Innocency Or Hypocrisy?

Of late, I came across the views of many people who don’t like to see or hear even a single word against the dear me dear intelligence agencies of Pakistan and Pakistan Army, simultaneously they’re also endorsing the cause of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui and are pretty much browned-off since the verdict has been announced.

In May 2004, the then Interior Minister of Pakistan acknowledged that Dr. Aafia Siddiqui was abducted from Karachi by Pakistani security agencies — that automatically held former president General Musharraf accountable for her miseries by the way.

All I’m unable to understand is the tantrum of those people who are ‘never’ ready to hear a single word against ISI or Pakistan Army, despite the fact that their own responses are no less than the oxymoron — supporting Dr. Aafia on one side and on the other hand supporting those as well who’re actually responsible for Dr. Aafia’s miseries.

What should we call it: a hypocrisy or an innocency?

PS: I say, please, at least denounce the bad moves — be it coming from any one.

Home For Sale!!!

Had you ever built a house you would know what it takes to convert it into a home. Here is a story about it. They say there was a man in far off town of the land. His family was all shattered and homeless. They all were sick and didn’t get nice sleep since ages, because they were working hard to get a house for them where they will be safe and their children will get sound sleep. All eyes were looking up to that man, filled with the dreams and belief that their father will fight the enemies and will get them home.

And it happened indeed, as whole town saw; the father fought with courage and convinced the king and the enemies that they owe them some rights. Fury and rage in their hearts, they were defeated once and for all by one determined man. The family got united and rejoiced, they decorated their home with their blood and sweat. There came the days, which they longed for in all of their lives.

The man closed his eyes forever with hopes and fear of the future, giving the keys of the house to his children. This is where the real story begins. Rest of the family did try for some time but then they got lost in the sea of greed and selfishness. The children forgot the past and started pulling the walls brick by brick; as a result all walls came down. Then they started selling its every piece. Small kids who see their parents doing bad deeds, just used to stare at them. Little kids could see the man who built the house is crying up in the heaven, his heart bleeding with pain.

They can feel now the trust and hopes he has for them. He knows his faith was not hollow. The foundation of the house is strong, and can withstand any storm. He prays to God that He bestow the little kids with the same faith so they can hold their collapsing home.

The story above is non other than our own story. This is what we are doing. We have put our home for sale!!!

A Little-Known Human Farm

NFC Meeting -- Gwadar

When George Orwell wrote the book ‘Animal Farm’, he rather aimed to mock a particular character Joseph Stalin and his Stalinism. George Orwell was really not oblivious that the traits of Stalin could also be followed by future leaders of other countries apart from Soviet Union; however, he never mentioned it since all political leaders are same in this manner or in some other manner.

Anyone of you who have read Animal Farm would be having knowledge of the 7 commandments the Pigs proclaim after endeavoring for the Animalistic coup d’etat on Manor Farm and sooner turning it in to Animal Farm. Uh, the Pigs were smart alecks.

Two out of seven commandments, on the basis of animal’s hate for humans, are:

1) No animal shall sleep in a bed.

2) All animals are equal.

Just to shed a light on this brilliant book, and to make others — who haven’t read ‘Animal Farm’ — understand the story of the pigs who considered themsleves superior, let’s consider one of the most recent ‘good news’ pertaining to the historical NFC award. During the time of such distress and desperate strait when Pakistan is suffering from hellishly massive budgetary difficulties and other day-to-day financial problems, our leaders are having NFC meeting at PNS Babar in the Arabian Sea off the coast of Gwadar — which many others have also called a ‘picnic’ to be precised.

The criticism isn’t about ‘picnic’ itself. The fact of the matter is that the meeting of the cabinet members and all four provincial chief ministers is said to have cost Rs 5 million. A country like Pakistan which is trembling because of monetary troubles, millions are being spent on such meetings. The Dawn’s editorial also gave a perfect solution that meeting could have been held in the town hall of a small urban centre or something like that — without spending Rs. 5 million at the PNS Babar in the coast of Gwadar.

I don’t mean to imply anything, but as George Orwell writes in Animal Farm that as time passed by, the ‘Pigs’ refused to follow the 7 commandments because of superiority complex and as they thought they’re most powerful and influential in the farm so they started utilizing the resources more than the other animals. They started sleeping on the bed and started using farmers houses as they claimed that we need to be healthy and sit and sleep at quiet and comfy places in order to make sound decisions for the prosperity of animals.

