Surrender Or Die, Pakistani President Tells Terrorists Inside Pakistan's Red Mosque

[desert_fox 32]

as long as the religious crazies keep it in their part of the world, they can kill each other all day long as far as Im concerned.

[Saddle Bronc 124]

Storming Red Mosque will spark Islamic uprising, says rebel cleric

In a statement carried yesterday by newspapers in Pakistan, the radical cleric holed inside the building, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, said that if he and his followers were to die, their deaths would spark an Islamic revolution. He has repeatedly said that he would prefer martyrdom to surrender. "We have firm belief in God that our blood will lead to a revolution," he said.

bring it on scumbags

IMO, it may do multiple bad-birds with one stone:

• Lal masjid radicals--elimination by mil force of Pakistan
  
• Musharraf -- hey, that mohajir chopfrack needs to go anyway, it'll prepone his downfall
  
• Taliban/al-Qaeda nazilites -- as Red Mosque falls, crumbles part of their support base
  

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Fresh clashes erupt at Lal mosque, sporadic gunfire continues

ISLAMABAD: Sporadic gunfire continued at the Lal mosque on the seventh consecutive day of the standoff Monday as the fresh clashes erupted between government forces and the rebels, said to include foreign fighters and insurgents with links to Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network.

President Pervez Musharraf met top officials Monday to consider an assault on Islamic militants holed up inside a mosque, as clerics made a last-ditch bid to end the week-long siege peacefully.

Shockwaves from the crisis have rippled across Pakistan, with gunmen shooting dead three Chinese nationals in an apparent revenge attack for the standoff and 20,000 tribesmen vowing to wage holy war against Musharraf.

...

Islamist sources said efforts were also under way to recruit senior members from banned militant organisations to put pressure on Ghazi. Officials would not confirm the attempt.

[mawilson 2,133]

[*]Musharraf -- hey, that mohajir chopfrack needs to go anyway, it'll prepone his downfall

Dude,

As far as dictators go, Musharraf is a "good" dictator because he's owned by the United States.

"Democracy" in that part of the world is pretty much synonymous with Islamic fundamentalism.

You don't want democracy there, believe me. We need a dictator to keep things in check.

[Ban Hammer 13,109]

"Democracy" in that part of the world is pretty much synonymous with Islamic fundamentalism.

You don't want democracy there, believe me. We need a dictator to keep things in check.

so why did we take out saddam again?

[mawilson 2,133]

"Democracy" in that part of the world is pretty much synonymous with Islamic fundamentalism.

You don't want democracy there, believe me. We need a dictator to keep things in check.

so why did we take out saddam again?

Saddam didn't want to play ball. We couldn't control him so we had to take him out.

[Saddle Bronc 124]

Dude,

As far as dictators go, Musharraf is a "good" dictator because he's owned by the United States.

"Democracy" in that part of the world is pretty much synonymous with Islamic fundamentalism.

You don't want democracy there, believe me. We need a dictator to keep things in check.

Lots of mistakes here, Mark:

• [*]You mistakenly assume that I'm forecasting the ushering-in of democracy; in reality, all I'm forecasting is Musharraf's downfall to another (likely Punjabi) dictator.

Note that a Punjabi dictator has a higher probability of "loyalty" from the 58% Punjabi population than does a mohajir (which was why in 1988 Aslam Beg chose to be "power-behind-throne" rather than taking the post he could easily have usurped).

Also, Musharraf being "owned" by US: the last Pakistani dictator owned by the west was Zia (who was trained at Dehra Dun during the Raj's waning days--so had some loyalty to the west). Generals since Beg have been trained in Pakistan, having no such loyalty.

The only hope that the country has is that the new dictator may be one who was not yet in uniform in 1971 (closest to a clean slate possible in that country).

[mawilson 2,133]

Lots of mistakes here, Mark:

• [*]You mistakenly assume that I'm forecasting the ushering-in of democracy; in reality, all I'm forecasting is Musharraf's downfall to another (likely Punjabi) dictator.

Ok, fair enough.