Cowasjee, Britain proxy for Third Afghan War? The truth is, Gandhi is less of a draw than Jinnah,
Curmudgeon Cowasjee Bawa asks: "Questions: can beggars afford to be choosers? Can we pay our own bills or must we rely on handouts? What are our priorities and direction — are we prepared to give up our stand against terrorism and violence and allow suicide bombers the run of the country?"
* can beggars afford to be choosers? Yes
* Can we pay our own bills or must we rely on handouts? Yes we can pay our bills
* What are our priorities and direction — are we prepared to give up our stand against terrorism and violence and allow suicide bombers the run of the country? The answers would appear over the horizon if we burn our boats (sorry a rhetorical reply for a rhetorical query)
Britain is building a training camp for Pakistan’s paramilitary Frontier Corps in the southwestern province of Baluchistan in an effort to combat the Taleban presence around the porous border with southern Afghanistan, The Times has learned. Britain also plans to deploy 24 army trainers at the camp for three years from August 2010, when construction work is scheduled to finish, according to a senior official at the British High Commission in Islamabad. The British personnel will work with six American trainers at the camp, which is designed to house 550 people. It will train 360 Frontier Corps (FC) soldiers at a time, on 12-week courses, the official said. Britain to train Pakistan’s Frontier Corps troops in Baluchistan [thanks RZ]
The truth is, Gandhi is less of a draw than Jinnah - By M J Akbar Jinnah’s problem, conversely, has been that he has been appropriated, or misappropriated, by a range of vested interests, each determined to resurrect him in its own image, to serve its agenda. Pakistan’s political elite, forced to compromise with the culture of theocracy, has converted the natty, lean, handsome owner of 200-odd London-tailored suits into a shalwar-and-cap chameleon. If, instead of being clean-shaven, Jinnah had sported a slight, fashionable beard, they would have extended the beard by six inches in official portraits. Most Pakistanis would be shocked today to discover that Jinnah did not know Urdu, never fasted during Ramzan, had little interest in the rituals of religion, and that his concept of spiritual sustenance was very worldly indeed. Jinnah sent out invitations for a formal lunch-banquet in honour of the visiting Mountbattens for August 14, 1947, the day the new nation was born. The meal had to be cancelled when someone realized that they were in the middle of Ramzan. Jinnah had been oblivious of the fact that observant Muslims had been fasting for three weeks.
The Tough New White House Line on FOX News: It's War By Ari Melber - White House Communications Director Anita Dunn: "We don't need to pretend this is the way legitimate news organizations behave."
Fauzia Burke: Online Branding for Writers - If I were an author in today's competitive market, I would consider the time I spend developing my online platform and building my brand on the Web as an extension of my job as a writer.
MIDEAST: Muslims See Victory at Al-Aqsa By Mel Frykberg - EAST JERUSALEM, Oct 11 (IPS) - Clashes between Israeli security forces and protesting Palestinians have subsided as several hundred Muslims agreed to evacuate Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque following a deal brokered by the Jordanian Embassy in Tel Aviv Saturday.
Tomgram: William Astore, Apocalypse Then, Afghanistan Now - Here's the thing: This may be our next "Vietnam moment," but Afghanistan is no Vietnam: there are no major enemy powers like the Soviet Union and China lurking in the background; no organized enemy state with a powerful army like North Vietnam supporting the insurgents; no well organized, unified national liberation movement like the Vietcong, and that's just a beginning. Almost everywhere, in fact, the Vietnam analogy breaks down -- almost everywhere, that is, except when it comes to us. Because we never managed to leave Vietnam behind, even when we were proclaiming that we had kicked that "syndrome," it turns out that we're still there. Our military leaders, for instance, only recently dusted off the old Vietnam-era counterinsurgency doctrine that once ended in catastrophe, shined it up, and are now presenting it as an ingenious new solution to war-fighting. Let's face it: everything about American thinking still stinks of the Vietnamese debacle, including the inability of our leaders to listen to a genuinely wide range of options.
* can beggars afford to be choosers? Yes
* Can we pay our own bills or must we rely on handouts? Yes we can pay our bills
* What are our priorities and direction — are we prepared to give up our stand against terrorism and violence and allow suicide bombers the run of the country? The answers would appear over the horizon if we burn our boats (sorry a rhetorical reply for a rhetorical query)
Britain is building a training camp for Pakistan’s paramilitary Frontier Corps in the southwestern province of Baluchistan in an effort to combat the Taleban presence around the porous border with southern Afghanistan, The Times has learned. Britain also plans to deploy 24 army trainers at the camp for three years from August 2010, when construction work is scheduled to finish, according to a senior official at the British High Commission in Islamabad. The British personnel will work with six American trainers at the camp, which is designed to house 550 people. It will train 360 Frontier Corps (FC) soldiers at a time, on 12-week courses, the official said. Britain to train Pakistan’s Frontier Corps troops in Baluchistan [thanks RZ]
The truth is, Gandhi is less of a draw than Jinnah - By M J Akbar Jinnah’s problem, conversely, has been that he has been appropriated, or misappropriated, by a range of vested interests, each determined to resurrect him in its own image, to serve its agenda. Pakistan’s political elite, forced to compromise with the culture of theocracy, has converted the natty, lean, handsome owner of 200-odd London-tailored suits into a shalwar-and-cap chameleon. If, instead of being clean-shaven, Jinnah had sported a slight, fashionable beard, they would have extended the beard by six inches in official portraits. Most Pakistanis would be shocked today to discover that Jinnah did not know Urdu, never fasted during Ramzan, had little interest in the rituals of religion, and that his concept of spiritual sustenance was very worldly indeed. Jinnah sent out invitations for a formal lunch-banquet in honour of the visiting Mountbattens for August 14, 1947, the day the new nation was born. The meal had to be cancelled when someone realized that they were in the middle of Ramzan. Jinnah had been oblivious of the fact that observant Muslims had been fasting for three weeks.
The Tough New White House Line on FOX News: It's War By Ari Melber - White House Communications Director Anita Dunn: "We don't need to pretend this is the way legitimate news organizations behave."
Fauzia Burke: Online Branding for Writers - If I were an author in today's competitive market, I would consider the time I spend developing my online platform and building my brand on the Web as an extension of my job as a writer.
MIDEAST: Muslims See Victory at Al-Aqsa By Mel Frykberg - EAST JERUSALEM, Oct 11 (IPS) - Clashes between Israeli security forces and protesting Palestinians have subsided as several hundred Muslims agreed to evacuate Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque following a deal brokered by the Jordanian Embassy in Tel Aviv Saturday.
Tomgram: William Astore, Apocalypse Then, Afghanistan Now - Here's the thing: This may be our next "Vietnam moment," but Afghanistan is no Vietnam: there are no major enemy powers like the Soviet Union and China lurking in the background; no organized enemy state with a powerful army like North Vietnam supporting the insurgents; no well organized, unified national liberation movement like the Vietcong, and that's just a beginning. Almost everywhere, in fact, the Vietnam analogy breaks down -- almost everywhere, that is, except when it comes to us. Because we never managed to leave Vietnam behind, even when we were proclaiming that we had kicked that "syndrome," it turns out that we're still there. Our military leaders, for instance, only recently dusted off the old Vietnam-era counterinsurgency doctrine that once ended in catastrophe, shined it up, and are now presenting it as an ingenious new solution to war-fighting. Let's face it: everything about American thinking still stinks of the Vietnamese debacle, including the inability of our leaders to listen to a genuinely wide range of options.
posted by temporal at 10/13/2009
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