Comment on Belmont Club"Strategic debt"

Pakistan's Zardari asks for "Trust" that he can not offer himself. The problem is that within Islam there is a level of trust absolutely mandated that makes it a given that a crime committed against an insider is worse than a crime committed against a non-Moslem and therefore it is always permissible on some level to view the outsider as more likely to hold you to an Unfair or purely logical standard. Indeed the earthly standards of logic and proof are inherently profane and less worthy than the inclusive web of trust that exist for, and only for, members of the Ummah. Justice, the holding of people to standards, is exercised by God and his representatives. Ordinary Moslems do not have that authority over other Moslems but they do have authority over unbelievers, and any putative Moslem who can be shown to be a heretic is by definition fair game. This creates a system in which everyone who thinks that he his a good Moslem has no obligations to non-Moslems and every Moslem feels that they can arrogate unto themselves almost God like authority over unbelievers and heretics.

We in the outside, that is to say the civilized, world assume with our arrogance that a system of standards and proofs, accountability and performance, are natural givens. The entire 3,000 year process of trial and error by which this complicated edifice was built is simply assumed away as if it boils down to a simply matter of technique or a set of calculations and parlor game tricks that can be taught to anyone in four semesters at an engineering or business school.

-------
In response to a Kremlin apologist.
For 8 months I have worried about our visitors from the Lubyanka. Are they doing OK, still employed, doing the same shift changes? When they left us after the Georgian War without even saying goodbye I was hurt.

-------
Triton'sPolarTiger (who replied to my comment on Russian disinformation agents),
Possibly this could be a leading indicator that something big is planned to happen. My WAG prediction is that the Ukraine goes down in July and at the same time there is a serious challenge to US Navy transit through the Straits of Hormuz.

Habu,
Truth is the best propaganda.