This is an intro to a news story, about a similar natural dam burst on the Indus River, from 170 years ago, to what is now about to unfold in Pakistan - when the Hunza natural dam bursts. It is from the "far away" and idyllic days of 1840 - when Pakistan didn't exist and the British had not yet fully established their Indian Empire, but were in the final stages of doing so. But things may not be as idyllic in the present situation, as Pakistan's major hydroelectric dam - the Tarbela Dam - is just a few hundred miles downriver; it is Pakistan's electricity generating and irrigation mainstay. There is every likelihood it will be severely damaged, if not washed away - with consequences not only severely affecting those two infrastructural requirements, but also causing cataclysmic flooding. At 40 miles long, Tarbela Dam is the world's largest earth-filled dam, and was built for Pakistan by the an international consortium that included the Tennessee Valley Authority. Pakistan's most populous and grain producing areas, as well as industrial estates, line the banks of the Indus River, in what is known as the Indus Valley. Not only this, but some of Pakistan's key civilian-use nuclear power reactors such as the Chashma I and II are positioned on the banks of this river, and these are suspect by international observers as being of "dual use". So the situation is definitely different from that of 1840, when a Sikh army camped by the riverside was washed away...
I have decided to give the link, as well as include the story in full here:
[Hunza lake: history may repeat itself
http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=240939
Monday, May 24, 2010
Bureau report
PESHAWAR: The risk of flood in Hunza, Gilgit and the downcountry as a result of the lake formed at Attaabad due to a landslide isn’t the first time that a natural disaster of such a big magnitude is posing threat to life and property in the area.
In 1840, a similar situation arose at Boonji in Gilgit area and caused a devastating flood. History buff Ali Jan has sent excerpts from Edward W Knight’s book, Where Three Empires: A Narrative of Recent Travel in Kashmir, Western Tibet, Gilgit and the Adjoining Countries, in which he writes about the 1840 flood. The book was published by Longmans, Green & Co., 1905.
The author Edward Knight wrote that the flood started in Gilgit after a landslide as a huge chunk of mountain fell into the River Indus, blocked the flow of water and formed a long and deep lake that burst and caused devastation. The flood not only damaged land and habitation downstream but it also swept away the Sikh army camping by the riverside in faraway Attock.
Ali Jan has also posed a question: Is history repeating itself? One hopes it doesn’t happen this time. Below is the relevant excerpt from that book: “Boonji signifies fifty in the language of these parts, and the name as it is said was given to this district because there were once fifty villages and considerable cultivation in the now desert vale of the Indus between the mouths of the Astor and Gilgit streams. An extraordinary flood in 1840, which is striking example of the huge scale of the convulsions of Nature in this region of gigantic mountains, was no doubt the primary cause of the present desolation. Near Hattu Pir, a whole mountain suddenly fell into the Indus, forming a great dam across the river, and preventing all outlets. The waters rose behind this dam for six months, flooding all the plain of Boonji and the valley of the Gilgit River, till a lake was formed 35 miles in length, and of great depth. At last, the rising lake reached the top of the dam, overflowed it, forced a breach, and then, with irresistible power, the immense mass of water opened a broad, deep channel through the opposing mountain. The liberated Indus once more rushed down its gorges and the last lake was drained in one day. Hundreds of miles away, the great wave of the flood overwhelmed a Sikh army that was encamped near Attock, and the loss of life and property all down the valley of Indus was beyond computation.”]
N.B: The Indus Valley is a huge area, 1700 miles long - and straddles the whole length of Pakistan right through the center, from top to bottom (Kamilov).
Below is a letter to the editor of the same newspaper - by a former princeling from one of Pakistan's defunct royal families, who has also served as provincial governor. He is from the Taliban-infested district of Swat, which was till 1969 an independent principality. He goes by one name, Aurangzeb. He has this to say about the dam now poised above the head of Pakistan:
[Never in a hurry
http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=240831
Sunday, May 23, 2010
We are never in a hurry. It is five years since the earthquake destroyed the Margalla apartment building. Today it is as it was then and nothing has been done. The Shaheed-e-Millat building was burnt and it took CDA ten years to repair. I can go on giving examples of our inability, but right now the government is ignoring the catastrophe that is about to happen in Hunza. The huge lake formed by a landslide on the Hunza river is about to burst, the water destroying everything in its way, perhaps Tarbela dam also.
To add insult to injury, the newly appointed governor of Gilgit-Baltistan has said that the dam created by the landslide 'will not burst'. Despite what this lady says, I want to warn the government of the coming catastrophe for which no one will take responsibility -- neither she nor the minister for water and power.
Aurangzeb
Swat]
Finally, let me round this off by quoting the inevitable local two-bit conspiracy theorists who also have a say in all such things. There are rumours that the Pakistani government deliberately allowed the dam to form, so as to help "confound" US policy in the region...while I can't even for a minute stop to sense who will actually be confounded, and how laughably stupid Pakistani rumour mongers are - the idea also crossed my mind, but in a different way: that in allowing this to happen, it will help "wash away" a lot of the dirt that Pakistan's ruling classes having generated, have beset themselves with; they will be hoping with typical naïvete that this catastrophe washes away the attention from them, and gives them a breather to cling onto power anew - so as to repeat their sordid old story; but I can assure them that they needn't be so simplistic now - for this will be the catastrophe NEEDED to wash THEM away in their entirety - a biblical cleansing flood; this is actually the time-bomb that will herald THEIR demise...
