An American Expat in Southeast Asia: 05/01/2011

May 21, 2011

The End if the World is Now

It is 21 May 2011, here in Southeast Asia (remember friends we are a day ahead of you guys stateside). Today is Judgement Day according to Harold Camping and his fellow travelers and yet still no sign of the apocalypse. No earthquakes, tsunamis or typhoons - it is however hot as hell outside.

So just to let you know, I'll be blogging the end of time live as it happens.

Enjoy your weekend and party like there is no tomorrow.

UPDATE:

Only a few hours left till midnight here. I'm starting to wonder if I've been left behind.

Update:

Oh well.......

May 20, 2011

Nuclear Terrorism and Pakistan

"...Emboldened, our adversaries are now wondering how the situation can be manipulated in their favor, how they can effectively play one side in America against the other while they wait patiently for America to adopt an "alternative foreign policy". We can now expect to see a "lack of motivation" in our negotiations with countries such as Iran and North Korea and a dangerous shift in momentum in countries such as Pakistan..."

It was back in 2007 that both our adversaries and our allies first learned of the alternative foreign policy the United States would be employing once Barack Hussein Obama was elected. The comments above are from a post we made back in April of that year.

It was also back in 2007 when we first commented on Pakistan's Khushab reactor where we showed the rapid construction of the third reactor there. New satellite images now show that the forth weapon's grade nuclear reactor at the Khushab site is now almost completed and Washington and the rest of the world is scratching their heads wondering where the money has come from and Pakistan is deviant in continuing this dangerous provocation.

This whole thing should of course raise more than a few eyebrows in Washington, but it hasn't. I can assure though that it has raised more than a few eyebrows in India and the rest of south and Southeast Asia where China's influence is growing at an alarming rate.

For it's cooperation in the war on terrorism, the United States has and continues to provide Pakistan with financial aid, over $20 billion so far, and despite the fact that Pakistan has repeatably betrayed us and continues to dangerously act contrary to American interests, we continue to pay. Why?

There is a reason for this. Pakistan is to South and Southeast Asia what the Palestinians are to the Middle East. The only difference, and it is a big one is that Pakistan is a nuclear power. Instead of throwing rocks, the Pakistanis threaten India and the region - constantly reminding the world of the consequences should we not heed to their demands. Quite simply it is nothing more than nuclear extortion. It is this game of nuclear blackmail that both North Korea and Pakistan have perfected and one that Iran is desperately eager to learn.

Pakistan's harboring of Osama Bin Laden should have been sufficient enough proof of Pakistan's double game and that my fellow Americans many of which are acutely aware of our nation's own financial constraints would finally come to their senses and demand that not one more American tax dollar is sent to that hell hole.

Anyone who honestly thinks that Pakistan was not aware that Osama Bin Laden was living in a large compound adjacent to one of Pakistan's top military academies has a screw loose and that includes Defense Secretary Robert Gates who apparently gets his intelligence from his trusted Pakistani government sources while he reclines by the pool at the Hilton hotel. If getting betrayed wasn't enough to wake Robert Gates from his pool-side slumber then perhaps discovering that he has been two-timed as well will.

Seemingly our nation's policy of appeasement dictates that we parade around on the world stage with a giant turd poised on our head as well. Obama's foreign policy is not winning us friends nor is it garnering us any respect. We are simply being laughed at.

Believe me when I say that giving Pakistan US67,500 for the restoration of the Mid‐18th‐Century Sunehri Masjid (Golden Mosque) in Lahor is not the way to promote America or American values.

Why is the continuation of financial aid for Pakistan even a subject of debate?

We went to war with Afghanistan because they wouldn't hand him over and now we give our treasure to a nation that harbored him.

May 7, 2011

Obama The Terrorist - The Silent Moderates

Osama is mujahid - Obama is a terrorist

While the initial reaction to Osama Bin Laden's death throughout Southeast Asia was surprisingly muted with many expressing disbelief on his demise, the general mood is disturbingly changing. Yesterday afternoon the mosques were packed full from Indonesia and Malaysia to the Philippines with thousands of Al Qaeda supporters and sympathizers taking to the streets afterwards protesting and marching on the respective United States embassies.

The show of sympathy for Al Qaeda's leader was stunning with many shocked at the large number of supporters who came out. To those in America and Europe who still think that Al Qaeda's virulent strain of Islam had but a few supporters, yesterday was an eye-opener. Manila's Golden Mosque which normally attracts only around 500 worshipers for Friday prayers was filled to the brim with over 5000 worshipers yesterday afternoon. In Malaysia, Al Qaeda's sympathizers took to the streets and in Indonesia posters were put up denouncing Obama as a terrorist and Osama as a mujahid.

