World View: Saudi Arabia Is Running Out of Swordsmen to Behead People

Terrorists disguised as cricketers kill 5 Indian soldiers in Kashmir 
This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

• Saudi Arabia is running out of swordsmen to behead people
• Terrorists disguised as cricketers kill 5 Indian soldiers in Kashmir
• Xi Jinping envisions 'China's Dream' - world economic and military domination

Saudi Arabia is running out of swordsmen to behead people

Saudi Swordman prepares to behead convict (Al-Ahram)

Saudi Arabia is considering the abolishment of beheading for capital punishment in favor of firing squads, because there are shortages of government swordsmen to do the job. Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under Saudi law. About 70 people were put to death by beheading in 2012. There has been worldwide outrage of Saudi Arabia's beheading program, and it reached a peak last week after the beheading of a girl who, in 2005, at age 17, came to Saudi Arabia as a maid, and plotted and killed an infant by suffocating him to death one week later. Al-Ahram (Cairo)

Terrorists disguised as cricketers kill 5 Indian soldiers in Kashmir

Two terrorists disguised as cricket players got out of a car, walked across a playground for a school adjacent to a paramilitary camp in the India-governed side of Kashmir, shot dead a sentry, and fired grenades indiscriminately, killing 5 soldiers and wounding three civilians. The two terrorists were killed by Indian soldiers. Kashmir was the epicenter of the massive genocidal war that followed Partition, the partitioning of the Indian subcontinent into India and Pakistan in 1947. Pakistan and India each control a portion of Kashmir, with the two sides separated by a border called the "Line of Control" (LoC). Kashmir has been the site of repeated clashes between Pakistan and India since 1947, and may well be the epicenter of the next massive genocidal war between the two countries. India blamed the Pakistan terrorist group Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) for Wednesday's attack, but Pakistan rejected the charge that any Pakistanis were involved in the attack. Hizbul Mujahideen, an Indian Islamist terrorist group, has claimed responsibility for the attack. Times of India and Pakistan Observer

Xi Jinping envisions 'China's Dream' - world economic and military domination

The generational change in China's leadership, as 59-year-old Xi Jinping takes over as president from 70-year-old Hu Jintao on Thursday, marks a historic change in attitudes at the top. Hu Jintao, it seemed to me, fit the profile of a survivor of the last crisis war (like our Silent Generation) by seeking to mediate disputes. Having grown up during Mao's bloody Communist Revolution, he understands how dangerous it is to provoke another war, and doesn't want to see anything like that happen again. Xi Jinping never suffered the horrors of Mao's war, and doesn't understand the dangers. He's launched a series of "The China Dream" speeches, in which he calls for China to shed its past as a secondary player, and become the world's top military and economic power. He's visiting Chinese military bases and telling the troops to be ready for war at any time. He's personally taking charge of policy in the East and South China Seas, and has vowed that China will take every step necessary to gain control of these regions, including areas that have been owned by other countries for centuries.
So now we have a President in Beijing who says that there's no problem with preparing rapidly for war against the United States, and we have a President in Washington who whose stated intention on Wednesday is to have the government spend as many trillions of dollars as possible. These two world leaders are racing to see who can be the first to create a catastrophe. It'll be interesting to see who wins, I guess. WSJ and China Daily

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