Monday, May 24, 2010
Sunday, May 16, 2010
THE REAL SECRET OF US GEOPOLITICS
Since its own oil production peaked and then began declining in 1970, the US gradually became aware that the world's petroleum supplies were limited and would run out eventually after peaking in output. This is called Peak Oil. Petroleum is the lifeblood of modern civilisation in every sense of the word. And that is not a sweeping exaggeration: its advanced technology and high living standards and mode of lifestyle all depend on it. After 1970 the US began to increase its imports of petroleum. Shortly after US production peaked and declined, the 1973 Arab oil embargo showed the Americans how vulnerable and disruptable its supplies of oil were. The US determined where the main global reserves existed, and began drawing up strategic plans for all these contingencies: Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Sheikdoms were the main focus, followed by Iraq and Iran and then the Soviet Union. In 1979, President Carter issued a policy statement proclaiming the right of the US to use force in the Persian Gulf region to defend its "interests" in oil, using the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan as an excuse. This became known as the Carter Doctrine, and was to become the foundation for post-Cold War US policy after a short while, when the US was free of its Soviet entanglement. The US already had a firm footing in the Gulf Arab states and Saudi Arabia; Iraq was a variable, but options were being drawn up to tackle it; it was not a threat at the moment as it was involved in a war with Iran, with convenient US blessings. Thus it was being kept busy for later "treatment", while also engaging a US enemy. The US had stepped up its Cold War rivalry with the USSR using the Soviet action in Afghanistan as a convenient springboard. It hoped to bleed it dry there, and in doing so not only rid itself of its global adversary, but also eyed its vast petroleum potential - in reserves, being the second in the world after the Saudis. The USSR's clout in the world began declining for various reasons in the late 1980s - its defeat and pullout from Afghanistan, Gorbachev's reforms, and the START weapons treaty with the US in 1986. The Soviet Bloc began crumbling in the end of 1988. In that same year, the Iran Iraq war ended in a draw, and Saddam and his army's prestige was buoyed and his attention was freed, to contemplate other things. He was subtly being prodded and set up to annex Kuwait next, by the US with whispers of support -ostensibly to restore morale for his war weary army and nation and regain Kuwait's vast oil supplies, to which Iraq already had an irredentist claim. But this was a carefully contrived American gamble. Saddam Hussein was over-confident, and played into their hands. In 1990 began the Gulf War, and by 1991, it was over with America's Desert Storm having pulverised Iraq even further. The Soviet Union was in its terminal throes, and could pose no threat. The Anglo-American led "allies" set up aerial control and exclusion zones over Iraq, and Saddam and his regime was paralysed, but was allowed to remain in power - as a mere empty shell compared to its former status. It was to be reserved in this handy way, for future consideration. That same year the USSR finally gave way and "went the way of all flesh". President G.W. Bush grandly declared a New World Order of America's supreme overlordship over a "globalising world". The US had been eyeing the Soviet Caspian Sea and Russian oil reserves all along. Now with the demise of the USSR, the way to it was open. While the Russian reserves proper were on Russian territory and the Russian Federation was the USSR's successor - they would be relatively difficult to access and corporate guile would be employed to get at those. But the Caspian was a different case, as its region was now independent of Russian control, and comprised of several small states. But disappointment was to strike American planners, as a few years later it became apparent that the Caspian reserves were far less than had been presumed, and were of a far lesser quality. Still, in order to access the tremendous gas reserves in Turkmenistan, the US played its al-Qaeda and Taliban cards in Afghanistan, so as to use that shattered country as a pipeline conduit, which was to terminate in US ally, Pakistan. The US also permitted Pakistan to partner in this, and to pursue its own various jihadi policies in the region - in an auxiliary role to the main US plan for the region. After the Caspian disappointment, the US strategic planners realised that time was short, and alternate measures to secure oil had to be put in place. So now attention was quickly turned to Iraq, which was now tattered and in a state of limbo. The Taliban regime too, was proving increasingly intransigent in Afghanistan with its US-Pakistani handlers - and becoming a dangerous thorn in their sides. Many therefore say that the US "encouraged" and allowed the 9/11 attacks of 2001 to occur; they knew what the jihadis were brewing against them, but they permitted it to happen - so as to furnish them with the perfect excuse for setting the world aflame - during which melee they would gain an excuse to invade and take direct control of Afghanistan, to secure it as a future geopolitical staging post in the coming complex scenario. And 9/11 would also give them an excuse, albeit very pigheaded, to frame and then invade Iraq. The case in point being the WMD lie regarding Iraq's weapons potential. It fell through later, but it had served its triggering purpose. The 2003 Iraq war was all about oil. As detailed above, it had been on the US agenda for quite long, but when the US found that the Caspian reserves were worthless, the urgency regarding Iraq grew. In the end it will be pertinent to say that even in the case of the impossible scenario of the US appropriating the whole world's petroleum supplies, the rate at which they use - rather misuse - it, will ensure that it will all be depleted within this century. The global power of the US, and indeed its own existence, in the next few years is, therefore, in grave doubt.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
GEOPOLITICS THROUGH THE EYES OF A PAKISTANI INTELLIGENCE OPERATIVE - with commentary in brackets by F.Kamilov
Intro: Briefly, this region is a Poker board, and we (Paki) people are the "cards", in the hands of some very strong and serious players. Because of our geographical location, our area will always be volatile. There are too many factors that are affecting and stopping this area from settling down.
1) India and China, the two biggest consumer markets of the world are present here. They are rivals, and about to become the two biggest economies as well. But both have some very serious internal problems. (They are ostensibly have the biggest economic potential, but that is in doubt as their very survival depends upon regular external access to massive energy supplies. Geopolitically speaking they are "non-aligned", i.e unpredictable and indeterminate "opportunistic" quantities. But they are highly unstable due to their above dependency, and thus with their massive populations, any "explosion" of them would send far reaching effects).
2) Iran is here, sitting on the door step of the Persian Gulf, is thinking of playing a decisive role in the affairs of the region in the time to come . While neighboring Iraq is now thanks to America, a powder keg. (Iran is a regional issue - however as such, it is a potential future junior strategic partner for Russia, and a sharp local irritant for the USA in this key region).
3) Russia is in this area, and is presently the 9th biggest economy and 4th largest military power, and a very serious player in providing the world with crucial energy supplies. (Russia is the next overall superpower in waiting - awaiting resurrection in future conditions as an even better power than the USSR was. As such, it is the USA's main global rival).
4) In between all this are we: Pakistan - a nuclear (wannabe) Power, with so many internal and external problems (!) and enemies. As they say: If you can't handle (i.e face) a mess (a situation which you on your own are not brave enough to handle) alone, so enlarge the canvas and involve others in your problem. (I wouldn't quite agree; you are by nature cowards and little lickspittle toadies. You haven't "involved" the Anglo-Americans for that; instead it is quite the opposite: you've shamelessly agreed to lick their shit in exchange for protection, sustenance and rich pickings from them, by serving them as dirty little undelings in their Great Game of World Domination. But alas, that has not turned out to be the cosy arrangement that it was originally intended by both you parties to be - there have been severe "unintended consequences". However, given the nature of what you were doing and your alliance - there had to be).
Summary: So we must keep in mind the above mentioned situations on the one hand, versus the presence of Americans in the Middle East and here on the other. The Americans have maintained military bases for the last 60 years in Japan, Korea, Philippines - and now here - to ensure their upper hand in the post WW2 world; (America's justification to dominate the world - when it became capable of this role after 1945 - was at first seemingly ideological: to ensure "free enterprise". But after 1991 when it won the Cold War, this prestense was dropped, and the truth came to the fore: it controls the world in order to ensure the availability and continuity of resources needed to sustain its free-wheeling "American Way of Life"....) Their rivals don't want them to retain this global control so easily. All the major players [Russia, China] are going to make sure that they bleed American resources to extinction: the only way they can do that is by keeping [anti-US] unrest in the region alive. It is always easy to keep resistance movements like the Taliban (which originally you yourselves created) smouldering (to keep the heat on America) by supplying them with small amounts of weapons, food, money - while on the other hand finishing such movements is always an expensive affair. (And thus it pays for you to be the servants of the Anglo-Americans, to enable them to fend off their rivals and keep their global stranglehold; too bad, you have chosen the defeated side to serve, and place your bets on. And don't think they will continue relying on you much longer; you might soon not be there - even now, you have become more of a headache for them, no longer a help. That is indeed the situation since 2001 - it also being the logical outcome of such a foul caper).
