The Reuters is reporting that North Korea just pardoned Laura Ling and Euna Lee. I think that’s good, and entirely predictable. All North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il wants is a little attention. I’m glad I wasn’t in the room with him and Bill Clinton, though. Two media whores vying for the attention of a single camera? No thanks.
But I’m glad for the two ladies, regardless of the circumstances of their release. I’m pretty sure they’re going to have some stories to tell when they get home.
This morning the Washington Times reports that Pakistani security forces freed several children that had been sold to the Taliban, apparently by their parents, to serve as soldiers or suicide bombers;
“It seems that there are some 300 to 400 such children who the Taliban had taken forcibly or who they were training,” Gen. Ahmed said.
The Washington Times, citing Pentagon and Pakistani officials, reported July 2 that the top Pakistani Taliban leader, Baitullah Mehsud, has been buying children as young as 7 to serve as suicide bombers, and that the going price for child bombers was between $7,000 and $14,000.
Maj. Nasir Ali, spokesman for the forces in Swat, said most of the several children who had been rescued were taken from a Taliban training camp in Swat after a firefight, although some had turned themselves in later. He did not say when the rescue occurred.
One sixteen-year-old claims he was abducted while playing cricket with his friends.
I don’t understand how folks can say that we need to leave Afghanistan and abandon the fight against the Taliban. They are clearly one of the most evil forces in the world. Granted, the war against them has left much to be desired, but that’s certainly no reason to let them regain a seat of power in the region.
I read something the other day from the Left that claims we’re not helping the Afghan people, that the Taliban throw acid on young girls’ faces, murder teachers, use children as warriors and that’s why we should leave. That makes absolutely no sense to me. Especially since it was imperative that we run the Serbs out of Kosovo for doing much tamer stuff.
Bolivians are starting to get jumpy about the presence of Iranians in their country according to the Washington Times’ Martin Arostegui;
“We need to ask what Iran’s real interest is in Bolivia,” said Roman Loayza, a [Movement Toward Socialism (MAS)] dissident who is running against Mr. Morales in presidential elections scheduled for December. “Evo has no business entering into agreements with foreign interests at the back of the Bolivian people which could harm our environment,” Mr. Loayza told The Washington Times. Bolivian officials insist that Iran’s activities in Bolivia are benign. Iran’s ambassador has toured Indian communities and promised to finance development projects. Mr. Morales has said that Iran wants to build a radio and TV station in his home district of Chapare to “support the peasant struggle in South America.”
Of course, the easiest answer is that Iran wants to mine uranium from Bolivia’s rich deposits to fuel it’s nuclear program. The Israelis have accused Morales of entering into mineral agreements with Iran with just that purpose in mind. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman was touring South America to avoid that prospect just last week. Last year, the Bush Administration was concerned about Hezbollah operating in the region, more specifically in Venezuela at the behest of Hugo Chavez. In fact, a few years ago, Chavez threw Christian missionaries out of Venezuela and replaced them with Islamic missionaries.
On Cuba’s Revolution Day, president Raoul Castro celebrated by telling Cubans that they need to be prepared for for more sacrifices. In a country where bicycles and horse-drawn carts are more often used than automobiles and where citizens make about $20/month, It’s difficult to imagine what more they might be able to sacrifice.
Castro already has implored Cubans for more time as he implements “structural changes” to a struggling economy controlled more than 90 percent by the state. He also has said he’d be willing to meet with U.S. leaders over any issue — including the country’s political prisoners and human rights record.
Of course, Al Jazeera doesn’t see Cuba the way the rest of us see it;
The Cuba that Fidel Castro took over in 1959 was a grossly unequal place, arguably in a near feudal state.
A small group of land-holding elite controlled most of the wealth. Illiteracy ran high, especially in rural areas, and health indicators were awful.
Correcting all of this via a socialist economic model was Fidel Castro’s goal.
In the ensuing decades, Castro’s governments did make huge strides.
Cuba’s literacy rates are among the highest in the world. Some health indicators surpass those in developed countries. And Cuba today is a much more egalitarian place than it ever was.
As significantly, Castro succeeded in consolidating what was already a strong strain of Cuban nationalism, dating back to the country’s independence struggle from Spain and US occupation at the beginning of the 20th century.
Yeah, the US occupied Cuba – I’d suggest that the Al Jazeera “google” the Platt Amendment. The Platt Amendment was added to Congress’ declaration of war against Spain in Cuba declared that the US would limit their actions in Cuba to liberating the island from Spain and forbade that the US would occupy the nation.
Don’t feel bad, though. I had to remind my Latin American History professor about the Platt Amendment during one of his tirades against US imperialism in Cuba, too.