sheds sunshine on facts based on historical narratives.
Resurrecting the Pakistan-Afghanistan Confederation
Noticias de Rupia | Nouvelles de Roupie | Rupiennachrichten | новости рупии | 卢比新闻 | Roepienieuws | Rupi Nyheter | ルピーニュース | Notizie di Rupia | PAKISTAN LEDGER | پاکستاني کھاتا | RUPEE NEWS | March 30th, 2009 | Moin Ansari | معین آنصآرّی | اخبار روپیہ |
Imran Khan, the mercurial Pakistani politician said it best “The Americans will leave and we will have to clean the mess, just like they left the mess for us to clean when the USSR left Afghanistan“. Imran Khan in his sane adivce to the Pakistani governemnt asked it to not take the Obama Aid, and stop Pakistan’s coperation with the USA in the “Global War on Terror” or its new name “COIN” (Counter insurgency operations) or whatever the Obama Administration calls it this week. The headlines about Pakistan in the media: Understanding the Rupert Murdock-Neocon-Hinduvata doomsayer machine which is running scared of defeat and retreat
The stubborn Pakistanis. The pugnacious columnist and impetuous journalist has eloquently described the Pakistani position as a response to President Barack Obama’s speech. Most Pakistanis yawned at the euphoria from the office of the servile President Asif Zardari. Perhaps he was calculating what 10% of $7.5 Billion would be. Geo and other CNN/VOA subsidiaries began parading the “Blame Pakistan first” crowd, the Sehgals, Alams and the Askari type of analysts who have nothing good to say about Pakistan anyway. What surprises most Pakistanis is the fact that a Pakistani channel held hostage to his mentality and these columnists. The resilience of Pakistan and the nation’s continuing collective refusal to do what the west would like it to do
Justifying the Banality of a brutal Occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan: The Thinktanksattempt to complete the circle of complicity between a sycophantic press, and a non-inquisitive servile public. The nation is forced to accept the only argument that it is being repeatedly inundated with
When Freedom fighters turn terrorist
Selective Amnesia of Americans: Pakistan is the most mistreated friend in the world
Fixing Afpak: Inability to define exit strategy spells inevitable US military catastrophy in Kabul
Harvard questions: Afghanistan Lost? Barnett Rubin & Maleeha Lodhi solutions to quagmire
The Pakistani perspective: Peace deals only way to precipitate face saving for US & Obama’s smooth Exit strategy from Afghanistan
You have to give it to the American propaganda machine. U.S. officials and America’s long list of self-styled ‘Pakistan experts’ are advising Islamabad to stop meddling in Afghanistan. But it is kosher for the U.S. military to travel half the world to occupy Afghanistan and that’s not meddling. Well guess what, Pakistan has more pressing interests as a next door neighbor of Afghanistan and it will protect its interests. Who says CIA’s interests in Afghanistan are more sacred than ISI’s?
Regardless of what many of his Pakistani cheerleaders say, President Obama’s new ‘Af-Pak’ policy is a lot of mumbojumbo that conceals two basic threads: expanding the war inside Pakistan and using the pretext of a ‘regional approach’ to bring India into Afghanistan as Washington and London’s new slave-soldier, especially when NATO members won’t deliver. Surely Washington is not thinking about empowering the Chinese or the Iranians in Afghanistan as part of its newfound regionalism.
