unflinching idealism ... since 1997 archivessitemapabouthelpfeedback
where paths intersect
  • Home
  • InFocus
  • Themes
  • Columns
  • Articles
  • Fiction
  • iLogs
  • Gallery
  • Unplugged
  • Writers
  • Interactors
  • Tags
Sign in | Join Chowk
web chowk
  • chaltahai
  • Intro & Favorites
  • iLogs
  • Gallery
  • Interacts
  • latest
  • most viewed
  • random
listing 112-128   1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
War of Another Kind
Posted by chaltahai Apr 2, 2008 07:35 am
kaal yaar, it almost always comes down to subjectivity and relativity. Injustice to a muslim might not be injustice to a non-muslim and vice versa. To suggest that muslim perception of injustice should be universal is not only stupid, it belittles muslims to nothing more than kneeling and bobbing automatons who haven't a working brain cell to understand the other viewpoint. I am sure this is not what you are suggesting.

Secondly, robbing me for my own good because you perceive it to be something beneficial for me and yourself is another idiocy that can land people in the nuthouse.


Lastly, what muslims perceive as injustice or not is irrelevant. They haven't the power, the resources or the intellect to promote their views in a manner that 5/6th of humanity understands. All this jihadism etc..is not some coordinated strategic push for establishing the word of god. It is simply a cry for help for seeing the word of man trump the word of god. They are getting left behind...and if that means tehy should be separated from the rest of the world, as per their wishes and that might in some way lead to a revival of a khilafa or something, than so be it. The next few hundred years are the age of the idol worshippers...and payback is a bitch.
Surviving Musharraf\'s Exit?
Posted by chaltahai Apr 2, 2008 06:53 am
tahmed, if pakistani like you are for going after and killing these jihadis then I am sure the future is bright for the country.
Surviving Musharraf\'s Exit?
Posted by chaltahai Apr 2, 2008 06:52 am
Well
Surviving Musharraf\'s Exit?
Posted by chaltahai Apr 2, 2008 06:47 am
No one can disagree that the pak army has to FIGHT the jihadis on Pakistani soil. (except for internet jihadis like Tampax, ofcourse) The question is do you think the pakistani people have the stomach for a fight like this...I mean..out in the open. Because what the jihadis have learned is the strategy of "thousand cuts". It didn;t work with India, do you think it will fail here as well?
Surviving Musharraf\'s Exit?
Posted by chaltahai Apr 2, 2008 06:18 am
tahmed yaar, you said that the gov't has declared this is "our war"..can you clarify , how would they deal with the jihadi menace differently than how the army has dealt with it so far...some food for thought
___________________________________________
Army Chief in Pakistan Wins Honor From U.S.
E-MailPrint Reprints Save Share
DiggFacebookMixxYahoo! BuzzPermalink

By ERIC SCHMITT
Published: April 2, 2008
WASHINGTON — Since Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani took command of Pakistan’s Army last November, a parade of top American officers and spymasters has trooped to Islamabad to urge him to wage an aggressive campaign against Al Qaeda and other militants in the country’s restive tribal areas.

The American officials have come away gushing about the Pakistani general’s military prowess and his commitment to disentangle the army from domestic politics. General Kayani’s predecessor, Pervez Musharraf, resigned last year to become a civilian president.

So perhaps it was just a coincidence when a letter from the United States Embassy in Islamabad arrived in General Kayani’s mailbox last week, congratulating him on being selected for the United States Army Command and General Staff College’s International Hall of Fame.

The hall “honors those officers of United States allies’ militaries who have attained the highest command positions in their national service component or within their nation’s armed forces,” Maj. Gen. James R. Helmly, the embassy’s defense representative, wrote in a letter to General Kayani on March 20.

Asked whether General Kayani’s selection was an attempt to curry favor with the officer, one American military official said Tuesday, “Absolutely not.”

General Kayani is a 1988 graduate of the Army college, which is at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., and provides advanced training to the Army’s most promising officers and to some foreign officers.

Lt. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, the commander of the Army’s Combined Arms Center, which includes the college, said that General Kayani was the fourth Pakistani officer named to the hall, and met the requirements that he was a graduate and the chief of his service. The Army has admitted 227 officers from more than 60 countries since the hall was established in 1973. (Mr. Musharraf, who did not attend the college, is not among them.)

