Commando Calls it a Day

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a1.jpgISLAMABAD: After remaining in power for almost a decade over one of the most turbulent countries in the world, Pervez Musharraf Monday stepped down, but dismissing all allegations leveled against him by the ruling coalition. Like the central character in a Shakespearian tragedy, Musharraf met the filial ingratitude both at the hands of the party - PML (Q) - he nurtured and his friends, who silently began to abandon him as soon as he handed over the command of Pakistan Army to Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kayani.

A soldier by profession and a commando, supporters believed till the end that he would strike back. An expert in Psy-warfare, Musharraf showed his strong nerves and kept the opponents on toes till his farewell address.

He remained defiant till the end saying, “No charge sheet can stand against me. Not even a single charge can be proven against me as I have full trust in Allah Almighty and I did everything with the belief of Pakistan First.”

Hours before the Parliament was scheduled to meet, Pervez Musharraf bid adieu to his countrymen; to end confrontation between the state institutions with a prayer; “May Allah protect Pakistan.”

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1. Rhetorical Questions : James Fallows, The Atlantic

2. Eight Strikes and You’re Out : Thomas L. Friedman, The NYT

3. From Stupid to Moronic to Evil : Paul Craig Roberts, The Baltimore Chronicle

4. The Mukasey Doctrine : Scott Horton, Harpers Magazine

5.Journalists, their lying sources, and the anthrax investigation : Glenn Greenwald, Salon



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Pakistan, a Saga of Misrule

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by Anwaar Hussain

Every year for the past about seven years, the following article is run by the TS net with only a date change. Alas, nothing else has changed for Pakistan. It is the same old story of the same old wine in the same old bottle except with a poisonous dash of religious bigotry now added to the brew. Here it is yet again.

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This 14th of August 2008 will mark the 61st year of our existence. For most nation states, the age of innocence would have long passed by now. Having shed their baby fats by the time they reach this age, nations are supposed to have developed strong limbs, a healthy body and a powerful brain to command the body and limbs into efficient and productive actions. Also around this age, most nation states would have firmly established where they stand and where they are going.

What happened to us along the way? Where are we headed? Why do we frequently find ourselves between a rock and a hard place? If a civilian rule is the norm for most other nations, why does the Khaki intervene so regularly in Pakistani governance? If the Khaki does intervene, why doesn’t it continue for good making it the rule rather than the exception? Why is it that people are, in the end, as fed up with the military rule as its civilian predecessor? If democracy is that universal cure-all medicine for all other contemporary nations, why doesn’t it work in Pakistan?

What exactly is the problem?

Pakistan’s problem, exactly, is: “The military intervenes regularly and interrupts the civilian governance with a disturbing frequency.”

Why does the Pakistan Army intervene in civilian governance? The simplest answer to this question is because it can.

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Impeaching a Commando

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If past performance of the players in the game is any indicator of the things to come, the Pakistani nation better tighten up their seat belts; for the umpteenth time that is.

By Anwaar Hussain

mush-d.jpg There is no disputing the fact that the Commando in the President House, General (Retired) Musharraf, is the most out of favor man in the country right now. That is why an overwhelming majority of the peoples’ elected representatives has resolved it is time for him to go.

The love story between the Commando and his own self may be an old one but it burst forth on the national calendar on October 12, 1999, when he overthrew Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s democratically-elected government and abrogated the constitution with a real royal disdain. In this love story between the man and his ego since then, Pakistan was made hostage to his whims and wishes with the overt and covert support of toady generals and a set of most devious politicians of Pakistan.

One can say from experience of personal interaction with the man that he does come across as a forthright, competent and well meaning person. But one is at a loss to explain how come such a person has brought himself to such a sorry turn of events. Today he stands upon the gate of the inglorious hall of shame knocking feverishly to be allowed to enter to quickly earn the dubious distinction of being the first president in Pakistan’s 61 year history to be impeached by the country’s parliament. So awful is the mess that he has created for himself that even if the move doesn’t succeed, the commando will still be the first Pakistani president considered bad enough to be publicly charge-sheeted by a large number of popularly-elected lawmakers. The only reason that comes to mind for his not letting go is his obstinate ego.

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Allah, the Army and America

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By Anatol Lieven

mush.jpg The survival of Pakistan in its existing form is a vital U.S. security interest, one that trumps all other American interests in the country. A collapse of Pakistan — into internal anarchy or an Islamist revolution — would cripple the global campaign against Islamist terrorism. Strengthening the Pakistani state and cementing its cooperation with the West have thus become immensely important to Washington.

So far, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf appears firmly committed to the U.S.-led coalition, and he seems to have the solid support of his military high command. In the short term, the defeat of the Taliban in Afghanistan will strengthen Musharraf’s domestic position. Most of the causes of Pakistan’s decline over the last few decades, however, remain in place and have not been changed by the war against terrorism. If these serious flaws in Pakistan’s governance remain unaddressed, the country will sooner or later slip into a profound state of crisis. Even in the shorter term, growing unrest as a result of economic crisis could well prompt Musharraf’s military colleagues to shunt him aside in favor of a civilian government less supportive of the United States. Musharraf’s power depends very much on the will of the military, and if faced with its disapproval it is unlikely he would stay in office very long.

