WOW just WOW this is a must read...I had wondered about these areas!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1312030/posts
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Now, if you had told me a week ago that an American Marine expeditionary force would be in Banda Aceh on New Years Day, my first reaction would have been that the President had decided upon a bold and unexpected strike in the War on Terror, jumping ahead on the timeline of that effort's multi-generational strategy. I might have thought it was a bold and necessary move, and I would have believed you if you had said they had located and captured Osama Bin Laden there.
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Banda Aceh was, until a week ago, home of a Taliban-like, semi-autonomous government that had succeeded in establishing the Sharhia Islamic law, though the central government on Java nominally "allowed" this legal code on a "separate but equal" basis, for Muslims only. That was in 2002, and it was hoped the restive Islamo-Fascist insurgents who have fought for independence from Djakarta for more than twenty years would be satisfied. The locals had even just recently succeeded in putting into place, shall we say, "heavy legal penalties" for anyone who tried to prosthletize a citizen of Greater Islam... meaning Christians, of course.
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When he was forced to leave Sudan, Osama Bin Laden considered moving to Yemen, Afghanistan and Banda Aceh. He decided upon Afghanistan, of course, and may still be holed up there, or on the border with Pakistan, or under the nervous refuge of the Mullah regime of Iran. In fact, the Grand Mosque in Banda Aceh is right up there with Karbala, Qom, Medina and Mecca in everyone's top ten list of Muslim "holy places."
Today, it's an open air morgue, and if they find Osama among the dead there, I wouldn't be a bit surprised.
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Consider that the Christian Reformation, perhaps even the American Republic, has roots in the Black Death of 1349. People faced with such tragedy question their Worldview, abandon or are, at least, forced to examine their beliefs and habits, and the rebirth of Philosophy and the scientific method in the West began again in the centuries immediately after the plagues of the 14th Christian Century.
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Some of those locals, who have waited for almost a week for food and water, helping off-load our nation's charity are wearing T-Shirts with the image of Osama on them.
We certainly didn't cause this tragedy, but we'd be fools not to take advantage of the strategic miracle God has handed to us.
That is interesting DC.
I noted in my last summary that there might be a significant impact to jihadist plans as a result of the tsumani since they were basing themselves in the areas most strongly hit.
This is really unreal, I just got through searching on ACEH for the Tsunami victims, please tell me the connections you're making
an open air morgue, and if they find Osama among the dead there, I wouldn't be a bit surprised
Wouldn't that just be God's work?
http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=Banda+Aceh+and+terrorists&fr=FP-tab-web-t&toggle=1&ei=UTF-8
Very interesting links here:
http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=Banda+Aceh+and+al+qaeda&ei=UTF-8&fr=FP-tab-web-t&fl=0&x=wrt
The earth shook, the sea rose up
http://www.smh.com.au/news/Asia-Tsunami/The-earth-shook-the-sea-rose-up/2004/12/31/1104344986750.html?oneclick=true
Well, that's interesting.