My cousin works for a REALLY BIG American Corp. that does a substatntial amount of business in Mumbai and he has spent many months there.
When the attacks hit yesterday I recognized the hotel he stays at from his pictures and it's name. My first action was to call his folks to see which continent he is on right now. Happily he is home but pretty stunned by what he sees happening to a place he has become so familiar with.
However, he became good friends with a well placed employee at the hotel. He has been trying to reach him to see how he is faring but thus far, at home or work, has been unable to. (And because of that status both the employee's name and hotel are left out for now.)
To anyone who thinks Mumbai will not have direct personal impact here, that this is not, in small part, what the bastards try to accomplish -- fear, uncertainty etc. -- talk to my cousin.
If I get any info (not likely) and can safely pass it on I will.
p.s. On 9/11 his wife was scheduled to be at a meeting at the convention center that was between the towers, staying at a hotel very nearby. Hotel screwups and she had to stay about a mile away and was late for the meeting.
Another cousin lives a 1/2 hr from Shanksville.
My uncle was on the D.C. beltway enroute to a meeting when his wife called and said turn around now, the Pentagon was just attacked.
Third cousin works for the State Dept. and has had to stay in Georgia. While there she had to eat and drink only what Americans gave her and stay at the hotel unless accompanied by large gentlemen with very large guns.
I take this religious war very personally.
16 comments:
What has Georgia got to do with Jihad?
I take it very personally. Having to deal with this crap is eating my life, for one thing. It won't hurt to project that more forcefully whenever the subject comes up, if only to remind others that they, too, could find themselves affected in ways they can no longer evade, ignore, or just blame on Bush. However, I suspect between now and 1/20/09 things are going to happen that will bring that point home very clearly.
It's becoming clearer that the Mumbai attack was aimed primarily at creating terror and chaos. In a meticulously staged raid allegedly for purposes of hostage taking, the seizure and exploitation of hostages appears to have been conspicuously inept.
Most disturbing is that this major operation was prepared over a period of months and included such elements as the setting up of a "command post" at the Taj. And yet no one saw it coming? I do wish "repsonsible" people would stop believing that things can't happen just because they haven't seen them yet.
I think that's the Russian Georgia, Anon.
Former Soviet Georgia, not the U.S. state. Chechens. This in the early 2000's, after 9/11 but before Beslan.
Yes, I know. The story is all about Jihad until it got to Georgia. What's Georgia got to do with it?
Oh, alright, I got it now. Ignore my last comment.
RRA --
You said: However, I suspect between now and 1/20/09 things are going to happen that will bring that point home very clearly.
Dead on. You can almost feel it in your bones.
"It won't hurt to project that more forcefully whenever the subject comes up, if only to remind others that they, too, could find themselves affected in ways they can no longer evade, ignore, or just blame on Bush."
The purpose of this post & one earlier. And the increasing feeling of urgency I feel to get this message out.
One of the mentioned cousins is extreme liberal who I cannot get through to no matter what I try.
The economy is a grave concern but I don't believe our biggest. This war is. If we get it wrong the economy ain't going to matter a shit.
So Georgia, a Christian country, is aiding Chechens who want a Caliphate? And Georgia is buying weapons from Israel? What a fucked up world we live in.
I'm a bit unclear on whether Georgia is aiding the Chechens or not. Certainly Russia has accused them of doing so. And I think was part of their excuse for their recent invasion of Georgia. But the U.S. also believed Al Qaida and had training camps in Georgia and, at one time, believed Bin Laden may have fled there. They asked Georgia for help in clearing that region.
The Chechens were responsible for Beslan. Some, including Paul Williams, have stated Beslan may have been a dress rehearsal for events yet to unfold here. Whether or not that's so no one knows for sure, of course, but it's not implausible. There are ties between Al Qaida and the Chechens.
Anyway, I mentioned it as part of the broader whole. Islam and the jihad are insidisous. Seems if they can't litigate they annihilate.
Hey Revere: "having to deal with this crap is eating my life"
I know. I think we all feel that here. The relatives who roll their eyes when you start up. The older kids with "oh no here he goes again" The wife tonight "you'd rather blog than hug me" (she was teasing, of course.)
