Kunwar Iris writes today in Dawn.com an analysis of why nations that could help flood victims are hesitant to do so, and he blames the corrupt government that rules Pakistan. This story is a Must Read to understand the underlying problems of “partnering” with Pakistan by the U.S. to have the Taliban stop fighting. The story follows:
Saving Pakistan from itself By Kunwar Idris
Sunday, 15 Aug, 2010
The response of the political leaders, the government and civil society as a whole to the country’s worst-ever natural disaster has been both delayed and mean. It is a kind of save-Pakistan-from-itself situation.
Even the army that comes to the people’s rescue when the civil administration falters or fails was late this time in coming and its presence was felt much less than in earlier, lesser crises. The world response matches domestic indifference. Only the ‘hated’ American soldiers with their helicopters are there to save lives. Don’t we need to look at our ‘friends’ more closely?
The pledges made are small and much of the money promised would be available after the suffering has taken its toll. Well into the second week of the calamity, the donations received in the prime minister’s relief fund remain a pittance. Among a few large donors is a rags-to-riches politician who only a week earlier had spent, perhaps, an equal sum on a wedding feast at a plush Dubai hotel. Thus he has come to represent the rich of Pakistan as they are known to the world — charitable and vainglorious at the same time.
The rains and floods, the prime minister says, had put the country back by a generation. That sounds like an exaggeration only to forestall the criticism of his government’s extravagance and incompetence. The damage to the infrastructure would surely cost a great deal but repaired — sooner or later. It is the nation that seems to have lost its soul.
Its chosen representatives do not now have a dictator to curse nor can they blame ‘obstructing’ judges. They indulge in harangues but lack the moral strength to inspire a nation in crisis. Helping the people in distress are only the soldiers and some jihadis. The liberal or mainstream parties are nowhere to be seen.
For the failure of the political leadership and civil administration to deal with the day-to-day problems, much less with a crisis of this magnitude, the blame lies not with this or that individual or party but with the politics of vengeance and retribution that has marked the national scene almost for four decades now. There may have been moments of personal triumph here and there but the moral and institutional decline has been continuous and, barring a revolution, looks irreversible.
A quick reckoner of this decline is Bangladesh which is now poised to grow at twice the rate of Pakistan. A more tempting comparison, however, would be with Egypt which has been ruled by more strongmen and longer than Pakistan. In human development and social services starting from the same base in the middle of the last century, the literacy level in Egypt has risen to 85 per cent against ours at 54 and an average Egyptian expects to live eight years longer than a Pakistani. But, more amazingly, 99 per cent of Egyptian homes now have electricity and 97 per cent have piped water supply.In South Asian terms Pakistan shows up poorly and Southeast Asia (is altogether a different story. The old-timers can recall a time when the Koreans came to Pakistan to study our development model. Today an average South Korean is 30 times richer than his Pakistani counterpart.
In Pakistan the failure has been collective but the rot began with the political leadership. It travelled down the line to hit the bureaucracy and then spread across the national spectrum to undermine all other spheres. The causes are numerous and remedies are often recounted but relevant in the current context is the need to curtail government expenditure to save money for the rehabilitation of flood victims and modernisation of the physical infrastructure.
The size of the government calls for a drastic reduction. A smaller size would increase efficiency. One often wonders that if the province of West Pakistan (one unit) could make do with 13 or so ministers and as many secretaries why must each province now have three to four times that number? West Pakistan’s secretariat had just five cars for everybody to share; the number now defies a count.
The chief minister then had but one office room and that too in the main secretariat along with all other ministers and officials. The Punjab chief minister now hardly ever goes to the secretariat. A palace-like structure that Chaudhry Parvez Elahi built for himself is now occupied by an assortment of freeloaders who are a burden on a government that runs on bank overdraft.
Then come cash handouts or subsidies. Rs70bn set aside for payment to the poor selected by parliamentarians under a programme named after Benazir should be diverted to the flood victims. Putting the poor on dole, even if honestly chosen (which appears unlikely considering the political channel of distribution) is a bad idea. The same applies to the sum set aside for Punjab’s two-rupee sasti roti which even the rich can buy.
Though late, the Punjab chief minister has sensibly decided to stop this waste and divert the saved Rs500bn to flood relief. The Sindh government is now contemplating a similar subsidy in wheat flour through the millers for sale in the open market. Given our proven inability to control the market forces, this subsidy is unlikely to reach the poor just as the subsidy on fertiliser, pesticide or other commodities did not. It too will get lost in the long channel of bribe and profit.
