Finally someone with political clout is calling the only logical Iraqi anti-terror, pro-unity strategy.

Bombs Kill at Least 30, Suddenly Ending a Calm Spell in Baghdad
Published: February 28, 2006

The national security advisor, Mr. Al-Rubaei, spoke to reporters in the southern city of Najaf after meeting with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the Shiites' most revered cleric. Mr. Al-Rubaei said that the ayatollah had "called on all Iraqis to build bridges of trust between Sunni and Shiites to enhance national unity."

But Mr. Sistani "diagnoses the basic and only enemy to Iraqi people as terrorism, and he called on Iraqis to fight this enemy who threatens the unity of Iraq," Mr. Al-Rubaei said.

He said that fingerprints and the "design of the attack" indicated that the shrine bombing had been the work of al-Qaeda in Iraq, along with takfiris," a reference to extremist Sunnis who regard Shiites as blasphemers. …

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/28/internation...5094&partner=homepage

What many people forget or overlook with the Philippines is that it is made up of numerous islands each with a silghtly different culture. My experience is of the main island of Luzon, and thus until 5 or 6 years ago when they started bombing in Manila the Moro National Liberation Front and latterly the Moro Islamic Liberation Front were merely organisations that operated on some other remote island. The New People's Army is a different matter, and my relatives have been subject to demands for money, thought not latterly (10 years or so).

There are extremes of poverty and wealth in the Philipines, and there are tensions when slums in arround Manila containing the very poorest are cleared, but it is not clear that these tensions are wide spread and continous. Whilst there are land ownership issues - non-citizens cannot own land - I would say that these have had a minimal role in slowing economic grow, more the threat of the NPA and MILF and the resultant travel warnings one gets from home governments ie http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/tw/tw_2190.html. Another issue up until a few years ago was that of power, where whole areas could be subject to brown outs several times a day for several hours. These have now been solved, and there is now significant investment by major world player. However as with everywhere they are loosing out to China.

There have been significant improvements in the infrastructure, for eample 15 years ago we would travel home in several stages; On arrival we would stay in Manila overnight, the following day take a 3-4hr drive out to Cabanataun City stay overnight and then do a 4-5hr drive on unmade tracks. Now we take an hour (because of the traffic) to get from the airport to a cousin's house in Manila, wash and change, 1 - 2 hrs to Cabanataun City, say high to relatives and the another 1 - 2hrs to get home, or a couple of hrs in the other direction out of Manila if we are going to where our trucking company is based. However typhoon/rainy season will inevitably see sections of the roads washed way and we invariably keep all the trucks off the road during the height of the rainy season in August. 15 years ago landline telephones were a rare commodity, my favourite hotel had a party line with the accountants next door, and there were none in our home town. 10 years ago my in-laws got a radio phone. 5 years ago mobiles could be used in populus areas, now they can be used just about everywhere, so much so that they have usurped land lines. In comparision to what we pay here calls and texts are very cheap.

If one is willing to work it is actually quite easy to set oneself up in business in the Philippines and make a reasonable living.

The Lords have defeated the glorification clause again, they wouldn't if it had not be for Labour peers voting against the clause, so the Governemt cannot put it down to the Lords being stacked against them.

Clarke attacks Lords terror vote
"Home Secretary Charles Clarke has criticised the House of Lords after it defeated government plans to outlaw the "glorification" of terrorism."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4758258.stm

Our current laws are "pre 21st century terrorism." New legislation is being proposed only because the old legislation has so far repeatedly failed to protect society from repeated terrorist acts of mass destruction.

The article cited by bb above makes this fact clear: "But critics say existing laws - and plans for a new offence to prevent indirect encouragement of terrorism - mean the glorification offence is not needed." [Itals added]

We are not discussing "if," but "how."

"Freedom is not the power to do what one wants. Freedom is the power to do what is right." Pope John Paul II

Any differences that you and I have regarding this issue I believe is simply that you appear to believe that this particular "glorification" clause exposes the UK to more of a "freedom of speech threat" than it actually offers legitimate protection to society against potential terrorist attacks.

My own view is shaped by more of a “backdoor approach.” It is not my view that differs from your own, it is our perspectives that appear to me to be at odds.

It is obvious to me that our countries are suffering from the illness of "freedom turned to license and entitlement." Unbridled greed has replaced ethics and values. Our unique national characters, originally built upon the time-tested bedrock of personal responsibility/integrity, are being rapidly degraded by a warped interpretation of the legitimate roles of the citizen, government, law and religion. Part of this “syndrome” is that we are so preoccupied by this neurotic compulsion to protect our freedoms from “big brother” (there are already more than enough safeguards in place) that we are literally blind to everything else.




Thanks for the links. It appears that things are calm for the time being, but unless Arroyo makes some big changes the calm will not last. During my research I came across the startling fact that the Islamic resistance has been an active and ongoing force in the southern one-third of the Phillipines since the Spanish arrived in 1521!


I'd certainly have loved to have been a "fly on the wall" when this strategy was being discussed. I'm still waiting for that to come on. Somehow, this strategy "just feels right" to me. But then I remember who's promoting it.