It can get a bit disheartening but then, every now and then, you see you're getting through. Have caught aforementioned wife reading my bloglist. Mom not telling me to settle down watch your blood pressure so much. Trying to get a post or comment in while at work ;>)
Not sure what set me off last 2 days. I think it was a combination of the terror warning & folks blowing it off while Mumbai was developing. And that growing sense of urgency.
MR
Watching the Macy's parade and switching to Mumbai coverage at commercials (at my insistence, not a popular request) and thinking all the time that could be Macy's instead of the Taj, that could be Penn Station or Grand, those hotels could be on Park Ave or Fifth, Penn and the whole parade route are swarming with cops but who's watching the rest of the city. The attitude that, well, ya know, Mumbai is in India why even go to places like that? when there's two five-star hotels burning in front of our eyes. This is all Bush's fault, Obama will fix this, he'll know how to talk to these people yada yada.
We were promised attacks on "Western interests" and they are arriving right on schedule. We've also been promised attacks in America. We need to find out how many of us are awake and ready to deal with that.
My wife's family is living in the United States precisely because they had to flee the Jihad in Mindanao.
A neighbor of mine from down the block wrote a book on how his family was chased out of Armenia by Islamic Jihadists.
Another neighbor, just a couple doors down, was kidnapped by islamic Jihadists in Africa. His wife spent over a year trying to get our government to pay attention. By the time he came back, her health was shot, and he spent the next 20 years caring for her, as she was incapacitated. He died of a heart attack just months after she died.
All of that is directly related to Jihad.
One of my best friends is a Christian Persian man whose family fled Iran to come here in 1980. They were rich. They lost everything. When his family fled, they went to Caliphornia and Paris. Now, he and his family are having to pool money to bring his relatives over from Paris as they are being oppressed by the Muslims living there.
That is not all the strories of direct encounters with Jihad from my life. There are more.
RRA & Pasto -- Right. Exactly. So very many people have similar stories that I don't understand how they cannot connect the cause and effect that global jihad already has directly on them. Willfully so. At best a coincidence. AT work, in the neighborhood. "It doesn't affect me directly." So I keep it in their face and, hopefully, not too many turn and walk away. Although, of late, I have noticed more at work "eavesdropping" on my conversations and then pitching in with what seems real interest in the subject. Sadly a few have fallen off. Counter-Jihad fatigue. Several went so far as to vote for B.O. Broke my heart those friends of mine.
I note it's now starting to heat up recriminations at Pakistan (and probably rightly so) from India. This is going to get very bad. I remember 2002. Sick as a dog was going to stay home and skip Christmas with the gathering but, as I saw what was unflodong, went anyway because we couldn't be sure what the next Christmas would be loike, if there would even be one. Seems we're there again.
As for my cousin's friend I have to say, from the position held, he would have been in the first line when the attackers rushed the hotels. If he was on duty we have very little hope for him.
We're all saying the same thing. Very frustrated with the complacency as time is running out. So I keep yelling and preaching like all of you with news info and personal anecdote to hopefully make others think of similar situations of there own. They want to kill us. Every American should be taking this as personally as we do. Hopefully some will stumble on IBA & simialr sites and get the message. Before it's too late.
Right. I yield the soapbox.
Here's what I do often, (though few are willing to be as forward as me):
If I meet someone who looks ME or African, I ask them where they are from, and what brought them here.
Just those two questions are often enough to get some great stories.
If they reply to those questions with something vague, then ask them, "Are you Muslim?"
If they are, they'll tell you, "Yes."
If not, the subject is open, and usually their feelings about Islam spill forth.
I wonder how Muslims feel to know that there's a whole planet full of people out there who do not like their religion very much.
Mostly I don't think they care, Pastorius, because they don't like our religion(s) very much.
Like yourself & most everyone, I'm not shy. I make my feelings/opinions known. Doesn't win me alot of friends, has cost 1 or 2 but I remain grounded in my faith and the belief that we are right.
That should read "Like yourself and most everyone here"
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