A Decision to Regret

Fuzair, That url will only point to a local file on one`s hard drive!

file:///C|/My Download Files/humor_bin.swf

Re: #129

stuka, fuzair,

That big C: in the link should have been a giveaway.

(fuzair was playing a downloaded shock wave file from his C: drive).

The actual link is:

http://www.madblast.com/oska/humor_bin.swf

(unless I`m mistaken).

It IS funny !

regards,

Sorry!

I should have paid more attention to what I was posting. The C is of course my own C drive, duh!

Heres the correct link to it:

http://www.pitt.edu/

Ferozk

Re: Jay

…..well, let’s just say that witty repartee is not jay’s forte…..

Romair, Manoj, F. R. Khan

PLease review the article from today`s Tribune, if I am not mistaken, below carefully, and please comment:

``Terror has triumphed in the USA

M. S. N. Menon

LET there be no mistake about it (to echo President George Bush), terror has triumphed in the USA. It has so frightened the country, for long a safe fortress, that there is no gumption left in it to fight terror. The Americans are ready to even change their ways.

The Americans have been living a cocooned life, free from want, free from fear. They are now face-to-face with an invisible enemy: Anthrax! A biological weapon. It enters their life in stealth and destroys them. More such weapons may follow.

The USA suspects Osama bin Laden. He and his Al-Qaeda terrorists, backed by the Afghan Taliban, have already done enough harm to America. Hundreds were killed in the attack on various US embassies and thousands perished in the attack on the World Trade Center. And Anthrax might kill many more thousands.

But a new enemy has emerged — the world of Islam. At least, a good part of it. It hates America bitterly. They say that America has made them a target of attack ever since the end of the Cold War. This notion is not without some truth.

The bombing of Afghanistan is what has stirred the ire of the Muslim world against America. For over two decades, Afghans have been victims, first of the Cold War, and then of what America has done to them. Again, the Americans are back with their bombs and missiles, killing and maiming thousands of innocent people. Nothing can justify this — not even the Bin Laden atrocities. It seems the Muslim world has lost its patience.

This is what has frightened America more than anything else. Fourteen hundred million Muslims in a rage against it! Is this the beginning of the civilisational war that Prof. Huntington predicted? Could well be. And Bin Laden and his men have shown how this war will be fought — not with nuclear bombs and missiles, but with unconventional weapons and methods. That is precisely what has unnerved Washington. America knows that it is unequal in such a deadly combat. All its weapons and supertechnologies cannot meet the fury of men ready to die for their cause.

If there is one thing which Americans fear today most, it is a pitched battle and bodybags. But the terrorists will not even engage them in battle. They will stalk them like a revengeful spirit.

So September 11 was a watershed in American history. America is now forced to re-assess everything above all, its entire foreign policy.

The USA does not know why it is hated all over the world not by black and yellow persons alone, but by even the Whites. On September 13, Senmas Milne wrote in The Guardian that the Americans must make the connection between “what has been visited upon them and what their government has visited upon large parts of the world.” But make that connection they must, if such tragedies are not to be repeated.”

Yet another writer, Martin Amis, warned, again in The Guardian: “America, it is time you learned how implacably you are hated.” The New Statesman calls US values “shallow” and “hypocritical”. And the conservative journal The Economist has this to say of President Bush: “Clumsy tongued neophyte” and “downright” idiotic”.

But Americans do not know how ugly they are, because their media will not tell them. Veteran CBS news anchor Dan Rather says that the US media should have done more to explain the world to the US citizens.

What can be the contours of the new foreign policy of America? Above all, it will be designed to placate the Muslim world, to douse their anger.

To believe that the US will take up a crusade against terrorists all over the world is nothing but crass credulity. America cannot do it; it will not do it.

America is now ready to admit that terrorism is the direct result of the Arab-Jewish conflict. It got aggravated by the Indo-Pak conflict over Kashmir. So, the argument goes, if terrorism has to be tackled, these two issues must be resolved. Sorting out the Arab-Jewish problem is the way to winning the Muslim world away from extremism, and its support to Bin Laden. And America is going to insist on it. This is now clear.

