All posts tagged: international

Kerry Luger Bill

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Kerry Luger Bill has created a lot of furore in Pakistan. While government is portraying it as an achievement it has many detractors who say we are selling the nation… At awaam we have decided that you can read the bill for yourself and decide… ____________________________________________ S.1707 Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act of 2009 (Considered and Passed by Senate) S 1707 CPS 111th CONGRESS 1st Session S. 1707 To authorize appropriations for fiscal years 2010 through 2014 to promote an enhanced strategic partnership with Pakistan and its people, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES September 24, 2009 Mr. KERRY (for himself and Mr. LUGAR ) introduced the following bill; which was read twice, considered, read the third time, and passed A BILL To authorize appropriations for fiscal years 2010 through 2014 to promote an enhanced strategic partnership with Pakistan and its people, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. (a) Short Title- This Act may be …

How Top Generals May Trap Obama in a Losing War By Tom Engelhardt

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Front and center in the debate over the Afghan War these days are General Stanley “Stan” McChrystal, Afghan war commander, whose “classified, pre-decisional” and devastating report — almost eight years and at least $220 billion later, the war is a complete disaster — was conveniently, not to say suspiciously,leaked to Bob Woodward of the Washington Post by we-know-not-who at a particularly embarrassing moment for Barack Obama; Admiral Michael “Mike” Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who has been increasingly vocal about a “deteriorating” war and the need for more American boots on the ground; and the president himself, who blitzed every TV show in sight last Sunday and Monday for his health reform program, but spent significant time expressing doubts about sending more American troops to Afghanistan. (“I’m not interested in just being in Afghanistan for the sake of being in Afghanistan… or sending a message that America is here for the duration.”)

Devastating Report Documents Israeli Crimes Against Civilians in Gaza: Where’s the Outrage?

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By Roane Carey, The Nation The Goldstone report has been denounced in Israeli and ignored by the U.S. press, unless you count the NY Daily News, which called it a “blood libel against Israel.” The recently released UN Human Rights Council fact-finding mission on the December-January Gaza conflict, released on the eve of Barack Obama’s attempt to jump-start comprehensive Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, was but the latest in a series of investigations, most of them by human rights organizations like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. Like its predecessors, the so-called Goldstone report, named after chief investigator Richard Goldstone, is devastating in its critique of Israeli actions: indiscriminate use of firepower; deliberate attacks on civilians and civilian structures, including hospitals, schools, mosques, water and sewage plants, and rescue vehicles; use of white phosphorus munitions in built-up areas; use of human shields; abusive treatment of detainees; imposition of a blockade on Gaza before and after the attack itself–the report concludes that Israel violated international humanitarian law, committed “grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention in respect of wilful killings and …

When British Princes Can Spend Time In The Trenches With The Soldiers, Why Can’t The Sons Of Pakistani Politicians?

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Source: Paknationalists             Why cant Bilawal Zaradri, Yousaf Gillani’s Sons, Hussain Nawaz, Humaza Shabaz , Munas Elahi, son of Mullah Fazlurehman, spend some time with Pakistani armed forces in FATA and SAWAT, like Prince William and Prince Harry go on front line with British Armed Forces not as observers but soldiers.

Changing the way we have been By Ayaz Amir

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( Comment by Awaam :  So long as men worship the Caesars and Napoleons, Caesars and Napoleons will duly arise and make them miserable—-Aldous Huxley ) The stakes couldn’t be higher nor the opportunity hidden in this hour of seeming distress more promising. Provided we don’t prove exceptionally unlucky once more — or exceptionally stupid — the crisis in which we find ourselves is an opportunity to change the face of Pakistan, change our direction and our established modes of thinking and make up for all the lost years — years lost to mediocre leadership, both civil and military. It is not us who have created this moment of opportunity. Indeed it lay not in our power to do so. It has come our way through a combination of factors: America’s presence in Afghanistan; the growing Taliban threat within Pakistan; and Barack Obama as US president. It is Obama’s approach to Afghanistan which has enhanced Pakistan’s importance — whether Pakistan’s inept leadership understands this or not. Crucial to any American success in Afghanistan — anything that …

Who will bell the cat ? And How ?

