Published on Jun 9, 2014 by securefreedom
The media is abuzz with analyses regarding the release of American serviceman Bowe Bergdahl. Is it a victory for America, a victory for the Taliban, or something in between?CSP fellow Stephen Coughlin lays out the theological context and strategic basis for prisoner capture and exchange in Islamic history.
It’s the Toyota Hilux, a brand unfamiliar to most consumers in the US.
As the war in Afghanistan escalated several years ago, counterinsurgency expert David Kilcullen, a member of the team that designed the Iraq surge for Gen. David Petraeus, began to notice a new tattoo on some insurgent Afghan fighters. It wasn’t a Taliban tattoo. It wasn’t even Afghan. It was a Canadian maple leaf.
When a perplexed Kilcullen began to investigate, he says, he discovered that the incongruous flags were linked to what he says is one of the most important, and unnoticed, weapons of guerrilla war in Afghanistan and across the world: the lightweight, virtually indestructible Toyota Hilux truck.
“In Afghanistan in particular,” he says, “[the trucks are] incredibly well respected.” So well respected, in fact, that some enterprising fraudsters thought them worthy of ripping off. The imitations, Kilcullen says, had flooded the market, leaving disappointed fighters in their wake. But then “a shipment of high-quality [real] Hiluxes arrived, courtesy of the Canadian government,” he explains. “They had little Canadian flags on the back. Because they were the real deal, and because of how the Hilux is seen, over time, strangely, the Canadian flag has become a symbol of high quality across the country. Hence the tattoos.”
[…]
While Taliban leader Mullah Omar reportedly likes to roll in a Chevy Suburban and Osama Bin Laden is said to have preferred the Hilux’s bigger brother, the Landcruiser, when he was able to move freely, most Al Qaeda lieutenants drive Hiluxes, according to a New York Times report from the early 2000s. Even today, says Kilcullen, “It’s a bit of a sign you’re dealing with Al Qaeda when you come across them in Pakistan. They use the twin-cab version, because you can carry people and stuff in the back, and also mount a heavy weapon in the pickup.”
I find it both interesting and disheartening that US-made trucks don’t hold up anywhere near as well as the Toyota Hilux, and cannot be kept running as easily under difficult conditions.
An experiment conducted by British TV show Top Gear in 2006 offers one explanation. The show’s producers bought an 18-year-old Hilux diesel with 190,000 miles on the odometer for $1,500. They then crashed it into a tree, submerged it in the ocean for five hours, dropped it from about 10 feet, tried to crush it under an RV, drove it through a portable building, hit it with a wrecking ball, and set it on fire. Finally they placed it on top of a 240-foot tower block that was then destroyed in a controlled demolition. When they dug it out of the rubble, all it took to get it running again was hammers, wrenches, and WD-40. They didn’t even need spare parts.
The Hilux was originally designed, says Kevin Hunter, president of Toyota’s design division in California, as “a lightweight truck with big tires on big wheels. It was meant as a recreational truck, a truck people could have fun with. They also have a really high ground clearance, which means they’re ideal for off-road work.”
As shown in the accompanying photo essay, not only al Qaeda and the Taliban, but also other insurgent groups, refugees, and even US forces like this particular truck.
The bomb plot at Times Square continues to be unraveled. The Pakistani Taliban, which claimed credit, was not bluffing. So far the clues point to them as a Pakistani national named Faisal Shahzad was arrested while trying to the flee the country. This was the man seen in the video that many Leftists hoped was a white American. Well to the Left and some Conservatives’ disappointment and no surprise to those of us who under the totalitarian nature of Islam, it was another act of aggression from the “religion of peace”. Obama’s outreach to the Muslim world has failed and this is just another example.
DUBAI—Dubai-based Emirates Airline said Tuesday that flight EK202 bound for Dubai was called back before taking off from New York and that three passengers were removed from the aircraft as part of an investigation into a failed bomb attempt in Times Square.
“Full security procedures were activated including the deplaning of all passengers and a thorough screening of the aircraft, passengers, and baggage,” an Emirates spokesperson told Zawya Dow Jones. “Emirates is cooperating with the local authorities.”U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said earlier Tuesday that a suspect in the attempted Times Square bomb attempt in New York was arrested trying to board a plane for Dubai. U.S. officials identified the man as Faisal Shahzad, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Pakistan. Mr. Shahzad was detained at 11:45 p.m. Monday night at John F. Kennedy Airport as he was preparing to fly.
Read the rest: Three Passengers Pulled Off Dubai-Bound Flight
This shouldn’t surprise anyone. What was shocking how many people were trying to deny it was Islamic aggression. As always, the Islamic Imperialists prove those of us who warn about this Ideology correct.
(Hat Tip: Bob in Breckenridge)
The Diary of Daedalus
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