06-11-2014, 12:26 PM
You wear it well, Mo. I'm glad you've adjusted to the new (and hopefully short-term) climate there and got all your ducks in a row for maximum safety and maximum fun for you and your beautiful family.
I think we discussed briefly some time back what Damascus was like up until 3 years ago; effin' shame that a beautiful, international, cultural center with many people of different religions and backgrounds living side-by-side in one of the top-ranked Middle Eastern cities is now a war-torn capital.
It's amazing to me how quickly things can change when a revolution, an insurgency, a coupe...is ignited with just the right wind blowing. I'm not saying that's always a bad thing in the long term, but there's almost always a huge cost to pay in the short term and whether or not people there are better off in the end is hard to measure and often debatable, even amongst themselves.
It seems that's there's always something coming to a head somewhere. President Obama announced the full pull out of American troops from Afghanistan week before last and transferred five Taliban leaders out of detainment in Guantanemo Bay and into "monitored movement" in Qatar. Ok, so we're winding down a decade's plus mission (how that mission is labeled depends on where you're sitting).
BUT, then, of course, last weekend, the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for seizing the Karachi aiport (twice) and some other attacks near the capital that left a bunch of people dead. Their message: they don't like the Pakistani government collaborating with the west, they want Sharia law implemented, and they've not been rendered impotent as was implied by the global press weeks before the attacks (that last one is my opinion of one of their motives, not something they specifically claimed).
Jesus, I'm hoping the US doesn't pull out of Afghanistan only to wind up shifting next door shortly therafter, same shit different place. It won't surprise me if it happens. If it does happen, will the US be right or wrong for intervening again? IDK. In any case, I hope to be surprised.
Anyway, hoping Yemen gets back to where it once belonged, though it's great to have you posting a bit more. That's a sincere (and also selfish) sentiment from this shallow American -- we have our moments of conflicted clarity.
I think we discussed briefly some time back what Damascus was like up until 3 years ago; effin' shame that a beautiful, international, cultural center with many people of different religions and backgrounds living side-by-side in one of the top-ranked Middle Eastern cities is now a war-torn capital.
It's amazing to me how quickly things can change when a revolution, an insurgency, a coupe...is ignited with just the right wind blowing. I'm not saying that's always a bad thing in the long term, but there's almost always a huge cost to pay in the short term and whether or not people there are better off in the end is hard to measure and often debatable, even amongst themselves.
It seems that's there's always something coming to a head somewhere. President Obama announced the full pull out of American troops from Afghanistan week before last and transferred five Taliban leaders out of detainment in Guantanemo Bay and into "monitored movement" in Qatar. Ok, so we're winding down a decade's plus mission (how that mission is labeled depends on where you're sitting).
BUT, then, of course, last weekend, the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for seizing the Karachi aiport (twice) and some other attacks near the capital that left a bunch of people dead. Their message: they don't like the Pakistani government collaborating with the west, they want Sharia law implemented, and they've not been rendered impotent as was implied by the global press weeks before the attacks (that last one is my opinion of one of their motives, not something they specifically claimed).
Jesus, I'm hoping the US doesn't pull out of Afghanistan only to wind up shifting next door shortly therafter, same shit different place. It won't surprise me if it happens. If it does happen, will the US be right or wrong for intervening again? IDK. In any case, I hope to be surprised.
Anyway, hoping Yemen gets back to where it once belonged, though it's great to have you posting a bit more. That's a sincere (and also selfish) sentiment from this shallow American -- we have our moments of conflicted clarity.