So, Afghanistan. How's it going? Been a while since we talked....
I thought I'd check up on what's going on with the new regime, y'know. In the interests of freedom-loving people everywhere.
As of 10:00 AM, 26 June 1003, nothing in this post is more than 12 hours old.
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Well, Pakistan is less than pleased with the foreign peacekeeping force, according to The Hindu. But contrary to what you might expect, they don't want less soldiers, they want more.
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has called for quadrupling of foreign security forces in Afghanistan in order to control the warlords and extend the writ of the Kabul Government throughout the country.
Around 40,000-50,000 troops would be needed as Afghanistan slowly creates a police force and national army, Musharraf told The Washington Post in an interview.
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But at least one business is flourishing, according to the Voice of America:
A new U.N. report on illegal drugs says worldwide cocaine production is down but manufacture of heroin is up, mainly because of renewed poppy farming in Afghanistan.
The U.N. Drug and Crime report, released Wednesday, says Afghanistan has replaced the so-called 'golden triangle' of Burma, Laos and Thailand as the major producer of opium, which is derived from the poppy and the main ingredient in heroin.
Afghanistan now makes up 76 percent of the world market, compared to 12 percent before the fall of the Taleban government in late 2001.
The study also finds the increase in Afghanistan's opium market has led to increased intravenous heroin abuse in Russia and Europe and the "alarming" spread of the AIDS virus.
Oh.
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Well, at least they've stopped fighting.
OK, not really, according to the PakTribune...
US military and government targeted in north
...In this incident, which took place in Konduz Province on Saturday, there were three explosions, the first at the residence of the provincial governor and the other two near a building housing coalition forces, an unnamed coalition officer in the capital, Kabul, confirmed to IRIN.
"In the overall security context, it is a worrying development and we have made our opinion clear regarding the deteriorating security situation," Barbara Stapleton, the advocacy coordinator for the Kabul-based Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief (ACBAR), told IRIN in Kabul. "It indicates that those with an extremist agenda are widely dispersed throughout the country and are capable of launching attacks wherever they choose to."
NGOS say this incident is part of the ongoing downward spiral of security in the country and demonstrative of the low level of security faced by ordinary Afghans in daily life, as well as the failure to protect them.
Apparently, a couple US soldiers died in another attack two days ago, but let's try to focus on the present, OK?
OK?
20 hours ago....
Two U.S. Soldiers Killed In Eastern Afghanistan (from the Palestine Chronicle):
The witnesses said that a U.S. military vehicle was patrolling Berouni square in the city of Asadabat, east of Afghanistan, and drove over a landmine planted by unidentified persons, who set off the mine through a detonator, causing the causalities.
Two passers-by, they said, were also wounded by U.S. stray bullets, adding that the attackers succeeded in making their escape.
and
U.S. troops launched Saturday, June 21, a sweeping manhunt operation on the Afghan-Pakistani borders to crack down on remnants of Taliban and al-Qaeda, believing they were holing up in the mountains of the two states of Konar and Nagarhar.
Earlier in the month, U.S. forces captured four suspected Taliban fighters in eastern Afghanistan during Operation Dragon Fury.
Some 500 troops, mostly from the 82nd Airborne Division, were involved in the two-day operation in a mountainous district of Nagarhar state, 40-50 kilometers (25-30 miles) from the Pakistan border.
"Intelligence sources have indicated there is a cell of al-Qaeda or Taliban operating in the mountains. This is one of the hottest areas in Afghanistan," Major Jack Marr said before the operation.
Pulling words out of a hat: "Tristan Tzara said: 'Poetry is for everyone.' And Andre Breton called him a cop and expelled him from the movement. Say it again: 'Poetry is for everyone.'"
only is the technique magical (in that it reveals new, unexpected meanings) but it's also relentlessly democratic. Burroughs describes Tzara being "expelled" from the Surrealist movement by Andre Breton after a rally in the 1920s where Tzara suggested creating a poem by two with section three. And you have a new page. Sometimes it says much the same thing. Sometimes something quite different - cutting up political speeches is an interesting exercise - in any case you will find that it says some- thing and something quite definite."
Not cut down the middle and across the middle. You have four sections: 1 2 3 4 . . . one two three four. Now rearrange the sections placing section four with section one and section technique is related to Cubism, in that it results in a multi-perspectival, not-quite-abstract revision of a recognizable object. But Burroughs himself relates it to collage
"The method is simple. Here is one way to do it. Take a page. Like this page. Now between ideas in the same passage. The end result is very similar to surrealist games and to magical divinations -- with the interpreting mind imposing a new order on a seemingly chaotic yet related string of symbols (in this case, words). The The "cut-up" technique was invented by William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin as a way of creating meaning or discovering meaning by removing words from their linear order and reordering them randomly. This allows the subconscious to find new, unexpected connections
Text processing courtesy of the Grazulis Online Cut-Up Machine.
More on the history of cut ups.
And a passel of links about cut ups and cut up generators.