Did you know that there are 45 million Pashtuns? I did not either until I saw Frontline’s documentary about the Taliban last week. Watch it here.
The Pashtun tribes provide the ethnic base for the Taliban insurgency. Their demographics matter. According to Mao Zedong’s dictum, guerilla fighters move in the population like fish in the water. The larger the host population, the harder it becomes to suppress irregular fighters.
Bad news for non-Americans: a President Obama will almost certainly be a disappointment. There’ll be a treaty, or a war, or some international incident where Obama will ignore the international liberal consensus and have us all burning American flags. At least with McCain we foreigners will have low expectations, lighters and flags already primed and ready to go. He’d be better than Bush, so that’s a positive start. I feel tempted to say vote for McCain and spare us the pain later, but, for once, let us dream. This dream isn’t a messianic fantasy though. It is grounded in good old chthonic virtues like intelligence, competence, and temperance.
The accusation that Obama is a terrorist is pernicious.
The idea that he is an Arab and/or a Muslim is stupid.
McCain rightly understands that these notions should be countered, but here’s the thing: both candidates should say that no, Obama is neither an Arab nor a Muslim, but it wouldn’t matter if he was. Political expediency — in a land where Arab/Muslim is a ignorant cipher for “terrorist” — demands that Obama distance himself from these labels. But it does go to show that although a black man may now aspire to the presidency, Arab-Americans and Muslim Americans need not apply.
The Scottish independence movement bugs the hell out of me. On a political level it whiffs of anti-English scapegoating. More than that, though, it’s historically offensive. Scotland has been an engine of the United Kingdom since the UK’s inception and continues to be so. Witness the Scots in the British government, for example. Scottish independence from the UK would largely be independence from itself (thus, stupid).
So, Christine Grahame’s motion to the Scottish Parliament demanding that the body of Mary Queen of Scots be repatriated is preposterous, a cheap stunt that serves only to pound the drums of an irrational Scottish nationalism.
Let us remember that Mary was a woman who hoped for a return to papist totalitarianism, wanted the English throne for herself, and schemed with Spain to depose the English monarch. Let us remember, also, that her son, James, became the willing king of England. Mary was not a heroine of a bygone Scottish tragedy, but a scheming, fanatical wench whose legacy ought to be meaningless to (largely Protestant) Scotland’s 21st century nationalism.
One would think that the Scottish Parliament had more pressing issues to resolve.
Of all the names which have been attached to the noble and antient institution that we know as the English monarchy, Plantagenet is the coolest. “Plan-ta-ge-net.” Rolls around the mouth with the sweet delight of a Murray mint. OK, their origins were French but the name remains cool.
Haider, the politician who did more to raise awareness of Austrian politics in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s than any of his contemporaries, died this morning after drifting off the road on the way home to celebrate his mother’s 90th birthday. He will be missed.
Update: Apparently Haider was doing 142km/h when he crashed; the speed limit on that particular stretch is 70.
Heavy rain and waterlogged fields saw most of the Fairford airshow cancelled this year. Lucky for us, then, that we saw the practice sessions the day before.
On Friday, HM the Queen presented the RAF with new colours to commemorate its 90th year. The RAF flew 90 planes in formation over the event, everything from the new Eurofighter Typhoons to a Lancaster bomber flanked by a Spitfire and a Hurricane.
But the show was stolen by the Yanks, showing off the new F-22 Raptor for the first time in Europe. A clip of its take-off — the thrust was unbelievable — is enough to show that the USAF has entered a different league with this machine.
The F-22 is so superior that the Americans won’t sell it, so the rest of us have to make do with the F-35 JSF instead (that is if the Americans allow the RAF full proprietary control of our version). I do have to ask one question, though. The F-22 is designed to give the Americans total air superiority, but just what wars are we envisioning that would require air-to-air fighting? The F-22 vs. Iran’s F4’s?
My favourite American plane remains the F-16 (this one was from the Belgian air force).
The Eurofighters look cool, but for its sheer masculinity, I still like the Tornado.
The most terrifying consequence of the London bombings of 7/7/05 was not the realisation that people wanted to do harm to British civilians — we lived though the IRA campaign, after all. It was the grim recognition that some of these people were themselves Britons, that their hate was fratricidal. Since 2005, the government has walked a thin line between the need for the surveillance of British Islamic extremists and an important desire not to alienate the Muslim community. It’s undoubtedly a difficult job.
My biggest disappointment after 7/7 was that we did not see a million Muslims protesting on the streets of London against violent Islam, just as a million Britons of all stripes protested the Iraq war. I do not intend this criticism to mean that I think the average Muslim is complicit in the 7/7 atrocity. Not at all. But the Islamic community cannot wish these terrorists away. Condemnation must be loud and unequivocal.
Having made that criticism, I would like to pay tribute to the kind gentlemen of the Central Oxford Mosque who hosted my visit to their evening prayers a few weeks ago. They patiently explained their faith and offered a voice of moderation sadly lacking in much of our conversations about British Islam.
One example: there has been some furor in Oxford over the prospect of a public call to prayer from the mosque. The local paper gives voice both to angry residents of east Oxford who are appalled at the idea, and the Anglican Bishop of Oxford who supports it. I asked my host whether the Bishop’s comments were helpful. His answer surprised me: “The Bishop does not live here and so it shouldn’t concern him. If the local community do not want us to do it, we won’t press the issue.” Take that, bleeding heart Anglicans!
May I also congratulate the mosque on their newsletter’s words of support for Her Majesty the Queen on her birthday:
The Muslim community of Oxford joins the rest of the nation in congratulation and wishing the Queen, Elizabeth II, Happy 80th birthday. With the wisdom and determination of our Queen, the nation will shine on and be the envy of many nations.
Can I get an amen, or a so say we all, or, even better, ‘Amin?
On clear days, if I can get away from the office for a few minutes around lunchtime, I usually walk ten minutes from my office to Finsbury Circus for a bite of lunch on one of the many benches or ledges surrounding the green to enjoy the sun and surroundings.
November 3, 2008 Hellmut 
The Scottish independence movement bugs the hell out of me. On a political level it whiffs of anti-English scapegoating. More than that, though, it’s historically offensive. Scotland has been an engine of the United Kingdom since the UK’s inception and continues to be so. Witness the Scots in the British government, for example. Scottish independence from the UK would largely be independence from itself (thus, stupid).
Having made that criticism, I would like to pay tribute to the kind gentlemen of the Central Oxford Mosque who hosted my visit to their evening prayers a few weeks ago. They patiently explained their faith and offered a voice of moderation sadly lacking in much of our conversations about British Islam.
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