The savings in these and other subsidies and a heavy cut in spendings by a mélange of political coalitions that have no policy or direction should make up somewhat for the lack of local and foreign donations. The saddest of all thoughts however is that the donors are being cagey or wary not because they do not realise the gravity and scale of the problem. It is Pakistan’s reputation for corruption and mismanagement that holds them back. And there we are stuck. (You can write to Kunwar:kunwaridris@hotmail.com)
As the Second World War drew to a close, George Orwell looked back on the various prognoses of war and peace that had emerged in recent years:“All political thinking for years past has been vitiated in the same way,” he observed. “People can foresee the future only when it coincides with their own wishes, and the most grossly obvious facts can be ignored when they are unwelcome.”Over the next several years, Orwell would elaborate a dystopian vision of the emerging Cold War, a vision in which warring superpowers would use distorted and self-serving political rhetoric to battle each other and their citizens.
In recent weeks, we have reached another historic juncture. The Iraq War, or at least the American military’s role in it, is drawing to a symbolic close. To mark this moment, the U.S. Ministry of Information has put its spin machine in high gear. Orwell would have had a field day with this one. He could not have invented a more Orwellian tale than the actual story of the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq.
Here is the official version, championed in its earlier moments by Bush, Petraeus, and other congressional hawks, and now trumpeted almost as loudly by the White House and State Department: Violence is down. Iraqis are finally (it’s about time, guys) taking responsibility for their own security. The March elections were a great step forward. Iraq, we can safely say, is on the path to a brighter future.
This story marks the last chapter in the surge narrative that took root in 2006, a narrative in which General David Petraeus is credited with turning the war around. Proponents of this story know better than to declare victory, a word that has largely fallen out of the official lexicon. But the word success, which has taken its place, is everywhere. And while it doesn’t quite afford that nationalist sense of superiority to which Americans have long been accustomed, success does provide a certain contentment and satisfaction over a job well done. It allows for that perennial optimism that never quite goes out of fashion in the American way of war.
It is telling though not surprising that Obama chose a military audience to deliver his official remarks on the nominal end of America’s seven-year occupation of Iraq. Like all American, and especially all Democratic presidents, Obama rarely misses a moment to pay tribute to the troops — perhaps the only thing that no loyal American can question regardless of how unjust the wars America fights may be. “As we mark the end of America’s combat mission in Iraq,” President Obama declared, “a grateful America must pay tribute to all who served there.”
There is nothing fundamentally new in this story. It is just the latest version of a longstanding nationalist narrative in which, no matter how the story begins, the U.S. always ends up on the right side of history. For the most loyal devotees of this narrative, even Vietnam is not an exception. Were it not for that cheap congress, those pesky journalists, and those traitorous anti-war activists, they insist, we would’ve won that war too. Never mind that we had allied ourselves with a corrupt government that cared little about the people of Vietnam. Never mind that the enemy saw this as just the latest in a decades-long war against foreign occupiers. Never mind that, as Daniel Ellsberg has said, we were not just “on the wrong side” of this war. “We were the wrong side.”
SIGULDA, Latvia: World Bank President Robert Zoellick said on Friday that the worst floods in Pakistan in decades were likely to have destroyed crops in the country worth around $1 billion.The floods, triggered by torrential monsoon downpours, have swamped Pakistan’s Indus river basin, killing more than 1,600 people, forcing two million from their homes and disrupting the lives of about 14 million people.
WikiLeaks preparing to release more Afghan files
By RAPHAEL G. SATTER and ANNE FLAHERTY – 21 hours ago
LONDON — WikiLeaks spokesman Julian Assange said Thursday his organization is preparing to release the rest of the secret Afghan war documents it has on file. The Pentagon warned that would be more damaging to security and risk more lives than the organization’s initial release of some 76,000 war documents.
The NATO command and the U.S. Forces are lying to us, the public. They can not be trusted. These wars must end. What is to be gained by continuing? What is Victory? Our friends at Rethink Afghanistan have produced this video of the deaths of 45+ innocent civilians in a small Afghan Village. This has been denied by NATO and the U.S. Forces. What would you do if this were your village? After viewing the video, go to Rethink Afghanistan and send a letter to your Members of Congress.
PARIS: Coalition forces “are losing the war against the Taliban” in Afghanistan, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said in an interview published in France on Tuesday. “The international community, to which Pakistan belongs, is losing the war against the Taliban. This is above all because we have lost the battle to win hearts and minds,” he said, in comments published in French by Le Monde. Read the whole story here.
