Headlines & Comments, Islamic Republic of Incompetence, Amir Mir,

Tony Blair and the business of covering up war crimes
* Kuttay ki doom teRhi (eng: Old habits die hard)
Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi: The UAE Is One Nation ... It's Time Our Passports Said So
* Nation? or notion of nation
Pakistan's Intelligence Service Supports Taliban, Say Afghans
* ... and JI, MQM, PML(Zia), ANP, PPP --who did I miss out?
CNN Scuttles Anti-Dobbs Ad
* KyuN NahiN - aapas ki baat hay
Fort Collins Boy Carried Away By Balloon-Powered Aircraft
* Lot of Helium (Their talking heads are as bad as ours)
Pardon The Interruption: CNN Drops Afghanistan Discussion For Serious Breaking News About Rush Limbaugh
* Is that news? Try Geo, ARY any day:)
Shias demand House quota
* OBC
Karzai allies: We won’t risk lives by re-vote?
* read: We cannot indulge in massive fraud again
World’s ‘most wanted’ criminals make Nepal their home
* North & South Waziristan in mourning
Democracy under threat?

* No. The shallow, corrupt politicians are.

It is unthinkable that a handful of desperadoes, under any ruse or pretext, should have been able to get within hailing distance of such a sensitive military encampment as General Headquarters, what to say of actually entering it. There may be many explanations why this happened but only one reason, crass incompetence. The fact that fewer lives were lost because two SSG commandos, assigned to rescue hostages, heroically undertook to flag their presence and draw the fire of the terrorists is irrelevant. Their sacrifice was only made necessary by the incompetence of those responsible for GHQ security. Islamic Republic of Incompetence

Interestingly, Mohammad Aqeel alias Dr Usman, instead of blowing up himself with his suicidal jacket, adopted a unique tactic. As his fellow terrorists blew up themselves, he set ablaze his explosive-laden jacket in one room and hid himself in the false ceiling of another room inside the security offices of the GHQ. As the rescue operation ended and the clearance of the building started, everybody was looking for him because only four dead bodies of other terrorists were found. And the man negotiating with the authorities, who had identified himself as Aqeel alias Dr Usman was missing. The sources say he had camouflaged himself well and kept out of sight for a couple of hours until bad luck struck him in the face. The false ceiling couldn’t bear his weight any longer and simply collapsed, throwing Aqeel on the floor and hurting his head badly. Having survived the head injury, Mohammad Aqeel is reportedly out of danger. Amir Mir -More Incompetence

But this is where the catch lies. The enemy is far more intelligent than what some of our television commentators would like us to believe. In the GHQ case, the terrorists not only understood the strategic value of attacking at the heart of the army’s power base, they also appeared to understand the chasm between the state and society and within the state at several levels. The attackers understand the civilian-military divide better than a lot of people who talk about a new era of civilian-military relations in the country and boast about the two sides being on the same page. Ayesha Siddiqua

Zardari is an elected president --there can be no quarrel with this. But his performance or, more accurately, his inadequacy is hastening the demise of democracy. If he is to survive, and Pakistan's fledgling democracy is not to collapse, some of the political baggage he carries will probably have to be discarded. The clouds on the horizon, if not the gods, are demanding a sacrifice and to appease them some heads may have to roll. Ayaz Amir