Taliban Militants in Pakistan Kill 132 Children, 9 Staffers, in Assault on Army Public School

Channel 4

Militants from the Pakistani Taliban stormed an Army Public School in Peshawar today that served mostly officers' children aged 10 to 18, killing 132 of them and injuring as many.

The News International in Pakistan reports:

According to DG ISPR, 132 children and 9 school staff members were martyred while 7 soldiers including two officers were injured in the attack.

The proscribed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed credit of one of the deadliest attack in Pakistan's history.

Giving account of the harrowing attack, an eye witness said the terrorists set to fire the vehicle in which they had arrived before they stormed the school building.

Later, police said, the bloody raid by the Taliban on the army-run school ended, with all six attackers dead.

About 1,600 militants have been killed in Pakistan since June, when the government launched Operation Zarb-e-Azb, promising to continue counterterrorism operations until terrorism was eliminated.

The White House condemned "in the strongest possible terms" the "heinous" and "horrific" act.

Comments

[Swiss Servator, Winter kommt!]

But...but...

"This is what we call smart power: using every possible tool and partner to advance peace and security, and leaving no one on the sidelines, showing respect, even for one's enemies, trying to understand and insofar as psychologically possible empathize with their perspective and point of view ? helping to define the problems, determine the solutions, that is what we believe in the 21st Century will change. Change the prospects for peace."

[Agammamon]

Look, if we keep fucking this hornet's nest, eventually they'll get tired and stop stinging. I know it hurts and your dick is on fire but push through man! We're on the end-stretch, I *promise*.

[anon]

"But they were instructed to only kill the children that had reached puberty, so everything's A-OK, because they didn't kill small children."

[Timon 19]

It's like they went fishing and threw the little ones back.

Ugh.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

What savages. Things like this are almost beyond fathoming.

[Palin's Buttplug]

William F Buckley said the role of conservatives was to stand in front of the world and yell STOP! The Taliban fully agrees.

[Swiss Servator, Winter kommt!]

Yup, same exact thing!

You are beneath contempt. I should have known better than read anything you posted.

[Palin's Buttplug]

It is the same mindset.

[Tonio]

I know it's hard, Swiss Servator, but just ignore it. You reward it every time you acknowledge it.

[Swiss Servator, Winter kommt!]

Yeah - I came to know those savages in the Taliban - burning schools, throwing acid in women teacher's faces, attacking honest police and politicians that wouldn't look the other way or take bribes (yes, they had some- that is why they were attacked) killing to intimidate or enforce Sharia, etc..

and this jackass wants to equate them to some Boston Brahmin TEAM RED dude. Oy.

[tarran]

and this jackass wants to equate them to some Boston Brahmin TEAM RED dude.

No it doesn't. To equate two people or ideas, it would have to be sentient, and it is not sentient! All it craves are the letters that comprise your angry responses.

[Tonio]

That's totally sucktastic, LTC. You have my total respect for having experienced that.

[antisocial-ist]

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is the mind of a partisan retard. Note the utter lack of empathy for other human beings or even shock or revulsion at hearing the news. When normal people hear something like this they think "how terrible". When the mindless team player hears it he thinks "how can I twist this against my political opponents?"

[Palin's Buttplug]

I heard this sad news five hours ago. It is not too soon to perform some root cause analysis. Too bad it did not comport with your existing political bias.

[R C Dean]

So, free associating to William Buckley is "root cause analysis" for a terror attack in Pakistan?

Oookay.

[Warty]

Fuck.

[Dances-with-Trolls]

^This

[Swiss Servator, Winter kommt!]

Yeah.

[albo]

Well, there goes my vacation plans for Pakistan.

[Florida Man]

Funny enough I work with a Pakistani gastroenterologist who is a solid libertarian. I wonder if some people are naturally more friendly to freedom or if growing up in a country with little freedom makes you value it more.

[Tonio]

...or if the doc's libertarian leanings caused him to get out of that shithole.

[Swiss Servator, Winter kommt!]

Why not both?

[Florida Man]

He's an interesting guy. He is a small heavily accented man but he loves to hunt. All the hunters I've know have been more on the redneck side, so it challenges my preconceptions of the "typical" hunter.

