by Anwaar Hussain

How is the Pakistani political leadership doing today? Are they burning their midnight oil in steering the country out of its present morass or are they, from the situation in the FATA to the Long March of March, busy instead in wasting the precious national resources by creating wholly avoidable situations and then succumbing to the results with not a tweet?

I do not know how a nation is led. But I do know a thing or two about leadership.

I know, for example, that national leaders are made in the streets but tested in their offices. That such men will give to the selfless performance of their duty and mission the best that effort, thought and dedication can provide. That this country is crying for a leader who can light the fire in the hearts of its citizenry and lift them from their present state of gloom and doom to one of spirited existence. And that such indeed is the pedestal on which rests the responsibility of national leaders. Yet I also know that this country needs a leader and all she keeps getting is losers. Continue Reading »

By Anwaar Hussain

Now that the state of Pakistan has effectively rolled over, paws up, at the feet of the beheaders, it is time to get a glimpse into the abyss the state has brought us onto.

But before that glimpse, the lessons first.

The lesson that other militants draw from the state’s capitulation to the Taliban in Swat; the more brutal, the more ruthless, the more insane your actions against the state and the common citizens, the more concessions you can extract. If the Swat Taliban, essentially only a few hundred unruly Pathans, can bring the government of Pakistan down to its wobbly knees, why can’t the same be done in the heart of Punjab by the sons of the soil? Witness the brazen Lahore attacks. Continue Reading »

by Milton Bearden

As the United States settles into its eighth year of military operations in Afghanistan, and as plans for ramping up U.S. troop strength are under way, we might reflect on an observation made by the Chinese military sage, Sun Tzu, about twenty-five hundred years ago:

In military campaigns I have heard of awkward speed but have never seen any skill in lengthy campaigns. No country has ever profited from protracted warfare.

These words tell the tale of the string of superpowers that have found themselves drawn into a fight in the inhospitable terrain we now call Afghanistan. Their stories of easy conquest followed by unyielding rebellion are hauntingly similar, from the earliest accounts of Alexander’s Afghan campaign, when, in 329 BC, the great warrior found the struggle longer, more brutal and more costly than his battle in Persia. And through six centuries the Mughals never managed to bring the Afghans to heel, and most certainly not the Pashtuns. Of course, there were also the disastrous expeditions of Britain and the Soviet Union. Now it is up to the Obama administration to try to change the long odds in what will become America’s longest war. Continue Reading »

By Bill Noxid

The most disturbing consequence of the election of the first African-American president is the delusional rush to pretend that this country that was founded ( and continues to function ) on genocide and slavery, is somehow “past” racism.  Obviously, nothing could be further from the truth, and the fact that society as a whole still refuses to face it is – as Attorney General Eric Holder stated clearly – nothing less than cowardice.   Just Google “Coons in the White House” if you need an example of just how “far” we haven’t come.

If you need another example, watch the response of the “typical white man” that is Pat Buchanan when faced with such reality.  I would gladly point to another perpetrator of archaic racist fear, deflection, and denial, but MSNBC doesn’t seem to have any other representatives.  The fact that Buchanan is on from 6am ( Morning Joe ) to 6pm ( Hardball – which airs again 7-8pm ), makes the perspective they wish to represent and enforce continuously and unavoidably evident.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-STQd1gB2c&feature=channel_page Continue Reading »

By Syed Irfan Ashraf

Talibanisation is a carefully designed package comprising an assortment of soft and hard parts. Both are used as it is against the rules of the deadly game to nurture one category while ignoring the other. No one understands this better than journalists working in the north-western conflict zones of the country.

During the last four years the media and the militants were not averse to one another, with extensive coverage being given to the subversive activities of the Taliban. In fact, the media earned a controversial reputation for glorifying villains as heroes. But the honeymoon period is over now, making it hard for those reporting on the conflict to perform their duties without fear or favour. Continue Reading »