US “presence” in Pakistan

Financial support to Pakistan by the US is extensive, discussions about the security of the state's personel there ongoing (here and here) but all the foreigners I see on the ground are non-US citizens. In 4 years in Lahore, Kashmir, the Northern Areas, the Tribal Areas and Peshawar I have met 4 American Nationals. I do not count my visits to horrible expat paries in Isloo with tipsy girls and tough guys or my encounter with well-built guys on the airport, who had a special escort past the queue and were obviously not here to taste Daal or learn a foreign language but to look grim and foster a clicheed, conspirational Xe-image, US citizens based in Pakistan nowadays have.

Rethinking interests

Raul R. Pillar is probably right with his theory , that terrorists (foremost al-Qaeda) do not necessarily need Afghanistan as a safe haven to attack the US in future and that the presence of US troops in the area should not be justified with just this target – to eradicate such breeding places.

pundit mayhem

Experts on AfPak sprout out of the ground like mushrooms - everyone gets his go at what it's all really about and what should have been done in the first place or what the future will definitely look like. While one would expect, that having so many smart people around who all know so much about this place that noone really seems to understand, the picture would become more clear, the floods of opinions and predictions on the topic just make the situation worse.

The capture of Jundullah leader Abdolmalek Rigi

Abdolmalek Rigi, the leader of Jundallah militant group, was nabbed in Iran on 23rd Feb in a dramatic fashion. His post-arrest statement and a photo allegedly showing him at a US base in Afghanistan just 24 hours before his arrest has sparked an interest debate on US role with Jundallah under Obama’s administration. Although Pentagon spokesman [...]

Imam Hatip school’s model of Islamic education

Imam Hatip is a secondary level school in Turkey which teaches Arabic and Quran, and a wide array of literature including Stefanie Meyer’s Eclipse! A far cry from a stereotype madrassah model, it opens a door of opportunity for moderate model of education. DAWN shows small gallery from the school here and school’s website can [...]

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Article By Yasir Hussain on February 27, 2010

The capture of Jundullah leader Abdolmalek Rigi

Abdolmalek Rigi, the leader of Jundallah militant group, was nabbed in Iran on 23rd Feb in a dramatic fashion. His post-arrest statement and a photo allegedly showing him at a US base in Afghanistan just 24 hours before his arrest has sparked an interest debate on US role with Jundallah under Obama’s administration. Although Pentagon spokesman [...]

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Asides

• While the West wants the 3 D approach in AfPak (Democracy/Diplomacy, Development and Defence - see e.g. Robert Swope's page), Nawa'i Waqt has another option: 3 J (Jamhooriyat, Jihad and Johari Silahiyat). #
• Does India deserve MF Husain? Soutik Biswas questions here. #
• A history of the Iraq war, told entirely in lies #
• Nisar Square Shooting #
• The Western media seems to buy everything from the Pakistani Publicity Stunt Department and blow it up to an even bigger extent that probably even Athar Abbas has to laught at. ABC News pays specialists (in this case Abu Muqawama) to make judgments from propaganda material, that are obvious ("they left in a hurry, otherwise thy would have taken the weapons") and exagerates what's already there - "a deadly house tour" "taking you deep into the mountain" - I estimate that would be about 4 meters. Bajauris singing "Pakistan Zindabad" where probably paid by the Army to do so and the Dhol Wallah had to be flown in from Lahore. #