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	So When Are You Going To Make War On Israel, Mr. Brown? by Alan Hart	06/03/2010
There could not be a more graphic illustration of the double-standard that drives Western foreign policy and has prevented a resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict than Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s explanation to the Chilcot Inquiry on why he, when he was Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer and wrote the cheques for it, backed the war on Iraq. More....
	After Massachusetts: His Hopes Did Him In! by Garry Wills	01/03/2010
During the 2008 primary campaigns, there was a constant muted roar telling Barack Obama to become more aggressive, to answer wild allegations against him, to “stand up to” Hillary Clinton or his other rivals. He rightly saw that would boomerang against him. The last thing he could appear was an angry black man. Harry Reid, with his derided comments in the book Game Change, was basically right. It was helpful that Obama, the first black man with a realistic chance at the presidency, was lighter skinned and better spoken than, say, an Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson. He was the anti-Sharpton, not railing against American racism. He was more a Sidney Poitier than a Shirley Chisholm. More....
	A Futile Game of Words by (Editorial of ‘The Nation’ Lahore, Monday, March 1, 2010)	01/03/2010
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—It was interesting to see Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir adopt a strong position on the dialogue with India once he had crossed back into Pakistan from what was to all intents and purposes a futile dialogue in New Delhi. He declared quite correctly that India needed to alter its perception about Pakistan which was not desperate to pursue a “cosmetic” dialogue process with India. He also referred to India’s pursuit of “petty issues” while Pakistan sought the resumption of the composite dialogue process. More....
	Challenges to Deterrence in South Asia by Brigadier (retd) Samson Simon Sharaf	28/02/2010
(Published in The Nation, Lahore, before 25 February Meeting of Foreign Secretaries of India and Pakistan, fear is expressed that India's Cold Start Doctrine and threats of reprisals against Pakistan have increased the chances of war by miscalculation in an environment of lowered nuclear threshold. But the real danger to India as well as Pakistan is from incompetent leadership and insurrections within. That danger is much bigger in India than in Pakistan and bullying Pakistan does not decrease that danger. After all, India is not more powerful than the USA nor the Kashmiris as friendless as the Afghan resistance. India needs peace more than Pakistan does. The dynamics of the Indo-Pakistan tension can bypass the effectiveness of the nuclear deterrent to cause atrophy of the Indian State. + Usman Khalid + ) More....
	Salman Bashirs Kashmir Talk: A Point of Concern by Dr Syed Inayaullah Andrabi	27/02/2010
Mr Salman Bashir, Foreign Secretary, Government of Pakistan held a press conference in New Delhi at the conclusion of foreign secretary level meeting held between India and Pakistan on 25/02/2010. A little earlier, his Indian counter part, Nirupama Rao also addressed the press, saying we talked about Kashmir but very briefly. More....
	Plight of Muslims under Terrorism by Mustafa Khan	21/02/2010
Never before was the situation for the Muslims in India so awful as today. An accused in terror attack in Mumbai 26/11 Fahim Ansari wants bail to come out and search a lawyer who can defend him. More....
	Damn The Dialogue by Sohaila Salam	15/02/2010
Since our independence 63 years ago, India has not accepted us as a sovereign State. This, therefore, precludes any possibility of being accepted as a neighbour, what to talk of being accepted on equal terms. The Indian dream of “Akhand Bharat” (Greater India) has turned into a nightmare. Their strategy of coercion has evolved from one form to another without check, transcending into a state of frenzy. They have done well on a number of accounts though. More....
	New form of Nuclear Blackmail? by Shireen M Mazari	12/02/2010
It seems that even when some Americans manage to understand Pakistan, their proclivity towards niggardliness destroys any advantage they may have gained through this insight. So it has always been with analyst Christine Fair, who knows Pakistan well in terms of being a frequent visitor and interacting with a varied number of Pakistanis. But at the end of the day she has been unable to rise above traditional American prejudices and suspicions about Pakistan. In her article in the Wall Street Journal she has recognised that “nuclear cooperation could deliver results where billions of American aid have failed”. But then she goes on to suggest that the US offer Pakistan “conditions-based” cooperation in the civilian nuclear field whereby Pakistan would get “fundamental recognition of its nuclear status and civilian assistance” but would have to meet two criteria”. This is where Fair stumbles back to traditional US misconceptions and suspicions about Pakistan. The first condition would be to provide the access and cooperation on nuclear issues sought by the Kerry-Lugar-Breman Act and the second condition would be for Pakistan to demonstrate “sustained and verifiable” commitment to combating “all terrorist groups on its soil” including “freedom fighters” - an obvious reference to Kashmiri Mujahideen. More....