The best part is the expanded aid package for Pakistan. It comes with so many ifs that we might as well voluntarily dismantle the ISI, declare defeat, forget about Kashmir and dedicate the rest of the 21st century to carrying America’s burden in Central Asia. To make the package believable, US officials have leaked information through the usual suspects – NYT and WSJ – about a possible ‘exit strategy’, as in America running away from Afghanistan. But America is still in Iraq despite all the hype to the contrary by the Anglo-American media. And it is definitely staying in Afghanistan for as long as possible. We appreciate the American concerns about all the anti-America conspiracies being hatched in the caves of Tora Bora, but surely America also has an eye or two on the vast strategic benefits of controlling Afghanistan. The ‘Am-Brit’ mess Tuesday, March 31, 2009 Ahmed Quraishi. The writer works for Geo TV. Email: aq@ahmedquraishi.com
AfPak: Solutions beyond hubris, dictation, threats, sanctions, bombings, overt invasion, covert sabotage . President Barack Obama has gone half-cocked in Afghanistan. He brought in Bruce Reidel to look at the review. Chirs Mathew of MSNBC asked “Who is Bruce Reidel?”. Oh yes he is a thinktanker. Chris Mathew then went and excoriated the Obama policy which continues the war in Afghanistan. Hindu Kush cul de sac: Why are we in Afghanistan?
Afpak backstage: Bombing the ephemeral “Hindu Kush Ho Chi Minh trail” nurtures the Khemer Rouge of the Khyber– The Taliban
Imperial blindness: Another Empire stuck in Af-Pak quagmire unable to extricate itself out of Kipling’s hell
Kabul: The Final assault begins. How long can NATO hang on?
Will NATO buy the Obama Doctrine? What’s in between the lines? Does Obama have the courage to implement the real solutions to Obama’s Vietnam (AfPak)
Why the surge in Afghanistan is doomed to failure?
Rand report: End GWOT. Defeat Al-Qaeda with police & Dollars
It defies logic. American can travel half way around the world and occupy a country for seven years and this will OK. Pakistanis have lived with the Afghans for 5000 years. Its concerns about Kabul cannot be considered interference. Millions of Afghan were born in Pakistan. Millions still live in Pakistan. Even Mr. Karzai liven in Pakistan for years.
It is absolutely mind boggling to hear the Potomac pundits berate the Pakistani intelligence agencies and the Pakistani Army because they will not do America’s bidding in a foolish war that will go on forever. $1.5 per yeardoesn’t quite cut it. Pakistan has lost more than $38 Billion in recent years and lost its surefooted step because of this silly war. The American DOD calculated the loss as $20 Billion per year. That makes it $140 Billion but about three times that number in opportunity cost since 2001. If we take the losses from the First Afghan War, the numbers really add up. If President Obama had any sense of fairness, he would not talk about blank checks. Pakistan cannot abandon its concerns about India and Afghanistan. General Mullen, General Patraeus should get over it.
Convincing the US tin ear of the Pakistani point of view 
Some Pakistani officials see Mr. Obama’snew policy as a win for Pakistan because, they claim, Washington is now planning to do what Islamabad has been advocating since 2001, namely negotiating with the Afghan Taliban and giving Pakistan all the weapons it needs to fight Al Qaeda. If this is the case, there certainly isn’t anything in the public statements of US officials that leads to this optimism, unless there is a secret side to this new policy that only a few in Islamabad know about. So far it looks more like Pakistani officials misleading their people about the extent of the Zardari-Gilani government’s capitulation before the Americans. Otherwise, how to explain that the government welcomed Obama’s policy within minutes of the speech, only to be followed by the most intensive verbal attacks by senior US military officials against Pakistan’s military intelligence community, as if the Afghan blunders are entirely of our making?
The danger of complete Pakistani surrender to an imposed war is heightened because of signs that Washington is using Pakistan’s flawed democracy as a tool to meddle and to keep Pakistan politically unstable. If our government is honest withPakistanis and has not just sold us for a few billion dollars, someone in this government should have the courage to declare that Washington does not have the right to equate Pakistan witha failed state like the US-occupied and administered Afghanistan. Someone should also have the courage to say that we will henceforth not entertain any ‘Af-Pakspecial coordinators’. Additionally, we in Pakistan must keep an equal distance from all players insideAfghanistan. But at the same time we should say it without embarrassment that we have no strategic conflict of interest withone of the key Afghan parties – the Afghan Taliban – just because America and its puppet regime in Kabul have problems with them. Why should we pick up a fight that is not ours? Sure, Al Qaeda are our enemies and we have killed so many important ones among them that our intentions here cannot be questioned. But it is not Pakistan’s responsibility to eliminate the Afghan Taliban. The Americans must bring them on board in Kabul
Washington and its list of ‘Af-Pak’ experts should stop treating our region as a laboratory for their strategic experiments. Instead of toying withsilly ideas like backing ’secular Pashtuns’ against the Taliban, the Americans can diffuse the entire tension in our region by sharing power with the Pashtuns in Kabul instead of the motley crew of Karzai, the drug lords and the assortment of former communist officials who sit in key offices today.
