StrategyPage has an update on the latest snag affecting post-quake relief efforts in Pakistan –
Under pressure from Islamic conservative politicians, Pakistan agreed to get [out] NATO troops, performing relief work in the earthquake zone, within 90 days. There are about a thousand NATO troops involved in the relief operations. The Islamic conservatives find this very embarrassing, with all those infidel (non-Moslem) soldiers in a Moslem country. Many conservative clerics are preaching that it is better to suffer and die from privation, than to tolerate infidel soldiers in your neighborhood. Thousands of people in the earthquake zone face death, as the brutal Winter weather has closed in. The NATO troops have the most helicopters and other high tech gear to get aid to people who need it most. European governments are trying to get civilian specialists into the area, to replace the departing troops.
These pressures are the same reason last weekend’s Predator strike on a senior Al Qaeda leader was initially pitched by the Pakistani’s as the product of a bungled bomb –
Pakistan declared that Harethi died when a bomb he was assembling went off. But people in the are displayed missile fragments, including data plates that said “AGM-114.” That’s a Hellfire missile, normally fired from CIA Predator UAVs known to operate in the area. The Pakistani government does not like to admit it allows the CIA to fly armed UAVs freely around Pakistan, but it does.
Tis a delicate dance when you’re barely sovereign over your own country & don’t want to admit that others (infidels, no less) are in there cleaning up your mess. Pakistani newspapers do seem to be talking pretty readily about the big secret –
“For their part, it is not surprising that the Pakistanis would deny that Rabia was taken out by a US missile. Although the government of Pakistani President Gen Pervez Musharraf is one of Washington’s most valuable allies in the war on terrorism, anti-American sentiment in the country runs high. Public acknowledgement that US drones are operating over Pakistan and launching missiles could direct that sentiment toward Musharraf,” he points out.
In the meantime, it appears that Amartya Sen’s dictum that the ultimate source of modern hunger is politics, not poverty may find a sad new proofpoint.
my gf (here i go jai singh) listened to a BBC quake report where mad mullahs were pissed that quake victims were eating during daylight hours (it was ramadan). basically, there were bleeding and ill people who needed rations to recover, but the mullahs were pissed and threatening to rabble rouse their followers. i forget what compromise they had to make, but it was ridiculous that they even had to treat with these animals. so, thoughts:
1) these primitive fucks are savages. eurocentric colonialist paradigms were tailor made for barbarians like this
2) actually, my understanding is that there are many traditional exceptions made for people to break fast during ramadan (sick, pregnant, war, etc.). a natural disaster where half your village was swallowed by the maw of mother earth seems like one, but the clerical culture of idiotstan clearly is not producing real religious professionals, but rather egocentric fucks for whom callous officiousness is the best expression of piety
3) clearly there are people for whom religion is not simply an inflexible set of rules and regulations. but, the rules & regs so-help-you-god crowd really needs to be shouted down, and i pray to the lord above for a good dousing of acidic atheism being directed at the legal-beasts. one of my main gripes with multiculturalism is that animals take shelter under its roof
4) let’s pray for the people of pakistan. they aren’t saints of course, but even the worst of sinners don’t need deserve the hell of musharraf and mullah
blessings & merry x-mas.
I never heard about this but if its true, its truly despicable. Time for the mullahs to read up on the etiquettes of Ramadan.
Couldnt have put it better myself.
Distribution and not availability is almost always the cause of hunger, as I tell my wife when she insists we finish everything on our plates and cook everything in the fridge. (She spent two years as a nurse in a refugee camp in Zambia, seeing hunger up close).
And distribution often is a matter of politics; food used as a weapon or means of control by those in control. If the colonial era hadn’t been so brutal, there would be more first-world will to topple dictatorships and introduce democratic regimes. As it is, the first world doesn’t trust itself – or reflexively opposes US efforts, or both.
So young, so angry, damn this rap music. Well said!
When are the people going to stop listening to these moronic clerics and strip them of the ridiculous and dangerous power they wield?
these primitive fucks are savages. eurocentric colonialist paradigms were tailor made for barbarians like this
Thats why we give refuge to savages like you in our great nation.
For example this Pakistani Journo Mohammed Amir Rana, who writes in the “Friday times” has a new book out which claims 15 top Pak leaders have links with Osama.
Apparently, the FBI (yes, FBI – not CIA) has opened 50-something field offices in major Pakistani cities where full-time American agents reside and work permanently. They have full access and authority over Pakistani police forces. They have full rights to conduct search and comb operations at their discretion, including entry into private residences without a warrant, strip searching people (including women) etc, without any explanations given, and Pakistani police have to aid them in all these.
Musharraf has sold the country. No wonder the mullahs are pissed off. And of course, they all deserve all of this and more.
M. Nam
Link?
Manish: Link?
This is a secret war – people in positions of power and those with contacts know about this. I know that Kuldip Nayar (who is pretty much pro-Pakistan) had written an article about it. I cannot find it presently, but here’s another link which comes as close as it gets.
On March 28 simultaneous raids were carried out in Faisalabad and Lahore by the American FBI and local police against suspected Al Qaeda and Taliban activists. In Faisalabad the raiding force was divided into twenty teams, each led by two FBI commandos. They broke into a house in Faisal Town and in the ensuing encounter two militants were killed. The joint team raided six places in the city and arrested 46 people, including 19 foreigners. The whole operation was shrouded in mystery…
M. Nam
I really doubt that. Things like those drive people in the west apeshit, so can you imagine the response in pakistan.
I just read through the link provided. This action is taking place in areas around waziristan and NWFP. To characterize that as happening in “Major pakistani cities” is disingenuous.
Thats why we give refuge to savages like you in our great nation.
? say what? i don’t get what you are trying to say.