uiyeqohy tioliciw…

oq zhoahi…

We still had a long way to go in Afghanistan when things started being diverted to Iraq. In this kind of conflict the follow up is at least as important as the initial conflict. Iraq is just a larger proof of that fact that blew up faster than the slow disaster now taking place in Afghanistan. It’s why Rumsfeld should have gone a long time ago. He and his allies are still fighting the last wars, a mistake with a long and tragic history.

I apologize for the oversight. It is a significant one given our violence-sodden “Eye For An Eye” Society.

Not sure you’re in a listening frame of mind, but I’ll give it a shot.

Pearl’s religion was not why he was abducted nor, from available evidence, later decapitated and cut into pieces. It became known during his captivity that he was a Jew and that became a side issue.

By your calculus, I should have only half stayed out of anti-Jewish hotspots I visited because, by golly, I am half Jewish. Or Jo Carroll, the reporter for the Christian Science Monitor, should have stayed out of Iraq because the people who were most likely to abduct her — which is what happened — put women somewhere below sheep and goats and would be horrified to know the teachings of the religion that founded and underwrites her paper.

I do believe in being cautious. So do the vast majority of journalists. But assigning stories based on one’s faith — or alternately not assigning them — undermines the integrity of the profession, such as it is.

You didn’t ask, but the one time I lied about myself was when I claimed to be a Canadian and not an American when I found myself in the middle of an anti-American bar fight in Tokyo.

I see. Thank you.

I am with you until you say that the U.S. has been able to “hold onto the gains” that it has made.

That is questionable given that the Taliban now governs Waziristan in western Pakistan on the border with Afghanistan and, as I noted in my post, there has been an increase in incursions back into Afghanistan against NATO troops and Arghanis.

This today from Bill Roggio, who has been well ahead of the MSM:

“The Pakistani government continues to lose control over the tribal regions bordering Afghanistan. The Taliban and al-Qaeda have attacked a Pakistani military convoy with suicide car bomb near Mir Ali in North Waziristan. Four Pakistani soldiers and a woman were killed and twenty soldiers were wounded after the suicide bomber rammed the military convoy at the Khajori checkpoint, just east of Mir Ali, a Taliban stronghold.”

For readers who don’t click on the “read more” link on my post and get to the part about the Daniel Pearl Foundation, please visit its website here to learn more about this extraordinary man and how he is being remembered.

Pearl also was an accomplished classical musician. You can read more about that here, including composer Steve Reich’s “Daniel Variations.”

Although I suppose it is an arguable point, Pearl’s abductors were concerned with Pakistani autonomy more than jihad.

As to the issue of Pearl’s religion: It is a non-starter for me and most journalists. Jallabo’s point is inane.

This saga of death has, I would argue, sadly come to define 21st century Islam in the eyes of much of the non-Islamic world. Even bin Laden’s deputy, in his publicized letters to the late Zaquari of al Qaeda in Iraq, criticized the ritual video decapitations as being counter-productive to the goals of Islamic militants.

This anniversary is also worth noting, as it predates the Iraq war. The seeds of horror were already there, which were to come to bloom in the chaos of Iraq.

I would disagree with Shaun’s contention that “Pearl’s abductors were not in the mainstream of the Islamic jihad against the West”. The role of Pakistan’s ISI – and the fact that the man behind Pearl’s kidnapping and death was a British-educated “Westernized” Muslim – reflect themes that would be echoed in terror attacks against the West in later years.

As for Jallabo’s point, I myself have wondered at Pearl’s courage or naivete in tracking this story – considering highly anti-Jewish/anti-American attitudes of its principals – in Pakistan (the heartland of Islamic extremism). For anyone who has seen that video of Pearl making his forced confession – repeatedly stating that his being a Jew was behind his actions – the hatred of his captors for Jews is preeminent over even their hatred of Americans.

I would not say Pearl was “suicidal” in pursuing a story on these people in Pakistan. I know a Jewish man who was a pilot in Bomber Command who flew almost two dozen missions over Nazi Germany wearing a Star of David around his neck. I thought that was courage bordering on stupidity, but admired it all the same. I gather Pearl was an idealist with regard to peoples of different cultures finding common ground.

Thus, I think he was foolhardy and perhaps naive, but probably courageous too.

Thanks for reminding us. A sadly significant anniversary in modern history.