These were the excuses of Pigs which other animals listened quietly, in fact they had to listen those excuses quietly because they were railroaded by the number of dogs the ruling pigs had so that made other animals sewed their lips as in obeyance. So what are the excuses of our leaders, I ask? Or is there still a need of excuses to throw at the sleepyheads?

Rs. 5 million is nothing when the area of Pakistan i.e. 796,096 square kilometers is considered. But these Rs. 5 million is really having sacred value and worth at a decisive phase when we’re running our country only wherewithal loans and often financial doles from IMF, World Bank, United States of America and many other countries and international organizations. Shame on us! A single dime spent from the national exchequer for useless and ostentatious purpose is, right at the moment, truly Haram — amoral and should be set as amerciable by the apex courts and recovery of which should be from the leaders personal bank accounts and payrolls I believe.

The pigs were idiots too who breached the 7 commandments under the set of some incoherent pretexts and the sickness of egotism, so as our leaders.

In God’s name, I don’t intend to say our amoral leaders as Pigs and their security agencies as ‘Dogs’ — inasmuch as they’re Humans and not the Animals of Manor/Animal Farm. It’s, if anything, George Orwell I give credit to, who ridiculed Stalin but also helped us to explain by providing further information on what immorality is.

Bring Back Jinnah’s Pakistan

A trembling of nation, Pakistan, everyone can see – while dwellers can actually feel it immensely. With the addition of two more blasts yesterday and one blast today in Pakistan, the numbers of such blasts have reached to 223 (two hundred and twenty three) today. The number of deceased have reached to 3,000 while the number of wounded have reached to nearly 8,000. The cold-blooded and hard-hearted Ghairat Brigade has really  turned out to be the Ghairat Brigade of Pakistan after facing such a vile chaos. But that’s most certainly a short-run fervency as it always happens.

Who talks about bringing back Jinnah’s Pakistan today in the middle of the prevailing national turmoil? Any political party here, I ask?

Muhammad Ali Jinnah is venerated by many names: Baba-e-Qoum, Founder of Pakistan, Quaid-e-Azam, Baani-e-Pakistan. But what thunderclaps me is that – from the shores of Arabian sea till the Himalayan range, while everyone knows about the founder of nation, everyone knows about the ideologies of Jinnah, even the uneducated ones learn from the word of mouth – how many practical followers of Jinnah are actually left here in Pakistan?

Who talks about bringing back Jinnah’s Pakistan today in the middle of the prevailing national turmoil? Any political party here, I ask?

There’s a simplified version of Jinnah about the governance of the country, there’s a simplified version of Iqbal about implementing Islam in Pakistan, but there’s not a single staunch political party to resume the cause of Jinnah and Iqbal from where both of them left. Everywhere in Pakistan there’s brouhaha about ideologies. There’s a strong clash of ideologies. Anarchism, democratism, Islamism, Talibanism, this’ism, that’ism – but where is Jinnah’ism and where is Iqbal’ism?

Who talks about bringing back Jinnah’s Pakistan today in the middle of the prevailing national turmoil? Any political party here, I ask?

If there was a man from our history who wouldn’t forsake his principles in politics then that was Jinnah. Where’s the politics of principles today? Principles are desperately seeking the ‘politics’ which is hiding behind the veil of sanctimoniousness. It’s hard to lift the veil and help principles to find the ‘politics’ because the show must go on in a view of fact that watching such matinees have become best leisure time activity of ours and the nights are for peaceful comfy sleeps, so don’t disturb please.

Who talks about bringing back Jinnah’s Pakistan today in the middle of the prevailing national turmoil? Any political party here, I ask?

Jinnah wanted to give minority the status of majority. Concurrently, he sent a word to the people of Pakistan in which he urged about equality and equity, and that the rulers of nation should partake the characteristics of a real leader that Prophet Muhammad SAW taught – characteristics of simplicifty, understanding of the responsibilities entirely. Is there anyone today who resembles Jinnah?

Who talks about bringing back Jinnah’s Pakistan today in the middle of the prevailing national turmoil? Any political party here, I ask?

