Rightsizing of the Armed Forces

Well Mr. Jahan, here is justification for a 5 million-strong Pakistan Army.

Urstruly: Please note that the writer is Jewish, proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that there is a Hindu-Jewish conspiracy to support the enemies of The True Faith called the Shiites of Iran.

From the International Herald Tribune:

http://www.iht.com/articles/85731.html

Realignment
Stanley Weiss

NEW DELHI Has the foundation been laid for a stable Middle East and Asia for decades to come? That may well be what happened when India and Iran unveiled a strategic partnership during President Mohammed Khatami`s recent visit here. On the economic side, the two countries need each other. Iran has the world`s second largest natural gas reserves. India is one of the world`s largest gas importers and values Iran`s strategic location as a gateway to Middle East and Central Asian energy suppliers.

On the military side, both fear that Islamic fundamentalists might seize Pakistan`s nuclear arsenal. India will get access to Iranian military bases in the event of war with Pakistan. Iran will get access to advanced Indian military technology. President George W. Bush calls Iran part of an ``axis of evil.`` An anonymous U.S. official warns that the New Delhi-Tehran alliance could ``raise obstacles in our burgeoning defense ties`` with India. But Bush should not allow his loathing for Tehran`s reactionary mullahs to trump America`s need for India or the need to embrace what he calls ``the Iranian people`s hope for freedom.``

He should recognize that India and Iran are the key to regional stability, and join New Delhi and Tehran in an axis of friendship.

Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani tells me that the United States and India are ``the twin towers of democracy.`` Indeed, India has become a major regional power with the ability to advance American interests from Israel to Iran to Indonesia.

Want to promote a peaceful Asia? Then partner with India, a reliable U.S. ally in dealing with North Korea, a growing naval presence in Southeast Asia and a leading candidate for a permanent seat on the Security Council.

And although the dispute with Pakistan over Kashmir attracts global headlines, the primary long-term security concern here is a militarily and economically ascendant China, which occupies a chunk of Indian territory.

Want to show the world`s 1.2 billion Muslims a progressive, hopeful alternative to the medieval vision of Osama bin Laden? Then support secular India, a multi-religious society home to the world`s second largest Muslim population. India`s 150 million Muslims, including the world`s largest community of Shiites outside Iran, instinctively recoil from Sunni-dominated Al Qaeda. Want to simultaneously dampen Pakistan and Iran`s support for terrorism? Then give these nations a stake in regional peace and prosperity, like billions in revenue and transit fees from the so-called ``peace pipeline`` that would connect Iran and India through Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Indian access to Iranian bases encircles and contains Pakistan, fundamentally altering Islamabad`s strategic calculations.

India`s new ties with Iran make it more, not less, valuable to Washington. Both India and Iran fear the Saudi-sponsored puritanical Wahhabi brand of Sunni Islam. When Afghanistan was controlled by the Sunni-dominated Taliban, Iran and India backed the Northern Alliance. Both countries have played a vital role in creating and sustaining the U.S.-$ backed government in Kabul. In the reconstruction effort, New Delhi and Tehran will build a much needed road connecting the Iranian port of Chabahar to the Afghan city of Kandahar. As in Afghanistan, the United States will need Iran to help stabilize a post-Saddam Iraq. Encouraging signs include Tehran`s warm welcome to a recent gathering of Iraqi opposition leaders.

New Delhi will also be an increasing asset to Washington thanks to its military partnership with Israel. It is easy to see why Shimon Peres calls India ``Israel`s best friend in the region.`` Both are secular multi-religious democracies under terrorist attack from Islamic militants. Both are nuclear powers surrounded by hostile neighbors with ballistic missiles.

Bilateral trade has soared, and young Israelis flock to Indian beaches. Israel is poised to become India`s largest arms supplier, and India desperately wants Washington`s approval to buy the U.S.-Israeli-built Arrow missile defense system. Like its new economic and military partnership with Turkey, Jerusalem`s growing ties with India give America`s closest ally in the Middle East an important friend in a tough neighborhood.