	Civil Society in Pakistan: A wake up Call -A time to rebuild the Nation by Brigadier Samson Simon Sharaf	11/02/2010
Pakistan’s political establishment is back to its old ways of self preservation, aggrandisement and nepotism. What makes the present malaise different from the 80s and 90s is that all major political parties are in power with stakes in the system. The architects of the elections in 2008 had drawn a crude power sharing formula that supports back scratching and keeps them in denial. More....
	The audacity of Afghan peace hopes by M.K. Bhadrakumar	10/02/2010
Last Thursday the region took a ride in the raft of optimism to peace. The London conference on the Afghan problem certainly gives grounds for optimism. From the Indian perspective, however, what matters most is to be able to behold just in time that, as the Old Testament says, “there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man’s hand.” The little cloud is destined to rise higher and higher and become larger and larger with astonishing celerity and will burst in a deluge of rain on the parched earth. And like Elijah hastening Ahab home, India needs to head for the chariot and “get thee down that the rain stop thee not.” For, once the river Kishon gets swollen from the deep layer of dust in the arid plain being turned into thick mud that impedes the wheels, it becomes impassable. More....
	The audacity of Afghan peace hopes by Gordon Duff	10/02/2010
What Our Military Leaders only say behind closed Doors More....
	Please, Mr. President, Stop Talking Nonsense by Alan Hart	07/02/2010
At a town hall meeting in Tampa, Florida on 28 January, President Obama explained what in his view had to happen if there is to be a two-state solution which would see Israel and the Palestinians living side by side in peace and security. He said, “Both sides are going to have to make concessions“. More....
	The Truth about US Justice by Yvonne Ridley	07/02/2010
Many of us are still in a state of shock over the guilty verdict returned on Dr Aafia Siddiqui. More....
	Pakistan deals with its devils by Zahid U Kramet	06/01/2010
LAHORE - Pakistan and the United States are apparently not on the same page in regard to the Afghan Taliban, particularly insofar as the Haqqani network in Afghanistan is concerned. More....
	India Tightens its Stranglehold on Bangladesh by Sajjad Shaukat and Usman Khalid	04/01/2010
The colonization by India of Bangladesh is now in its final phase as the Indian puppet Prime Minister Hasina Wazed – is complying with India’s orders unafraid of the military or the judiciary. The military has been restrained in performing its statutory role to safeguard the national interest as RAW demonstrated its hold on the country in the Peelkhana massacre of Army officers and rapes of their wives by BDR personnel in which Awami League ministers were complicit; the Prime Minister herself gave the rebels three days of time to surrender – time enough for murderers and rapists to escape and some of them even to go abroad while the government spokesmen were creating a smoke screen blaming the Islamists for the massacre. No wonder the senior officers of the military are afraid they might be dismissed or murdered by RAW agents if they are suspected to be patriots unafraid of India. More....
	Israel: A Monster Beyond Control? by Alan Hart	27/12/2009
On the first anniversary of the beginning of Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip – in my view it was a demonstration of Israeli state terrorism at its most naked – it’s not enough to say that the governments of the Western powers (and others) are complicit in Israel’s on-going collective punishment of 1.5 million Palestinians, 53% of whom are children. More....
	The PPP Campaign against the Supreme Court to Backfire by Brig ® Usman Khaid	26/12/2009
On 16 December the Supreme Court of Pakistan announced its judgement on the NRO (National Reconciliation Ordinance) which was the result of an agreement between Late Benazir Bhutto and former President Pervez Musharraf brokered by the USA and UK. The judgement that the NRO was unconstitutional was not a surprise because the Government had decided not to defend it before the Supreme Court. Unsurprisingly, no heads have rolled; there is no challenge to the government; no minister has resigned. Many wonder, what was all the fuss about? There are half-hearted calls for President Zardari to resign and his loyal gofers – Rehman Malik and Salman Farooki – to be sacked but the PPP is putting up spirited defence of charges against its stalwarts. Their line of defence is: 1) the wealth of the opposition leader – Nawaz Sharif – is not much smaller or less mysterious; 2) the SC has disclosed bias against President Zaradri by invoking articles 62 and 63 of the constitution (that deals with qualification to enter a contest for an elective office) and ordering that the case against him in Swiss courts to be re-opened; 3) all the secret agreements with the USA (including permission to mercenaries of Backwater and DynCorp to carry out clandestine operations including drone attacks inside Pakistan) which are the subject of the so much criticism, were signed by General Musharraf, not Asif Zardari; 4) the judiciary has a bias against political administration as it abetted every coup d’état against them by invoking the ‘doctrine of necessity’; 5) the mullahs have been against every PPP government even that of popular Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto; they abetted unconstitutional actions by the military every time. The PPP, therefore, claims to be a victim of conspiracy by powerful institutions who are trying once again to end its rule prematurely. More....