[Restoras]

I made friends with a Russian emigre when I was in B-school. She despised Team Blue because to her they were freedom hating communists in sheep's clothing.

[Florida Man]

Was she hot? I'm assuming yes.

[Restoras]

Why, yes, yes she was...

[Hugh Akston]

I'm unclear on the motivation behind this. I mean, presumably the Taliban want to be in charge of Pakistan some day. Do they think that slaughtering children is going to win the respect (or at least fear) of the Pakis? Do they seriously believe that people hate the current regime so much that murdering their kids is acceptable? Or do they merely subscribe to the medieval mindset that authority derives from being more brutal than the next guy?

[Palin's Buttplug]

Education leads to secular humanism.

[Palins Buttplug]

And divine cannibalism.

[Swiss Servator, Winter kommt!]

Yup, nothing but giving out NEA approved curricula!!

Did your sanity leave a going away card?

[SugarFree]

He's just a troll, dude. All he's trying to do is get his jollies.

[anon]

Fucking tyrants, trying to deprive him of his trolling happiness!

[Swiss Servator, Winter kommt!]

I think it is also what the theologians mean by "invincible ignorance".

[Hugh Akston]

So why do you keep responding to it?

[Swiss Servator, Winter kommt!]

This one "triggered" me!

But seriously, my time in nearby part of Afghanistan gave me quite the education in Talib "thinking". They were worse than the HIG, JAM, AQ, or anyone else I ever had lob a bomb at me or such. Literal slavers.''And the troll laid the perfect little turd of a remark and I stepped in it.

I think I have cooled off now and will resume scrolling past him.

[Restoras]

I'll cut LTC a lot of slack here. I responded to it for long time against the wishes of the wiser ones here and even against my own better judgement. Sometimes you can't help but lash out at it's myopic stupidity.

[R C Dean]

Education leads to secular humanism.

Madrassa education leads to secular humanism? Really?

[albo]

They don't care. And they already rule the tribal areas of a huge chunk of Pakistan, so I can't imagine they really want the whole country.

[anon]

Do they think that slaughtering children is going to win the respect (or at least fear) of the Pakis?

As fucked in the head the entire region is? It probably will.

I also don't really consider the Taliban the bad guys here. They're in a war, "winning" it the only way they can, by demoralizing their opponents.

[Hugh Akston]

Nope, that's bullshit. Even in war there are broadly-accepted norms of good conduct. Accidentally killing kids as "collateral" is horrendus. Purposely targeting children for slaughter makes the Taliban unequivocally the bad guys, even if the other side is also bad.

[anon]

Accidentally killing kids as "collateral" is horrendus. Purposely targeting children for slaughter makes the Taliban unequivocally the bad guys, even if the other side is also bad.

Objectively, I agree. I'm just saying that I can understand why I'd want to murder children at an academy specifically for military children, were I planning this war.

[anon]

Please note, Hugh, that I consider war in general just as atrocious as anything the Taliban did here. I think war is terrible, horrible, and to be avoided at all costs. But, once war commences, you do everything it takes to win, cause the sooner it's over the better everyone is for it.

[Hugh Akston]

That is a monstrous attitude and we can only hope that you never find yourself in a position to fight or command in a war.

I can accept for the sake of argument that there are principles worth fighting for. But once you cede the moral high ground by targeting non-combatants, you effectively declare that whatever principles you supposedly believe in aren't worth the effort to respect basic human rights. Which means that even if you win, you're not qualified to be any kind of leader.

[anon]

But once you cede the moral high ground by targeting non-combatants,

Unfortunately, through no fault of their own, those children are not "non-combatants." Guilt by association is bullshit, but in this particular case it happens to be true.

[Redmanfms]

Unfortunately, through no fault of their own, those children are not "non-combatants." Guilt by association is bullshit, but in this particular case it happens to be true.

I, I, uh, I just don't even know how somebody could be so profoundly fucking depraved.

You, YOU, anon are probably the first truly evil person I witnessed on this forum.

[R C Dean]

But, once war commences, you do everything it takes to win,

So, we should retool our ABC protocols to make nuclear/chemical/bio our first strike option?