The one whose obsession with Pakistan – to stand alongside with the Muslims – made him loose his wife and then the daughter – was Jinnah. He doggedly strived for Pakistan, for the rights of Muslims to emancipate them; the Jinnah, who fought the case of Pakistan in Emperor’s Court for years, who was completely obstinate, albeit Gandhi offered him to become the first Prime Minister of India if he stops endeavoring for Pakistan – Jinnah refused it. He had no lust of power. Howbeit, he merely wanted a Pakistan – a separate state for Muslims – free from slavery of Brits and then India. Today’s leaders are substantially afraid of raising one’s voice against the atrocities of their self-appointed superpowers. Whereas, Jinnah always stood for every ‘single’ Muslim who was hit and battered by British Raj before independence.

Who talks about bringing back Jinnah’s Pakistan today in the middle of the prevailing national turmoil? Any political party here, I ask?

To touch the right chord about another greatness of Jinnah, I had a look at the will of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, which says:

All my residuary estate including the corpus that may fall after the lapse of life interests or otherwise to be divided into three parts – and I bequeath one part to Aligarh University – one part to Islamia College Peshawar – and one part to Sindh Madrassa of Karachi.

I ask an additional time, who talks about bringing back Jinnah’s Pakistan today in the middle of the prevailing national turmoil? Any political party here, I ask?

To bring back Jinnah’s Pakistan, we must come out of our shells of idlenes; we must come out on roads – for peaceful protests, with the purpose of exhorting government and admonishing them that Awaam isn’t kipping any longer now. At this decisive phase today, we be forbidden to wait for a wake-up call from our affiliated political parties. Jinnah’s amount of supporters was little than Congress activists but his supporters were sincere. Our amount of supporters may be little, but our supporters should be sincere likewise. We all must get united to do something to bring back Jinnah’s Pakistan while none of the political party is up for broadcasting the ideologies of Jinnah; we must rise against the pseudo democratism, taliban’ism, religion’ism, Musharraf’ism, Nawaz’ism, Altaf’ism, Bhutto’ism, Sindhi’ism, Punjab’ism, Pashtun’ism, Baloch’ism, this’ism and that’ism – and backtrack Pakistan the ideologies of Muhammad Ali Jinnah – and the ideologies of Allama Muhammad Iqbal.

The desire for struggle is in our hearts
We shall now see what strength there is in the boughs of the enemy

سرفروشی کی تمنا اب ہمارے دل میں ہے
دیکھنا ہے زور کتنا بازوئے قاتل میں ہے

An Internationally Unpopular War

Sometimes surprises aren’t really surprises as they’re always expected in some way, but are delivered a bit late. Obama is going to reveal his new Afghanistan strategy on coming Tuesday during speech to the cadets at West Point. The top Democrats of U.S. including the Vice President Joe Biden has made it absolutely clear to Obama that he shouldn’t expect a friendly reception if he’s going to announce in favor of the troops surge strategy regarding Afghanistan. Ergo, Obama is under bare poles. As yet, Obama hasn’t informed members of his war council about the decision he’s going to make.

Senator Russell Feingold — another top Democrat — has coneyed his extensive reservations on the direction of president’s strategy. Senator Russel Feingold said: Devoting billions more dollars and tens of thousands more troops to Afghanistan is not likely to significantly improve conditions in that country, and it will not help — and could even hurt — our efforts to dismantle al-Qaeda’s global network with safe havens in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, North Africa and elsewhere.

Another interesting thing to note is that the most hawkish Democrats like Senator Carl M. Levin, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee — and and Senator John F. Kerry, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee — have also expressed their reservations on troops-surge strategy.

In fact Senator Kerry has raised his voice to follow the strategy of Kennedy — that instead of increasing the number of troops, it’d be better if more be done to train the Afghan Army and police and to teach them the counterinsurgency tactics and outfit them with advanced equipments.

The Republicans have endorsed every war-funding bill and strategy sine 9/11, but this time many Republicans also seem to averse the troops surge plus extra war-fundings strategy, while they raise the issue that U.S. — their own homeland — is having monetary trouble — the problematic economic crunch.

Just few days back I read a report on the number of American people opposing the presence of U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. As per the poll result — published in Washington Post some days back — 52% of Americans want their troops back home as they find the 8 years results of war futile.