	Americans Are Hell-Bent on Tyranny	22/12/2009
Obama’s dwindling band of true believers has taken heart that their man has finally delivered on one of his many promises--the closing of the Guantanamo prison. But the prison is not being closed. It is being moved to Illinois, if the Republicans permit. More....
	Obama's Af-Pak War is Illegal by Marjorie Cohn	22/12/2009
President Obama accepted the Nobel Peace Prize nine days after he announced he would send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. His escalation of that war is not what the Nobel committee envisioned when it sought to encourage him to make peace, not war. More....
	Pakistan’s Fake Pro-US Democrats Launch Campaign against Judiciary by The Nation Lahore	21/12/2009
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—It is unfortunate that the PPP has chosen to effectively defy the Supreme Court decision on the NRO and its aftermath. The message going out to the public at large is that the rulers will defend their alleged corruption and will not adopt a high moral ground (which could have set an example for their people) by relinquishing their offices till their names have been cleared. Interestingly, many questions are being asked about the whole Defense Minister and the ECL episode, which some say could not have happened without the clearance of the Interior Ministry at the highest level - not simply at the level of the Secretary. In other words, the whole thing was engineered to put those implementing the SC decision in a negative light. More....
	A Glance Through Sordid History by Rana Abdul Baqi	15/12/2009
On December 16, 1971, the official Pakistani media in West Pakistan continued to look normal and unconcerned to Pakistan's political and military debacle in East Pakistan. For days, people in West Pakistan did not believe the foreign media reports of Pakistani troops surrendering to Joint Eastern Command of Indian and Bangladeshi Armed Forces led by Lt. Gen. Jagjit Singh Arora. In fact, Lt. Gen. Amir Abdullah Niazi, Martial Law Administrator Zone-B and Commander Eastern Command signed the instrument of abject surrender before Gen. Arora in the presence of a seemingly large hostile Dhaka crowd, chanting slogans against Pakistan. It was only a few days before, Gen. Niazi had spoken of defending Dhaka until last soldier standing and over his dead body. However, he seemed to have lost faith after an Indian MIG war plane dropped bombs on Governor House, Dhaka. Subsequently, he started impressing upon the GHQ, the need for an early cease-fire or surrender to avoid bloodshed. He was also encouraged in his pursuit by the then Governor East Pakistan by conveying similar themes to President Gen. Yahya Khan at Rawalpindi. Gen. Niazi who had lost all hopes; spoke to Gen. Hameed, then Chief of General Staff in GHQ on the night falling on 13/14 December asking him for impressing upon Gen. Yahya to move swiftly regarding his so called proposal for a cease-fire. Brig. Siddique Salik, then Chief of ISPR in Dhaka, through his eye-witness-account, as quoted in his book, described the details of the lost wisdom of Lt. Gen. Niazi, when this great tragedy of abject surrender occurred. Brig. Salik was visibly surprised over certain very ill-conceived moves of Gen. Niazi, which led to abject surrender and killing of a large number of innocent West-Pakistanis, Beharis and other loyal citizens at the hands of Indian saboteurs and Mukti Bahini insurgents. More....
	Obama’s Afghan Surge; Pakistan’s Moment Of Truth by Imran Nazar Hosein	14/12/2009
"It must be particularly hurtful to that westernized and secularized elite, both in and out of Pakistan, that an essay such as this should be penned by scholars of Islam who are unafraid to proclaim the truth in the faces of the world’s greatest tyrants." More....
	Why DG ISI confronted Director CIA? by Zahid Malik in Pakistan Observer	07/12/2009
After my four hour long informal interaction with Admiral Mike Mullen, the most powerful man in uniform and Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, the multi-barrel gun directed at Afghanistan and Pakistan, at the residence of US Ambassador on the rainy evening of April 6, 2009, I had in my comments mentioned that now the ISI was the immediate target of the US Establishment. This was no “breaking news” as every one who keeps an eye on the ongoing war on terror knew well that US was hell-bent on (i) getting the Pakistan Army sucked into domestic turmoil in Swat, FATA and beyond Waziristan, and (ii) reining in what the US calls “rogue elements” in the ISI. More....
	Facilitator of attacks on 3 brigadiers arrested: had links with DynCorp by Recorder Report	07/12/2009
http://www.brecorder.com/index.php?id=99...=&supDate= More....
	Harami Obama's Nuclear Spring by Benny Morris in the Guardian, London	26/11/2009
(Obama, frustrated in his current agenda, may well opt for the Israeli agenda The air strikes may be started by Israel but would be joined by the USA in response to a ‘retaliation’ against US targets in the ME. If Iran does not want to acquire nuclear weapons, as it is its interest not to do, it must prove that to the IAEA. Iran has painted itself into corner; all its friends are in South America but it has none in the Middle East. At the moment, President Obama does not want to invade Iran. But there is a danger that Iran may become too cocky and isolated like Saddam Hussain to preclude any help. + Usman Khalid+) More....