1) India and China, the two biggest consumer markets of the world are present here. They are rivals, and about to become the two biggest economies as well. But both have some very serious internal problems. (They are ostensibly have the biggest economic potential, but that is in doubt as their very survival depends upon regular external access to massive energy supplies. Geopolitically speaking they are "non-aligned", i.e unpredictable and indeterminate "opportunistic" quantities. But they are highly unstable due to their above dependency, and thus with their massive populations, any "explosion" of them would send far reaching effects).
2) Iran is here, sitting on the door step of the Persian Gulf, is thinking of playing a decisive role in the affairs of the region in the time to come . While neighboring Iraq is now thanks to America, a powder keg. (Iran is a regional issue - however as such, it is a potential future junior strategic partner for Russia, and a sharp local irritant for the USA in this key region).
3) Russia is in this area, and is presently the 9th biggest economy and 4th largest military power, and a very serious player in providing the world with crucial energy supplies. (Russia is the next overall superpower in waiting - awaiting resurrection in future conditions as an even better power than the USSR was. As such, it is the USA's main global rival).
4) In between all this are we: Pakistan - a nuclear (wannabe) Power, with so many internal and external problems (!) and enemies. As they say: If you can't handle (i.e face) a mess (a situation which you on your own are not brave enough to handle) alone, so enlarge the canvas and involve others in your problem. (I wouldn't quite agree; you are by nature cowards and little lickspittle toadies. You haven't "involved" the Anglo-Americans for that; instead it is quite the opposite: you've shamelessly agreed to lick their shit in exchange for protection, sustenance and rich pickings from them, by serving them as dirty little undelings in their Great Game of World Domination. But alas, that has not turned out to be the cosy arrangement that it was originally intended by both you parties to be - there have been severe "unintended consequences". However, given the nature of what you were doing and your alliance - there had to be).
Summary: So we must keep in mind the above mentioned situations on the one hand, versus the presence of Americans in the Middle East and here on the other. The Americans have maintained military bases for the last 60 years in Japan, Korea, Philippines - and now here - to ensure their upper hand in the post WW2 world; (America's justification to dominate the world - when it became capable of this role after 1945 - was at first seemingly ideological: to ensure "free enterprise". But after 1991 when it won the Cold War, this prestense was dropped, and the truth came to the fore: it controls the world in order to ensure the availability and continuity of resources needed to sustain its free-wheeling "American Way of Life"....) Their rivals don't want them to retain this global control so easily. All the major players [Russia, China] are going to make sure that they bleed American resources to extinction: the only way they can do that is by keeping [anti-US] unrest in the region alive. It is always easy to keep resistance movements like the Taliban (which originally you yourselves created) smouldering (to keep the heat on America) by supplying them with small amounts of weapons, food, money - while on the other hand finishing such movements is always an expensive affair. (And thus it pays for you to be the servants of the Anglo-Americans, to enable them to fend off their rivals and keep their global stranglehold; too bad, you have chosen the defeated side to serve, and place your bets on. And don't think they will continue relying on you much longer; you might soon not be there - even now, you have become more of a headache for them, no longer a help. That is indeed the situation since 2001 - it also being the logical outcome of such a foul caper).
Friday, March 12, 2010
Pakistan spirals towards its deserved predicament
NEWS HEADLINE: Pakistan, US agree on new Afghan set-up
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
ISLAMABAD: A strategic shift in Pakistan’s three-decade old Afghan policy has taken a quiet but effective shape as Islamabad has successfully negotiated a peace plan with Mustafa Zahir Shah, the grandson of late King Zahir Shah, who would play a key role in future political dispensation comprising all ethnic groups. “It is a strategic coup by Pakistan against rising Indian influence in Afghanistan,” an analyst tartly remarked commenting on the development. As Islamabad has agreed to untangle the complicated jihadist network fabricated by General Ziaul Haq in 1979, it has acquired ‘iron-clad’ guarantees from Washington and other world capitals to gain advantages not only in regional political and economic affairs but also to get peaceful nuclear technology related benefits, sources privy to the most significant development taking place in the region in more than quarter a century, claimed.
Prime Minister Gilani’s spokesperson Shabbir Anwar, when contacted, said Pakistan wanted peace in Afghanistan. “We will do whatever we can in strengthening of the political institutions in Afghanistan.”
Anwar, however, said the Foreign Office would be in a better position to comment on such a development. The foreign office spokesman could not be reached despite repeated attempts as his cell phone was switched off.
“Karzai is fast becoming a seat-warmer for Mustafa Zahir Shah,” a diplomat commented. “But the young leader will have to perform a very complicated balancing act by satisfying both sides of the ethnic divides in the world’s one of the least governable countries.”
To continue to have a political foothold in Afghanistan and counter Pakistan’s thriving liaison with Mustafa Zahir Shah and the Northern Alliance, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh went to Saudi Arabia to get help in establishing contacts with Taliban. Saudi Arabia reportedly has refused to oblige.
According to the clinched deal, Islamabad would help cobble together a consensus political dispensation in Kabul comprising all ethnic groups, help ensure its stability, dismantle the dreaded militant infrastructure and carefully comb its security apparatus to avert the rise of radicalism. On all counts, Pakistan has already started delivering and brick-by-brick demolition of Jehadi infrastructure has already set in motion. A high-level Pakistani delegation held a final round of negotiations with Mustafa Zahir Shah and Northern Alliance in Kabul a couple of weeks ago.
Islamabad’s diplomatic circles are abuzz with this new, exciting development taking shape during the last few weeks. “To convince Mustafa Zahir Shah to lead, and make the leaderships of Northern Alliance and Taliban share power among themselves is a major breakthrough successfully engineered by Pakistan to reclaim its lost position in Afghanistan,” the sources said.
In addition to winning over the confidence of Mustafa Zahir Shah, the weaning off Northern Alliance from India is the most important milestone in Pakistan’s foreign policy as ties between the two sides had been strained for Islamabad’s tilt towards Taliban. As final touches are being given to level the rough contours of this win-win policy, the diplomatic sources in Islamabad are attributing great significance to the sudden dash of Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani to Kabul over the weekend.
In return for the success of this policy, the sources claimed, Washington has given guarantees to Islamabad that it would support Pakistan’s efforts to buy nuclear power plants from France for peaceful purposes, limit India’s political role in Afghanistan and Pakistan would have the right to buy oil and gas on less-than-market price from the proposed oil and gas pipelines originating from Central Asia and Afghanistan to India. The royalty that Pakistan would earn on these energy pipelines passing through its territory would be in addition to the above benefits.
DG ISPR Maj-Gen Athar Abbas, when contacted to ask if Pakistani officials were engaged in negotiating such an understanding with the help of the US and the Nato in return for political and economic benefits of the country, he said: “It is a political issue and I have no comments”.
When asked about the high level contacts between Pakistani officials and Mustafa Zahir Shah and Northern Alliance leaders, Abbas said: “Not to my knowledge.” The arrests of top Taliban commanders from Mulla Abdul Ghani Baradar two weeks ago to Abu Yehya Gadan over the weekend is a testament to Islamabad’s sincere commitment with this new approach.
