Noticias de Rupia | Nouvelles de Roupie | Rupiennachrichten | ??????? ????? | ???? | Roepienieuws | Rupi Nyheter | ??????? | Notizie di Rupia | PAKISTAN LEDGER | ???????? ????? | Moin Ansari | ???? ??????? | February 9th, 2008 |
Islamabad is asking the US the following:
1) Joint decision on bombings
2) Immediate release of funds bypassing Congress.
3) Equipment for Frontier Corps–Cobra helicopters, Night Vision Glasses, and FM jamming equipment.
Anti-Americanism in Pakistan is at fever pitch. To reduce it, the Pakistanis talked about a “Civilian Surge” in Pakistan to match the US surge of military men in Afghanistan.
In 2001, Pakistan gave the ultimate strategic sacrifice by ditching a friendly government in Afghanistan and help American occupy that country. We let the Americans install a government of their choice in Kabul and saw them push the terrorists inside Pakistan instead of finishing them off on the Afghan soil. We suffered billions of dollars in undocumented losses, way beyond the pittance in American aid. And what did we get? Insurgencies, terrorism and economic collapse. On top of it, India has blocked Pakistan’s water, effectively declaring a water war. This same hostile India is firmly establishing its presence near our borders in Afghanistan. And then the Americans have the audacity to come and berate us for having a soft corner for freedom fighters in Kashmir and Afghanistan. Even if we don’t want to do it, what choice do we have? Ahmed Quraishi
The last days of the last “emperor”. The “Mayor of Kabul” is being replaced
Pakistan’s legitimate interests?
Inside the warm welcome and promises of a “new beginning” that Pakistan extended U.S. special envoy Richard C. Holbrooke yesterday was a warning that Pakistan expects more from the United States in return for its cooperation against al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
Statements issued by Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani after meeting with the envoy, who is in Islamabad on the first stop of a regional tour, emphasized the need to “expedite” a new, multi-billion dollar U.S. aid package, and “the importance of enhanced cooperation in defense and intelligence sharing.”
Holbrooke said only that he was there “to listen and learn the ground realities of this critically important country.”
The visit is the first step in what the Obama administration sees as a complex and delicate effort to stabilize Pakistan’s civilian democracy even as it strengthens the Pakistani military and brings it more in synch with U.S. counterterrorism goals in the region, including the war effort in Afghanistan. Although his writ does not officially extend beyond Afghanistan and Pakistan, Holbrooke will also visit India as the administration tries to improve Pakistan-India relations and allay the tension between the two nuclear powers.
The administration is formulating a more regional strategy it hopes will arrest the deterioration in the seven-year Afghan war and allow it to move more aggressively against al-Qaeda. But while administration officials said the strategy will acknowledge Pakistan’s crucial role, they said that developing a new relationship with Islamabad is likely to be a years-long process, with intertwined challenges making it time-consuming and costly.
“Not having patience makes all the sense in the world in terms of the Afghanistan threat,” Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Michael Mullen said in a recent interview. But in Pakistan, he said, “there is not a quick answer,” and any new U.S. strategy will have to “recognize the tension” between near- and far-term objectives. Staff writer Joby Warrick and special correspondent Shaiq Hussain in Islamabad contributed to this report.Pakistan Wants More From U.S. During Envoy’s Visit, Islamabad Presses for Aid, Cooperation By Karen DeYoung Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, February 11, 2009; A12
Obama to unveil new policy: Marshal Plan & end to bombing raids in Pakistan —————————
Peek into Obama’s brains: Bruce Reidel on Pakistan ————————–
Growing consensus in the Obama team: Much of Pakistan’s problems originate in Afghanistan ————————–
Obama advisor Weinbaum predicts total Afghan policy review: Sees focus on talks & Reconciliation —————————-
Afghanistan: Gen. Petraeus’ Pakistani advisers: Indians jittery
——————————
Obama adviser Weinbaum gives deep insights into new Afghan policy
All these strands of US aggression and pressure towards Pakistan have now come together in what was a clear threat of aggression against this country by Obama in his press conference on Monday (February 9) where he declared that the US knew that Al Qaeda safe havens existed in FATA (I suppose just as US intelligence knew WMD existed in Iraq which warranted the US invasion) and would not be tolerated! This statement was preceded by US gunship intrusions into Pakistan along with drone attacks and missiles fired from across Afghanistan into the tribal belt. So the Obama threat of sending in US troops into Pakistan has been given presidential expression. And in the face of all this, Holbrooke has the gall to declare that he is in Pakistan to renew US “commitment and friendship with the people of Pakistan”. Mr Holbrooke, the US has never had a commitment to the Pakistani nation – only to its own goals here and to its handpicked leaders, both in uniform and in civvies. As for friendship, only the US would define this in terms of killings, which is what they are doing to the Pakistani people.