Two other foreign policy objectives are important: 1) the US wants to retain its leadership of the world and 2) its control over the energy supplies. Without a measure of support from the Islamic world, these goals cannot be attained. Hence the new realism.

Today, Pakistan is the most important country for the USA. Without the assistance of Pakistan, it cannot bring its enterprise in Afghanistan to a successful conclusion. Nor can America pacify the Muslim world without Pakistan’s assistance.

Is Pakistan that important? It is Bin Laden thinks so. He said that Pakistan is the most important Muslim country.

The Western world sees Gen Musharraf as the man who can pacify the Muslim world. What is more, he had the courage to sacrifice his own creation — the Taliban as also his friend Bin Laden.

But Musharraf has a price. He wants a pro-Pak moderate Taliban regime in Kabul (or at least not a hostile one) and he wants the Kashmir valley. Will the first meet with the approval of the concerned parties? And will India accept the second?

If they accept, peace will be restored in the area. If not, the USA and Pakistan will use the Taliban and the Bin Laden terrorists against the opposition. That is why President Bush will do nothing against either the Taliban or the Laden terrorists. They can be useful in Central Asia, too, to keep the countries of the region under duress.

Has India then no clout at all? That is not true. India is still the largest potential user of oil and gas. Unless it cooperates, it will be no easy matter for the US oil cartels. But this depends on Russian assurance of supplies to India.

In the final analysis, India is going to get nothing from the present American enterprise. India will have to fight its own battles. But if Russia and China are going to seek international tolerance for a crackdown in Chechnya and Xinjiang, India must seek a similar concession.``

HN 112,

PEROXIDE YANKS

As a shrink who can understand the inner workings of the mind you are better than shankar, the PEROXIDE YANK.

Most of the chowkies are past the impressionable age, debates have no meaning, and they will stick to the values that they have. Any interact more than two usually increases the misunderstandings. My posts are like the koans, if you dont understand in the first reading you can forget it.

In the anonymity of the chowk, no great humanitarian outcomes are possible. I remeber, Pervez Hoodboy wanted some help for a science project, and not many volunteered, even as words on the chowk, while many were downright hostile.

Hoodboy is a well respected academic from pakistan, and according to Ferzok this is a pakistani site, and even the pakistanis with so much of jihadic tears did not come forwrd to help.

If some one wants to do something good, why do it in the anonymity. Anonymity is good for bashing like the punching bags in japanese factories. The sterile do gooder image makers of the tahmed variety are the ones that take out the lives of those who have dishonoured. They are more concerned about their image in anonymity, the ones that insist on velevet in their coffins, floral pink embossed toilet papers at home.

Chowk is a place to float ideas, most will sink, at least one will float away. Once I explained to anNy, one of the most successful palnt species is grass, it has a seed, a kernal, and a snare to attach itself to the animals/plants/anything moving. Same with ideas, the noxious aspect is the snare, the wise see only the kernal, the fools only see the snare.

regards

jay

DESTINY OF A NATION,

Pakistan was created on the basis of TNT, muslims cannot live with ones from another religion. With the hindus gone, it had to find the ahmadias, now the shias as the other. The process is ameaboic in nature, the TNt has to find the other. It cretade the taliban, again shias were the other. It sent men to chechniya, christians were the other. The educated supported the essence of TNT, they havnt heard of abdus salam, an educated like YLH knows the condition of a tomb in india od sher sha suri, a muslim who died a thousand years ago, Abdus salam, the lahore international school never told him about abdus. Now at last the nation has matured, it is going to take on the others enmasse, the jihadic bomb.

US wakes up to Osama`s nuke dreams



CHIDANAND RAJGHATTA

TIMES NEWS NETWORK



ASHINGTON: Alarm bells are clanging in the US and other western establishments over reports that Osama Bin Laden may have acquired or developed crude atom bombs with help from renegade Pakistani nuclear scientists.