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WASHINGTON: After Wikileaks released the leaked classified documents on the Afghan war, 43 per cent of Americans now feel that the US made a mistake by sending troops to the war-torn country, according to a latest poll. This is slightly up from just before the release of the leaked documents last week, which was 38 per cent, Gallup said in its latest poll.
“While Americans are still more likely to support than oppose the war, the percentage who say it was a mistake to get involved is at a new high,” Gallup said in a statement. Read the whole story here.
After 9 years, and a “New” President, 58 Billion more US dollars are approved by Congress to continue the “wars”. See who voted “NO” and if they are your Member of Congress, Click Here. Please call and thank them. The killings must stop now. Every U.S. State is cutting back on Teachers, Firefighters, Police, Public Works projects, but the Federal Government can overlook this and send the money to the 175th poorest state out of 180, under the goal of eliminating the Taliban? The U.S. Voter is a Sucker. Including ME.
Described as a Boeing Laser shooting down an airplane drone, unconfirmed
“We’ve teamed with the Navy to bring the solid state lasers to the warfighter. We’ve linked a solid state laser to an actual U.S. Navy program of record, and that is Laser Phalanx.”
“Directed energy essentially gives warfighters an unlimited magazine. As long as they have electricity they have photons, and as long as they have photons they have bullets.”
“We actually shot down four of four operational UAVs. They were all destroyed and crashed into the sea.” – Mike Booen, Raytheon’s vice president of Advanced Security and Directed Energy Systems
FOUR More Years, Four More Years, where have we heard that before? We’ll be out of Afghanistan in Four More Years, do you believe that?
It took two years to determine the SIZE of the Peace Conference Table in France to End the Viet Nam War. Since the beginning of the invasion of Afghanistan, there have been many LIES told to us about what is happening there and in Iraq. Why should this be believed now? An Election Year? Enough suffering, bring our Troops Home NOW…
Watch Noam Chomsky’ recorded presentation at the National Peace Conference below:
Watch other presenters at the National Peace Conference at this You Tube site, click here. The story below has been posted last week for your information, and is included again to further understand the Peace Conference’s goals.
The following information came from the United National Peace Conference organizers via email. This is the latest status of the upcoming gathering in New York July 23 -25. Attend if you can.
Noam Chomsky, Co-Keynote Speaker
Donna Dewitt, Co-Keynote Speaker
Greetings to Peace and Social Justice Activists:Registrations for this weekend’s national peace conference are soaring with the total now well over 400. There is still room for you at the conference and still time to register! See the program below and the attached Saturday lunch and Saturday night programs, as well as the latest list of workshops.This will be an historic conference and one that you will not want to miss. Register online at www.nationalpeaceconference.org or write UNAC2010@aol.com for more information or call 518-227-6947.
In unity and peace,
Jerry Gordon
Secretary, National Peace Conference
The following was posted at Out of Central Asia Now on and is being reprinted here for your convenience:
CONTACT:Unity United National Peace Conference July 23 – 25, 2010, Albany, NY…Unac2010@aol.com or UNAC at P.O. Box 21675, Cleve.,OH 44121 518-227-6947 http://www.nationalpeaceconference.org
Casting aside any intention that Washington plans to end its occupation and war against Afghanistan in 2011 or anytime in the foreseeable future, Gen. David Petraeus declared “We are in this to win. That is our clear objective.” Commenting on the General’s statement, New York Tines reporter Dexter Filkins wrote, “Almost every phase of the war [in Afghanistan] is going badly. In June, 102 American and NATO troops lost their lives, more than in any month since the war began. The major offensive in Kandahar , the most important city in the Taliban heartland, has been slowed because of worries over the lack of local support. The Afghan government and army show few signs of being able, or even willing, to take over.. In the United states, public opinion polls show that a majority of Americans have turned against the war.” (7/5/10)The most important question facing the antiwar and social justice movements is: What do we do now?If ever there was a time for these movements to join together to plan united protest actions, this is it. Hundreds of movement activists have already registered for the National Conference to Bring the Troops Home Now to be held in Albany, New York on July 23-25.and many more have expressed plans to attend. PLEASE JOIN US! Register online at http://www.nationalpeaceconference.org
In peace and unity,
Jerry Gordon, Secretary, National Peace Conference
By ARNAUD DE BORCHGRAVE, UPI Editor at Large, July 6 (UPI) — No better proof of a dysfunctional — and broke — system of government than the U.S. Congress passing additional funding for the Afghan war — $300 billion thus far — while simultaneously denying the unemployed an extension of benefits — and then taking a 10-day Independence Day vacation.
