"Religion is a hypothesis about the world: the hypothesis that things are the way they are, at least in part, because of supernatural entities or forces acting on the natural world. And there's no good reason to treat it any differently from any other hypothesis. Which includes pointing out its flaws and inconsistencies, asking its adherents to back it up with solid evidence, making jokes about it when it's just being silly, offering arguments and evidence for our own competing hypotheses...and trying to persuade people out of it if we think it's mistaken. It's persuasion. It's the marketplace of ideas. Why should religion get a free ride"

Greta Christina

Thursday, 21 January 2010

Giving in to the Taliban

I was struck with this headline today and in particular the juxtaposition of the next few paragraphs

The Pakistani army launched major ground offensives in 2009 in the north-west against Pakistani Taliban strongholds in the Swat region, last April, and in South Waziristan, last October.
The militants have hit back with a wave of suicide bombings and attacks that have killed hundreds of people across Pakistan.
In the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, on Thursday, Maj Gen Abbas, head of public relations for the Pakistan army, told the BBC: "We are not going to conduct any major new operations against the militants over the next 12 months.

Even if the Pakistani government was sincere in its inability to start new offensive initiatives, publicly stated in this way it is all Islamic terrorists anywhere need to convince them of the effectiveness of their vile tactics.
It is tantamount to saying, “we attacked you and suffered the consequences. Sorry, we won’t do it again".
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