	Civil War Spreads across North West Pakistan by James Cogan	26/11/2009
November 24, 2009 "WSWS" - Nov. 23, 2009 - - The Pakistani military offensive in South Waziristan against Tehrik-e-Taliban (TTP)—the Pakistani Taliban—has escalated into a civil war throughout the Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (FATA) and North West Frontier Province (NWFP). Islamists and tribal militants now consider themselves in a fight to the death with the pro-US government of President Ali Asif al-Zardari, which has bowed to Washington’s demands to deploy overwhelming force to stop the predominantly ethnic Pashtun regions being used to support the Taliban resistance over the border in Afghanistan. More....
	Blackwater's Secret War in Pakistan by Jeremy Scahill	25/11/2009
24, 2009 "The Nation" - November 23, 2009 -- At a covert forward operating base run by the US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in the Pakistani port city of Karachi, members of an elite division of Blackwater are at the center of a secret program in which they plan targeted assassinations of suspected Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives, "snatch and grabs" of high-value targets and other sensitive action inside and outside Pakistan, an investigation by The Nation has found. The Blackwater operatives also assist in gathering intelligence and help direct a secret US military drone bombing campaign that runs parallel to the well-documented CIA predator strikes, according to a well-placed source within the US military intelligence apparatus. More....
	What did USA agree to during Manmohan Visit? by Asif Haroon Raja	24/11/2009
Strategic alliance with USA would help, India hopes, in fulfilling its grand plans to become the regional and a world power. In 1971, Soviet Union had helped India in achieving a military victory and in truncating Pakistan. Indians now hope that America would help in fulfilling their dream of either reducing Pakistan into an Indian satellite or removing it from the face of world map. It is in this context that Indo-US-UK-Israeli-Afghan nexus has been formed in Kabul which is dedicated towards harming Pakistan. Both covert means and media campaign are complementing each other to achieve stated objectives. The Indo-western media has embarked upon a malicious campaign to besmirch the reputation of institutions of Pakistan and project it as a failing state. All sorts of fairytales are fabricated and pasted in leading newspapers and magazines controlled by the Jews. Deadlines are given and each time the given the given date expires uneventfully; a new deadline of collapse of Pakistan is given with a heavy heart but with renewed hopes. More....
	Obama: Profile in Courage, or Cave-In?By Ray McGovern	23/11/2009
November 25, 2009 "It took a lot of courage on Kennedy's part to defy the Pentagon, defy the military - and do the right thing," said Col. Larry Wilkerson, USA (ret.), according to Robert Dreyfuss in his recent Rolling Stone article "The Generals' Revolt." More....
	The Fifth War by Hendrik Hertzberg	23/11/2009
In the sixty-four years since V-J Day, the United States (Harami) has fought five wars big enough to be styled “major.” Two of these, Vietnam (1962-75, by the most common reckoning) and Iraq (2003-11, with any luck), were conceived in sin. Their beginnings were fatally compromised by deceptions that congealed into lies, abetted by profound geostrategic mis-judgments. In Vietnam, illusions piled on illusions. The Tonkin Gulf incident was not even an incident, since an incident, to be an incident, has to occur. The fear that Communism would spread throughout Asia and beyond if it was not stopped in Vietnam turned out to be groundless; so did the belief that the other side was motivated more by totalitarian ideology than by national feeling. The Iraq War, too, was mid-wifed by falsehoods and follies: the falsehoods that the Baghdad regime possessed “weapons of mass destruction” and that Saddam Hussein’s was a hidden hand behind Al Qaeda and the attacks of September 11, 2001; the follies that the war would be a “cakewalk” and, most seductively, that it would “transform” the Middle East. In both wars, our enemy was only sometimes a conventional army; as often, if not more so, it was an elusive guerrilla force that was frequently indistinguishable from the civilian population. More....
	World War I – Beginning of the Oil War by Yamin Zakria	10/11/2009
The cessation of hostilities was declared on the 11th hour, the 11th day of the 11th month on the Western Front, between the Allies of World War I (WWI) and Germany. Today, the nation commemorates the 2.5 Million dead with a two-minute silence, a war that took approximately 20 Million lives in total. More....