In provocative displays of religious chauvinism Islam's fieriest orators took this unique opportunity to stoke the flames of recrudescent radicalism from a vast new contingent of self-radicalized moderates, by denouncing the West and praising Osama Bin Laden. It is this new contingent, the "silent moderates" who will seek no rapprochement and offer no quarter with the West. Emboldened by the West's appeasement, deference and lack of resolve, they number in the millions and range from bomb-makers to home-makers but each one shares a common goal and that is absolute victory.

While our adversaries overseas are plotting to one day soon deliver the nuclear coup de grâce - our TSA agents are back home are either busy groping preteens in the nation's airports or attending Muslim sensitivity classes. Time is not on our side and neither will be victory if we don't pull our heads out of the sand.

To paraphrase Churchill, the West has been offered a choice between war and shame. She has chosen shame and will get war.

May 5, 2011

Obama and Osama - Inspiring Islamic Radicalization

Osama Bin Laden Death Photo - Dear Jihadis, this is what happens when you listen to Al Qaeda

"Conspiracy theorists around the world will just claim the photos are doctored anyway, and there is a real risk that releasing the photos will only serve to inflame public opinion in the Middle East."

~ Barack Hussein Obama

As if these unwashed reprobates in the Middle East needed an excuse to get inflamed. Might I remind you that they will always find something to get inflamed about. And yes, Mr. Obama they will claim that the photos are doctored because of your indecisiveness and over-concern for Muslim sensitivities in releasing them. But just who's sensitivities are you so concerned with? Moderate peace-loving Muslims or the fanatical extremist Muslims? Surely moderate peace-loving Muslims will be relieved to see actual proof that this fanatical tyrant who proselytized a perverted form of Islam is dead and gone. The only people who might be irritated or offended are Al Qaeda's supporters and sympathizers.

In The Art of War, Sun Tzu said - "If your enemy is superior, evade him. If angry, irritate him. If equally matched, fight, and if not split and reevaluate."

Might I remind you Mr. Obama, that we are at war and the majority of Americans could care less about our enemies delicate sensitivities. You though are different.

Did you ever wonder why so many Americans think you are foreign born Mr. Obama? It has nothing to do with racism or your lack of transparency in showing your birth certificate, but more so to do with where your loyalties lie. You are an islamophile Mr. Obama who fails to see the United States as an exceptional nation and who relentlessly spouts his anti-american rhetoric overseas.

Amazed and befuddled at your anti-american rhetoric, Lebanese born Fouad Ajami said of you - "Steeped in an overarching idea of American guilt, Mr. Obama and his lieutenants offered nothing less than a doctrine, and a policy, of American penance. No one told Mr. Obama that the Islamic world, where American power is engaged and so dangerously exposed, it is considered bad form, nay a great moral lapse, to speak ill of one’s own tribe when in the midst, and in the lands, of others."

It's sad to say, but it you Mr. Obama who has done more to inspire radicalism in the Islamic world than Osama Bin Laden has. It was Osama Bin Laden who professed Islamic superiority to throngs of vulnerable jihadi wannabes around the world and you Mr. Obama have professed American inferiority to the same people. In an upcoming post here we will explain in detail exactly how you have changed the face of Islamic radicalization and how Islamic extremism is now changing.

It was in early 2008, well before your world tour that we warned Americans of what was to come and how Islamic radicalization and extremism would change and they didn't listen, but they will in 2012.

"To suitably prejudiced Indonesians Obama's pledge to "rid the American mind-set of militarism" substantiates the position of the Islamic militants by rekindling the prophecies of Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden. That America is a decadent and vile ogre, bloodied with the guilt of imperialism and inescapably tainted by an anti-Islamic history. It is this symbolically violent imagery that Indonesia's fundamentalist orators will use to radicalize a new contingent of militants from the ranks of Islam's moderates. Individuals who are mesmerized by the phantasmagorical image of one of their own now inhabiting the White House and who will see it as a sign of America's impending submission and our nation's acquiescence to the superiority of Islam."

It was a bullet that brought down Osama Bin Laden, it will be the vote of the American people that brings down Barack Hussein Obama.

