Warfooting: A Pair Of Stories From The Captain
Captain Ed Morrissey has been busy this morning on the subject of war. The first one he touches on is the Vatican's reaction to the Israeli war. And like us, he wishes they would keep silent rather than doing their best imitation of an flustered, unhinged Democrat:
The Vatican on Friday strongly deplored Israel's strikes on Lebanon, saying they were "an attack" on a sovereign and free nation.
Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Angelo Sodano said Pope Benedict and his aides were very worried that the developments in the Middle East risked degenerating into "a conflict with international repercussions."
"In particular, the Holy See deplores right now the attack on Lebanon, a free and sovereign nation, and assures its closeness to these people who already have suffered so much to defend their independence," he told Vatican Radio. ...
Sodano reserved his harshest words for Israel. "The right of defence on the part of a state does not exempt it from its responsibility to respect international law, particularly regarding the safeguarding of civilian populations," he said.
No one likes a bully. Israel definitely is among those which dislike such people. That is why they are defending thmselves. I know that churches, in general (except for the RoP), are in the business of peace, non-violence, and saving lives as well as souls, but they are better off keeping quiet when it comes to a sovereign nation exercising its right to defend itself. And if the Vatican sees that Israel's attack on Lebanon is against a "free and sovereign nation," then what does it call the Hamas and Hezbollah attacks. Furthermore, to Cardinal Sodano, I have a simple question:
You recognize Lebanon's sovereignty, but fail to do the same for Israel. Does the Vatican recognize Israel's sovereignty? If the answer is yes, then please be seated, and be silent.
As we are both Catholics, we are appalled that the Vatican would issue such a statement. We condemned the Vatican after they issued a rebuke to the United States for our invasion of Afghanistan after 9/11, and our invasion of Iraq. Matters of faith is what the Catholic Church should be concerned with, not matters of state. Their statecraft applies to their sovereign territory, not ours or Israel's. And, of course, we can go back to the old argument that the Vatican has no clue the Hell that Israel has endured for the last ten months from Hamas in Gaza. Either by proxy or by direct confrontation, the terrorists in Israel have had loads of fun going after civilians, and yet I heard nary a peep from the Vatican over those attacks.
Our second warfooting story deals with the attacks on Mumbai, and the fact that Indian intelligence has determined that the ISI (Pakistani intelligence service) had a hand in the attack:
Forty-eight hours after bombs ripped through Mumbai, the needle pointed to Pakistan. Intelligence agencies on Thursday confirmed that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) was the “mastermind” of the blasts that killed about 200 people.
The Mumbai Police, meanwhile, identified the trio who planned and executed 11/7: Rahil, Zahibuddin Ansari and Faiyaz, linked to the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) and the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). Of them, Rahil had reportedly made an abortive bid to trigger a blast at Byculla railway station on March 11 — the eve of the anniversary of the 1993 Bombay blasts.
The agencies, which briefed National Security Adviser MK Narayanan and Cabinet Secretary BK Chaturvedi, said the blueprint for Tuesday’s blasts was made by the ISI while the “plan” was executed by “local Indian operatives”.
A senior intelligence officer said the synchronised explosions had the “hallmark” of an ISI operation. Militants operating in Kashmir were not capable of such meticulous planning and could only carry out fidayeen attacks or plant bombs in crowded places like markets.
“A lot of planning went into the blasts. This is typical of an ISI operation, as was revealed during the 1993 Bombay blasts,” said an officer.
The attack followed the normal modus operandi of al-Qaeda. They struck when they knew they would have a high body count, and they struck one of the lowest secured areas; that being public transportation. They love to go after financial targets, which they did hit the first-class cars. It had all the earmarks of an al-Qaeda operation. However, as Indian intelligence reveals, as they made arrests and dug deeper, it appeared to be more of a Pakistani intelligence operation, and less of an al-Qaeda operation.
So, President Musharraf now has some explaining to do. Either his government sanctioned this operation, or he has rogue elements in the ISI--elements that could firmly be in the camp of al-Qaeda, or some other group of Islamofascists. Either way one looks at this, it is not good. As tensions are already running high in the region as it is, repairing any sort of damage between India and Pakistan will be no easy task.
If the ISI did this operation on their own, then they just signed their own death certificate. It will be looked at by India as an act of war, and as Captain Ed points out the Israeli conflict will seem like a drop in the bucket when these two nuclear powers decide to square off. And while the "experts" point to the fact that both nations have rattled their nuclear sabers in the past, and nothing has happened, I do not want to test the limits of their so-called patience.
And if al-Qaeda actually ran this operation, and had some assistance from the ISI, then president Musharraf is right back in the hot seat. And the only way he is going to get out of it is to root the terror masters out of their caves, out of his country, and hopefully to their seventy-two virgin eternal reward. All I know is that this is the worst news that could have been broken today in a world that seems like it is already spinning horribly out of control.
Marcie
Captain Ed Morrissey has been busy this morning on the subject of war. The first one he touches on is the Vatican's reaction to the Israeli war. And like us, he wishes they would keep silent rather than doing their best imitation of an flustered, unhinged Democrat:
The Vatican on Friday strongly deplored Israel's strikes on Lebanon, saying they were "an attack" on a sovereign and free nation.
Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Angelo Sodano said Pope Benedict and his aides were very worried that the developments in the Middle East risked degenerating into "a conflict with international repercussions."
"In particular, the Holy See deplores right now the attack on Lebanon, a free and sovereign nation, and assures its closeness to these people who already have suffered so much to defend their independence," he told Vatican Radio. ...
Sodano reserved his harshest words for Israel. "The right of defence on the part of a state does not exempt it from its responsibility to respect international law, particularly regarding the safeguarding of civilian populations," he said.
No one likes a bully. Israel definitely is among those which dislike such people. That is why they are defending thmselves. I know that churches, in general (except for the RoP), are in the business of peace, non-violence, and saving lives as well as souls, but they are better off keeping quiet when it comes to a sovereign nation exercising its right to defend itself. And if the Vatican sees that Israel's attack on Lebanon is against a "free and sovereign nation," then what does it call the Hamas and Hezbollah attacks. Furthermore, to Cardinal Sodano, I have a simple question:
You recognize Lebanon's sovereignty, but fail to do the same for Israel. Does the Vatican recognize Israel's sovereignty? If the answer is yes, then please be seated, and be silent.
As we are both Catholics, we are appalled that the Vatican would issue such a statement. We condemned the Vatican after they issued a rebuke to the United States for our invasion of Afghanistan after 9/11, and our invasion of Iraq. Matters of faith is what the Catholic Church should be concerned with, not matters of state. Their statecraft applies to their sovereign territory, not ours or Israel's. And, of course, we can go back to the old argument that the Vatican has no clue the Hell that Israel has endured for the last ten months from Hamas in Gaza. Either by proxy or by direct confrontation, the terrorists in Israel have had loads of fun going after civilians, and yet I heard nary a peep from the Vatican over those attacks.
Our second warfooting story deals with the attacks on Mumbai, and the fact that Indian intelligence has determined that the ISI (Pakistani intelligence service) had a hand in the attack:
Forty-eight hours after bombs ripped through Mumbai, the needle pointed to Pakistan. Intelligence agencies on Thursday confirmed that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) was the “mastermind” of the blasts that killed about 200 people.
The Mumbai Police, meanwhile, identified the trio who planned and executed 11/7: Rahil, Zahibuddin Ansari and Faiyaz, linked to the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) and the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). Of them, Rahil had reportedly made an abortive bid to trigger a blast at Byculla railway station on March 11 — the eve of the anniversary of the 1993 Bombay blasts.
The agencies, which briefed National Security Adviser MK Narayanan and Cabinet Secretary BK Chaturvedi, said the blueprint for Tuesday’s blasts was made by the ISI while the “plan” was executed by “local Indian operatives”.
A senior intelligence officer said the synchronised explosions had the “hallmark” of an ISI operation. Militants operating in Kashmir were not capable of such meticulous planning and could only carry out fidayeen attacks or plant bombs in crowded places like markets.
“A lot of planning went into the blasts. This is typical of an ISI operation, as was revealed during the 1993 Bombay blasts,” said an officer.
The attack followed the normal modus operandi of al-Qaeda. They struck when they knew they would have a high body count, and they struck one of the lowest secured areas; that being public transportation. They love to go after financial targets, which they did hit the first-class cars. It had all the earmarks of an al-Qaeda operation. However, as Indian intelligence reveals, as they made arrests and dug deeper, it appeared to be more of a Pakistani intelligence operation, and less of an al-Qaeda operation.
So, President Musharraf now has some explaining to do. Either his government sanctioned this operation, or he has rogue elements in the ISI--elements that could firmly be in the camp of al-Qaeda, or some other group of Islamofascists. Either way one looks at this, it is not good. As tensions are already running high in the region as it is, repairing any sort of damage between India and Pakistan will be no easy task.
If the ISI did this operation on their own, then they just signed their own death certificate. It will be looked at by India as an act of war, and as Captain Ed points out the Israeli conflict will seem like a drop in the bucket when these two nuclear powers decide to square off. And while the "experts" point to the fact that both nations have rattled their nuclear sabers in the past, and nothing has happened, I do not want to test the limits of their so-called patience.
And if al-Qaeda actually ran this operation, and had some assistance from the ISI, then president Musharraf is right back in the hot seat. And the only way he is going to get out of it is to root the terror masters out of their caves, out of his country, and hopefully to their seventy-two virgin eternal reward. All I know is that this is the worst news that could have been broken today in a world that seems like it is already spinning horribly out of control.
Marcie
posted by Syd And Vaughn | 10:43 AM
1 Comments:
I'm not a Catholic and I agree with you that the Pope and the Vatican, if they can't recognize or support what Israel is doing, should keep their lips sealed! They are giving two vicious anti-Christain anti-Jewish terrorist organization comfort. Don't they realize the Pope and the Vatican is on the jihad terrorist hit list? Israel has excellent intelligence and from the targets they are hitting in neighboring countries is a clear indication that Israel is removing or slowing down their support and sending a message. Rawriter
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