	Response to Defending the Arsenal by Seymour M. Hersh	10/11/2009
The American aims in South Asia have remained unchanged since it carried out its nuclear test in 1998. Their aims have been to denuclearise, demilitarise and de-Islamise Pakistan. Since Pakistan has actually deliverable nuclear weapons, it is highly dangerous to mount air or missile raids on storage sites of weapon systems for two reasons: 1) likelihood of huge number of civilian casualties in Pakistan and, 2) the hazard of nuclear fallout from such raids that might affect the whole world. Seymour Hersh states that the Pakistani military store the weapons separately from the fuses and the arming system. He suggests that it is the latter which can be removed safely from the soil of Pakistan on one pretext or another. Besides, it is also learnt that the American intelligence personnel who are present in Pakistan in various guises – XE is only one of them – are developing and experimenting techniques to disable the arming system of nuclear weapons. They worry that in the event of their collaborator President Zardari lost his job and the prospect of a Presidential veto would disappear. But the services would surely be keeping some of the arming systems close by and some of its nuclear weapon systems in a state of readiness. Besides, under its First Strike Nuclear Doctrine, Pakistan has declared that it would not wait to assess the direction or the target of any large scale ground or air attack, it will launch its nuclear weapons on pre-selected targets in India. The price of any misadventure by the USA or Israel would be paid by their regional ‘strategic partner’. More....
	Defending the Arsenal by Seymour M. Hersh	07/11/2009
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/11/16/091116fa_fact_hersh?currentPage=all More....
	Romancing the Afghan Dragon by Aetius Romulous	10/11/2009
Capitalism is based on the free exchange of goods between people, where each has a unique value he attaches to the good being traded. Where the trade is advantageous to both the exchange occurs, a market is made, and capitalism is created out of thin air. More....
	Sequential Destruction of Muslim Nations: Now Pakistan by Liaquat Ali Khan	05/11/2009
A conspiratorial view of the world is frequently inaccurate, exposing more the paranoia of the view rather than the reality of the world. The sequential destruction of Muslim nations -- Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, (and Iran is on the list) --- may or may not be a conspiracy hatched in Washington D..C., but it is becoming an international reality. More....
	President Obama’s Deep Love Of Peace? by William Blum	05/11/2009
Question: How many countries do you have to be at war with to be disqualified from receiving the Nobel Peace Prize? More....
	The Baloch Insurgency is no Bluff by Rahimullah Yusufzai	04/11/2009
Shafiq Ahmed Khan described himself as a Balochistani, spoke about the rights of the Baloch people and publicly mourned and condemned the assassination of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti at the hands of Gen Pervez Musharraf. Even then he was killed by those who insist they are fighting for the Baloch cause. More....
	America, Stop Sucking up to Israel by Gideon Levy - Published on Sunday, November 1, 2009 by Haaretz (Israel)	02/11/2009
Barack Obama has been busy - offering the Jewish People blessings for Rosh Hashanah, and recording a flattering video for the President's Conference in Jerusalem and another for Yitzhak Rabin's memorial rally. Only Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah surpasses him in terms of sheer output of recorded remarks. More....
	McChrystal Doesn’t Get It—Does Obama? by Scott Ritter	02/11/2009
November 02, 2009 "Truthdig" -- There is a curious phenomenon taking place in the American media at the moment: the lionization of Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the American military commander in Afghanistan. Although he has taken a few lumps for playing politics with the White House, McChrystal has generally been sold to the American public as a “Zen warrior,” a counterinsurgency genius who, if simply left to his own devices, will be able to radically transform the ongoing debacle that is Afghanistan into a noble victory that will rank as one of the greatest political and military triumphs of modern history. McChrystal’s resume and persona (a former commander of America’s special operations forces, a tireless athlete and a scholar) have been breathlessly celebrated in several interviews and articles. Reporters depict him as an ascetic soldier who spouts words of wisdom to rival Confucius, Jesus and Muhammad. More....
	Obama’s War by Adnan Gill	01/11/2009
About a half a century ago, a young, ambitious and charismatic American president inherited a confined war. Soon after his inaugural, he owned the war! His name was John F. Kennedy and he owned the disastrous Vietnam War. About 50 years latter, another young, brilliant and charming president owned yet another inherited war. His name is Barack H. Obama and he is on way to own the Afghan War. Could it be a classic case of history repeating itself? Time will tell. More....
	Indo-US-Israeli war plan to Balkanize Pakistan by Asif Haroon Raja	31/10/2009
http://pakobserver.net/200910/31/Articles02.asp More....
	America’s new crusader castles by Simon Tisdall	29/10/2009
After the US Congress agreed a $7.5bn aid package for Pakistan this autumn, the Obama administration was taken aback by the seemingly ungrateful reaction of its intended recipients. Pakistani opposition politicians fumed about "colonialism" and "imperialism". Military men spoke angrily of insults to national sovereignty implied in conditions attached to the aid. But particular hostility was directed at US plans to spend over $800m on building a new, heavily fortified embassy in Islamabad, to be protected by the private security contractor, DynCorp. The activities of contractors in Iraq, notably Blackwater, have become notorious in the Muslim world. In addition, expanded US "bunker consulates” were announced for Lahore and Peshawar. More....