In his weekend visit Gen Kayani met Afghan President Hamid Karzai to, what the sources said, discuss his role, if any, in the new setup. Almost a week prior to Kayani’s visit to Kabul, a high-level delegation comprising officials who have been handling the Afghan strategy for decades, visited Kabul and met Mustafa to finalise the future peace plan for Afghanistan. The success has been reached following a series of behind-the-scene meetings in and outside Pakistan between Pakistani officials, Mustafa Zahir Shah, Saudi and US officials, and key leaders of Northern Alliance who have earlier been sceptical of Islamabad’s intentions.
The difference this time would be that Pakistan would ensure the acceptance of this new formula both by the Northern Alliance and Taliban with Mustafa Zahir Shah leading the brood. Sources claimed that the new plan would guarantee Pakistan’s political and economic interests in the region as well as the existence of a peaceful Afghanistan after the withdrawal of the US and the Nato troops.
The sources claimed that the establishment is quite serious now in reigning in radical elements who have been creating difficulties for Pakistan in the past. “Now they will not be given a free hand anymore and the elements within the establishment supporting such ideologies and activities would be sidelined in the next round of promotions starting from next month,” source said.
KAMILOV'S COMMENTS
Pakistan doesn’t have the power anymore to broker such deals. Pakistan is finishing – and its failure is not ethnic or geographic, but is structural and social in nature….
It is true that the Jihadi cycle is at its end: but that ending is also indicative of Pakistan’s failure. Like a great narcotic, it raised Pakistan to “new heights” in the post-1992 world – but soon it affected its health like all narcotics do, sending Pakistan plummeting into terminal affliction: it began to eat into Pakitan’s vitals, and started confronting the New World Order which Pakistan’s Anglo-American masters had triumphantly crafted. Even so, the forcible nullification of the Jihadi malignancy after 9/11 by those who had nurtured it in the Pakistani nursery – the Westerners – was to Pakistan what the cutting-off to a man of his penis is.
Pakistan itself is a purely British imperialist creation, whose rulership was bestowed gratefully on their faithful Punjabi servant dogs. Its patronage was quickly inherited by the “Second Anglo Imperium” – the USA when it became the successor of the British after World War II. In its present tattered and diseased state, however, it is of no use to it masters – rather a dangerous liability like virulent or radioactive material becomes.
Now, just before the start of World War III - with the general international downturn of the Western world clearly in sight, it is doubtful whether Pakistan’s masters will be able to keep it on the life-supporting aid by which they have sustained their improbable parasite pet for over six decades, ruled by the most improbable of thugs.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
ISLAMABAD: A strategic shift in Pakistan’s three-decade old Afghan policy has taken a quiet but effective shape as Islamabad has successfully negotiated a peace plan with Mustafa Zahir Shah, the grandson of late King Zahir Shah, who would play a key role in future political dispensation comprising all ethnic groups. “It is a strategic coup by Pakistan against rising Indian influence in Afghanistan,” an analyst tartly remarked commenting on the development. As Islamabad has agreed to untangle the complicated jihadist network fabricated by General Ziaul Haq in 1979, it has acquired ‘iron-clad’ guarantees from Washington and other world capitals to gain advantages not only in regional political and economic affairs but also to get peaceful nuclear technology related benefits, sources privy to the most significant development taking place in the region in more than quarter a century, claimed.
Prime Minister Gilani’s spokesperson Shabbir Anwar, when contacted, said Pakistan wanted peace in Afghanistan. “We will do whatever we can in strengthening of the political institutions in Afghanistan.”
Anwar, however, said the Foreign Office would be in a better position to comment on such a development. The foreign office spokesman could not be reached despite repeated attempts as his cell phone was switched off.
“Karzai is fast becoming a seat-warmer for Mustafa Zahir Shah,” a diplomat commented. “But the young leader will have to perform a very complicated balancing act by satisfying both sides of the ethnic divides in the world’s one of the least governable countries.”
To continue to have a political foothold in Afghanistan and counter Pakistan’s thriving liaison with Mustafa Zahir Shah and the Northern Alliance, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh went to Saudi Arabia to get help in establishing contacts with Taliban. Saudi Arabia reportedly has refused to oblige.
According to the clinched deal, Islamabad would help cobble together a consensus political dispensation in Kabul comprising all ethnic groups, help ensure its stability, dismantle the dreaded militant infrastructure and carefully comb its security apparatus to avert the rise of radicalism. On all counts, Pakistan has already started delivering and brick-by-brick demolition of Jehadi infrastructure has already set in motion. A high-level Pakistani delegation held a final round of negotiations with Mustafa Zahir Shah and Northern Alliance in Kabul a couple of weeks ago.
Islamabad’s diplomatic circles are abuzz with this new, exciting development taking shape during the last few weeks. “To convince Mustafa Zahir Shah to lead, and make the leaderships of Northern Alliance and Taliban share power among themselves is a major breakthrough successfully engineered by Pakistan to reclaim its lost position in Afghanistan,” the sources said.
In addition to winning over the confidence of Mustafa Zahir Shah, the weaning off Northern Alliance from India is the most important milestone in Pakistan’s foreign policy as ties between the two sides had been strained for Islamabad’s tilt towards Taliban. As final touches are being given to level the rough contours of this win-win policy, the diplomatic sources in Islamabad are attributing great significance to the sudden dash of Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani to Kabul over the weekend.
In return for the success of this policy, the sources claimed, Washington has given guarantees to Islamabad that it would support Pakistan’s efforts to buy nuclear power plants from France for peaceful purposes, limit India’s political role in Afghanistan and Pakistan would have the right to buy oil and gas on less-than-market price from the proposed oil and gas pipelines originating from Central Asia and Afghanistan to India. The royalty that Pakistan would earn on these energy pipelines passing through its territory would be in addition to the above benefits.
DG ISPR Maj-Gen Athar Abbas, when contacted to ask if Pakistani officials were engaged in negotiating such an understanding with the help of the US and the Nato in return for political and economic benefits of the country, he said: “It is a political issue and I have no comments”.
When asked about the high level contacts between Pakistani officials and Mustafa Zahir Shah and Northern Alliance leaders, Abbas said: “Not to my knowledge.” The arrests of top Taliban commanders from Mulla Abdul Ghani Baradar two weeks ago to Abu Yehya Gadan over the weekend is a testament to Islamabad’s sincere commitment with this new approach.
In his weekend visit Gen Kayani met Afghan President Hamid Karzai to, what the sources said, discuss his role, if any, in the new setup. Almost a week prior to Kayani’s visit to Kabul, a high-level delegation comprising officials who have been handling the Afghan strategy for decades, visited Kabul and met Mustafa to finalise the future peace plan for Afghanistan. The success has been reached following a series of behind-the-scene meetings in and outside Pakistan between Pakistani officials, Mustafa Zahir Shah, Saudi and US officials, and key leaders of Northern Alliance who have earlier been sceptical of Islamabad’s intentions.
The difference this time would be that Pakistan would ensure the acceptance of this new formula both by the Northern Alliance and Taliban with Mustafa Zahir Shah leading the brood. Sources claimed that the new plan would guarantee Pakistan’s political and economic interests in the region as well as the existence of a peaceful Afghanistan after the withdrawal of the US and the Nato troops.
