Pakistan-Afghanistan Relations: The Choice Between Alliance and Acrimony

30th actually now ... 30th of December 2006.

contd #84 by zeemax,

I.e todaqy is 29th of December 2006. One year from now will be 29th of December 2007. Just to make it specific. Ask me then.

#80 by hamidm2

One wonders why did he do all of that?

I accept your challenge ... Please keep this post. I will ask you to retrieve it just one year hence ...

#80 by hamidm2 on December 30, 2006 7:09am PT


zeemax says this is a dark day for allah`s homies of the sunni-wahabi persuasion...

p.s. he also adds ``allah-o-akbar``...

While any death, even the death of a basket case like Saddam (who made idols to himself all over Iraq, killed his own son-in-laws, built palaces for himself while half a million Iraqi children starved to death), is a sad occassion, there is also truth to the following:

Sic Semper Tyrannis - Thus to All Tyrants

.... talk about barbarians !

GHALANAI (Mohmand Agency), Dec 29: An Afghan refugee was stoned to death on Friday on the charges of attempted robbery and murder. The man was sentenced by a tribal jirga in the Bedamnai area.

Tribal elders of the Musakhel tribe met in Khwezai tehsil, 20km west of the agency headquarters and decided to carry out the sentence in accordance with “Islamic laws”. The Afghan refugee named Imran had allegedly killed a boy named Shah Khalid during an attempted robbery two weeks ago.

zeemax, urstruly and masadi,

... a cruel tyrant has been brought to justice, the iraqi people are jubilant, a message has been sent to other would be successors to the abominable fou,r and everyone is getting geared up for eid and new year celebrations - so what is your beef ! .....

......... don`t worry we will find the other foul creatures that hide in caves and bring them to justice too ..............

.......... now go out, distribuite some mithai and celebrate eid - this is the best eid you guys have had in a long time .............

``Any man`s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.`` - John Donne

From Allah we come and to Him we shall return. The pretender for Nebuchadnezzar and Saladin`s throne is dead.

Haq maghfarat karey, ajab azad mard tha.

A ruthless tyrant who kept his volatile and ethnically diverse country in an iron grip for 33 years, but provided security, living necessities, and order where little was possible after the crippling sanctions and a ten year Iran war. Who bravely tried to reclaim Kuwait which was Iraq`s province before the Brit lines in the sand, and didn`t even blink when his army was annihilated from the air. Who remained defiant till the end and called his trial a joke. Whose only request was to be executed by firing squad which was denied because they didn`t want him to die a soldier`s death, but on a hangman`s noose.

He was hanged inside the green zone. He was never handed over to Iraqi custody. The trial was run by 60 US advisers. The judge just occupied the chair. Three defense lawyers were murdered, and a fourth had to flee the country after being severely injured. Judges were changed. The first one was kicked out when he allowed Saddam some consideration in due process according to law, and his successor was a known enemy of Saddam whom Saddam had forced into exile.

The Chief justice of the Supreme Court of Iraq was hanged too, who had just acted according to law of the time.

And still the Americans want the world to believe it was the Iraqi people who got justice. If they did, it would be the first incidence in history when one country removed and imprisoned the ruler of another country, for no threat to themselves but to his own people, and hanged him for alleged murder of 148 of his own fellowmen (that too on the sole grounds of anonymous testimonies). One wonders what did the US have to do with anything
of that? If Saddam was responsible for deaths of his own people, how many of his own people did Abraham Lincoln kill during the civil war? Or Mao during cultural revolution?

The timing is obvious. This will inflame the civil war in Iraq and speed up the splitting process which was contained just in Baghdad to the consternation of Americans. This will spread it to Central Iraq, Tikrit etc and turn into a full scale civil war with the end result of splitting Iraq achieved well within Bush`s final term. The Government of Iraq which consists of Iranian backed Badr Brigade Ayatollahs with Al-Maliki as their frontman have made a major move using the typical American stupidity. The Americans are counting on the Islamists to implode within themselves and to kill each other like rival mafia dons (that`s all they know from Chicago of 1930s), but they have handed Iran a major victory with blame going to Americans for the bloodshed which will follow.

US needs a lesson on Iraq for Dummies! Iran hanged Saddam, not the Americans. Americans are being twisted around their little finger by Iran. By splitting of Iraq, the only one who is to gain is Iran.

