Kashmir is back in the news…again!

Kashmir is back in the news…again! India has dissolved Kashmir’s autonomy and divided it into two districts ruled from the central government. India has shut down the entire area, established a news blackout and is busy arresting torturing and killing Kashmiris at unprecedented levels. At the same time, it is sending out stories for national consumption, that say Kashmir is at peace, there are no riots and people are friendly. In fact, Kashmir is an urgent situation that demands world action in spite of the successful Indian propaganda. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has turned Kashmir into a Hindu-Muslim “war”, thus bringing together, the Indian populace in an extremist position. Modi already has a record of being behind the 2002 genocide of Muslims  when he was the governor of the state of Gujarat. These days, he has created a national movement of India for Hindus which has sparked large numbers of attacks against Indian Muslims.

Kashmir is a very complex situation. In the Indian-occupied state as well as in the Pakistan-administered (semi-independent) state, the people want to be free from Indian rule, they want to preferably, be an independent state or, be a part of Pakistan. Back in 1949, Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Pakistan, agreed to permit a plebiscite allowing Kashmiris to decide their own destiny but India backed out of this agreement. Today, after many wars over Kashmir, between India and Pakistan, Afghanistan has been added to the mix thus expanding the conflict across three nations; nothing can be resolved, no “peace” can occur in any of the three nations until the Kashmir issue is satisfactorily resolved.

Brutal occupation in Kashmir, who gives a damn?

Dr. Fai (see his letter at the bottom) has been jailed for supporting the free Kashmir movement (a “Trrrrst” organization).

This is typical of US hypocrisy that is driven by short-term goals and by who is more involved in influence and voting in the US. Thus, in Israel-Palestine, the Israeli Jews are the angels while the Palestinians (Israeli or OT) are the devils; in Indo-Pak, India is presumed to “own” Kashmir and Indians are the angels, while the Pakistanis and the Kashmiris are the “trrrrsts” and the devils. So it continues, Bahrain, Iraq, Iran, anytime one wants to see where the US support is going in a conflict, just look for which side the US is supporting…and one will also know which side is actually in the wrong…the US-supported side.

 

I received the letter from Dr. Fai in which he also gives his mailing address and I sent him a brief letter of support in the mail,

Pakistan’s JF-17 Presentation in Dubai Air Show

Guns or butter? that has been the single driving question throughout history.

 

Pakistan’s JF-17 is a nice fighter jet that speaks well for Pakistan’s military assembly and production plants. The aircraft is a Chinese design, made up of components from many countries (mostly Chinese, some Russian and Western) and assembled in Pakistan, I doubt if it is better that the US F-16 and F-18s in any respects except for being cheaper. By next year, it is estimated that Pakistan will be producing 58% of the components itself.

 

It is a national disgrace, that these aircraft were first used against the people of South Waziristan.

 

That said, it is a national tragedy for Pakistan to be so involved in building war machines that cost BILLIONS and become obsolete after just a few years

Is Pakistan the problem?

Out-going Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen accused Pakistan  of not only aiding terrorism against the US, but of fomenting it by supporting and directing the militant Haqqani network. By the way, the Haqqanis are located among the semi-autonomous, Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and are a US-manufactured group dating back to the days of our war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. Not to be out-done, calls are coming from Congress to take military action against Pakistanand to send US troops within Pakistan to resolve the “Haqqani problem”; it is, after all, time for elections.

While such strong statements may pander well to the American public, they do nothing to help ease the increasingly worsening situation in the “Af-Pak” region in fact, such speeches only underscore the dismal state of understanding of the problems in that region. America defines problems exclusively as they relate to itself and attempts to define the origins and broader impacts of the underlying issues, are regarded as treason.

Crumbling US-Pakistan relations

“U.S. Is Deferring Millions in Pakistani Military Aid”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/10/world/asia/10intel.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha2
“WASHINGTON – The Obama administration is suspending and, in some cases, canceling hundreds of millions of dollars of aid to the Pakistani military, in a move to chasten Pakistan for expelling American military trainers and to press its army to fight militants more effectively.”
 
This headline may strike well at home in the US, but it reflects the arrogant, self-centered, group-think that has become the hallmark of the US. To be sure, there are many lobbies that will applaud this decision, lobbies such as, Right-wing Republicans, the Tea Party, right-wing Jewish and Christian groups and of course, there is always India. To these groups, any bashing of the “nucular, trrrrst” Pakistan is a welcome development.
 
Of course, Pakistan does deserve a swift kick in the behind and often, but this is not the time to do so. A sudden cutting off of aid reinforces the unreliability of the US as a friend and partner; the US has been complaining for long that the US-Pakistan relationship is a transactional one and by treating it so transactionally right now, the US is telling Pakistan…the civilians and the military… that the US cannot be trusted when Pakistan needs a friend

The Intertwining of Afghanistan, Pakistan & India

First published March 7, 2007. Recently, Vice-President Dick Cheney made a surprise visit to Pakistan during which he apparently lectured Pakistan’s President Parvez Musharraf for not doing enough to fight Taliban and Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and in Pakistan. Clearly, this visit and lecture were meant for US consumption otherwise, Mr. Cheney would also have noted that Pakistan has lost more soldiers in this fight than NATO and US troops in Afghanistan put together and that it is Pakistan’s stability that is being threatened by our War On Terror, not the stability of any of the others. Mr. Cheney might also have noted some of the reasons for Pakistan’s vested interest in Afghanistan, an interest that will still be there after the last coalition soldier has long gone.

Pervez Musharraf visits Seattle

Pakistan’s former President and military ruler, Gen. Pervez Musharraf visited Seattle on invitation of World Affairs council and came to Seattle (Bellevue) on Sunday night as a special guest of the Pakistan Association at a $100 a plate dinner ($1000 per plate if you sat at the special front tables).

 

I decided to attend at the last minute amid lots of controversy; there were people accusing Musharraf of major human rights violations and there were people who were glowing in their praise for him.