Petraeus said that orders approved by provincial governors and local leaders Wednesday enable implementation of measures ordered by Afghan President Hamid Karzai to reintegrate the "$10-a-day Taliban" into society.
Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, said those low-budget fighters are the first to return to society's fold since they are "local individuals, almost chameleon-like sometimes, in their allegiances because that's how they stay alive over 30 years of war here in this country."
Petraeus described how in the last two days, small groups of individuals and lower-level leaders came in, "laid down their weapons and, in one case, were given reintegration certificates by the governor of the province."
As a result, the prospect of large-scale reintegration "is very real," Petraeus said.
Afghanistan News & Discussion
Re: Afghanistan News & Discussion
Petraeus: Reconciliation With Taliban is Ultimate Goal for Afghanistan's Future
Re: Afghanistan News & Discussion
India and Afghanistan agree on need to deny safe haven to terror groups
In a joint statement issued by External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna and his Afghanistan counterpart Zalmai Rassoul the two leaders emphasised on the need to ensure that terrorist and extremist groups, targeting Afghanistan and other countries in the region, are denied safe haven and sanctuaries.
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abhishek_sharma
- BRF Oldie
- Posts: 9664
- Joined: 19 Nov 2009 03:27
Re: Afghanistan News & Discussion
The Right to Happiness
http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/ ... -happiness
It took just one visit to Kabul to appreciate what we take so much for granted.
The Taliban had banned photography for two decades; two entire generations had grown up with no visual record of their childhood.(Photo: SHOME BASU)
I went to Kabul eight years ago. That’s a long time ago, but perhaps not long enough. Has anything changed there? One doesn’t know. Kabul is situated at the bottom of a tea cup, with the sides of the cup rising in hilly mystery. The roads are wide and flat; the Russians, wherever they went, made sure that transportation was efficient and modern and fully functional. No one knew any traffic rules, and it was only through trial and error, and extreme bodily danger, that you learnt whether it was left hand drive or right hand. Traffic policemen carried light machine guns, and that was the only way that cars—all Toyota taxis—would maintain some semblance of decorum. An Afghan sense of decorum. The key word, of course, is Afghan.
When I landed at Kabul airport, I was the first in the queue at the emigration (immigration? Tourism?) counter. The man did not have a ball pen to sign on my passport, and I gave him one and left it with him: he needed it more than I did.
I asked a man who was hanging around: “Where is Mullah Omar?”
“In Pervez Musharraf’s house in Islamabad,” he said.
We went to a restaurant for lunch and were shocked by the lack of service, sheer rudeness. Finally, it came to a point when I went up to the owner, who was sitting at the cash counter, and asked him what the hell was wrong. “Pakistani, no service,” he told me. “But we are Hindustani,” I told him. His demeanour changed miraculously. “Hindustani!” he said. “Half price, double service!” And he insisted on charging us only half of what was mentioned in the menu.
We went to the football stadium where the Taliban used the goal posts to hang people. The newly-formed Afghan football team was training there. Tata trucks were a crowd. The most common stores in Kabul were drugs and pharma stores: after all, in 20 years of combat, people had lost a lot of arms and legs; the water had been contaminated, contagious diseases were the order of the day. But the second most common stores were photo studios. The Taliban had banned photography for two decades; two entire generations had grown up with no visual record of their childhood. The Taliban were mendacious: a few years ago, The Daily Telegraph revealed how they had their own photos clicked in heroic poses, but for the average Afghan, no pictorial record was allowed; it was against the laid-down faith.
Wherever we went, little children would run up to us and ask to be photographed. But we are going back to India, we told them, you will never see these pictures. They didn’t mind. They simply didn’t mind. The very fact that their photos were being taken, that there would be a record of them somewhere, perhaps in an obscure hard disk in some foreign country, was good enough for them. I have never felt such—I don’t know what (don’t have the words)—for these little happy smiling children.