Just today, the German army’s chief of staff has resigned over an air strike in northern Afghanistan in September in which civilians were believed to have been killed. If anything, two Nato countries including Canada and Holland are retreating their troops from Afghanistan soon after Obama is going to announce new war strategy on coming Tuesday. This has caused a bit panic in the Nato countries like Germany and Itlay, and the common perception is that other Nato countries are planning to decrease their number of troops or might retreat all of them. Germany and Italy are silent; simultaneously their silence speaks volume that fighting and elongating the war in Afghanistan is really not practical. Britain is playing an arch-role in swaying the Nato countries.

On the other hand, Pakistan is all wishing that U.S-led Nato forces shouldn’t vacate Afghanistan since it’ll make Pakistan surrounded by it’s arch-foe India from both sides. Indian army is said to have been located in Southern part of Afghanistan, and strategically position of Pakistan is weak, it’d be weak even then.

Some of the officialdom from U.S. say that U.S. is also having secret talks with Afghani Talibans for peace process and for that Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are acting as an interlocutors. The recent visit of CIA’s chief to Pakistan and meeting with ISI’s chief, COAS and other Pakistani officialdom does substantiate the fact of U.S’s interest to handle this war in an another way. Afghani Talibans have recently put a condition that to want peace in Afghanistan U.S- led Nato forces should vacate Afghanistan; it’ll become all peaceful and Afghani Talibans would take care of their country in a well way.

As yet, the House of Representatives is echoing with anti-troops surge strategy. The war is becoming unpopular everywhere in the world while in 8 years it has served a literal no good purpose and now the war is about to get enter into its 9th year.

Obama has recently pledged that he’ll put this war to an end by the time he’ll leave the office as he said he’ll not render the Afghanistan war issue to his successor, instead he’d like his successor to deal with other core issues like economy. How could we believe on Obama’s promise now when we’ve just witnessed Obama breaching his own promise of late — when he said that Gitmo can’t be closed down by Jan 2010. Ostensibly, it was Obama’s promise to close down Gitmo and such places while he was on the road to become president — during the election campaigning — the hot campaigning debates and everything connected to it. But conspicuously, he has failed to fill the bill.

In any case, Obama should unite the people of U.S, and the rest of the world badly affected by the bloody war, while making any decision.

Game Over

The now and then rising problems of inflation of commodities and the people behind the viel.

The vast majority of population of Pakistan is not enough aware to sort their needs, else they would have solved most of the problems without even expecting anything from the government or the people who they depend upon.

When their is an inflation of commodity the media, bourgeious and well off people come up with the most commonly used sentenced,”stop buying the commodity and the prices will fall”. But will anyone will stop buying that commodity?
Commodities like sugar, wheat, oil e.t.c are commodities of needs not desires. Population earn their living through them, how can anyone abstain from buying it just like that, without the alternative.

Government tries to solve these problems, in its own way by introducing innovative ideas to tackle the repeated problems and every time failing. Government are formed to benefit the people, especially countries with the population with the awareness level like our depends heavily on the government to grow and mature.

People who are part of the government are either feudals or industrialists. Who are elected by the people to represent them and solve their problems. Those who are part of the governement are aware of the needs of the people because government have all the statistics on economy.

Now, at present the current commodity on which the market is running low is sugar. The actions which have been taken are change in policies, formations of commities, message spread throught the media e.t.c. There is a question to be raised here, if their is a shortage of any commodity in the market, why don’t government reduces its supply in the first place? Besides, that all the intelligentsia expects illiterate and uneducated people to understand their needs.

If the supply of sugar is reduced and sold at the original price, that will not only result in maintaining the prices along with that government will be able to solve the issue more rapidly. The news with that decision must be spread like this,”Inorder to control the prices of the sugar, we have reduced the supply which will definitely benefit the public in the future”. But why government doesn’t take such actions?

Let’s see things from the governments perspective for the moment. Government is aware of the nature of the people, government is aware of economic statistics and they have all the power. Now, by making policies government shows that they are trying but the issue due to the hassle and irrationality of the public cannot be solved. People blaming the government, government blaming the people with out any actions. Mean while all the surplus amount goes into the bank account of industrialist or feudal. Apparently authorities tried their best, people are convinced that its a corrupt environment and all the money in the bank account, problem solved.