The sources claimed that the establishment is quite serious now in reigning in radical elements who have been creating difficulties for Pakistan in the past. “Now they will not be given a free hand anymore and the elements within the establishment supporting such ideologies and activities would be sidelined in the next round of promotions starting from next month,” source said.
KAMILOV'S COMMENTS
Pakistan doesn’t have the power anymore to broker such deals. Pakistan is finishing – and its failure is not ethnic or geographic, but is structural and social in nature….
It is true that the Jihadi cycle is at its end: but that ending is also indicative of Pakistan’s failure. Like a great narcotic, it raised Pakistan to “new heights” in the post-1992 world – but soon it affected its health like all narcotics do, sending Pakistan plummeting into terminal affliction: it began to eat into Pakitan’s vitals, and started confronting the New World Order which Pakistan’s Anglo-American masters had triumphantly crafted. Even so, the forcible nullification of the Jihadi malignancy after 9/11 by those who had nurtured it in the Pakistani nursery – the Westerners – was to Pakistan what the cutting-off to a man of his penis is.
Pakistan itself is a purely British imperialist creation, whose rulership was bestowed gratefully on their faithful Punjabi servant dogs. Its patronage was quickly inherited by the “Second Anglo Imperium” – the USA when it became the successor of the British after World War II. In its present tattered and diseased state, however, it is of no use to it masters – rather a dangerous liability like virulent or radioactive material becomes.
Now, just before the start of World War III - with the general international downturn of the Western world clearly in sight, it is doubtful whether Pakistan’s masters will be able to keep it on the life-supporting aid by which they have sustained their improbable parasite pet for over six decades, ruled by the most improbable of thugs.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Framing, Paedophilia and Diversities
Some more musings on “Framing” techniques, as reported by commentator "Agape" (on the FTW Blog):
Thank goodness there is no “tech savvy” culture over where I am. Nor does it matter. People’s minds here still think simply, and they use rather clumsy approaches to undermine their foes. Things are different everywhere!
And as for the subject of “paedophilia” – well, as I say again, different societies have different perspectives, different views, and different values: Some, like in Central Asia, just don’t regard this vice as worth the fuss they think it generates elsewhere like in the West, even though discretion is practiced. It is a known trait of the Pashtun nation – in addition to their almost universal homosexual proclivities which are regarded by them as being quite normal (although now the “postmodern” West has also made that “acceptable”). If you have ever read the historic Persian poetry of the area, you will know what I mean.... Omar Khayyam, Sheikh Saadi, Maulana Rumi, etc. etc. Over in Central Asia where I am, women are normally segregated and kept hidden in their houses, and bought and sold by their menfolk in marriage – which would be a definite “no” for you people over in the USA; we have an all-male society here, and our males have mutual intimacies unimaginable and publicly unacceptable where you are. Men here are seen frequently holding hands, in public – which I don’t think any ordinary American male would want to be seen doing dead. Yet that doesn’t affect the “alpha-masculinity” of our men’s self-image. Men here are among the touchiest in the world about appearing and behaving as “macho” as they can, and for that reason 80% of them sport luxurious facial hair growth, mostly moustaches. Even a skimpy moth-eaten one is appreciated; after all, something is better than nothing! The growing Islamic fundamentalising/Talibanisation trend of the Pashtun/Afghan society has contributed towards a huge increase in beards over the last 20 years, even though Islamic tradition normally prescribes a shaven upper lip with a beard – like the Mormon Prophet Brigham Young and Abraham Lincoln sported – along with a shaven head. But those who shave their faces clean (like me) are mostly in the “educated” (read Westernised) minority here, and even in this day and age, are regarded as being among the “non-traditional” characters, even though, naturally, there are more than few with “macho” capabilities among them! But let me add, that the “active-passive” distinction in homosexuality counts very much there, with the latter being a social stigma – because being “passive” is regarded as being submissive and yielding – therefore unmanly – in this patriarchal culture, even though there are those manly types who would be gladly “passive” in private. There is even a swearword for the passive guy, as well as a plethora of proverbs. Until quite recently, even the wearing of Western pants by men was considered taboo here, as it was thought that doing so would make them “vulnerable” by exposing the shape and other details of their hindquarters, which might “turn on” another “horny” male! A good joke for you, I’m sure, but I must acknowledge my debt of gratitude to Globalism for this one thing at least – that many men have now started wearing trousers here and don’t give a damn for what their posteriors look like to anyone, or what passions hidden or open they may excite among their ogling male fellows. A lot of Pashtuns still have the shirt worn outside though, so as to cover that delicate place, and as for as a woman being seen in pants here...perish the thought. Even the “liberated” foreign women among the teeming UN and Western aid staff in the area have been instructed to take the necessary precautions of not going against traditional behaviour.
(N.B: I started off in talking about how someone may frame another for paedophilia by tampering with their computer, but ended up in writing this. I don’t know what many of you will think of what I have written or why, but what I have detailed above is a first hand, plainly spoken, honest narration by a native, of what happens normally on the ground everyday in a certain society little understood elsewhere. I seem to recall Agape saying somewhere that he had an acquaintance who had been to Afghanistan, who had told him about a lot of these things. Don’t, however, expect to find such information on official websites, in travel guides or even in NGO or web “resources”. These are things that are not publicly acknowledged or even alluded to in “standard” conversations in our world as it now is (they might have been fifty years ago); they are denied and swept under the carpet. Mentioning them is not “correct or decent procedure”, you see. On the contrary the so-called educated representatives of my society, and our immigrants to overseas countries, would like to put all foreigners at rest, especially Westerners, in making them believe that the values of their societies are as mutually alike as is possible! However Kamilov has no such axe to grind: quite the opposite. It is the fostering of such illusions and wool-pulling conspiracies that contribute towards sustaining the greater part of the present day world’s problems, yet with 9/11 that unholy façade received its first good rip).
Thank goodness there is no “tech savvy” culture over where I am. Nor does it matter. People’s minds here still think simply, and they use rather clumsy approaches to undermine their foes. Things are different everywhere!