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Here are three pieces published in daily ‘The News’. These represent a cross section of views. Although they discuss the problem of Swat Operation and IDPs from different perspective, the common theme is ‘What needs to be done and how it should be done?’. However no one clearly comes up with the answer to the question ‘Who’ needs to do this. And if the government is failing, as they all say or imply, how the hell are we going to change this? Is any one listening? Who will bell the cat? On the other side of despair. by Ali Asghar Khan,  No escape from hell by Noreen Haider    and      Winning the peace by Dr Maleeha Lodhi On the other side of despair. by Ali Asghar Khan “Where does one go from a world of insanity? Somewhere on the other side of despair.” –T S Elliot Amidst the insanity, the brutality, hate and intolerance, there remains an overwhelming desire for peace and security. In the face of daunting issues and powerful actors, many may doubt their …

The next phase. Dawn Editorial Sunday, 31 May, 2009

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 FOUR weeks into the military operation in Malakand division, the flow of mixed news continues. Militarily, successes are being achieved; the latest good news is that Mingora has nearly been secured by the army. But on the humanitarian front troubling news continues to pour in: on Friday, the NWFP information minister claimed that the number of IDPs in the northwest has touched 3.4 million, and this at a time when international aid agencies are running short of money and supplies. Overall, the picture that is emerging is one of a reasonably successful military operation set against a humanitarian crisis of staggering proportions.

Indians and American weapons used by Tehreek e Taliban Terrorists

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Now that Indian made weapons have been found in Swat, will the civilian government take up the matter on a diplomatic level? By Sabeen Hafiz.  Originally published on ‘thecurrentaffairs.com’. Briefing reporters about the progress of operation Rahe Rast, military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas yesterday revealed the extent of foreign support that the TTP terrorists are getting from Afghanistan. Large caches of weapons of US and INDIAN origin have been found as the security forces completely secure control of Mingora city, destroying various training centres of terrorists and killing important militant commanders, the military said. The Americans have their excuses in order – Earlier this year it was revealed that over 200,000 US weapons – including assault rifles and grenade launchers – are ‘missing’ from the US army’s inventory in Afghanistan. The US army is unable to provide serial numbers for a large number of the missing weapons and no records have been maintained for the location or disposition for the rest.

Pakistan’s war on civilians by Paul Rogers

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This article was published on ‘Open Democracy’. Paul Rogers is professor of Peace studies in Bradford, England. He writes regularly on Open Democracy and for the Oxford Research Group. We do not agree with all of what he says, but he does raise questions we all need to think about and find answers for.  The car-bombing in Lahore of a police station and the local headquarters of  Pakistan’s Inter Service Intelligence (ISI) agency on 27 May 2009 is more than the seventh major attack on the city since January 2008 – and the third since March 2009, when the Sri Lankan cricket team and a police academy were targeted. The bomb, which killed twenty-seven people and and injured over a hundred, is a further indication of the systemic, interrelated and deep-rooted nature of Pakistan’s internal-security troubles. Lahore, after all, is Pakistan’s cultural centre, a sophisticated city that lies close to India and is a long way from the intense fighting currently being waged in the Swat valley in North West Frontier Province (NWFP). If it can …

Bring ‘people power’ to Pakistan By Rick Barton

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Published in Christian Science Monitor Rick Barton is a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank in Washington, and was a member of their Smart Power Commission, a bipartisan effort to submit recommendations for developing an integrated policy to strengthen US influence, image, and effectiveness. WASHINGTON – How should the United States respond to the rapidly deteriorating situation in Pakistan? In a proudly sovereign country of 165 million people, billions of US dollars and thousands of US troops will not produce the necessary change. Instead, America should put its new commitment to “smart power” into practice: Success will depend on galvanizing the burgeoning power of popular opinion to bring about reform. There have been positive developments in Pakistan recently, which should be supported. The 2008 elections and the lawyers’ movement showed that popular will can overcome corrupt practices and unconstitutional traditions. The elections resulted in a civilian-led, coalition government. The restoration of the suspended judges following months of demonstrations and endless news coverage reaffirmed the dynamic link between the …

Battle for a Taliban Town of Terror

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By Ali Rizvi Originally posted at theCurrent Affairs.com Initially welcomed, the mullahs controlled Mingora with burnings and beheadings. Now the Pakistani army is attempting to expel them. In a darkened room in Peshawar, far from prying eyes, a medical student from the Swat valley opens his laptop and begins a slideshow of terror. Over the past three years, the 22-year-old has secretly catalogued the horrors of life in Swat under the Taliban. The burning down of schools, bodies hanging upside down, public lashings and decapitated heads with dollars stuffed in their nostrils and notes reading, “This is what happens to spies,” were all captured on his mobile phone at great personal risk.

The American War on WANA

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 In this insightful article, American journalist Peter Chamberlin presents a compelling narrative, explaining how CIA planners, in “Operation Enduring Turmoil,” have been busy using some of the Northern Alliance’s most ruthless men, along with a sizeable force of Uzbeks, to destabilize Pakistan’s Federally Administrated Tribal Areas and the North West Frontier Province.  Pakistan, Chamberlin writes, is the keystone in an American strategic move that stretches in an arc across the entire Middle East and southern central Asia.  If Pakistan is not totally under American control then the plan cannot work.  The existence of this plan accounts for the brazenness shown in American actions taken in Pakistan that are in direct contravention of the expressed will of the Pakistani people and their leaders, actions clearly intended to undermine Army and governmental authority.