In the midst of war...

I found this photo quite interesting mainly because in the middle of a war devastated Chechnyan landscape, you have this Russian soldier tickling the ivories. 

Truly hate war I do! 

More on Kosovo

An excellent article here. And says loads about where all the problems emanating from Kosovo's independence are landing. I quote:

1. Two governments fell apart last week in neighbouring states: first in Serbia, the country from which the Kosovar Albanians broke away, and then in Macedonia, where the Albanian minority party walked out of the coalition government.
2. Vladimir Putin is adamant self-determination in the style of Kosovo is a dreadful precedent: it is what Chechnya attempted in the 1990s, resulting in two devastating wars. Moscow's nightmare is that there might be further attempts at secession by other groups in the north Caucasus.
3. Yet Russian politicians seem to be positively flirting with the idea of recognising Abkhazia's break with Georgia, as well as that of South Ossetia, another tiny rebellious part of the former Soviet republic that is practically on the Chechen border.
4. For both Russia and the Nato allies, that should be a nightmare prospect. Nato members do not want to invite Georgia into the alliance with an unresolved conflict involving Russia. Abkhazia is also close to the hearts of many top Russians who have dachas on the coast. But Russia would not want a war just down the road from its Winter Olympics venue - intended to be a showcase of the new Russian economy. Reason suggests they should do a deal. The danger is they will blunder into a confrontation.

What stupidity, now the world has to pay and pay more for that extremely stupid decision to recognise Kosovo.

Counter Terrorism - a purely political or military or both solution?

An interesting book review here. The review is curious as it is obvious that the reviewer has not been exposed to actual counter terrorism efforts. For example, he talks about the fact that because USA is such as vast country, it is impossible to stop terrorism. Well, d'oh, of course it is. But that kind of blanket security checks stops the vast majority of terrorist events. It is like saying, you cannot stop dying because the number of diseases is so many that you cannot stop them all. So no point in medicine at all and lets just stick to prayer or perhaps sing kumbaya.

Fighting terror needs both military and political solutions. For those who are looking to get their rewards in heaven, well, you can do nothing but to help them get it without getting it from us here on earth. But you have to make it very difficult and expensive for the terrorists to force them to the political negotiating table.

Then there is the communist school of fighting terrorism which I am sure he would know about. Whether we are taking about Ukrainians in old USSR, Chechnya in Russia, the Uighurs or Tibetans in China or the peasants in Communist ruled West Bengal, the idea is simple, kill them all. If you cant kill them all, then kick them all out. If you cant kick them all out, then migrate your own people into the affected region to change the demographic character (such as the Lop Nor region or the Tibet region). And if that does not work either, over-react massively with state forces on the local citizenry.

Thank god liberal democracies tend not to follow the communist school. I have now got the book on my reading list and will review the book in due time!

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