We are all shocked and surprised, or something like that.
[Dawn] Soon after the unconscious teenage activist, Malala Yousufzai, flew out of the country for treatment in the United Kingdom, all the hype about long anticipated North Wazoo operation surreptitiously began to dissipate.
Expediencies, both on civilian and military side, emerged as the roadblock to any major operation for clearing North Waziristan -- home to a variety of terrorist groups where the army had all through the decade of war on terror avoided going on one pretext or the other.
But, strikingly the military looked to be passing the buck for the crunch time dithering to the civilian leadership.
Talking to journalists on Monday, Interior Minister Rehman Malik Pak politician, Interior Minister under the Gilani government. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Nawaz Sharif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. He had to give up the interior ministry job because he held dual Brit citizenship. conceded that no operation in the area was being planned.
His response followed military's statement over the weekend that a political decision was needed to launch the offensive for dislodging Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TPP) and its local affiliates from their headquarters in the tribal agency, where they moved in 2007 after being targeted by the army in South Waziristan and elsewhere in Fata.
The army, while putting the ball in the civilian leadership's court, had noted that its commanders had time and again reiterated their resolve to rid the country of the menace. No mention, however, was made to the longstanding stance of the army that it would enter North Waziristan at a time of its own choosing or whether the moment had arrived.
Back to back statements by Army Chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani ... four star general, current Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army. Kayani is the former Director General of ISI... and Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, after Malala shooting, on carrying on the fight against terrorism were taken as a pointer to a looming operation in Waziristan.
What missed everyone's sight while reading the army's new found resoluteness was that beyond the rhetoric timed to match the national angst, nothing was said of the army's assessment of the situation crossing the threshold.
Erroneous as it may be, the obvious inference drawn from the arising situation is that the government ultimately balked at the proposal for going all out against virulent cut-thoat groups holed up in North Waziristan.
Sceptics, however, say the military didn't at any stage unequivocally indicated that North Waziristan operation was inevitable.
Had it done so everyone would have fallen in line, they observed and pointed to previous military offensives in Swat, Bajaur and elsewhere.
The government's disclosure that it wasn't contemplating North Waziristan operation coincided with a resolute fightback by the right wingers to regain the space lost due to sudden outpouring of sympathy for Malala after the TTP attacked her in Mingora last Tuesday.
Military-backed groups like Difa-e-Pakistain Council, which had been hibernating since the impasse over NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... supply routes was resolved in July, suddenly sprung back into action to oppose the proposed military operation. Some analysts believe that the DPC's return itself suggested that either there were differences within the army on the issue or the army through its tough statements only meant to mollify revulsion against Taliban.
A military commander, who previously served in the region, insisted that it was only the political will that was lacking and there were no other operational obstacles.
He pointed out that despite overwhelming grief and anger over the liquidation bid on Malala, a national consensus could not be achieved.
"It's not only about the operation. There have to be large number of IDPs (internally displaced persons) and other implications for which there should be clear political backing."
Asked what was preventing the political parties from agreeing on the military operation, he said it were only the political expediencies. "You know we are into the election year and no political party wants to hurt its prospects."
He emphasised that once the political decision is in place other challenges could be addressed.
The army, which for long avoided taking on forces of Evil in North Waziristan because of strategic compulsions, doesn't want to be seen as obstructing the operation in view of the world's anti-terror resolve.
In addition to TTP, which is based in and around Mirali, and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi ... a 'more violent' offshoot of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain. LeJ's purpose in life is to murder anyone who's not of utmost religious purity, starting with Shiites but including Brelvis, Ahmadis, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Rosicrucians, and just about anyone else you can think of. They are currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of al-Qaeda ... , North Waziristan plays host to Haqqani Network, Al Qaeda and a number of other imported muscle mostly from Arab and Central Asian countries.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/17/2012 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] TWO events in recent weeks have shaken the country and -- fortunately, for a change -- led to intense soul-searching. The first event was the response to the anti-Islam film in the US and the second the shooting of 14-year old schoolgirl and anti-Taliban blogger Malala Yousufzai in Swat.