And as for the subject of “paedophilia” – well, as I say again, different societies have different perspectives, different views, and different values: Some, like in Central Asia, just don’t regard this vice as worth the fuss they think it generates elsewhere like in the West, even though discretion is practiced. It is a known trait of the Pashtun nation – in addition to their almost universal homosexual proclivities which are regarded by them as being quite normal (although now the “postmodern” West has also made that “acceptable”). If you have ever read the historic Persian poetry of the area, you will know what I mean.... Omar Khayyam, Sheikh Saadi, Maulana Rumi, etc. etc. Over in Central Asia where I am, women are normally segregated and kept hidden in their houses, and bought and sold by their menfolk in marriage – which would be a definite “no” for you people over in the USA; we have an all-male society here, and our males have mutual intimacies unimaginable and publicly unacceptable where you are. Men here are seen frequently holding hands, in public – which I don’t think any ordinary American male would want to be seen doing dead. Yet that doesn’t affect the “alpha-masculinity” of our men’s self-image. Men here are among the touchiest in the world about appearing and behaving as “macho” as they can, and for that reason 80% of them sport luxurious facial hair growth, mostly moustaches. Even a skimpy moth-eaten one is appreciated; after all, something is better than nothing! The growing Islamic fundamentalising/Talibanisation trend of the Pashtun/Afghan society has contributed towards a huge increase in beards over the last 20 years, even though Islamic tradition normally prescribes a shaven upper lip with a beard – like the Mormon Prophet Brigham Young and Abraham Lincoln sported – along with a shaven head. But those who shave their faces clean (like me) are mostly in the “educated” (read Westernised) minority here, and even in this day and age, are regarded as being among the “non-traditional” characters, even though, naturally, there are more than few with “macho” capabilities among them! But let me add, that the “active-passive” distinction in homosexuality counts very much there, with the latter being a social stigma – because being “passive” is regarded as being submissive and yielding – therefore unmanly – in this patriarchal culture, even though there are those manly types who would be gladly “passive” in private. There is even a swearword for the passive guy, as well as a plethora of proverbs. Until quite recently, even the wearing of Western pants by men was considered taboo here, as it was thought that doing so would make them “vulnerable” by exposing the shape and other details of their hindquarters, which might “turn on” another “horny” male! A good joke for you, I’m sure, but I must acknowledge my debt of gratitude to Globalism for this one thing at least – that many men have now started wearing trousers here and don’t give a damn for what their posteriors look like to anyone, or what passions hidden or open they may excite among their ogling male fellows. A lot of Pashtuns still have the shirt worn outside though, so as to cover that delicate place, and as for as a woman being seen in pants here...perish the thought. Even the “liberated” foreign women among the teeming UN and Western aid staff in the area have been instructed to take the necessary precautions of not going against traditional behaviour.
(N.B: I started off in talking about how someone may frame another for paedophilia by tampering with their computer, but ended up in writing this. I don’t know what many of you will think of what I have written or why, but what I have detailed above is a first hand, plainly spoken, honest narration by a native, of what happens normally on the ground everyday in a certain society little understood elsewhere. I seem to recall Agape saying somewhere that he had an acquaintance who had been to Afghanistan, who had told him about a lot of these things. Don’t, however, expect to find such information on official websites, in travel guides or even in NGO or web “resources”. These are things that are not publicly acknowledged or even alluded to in “standard” conversations in our world as it now is (they might have been fifty years ago); they are denied and swept under the carpet. Mentioning them is not “correct or decent procedure”, you see. On the contrary the so-called educated representatives of my society, and our immigrants to overseas countries, would like to put all foreigners at rest, especially Westerners, in making them believe that the values of their societies are as mutually alike as is possible! However Kamilov has no such axe to grind: quite the opposite. It is the fostering of such illusions and wool-pulling conspiracies that contribute towards sustaining the greater part of the present day world’s problems, yet with 9/11 that unholy façade received its first good rip).
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Current Afghan and Pakistani Predicament
Afghanistan is a complex subject indeed – even to people like me, born and bred in the locale. It is a medieval patchwork of tribal “nations”, but nothing like those of the the Native Americans. Afghans are dangerous, haughty and contemptuous of others’ cultures and outlooks, unlike the Amerinds who are far more docile, friendly and philosophical from what I know about them. Afghans are basically bellicose and medieval, and would like to remain that way – but of course together with the conveniences of cars, aircraft, electricity, and watches etc. that characterise modern amenities - like their Gulf Arab sheikh “brethren”. But these goods they have to obtain from others since they don’t have the necessary mode of production, science, culture or labour division to produce them. In short, they unreasonably want to have their cake and eat it too. Now people may discredit Americans with lots of flaws – be that as it may, but the crafty and cunning Afghans can outsmart them 10:1. To be criminal minded and paranoid are normal Afghan behavioural characteristics – enabling them to survive in the harshness of their badlands, and also deal with the chronic tribal instabilities and conspiracies in which they indulge always. But paranoia and criminality are considered pathologies by any normal human beings, and rightly so. To be able to cope with, and deal with Afghans and their psyche, you have to be a bit old-fashioned and medieval yourself – something which North Americans definitely aren't.
The Afghan communists (or rather pseudo-communists) who staged a coup in 1978 and tried to reform their own society, were beset with the same characteristics. No doubt they tried to effect massive land reform and female emancipation and education programmes – ordering women to unveil and wear European skirts and trousers, but the traditional jealousies and conspiratorial tendencies also afflicted them, and thus they cooked their own goose. They made such a mess that the Soviets had to step in physically to save them and their revolution, and also prevent this primitive former tribal kingdom’s destabilisation from reaching their vulnerable Central Asian “underbelly” which is an extension of the same cultural milieu. No doubt, the Afghan communist instability was exacerbated by the Carter Administration, in particular by Zbignew Brzezinski who stirred the pot by discreetly abetting one communist faction and egging on its leader’s hungry ambitions, so as to entice the Russians into intervening - and thus into a trap. Then when the USSR finally did intervene, it was the infamous Kermit Roosevelt’s idea to cook up an Islamic Jihadi resistance so as to “give the Russians their own Vietnam”. The Americans cockily thought that this scheme was clever and that they would conveniently use Afghanistan like a Kleenex tissue for this purpose and then chuck it away – but this Kleenex proved to be laced with an invisible deadly poison.
Now, before the Soviet intervention of 1980 (actually: 12/27/1979), poppy cultivation on a mass scale was unknown even in Afghanistan. That is, the Afghans were too primitive to realise its marketability, and had thus far no opportunity to do so. Of course opium had been used there for centuries by addicts and as a medicinal cure for pain – but heroin, and its value on the modern Western street – were unknown. This was inspite of the fact that during the 1960s Afghanistan was a major “Hippie” destination, but the Hippies mostly smoked “Pot”, which grows there wild in the fields and by the wayside – and has been a traditional Afghan pastime since time immemorial just as tea and bagels are elsewhere. But as the CIA began its Jihad in the 1980s, mysterious Americans suddenly appeared in the area who instructed the impoverished locals in poppy farming, and then in setting up laboratories to refine it into heroin – for free. This was in the Pakistani Tribal Belt, known by its acronym FATA – the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. The FATA is ethnically Afghan – and together with Pakistan’s NWFP (North West Frontier Province), was a part of Afghanistan that the British had managed to capture and add to their Indian Empire territory, before that and adjacent parts of it became Pakistan a hundred years later. (This was just like Hispanic Texas, which was taken by the US from Mexico – and at the same time, in 1847). Thus the FATA adjoined Afghanistan, and was a safe haven where the poppy produce from war torn Afghanistan could be refined into heroin and shipped onwards securely in the Pakistani army’s logistical department’s trucks, the Pakistani government being involved in heroin smuggling at all levels. The FATA is also an autonomous, wild violent area consisting of seven tribal reservations called “tribal agencies”, where regular Pakistani laws don’t apply, and tribal custom is the law. Many have compared it to the American “Wild West” of the 19th Century. The FATA tribes also grow their own opium poppy, and at one time its production rivalled that of Afghanistan’s. But that was in the 1980s. The FATA and its people was also used by the US, UK and their Saudi and Pakistani surrogates as the staging area for their Jihad – which is why Al-Qaeda and the Taliban are nowadays to be found based there – and are effectively its rulers too. The primitive FATA tribes, which live in Neolithic style adobe fort dwellings in harsh dry mountain villages, still make a living by robbing, kidnapping and the petty smuggling of contraband goods (contract killing, auto theft, counterfeiting, forgery and gun running are also among their “trades”). But heroin made them into billionaires overnight. Now some of the richest business magnates of Pakistan, and in Dubai, are from among them – having laundered their drug money. They may own Cadillacs and BMWs, but a lot of them still don’t know how to wipe themselves, or even blow their noses properly! You are advised to read Pepe Escobar’s priceless book “Globalistan”. Mentioning the inveterate Pepe Escobar, I will also second what “Orwellian UK” on the FTW blog message board has said about the Asia Times Online (ATOL) being a reliable source of information about these issues. I would say that it is not only reliable, but among the best. Escobar’s columns appear regularly in it.