Taken together, this web of cooperation portends a historic realignment in the regional balance of power - an alliance of democracies, with India at its center. America should forge its own strategic partnership with India.

The writer is chairman of Business Executives for National Security, a Washington-based, nonpartisan organization of business leaders. The views expressed here are personal.

The US Army recruitment posters say: ``The army. Its not a job, its an adventure.``
I guess in Pakistan they can say: ``The army. Its not a job, its a business venture.``
PS: This wasnt the case until a couple of decades back.
PPS: And there are still many fine officers in the Pakistan Army. But the guys adding up plots are not among them.

//...Putting it bluntly, these somersaults were brought about under blatant American and Indian coercion. And thus one of the Third World’s largest and strongest militaries has proven completely helpless ..... to flout the American diktats and defy Indian ultimatums altogether......//

Ouch... This is clearly below the belt for the apologists for Paki Army. Get ready for the screams and squeaks.

Riffat:

how can you fault the Army?...

... am afraid you have got it all wrong...in the rest of the world the countries have armies...in pakistan the Army has the country...its barrels and missiles are not meant for an(y) enemy...it uses...blatantly....its force to subjugate the people, parliament and bazaars...

...palestine is not the only occupied territory...pakistan is occupied too!

rgds,

t

I was in and around Vietnam in the mid to late `70s as a sailor. Over there, too, almost every sphere of life in South Vietnam was controlled by their militaries, unlike in the North where the militaries were busy fighting.

Today, many of the Vietnamese military elite of those days are found running restaurants and maybe small shops in the US and some other parts of the free world. I often wonder whether that was an aim or a bye-product?

Incidentally, that was also the first time I heard the slogan ``Yankee go home (but take me with you?)``. I hear it now, again, in the posturing of various communities and expat nationalities in the US.

As for the Pakistani military budget, once the Gulf countries end up paying for the forthcoming ``war``, how much will be left for others?

The question to ask is whether the Pakistani armed forces are a defensive or offensive tool? If offensive, than the various conflicts have shown that it can not bring any gains to Pakistan. If defensive, than my question to the Pakistanis is if they believe that India has designs on Pakistani territory.

I doubt if that is the case. Also in todays global world it is very risky to attempt to gain territory by war. Iraq and Serbia are prime example of what can happen. China which has the capicity to get Taiwan by force has not attempted to do so.

As such the pakistani armed forces are irrelevant. They are a burden on the pakistani exchecker with no productivity whatsoever.

Thank you Riffat Jahan. I guess it does need to be said over and over again that a comprehensive overhaul is required of the Pakistan Army, and for them to have no power over how civilians live their lives, or policymaking.
for the rest, I turn it over to Romair and the Pakistan-India love fest.

........simply brilliant! ......... another expert opinion on how to fix the khaki problem, solve world hunger, and fix that big hole in the ozone layer ................just brilliant! ........

............ and while we are at it, i think we should also start a cereal factory to compete with fauji foundation and privatize NLC, FWO, Askari Bank, Askari Insurance, Bharia Foundation, Shaheen Foundation and free all the cows imprisoned by the military dairy farm system .............and who is going to do all this ? ...... jamali, or the cattle thieves of gujrat ? .........perhaps nawabzada nasrullah can put on his fez and march on army house with his half-cocked hookah?...... or maybe imran khan can use his one vote in parliament to trump the generals ............. i say, let`s do it ! ........ excelsior !

R.J. well said,

We need food+water, clothing, shelter, education and health care in Pakistan. We need people power and not khaki power there.

Someday........

Ras

Urstruly, from another board,

Thanks for the convoluted response. I accept that you cannot come up with a one liner, hinduism is as good as islam, becaue it would be against the book and it would be againt TNT that created pakistan. With the ISI, jihadi link, such a one liner could be fatal. Islam is as good as hinduis, sorry I have to go, RSS is knocking on my doors.

Riffat - well said - suger-coated but you got the message across.