The heinous attempt on Malala's life has been carried out by a group that has brazenly vowed to use terror to achieve its obscurantist objectives. Their views, unfortunately, are held and supported by a significant proportion of Paks. This section of the population possesses a mindset that does not subscribe to the right to express one's views. Anyone who crosses the line drawn by them is liable to be punished without mercy -- by flogging and/or death by shooting, stoning, beheading, or kabooms.
Women and children are not exempt as seen in the flogging of a teenaged girl caught on video, numerous cases of beheading and execution of women and soldiers, and kabooms in schools, marketplaces and mosques.
This section of the population believes that if someone is in the wrong, it is justified to kill without due process. If a security officer with a warped mind saw Salmaan Taseer as being in the wrong, he thought it was justified for him to take the law into his own hands and kill him. Depressingly though, this section of the population believes that Salmaan Taseer deserved his fate. It deems his murderer a hero.
This section of the population has arrogated to itself the task of protecting Islam and the honour of the Holy Prophet ((PTUI!)). It has also arrogated to itself the right to define what constitutes an offence in this respect. It is this mindset that is responsible for the shooting of Malala Yousufzai, for the liquidation of Salmaan Taseer and for the violent, self-destructive response to the anti-Islam film on what can be called 'Black Friday'.
The events of Black Friday, although off the headlines, deserve to be revisited. That there was public anger at the denigration of the Prophet is understandable; but the violence and the fury are incomprehensible. There are 1.5 billion Mohammedans in the world, comprising majorities in more than 50 countries and significant minorities in at least 20 other states. There were big protest demonstrations in many of these countries. But they were largely peaceful. Nowhere did the Mohammedan population display the kind of uncontrolled passion and viciousness as in Pakistain. And, beyond official protest statements, there were no public demonstrations in Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in their national face... or in any of the Gulf States.
Live television images of rioters rampaging through the streets showed a large number of schoolboys and college students. Educational institutions are known to be targeted by religious parties and organizations. The narrow, obscurantist ideology propagated therein has created the environment for intolerance, bigotry and hate and prepared the ground for extremism and militancy. Till the 1970s, student parties with progressive messages competed with religious elements in the battle for ideas. Today, they are conspicuously absent, leaving the field open for religious, sectarian and ethnic forces.
This situation is a by-product of developments on the national stage. Historically, political parties were institutions that mobilised public opinion on behalf of their respective political philosophies. Today, political parties are institutions that hand out patronage. The battle for ideas has been replaced by the battle for maximising personal material gains. The field has been left wide open for religious parties and organizations, which alone have an ideological message, to mobilise the public for their own ends. The attack on Malala, the events of Black Friday and the liquidation of Salmaan Taseer are all manifestations of this state of affairs.
The self-appointed protectors of Islam have handed over an ominous opportunity to the enemies of Pakistain. Now, all that they have to do is focus on blasphemous material every now and then and they will succeed in weakening the country and bleeding its economy. However, a woman is only as old as she admits... the events of Black Friday can have a more menacing dimension. The demonstrators in all the cities included among them a core that appeared to be well trained in riot techniques and who managed to deftly slip through barriers and catch teargas shells and hurl them back at the police.
Clearly, religious organizations do not command a winnable vote bank and cannot hope to ascend to power electorally. Is there then a Plan B to forcibly impose an agenda on government and society through liquidations and civil violence? Is the attack on Malala an attempt to silence all dissenting views? Was the rioting a rehearsal for the battle for control?
The success with which a few thousand demonstrators neutralised a few hundred coppers in Pakistain and the manner in which a small, determined group of snuffies used the cover of a public demonstration to attack the US consulate in Libya are warning signs for all governments in the world. What if, in future conflagrations, the mob includes not only cadres trained in riot techniques but also trained in armed urban warfare?
After all, there does exist a recent instance of stockpiling of arms in the Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa and violent confrontation with the Pakistain Army. If schools can be bombed and schoolgirls shot and foreign missions mobbed and attacked, presidencies and parliaments cannot be safe either. It is time for the politicianship and the intelligentsia to wake up and take a stand.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/17/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
Americans who are paying attention do not trust their media. The rest--when news is entertainment it slides down the memory hole with the rest of the trivia.
