Bangladesh.

This is coolbert:

From the Chicago Tribune today:

“NATION & WORLD”

“BANGLADESH - - Border guards relent, end insurrection”

“A Bangladeshi border guard stands inside the unit’s headquarters Thursday in the capital, Dhaka, before the mutinous border guards agreed to lay down their weapons and end a two-day rebellion. At least 18 people were killed in the insurrection after 2,000 guards opened fire on their senior officers and seized their headquarters to protest poor pay and conditions.”

The photograph accompanying this particular Tribune article shows a very sour looking “border guard”, wearing this camouflage uniform, holding his apparently loaded AK. NOT a person you want to get on the bad side of!

Some comments:

* This is typical 3rd World shenanigans. A para-military unit, “border guards”, shoot their officers, threaten the “central government, and more or less get what they want. I am not sure if the term “Third World” is still relevant? The paradigm of 1st world, 2nd world, 3rd world is no longer valid?

* I am not sure what exact border these “border guards” are guarding? That 4,000 kilometer [2,500 mile] double fence barrier between Indian and Bangladesh has more or less sealed the common border between those two countries? If anything, Bangladeshis would BE TRYING TO GET OUT OF BANGLADESH, SO GREAT IS THE POVERTY OF THAT NATION!

* 3rd World military or para-military units [such as these “border guards”] more than anything else are used primarily for internal control and repression of their own population. “Head knockers” accustomed to using force and having their way! When these guys get mad - - everyone had just better look out!!

[please do not think of these folks as being analogous to an American Border Patrol agent!]

* Bangladesh of course is the one place in the world where the British Admiral Parry contends is most susceptible to a societal and governmental breakdown that will spread worldwide. In such circumstance [societal and governmental breakdown], fully expect these “border guards” to exacerbate an already desperate situation. You can only sense the degree of indiscipline among such “troops”, “guards” that shoot their own officers and take over headquarters. If things get out of hand, there will be no controlling these guys!!

coolbert.