As far as the present situation is concerned, the Americans and the West will wish that they had never committed the fallacious mischief of stirring the Afghan cauldron, and coating themselves in its potent evil stew. They have got themselves into a sticky mess from which extrication will be very painful and hard – because even if they do decide to “slash the Gordian Knot” somehow, their reputation is already sullied at having caused the problem in the first place, and they will be blamed for the subsequent corrective measures even, and by their own people also: those who cause problems are not the ones to administer the justice to heal them in the end: they need bringing to justice themselves. They are likely to cut a sorry figure in the Afghan theatre, and the US forces commander in Afghanistan General Stanley McChrystal, as well as the British commander there have both predicted that unless a new strategy is prepared, their defeat there could be as early as next year. But I fail to see what new magic any player can conjure up now. And in the coming Peak Oil scenario, that defeat could even be sorrier than any ever imaginable.
The so-called allies in Afghanistan could come up with some very quick and efficient solutions to the Afghan opium problem, but isn’t it strange that it has flourished as never before under their occupation and policing? But that might not be so strange if one reads what Michael C Ruppert has said in his seminal book “Crossing the Rubicon” about how the vast sea of drug money is the life of Wall Street – and thus of Western capitalism, and how drugs serve to “cull” a substantial amount of the population so that they can be “junked” and treated as such. Many high figures in Afghanistan’s tottering US puppet government are drug lords, including President Karzai’s brother. That is as open a secret as ever. But the abetment and cultivation of a drug economy has its own destabilisation dynamic – so even if they persist in keeping it going for the sake of Wall Street and The City of London, they will at the same time be sowing not only poppy, but the seeds of other unimaginable social disasters and political malaises to come.
It is not only the situation in Afghanistan which is worsening for the US – in neighbouring Pakistan, so important in the US regional strategy, the government debauchery and corruption have reached an all time high. Perhaps its rulers know that their rusted leaking ship is sinking, and they want to make as much hay as they can while the sun still shines. For the first time, albeit too late in the day, the US has realised that its Pakistani hirelings are too corrupt to be entrusted with the aid they give them. This aid has always been Pakistan’s life support, but for the good part of the past six decades, the ruling elites have embezzled it to enrich themselves. Now, the US insists that any of the aid it gives in future ($4 billion having been earmarked this year alone), will not be given directly to Pakistani functionaries, but to US personnel, NGOs, employees and other “stake holders” to be based here. The breakdown in Pakistan’s law and order and state-society fabric is now so pronounced that there is the risk of Taliban/extremist takeovers in several areas once thought to be secure – and the US is slowly and discreetly moving in “contractors” such as Blackwater and DynCorp to take direct control of the situation by supervising the dysfunctional Pakistani bureaucratic and government services and security forces, and therefore effectively run the country right there themselves. The operatives of these two companies as well as a few US Marines (in “civvies”) are seen frequently all over the place. They are now buying up land for bases, and the lone five star Intercontinental Hotel (later known as the “Pearl Continental”) in the key Pakistani provincial city of Peshawar on the Afghan border has been bought by the US, ostensibly to house its expanded “consular operations” in that city... moreover the new US embassy in Islamabad is touted to be the largest ever yet to be built anywhere – with 400 acres of prime urban land having been sold dirt cheap by the Pakistanis to the US for the purpose. It is not going to be an embassy, but a mini-Pentagon for this region. It looks like the US is rapidly and quietly taking up position and digging in to tackle the inevitable breakdown now at hand in Pakistani society.
The Afghan communists (or rather pseudo-communists) who staged a coup in 1978 and tried to reform their own society, were beset with the same characteristics. No doubt they tried to effect massive land reform and female emancipation and education programmes – ordering women to unveil and wear European skirts and trousers, but the traditional jealousies and conspiratorial tendencies also afflicted them, and thus they cooked their own goose. They made such a mess that the Soviets had to step in physically to save them and their revolution, and also prevent this primitive former tribal kingdom’s destabilisation from reaching their vulnerable Central Asian “underbelly” which is an extension of the same cultural milieu. No doubt, the Afghan communist instability was exacerbated by the Carter Administration, in particular by Zbignew Brzezinski who stirred the pot by discreetly abetting one communist faction and egging on its leader’s hungry ambitions, so as to entice the Russians into intervening - and thus into a trap. Then when the USSR finally did intervene, it was the infamous Kermit Roosevelt’s idea to cook up an Islamic Jihadi resistance so as to “give the Russians their own Vietnam”. The Americans cockily thought that this scheme was clever and that they would conveniently use Afghanistan like a Kleenex tissue for this purpose and then chuck it away – but this Kleenex proved to be laced with an invisible deadly poison.
