More fun to come?

Post #278,847 by scoenye 3/19/07 6:47:32 PM Reply	More fun to come? Sorry, couldn't find an English speaking link to this (yet). The translation below is mine. [link\|http://www.demorgen.be/dm/nl/nieuws/buitenland/410079\|http://www.demorgen....buitenland/410079] A high-level official of the Russian Ministry of Interior Affairs has confirmed that a delegation of the US State Department will come to Chechnya, to draw inspiration from Moscow's "experience" in the field of combating terrorism. "Our activities in the field of counter terrorism have drawn the attention of the USA, which has asked the permission of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to visit Chechnya. There, they want to gain knowledge of our experience in order to apply it in Iraq and Afghanistan." declared General Arkadij Edeljev, Russian vice-minister of Interior Affairs. Next to the US officials, the delegation will also contain representatives of the G8 countries. The third paragraph sketches the Chechnyan wars and sums up the Russian experience there: extortion of civilians by Russian troops, independence fighters and Kadyrov's pro-Russian militias alike; and theft, kidnapping, torture and training of paramilitaries on top of that for the Russian troops and their supporters. The presence of the G8 at this jaunt indicates to me that the primary target for this is Afghanistan, not Iraq. Given the utter mess in Chechnya, I can only hope they're going there in order to learn how not to do it. If not, don't go to any theatres in the near future...
Post #278,861 by jake123 3/19/07 8:36:17 PM Reply	Is Canada mentioned in the article? I'm going to have to ping my MP about this....
Post #278,936 by scoenye 3/20/07 1:33:25 PM Reply	Indirectly - Canada is a member of the G8
Post #279,313 by jake123 3/23/07 12:17:46 PM Reply	Yeah, I was just wondering if there was a direct mention though I didn't see the word "Canada" in the article. Do you know if there's any full and complete English translation of the article anywhere on the site? I'd like to forward it to my MP. Simply put, this shit matters, and I wouldn't be doing my job as a citizen if I didn't bring it to the attention of my representative, since I'm pretty sure his skill in Dutch (well, it looks like Dutch, anyhoo) isn't any better than mine.
Post #279,335 by CRConrad 3/23/07 4:18:46 PM Reply	Flemish; pretty much the same thing, AFAIK.
Post #279,490 by scoenye 3/25/07 11:58:18 AM Reply	Unfortunately not This is the website of a local newspaper, and Flemish/Dutch is the only language of their target market. The source of the bulletin was Belga, our national news agency, which made me hope that translations might be available but they don't have a direct link to their output. Even searching on the general's name doesn't turn up any other links.
Post #280,494 by orion 4/3/07 7:25:00 PM Reply	Re: More fun to come? Most militaries are trained in conventional warfare, usually nation verses nation or army verses army. Fighting terrorism is something new, and the USA, UK, Russia, etc have made a lot of mistakes. That includes killing innocents in order to get terrorist leaders, etc. Let us hope we can learn from those mistakes in order to prevent killing innocents. If you are rich you fight with stealth bombers, if you are poor you fight with suicide bombers. It is also hard to tell an innocent from a terrorist until a person blows up in your face anyway. One way to fight terrorism might be to make economic conditions better in a country so that its people are less likely to be recruited by terrorist networks. Yet that is a really hard thing to do without being accused of trying to control the nation. "It is of interest to note that while some dolphins are reported to have learned English -- up to fifty words used in correct context -- no human being has been reported to have learned dolphinese." Carl Sagan (1934 - 1996) [link\|http://district268.xormad.com\|I am from District 268].
Post #280,544 by Simon_Jester 4/3/07 10:35:06 PM Reply	Minor nit (new thread) Created as new thread #280543 titled [link\|/forums/render/content/show?contentid=280543\|Minor nit]
Post #280,547 by rcareaga 4/3/07 10:40:37 PM Reply	Every topic you comment upon... (new thread) Created as new thread #280546 titled [link\|/forums/render/content/show?contentid=280546\|Every topic you comment upon...] Die Welt ist alles, was der Fall ist.

Welcome to IWETHEY!