Posted by: James ||
10/17/2012 12:34 Comments ||
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#2
There is a larger and larger segment of the population that is extremely pissed at the MSM and the left for their deceptions. The MSM and the left will go down with the ship before they ever know it is sinking fast.
Contrary to the expectations of MSM-Net Pundits, the anticipated Foreign Policy topic devol into the Economy, + the latter devol into just more "Spend Spend Spend" schemas.
Gallup posted the first peak inside their daily tracking poll demographics today and there is zero good news for President Obama. His support has declined among every single demographic identified by Gallup, often by double digits.
Obama's biggest losses are among college graduates (+2 to -22), southerners (even to -22), Americans aged 30 to 49 (+6 to -10), and, surprisingly Obama is also down among postgraduates (up 30 to up just 14).
Obama has maintained his support best among mid-westerners (+6 to +4), Americans under 30 (+22 to +18), non-whites (+72 to +68), and those above 65 (-8 to -12).
After President Reagan's listless performance in the first presidential debate of 1984 raised speculation that he was too old for the job, the Gipper took command in the second debate. Of his opponent Walter Mondale ...Former Senator-for-Life from Minnesota. He was Jimmy Carter's vice president, and was trounced by Ronald Reagan in 1984, losing every state except for his home state and the District of Columbia.... , Reagan famously said that he wouldn't try to score political points by exploiting his opponent's youth and inexperience.
Perhaps Barack Obama The Cambridge police acted stupidly... can likewise reassert himself in Tuesday evening's town hall in Long Island. But his problem is this: In Denver he didn't just lose a debate--he lost the carefully cultivated illusion of a larger-than-life figure who was Lincoln and FDR and Moses all wrapped in one.
Mostly this image was the making of his own immodesty, starting the night he clinched the 2008 Democratic nomination. Mr. Obama might have simply declared victory and congratulated Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as America's Blond Eminence and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Elihu B. Washburne ... on a valiant fight. Instead it became the backdrop for one of his more infamous egoisms. History, he said, would look back at his victory as the moment "the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal."
This was no aberration. A man who interviewed for a job on the campaign was told by Mr. Obama: "I think that I'm a better speechwriter than my speechwriters. I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors. And I'll tell you right now that I'm gonna think I'm a better political director than my political director."
Everything about his campaign fed that idea. The Styrofoam Greek columns at the Democratic convention when he was nominated. The faux presidential seal with its own Latin motto. And before the campaign, the two books he authored about--himself.
The press, far from exhibiting any skepticism about this immodesty, bowed before it. Leave aside the NBC news hound who conceded it was hard to remain objective in the face of all the "infectious" energy emanating from Mr. Obama's quest for the White House. Or the New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... commentator who knew Mr. Obama was meant to be president by the crease in his pants leg. Or the historian who told radio host Don Imus that Mr. Obama's IQ was "off the charts"--but when asked what it was could only answer that he was probably "the smartest guy ever to become president."
An editor at Politico (and veteran of the Washington Post) put it this way: "I have witnessed the phenomenon several times. Some news hounds need to go through detox, to cure their swooning over Obama's political skill."
None of this abated after Mr. Obama was elected. He arrived in Washington for his inauguration in a train to provoke comparisons to Lincoln. Soon he was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for--well, it's still not exactly clear what he was awarded it for. He affected unworthiness, but it is more telling that he didn't decline it.
In short, Mr. Obama was the man who declared that he would change the thinking of the Mohammedan world by the mere fact of his election, restore science to its rightful place, and win what he called the "necessary war" in Afghanistan.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Wazoo
TWO events in recent weeks have shaken the country and -- fortunately, for a change -- led to intense soul-searching. The first event was the response to the anti-Islam film in the US and the second the shooting of 14-year old schoolgirl and anti-Taliban blogger Malala Yousufzai in Swat.
Gallup posted the first peak inside their daily tracking poll demographics today and there is zero good news for President Obama. His support has declined among every single demographic identified by Gallup, often by double digits.
After President Reagan's listless performance in the first presidential debate of 1984 raised speculation that he was too old for the job, the Gipper took command in the second debate. Of his opponent 
Hillary Clinton