If the US really wanted to show a positive commitment to the people of Pakistan, they would stop the drone attacks, allow our state to dialogue with all its stake holders, desist from str
ategic arrangements with India that have a direct fallout on Pakistan, stop destabilising Pakistan by using its territory to target the Iranian state, and accept our differing perspective on critical issues including proliferation and Dr Khan. In the case of the latter, given how the US and its European allies are proliferating with India and Israel in complete violation of their commitments to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, it is rather farcical to give us sermons on proliferation and try and undermine our already enfeebled judicial system by demanding the state incarcerate Dr Khan again. The News. Shireen Mazari
The next step, U.S. and Pakistani officials said, will be a visit to the United States later this month by Pakistani army Chief of Staff Gen. Ashfaq Kiyani. In late 2007, Kiyani replaced Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who also served as Pakistan’s president under the military government that took over in a 1999 coup that led to congressional restrictions on U.S.-Pakistani military contacts.
Since last year, senior U.S. military officials have assiduously courted Kiyani as the key to making up lost ground in the relationship and persuading the Pakistani military to turn its attention away from the perceived threat from India and toward extremist sanctuaries on the Afghan border.
Pakistan’s weak civilian government is doing its own balancing act. The Pakistani public is increasingly anti-American and Zardari’s political opponents charge that he is too close to Washington. Increased U.S. military and civil assistance, the government has argued, will improve Pakistan’s counterterrorism performance, make it easier to cooperate with U.S. goals, and ensure the survival of the civilian government.
Kiyani will press existing requests for increased military aid in several categories, including Cobra attack helicopters, night vision equipment, and equipment to jam extremist radio transmissions, intercept satellite telephone communications, and improve communication among Pakistani military units in the extremist-ridden mountains of the western Federally Administered Tribal Areas, or FATA. Pakistan would also like at least to “be in the room” when targeting decisions for CIA aerial drone attacks in the FATA are made, a senior Pakistani official said.
Pakistan also wants more funding stability and recognition of the leading role it plays in U.S. counterterrorism campaigns. “We are a front-ranked state,” the official said. “We want government money to come in the same way it is given to Afghanistan and Iraq.” Congressional funding for war and development costs in those countries has been approved outside of normal budgetary channels through supplemental appropriations subject to fewer restrictions.
Mullen cited a number of positive steps Kiyani has taken, including: replacing the former head of Pakistan’s intelligence service, who was widely mistrusted by the CIA, with a close army ally; appointing a new chief for the Frontier Corps, the local force in the FATA; and doubling Frontier Corps salaries.
Although more than half of the 10,000 additional troops Pakistan sent to the FATA over the past year were redeployed to the Indian border after Pakistani-based terrorists attacked the Indian city of Mumbai last fall, new Pakistani deployments to the west are planned, another senior U.S. military official said.
In a news conference following a meeting with Holbrooke, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said Pakistan and the United States would have “to sit together to understand the implications” of a planned doubling of U.S. troops in Afghanistan this year, and what he said would have to be an accompanying “civilian surge” in Pakistan.
“By civilian surge,” he said, “I mean greater focus on socioeconomic development and greater political engagement with the reconcilable elements” among extremists. Qureshi said the United States and Pakistan had agreed to form teams to examine all elements of their bilateral relationship, including “what went wrong in the last seven years.”
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is reformulating a massive U.S. development assistance program for Pakistan, including at least $1.5 billion annually for the next five years, most of it focused on development aid for the FATA and surrounding regions. The bill is likely to have strong support from President Obama, Vice President Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who co-sponsored it in the Senate last year before it died after committee passage.
Committee chairman Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass) said the amount of aid may be increased in legislation he said was likely to be completed “in a matter of days.” The committee, he said, is still trying to determine the relationship between military and non-military aid packages “and how does one leverage the other.”
The legislation will include benchmarks allowing Congress to judge Pakistani military and civil performance. “We have no problems with greater transparence and accountability,” the Pakistani official said. “But the funding cannot stop.” Staff writer Joby Warrick and special correspondent Shaiq Hussain in Islamabad contributed to this report.Pakistan Wants More From U.S. During Envoy’s Visit, Islamabad Presses for Aid, Cooperation By Karen DeYoung Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, February 11, 2009; A12
UK Brig. Smith: “We’re not going to win this [Afghan] war” 
Failure and Defeat in Afghanistan: Inevitable Frustration & misdirected Payback for ally Pakistan
—————–
US Charge of the Light Brigade into Pakistan is a US failure and has to stop 
Islamic Emirate of Afghani
stan run by Taliban Huge Migraine for India
NATO war: UK 1880 defeats in Afghanistan
Rescueing the Pashtuns of Afghania from Afghanistan 
———-
Erase the Durand Line
