[DAWN] HERE we go again. Another high-level meeting between senior Indian and Pak officials with lots of hype and low expectations.
Meanwhile, ...back at the alley, Slats grabbed for his rosco... Cyprus is heading towards reunification as leaders of the Turkish and Greek communities realise that in this day and age, endless conflict is harmful to both sides. Pakistain, however, is still fixated on its single-point agenda of Kashmire.
So much so, in fact, that our Foreign Office has, in its usual wisdom, arranged a meeting between Sartaj Aziz ...Adviser to Pak Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on National Security and Foreign Affairs, who believes in good jihadis and bad jihadis as a matter of national policy... , our national security adviser, and the separatist leaders of Hurriyat at a reception during his New Delhi visit. This has incensed the Indian establishment, and cast a cloud over the discussions on terrorism scheduled between Mr Aziz and his Indian counterpart, Ajit Doval.
It does not need somebody with a doctorate in international relations to see that you don't go out of your way to antagonise your host on the eve of an important meeting. And for his part, Mr Modi, the Indian prime minister did nothing to smooth the way when he was in the UAE recently with a pointed joint declaration clearly meant to put Pakistain on the defensive.
But we did give him an opening when we refused to enter the Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... conflict on the side of 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 the Soddy national face... and the Gulf states. While I agree wholeheartedly with that sensible decision, the fact is that actions and policies have repercussions. During the Modi visit, there was talk of major UAE investments in the Indian infrastructure.
And as a result of being prevented by Pakistain to use the overland route to Afghanistan, India is now pursuing an alternate path by talking to Iran about expanding and modernising its Persian Gulf port of Chabahar, close to the Pak border. The perception in Tehran is that Pakistain's Shias are being persecuted, and we are in the Saudi camp in the rivalry between the kingdom and Iran. This increases the chances of closer ties between Delhi and Tehran.
As an editorial in this newspaper noted: "It's time to emerge from the old world, and recognise the changes happening in our region before it's too late." For decades, the thinking of our diplomats has been shaped by the Kashmire conflict, and they still view the region through this narrow prism.
The reality is that nobody supports our claims over Kashmire, and even Kashmiris do not want to join Pakistain. Indeed, those fighting there are doing so for independence. And yet our diplomats continue banging the drum for archaic UN resolutions calling for a referendum that limits the choices for Kashmiris to merge with either India or Pakistain.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/22/2015 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] THE challenge facing Pakistain in cleansing itself of the evil of extremism was underlined in no uncertain terms by the killing of Punjab 1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots.... Home Minister Shuja Khanzada last Sunday at his village home near Attock and the reaction to the death of retired Lt-Gen Hamid Gul
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
08/22/2015 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] THE so-called final phase of 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!)... is under way in North Wazoo, 14 months after the operation began.
Thus far it appears the military has reclaimed much of the terrain that it had set out to do and it is certainly the case that the rate and intensity of terrorist attacks inside the country have gone down since the operation began.
But, as ever, in the long war against militancy, immediate successes can be undone if the next steps are not prosecuted with equal vigour and intensity.
To begin with, the fight in the Shawal region is expected to be very tough, according to the military and what the turbans themselves have suggested. It is not so much a last stand by the turbans as the fact that the region is difficult for armies to operate in, the dense foliage and mountainous terrain putting small groups of turbans at an advantage, at least when it comes to evading the full force of the military power that is to be used against them.
This challenge ahead is indeed cause for sombre reflection even as the country remembers those who have already fallen in the war against militancy.
The battle will also be complicated by the Afghan question. Earlier, too many turbans escaped into Afghanistan and while the military has repeatedly claimed that this is less likely to occur in the current fight, only the days and weeks ahead will confirm whether that is in fact true.
Unhappily, Pak-Afghan relations have taken a downward turn yet again in recent weeks and it remains to be seen how much cooperation is extended by the Afghan side to interdict or help capture North Waziristan-based turbans who flee into Afghanistan.
As the sorry tale of Mullah Fazlullah ...son-in-law of holy man Sufi Mohammad. Known as Mullah FM, Fazlullah had the habit of grabbing his FM mike when the mood struck him and bellowing forth sermons. Sufi suckered the Pak govt into imposing Shariah on the Swat Valley and then stepped aside whilst Fazlullah and his Talibs imposed a reign of terror on the populace like they hadn't seen before, at least not for a thousand years or so. For some reason the Pak intel services were never able to locate his transmitter, much less bomb it. After ruling the place like a conquered province for a year or so, Fazlullah's Talibs began gobbling up more territory as they pushed toward Islamabad, at which point as a matter of self-preservation the Mighty Pak Army threw them out and chased them into Afghanistan... has underscored, unless the Taliban leadership is captured or eliminated and unless cross-border holy warrior movements are curbed the relative peace inside Pakistain since Zarb-e-Azb began may not last long.
It always has been and very much remains so in the interest of both Afghanistan and Pakistain to cooperate in the fight against militancy -- even if the two states sometimes behave as if that were not the case.
Finally, there is the question of the Haqqani Network and US demands. While the military has claimed not to have made any distinction in the fight against turbans in North Waziristan, it also appears to be the case that the Haqqanis have been encouraged to play a more direct role in the Afghan Taliban leadership structure.
Furthermore, while the timing of the announcement of the Shawal operation may have nothing to do with the US government's resolve to withhold Coalition Support Funds, there remains far too much that is unknown about how the military makes decisions vital to securing the country. More transparency in policy and especially the results of goals is needed.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/22/2015 00:00 ||
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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.
[DAWN] HERE we go again. Another high-level meeting between senior Indian and Pak officials with lots of hype and low expectations.
Hamid Gul
[DAWN] THE so-called final phase of 
