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Unsinkable: Pirates, Peshawar and Robot Generals

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That's what they're saying about this new unmanned ship that can fight off pirates. I remember when they said that about the Titanic.

It seems to be the basis of warfare to have these fights with robots doing a lot of the work. Do note that the robots do the bomb-dropping etc. and that humans are still the ones getting slain.

Even the little terror cells are using technology for remote detonation where possible. 127 people got killed in a number of car bombings that happened over 24 hours in Baghdad.

It's gotten to the point that you don't even want to know anymore about each day in Iraq or Afhanistan. Every day brings something worse than the last. You get this overload of everything and just don't want any more.

Here's one hell of a doozie - one of the main factors, it turns out, that helped Bin Laden stay elusive was the stupidity of Donald Rumsfield and General Tommy Franks as leaders. The two dolts actually refused to send enough reinforcement to block Laden's escape out of Afghanistan. Though I'm sure the conspiracy theorists will say it was all pre-planned. Whatever it was, how long till we get some robot generals?

Here's a bit of the shoe on the other foot - Pakistan's taking a look at all the incidents of India promoting terrorism within the former's borders. Rather successfully too, if you look at the sheer number of bombings that have turned even formerly so-so provinces like Peshawar into warzones.

And getting rid of old Mushawar seemed to have done little. Zardari, his replacement who happened to ride in on a wave of "they assassinated my wife Benazir Bhutto," seems to have made billions while his departed wife was in power in the 90s.

On the other side of the power struggle, one of Hezbollah's major supporters, Sheikh Maher Hammoud, was interviewed by Asia Times to get the low-down on why do many people in Lebanon love the group despite all the US and Israeli finger-wagging aimed at them. This one is particularly educational about blasting away some old myths about things like the Shi'ite Crescent:

I think the notion of a so-called Shi'ite crescent is all a bunch of lies made up by the weak and the agents. Everyone knows that the Shi'ites in Iraq are different from those in Lebanon and both are different from those in Iran and that they don't share the same culture, let alone the same scheme.

And the man behind Electronic Intifada gave a sweet interview to Haertz. Of course, the news agency did not publish it. I wonder why?

Hate exists within both sides and in order to examine it, we must examine the root of the conflict. But the major mistake of those dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the thought that it’s so unique. It’s not. In northern Ireland there are two communities, with a longer lasting conflict, and each one with its own contradicting narrative, just like us. The colonial dynamics are also similar. In order to solve the conflict, first there’s need of recognition of its root causes, recognition of the wrongs, and recognition of the rights of the victims. Yes, each Palestinian and his family that has been uprooted from his land has a right to return to their homes. It’s also not as impossible as it sounds. The state of Israel has backup plans to receive a million immigrants, if the need be. So the possibility is there.

Maybe robot journalists with no emotions as well would be great. But they shouldn't be unsinkable. Just because it's great to watch them get Dan Rathered.

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