Accounts of Bin Laden`s pursuit of nuclear weapons has been in the air for some time, but they acquired an added urgency this week following the arrest in Islamabad of two retired Pakistani nuclear scientists whose activities in Afghanistan were being scrutinised by western intelligence agencies. The scientists were reportedly taken into custody for questioning by Pakistani authorities at Washington`s behest.

Eklavya #132 ``The other approach, far more difficult one, is for all of us to look AHEAD.``

There was a documentary some time back of people in the Sunderbans jungles (Bangladesh) which are populated by the man-eating Bangal tiger - the villagers walk with masks on the BACK of their heads, on the theory that this will trick the tiger into avoiding his usual attack from the back. The villagers looked pretty odd wearing it. Now I see that is a metaphor for our south asian chowk posters (some of them): while time is carrying them forward, their faces are turned backward - these people would learn more by reading your above sentence than they seem to have learnt in school.

jay: and moreover (as the sikh says in the joke, but you wont get it) - further to my post #163 I am very happy to see that we dont have any Pakistani falling to your level, or to the level of your other chowk polluting colleagues (Harimau, Gowardhan, Rsaxena and once in a while Sadna when she has time to spare from self-righteousness) by name-calling your country or sexually laced insults to your religion the way you people do. You people may be all high-caste (or whatever caste), but one thing is for sure: your posts bear testimony to your true class.

Now I shall stop writing this post and let you people demonstrate your class some more

DO AMERICANS NEED INDIA (ANYMORE)

Well in the recent past it was even clear to a 10 year old that US was desperately trying to keep as many countries as possible on its side, which is called ``coalition``. That makes sense. But the ground realities have changed. After 4 weeks of non stop bombing which includes the use of chemical and biological weapons and controversial cluster bombs and also using the scare tactics i.e. hitting civilians deliberately the situation in Afgahnistan is same as day one. It is true that Americans have taken out all 20 of Afghani warplanes (I heard that Afghans used to use horses and cows to pull them out of their hangers and to give them a jump start); it is also true that most of the 60 tanks that Taliban had have also been destroyed and now US is destroying everything that moves; which includes cow carts, bicycles, and pick up trucks. etc. All this spectacular war performance using $2 million a piece smart bomb is really awesome.

Well I was talking about the ground realities. The ground reality is that now the dreadful time of the deployment of ground troops is coming near and unescapable. Which means casualties but no body bags. Northern Alliance has proved to be a white elephant who is really reluctant to put the lives of its men at risk just for the sake of ``Americas war``. Northern Alliance has also chosen Rashid Dostum as their commander, who was former spy master of the Afghanistan spy agency Khad during the Soviet era. The gentleman was a die hard commie and he is still popularly or should I say notoriously known as ``The butcher of Kabul`` because of his role during the soviet invasion era. Common Afgahns desperately love him. This situation can be interpretted in another way i.e. Northern Alliance has decided to play patsy with Russians rather than Americans. They are betting their cards on Russian support. And why should one blame them? Given the history of US with its allies e.g. South Vietnamies who were left at the mercy of North, and the Iranians....and even Afgahnis.....well you get the picture.

Well I was taking about the casualties and body bags. It is clear that India`s ONLY interest in this whole scenario is to establish and support any government in Afghanistan which is anti-Paksitani and pro-India. India has outlived its usefulness. It has given all the alleged intelligence information to US that it had. So the common sense says that any more Indian interference into the matters of Afghanistan goes against the interests of United States. As India drags and interferes in establishment of a broad based political government in Afghansitan it is indirectly pushing US soldiers towards harms way. It is time that one of the players (ghus baithiay in this game) i.e. India must be told to go back to the pavilion and watch the rest of the show.

Pascals advise: Keep it simple stupid.

Re: hobbrty

Thanks. That was a really interesting article and it is good to see a debate on the US role taking place. That article is still meaningless, in my opinion, because the American public will never read it. It will listen to CNN and FOXNEWS and wonder why the world hates them.

There is a very lively debate taking place in European media over the American foreign policy, but not in the American media, which is still trying to milk this crisis for all its worth.