	Al-Qaeda’s Guerrilla Chief Lays Out Strategy by Syed Saleem Shahzad	28/10/2009
Angorada, South Waziristan, at the crossroads with Afghanistan - A high-level meeting on October 9 at the presidential palace between Pakistan's civil and military leaders endorsed a military operation against the Pakistani Taliban and al-Qaeda in the South Waziristan tribal area - termed by analysts as the mother of all regional conflicts. More....
	Americans Pull Strings in Afghan Election by Eric Margolis	26/10/2009
Take poor Hamid Karzai, the amiable former business consultant and CIA "asset" installed by Washington as Afghanistan's president. As the U.S. increasingly gets its backside kicked in Afghanistan, it has blamed the powerless Karzai for its woes and bumbling. More....
	Pakistan: trapped in the US game plan by Shireen M Mazari	21/10/2009
There is a dangerous pattern connecting the events happening in and around Pakistan today. Unless we can see this larger picture, we will be overwhelmed by the fallout and our detractors like the US will have fulfilled their agenda for this nuclear capable country. The roots of this US agenda go back to Musharraf’s hasty embrace of the US “war on terror”. What was not realised at the time was the psychological trauma the US had undergone as a result of 9/11, which had led to the bolstering of the already suspicion-tinted view the US had of the Muslim world. Of course, some pliant Muslim leaders were reluctantly embraced as “allies”, but always on a tight leash, but by and large nationalist Muslim leaders and their nations were something the Americans never felt comfortable with. If these nations were also militarily or economically strong, the US felt even more uncomfortable. In this context, Mahathir’s Malaysia, Revolutionary Iran and nuclear Pakistan certainly stood out as irritants in one way or another. So when 9/11 happened, even though it was Saudi citizens who were responsible for the actions, Pakistan was brought centre-stage and the US saw this as the opportunity to cut the country down to size and finally gain control of its nuclear assets. More....
	A new way to talk to Pakistan-Editorial Boston Globe	17/10/2009
THE RECENT spate of deadly terrorist attacks in Pakistan over the past two weeks has created a rare opportunity for the United States to change the narrative Pakistanis have largely accepted of American neo-colonialist meddling in their affairs. More....
	Kerry-Lugar: bill or document of surrender? Islamabad diary by Ayaz Amir	16/10/2009
The Kerry-Lugar bill, just passed by the US Congress and expected to be signed soon by President Obama, leaves an odd taste in the mouth. After wading through its tortuous prose, Pakistan seems less an ally than a rogue state straight out of the pages of science fiction. More....
	25 Years-After 1984 Assault on Durbar Sahib-Laying the Foundation of Khalistan	15/10/2009
Preface More....
	Satanic Possession by Kaj Krinsmøe, Denmark	13/10/2009
When a satanic monster like Mr. Tony Blair is proposed as the European Union's first President it is symptomatic of how dark Illuminati forces and estranging political development is taking possession of the European Union. It is the New World Order which is already a crime against humanity. More....
	The Vietnam War Guide to Afghanistan by Eric Etheridge in New York Times, 12 October	12/10/2009
The specter of Vietnam haunts the ongoing debate about whether there should be more or less United States engagement in Afghanistan. But exactly which Vietnam is doing the haunting depends on whom you read. More....
	Pakistan’s Military Riled by the Kerry-Lugar Bill by Claude Rakisits	11/10/2009
The Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act of 2009, generally known as the Kerry-Lugar bill, which President Barack Obama is expected to sign off on soon, has deeply upset the top military leadership in Pakistan, including Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ashfaq Kiyani. In a most atypical fashion, the top brass publicly aired its anger after a meeting of the country's 12 corps commanders on Wednesday, issuing a public statement denouncing the bill, and urging the Pakistani government to build a national response to it in parliament. More....
	Two Wrongs Make Another Fiasco by By Frank Rich, New York Times October 11, 2009	11/10/2009
THOSE of us who love F. Scott Fitzgerald must acknowledge that he did get one big thing wrong. There are second acts in American lives. (Just ask Marion Barry, or William Shatner.) The real question is whether everyone deserves a second act. Perhaps the most surreal aspect of our great Afghanistan debate is the Beltway credence given to the ravings of the unrepentant blunderers who dug us into this hole in the first place. More....
	US Plans Will Lead To A Pakistani Civil War by THE NATION, Lahore, Tuesday, 29 September 2009	29/09/2009
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—The US design to destabilize Pakistan is becoming clearer by the day, even for the most blinkered Pakistani. More....
	Taliban Widen Afghan Attacks From Base in Pakistan by Eric Schmitt and Mark Mazzetti	28/09/2009
WASHINGTON — Senior Taliban leaders, showing a surprising level of sophistication and organization, are using their sanctuary in Pakistan to stoke a widening campaign of violence in northern and western Afghanistan, senior American military and intelligence officials say. More....
