Wampum

Asoka (d. 232 BC) became a follower of Siddhartha Gautama after waging, then regreting, a sucessful war. His answer to the question What is Dhamma? is engraved on a stone piller. It is having few faults and many good deeds, mercy, charity, truthfulness, and purity. At Mardan, which is momentarily in the news (below), at the Western boundary of the Mauryan kingdom, on the road to Alexandar''s Persia and Afganistan, he had a set of edicts carved into great rocks, so that those entering the Mauryan kingdom would be educated. The 12th Major Rock Edict is what should be persistently in the news -- it is something the religious intolerants that have captured a lot of the Republican Party lack, and who are aiming to restart the Wars of Religion in North America, make a point of ignoring, rather like the Talibans who dynamited the great stone Buddhas at Bamiyan, built half a millenna later, about the time when their scriptures (New Testiment) were taking their canonical form.

12th Major Rock Edict

The Beloved of the Gods, the king Piyadassi, honours all sects and both ascetics and laymen, with gifts and various forms of recognition. But the Beloved of the Gods do not consider gifts or honour to be as important as the advancement of the essential doctrine of all sects. This progress of the essential doctrine takes many forms, but its basis is the control of one's speech, so as not to extoll one's own sect or disparage another's on unsuitable occasions, or at least to do so only mildly on certain occasions. On each occasion one should honour another man's sect, for by doing so one increases the influence of one's own sect and benefits that of the other man; while by doing otherwise one diminishes the influence of one's own sect and harms the other man's. Again, whosoever honours his own sect or disparages that of another man, wholly out of devotion to his own, with a view to showing it in a favourable light, harms his own sect even more seriously. Therefore, concord is to be commanded, so that men may hear one anothers principles and obey them. This is the desire of the Beloved of the Gods, that all sects should be well-informed, and should teach that which is good, and that everywhere their adherents should be told, 'The Beloved of the Gods does not consider gifts or honour to be as important as the progress of the essential doctrine of all sects.' Many are concerned with this matter - the officers of Dhamma, the women's officers, the managers of the state farms, and other classes of officers. The result of this is the increased influence of one's own sect and glory to Dhamma.

The middle Indic language encompassed the Asokan kharosthi edicts from Shahbazgarhi and Mansehra, and it reads from right to left, and is usually called the Arian Pali alphabet. This is what the Bush regime and the Republican Party leadership-to-grassroots should be reading, instead of hyped up stories about catching a guy with a bad accent and wicked splotchy face.

Momentary Trivia: Iranian intelligence sources report that Abu Faraj al Libbi, a Libyan national, a/k/a Dr. Taufeek ("Dr. Prosperity") was arrested in Mardan, North West Frontier Province, Pakistan, several days ago. Mardan is a city, with a population of a quarter of a million, in an agricultural area with a population of just over a million. The total area of Mardan District is 1632 square kilometers, with a population density of about 900 persons per square kilometer. One Libyan, mother tongue Libyan Vernacular Arabic, thought to have vitiglio, with prior work in Southeast Asia and Northern Africa, in a sea of Pashto speaking Yusafzai Pathans and Khattaks, recently settled Afghans (Pashto-speaking refugees) and semi-nomadic Gujars (Hazara Gujuri-speaking). More a Nigerian in Iceland than a fish in the sea.

How big a deal his arrest is I really can't say, but al Qaeda's structure and evolution makes it seem unlikely that any arrest, even OBL's, will end al Qaeda. To be sure, Pervez Musharraf and George Bush both need happy narratives, never arriving at, but forever approaching, the light at the end of the tunnel.

I recommend Amir Mir's May 3rd piece Al-Qaeda Camps, Fighters Active in Waziristan: US Pushes Pakistan to Fight in the South Asia Tribune. Some hidden gems are (a) Lt. Gen. David Barno, commander, coalition forces in Afghanistan, went on record on April 18th that Taliban remnants and al Quida cadres were moving from North Waziristan back into Afganistan, and (b) he disclosed on April 28th that "The Americans have been training Pakistanis in night flying and airborne assault tactics to combat foreign and local fighters in the tribal areas of Pakistan near the Afghan border." The Pakistani position of record is that (a) North Waziristan is tranquil, (b) there is no infiltration from Pakistan to Afganistan, and (c) Absolutely No Americans Military Advisors Are Training The Pakistani Military.

This is where the US-Pak-Talib-aQ story bifurcates. In one direction is under-the-table payoffs from the Pak Army to buy over-extended troop extraction and "peace" from the North West Territory and the Waziristans, with the tacit, if not explicit terms that al Quida cadres not be surrendered, or surrendered on an as-needed-and-paid-for basis, and the controlling context is the control of Pakistani party politics and Washington's expectations, by the Army (Gen. Pervez Musharraf). In the other direction is the center-vs-periphery problem -- "Is Pakistan?" I, II, III, VI, V, and the existance of a federal state ruled by a Punjabi Army, out of sight of the Americans, yet within the Front Edge Battle Area in the widely anticipated US-Iran war, and of real interest to China and India.

Not just Pakistanis should be thinking about an Exit Strategy for Pakistan Army, from the control of the Pakistani state, and Baluchistan, the Waziristans, and the NWT. American need to be thinking about it also, and Deux vieu KGB schnooks thinking outloud about the original Beluchistan Liberation Army and real politick throws some water on the standard fictions concerning the US, Pakistan, and the calculus of illusions.

Unfortunately, this American got the wrong answer.