This American-British mess – the ‘Am-Brit’ – is the reason why Pakistan’s entire western regions are disturbed today and there are those busy ‘convincing’ us that the ‘Am-Brit’ scheme of things is the best option for us. The question is: Whose side our government is on? The ‘Am-Brit’ mess Tuesday, March 31, 2009 Ahmed Quraishi. The writer works for Geo TV. Email: aq@ahmedquraishi.com
The Pentagon can simulate a hundred different “What If” scenarios but is unable to comprehend the reality on the ground on the Kabul River. The White House is able to fly to any capital on the planet but is unable to take a few steps to end the malaise in Afghanistan. A cacophony of voices from Islamabad to Kabul are telling the US to stop the insanity of war, surges and drone bombings, but it continues to justify war, murder and mayhem. Tom Engelhardt is one of the saner voices on the third planet from the sun. He demolishes the CIA contention that the drones are helping anyone. He deciphers the doublespeak of “Big Brother” so that we all can hear the translated version of the truth–not the official gobbledygook doled out by the CIA.
Secretary of Defense, Bob Gates is still mentally incarcerated in his Cold War paradigm, unable and unwilling to undo the mess him and his Neocon ilk have created in South And West Asia. In justifying the drone bombings, Bob Gates mentions the “safe havens” in FATA. The absurdity of that claim is self evident under the scrutiny of truth. If the Taliban control 80% of Afghanistan, and the incompetent NATO has been unable to do anything about it, why would one blame Pakistan. If the insurgents in Afghanistan control all the major highways and ISAF is impotent to reverse that, how can they blame Pakistan. If the US forces are unable to control the territories under their control, blaming Pakistan is just an excuse. Bombing Laos and Cambodia during the Vietnam war did not help the war effort. Bombing FATA is actually creating more insurgents.
Am-Bris is looking towards the Pakistanis to clean up the mess that they have landed themselves into. The Pakistanis balied them out in Somalia and many African countries. Here we go again.
Concerted Police Action, without a failed war, can solve Afghan terror
Force is all-conquering, but its victories are short-lived. ~Abraham Lincoln In 1821 
The Taliban was a construct of the CIA and was armed by the CIA:–Congressman Dana Rohrabacher 
Obama’s Vietnam & Cambodiazation of the Afghan war 
Solutions to “Obama’s Vietnam” 
Kabul: The Final Spring Offensive? End of NATO? 
Afghanistan: The writing is on the wall. Can Obama read it? 
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 
Pakistan’s do more list for the USA 
Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan & Swat run by Taliban Huge Migraine for India 
Facing the Khyber poltergeist & Ganges hobgoblin 
NATO war: UK 1880 defeats in Afghanistan
Bin Laden used Reagan’s USSR strategy to Destroy US Capitalism? 
Cambodiazation of the Afghan war 
Rescueing the Pashtuns of Afghania from Afghanistan 
Unite! Erase the Durand Line 
Solution: Fixing “AfPak” expedites the inevitable union between Pakistan & Afghanistan 
The emerging “Leave Pakistan to Afghanistan” strategy goes mainstream–Extricating the US from the Lost in the Khyber
Filed under: Current Affairs, Pak CA, S. Asia History, US CA, US Int Rel. | Tagged: Afghanistan, Am-Brit mess, Pakistan, USA
Modi & Hindu fundamentalist Modi in “India” funded by US Gujaratis
