong Exit in Afghanistan

* Jack Layton the Peacemaker

A More Appropriate Way to Reach Out to the Taliban