In coming days, you will see a shift in the focus of the American media; away from the war in Afghanistan to the domestic front in the United States.

The next few weeks will be very illuminating.

Ciao

Re: Urstruly #142

India has limited leverage in Afghanistan, and is not a player there as much as Russia, US, Pakistan, Iran are. The big picture is that the Americans do not appear to have a clear political objective in Afghanistan. They are not sure what they would settle for post-Taleban (if Taleban are ever toppled) -- `moderate` Taleban? UN force (Kofi Anan is against this)? Muslim troops from other countries (led by Turkey who appears to be keen) etc?

In other words, with so many countries eager to play a role, the 19th century Great Game has revived. As the Subcontinent`s representative, the burden will now fall on Pakistan. This is an enormous responsibility, and the British were quick to realize it in the 19th century. However, Pakistan is strategically (as a power) no match for the UK/US or the Russians who are likely to re-emerge as power brokers. The risk for Pakistan (and subsequently to India -- yes, ultimately Pakistan and India will BOTH have a negative fall-out if they do not settle their differences) is that the longer the war in Afghanistan goes on, the greater will be the political difference betweeen the rulers and the ruled in Pakistan. In the absence of any political opposition in Pakistan, the vacuum is going to be filled with Pathan/Taleban sympathizers, who may declare Musharraf as Enemy No. 1. In order to appease them, the Pakistan army may depose Musharraf. Or, it may chose to fight with the Pathan/Taleban sympathizers in street battles. If it does the former, the Allies may turn against Pakistan, and if it does the latter, Musharraf may create even greater domestic problems. Taleban have already declared Musharraf as their enemy, and do not recognize the Durand Line. Northern Alliance, quick to score politial points, are already claiming that their first political item will be to renegotiate the Durand Line with Pakistan and unite all Pathans as one nation. For all our cleverness in the 21st century, some things never change -- the NW frontier of the Subcontinent has always been the most insecure. All of this should convince you that the time is now for India and Pakistan to put their differences aside, and not chose sides in the Afghan imbroglio. Otherwise, graver consequences are in the making.

#140 Jay

Bravo! You`re one hell of a philosopher-poet!

Ref tahmed321 #: 123

[``Pukistanis``, as your high-caste colleague Sadna so eloquently calls us, or ``Pakillistanis`` as you so elegantly put it. I wont even go into what Harimau and Gowardhan have to say about us upstarts.]

``Pea-brained idiot`` has been the term I have been using recently. But it was never addressed to all Pakistanis; only in answering specific posts.

Prior to that, it was ``Descendants of Rapists and Murderers``. That was addressed to anyone who wanted to deny the truth about Indian history.

On the other hand, I have called Soysauce, an Indian, worse things.

Truth hurts, doesn`t it, Ahmed-ji?

jay #140 ``Anonymity is good for bashing like the punching bags in japanese factories.`` That`s right. Anonymity: the natural refuge of the cowardly hate-monger. Normal people dont have this hatred towards other nationalities and people of other faiths, and so dont use their anonymity to post insults like you and other members of the Hate-Pakistan Club (HPC).

``Chowk is a place to float ideas`` Dont flatter yourself. I have yet to see an idea from you or any member of HPC that reflects an IQ of over 35 or knowledge beyond that of a ten year old. Your ideas begin and end with name-calling and/or offensive remarks.

urstruly #142 ``DO AMERICANS NEED INDIA (ANYMORE)``

The question is: Do we Pakistanis need India? And the answer is: More than anyone else, hard though it may be for you to believe.

We need India to understand that we are good enough to have democracy; that people of different religions can live fairly peacefully together (Babri masjid and the hindutvas are indications of problems, but I dont think they represent the over-all reality); and we need India because it is there, with all the rich history we share with it.

And Americans need India too. For many reasons, not the least being the same reason that we all need one another: as occupants of a lonely boat in a vast sea who need one another to keep the boat from capsizing and to keep moving in whatever direction mankind is destined to move.