In order to present the idea more realistically here is an example,

Suppose Mr. X is an industrialist as well as politician, selling sugar at Rs. 40/kg. The total aggregate demand of sugar in the market is 1 billion.That gives Mr.X the total sales of 40 billion. Now, he starts the supply of sugar at Rs. 70/kg and reduces the supply to 0.5 billion. Now he would be earning 35 billion along with the decrease in production cost and increase in profit.  Now, he have to cover his tracks from the auditors, media and people. Well, I already mentioned how to cover up the tracks. Their will be no such thing as evidence, money can buy anything.

 

 

Happy Birthday To One Forgotten National Leader

Allama Iqbal

As the days are passed, the past days become history and history becomes a lesson — a lesson that forthrightly brings up our extreme blunders. From one prospect, it makes ourself become aware of — by information or from observation — the past.

To stumble against the same rock twice is a proverbial disgrace, is a maxim which we, the Pakistanis, always have adopted without acknowledging our slips and flaws of our standard of living, manner of working things out, and afterall the character and personality of ourselves. The same perennial thing demonstrates the fact that it’s getting habitual.

If we follow up the history, we’ll open the lock which lead to the facts that how revolution was shaped in South Asia in 19th and 20th Century. A revolution nation requires doesn’t comprise of few days, few weeks or yet few months. Such far-reaching changes are transpired after interminable efforts, devotion, allegiance and diligence.

Dr. Allama Muhammad Iqbal — a renowned Poet, Philosopher, Scholar, Sufi and Humanist — is one such person whose attainment of understanding the significance of Muslims mind and their history, the prospect of their future, and over and above, the judiciousness on behavior patterns of Muslims was, with evidence and facts, bonzer.

One day a friend of Allama Iqbal went to see him. He saw him sitting alone and weeping. He asked him, “Doctor Sahib, is everyone fine at your home?” And Iqbal said to him that everyone is fine. Then he asked him, “Why are you weeping so?” Allama, without giving any verbal response to him, handed over a letter. He saw the letter. It was on the name of Allama from a Professor in England. Professor was asking Allama to grant him the permission to translate his Persian treatise. Allama’s friend asked him why it is a matter of weeping; instead you should have been happy that your work is venerated by a professor in England who wants to translate your high caliber work to fine-tune the scholars in his country. Allama, who still was sitting with a head down, lifted his head and said, “The letter made me weep for the reason that I’ve written this to soften the hearts of my people and to make them learn the feelings and significance of ‘ Khudi’ — ’self’ — self-realization, self-knowledge, self-control, self-appraisal, self-discovery, self-revival, self-respect, self-abnegation — but unfortunately my people can’t understand my message neither they pay heed to my message. While on the contrary, a professor of England wants to spread my message in his country within his people despite the fact that I’ve not written this book for them, but for my people.

In Iqbal’s words:

Kar Bulbul-o-Ta’oos Ki Takhleed Se Tauba;
Bulbul Faqat Awaaz Hai, Ta’oos Faqat Rang

It means that: don’t emulate the Nightingale or the Peacock. As Nightingale has nothing but a sweet voice and peacock has nothing but ornamental color. Your inner self is more important.

Iqbal’s prose and poems, both contemplate on the subject of “Khudi”. “Khudi” is the philosophical concept that Iqbal talks about a lot.

‘Khudi’ Ko Kar Buland Itna, Key Har Taqdeer Se Pehle;
Khuda Bandey Se Ye Pochey: Bata, Teri Raza Kya Hai

In English translation:

Exalt your ‘Self’ thus, that before every twist of fate;
God himself asks you: My creation, let Me know your desire

Iqbal was practitioner of ascetic lifestyle. He promoted asceticism which is very much relevant to the version of ‘Khudi’ which he has promoted.

Iqbal was of the view that in the nation you live in; the world you live in, if it clashes with your ‘Self’, and you find incompatibility in such situation, find and make your own place in the world to promote the significance of ‘Self’.

Allama Iqbal’s vision and philosophy was phenomenal in awakening the Muslims from deep slumber. He invited Muslims towards friendship and unity with each other. But in this contemporary world, people have cold-shouldered such great leaders and revolutionists hermetically.

Today, in order to pass through from the guilts of the wrongdoings we’ve committed and because it has become a major factor in the downfall of our nation and ourselves, we, as instanter, need to lay a siege to all those problems that have obstructed us in achieving the dreams of Iqbal and Jinnah.

Iqbal was, if anything, a tower of strength to Muslims. Just as things are at this moment, we, the Pakistanis, are obliged to resume the efforts from where Allama Iqbal and Jinnah left. Without regard to the drawback that they’re not alive today, we know quite well that their ideologies are aboveground, and in mint condition.