New US Strategy Needed in Afghanistan and Pakistan
Posted by chaltahai Mar 18, 2008 11:31 am
you guys are out of your skull if you think that the allocation methodologies of the arab soverign funds would tilt towards pakistan in this decade or next.

PE might be able to take some minimal risks based on some smart pakistanis family connections in pakistan. But SWF's are not PE types. They are more like FoF's but more conservative. They will put money into institutions with track record of providng historical returns. It might hurt you even more to hear this...but SWF's woudl rather put money into Hinjew India than muslim pakistan, any day of the week.
New US Strategy Needed in Afghanistan and Pakistan
Posted by chaltahai Mar 18, 2008 08:46 am
I don't know what the hubub is but the US policy of having the jihadis fight their co-religionists is working quite well.. Even the strategy for carving up islamic nations into smaller piece is also working quite well. This is good shit..people. Happy muharram to everyone.
Pakistan: The War of Drones
Posted by chaltahai Mar 13, 2008 10:36 am
jihadis are easily impressed...whether it is commonplace words like "vacuous"...or whether it is bare hairy forearm sticking out of the bukha of their cousin.
Pakistan: The War of Drones
Posted by chaltahai Mar 13, 2008 09:49 am
ajeya, from the partition fiasco to communal riots to violence against ethinic, caste based and other minorities, Modern India doesn't really have a sellar reputation in "ahimsa" non-sense....

there is a misconception among the jihadis that non-muslims would still idly by and watch their livlihood ururped by allah's warriors. non-muslims, as I have been saying, are smarter, richer, stronger, more in number, and have institutional backing to fight islamists.

One suicide bomb in a mall in the US, would mean, the end of Iran as we know it. When the nuclear winter wears off in Mecca, jewish kids will go ice skating on Lake Mecca with kaaba as the local Hot Dog stand.

islamists should have fought the battle with the other muslims first, get insitutionalized and then taken on the non-muslims...they done fk'ed up. they went in the reverse order and are now getting spanked from philippines to amreeka.
Pakistan: The War of Drones
Posted by chaltahai Mar 12, 2008 12:43 pm
Urstruly, secularism doesn;t mean "lack of religion"...it means non-primacy of one.

A huge weakness of islam is that it is illequipped to battle forces outside the religious spectrum. believers might feel superior and might feel they are doing allah's bidding and can possibly even offer salvation to adherents of otehr religions on a comparable basis. But when it comes to secular thought or atheism, which basically either puts islam in parity with other religions or spiritual belief or frankly, and rightfully so, laughs it off as some fantastical bedouin tale..islam and islamists haven't a chance. they will always lose. as we are seeing across the world now. this is the natural order of things..it is time for islamists to accept that Jesus will not come back to defeat a one eyed monster (which I have in my pants by the way)..it is over kids...what the prophet did in 621 AD has little relevance to what Kaal does in 2008.
Pakistan: The War of Drones
Posted by chaltahai Mar 12, 2008 06:21 am
well there you have it. We have the Zeemax types offering memoirs of islamic glory and tenets from a millenia ago...meanwhile the hinjews and chinkoos are filing patents on nano technology for what is to come in 50 yrs. this is the reality..and no amount of understanding that brother kaal has of the "one true god" and his adherents can encapsulate it better.
Pakistan: The War of Drones
Posted by chaltahai Mar 12, 2008 06:10 am
IM, this is no strength of islam..it is infact a weakness. If it was strength than those with resources to propogate Zee's brand would be falling over themselves trying to have a direct pipeline with the divine. the days of kings coverting and having their convert enmass are over. this shyte works for a type of group of people, like those in prison, the uneducated, the economically marginalized...but that is not due to some cathartic change in dialogue with self and god, it is simply a case of rigidity of islam offering advice to simpletons in mathods and language that they can relate to. It is never a universally accepted phenomenon and numbers in this scenario don;t mean anything.
Pakistan: The War of Drones
Posted by chaltahai Mar 11, 2008 04:35 pm
kaal, which part of prior to 9/11 US presence in the muslim world and post 9/11 us presence in the muslim world escapes you? look around..the battle now where it should have been in the first place, within the muslim world. palestine, pakistan, greater middle east..the confrontation between the muslim world and the rest is abating because from phillippines to the US, islamists have been spanked. though legal means to control the local islamic fervor in UK for example..to US special ops working with the filipino army to smash teh Moro Lib front..Abu Sayyaf basically begging to be termed a political party. Jihaid coming into the open in pakistan..(whether pakistanis have the zeal and stomach 9which I think they do) to fight this scourge)..the battle fields are quite clear. Chechans have been bought..kashimir jihadis are talking about BPO industry in srinagar.