May 4, 2011

Across Southeast Asia Bin Laden Still Lives

Throughout Southeast Asia, the alleged killing of Osama Bin Laden coupled with the delay by the United States government in releasing any photographic evidence to the fact is giving birth to a flood of conspiracy theories, with many refusing to believe that Al Qaeda's leader is actually dead.

The conspiracy theories are varied - some saying this is simply a ploy by Barack Hussein Obama to help his popularity and others saying that this is a lie meant to draw Osama Bin Laden out - there is however one common denominator that all these conspiracy theories have, and that is that all this is nothing more than a ginned-up story from the United States and that Osama Bid Laden still lives.

"Where is the proof?" is the common response here in Southeast Asia whenever Osama Bin Laden's demise is mentioned.

At this point the damage is done, the photographic evidence and/or proof of Osama Bin Laden's death should have been released immediately without this charade of conflicting stories and an agonizing delay that has and continues to give birth to a plethora of conspiracy theories overseas - many of them that fuel anti-american sentiment overseas particularly the theory that the photos need to be altered or brushed up before they are released to the public. This is something that could have been avoided.

For a president who should have learned a thing or two about transparency in the past few months this reflects poorly. Obama's indecisiveness and over-concern of Muslim sensitivities displays a weakness in character that invites aggression and fuels radicalization rather than suppressing it. What could have been a win is now becoming a loss. It is not Osama Bin Laden's death that is going to fuel anti-american sentiment overseas but rather the secretive circumstances surrounding it.

So what if a photo is gory, as long as the photo is recognizable of Osama Bin Laden, the message it sends to any young jihadi wannabe is that "this is what happens to your face when you listen to Al Qaeda". The message it sends it is a powerful message that serves as a deterrent in the same way that the gory before and after photos of meth addicts acts a deterrent to those thinking about trying methamphetamines.

The brutal death of Osama Bin Laden at the hands of American commandos could have been both a propaganda win and a strategic win in the war on terrorism if it was played out correctly instead it will serve as perhaps one of the biggest mistakes made in the war on terrorism.

May 3, 2011

God Have Mercy on Pakistan

Like many I won't ever forget the feeling I had on 9/11 when I watched with horror the events unfolding in New York. I remember saying to myself, "God have mercy on the souls who did this, because America won't."

For almost ten years we have put up with Pakistan's double game, our leaders have relentlessly professed that Pakistan was our ally in the war on terrorism. We have and continue to give Pakistan over a billion dollars a year in economic and military aid, much of it frittered away. American taxpayer money, meant to be used to fight Al Qaeda has been diverted to help finance weapons systems meant to counter India while Pakistan has along along been providing not only a safe haven for Al Qaeda's mid-level leaders, but for Osama Bin Laden himself.

Today while they are burning the American flag and honoring the martyr Osama Bin Laden on the streets in Pakistan, much of our media in the west and in America seem to find themselves trapped in a perpetual state of denial asking childlike naive questions such as "Was Bin Laden a Guest of Pakistan" or "How could Pakistan not know Bin Laden was hiding there?" The Telegraph asks who's side was Pakistan on in this shootout? As if it wasn't so painfully obvious.

Our diplomats and military leaders have been aware of Pakistan's duplicity, but each time in the past when we questioned Pakistan on the evidence, we have received denials or in some cases actual threats as you will see in the link below.

Where is the resolve that our nation had back in 2001 when our president clearly stated - "...From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime." Michael Crowley thinks that we should just suck it up and regard Pakistan not as a hostile regime but as a "troublemaking dependent son" alluding that we should continue to provide financial and military aid to a nuclear-armed Pakistan fearful of what they might do next.

It is our lack of resolve that breeds terrorism and if we give a pass to Pakistan we will have to give a pass to every other nation that continues to harbor and support terrorism. Worse we will have disgraced the memory not only of those who died on 9/11 but of all those since who have made the ultimate sacrifice in the war on terrorism.

To paraphrase Churchill, a nation does what it must - in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures - and that is the basis of all human morality. The more things change, the more they remain the same.

God have mercy on Pakistan, because I won't.

The Road To Pakistan

May 2, 2011

Pakistan Needs To Burn

Often in our self-perceived vocation as the torch-bearers of freedom and democracy, we tend to lose sight not only of the limited power of politically engineered change in an Islamic country such as Pakistan, but of that simple truism that no society can ever live outside the parameters of its basic ideology.

Now that Osama Bin Laden is dead and Pakistan betrayed us.

I fully expect that all financial aid being given to Pakistan to cease immediately, and the country of Pakistan to be on fire by the time I wake up in the morning.

The Road to Pakistan