[DAWN] YOU gotta hand it to Raheel. He really does do things his way. A general quitting two-thirds of the way in, a full 10 months before retirement? Now that's Naya Pakistain.
And yet, it makes a certain kind of sense.
He may not like it and it may not be deliberate, but the edifice of Raheel's term has been built on being the anti-Kayani ... four star general, current Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army. Kayani is the former Director General of ISI... And everything Kayani did was defined by the extension.
The extension washed away Kayani's first three years, the first two of which are comparable to Raheel's, and it made everything he did or didn't do after irrelevant.
It's easy to forget now, but before Zarb-e-Azb ..the Pak offensive against Qaeda in Pakistain and the Pak Taliban in North Wazoo. The name refers to the sword of the Prophet (PTUI!)... there was Rah-e-Rast. And Swat ...a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistain, located 99 mi from Islamabad. It is inhabited mostly by Pashto speakers. The place has gone steadily downhill since the days when Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat... was quickly followed by Rah-e-Nijaat, up in South Wazoo.
It's easy to forget now, but before the dharna there was the Kayani moment. When the PML-N was converging on Islamabad and Iftikhar Chaudhry was still a household name.
Like Raheel at the height of the dharna, Kayani chose not to take over during the long march.
It's easy to forget now, but Kayani followed semi-depoliticisation with a return to core interests -- the army itself, national security and key foreign policies.
But the extension --that's what defined him. And it also constrained him.
Raheel has to know that. Right now, he's got nowhere to go but down. He could win some more victories against terror, but what's more against the same?
Unless he did something big on India, there's not much new he could bring to the game.
And there is the internal dimension.
It's easy to believe that Kayani was sunk by public opinion over the extension. But it really was his own who did him in. The rank and file didn't like the extension and the generals resented it.
Had Raheel stayed on, it would have been a step worse than Kayani. Back then, a short three years ago, the boys were just beginning to digest their counter-insurgency prowess and starting to think about counterterrorism.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2016 00:00 ||
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h/t Gates of Vienna SPIEGEL: Minister Shaked, the Knesset is currently discussing a bill you proposed that would require NGOs funded by foreign governments to disclose the donations they receive. The law would primarily affect left-leaning peace and human rights groups. Is this an attack on Israeli democracy?
Shaked: This law does not hurt any democratic principles -- it does not harm the freedom of speech or the freedom of organization. We do not even limit the donations. It is just a transparency bill. The Israeli public has the right to know which organizations are representing foreign interests.
SPIEGEL: Your proposal is strongly reminiscent of similar laws by authoritarian regimes like Egypt or Russia. You once claimed that the United States has similar regulations, but the US ambassador to Israel just publicly contradicted that statement.
He's wrong.
Do you not fear that you could harm your country's reputation?
Shaked: It is inappropriate for a country to intervene in the internal issues of another country like this. I want to bring the discussion back to the main issue at hand: Why doesn't anyone address the substantive question of why other states blatantly interfere in Israel's internal affairs? Israel does not meddle in the affairs of other states in a similar way, so why do other countries feel entitled to do this to Israel? These actions violate Israeli sovereignty and I expect European Union member states to act differently.
SPIEGEL: So is your bill in fact targeting foreign governments?
Shaked: Every time I meet an ambassador, I bring to the a table a list of NGOs I think are acting against Israel, promoting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) or denouncing our soldiers. I ask from them to stop contributing to these specific NGOs. But, unfortunately, it does not help. I do not want countries that are friends of ours to contribute to such organizations.
SPIEGEL: So you are admitting that your proposal is about more than just transparency? Are you also trying to limit the work of certain critical organizations?
Shaked: No. I am talking about two different paths here. I am saying that I am trying to minimize the donations to these groups by talking to diplomats. The transparency bill also has the purpose of enabling the Israeli public and members of Knesset to know whose interests certain organizations represent. A very friendly, open minded interviewer, neh?
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