Now, before the Soviet intervention of 1980 (actually: 12/27/1979), poppy cultivation on a mass scale was unknown even in Afghanistan. That is, the Afghans were too primitive to realise its marketability, and had thus far no opportunity to do so. Of course opium had been used there for centuries by addicts and as a medicinal cure for pain – but heroin, and its value on the modern Western street – were unknown. This was inspite of the fact that during the 1960s Afghanistan was a major “Hippie” destination, but the Hippies mostly smoked “Pot”, which grows there wild in the fields and by the wayside – and has been a traditional Afghan pastime since time immemorial just as tea and bagels are elsewhere. But as the CIA began its Jihad in the 1980s, mysterious Americans suddenly appeared in the area who instructed the impoverished locals in poppy farming, and then in setting up laboratories to refine it into heroin – for free. This was in the Pakistani Tribal Belt, known by its acronym FATA – the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. The FATA is ethnically Afghan – and together with Pakistan’s NWFP (North West Frontier Province), was a part of Afghanistan that the British had managed to capture and add to their Indian Empire territory, before that and adjacent parts of it became Pakistan a hundred years later. (This was just like Hispanic Texas, which was taken by the US from Mexico – and at the same time, in 1847). Thus the FATA adjoined Afghanistan, and was a safe haven where the poppy produce from war torn Afghanistan could be refined into heroin and shipped onwards securely in the Pakistani army’s logistical department’s trucks, the Pakistani government being involved in heroin smuggling at all levels. The FATA is also an autonomous, wild violent area consisting of seven tribal reservations called “tribal agencies”, where regular Pakistani laws don’t apply, and tribal custom is the law. Many have compared it to the American “Wild West” of the 19th Century. The FATA tribes also grow their own opium poppy, and at one time its production rivalled that of Afghanistan’s. But that was in the 1980s. The FATA and its people was also used by the US, UK and their Saudi and Pakistani surrogates as the staging area for their Jihad – which is why Al-Qaeda and the Taliban are nowadays to be found based there – and are effectively its rulers too. The primitive FATA tribes, which live in Neolithic style adobe fort dwellings in harsh dry mountain villages, still make a living by robbing, kidnapping and the petty smuggling of contraband goods (contract killing, auto theft, counterfeiting, forgery and gun running are also among their “trades”). But heroin made them into billionaires overnight. Now some of the richest business magnates of Pakistan, and in Dubai, are from among them – having laundered their drug money. They may own Cadillacs and BMWs, but a lot of them still don’t know how to wipe themselves, or even blow their noses properly! You are advised to read Pepe Escobar’s priceless book “Globalistan”. Mentioning the inveterate Pepe Escobar, I will also second what “Orwellian UK” on the FTW blog message board has said about the Asia Times Online (ATOL) being a reliable source of information about these issues. I would say that it is not only reliable, but among the best. Escobar’s columns appear regularly in it.
As far as the present situation is concerned, the Americans and the West will wish that they had never committed the fallacious mischief of stirring the Afghan cauldron, and coating themselves in its potent evil stew. They have got themselves into a sticky mess from which extrication will be very painful and hard – because even if they do decide to “slash the Gordian Knot” somehow, their reputation is already sullied at having caused the problem in the first place, and they will be blamed for the subsequent corrective measures even, and by their own people also: those who cause problems are not the ones to administer the justice to heal them in the end: they need bringing to justice themselves. They are likely to cut a sorry figure in the Afghan theatre, and the US forces commander in Afghanistan General Stanley McChrystal, as well as the British commander there have both predicted that unless a new strategy is prepared, their defeat there could be as early as next year. But I fail to see what new magic any player can conjure up now. And in the coming Peak Oil scenario, that defeat could even be sorrier than any ever imaginable.
The so-called allies in Afghanistan could come up with some very quick and efficient solutions to the Afghan opium problem, but isn’t it strange that it has flourished as never before under their occupation and policing? But that might not be so strange if one reads what Michael C Ruppert has said in his seminal book “Crossing the Rubicon” about how the vast sea of drug money is the life of Wall Street – and thus of Western capitalism, and how drugs serve to “cull” a substantial amount of the population so that they can be “junked” and treated as such. Many high figures in Afghanistan’s tottering US puppet government are drug lords, including President Karzai’s brother. That is as open a secret as ever. But the abetment and cultivation of a drug economy has its own destabilisation dynamic – so even if they persist in keeping it going for the sake of Wall Street and The City of London, they will at the same time be sowing not only poppy, but the seeds of other unimaginable social disasters and political malaises to come.
It is not only the situation in Afghanistan which is worsening for the US – in neighbouring Pakistan, so important in the US regional strategy, the government debauchery and corruption have reached an all time high. Perhaps its rulers know that their rusted leaking ship is sinking, and they want to make as much hay as they can while the sun still shines. For the first time, albeit too late in the day, the US has realised that its Pakistani hirelings are too corrupt to be entrusted with the aid they give them. This aid has always been Pakistan’s life support, but for the good part of the past six decades, the ruling elites have embezzled it to enrich themselves. Now, the US insists that any of the aid it gives in future ($4 billion having been earmarked this year alone), will not be given directly to Pakistani functionaries, but to US personnel, NGOs, employees and other “stake holders” to be based here. The breakdown in Pakistan’s law and order and state-society fabric is now so pronounced that there is the risk of Taliban/extremist takeovers in several areas once thought to be secure – and the US is slowly and discreetly moving in “contractors” such as Blackwater and DynCorp to take direct control of the situation by supervising the dysfunctional Pakistani bureaucratic and government services and security forces, and therefore effectively run the country right there themselves. The operatives of these two companies as well as a few US Marines (in “civvies”) are seen frequently all over the place. They are now buying up land for bases, and the lone five star Intercontinental Hotel (later known as the “Pearl Continental”) in the key Pakistani provincial city of Peshawar on the Afghan border has been bought by the US, ostensibly to house its expanded “consular operations” in that city... moreover the new US embassy in Islamabad is touted to be the largest ever yet to be built anywhere – with 400 acres of prime urban land having been sold dirt cheap by the Pakistanis to the US for the purpose. It is not going to be an embassy, but a mini-Pentagon for this region. It looks like the US is rapidly and quietly taking up position and digging in to tackle the inevitable breakdown now at hand in Pakistani society.
Friday, November 16, 2007
The anatomy of Pakistan's crisis
The present crisis in
The reason for the fight now is that it is just one group, the army – albeit the main one, that is out to dominate and curtail the power of the others. To be fair enough, Pakistan has always belonged to its military, as it is only the army (given its relatively superior capabilities, making it the main British Imperial successor institution in Pakistan) that has succeeded in keeping this criminal, turbulent enterprise together and going – so far. Be that as it may, the Punjabi-dominated army’s main victory was in its Western sponsored Afghan “Jihad” in which the Punjabis exacted a historical revenge on their Afghan rivals. As a result, most of the army now comprises of officers and troops indoctrinated in Islamic fanaticism.
Of the main political groups now allied against General Musharraf and his army, we have seen the performance of the two main opposition “parties” twice each, gangs of hungry brutes and their hangers-on, who in the last 15 years took power through the “ballot” and then wiped this country clean of its money and public property, while introducing thuggish feudal-style patronage and misrule. In fact it was the last such government which Musharraf overthrew in 1999, that had through its corruption brought the country to the brink of collapse. His excuse for this was to save
The other main rival of Musharraf is the Pakistani “legal fraternity”. Its vanguard leadership of opposition to military rule is unprecedented both in its severity as well as historically. But the Pakistani judiciary has always been stinkingly corrupt, and the lawyers are its cohorts in this. The recently dismissed arch rival of President Musharraf, Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, is no exception.
And what about the other rivals, the “civil society” and its NGOs? This is the post-cold war American globalist order’s contribution to this mess. Before that, the nonsensically misused term civil society was not even known to
This motley of various contenders on the Pakistani scene are all criminal and were till now “in it” together, except that they have now fatally fallen out with each other....and thus there is now no hope for their being able to reconcile and continue with their past mischief the way they once did. Not one of them is wont to acknowledge the truth about why things are the way they are in their society – or indeed the world at large.
At the extreme end of this sordid spectrum of Pakistani power stand the renegade Jihadi fanatics typified by the Pashtun Taliban, who are now truly alienated from its mainstream and can be said to be only the genuine rivals of
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)