We're almost 10 years into the Afghan War and it has yielded some good results, like the death of Osama bin Laden. On the other hand, the Taliban are still cashing in on the opium crop. Into this situation steps Sen. Scott Brown in the latest episode of "The Devil Made Me Blog It"!
Showing posts with label terrorism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label terrorism. Show all posts
Friday, September 2, 2011
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Will Obama Gloat Over Osama's Death?
We've seen plenty of over-the-top celebrations over the years, George Bush's aircraft-carrier landing predominant among them. Now that Navy SEALs have taken out Osama bin Laden, how will President Obama respond? That's the question asked in this week's "Devil Made Me Blog It."
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Fist-Bump Time for Obama
Does Osama bin Laden's death mean "The End of Terrorism," just as the fall of the Berlin Wall meant "The End of History"? Satan wants to find out in the latest edition of "The Devil Made Me Blog It"!
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Flight Security "Up in the Air"?
The Christmas Day bombing attempt on a US airliner has left many scared ... but what's just as scary is the security lapses in our system ... like the ebb and flow of the TIDE list and the inability to know if there really is an air marshal on board. Even Satan is a little leery in the latest episode of "The Devil Made Me Blog It"!
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Sri Lanka: Island in the storm
Since 1983, the island nation of Sri Lanka has been the battleground for a conflict between the government and a separatist group, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), better known as the Tamil Tigers. The conflict on the island, which is about the size of West Virginia, included suicide bombers, the assassinations of two heads of state, and tens of thousands of other lives lost. Now, it seems, the government has prevailed.
Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa "declared on television that after more than 25 years, his troops had defeated one of the world’s most enduring guerrilla armies on the battlefield," the New York Times reported on Wednesday.
This is welcome news, given the Tigers' past atrocities. They were one of the pioneers of suicide bombings, their leader Velupillai Prabhakaran was accused of masterminding the assassination of then-Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991, and a suicide bomber assassinated then-Sri Lankan president Ranasinghe Premadasa in 1993. Still, the Times seemed guarded about future prospects for Sri Lanka, based on the measures Rajapaksa's government took to win the war -- "defied international pressure to stanch civilian casualties, squelched dissent, blocked independent reporting" -- and the challenges that await in peacetime.
"Now, some of Sri Lanka's erstwhile allies, including those that had banned the Tamil Tigers as a terrorist organization, are calling for an international commission of inquiry into possible war crimes," the Times reported.
There are other concerns. It sounds like Sri Lanka got the weapons it needed to win the war by playing off two of its fellow South Asian nations, India and Pakistan, and neither of these nuke-possessing nations needs another reason to feel slighted against each other. The government must find a way to provide for fair treatment of the Tamil minority. And the possibility of war crimes isn't the only human-rights issue the island faces; the CIA notes that "for a second consecutive year, Sri Lanka is on the Tier 2 Watch List for failing to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat severe forms of human trafficking."
Let us hope that Sri Lanka has not emerged from over 25 years of conflict only to face even greater troubles ahead.
Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa "declared on television that after more than 25 years, his troops had defeated one of the world’s most enduring guerrilla armies on the battlefield," the New York Times reported on Wednesday.
This is welcome news, given the Tigers' past atrocities. They were one of the pioneers of suicide bombings, their leader Velupillai Prabhakaran was accused of masterminding the assassination of then-Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991, and a suicide bomber assassinated then-Sri Lankan president Ranasinghe Premadasa in 1993. Still, the Times seemed guarded about future prospects for Sri Lanka, based on the measures Rajapaksa's government took to win the war -- "defied international pressure to stanch civilian casualties, squelched dissent, blocked independent reporting" -- and the challenges that await in peacetime.
"Now, some of Sri Lanka's erstwhile allies, including those that had banned the Tamil Tigers as a terrorist organization, are calling for an international commission of inquiry into possible war crimes," the Times reported.
There are other concerns. It sounds like Sri Lanka got the weapons it needed to win the war by playing off two of its fellow South Asian nations, India and Pakistan, and neither of these nuke-possessing nations needs another reason to feel slighted against each other. The government must find a way to provide for fair treatment of the Tamil minority. And the possibility of war crimes isn't the only human-rights issue the island faces; the CIA notes that "for a second consecutive year, Sri Lanka is on the Tier 2 Watch List for failing to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat severe forms of human trafficking."
Let us hope that Sri Lanka has not emerged from over 25 years of conflict only to face even greater troubles ahead.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Mumbai: India's 9/11?
Mumbai Cartoon
Originally uploaded by rbtenorio
People have been comparing the Mumbai terror attacks in India with the attacks on the US on Sept. 11, 2001. How much validity does this comparison have? And how much should we look at past terror attacks in India -- like the Delhi train bombings and the Mumbai train bombings -- when considering the current situation in the country? Read more in the latest episode of "The Devil Made Me Blog It."
My sympathies go out to all of the victims of terrorism in India.
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