At least the barbers are happy.

Barbers in north Waziristan are elated as business has boomed in recent weeks as Taliban fighters have rushed to have their hair shortened and beards shaved off to escape the Pakistani army assault. With limited knowledge of the local lingo Uzbek and Tajik fighters are requesting, " Mulgari ( friend ), machine, zero, Islamabad ". Meaning shave off everything so that they are not stopped at Islamabad airport, so desperate is their desire to escape. Who knew that they would have to face actual fighting. " They were very keen to buy foreign branded shampoos, soaps and perfumed sprays," said Hikmatullah Khan, a shopkeeper in Miranshah. " They had a lot of eagerness for French and Turkish perfumes and sprays." Aah, so all they wanted was to smell nice and we were calling them terrorists. The government of India should open shops along the Pakistani border and distribute perfumes, soaps and free shaves in exchange for guns and RPGs. A Kalashnikov for a soap and a bob. Meanwhile in Iraq the army has been doing some shaving of its own, as reported by Muqibul and Raqibul. The Iraqi army seems to have withdrawn from the 900 km Saudi border leaving the Saudis feeling extremely naked. The Saudis, along with their Qatari friends, had been encouraging rebels in Syria with money and arms to fight against Bashar al Assad because he belongs to the other minority, which they hate. They should know you can let the genie out of the bottle but you need a fragrant princess to put him back in. No fragrant princess today, only fragrant Taliban. Not the same thing at all. Now an extremely violent group, ISIS has conquered a large area of Iraq and declared a caliphate with Abu Bakr al Baghdadi as the Caliph. This group belongs to the same minority as the Saudis but what is scaring the bejesus out of the Saudis is that a caliphate cannot be complete without control of the 2 Holy Mosques in Makkah and Medina. The Saudi King derives legitimacy by being the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques. The problem is that the Iraqi army belongs to the other minority, the same as Assad, and Saudi Arabia is having to depend on them for its protection. Saudis have deployed 30,000 troops along the border with Iraq but no one knows its fighting capabilities. It is hard to know the plans of ISIS. If it starts to lose to the Iraqi army it could threaten Najaf and Karbala which will immediately draw Iranian forces into Iraq. That would terrify the Saudis even more because they have quietly given permission to Israel to fly over their territory to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities. King's gambit accepted. But by who? Absolutely fascinating.