With the jobless hovering just less than 10 percent of a 158 million-strong U.S. labor force, including 1.3 million who didn’t get their benefits reinstated and an additional 200,000 a week who have been without a job for at least six months and stand to lose their benefits each week until Congress acts, some 15 million Americans are out of work.
One million Americans dropped out of the job market over the past two months as they gave up a fruitless search for work. They lack the skills needed for a high-tech economy. And companies have slashed payrolls as automation helps them get along with fewer employees. The ranks of the unemployed who no longer receive any compensation are climbing to 10 million.
CONTACT:Unity United National Peace Conference July 23 – 25, 2010, Albany, NY…Unac2010@aol.com or UNAC at P.O. Box 21675, Cleve.,OH 44121 518-227-6947 http://www.nationalpeaceconference.org
Casting aside any intention that Washington plans to end its occupation and war against Afghanistan in 2011 or anytime in the foreseeable future, Gen. David Petraeus declared “We are in this to win. That is our clear objective.” Commenting on the General’s statement, New York Tines reporter Dexter Filkins wrote, “Almost every phase of the war [in Afghanistan] is going badly. In June, 102 American and NATO troops lost their lives, more than in any month since the war began. The major offensive in Kandahar , the most important city in the Taliban heartland, has been slowed because of worries over the lack of local support. The Afghan government and army show few signs of being able, or even willing, to take over.. In the United states, public opinion polls show that a majority of Americans have turned against the war.” (7/5/10)
he most important question facing the antiwar and social justice movements is: What do we do now?
If ever there was a time for these movements to join together to plan united protest actions, this is it. Hundreds of movement activists have already registered for the National Conference to Bring the Troops Home Now to be held in Albany, New York on July 23-25.and many more have expressed plans to attend. PLEASE JOIN US! Register online at http://www.nationalpeaceconference.org
In peace and unity,
Jerry Gordon, Secretary, National Peace Conference
LAHORE, Pakistan, June 30 (UPI) — Federal authorities should take measures to stop drone attacks in Pakistan if they are carried out without formal approval, a Lahore court said Wednesday.
A Lahore court Wednesday called on the government to take appropriate measures to halt strikes by unmanned drones in Pakistan if they aren’t approved by Islamabad, Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper reports. The court was responding to a petition that said drone strikes were a violation of national sovereignty.
Over 40 Nations have Assassination Drones or are working on developing their own Assassination Drones.
The United States has been leading the way in killing targeted “terrorists” through the use of Assassination Drones. Friends, the Genie is out of the lamp. View the video below. Who is the leading nation selling Assassination Drones world-wide? The State of Israel. Read this article in dawn.com, entitled “Spy in the sky rakes in millions for Israel”, click here.
ACTION: Call: 1-888-543-5234 (toll-free number established by FCNL) connects you with the Capitol Switchboard. Tell your Representatives, No More War Funding. End the Wars NOW.
Call to Action! United National Antiwar Conference (UNAC) Join us in Albany, New York!
July 23-25, 2010
Voters for Peace is pleased to be a co-sponsor of the conference along with 28 other organizations. I’ll be participating in a discussion about whether a right-left alliance against war and empire is necessary and useful. The key note speaker for the conference is Noam Chomsky. internationally renowned political activist, author, and critic of U.S. foreign and domestic policies; Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Professor Emeritus of Linguistics. You can see more about the conference at nationalpeaceconference.org. Read the Flyer to the conference here. There’s a registration form on page two.
The following is from the National Peace Conference home page (click here to see more)
National Conference to Bring the Troops Home Now! July 23–25, 2010 Crowne Plaza Hotel, Albany, New York
In these troubled times, Washington’s wars and occupations rage, resulting in an ever increasing number of dead and wounded and the destruction of countries posing no threat to the U.S. Trillions are spent on seemingly endless conflicts in pursuit of profits and global domination, while trillions more are lost by working people in loss of jobs, homes, pensions, health care, and cuts to social programs and public services. The U.S. goes to war to plunder the world’s fossil fuel resources, the unrestrained use of which threatens the future of our planet.