Muslims like Zee, while making good specimen for your social and lab experiment, do not have the staying power when facing the west or the rest of the world.

A while back I posted for yours and your benefit alone the essay titled "32' by Jarred diamond. therein lies the crux of the battle, religion is mere a sliver of the motivation...for every Zee there are 10 abduls driving around in delhi with ganesh bobblehead dolls on their dash.

zee's are losing this battle..a suicide bombing by islamists here and there is no different from fascist movements that has plagued humanity in diferent forms since time immemorial. last century alone with communism and nazism. all these movements are contrary to human needs and their very being. that is why they always fall apart...islamism is no different and it too will die a natural death, only exacerbated by violent confrontation by 5/6th of humantiy even if muslims themselves don't fight it.
Pakistan: The War of Drones
Posted by chaltahai Mar 11, 2008 12:12 pm
Kaal, do you thnk that the west, and US in particular, is stupid or that they won't tweak their system should they see islamists co-opting the system to their advantage? Since 9/11, US has changed the paradigm of engagement...the rallying cry for islamists was US presence in muslim countries...guess what..since 9/11 US is in more muslims countries, killing more islamists than ever before. All the while changing the laws to protect liberties inside america while not-offering the same to others.

this is the most innovative, smartest, richest, and flexible people in teh world who are not bound by dogma from a millenia ago to govern a rule of conduct..they have a disctince advantage over islamists.

All this self-masturbation around hypothetical and intangible perceived advantages you and the islamists are into mean nothing when you look at who you are up against. It is not just US, China, India, Russia, EU, Japan need the model in place as projected by the US for their growth. The islamists haven't a snowball's chance in hell.

The Naval War College Bomb Blasts
Posted by chaltahai Mar 5, 2008 10:23 am
You guys talk like Pakistan has a choice? without US aid, pakistan would have days of currency to finance basic goods and services. You have no choice yaaron...

Secondly, this military-mullah alliance now being hailed as some revelation is just a switching of oartners. there is no real democratic movement here. between the feudals, the military and mullahs, it is the feudels turn to continue with the paki clusterfk. then the army will come back and the feudels and mullahs will go to the wayside.

haven't you seen this before?
Reinterpretation of Islam in Turkey
Posted by chaltahai Mar 5, 2008 07:19 am
Oh crap..islam is getting diluted, muddled, un-jihadified..kaal..inko bachao

Al-Qaeda is losing the war of minds
By Peter Wehner

Published: March 4 2008 18:39 | Last updated: March 4 2008 18:39

The US “surge” in Iraq has been so manifestly successful that no serious person can deny that gains have been made. Even Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have (grudgingly) conceded progress. Yet both Mrs Clinton and Mr Obama are quick to add that progress has been purely on the military side and that those gains are ephemeral. This fits with their broader narrative – that the war has been a disaster on every front.

During a recent Democratic debate, for example, Mr Obama declared: “We are seeing al-Qaeda stronger now than at any time since 2001.” Mrs Clinton says President George W. Bush’s policies in Iraq have “emboldened our enemies”. We should leave Iraq, she says, so we can better focus on the threat of al-Qaeda.

In fact, in large measure because of what is unfolding in Iraq, the tide within the Islamic world is beginning to run strongly against al-Qaeda – and this, in turn, may be the single most important ideological development in recent years.

In November 2007 Sayyid Imam al-Sharif (“Dr Fadl”) published his book, Rationalizations on Jihad in Egypt and the World, in serialised form. Mr Sharif, who is Egyptian, argues that the use of violence to overthrow Islamic governments is religiously unlawful and practically harmful. He also recommends the formation of a special Islamic court to try Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda’s number two and its ideological leader, and calls the attacks on September 11 2001 a “catastrophe for all Muslims”.

Mr Sharif’s words are significant because he was once a mentor to Mr Zawahiri. Mr Sharif, who wrote the book in a Cairo prison, is “a living legend within the global jihadist movement”, according to Jarret Brachman, a terrorism expert.

Another important event occurred in October 2007, when Sheikh Abd Al-‘Aziz bin Abdallah Aal Al-Sheikh, the highest religious authority in Saudi Arabia, issued a fatwa prohibiting Saudi youth from engaging in jihad abroad. It states: “I urge my brothers the ulama [the top class of Muslim clergy] to clarify the truth to the public . . . to warn [youth] of the consequences of being drawn to arbitrary opinions and [religious] zeal that is not based on religious knowledge.” The target of the fatwa is obvious: Mr bin Laden.