	The Afghanistan war: Reinforcing failure? From The Economist print edition	27/09/2009
WHEN he was campaigning to be president, Barack Obama said over and over again that Afghanistan was the necessary war, the one that was justified by al-Qaeda’s terrorist attacks of September 11th 2001 but which had been starved of resources because of the unnecessary war in Iraq. Since taking office he has been as good as his word. He deployed an extra 17,000 troops, declaring in March that if the Afghan government fell to the Taliban, the country would “again be a base for terrorists who want to kill as many of our people as they possibly can.” In May he fired General David McKiernan and sent a new man, General Stanley McChrystal, to command the American and coalition forces. Now, however, the new man is asking for still more soldiers—and it is not at all clear that Mr Obama will let him have them. More....
	Running out of time in Afghanistan by Simon Tisdal	23/09/2009
Simon Tisdal guardian.co.uk, Monday 21 September 2009 16.30 BST More....
	Nato’s mission impossible by Robert Fox	23/09/2009
The US commander in Kabul, General Stanley McChrystal, has warned – in a document strategically leaked to the Washington Post – that unless he gets significantly more troops the allied effort in Afghanistan faces “likely failure” and defeat within 12 months. More....
	Obama Considers Strategy Shift in Afghan War by Peter Baker and Elisabeth Bumiller	23/09/2009
WASHINGTON — President Obama is exploring alternatives to a major troop increase in Afghanistan, including a plan advocated by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. to scale back American forces and focus more on rooting out Al Qaeda there and in Pakistan, officials said Tuesday. More....
	General Calls for More U.S. Troops to Avoid Afghan Failure by Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker	23/09/2009
WASHINGTON — The top military commander in Afghanistan warns in a confidential assessment of the war there that he needs additional troops within the next year or else the conflict “will likely result in failure.” More....
	Thom Shanker, Eric Schmitt and Mark Mazzetti contributed reporting by David E. Sanger	23/09/2009
How do you persuade America’s allies to stick with the plan in Afghanistan when the strategy itself is being reconsidered — for the second time in six months? More....
	Mark Landler contributed reporting by Peter Baker and Thom Shanker	23/09/2009
WASHINGTON — On his tenth day on the job, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates signed off on an ambitious if politically charged plan to build a new missile shield in Europe. Just two weeks later, he supported an even more wrenching decision to send additional American troops to Iraq, into a war that was not going well. More....
	The Most Difficult Job in the World by Bret Stephens	21/09/2009
Asif Ali Zardari used to sport a full moustache, jet black and rakish in the style of the avid polo player he once was. But sometime in the past year he trimmed it short and let its salt-and-pepper colors show. It befits the sober role he has now assumed, at 53, as the president of Pakistan, probably the world's most difficult -- and dangerous -- political job. More....
	Pakistan's Next President Is a Category 5 Disaster by Bread Stephen	20/09/2009
On Saturday, Pakistani legislators will elect a new president to replace Pervez Musharraf, the general-turned-strongman who resigned the office last month. More....
	Everyone Seems to Be Agreeing with Bin Laden These Days by Robert Fisk	18/09/2009
Obama and Osama are at last participating in the same narrative. For the US president's critics - indeed, for many critics of the West's military occupation of Afghanistan - are beginning to speak in the same language as Obama's (and their) greatest enemy. More....
	Afghan Blast Raises New Doubts in Europe by By Richard A. Oppel Jr. and Rachel Donadio	18/09/2009
KABUL, Afghanistan — A powerful suicide bomb that killed six Italian soldiers here on Thursday prompted Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy to declare that his nation had begun planning to “bring our young men home as soon as possible.” More....
	Why I threw the shoe by Muntazer al-Zaidi	17/09/2009
I am free. But my country is still a prisoner of war. There has been a lot of talk about the action and about the person who took it, and about the hero and the heroic act, and the symbol and the symbolic act. But, simply, I answer: what compelled me to act is the injustice that befell my people, and how the occupation wanted to humiliate my homeland by putting it under its boot. More....
	Obama Faces Doubts From Democrats on Afghanistan by By Eric Schmitt and David E. Sanger	11/09/2009
WASHINGTON — The leading Senate Democrat on military matters said Thursday that he was against sending more American combat troops to Afghanistan until the United States speeded up the training and equipping of more Afghan security forces. More....
	The Afghanistan Abyss by Nicholas D. Kristof	06/09/2009
President Obama has already dispatched an additional 21,000 American troops to Afghanistan and soon will decide whether to send thousands more. That would be a fateful decision for his presidency, and a group of former intelligence officials and other experts is now reluctantly going public to warn that more troops would be a historic mistake. More....
