There Will Come Soft Rains

when-rain-falls-to-earth.jpg.

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There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,
And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;

And frogs in the pools singing at night,
And wild plum trees in tremulous white;

Robins will wear their feathery fire,
Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;

And not one will know of the war, not one
Will care at last when it is done.

Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree,
If mankind perished utterly;

And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn
Would scarcely know that we were gone.

— Sara Teasdale

Since the news has been a bit of gloom lately — just a reminder that whether the war takes ten years or twenty, some day it will be done.

Pakistan Update

Lal Masjid is issuing threats after Musharraf’s speech (see yesterday’s update,) and it appears that yet another kidnapping was foiled by police. The self-appointed “Ummahzons” are still rattling their canes, but ineffectively. Previous articles on the crow-hatchery here.

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Suicide Car Bomb Attempt at Glasgow Airport

Two stories from Britain tell of a Jeep Cherokee on fire that tried to ram through security barriers at Glasgow airport.

suicide-jeep-bomber.jpgTwo stories from Britain tell of a Jeep Cherokee on fire that tried to ram through security barriers at Glasgow airport. First story from from BBC news:

 Eyewitnesses have described a Jeep Cherokee being driven at speed towards the building with flames coming out from underneath.

They have also described seeing two Asian men, one of whom was on fire, who had been in the car.

The airport has been evacuated and all flights suspended following the incident at 1515 BST.
One eyewitness said: “I heard the sound of a car’s wheels spinning and smoke coming out.

Reports are confused and limited at this time, probably in an effort to keep panic down. The Telegraph witnesses interviewed say it was a Land Rover, not a Cherokee.

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Lal Masjid Update

He said the female students of the Lal Masjid’s adjoining madrassa were “prepared for suicide attacks” and up to 500 children “were being used as human shields” to stop the government from contemplating any operation

President Musharraf spoke and revealed some reasons why the government has not yet taken action against Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa. It turns out that there are suicide bombers from Jaish-e=Mohamed, an Al Qaeda aligned jihadist group, inside the madrassas. They are using the female students as human shields, and he wants to prevent unecessary deaths. Sounds reasonable, but I have to wonder at the opportunities that the government has had to grab both of the brothers who lead the mosque while they were outside with the press that went unused.

This however could be a situation like Beslan, or the school in Iraq, where the madrassa is wired with high explosives and most of the students are really hostage.

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