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Saturday, April 14, 2007

The great game

“Political cartoon depicting the Afghan Amir Sher Ali with his "friends" Russia & Britain (1878).

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Islamist Guerrillas in Northwest Africa IV

In light of yesterday's attacks in Algiers, Abu Muqawama is going to link to some reading on Islamist militant groups in Algeria and the attacks themselves. First is Emily Hunt's piece on the GSPC. Emily spent time in Algeria researching this piece last year and has written a good primer on one of Algeria's militant groups -- albeit from a U.S.-centric perspective. Next, a timeline from Le Figaro showing other Islamist attacks in Algeria since 2000. Third, here is a link to Le Monde's coverage of the attacks, which has lots of videos, background reading, pictures, and a link to today's editorial. Finally, here is a link to the BBC's coverage, which includes a link to BBC World's video report.

Posted by Abu Muqawama at 9:28 AM

Above is an Article from a Blog I visit often.

The great game,

The Great Game in the 19th century

At the start of the 19th century there were some 2000 miles separating British India and the outlying regions of Tsarist Russia. Much of the land in between was unmapped. The cities of Bukhara, Khiva, Merv and Tashkent were virtually unknown to outsiders. As Imperial Russian expansion threatened to collide with the increasing British dominance of the occupied lands of the Indian sub-continent, the two great empires played out a subtle game of exploration, espionage and imperialistic diplomacy throughout Central Asia. The conflict always threatened, but never quite managed to break out into direct warfare between the two sides. The centre of activity was in Afghanistan.”

Above is from Wikipedia

The term is more a military term to describe warfare in general. It has traditionally been the tactician seen as the player in this game. However the tool box for the tactician must include many items. Never before in history has the tool of propaganda and Media been so influential in the outcome of the battle for peoples beliefs.

The terrorists’ goal is to twist people’s belief in their government and the ability of same to protect their lives and economy.

Some of the things the terrorist propaganda includes lies, misinformation, and also strives to cause financial and political instability within governments. The terrorists say Israel or Bush ordered the 911 attacks to start the war against Muslims. Yet the Terrorists also took credit for the attacks. So why do people believe the lies. Another lie they tell is: that Bush went there for oil reasons. Or that Bush knew about the attacks beforehand. Yet they don’t mention that Clinton was also warned by the FBI and DI (and that the information was unclear as to where and how). They also tell people that Americans and Western civilization is evil. They have countless web sites that tell people how to wage cyber war on America and her allies, how to spread the lies, and what lies to spread.

They have succeeded in spreading this propaganda and continue to out maneuver the western media. The main reason they are able to do this is the freedom of speech we so enjoy. But the other reason is the greed of Media orgs today and unethical people who care more about money then truth.

Most the efforts I see by people seeking truth fail for various reasons. Mostly they fail to read between the lines. They are being impeded by propaganda on both sides. They seek poor sources of information. Reading books or web sites is great but it is not the same as talking to people who live in a culture and on the ground. They fail to look at the context of the writer or media source and fail to look at what the motives are. They also fail to look at history and its application.

I read several News media sources each day and many Blogs of people who live in the areas and newspapers and media (underground, mainstream, and government) within other countries. But one of my favorites is a Blog. Above is a Copy/Paste of one of his brief look at the problem. He is very good at finding reliable sources of information and linking them (but please remember News media often has a twisted view or take and often focus on the bad or how many dead issue). So I thought I would show you a little of what I see on some interesting web sites. – Ian Bach

Le Monde is one of the better sources I like. But the link above isn't working so here it is

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/041307G.shtml

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