US should pay arrears for using our facilities for its Afghan war, stop the drones, exclude India from future Afghan arrangements, and firmly include Pakistan in those arrangements.
At an event organized by the British Army for world militaries to compete in toughness, with 750 soldiers participating worldwide, Pakistani soldiers bagged the Gold Medal for being the toughest soldiers capable of patrolling in the most difficult conditions.
At an event organized by the British Army for world militaries to compete in toughness, with 750 soldiers participating worldwide, Pakistani soldiers bagged the Gold Medal for being the toughest soldiers capable of patrolling in the most difficult conditions.
This is an email that has been doing the rounds in the Pakistani blogosphere. It’s a well articulated indicator of the Pakistani public mood on the partial blocking of NATO supply route.
Pakistan’s Interior and Defense ministers made pathetic statements, one ‘mulling’ taxing NATO trucks and the other one pleading for recognition of Pakistan’s sacrifices. Why should Pakistanis be sacrificed at the altar of US and NATO?
Only a few hours after Islamabad closed NATO supplies into Afghanistan, political commentator and senior research fellow at Project For Pakistan In 21st Century, Ahmed Quraishi, explains on Russia’s RTTV how this is a partial ban and a partial message. Only one of two major crossings were closed and no one from the Pakistani government or military actually came out to say, ‘Yes, we closed the route because they killed three of our soldiers.’ The Pakistani message is clear but not total, for the time being.
The ninth year of the US war in Afghanistan began with an apology. But this was an apology to Pakistan, not Afghanistan where US and its allies have killed thousands of civilians. Mainstream US news outlets, like New York Times and Washington Post, strangely failed to mark the advent of the 9th year.
US and NATO’s apology is only for killing Pakistani soldiers and not for illegally entering Pakistan. The apology is unacceptable until US and NATO concede they have no legal right to violate international borders. Pakistan must continue to block supply lines until US and NATO apologize for illegal incursions in addition to murdering Pakistani soldiers.
A video footage of the Sept. 30 attack by US helicopters working for NATO in Afghanistan proves beyond doubt that US and NATO officials have been lying and misleading the international opinion. In this incident, the US military in Afghanistan is involved in the deliberate murder of three Pakistani soldiers.
China’s aid to Pakistan after the historic floods of 2010 is a landmark event in politics and strategy. For the first time, military helicopters of People’s Liberation Army (PLA) were sighted across Pakistani skies, shoulder to shoulder with the Pakistani military in helping flood victims. It’s also the first time PLA participated in a humanitarian mission outside China.
It is said Pakistan is ignoring direct US military attacks and border violations because of sovereign commitments to the US made by the Musharraf government and now the Zardari government. But should the Pakistani military comply with those?
The troubling question is that, after having gone this far in abdicating out sovereignty, can we hope to regain our pride and self-respect at some point in the future?
Journalist Bob Woodward is well regarded in Washington DC. But in his latest book, he fabricates a statement and attributes it to Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha, the incumbent chief of Pakistan’s formidable spy agency, the ISI. He claims the spy chief admitted ‘before CIA’ that ISI officers carried out the Nov. 2008 Mumbai attacks without authorization.
The paranoid elected government of President Asif Zardari has been out battling shadows and ghosts, whipping up anti-military sentiment when the military never planned a coup of any sort against him. His problems are with the Supreme Court on legal grounds. To calm frayed nerves, it appears Gen. Kayani agreed to let Zardari and Gilani issue a statement on the three’s commitment to ‘defending’ democracy. Pakistani military could also be bound by ’sovereign guarantees’ given as back as 2007 stating that Pakistani military won’t destabilize a government created through the US-sponsored NRO deal.
India’s relation to Kashmir is not about Kashmir. Kashmir’s aversion to being subsumed by India is not reducible to history. India’s military governance penetrates every facet of life. The sounds of war haunt mohallas. The hyper-presence of militarization forms a graphic shroud over Kashmir: Detention and interrogation centres, army cantonments, abandoned buildings, bullet holes, bunkers and watchtowers, detour signs, deserted public squares, armed personnel, counter-insurgents, and vehicular and electronic espionage.
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