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1. A Growing Trend of Leaving America : Jay Tolson, US News

2. Can This Planet Be Saved? : Paul Krugman, NYT

3. Afghanistan: Shoals Ahead for President Obama : Immanuel Wallerstein, Agence Global

4. Wrong on Afghanistan : Patrick Seale, Agence Global

5. Beware: ‘Machine Zone’ Ahead : Natasha Dow Schüll, Washington Post

6. Ultimatum to the GOP : Robert D. Novak, Washington Post

7. Disaster Capitalism, State of Extortion : Naomi Klein, The Nation



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The World’s Foremost Terrorist - The US Government

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By Karl Schwarz

amterr.jpg This article will explain to you why the Totally Screwed-Up US Strategic Plan for the Caspian Basin has backfired and created a “megatrend” against America that may well be the doom of our nation.

Any country willing to spend 30 years lying, conniving and scheming - and blow over $3 trillion (reported) on nothing -  is pretty damned stupid or desperate. In the  case of American policy, I submit, both apply…and we can, with no effort, add in DELUSIONAL.

There is nothing that George W Bush, McCain or Obama can do to change the tide now…for it has turned into a tsunami against America. The Grand Chessboard game is over, finished, and the US has lost in a rout. Our nation has blown through trillions of dollars (of new debt) with little to nothing accomplished to pursue a bogus, contrived war that was designed to take over in excess of $15 trillion in Caspian Basin oil and natural gas. The sheer cost of the failed ‘war’ and scheme to take over the Caspian Basin has ruined the value of the dollar, buried the US in debt and a myriad of ancillary problems, skyrocketed the cost of oil, utilities, food, and shredded the reputation of the United States around the world.  By any measure, it is a catastrophe.

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Of Terrorists and their proponents

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By Huzaima Bukhari and Dr. Ikramul Haq

terrorism.gifThe likely threat of military attack by the US and its allies in the tribal areas of Pakistan using the pretext of potential strike like 9/11 and increasing activities of the Taliban is creating fear and panic amongst masses. The main agenda behind this bizarre scheme is to push the armed forces of Pakistan to the wall, get the control of nuclear arsenals and use bogey of ‘Islamic terrorism’ for the containment of China. George W. Bush Jr., now lame-duck President, before leaving the Oval, wants to ensure that the new man taking his place should have no option but to remain engaged in wars in various parts of the world.

Before one tries to understand the recent US military and propaganda outbursts against the Taliban, one must turn one’s mental clock back three decades or so, and recollect the legacy of Bush Senior. It was George Herbert Walker Bush’s ‘New World Order’ that led to the biggest and worldwide economic chaos during the Gulf War. As Vice-President and President, Bush was an unfortunate instance of ‘collateral damage’, or a ‘necessary evil’, flowing from his more primary geopolitical mission: to usher in the post-nation-state “one world order”, first spelled out in the mid-1970s Trilateral Commission studies of Samuel Huntington and Zbigniew Brzezinski, and first unleashed by the 1977-81 ‘All Trilat’ Jimmy Carter administration.

George Bush remarkable feats include inter alia amongst others:

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Son of a Lion

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pust.jpgAustralian filmmaker Benjamin Gilmour’s debut movie, Son of a Lion, tells the story of a young Pashtun boy who wants to escape working in his father’s weapons workshop and go to school. Gilmour speaks to Spiegel Online about his attempt to combat negative stereotypes about the Pashtun people.

For most people in the West, Pakistan’s remote tribal region bordering Afghanistan held little interest - until Osama bin Laden and his fellow Al-Qaeda fanatics decided to hole up there. The tough terrain and the Pashtun people’s tribal code of hospitality has provided them with protection ever since the US-led invasion of Afghanistan over six years ago.

Australian filmmaker Benjamin Gilmour visited the region before the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks and was captivated by the local Pashtun people. Horrified by the post-9/11 negative images of the tribal areas in the Western media, he decided to go back secretly and make a film about the people that showed them in their true light. He and his local assistant director managed to shoot a story about a young 11-year-old boy who dreams of escaping his father’s weapons workshop and going to school. The simple story, which was co-written by the local people in the village of Darra Adam Khel, is a delicate portrait of a father-and-son relationship, which portrays the local people as well-informed about politics and far from supporters of the Taliban.

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Murdering God: Of Shotguns, American Capitalism, and Moral Expediency

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By Jason Miller

“God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?”

-Nietzsche

capitalism.gif Experiencing decreasing levels of the comfort that ensures our loyalty to the criminal enterprise of American Capitalism, we “average” US Americans comprising the poor, working class, and rapidly shrinking middle class still revel in our relatively meaningless social freedoms (we can say “fuck you” to George Bush but can’t even get our “elected representatives” to impeach him for his Nuremberg class war crimes) as the economic manacles and shackles of wage slavery clamp ever tighter about our wrists and ankles.

In pledging allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, we sell our souls for a relative handful of economic crumbs from the table of the US power elite and their express permission to do whatever we please (as long as we stay within “free speech zones,” don’t threaten public officials, commit no acts that impede the sacred cow of commerce, “just say no” to drugs, pay our taxes that fund a massive military apparatus (that has slaughtered millions) and prop up the Zionist squatters in Palestine, look the other way as amoral corporations rape the Earth and torture billions of non-human animals each year, ignore the abject criminality of corporados, Wall Streeters, and those we have “elected,” and act as cogs in the machineries of capitalism to avoid exercising our right to sleep under a bridge).

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Anwaar’s articles appear simultaneously here at Truth Spring and at Soul Vibes in The Pakistan Tribune.


US loses its status as economic world power
DAVOS, Switzerland, 2008
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