We must demand the immediate and total withdrawal of U.S. military forces, mercenaries and contractors from Afghanistan and Iraq, and the end to drone attacks on Pakistan, Afghanistan, and other countries and call for self-determination for the people of all countries. Moreover, we recognize that the Middle East cauldron today also encompasses Iran, Yemen, Palestine, and Israel, while countries in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Africa are targeted for intervention by a militarized U.S. foreign policy.
The urgency of the current world situation DEMANDS UNITY OF ACTION and purpose to generate the broad social movement we must create to not only end wars and occupations, but to fundamentally change the aggressive policies that inevitably lead our country to militarism, racism, and war. Our cry must be “Money for Human Needs; Not for Wars, Occupations, and Bail-Outs.”
Come to a conference where peace, social justice and environmental activists will come together to discuss the major concerns we face and to hammer out an ambitious program of action. The time is long overdue for such a gathering.
SCHEDULE
Friday evening, July 23: Panel discussion on “Strategies & Tactics in the Struggle to End the Empire’s Wars and Occupations”; Presentation of Action Proposal
Saturday, July 24: Keynote Speakers; Workshops; Lunch panel on Government Repression, Defense of Political Prisoners, and Guantanamo Detainees; Plenary Discussion of Action Proposal, Amendments & Resolutions
Saturday evening, July 24: Public Gathering with speakers & cultural performances
Sunday, July 25: Plenary Discussion and Vote on Action Proposal; Workshops
CO-SPONSORS
After Downing Street, Arab American Union Members Council, Bail Out the People Movement, Black Agenda Report, Campaign for Peace and Democracy, Campus Antiwar Network, Citizen Soldier, Code Pink, Fellowship of Reconciliation, International Action Center, Grandmothers Against the War, Granny Peace Brigade, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Military Families Speak Out, May 1st Workers and Immigrant Rights Coalition, National Assembly to End the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and Occupations, National Lawyers Guild, Office of the Americas, Peace Action, Peace of the Action, Progressive Democrats of America, Project Salam, September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, U.S. Labor Against the War, Veterans for Peace, Voices for Creative Nonviolence, Voters For Peace, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, World Can’t Wait.
ACTION: Call: 1-888-543-5234 (toll-free number established by FCNL) connects you with the Capitol Switchboard. Tell your Representatives, No More War Funding. End the Wars NOW.
Well we now have Reason #29 for being in Afghanistan. My dear friend, and former Congress Member, now CIA Chief Leon Panetta says “Winning in Afghanistan is having a country that is stable enough to ensure that there is no safe haven for al Qaeda or for a militant Taliban that welcomes al Qaeda. Read the full story as reported by CNN newswire here.
Leon Panetta, CIA Chief
Panetta also made clear that the threat from al Qaeda remains the nation’s main concern, noting the group’s use of people who lack any terrorism record — such as the suspect in the botched bombing attempt of a U.S. airliner on Christmas day — as a way to infiltrate U.S. safeguards. He also mentioned sleeper agents already in the country, and people who “self-radicalize” such as Maj. Nidal Hasan, the suspect in the Ft. Hood, Texas, shootings.
“Those kinds of threats represent I think the most serious threat to the United States right now,” Panetta said.
Ed. Note: So Leon, why are we still in Afghanistan? There are over 30 “terrorist groups” on the CIA list, are we going to all these places next?
Has it occurred to President Barack Obama that Gen. Stanley McChrystal might actually have wanted to be fired — and thus rescued from the current March of Folly in Afghanistan, a mess much of his own making?
McChrystal leaves behind a long trail of broken promises and unfulfilled expectations. For example, there is no real security, at least during the night, in the area of Marja, which McChrystal devoted enormous resources to pacify this spring. Remember his boast that he would then bring to Marja a “government-in-a-box” and thereby offer an object lesson regarding what was in store for those pesky Taliban in Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second largest city?
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Changing “The Team”:
Holbrooke ready to go? According to the Los Angeles Times, the prospects of Mr Holbrooke’s ouster were raised after the White House sidelined him during months of crucial talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
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Further Light on the Subject:
American officials have told Pakistan that there is mistrust between the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI). Read it all here at Dawn.com.
“John Tierney (the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee of the US Congress) told a Pakistani delegation that there is mistrust between the CIA and ISI,” according to a report of the Senate’s standing committee on defence about a visit by its members to the US last month.
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Stop the Madness, it is up to YOU:
ACTION: Call: 1-888-543-5234 (toll-free number established by FCNL) connects you with the Capitol Switchboard. Tell your Representatives, No More War Funding. End the Wars NOW.
