A bit of a bombshell.
Just seen this in an Indian paper:
"The United States had threatened to bomb Pakistan "back to the stone age" in 2001 unless it co-operated in the US-led war on terror, President Pervez Musharraf said in a [CBS] interview.. due to be broadcast on Sunday. "I think it was a very rude remark," Musharraf says in the interview. "One has to think and take actions in the interests of the nation, and that's what I did."
One of the many things I admire about English as she is spoken in South Asia is understatement, and 'rude' is an absolute classic of its type.
Reminds me of a tale from 1978, just after the seizure of the US Embassy in Tehran. Apparently the Iranian ambassador to Moscow was summoned to the Kremlin, and once within its walls was asked to pass over his watch to Kosygin or whoever. The ambassador was fixed with a gimlet eye, the watch was dropped to the floor and this ensued: "That watch is your holy city of Qom, and if you seize our embassy, this happens". Watch is stomped on. Or so the story goes, anyway.
"The United States had threatened to bomb Pakistan "back to the stone age" in 2001 unless it co-operated in the US-led war on terror, President Pervez Musharraf said in a [CBS] interview.. due to be broadcast on Sunday. "I think it was a very rude remark," Musharraf says in the interview. "One has to think and take actions in the interests of the nation, and that's what I did."
One of the many things I admire about English as she is spoken in South Asia is understatement, and 'rude' is an absolute classic of its type.
Reminds me of a tale from 1978, just after the seizure of the US Embassy in Tehran. Apparently the Iranian ambassador to Moscow was summoned to the Kremlin, and once within its walls was asked to pass over his watch to Kosygin or whoever. The ambassador was fixed with a gimlet eye, the watch was dropped to the floor and this ensued: "That watch is your holy city of Qom, and if you seize our embassy, this happens". Watch is stomped on. Or so the story goes, anyway.
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saves a lot of time if everyone knows where they stand
It brings to mind another instance of Soviet bluntness. During the bad old days of the Lebanese civil war, around '83 or 84 as far as I recall, some Soviet diplomats were abducted in Beirut by Islamic Jihad or whatever. The Soviets sternly demanded the return of their chaps pronto.Which happened very fast, indeed. The kidnappers were then systematically tracked down by the KGB and executed. The leader of the cell involved in the abduction was tortured to death by the Soviets and his body parts posted (yes, posted) to the high command of the terrorist group concerned.
Strangely, from that point on, Soviet diplomats remained remarkably immune from the chaos going on around them...
Quality tale GC. Not to be messed with, was the USSR.
Doing pretty well with populist right wing pundits posting, am I not?
A bit of digging re: my post above on the Soviet diplomats. It wasn’t Islamic Jihad but the Islamic. Liberation Organisation, a front for Hezbollah which was responsible for the kidnapping of the Soviet diplomats:
From “The New York Times” of 1st October 1985:
“Four Soviet diplomats riding in official cars were kidnapped in West Beirut today, authorities said. It was the first abduction of Soviet nationals in the Lebanese capital…. There was no immediate official response from the Soviet Union”. The Islamic Liberation Organization claimed that all four would be executed very soon unless Moscow were to bring pressure on its ally Syria to halt the "annihilation of Moslems in Tripoli with Soviet tanks and artillery guns." It was later reported that a Soviet intelligence unit arrived in Lebanon during the last week of October to “review” the case of the missing Soviet diplomats
The Soviets responded first by abducting a family member of a Hezbollah leader, and maiming and killing him. Three hostages were soon freed, the other had been murdered and Soviet interests weren’t targeted in Lebanon again. But the other kidnappers involved in the Soviet abduction case all came to a rather bloody end towards the end of 1985/early 1986….
richard when will you be outlining your world view on guido?
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