Allah-O-Akbar!

Afghanistan Update

Barnett Rubin:

During his visit to Afghanistan, India, and Pakistan from March 1 to March 5, 2006, President George W. Bush praised Afghan successes, telling President Karzai,“You are inspiring others, and the inspiration will cause others to demand their freedom.” He did so the day after the administration’s own intelligence chiefs reported that the antigovernment insurgency in Afghanistan is growing and presents a greater threat “than at any point since late 2001.” Some Afghan officials say the world thus far has put Afghanistan on life support, rather than investing in a cure. The following conditions make it clear that Afghanistan has the potential to be a disastrous situation if intelligent, measured steps are not taken:

• An ever-more deadly insurgency with sanctuaries in neighboring Pakistan, where leaders of al-Qaeda and the Taliban have found refuge;
• A corrupt and ineffective administration without resources and a potentially dysfunctional parliament;
• Levels of poverty, hunger, ill health, illiteracy, and gender inequality that put Afghanistan near the bottom of every global ranking;
• Levels of aid that have only recently expanded above a fraction of that accorded to other post-conflict countries;
• An economy and administration heavily influenced by drug traffickers;
• Massive arms stocks despite the demobilization of many militias;
• A potential denial of the Islamic legitimacy of the Afghan government by a clergy that feels marginalized;
• Ethnic tensions exacerbated by competition for resources and power;
• Interference by neighboring states, all of which oppose a long-term U.S. presence in the region;
• Well-trained and well-equipped security forces that the government may not be able to pay when aid declines in a few years;
• Constitutional requirements to hold more national elections (at least six per decade) than the government may be able to afford or conduct;
• An exchange rate inflated by aid and drug money that subsidizes cheap imports and hinders economic growth; and
• Future generations of unemployed, frustrated graduates and dropouts from the rapidly expanding school system.

Read the whole report, which is well worth reading.

And don`t miss this portion either:

The United States, with aid from France and the United Kingdom, has been training a new national army, which has now reached about 26,000 troops. The ANA was designed by the Department of Defense, and it deploys troops with embedded U.S. trainers. The U.S. model of an army, however, has a high price tag. According to the World Bank, the ANA cost 13 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in fiscal year 2004–2005, and total security sector spending topped 17 percent.20 Currently, the ANA depends on U.S. trainers for air support, logistics, and medical evacuation. Transferring the ownership of these functions to the ANA will cost even more.
The Coalition has slowed ANA growth. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld informed the Afghan government that the United States will expect it to pay the military’s salaries from its budget in 2006–2007. According to Afghan sources, he also told Kabul that the ceiling for the ANA would be 45,000 men, compared to the 70,000
that the Afghan Ministry of Defense thinks it needs. Although the belated concern for fiscal sustainability is welcome, this unilateral decision has placed the Afghans in a difficult position. The United States, not Afghanistan, determined the salary levels of the ANA, and now the United States is insisting that this impoverished, insecure country, just embarking on a major development strategy, take on this fiscal burden. Secretary Rumsfeld has reportedly assured the Afghans that the United States will ensure Afghanistan’s external security, but the failure of the United States to neutralize the Taliban and al-Qaeda sanctuaries in Pakistan has made the Afghans skeptical of such guarantees. Because Afghanistan cannot have a foreign-supported army for long, some adjustment of the quantity or quality of the force is inevitable. Besides simply making the ANA smaller, the Afghan government could move away from the U.S.-inspired structure toward a more cost-effective, if less professional, army, such as one based on conscription and compensation in kind (housing and other facilities) rather than cash. Similar adjustments must be made for the Afghan National Police (ANP). Current plans to raise police salaries to a level comparable to that of the ANA will further inflate the budget beyond the country’s means. Because of the insufficiency of both international and national security forces, the Afghan government continues to raise informal militias, mostly in Pashtun areas, where the Taliban are active. This has created some anxiety among non-Pashtuns, who have seen their much larger militias disbanded. The need for regional and ethnic equity must be taken into account in the structure of the security forces.

Zulm jann raha hay sar-e-bazar bachchay
Insaaf ko bhi sahib-e-aulad hona chahiyay


THE PRESENT



THE FUTURE