The whole Pakistan celebrates this day, besides, with a National holiday on this day. But that’s, if anything, a concave celebration when everything is taken into consideration. We’re failed to abide by the ideologies and vision of Iqbal; we’re failed to honor the ideologies and vision of Iqbal. Let’s pledge on this Birth Anniversary of Iqbal to resume, promote and follow the ideologies and vision of our genuine national leaders like Iqbal and Jinnah instead of the fallible ideologies of contemporary pseud leaders.

~ Happy Birthday, Allama Iqbal ~

~ Pakistan Zindabad ~

Just chaos ?

Yet another suicide attack, more killings, more bloodshed, more cries of people.I wonder what’s more to come ? This time the militants targeted a prestigious Islamic institution.In a mater of fact, terror has struck the youth of this country directly this time.At first the target were girls schools in areas like Swat etc but now the militants seem to target more populated and prestigious places like they did in the case of Islamic University in Islamabad.Terror struck the place as two bombs exploded in quick succession, there was blood and fear everywhere.This was a cowardly act by the militants, firstly because they targeted women secondly they targeted students.This recent outbreak of suicide bombing and terror attacks has hit the country economically as well as mentally and it has brought the country into a more distressful and hopeless state.For this is not just chaos, it seems that this stands as our last chance, the final battle.

A usual, repeated reaction or I’d say a well rehearsed chain reaction of condemnation was seen towards this atrocious act by our honorable leaders and symbols of the state.But I believe they’ve failed to see the broader picture of this attack in particular and have yet again failed miserably to stand up in the hour they are most needed.Keeping in view what’s been targeted it seems now that the war has turned up fully now a war against people of Pakistan rather than being a war (thought of being) against American imperialism support conscious people.The militants have started targeting the youth of this nation, the student population who are the future of this country, who are the ones who’ll be leading this country to immense progress InshaAllah within the coming years.Youth is the key if any country has to prosper and flourish, if one succeeds in distracting the youth then I am afraid the state goes into immense danger of turning up into a failed state since the future goes into a shell to safe guarding itself thus resulting a halt in progress.

People are scared to step out of the house, they are scared to go to malls or crowded places, parents are agonizing whether or not to send their children to school most schools/institutions though as part of “intelligence and security” planning have been closed down on government orders till an undefined period until the environment is safe and back to normal. But why so ? why shall progress come to a halt ? why should a common Pakistani suffer and sacrifice his/her progress and that too a progress which is going to play a vital part in the future of the country. Making lack of security manpower a reason is a lame excuse, for it is the duty of the state to protect their citizen, why don’t those living in their safe houses with impenetrable security cut the expense being spent on their protocols by the government and allocate them on the security budget to provide better security in public places.They’ve enough in their pockets to spend on their security.

In my views,  we’ve entered a final stage of this ‘war’ but the moral is really down and this is the time when true leaders have to rise to the occasion.Our honorable leaders need to step up and unite this country keeping aside all personal differences and opinions.Someone needs to keep a hand of mercy on those martyred in these attacks, those who lost their lives while abiding to their duties and those who sacrificed their lives for the sake of the country.Someone has to wash those tears.If no one steps up, then these grievances and sorrows of those who lost their loved ones will erupt in such a way that it’ll wipe off everything from this land and remember if Pakistan is here then we are here or else we are nothing neither do we exist..!!

It’s time to wake up, wake up people before it’s too late the final whistle has already blown, these bomb blasts, earthquakes, economic meltdown, high currency depreciation rate, international pressure, internal and external security threats, unlawfulness , food shortages, energy issues etc.This is not just chaos, it’s worse than a chaos it’s a bizarre situation where we need to step up and unite as a nation or else our worst nightmare awaits us.Salute to those army men and those who have put their risked and sacrificed their lives for the country.

Let’s join our hands and let’s unite to kick these intruders out of our country who’ve made this place an anguish.Let’s make this land the Land of the pure

Closing this piece of writing with Iqbal’s verse:

nahi hai na-umeed Iqbal apni kisht-e-veran sai

zara num hoo to yeh matti bari zarkhaiz hai saaki

Long Live Islamic Republic of Pakistan..!!

To Increase Or Not To Increase?