	2 Killings Stoke Kashmiri Rage at Indian Force by Lydia Polgreen	16/08/2009
SHOPIAN, Kashmir — On a sunny late spring afternoon, Asiya and Nilofar Jan left home to tend to their family’s apple orchard. Along the way they passed a gantlet of police camps wreathed in razor wire as they crossed the bridge over the ankle-deep Rambi River. More....
	Our military presence is part of the problem, not the solution	13/08/2009
Britain should follow Canada’s lead and set a date for withdrawal from Afghanistan. It is time we accepted that we are losing this war. On 8 August, Private Jason Williams was killed by a roadside bomb in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. The 23-year-old member of the 2nd Battalion the Mercian Regiment could have saved himself, but heroically he had returned to the battlefield to recover the body of a fallen Afghan comrade. Williams became the 196th fatality for British forces in More....
	The New Statesman interview: Ed Butler by Mehdi Hasan and James Macintyre	13/08/2009
The retired brigadier, original mastermind of Britain’s strategy for fighting the Taliban, now believes “we go long, we go deep or we go home”“Call me Ed - I’m a civvy now,” says the retired brigadier Ed Butler, original mastermind of Britain’s strategy for fighting the Taliban in Helmand. Although relaxed in chinos and reclining on a sofa, “Ed” retains the stiff, clipped demeanour of a senior military man, and grills us on our backgrounds in journalism, as well as our knowledge of Afghanistan, before we are allowed to ask him anything. More....
	The fog of war by Stephen Grey	13/08/2009
In 2001, British troops marched into Afghanistan on a mission to combat al-Qaeda and topple the Taliban. Eight years and thousands of ruined lives later, they remain mired in conflict, with no sign of a way out. What are our soldiers fighting and dying for? How long will they stay? Out into the attack with the Royal Marines last year, we drove in dust-choked Viking armoured vehicles through the sand desert and to the crest of a ridge that overlooked the lush, irrigated valley along the Helmand River known to the soldiers as the Green Zone, their battlefield. Then, in the landscape below, people began to run. Men on motorbikes went from house to house to announce the battle. In all directions spread a panorama of terror, as women, children, boys, anyone not fighting, ran for safety. The Americans call this the “blue stream” - the indicator, almost every time, of an impending engagement. More....
	Britain should follow Canada’s lead and set a date for withdrawal from Afghanistan	13/08/2009
On 8 August, Private Jason Williams was killed by a roadside bomb in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. The 23-year-old member of the 2nd Battalion the Mercian Regiment could have saved himself, but heroically he had returned to the battlefield to recover the body of a fallen Afghan comrade. Williams became the 196th fatality for British forces in Afghanistan since 2001. Are we winning this war? More....
	“Some in the UK believe the fight is not worth it” by Bob Ainsworth	13/08/2009
The Defence Secretary says that opposing war in Afghanistan is “defeatism ”When I was in Afghanistan at the start of Operation Panther’s Claw, one officer told me how his soldiers explained to their families what they were doing in that country - “We are here to help the Afghan people and to protect national security,” he said. I was struck by his words. These are the men and women who are doing the hard yards. Some have paid the ultimate price. They know they are in Afghanistan to prevent the country becoming a haven for terrorists, as it was in 2001. But they are also motivated by the plight of the people they are fighting alongside. They understand clearly why they are there and the progress they are making. This sense of purpose and momentum has not translated to the home front in the way that it might have. Despite the huge influx of US and other Nato troops, despite the focus of the Obama administration and the recent success of operations in Helmand, some in the UK believe the fight is not worth it. This defeatism has been exacerbated by political arguments about British troop levels, vehicles and helicopters that often misunderstand the nature of coalition warfare. More....
	A Strategy for Exit from Afghanistan by Usman Khalid	21/05/2008
As the ‘war on terror’ in Afghanistan becomes more costly in NATO lives, and its spread to Pakistan faces the wrath of the people, cool heads have started to think of an exit strategy. However, the consensus in the US still is that the military should pull out from Iraq and reinforce Afghanistan. Why? No good reasons are given except that the US invasion of Iraq was a mistake because: Iraq was not a threat, whereas Afghanistan has been the home of Al-Qaeda; the invasion of Iraq diverted attention and resources to the wrong target. More recently, the neo-cons have started to say that neither country posed a threat; the only Muslim country that is a nuclear power is Pakistan; that should have been the target. But demonisation and isolation of Pakistan – pre-requisites for a successful invasion – which has been a close ally for five decades, is not so easy. Therefore, the general view is that Pakistan should be made to comply by the use of carrot before the stick is used. America is so blatantly micro-managing Pakistan now causing uproar in the country. The people expected the ‘free elections’ to deliver a new government, but Musharraf still reigns as well as rules. Almost everyone in Pakistan believes, because that is what the US wants. More....