And of course every taxi plays Hindi film music. Every shop plays Hindi film music. Kabul is Hindi film musicland. From Dum dum diga diga to Likhe jo khat tujhe to Dum maro dum, the city reverberates, resonates and recharges you with all the songs that you grew up with and thought you had outgrown. And you realise you were just misleading yourself, needlessly.
And then you see a girls’ school session get over. And you see hundreds of young girls running out of school, in total joy and playfulness, enjoying their innocence, and you want to cry. Just a little bit.
And at every open space, every field, every gully, you see boys playing cricket. They are all chucking. All. One of the greatest regrets of my life will always be that I didn’t go up to them and tell them, “Boss, this is not cricket, you have to turn your arm over, like this, like this… watch me. Try. This is how to do it.” On the other hand, who gives a damn? Let them chuck the hell out of their batsmen. They have suffered enough to earn just a simple right.
Sandipan Deb is an IIT-IIM graduate who wandered into journalism after reading a quote from filmmaker George Lucas — “Everyone’s cage door is open” — and has stayed there (in journalism, not a cage) for the past 19 years. He has written a book on the IITs and is the editor of Open.
http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/ ... -happiness
It took just one visit to Kabul to appreciate what we take so much for granted.
The Taliban had banned photography for two decades; two entire generations had grown up with no visual record of their childhood.(Photo: SHOME BASU)
I went to Kabul eight years ago. That’s a long time ago, but perhaps not long enough. Has anything changed there? One doesn’t know. Kabul is situated at the bottom of a tea cup, with the sides of the cup rising in hilly mystery. The roads are wide and flat; the Russians, wherever they went, made sure that transportation was efficient and modern and fully functional. No one knew any traffic rules, and it was only through trial and error, and extreme bodily danger, that you learnt whether it was left hand drive or right hand. Traffic policemen carried light machine guns, and that was the only way that cars—all Toyota taxis—would maintain some semblance of decorum. An Afghan sense of decorum. The key word, of course, is Afghan.
When I landed at Kabul airport, I was the first in the queue at the emigration (immigration? Tourism?) counter. The man did not have a ball pen to sign on my passport, and I gave him one and left it with him: he needed it more than I did.
I asked a man who was hanging around: “Where is Mullah Omar?”
“In Pervez Musharraf’s house in Islamabad,” he said.
We went to a restaurant for lunch and were shocked by the lack of service, sheer rudeness. Finally, it came to a point when I went up to the owner, who was sitting at the cash counter, and asked him what the hell was wrong. “Pakistani, no service,” he told me. “But we are Hindustani,” I told him. His demeanour changed miraculously. “Hindustani!” he said. “Half price, double service!” And he insisted on charging us only half of what was mentioned in the menu.
We went to the football stadium where the Taliban used the goal posts to hang people. The newly-formed Afghan football team was training there. Tata trucks were a crowd. The most common stores in Kabul were drugs and pharma stores: after all, in 20 years of combat, people had lost a lot of arms and legs; the water had been contaminated, contagious diseases were the order of the day. But the second most common stores were photo studios. The Taliban had banned photography for two decades; two entire generations had grown up with no visual record of their childhood. The Taliban were mendacious: a few years ago, The Daily Telegraph revealed how they had their own photos clicked in heroic poses, but for the average Afghan, no pictorial record was allowed; it was against the laid-down faith.
Wherever we went, little children would run up to us and ask to be photographed. But we are going back to India, we told them, you will never see these pictures. They didn’t mind. They simply didn’t mind. The very fact that their photos were being taken, that there would be a record of them somewhere, perhaps in an obscure hard disk in some foreign country, was good enough for them. I have never felt such—I don’t know what (don’t have the words)—for these little happy smiling children.
And of course every taxi plays Hindi film music. Every shop plays Hindi film music. Kabul is Hindi film musicland. From Dum dum diga diga to Likhe jo khat tujhe to Dum maro dum, the city reverberates, resonates and recharges you with all the songs that you grew up with and thought you had outgrown. And you realise you were just misleading yourself, needlessly.