[anon]

If nukes were our first strike, would we ever have any wars?

[Swiss Servator, Winter kommt!]

I also don't really consider the Taliban the bad guys here.

Really?

Did you oppose CIA torture?

[anon]

Did you oppose CIA torture?

Nope; think I specifically stated that once you try to kill me, your life is forfeit from that point forward and what I choose to do with it is my business.

[Cytotoxic]

I also don't really consider the Taliban the bad guys here.

You are objectively pro-evil.

They're in a war, "winning" it the only way they can, by demoralizing their opponents.

They're in a war to IMPOSE ISLAMIC THEOCRACY. The US had the right and responsibility to nuke Hiroshima because Japan was the aggressor in that war, and America was a relatively free nation.

[anon]

Dude, I didn't say I want them to win. I'm just saying I can understand how you'd kill kids if you thought whatever you hold most sacred was at stake.

[KWebb]

I'm unclear on the motivation behind this. I mean, presumably the Taliban want to be in charge of Pakistan some day. Do they think that slaughtering children is going to win the respect (or at least fear) of the Pakis?

Kill the officer's families, the officers desert.

[Restoras]

But, if you kill the officer's families what do they have left to fight for, except revenge?

[antisocial-ist]

That's what I was thinking. If somebody killed my kids I would spend the rest of my days hunting them down like animals.

[R C Dean]

Here's hoping this makes the Paki military go after the pro-terror "intelligence" apparat.

[tarran]

AS long as they are being bankrolled by the US govt's 'allies', the gulf arab nobility, probably not.

[Swiss Servator, Winter kommt!]

Are you familiar with the revenge culture in that part of the world?

[tarran]

My great grandfather accidentally killed an Afghani's goat throwing rocks at a wolf. Should I be concerned?

[GILMORE]

"Hugh Akston|12.16.14 @ 12:42PM|#

do they merely subscribe to the medieval mindset that authority derives from being more brutal than the next guy?"

More or less?

as far as I can tell, from Taliban POV, there's "The Chosen Folk" (them), and everyone else. Morality does not apply to 'everyone else' because they're basically enemies of God. If they did what they were told, they'd have been OK; they didn't, so now they get to shoot your kids. Don't say they didn't warn you!!

Churchill's depiction of the Pashtun during his time @ the Afghan border is worth reading.

[AlmightyJB]

"Or do they merely subscribe to the medieval mindset that authority derives from being more brutal than the next guy?"

I think you have your answer.

[Homple]

Whatever happens, they have got
The will to fight, and we have not.

...Hilaire Belloc, updated

[antisocial-ist]

" About 1,600 militants have been killed in Pakistan since June,"

You can probably expect a whole lot more in the next few months.

[Tonio]

So, Pakistan, how's that coddling of terrorists workin' out for ya?

[GILMORE]

Bush was still worse

[kinnath]

The White House condemned "in the strongest possible terms"

A White House spokesman complained the Taliban were showing off. "The best we can do is drone a couple of dozen kids at one time at a wedding."

[zacharybaughandes]

I looked at the paycheck which had said $7434 , I didn't believe that my mom in-law realy bringing in money in their spare time at their computer. . there brothers friend has been doing this for only 16 months and just paid for the morgage on there place and bought a top of the range Aston Martin DB5 .
You can join just easy ------- http://www.jobsfish.com

[Raston Bot]

The Taliban's playing the long game here. Stage a gruesome attack on a soft target to incite public outrage, then sit back/relax (or run and die) while civil liberties are eroded and militarization* busts the budget in 5-10 years.

*I imagine we'll be paying for that.

[Restoras]

Well our budget is already busted so it may be more like 3-5 years instead of 5-10.

[AlmightyJB]

Dick Cheney says "What?".

[AlmightyJB]

Tornt down for..

[Bob Armstrong]

To put this in context , this atrocity approaches one quarter of the number of school children the zionists slaughtered just a few months ago . And the israelis destroyed 140 schools in the endeavor .

As long as the USA government continues excusing and arming the zionist radicals , it will continue fueling this reactionary extremism .

[AlmightyJB]

DA JOOOOOOOOOOOOS!