Almost a hundred militants were supposedly killed in clashes near Tank in South Waziristan. All of that is fairly run of the mill, in the sense that it is a straight-up news story about the war between the Pakistani Army and Baitullah Mehsud. What intrigued me was the map the Pak Tribune used:
Does that look like Waziristan, or Mordor?
This post was written by...
Joshua Foust – author of 1801 posts on Registan.net.
Joshua Foust is a Fellow at the American Security Project and the author of Afghanistan Journal: Selections from Registan.net. His research focuses primarily on Central and South Asia. Joshua is a correspondent for The Atlantic and a columnist for PBS Need to Know. Joshua appears regularly on the BBC World News, Aljazeera, and international public radio. Joshua is also a regular contributor to Foreign Policy’s AfPak Channel, and his writing has appeared in the New York Times, Reuters, and the Christian Science Monitor. Follow him on twitter: @joshuafoust
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LOL…oh dear…
Hilarious.
Begs the question of someone going to the trouble to create an allegory for each place and personage. And JRR Tolkien rolls in his grave, as he “hated allegory in every form.” Still, I do like me my Middle Earth references.
Love it! I was trying to find some information on waziristan that dates from before our involvement, or before 2007 for that matter, and had just made the comment that it was feeling a little like 1984 (Orwell) Like the entire history of this area must’ve been erased in order to make more acceptable the view provided by big brother. I might never find a real map or history but im glad i found this. Thanks.