This morning's key headlines from
GenerationalDynamics.com
- Saudi Arabia is running out of swordsmen to behead people
- Terrorists disguised as cricketers kill 5 Indian soldiers in Kashmir
- Xi Jinping envisions 'China's Dream' - world economic and military domination
Saudi Arabia is running out of swordsmen to behead people
Saudi Swordman prepares to behead convict (Al-Ahram)
Saudi Arabia is considering the abolishment of beheading for capital
punishment in favor of firing squads, because there are shortages of
government swordsmen to do the job. Rape, murder, apostasy, armed
robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under Saudi
law. About 70 people were put to death by beheading in 2012. There
has been worldwide outrage of Saudi Arabia's beheading program, and it
reached a peak last week after the beheading of a girl who, in 2005,
at age 17, came to Saudi Arabia as a maid, and plotted and killed an
infant by suffocating him to death one week later. Al-Ahram (Cairo)
Terrorists disguised as cricketers kill 5 Indian soldiers in Kashmir
Two terrorists disguised as cricket players got out of a car, walked
across a playground for a school adjacent to a paramilitary camp in
the India-governed side of Kashmir, shot dead a sentry, and fired
grenades indiscriminately, killing 5 soldiers and wounding three
civilians. The two terrorists were killed by Indian soldiers.
Kashmir was the epicenter of the massive genocidal war that followed
Partition, the partitioning of the Indian subcontinent into India and
Pakistan in 1947. Pakistan and India each control a portion of
Kashmir, with the two sides separated by a border called the "Line of
Control" (LoC). Kashmir has been the site of repeated clashes between
Pakistan and India since 1947, and may well be the epicenter of the
next massive genocidal war between the two countries. India blamed
the Pakistan terrorist group Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) for Wednesday's
attack, but Pakistan rejected the charge that any Pakistanis were
involved in the attack. Hizbul Mujahideen, an Indian Islamist
terrorist group, has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Times of India and
Pakistan Observer
Xi Jinping envisions 'China's Dream' - world economic and military domination
The generational change in China's leadership, as 59-year-old Xi
Jinping takes over as president from 70-year-old Hu Jintao on
Thursday, marks a historic change in attitudes at the top. Hu
Jintao, it seemed to me, fit the profile of a survivor of the last
crisis war (like our Silent Generation) by seeking to mediate
disputes. Having grown up during Mao's bloody Communist Revolution,
he understands how dangerous it is to provoke another war, and doesn't
want to see anything like that happen again.
Xi Jinping never suffered the horrors of Mao's war, and doesn't
understand the dangers. He's launched a series of "The China Dream"
speeches, in which he calls for China to shed its past as a secondary
player, and become the world's top military and economic power.
He's visiting Chinese military bases and telling the troops
to be ready for war at any time. He's personally taking charge
of policy in the East and South China Seas, and has vowed that
China will take every step necessary to gain control of these
regions, including areas that have been owned by other countries
for centuries.
So now we have a President in Beijing who says that there's no problem
with preparing rapidly for war against the United States, and we have
a President in Washington who whose stated intention on Wednesday is
to have the government spend as many trillions of dollars as possible.
These two world leaders are racing to see who can be the first to
create a catastrophe. It'll be interesting to see who wins, I guess.
WSJ and China Daily
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