The Great Soviet Empire evaporated into thin air with all its might because the Russians had to queu up for even a loaf of bread.

The Japanese with only 1% expenditure on defence have a say in the world affairs and are the second biggest GDP earners.

Moral of the story is that the strength of a nation is no more in the numbers of its soldiars and their hardware. It is in the collective factors such as the political stability, economic strength, industrial prowess, quality of its human resorces and its natural resources.

So if I was an enemy of Pakistan, I need not fight it to win. I only need to creat an environment where it dumps its resources into unproductive channels, remains politically unstable, goes down economically and my battle is won.

Is that being done? and is Pakistan fully in the trap?

Still there is time to recover?

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Jahan

``To wind up, it would be pertinent to mention that utilizing gullible youth, as cannon fodder under the cover of “jihad” despite ploughing the lion’s share of scarce national resources into defence is/was deplorable, whatever gauge of ethics/patriotism one may apply. What purpose does the half-million strong army serve if jihad still has to be carried out by civilian mercenaries?``

We have many military men like romair, and naturally no one has dared to tell the truth. Pak military is an exploitative structure, it cannot protect the frontiers, it can only loot its own. The sad fact is that with the educated middle class like the tahmeds, not daring to join your chorus, are simply supporting the looters.

The good part is the convergence of the jihadists and the military. It is under pressure from the jihadists in the military that musheraff was forced to banish the bhutto and the sheriffs so that the islamists have become the majority of elected reps. Hopefully the next election will see the complete merging of the military, jihadits and the politicians. Then you know that time for liberation has come. You can look for indian troops from afghanistan, india and iran, and then you will no that freedom is at the doorstep. Till then support the military, support the jihadists, support tahmed and other mullahs with beard in the belly.

MATTER OF PRINCIPLES,

Pakistan ary will be taking part in the planning for the invasion of Iraq, because pakistan is part of the coalition against terror. Pakistan is also on the security council, again elected by the support of islamic countries. If they vote agaisnt uncle sam, no weapons for mushy, if he supports uncle sam, the mullahs will get him.

This is a sad situation for a man to be in, when all that he wanted was not to be sacked from the military. he just wanted to keep his job. He is the Tuglak of pakistan.

#8 by hamidm2
//...and who is going to do all this ?...//

Classic problem - who is going to bell the cat?

People of Pakistan of love their military and their COAS. Military is their Messiah and Musharraf, their ``Mai-Baap``. So who is going to bell the cat? Not the mice population of Pakistan - they don`t even realize how the military cat has ensnared them and eating them slowly.

How about miliatry`s messiah - a.k.a. America. Military doesn`t answer to the mice population but it sure does grovel in front of America. And we all know America is angry, very very angry.

Pakistan`s satellite



President Pervez Musharraf is excited about Paksat-I. A news report in Dawn recently quoted him as saying that Pakistan`s space programme was now a reality and our scientists must build indigenous satellites within three years, instead of five years. According to the president, Pakistan`s space programme is now ahead of India`s.

Paksat-I was built by Boeing for Indonesia and was launched from Kourou in French Guiana in 1996. It was then known as PALAPA I. Immediately, some electrical problems occurred in the satellite.

It was declared unusable and insurance claims were settled. Then Greece leased it (and named it Anatolia I) but found it useless. Pakistan leased it to save the only geo-stationary slot left to it.

This satellite does not function during eclipses as the rechargeable batteries fail during this period. It costs the Pakistan treasury $40 million a year to lease this satellite.

At the current exchange rate, the cost to the people of Pakistan is about Rs40,000 per minute to operate Paksat-I. Now it is for the Pakistani scientists to prove that this valuable tool is operated properly to help promote education in Pakistan.

KISHAM BHATTA

Texas, USA

/// I have heard so much of pak industries, their capabilities. This shows the simple lie that the pakistanis have fed. I look forward to the day when the tahmeds and romairs will tell the truth, rather than trying to create an image for pakistan