A month earlier Sheikh Salman al-Awdah, an influential Saudi cleric whom Mr bin Laden once lionised, wrote an “open letter” condemning Mr bin Laden. “Brother Osama, how much blood has been spilt? How many innocents among children, elderly, the weak, and women have been killed and made homeless in the name of al-Qaeda?” Sheikh Awdah wrote. “The ruin of an entire people, as is happening in Afghanistan and Iraq ... cannot make Muslims happy.”

These criticisms by prominent voices within the jihadist movement should be seen in the context of an even more significant development: the “Anbar Awakening” now spreading throughout Iraq. Just 18 months ago Anbar province was the stronghold of al-Qaeda in Iraq; today it is known as the birthplace of an Iraqi and Islamic grass-roots uprising against al-Qaeda as an organisation and bin Ladenism as an ideology. It is an extraordinary transformation: Iraqis en masse siding with America, the “infidel” and a western “occupying power”, to defeat Islamic militants.

Not surprisingly, al-Qaeda’s stock is falling in much of the Arab and Islamic world. A recent survey found that in January less than a quarter of Pakistanis approved of Mr bin Laden, compared with 46 per cent last August, while backing for al-Qaeda fell from 33 per cent to 18 per cent.

According to a July 2007 report from the Pew Global Attitudes Project, “large and growing numbers of Muslims in the Middle East and elsewhere [are] rejecting Islamic extremism”. The percentage of Muslims saying suicide bombing is justified in the defence of Islam has declined in seven of the eight Arab countries where trend data are available. In Lebanon, for example, 34 per cent of Muslims say such suicide bombings are often or sometimes justified; in 2002, 74 per cent expressed this view. We are also seeing large drops in support for Mr bin Laden. These have occurred since the Iraq war began.

Since General David Petraeus put in place his counter-insurgency strategy early last year, al-Qaeda has been dealt punishing military blows. Iraqis continue to turn against al-Qaeda and so does more of the Arab and Muslim world. In the past half-year an important new front, led by prominent Islamic clerics, has been opened. Militarily, ideologically and in terms of popular support, these are bad days for Mr bin Laden and his jihadist jackals.

If we continue to build on these developments, the Iraq war, once thought to be a colossal failure, could turn out be a positive and even a pivotal event in our struggle against militant Islam. Having paid a high cost in blood and treasure and having embraced the wrong strategy for far too long, we stayed in the fight, proving that America was not the “weak horse” Mr bin Laden believed it to be. Having stayed in the fight, we may prevail in it. The best way to subvert the appeal of bin Ladenism is to defeat those who take up the sword in its name.

We are a long way from winning in Iraq. It remains a traumatised nation and the progress made can be lost. But the trajectory of events is at last in our favour and a good outcome is within our grasp. If we succeed it will have enormously positive effects beyond Iraq.


The writer, formerly deputy assistant to President George W. Bush, is a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008

listing 112-128   1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

  • chaltahai
  • Interacts: 687
  • iLogs: 31
  • Gallery: 0
  • Page views: 9945
  • Last visitor: guest
  • Member since: Mar 30 2003
  • Last signin: Nov 25 2008
  • Send a message
  • Add as friend
  • Add to ignore list
  • Add to block list

Featured iLogs

  • chaltahai
  • chaltahai
  • chaltahai

Top 5 Articles This Week

  • Popular
  • Mumbai Attacks: Shocking
  • An Indian Muslim
  • Sexless and Loveless Marriages
  • Terror in Mumbai.....and also in 'Bannu or somewhere'
  • A Big, Decadent Pakistani Wedding
  • Featured
  • There are a Lot of Monkeys
  • White Charade
  • Words of a Woman
  • FOX News and the Smelly Shoes
  • Dilemmas of Creative Children
  • 10 Years Ago
  • Man or mouse
  • Nuclear South Asia: An Explanation to America
  • Imperatives For Economic Development Of Pakistan
  • Modern Armies and Their Invincible Plans
  • Smitten by Helen

Write on Chowk Interact Guidelines Privacy policy Terms Contact

Copyright © 1997 - 2008 chowk.com. All Rights Reserved
Reproduction of material on any www.chowk.com pages without prior written permissions is strictly prohibited