While a host of argle-bargles brewing up in Pakistan including the security condition, economy problem and so forth — the House of Representatives of United States on the other side of the oceans is ambivalent whether to increase the number of troops in Afghanistan or not.

Anything and everything that happens in Afghanistan always has some connection with Pakistan. The impact of the troops increasing strategy is, besides, a pressure on the Pakistan Army fighting a hot war against the miscreants on the Western borders. Pakistani Army isn’t only fighting with the miscreants at such godforsaken places, besides they do have to be vigilant in regards with the NATO forces attacking across the border in Pakistan trigger-happily, and in some cases NATO forces give a leeway to Talibans to cross the border and get inside Afghanistan without being caught. Double-games.

While the debate and disputation in the House of Representatives is going on, it made me think to study the possible alternatives over the strategy of increasing the number of troops in Afghanistan.

The last president of United States, George Bush, and the incumbent president of United States, Obama — both have had the similar stratgies concerning Afghanistan particularly. George Bush bankrolled the war and US led NATO to a considerable extent. It was the time when United States was consuming the 25% of the Earth’s resources alone — which is a phenomenal quantity. United States is still consuming near to 25% of the Earth’s resources, whereas many countries in the world are suffering from extreme indigence.

In 1959, when the Vietnam war started and John F. Kennedy became the President of United States in 1960, he faced the same situation of dealing a war in Vietnam which Obama is facing in Afghanistan contemporary. But Kennedy was a wise man — a statesman — who never considered the professional military advise as persuasive since the time he faced an acrimonious experience once. Kennedy had his reasons not to do so. While he faced a humiliating defeat at the Bay of Pigs, in a hope to dismantle the Castro’s government in Cuba on the advise of his military generals and CIA officials, Kennedy committed himself never to be overawed by professional military advice. Hence, Kennedy learnt a lesson.

In 1961, many of Kennedy’s Generals and advisers argued with Kennedy to increase the number of troops in South Vietnam and save the South Vietnamese government from collapsing. Kennedy, however, categorically refused the idea of increasing the number of troops. He already had the embarrassing experience during the “Bay of Pigs” episode when he paid heed to CIA and his Generals and faced international humiliation. The wise man favored a strategy of arming and reinforcing the South Vietnamese Army, and of teaching them new counterinsurgency tactics instead of increasing the number of troops. This strategy worked well. It couldn’t have been better than this. At the time of Kennedy’s assassination in November 1963, the Pentagon had recorded only 108 American military personnel killed.

In Afghanistan, the deaths of US led NATO forces, to-date, has reached to 1500, out of which 900 is US servicemen. Whereas in Iraq, US has faced the number of 4351 fatalities to-date.

Today, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top American commander in Afghanistan, has asked for 40,000 to 60,000 more troops in Afghanistan, while the number of NATO forces in Afghanistan, today, is near to 70,000 out of which US forces comprise of 23 Battalion while other NATO forces comprise of 20 Battalion — keeping in mind that a single Battalion contain 1000-1500 servicemen.

As I was discussing with an American friend on the relevant subjects, I agreed to her that every once in a while, United States has a leader like Abraham Lincoln or John F. Kennedy or Martin Luther King, Jr. These leaders and everyday citizens keep this nation going more or less in a good direction internally. Further we discussed and agreed to it that it’s very hard to reel in the actions of those who make their living interfering in other countries business — talking about the CIA and similar organizations. These agencies have become self-perpetuating entities unto themselves. CIA isn’t answerable to the Constitution of United States of America. They do not answer to the people of the United States. Only the President can control them — and if the President goes up against them and tries to shut them down, I’m afraid, as she said, that they might turn on him (or her) and assassinate the President. That’s what happened to Kennedy.

The more we try to bomb our way to peace and prosperity, the more stupid and warlike we become. And when our military (or any military) “regrets the loss of innocent life” I ask, whose life is NOT innocent? We are all innocent.

We can just anticipate to see Obama playing his cards well. The Nobel Peace Prize he has been honored with, of late — at least on the name of it respect the humanity.

US Imperialism — A Direct Response From An American

I was discussing with a friend, Prudence Baird, about the US Imperialism. She lives in United States. This is a forthright and a direct response to my query by her. I hope it’ll make many of us learn about the general perception of Americans about the state’s imperialism. Before I paste the letter here, I’d take this opportunity to speak that her letter inspired me to a considerable extent. There you go:

Prudence Baird

13 October, 2009

Okay, I have some time to devote to you, my friend! I am going to be 100% honest because there is no point of robbing you of the truth. (I got this from your Kite Runner quote!)

When our country was founded in 1776, the idea was put forth in writing for the first time in western civilization that “all men are created equal.” This was a revolutionary thought as at the time many believed that kings and other rulers were gods or appointed by gods. (Silly ideas, huh?)

Despite these lofty words, many of our founders had slaves! Go figure!

So, the United States has always had what many might call a split personality–almost like someone who is mentally ill!

When our first president, George Washington, left office, he cautioned his successors–the presidents and leaders who were to follow him–to be friends with all nations and to never, ever start a war or interfere with another sovereign nation’s self-rule. (I guess we know how that went!)

This whole idea of leaving other countries alone began to erode with our President Monroe (1823) who issued something called “The Monroe Doctrine,” which asserted that the Western Hemisphere was not to be further colonized by European countries, and that the United States would not interfere with existing European colonies nor in the internal concerns of European countries. The Doctrine was issued at the time when many Latin American countries were on the verge of becoming independent from Spain, and the United States, reflecting concerns echoed by Great Britain, hoped to avoid having any European power take Spain’s colonies. (I got this from Wikipedia!)

This was cool for a while–it’s good to tell old, colonizing countries to back off and let younger countries do their own thing. BUT, the Monroe doctrine went off course when Teddy Roosevelt, who was NOT yet president, decided to interfere with Cuba’s affairs of state. Teddy was 95% great and 5% horrible. He had great ideas about the environment, he was pro-union and pro-labor, he established food safety laws, and worked tirelessly for the common man. However, he was bull-headed about thinking the United States was superior to every other country on earth and therefore knows best. He lived to regret this way of thinking. He changed his mind when his youngest son was killed in WWI, but by then the U.S. had its fingers in many pies, so to speak. In fact, it was one of Teddy’s sons who helped to install the Shah of Iran in 1925.

I think that the U.S. is:

1. following in the footsteps of Great Britain–almost like a little brother copies his older sibling, or a drunk chases a bottle of booze, and
2. is completely hooked on oil and therefore will do anything to get more–including starting fraudulent wars (Iraq) and supporting regimes that mistreat their citizens (Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, China) and supporting countries who mistreat certain ethnic groups or genders (Israel, China, Kuwait, the Congo). Further, we turn our faces away when our allies do horrible things to their citizens (Saudi Arabia, Israel, Rwanda, China) and their neighboring countries.

I am disgusted by our inability to live up to the lofty words of our founders. I am horrified by our military actions that have caused so much pain, death and destruction to others–and I see that it is all for nothing. The more we try to bomb our way to peace and prosperity, the more stupid and warlike we become. And when our military (or any military) “regrets the loss of innocent life” I ask, whose life is NOT innocent? We are all innocent.

There are many, many people who agree with me, but the U.S. is divided as I stated earlier. The uneducated, mostly born-again Christain type of citizens blindly believe the myth that the United States is all-powerful and “number 1.” (How stupid is that?) And the educated citizens understand that the U.S. is out of control consuming 25% of the earth’s resources and with its military all over the world.

Our leaders are also divided. Many are greedy and receive money from the “military/industrial complex,” i.e.., corporations who profit from war. How can a leader serve the people when his pockets are stuffed with cash from Halliburton or makers of war machines? So, we have some dirty, greedy people running the country. Not all are like this, but I think too many are.

But the wonderful aspect of the United States is that every once in a while, we have a leader like Barrack Obama or John F. Kennedy or Martin Luther King, Jr. These leaders and everyday citizens keep this nation going more or less in a good direction internally. But it is very hard to reel in the actions of those who make their living interfering in other countries business–I’m talking the CIA and similar organizations. These agencies have become self-perpetuating entities unto themselves. They do not answer to our Constitution. They do not answer to the people of the United States. Only the President can control them–and if the President goes up against them and tries to shut them down, I’m afraid that they might turn on him (or her) and assassinate the President. That is how much power they have. The fragility of our system frightens me. If we lose Obama, the U.S. could become like a monster in a Japanese horror movie. Or, people like me could be rounded up and “disappeared” like happened to progressives in Argentina in the 1970s.

Does this answer your question?

Your Friend Across The Seas,
Prudence