And then you see a girls’ school session get over. And you see hundreds of young girls running out of school, in total joy and playfulness, enjoying their innocence, and you want to cry. Just a little bit.
And at every open space, every field, every gully, you see boys playing cricket. They are all chucking. All. One of the greatest regrets of my life will always be that I didn’t go up to them and tell them, “Boss, this is not cricket, you have to turn your arm over, like this, like this… watch me. Try. This is how to do it.” On the other hand, who gives a damn? Let them chuck the hell out of their batsmen. They have suffered enough to earn just a simple right.
Sandipan Deb is an IIT-IIM graduate who wandered into journalism after reading a quote from filmmaker George Lucas — “Everyone’s cage door is open” — and has stayed there (in journalism, not a cage) for the past 19 years. He has written a book on the IITs and is the editor of Open.
Re: Afghanistan News & Discussion
2 Sikhs in Afghan poll fray, want to be first elected non-Muslims
SIkhs are true to their country where ever they maybe. These 2 Afghan Sikhs are a shining example. One of them is a Sikh lady who is only 26 years old. May Waheguru give them victory and protect them.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/2-sik ... s/663777/0
2 Sikhs in Afghan poll fray, want to be first elected non-Muslims
Posted: Mon Aug 23 2010, 04:18 hrs
Kabul:
Election campaign posters plaster Kabul’s traffic circles these days but one face stands out. Of a Sikh. But he is not the only Sikh candidate in the fray — there is another, a woman.
Pritpal Singh Pal and Anarkali Kaur Honaryar are running for positions in Afghanistan’s Wolesi Jirga, the 250-seat lower house of parliament, elections for which are scheduled on September 18.
If they win, they will become the first democratically elected non-Muslim parliamentarians in the country — Afghan Hindus and Sikhs have held parliamentary positions before through nomination.
Both are Independent candidates from the Kabul province and are up against Mohammad Mohaqiq and Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, former Mujahideen commanders who are now established politicians.
“I want to serve people regardless of religion. I’m an Afghan,” says 44-year-old Pal, a native of the Pashtun-majority province of Paktia where his parents were also born.
Pal runs an ayurvedic medicine shop established by his father who moved from Paktia to Kabul. Frustrated with the current Afghan government, he says: “I’m running for parliament for the service of all of Afghanistan.”
Of the estimated 3,000 Hindus and Sikhs living here, the majority have had generations living in Afghanistan as far back as they can remember. So most identify themselves as Afghans.
Pal says it is a common misconception that all Afghan Sikhs and Hindus are Punjabis who moved to Afghanistan from India years ago. In fact, many members of this community consider themselves to be the original Afghans who never converted to Islam. And this sense of rootedness only gives their pursuit of governmental representation in Afghanistan more zeal.
Honaryar, 26, was born in Kabul. Her father Kishan Singh is an engineer who moved to Kabul from Khost province. Honaryar’s mother, also a native Afghan, was born in Paktia province.
“I’ve travelled to many countries, including India,” she says at her campaign office in the Karte Parwan area of Kabul. “But I want to serve my own country and countrymen. I love Afghanistan.”
Honaryar trained as a dentist, but became politically active at the age of 19 when she participated in the Loya Jirga — or public assembly — and realised the number of issues facing Afghanistan. She then joined the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission to work for women’s rights. In May, she decided to run for parliament.
Pal and Honaryar consider themselves truly Afghan but they are aware that as a minority group, the Sikhs suffer from problems such as “discrimination” in education, lack of representation, harassment to convert and, in particular, the struggle for cremation grounds.
Before civil war broke out in 1991, the Sikh and Hindu community in Afghanistan numbered 50,000 upward and held a large portion of Afghanistan’s business capital. Since then, their population and wealth have dwindled. They have had hard times, even after the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001.
Over time, these events have reinforced this community’s relationship with India. For example, while Pal chooses to remain in Afghanistan, his wife and three children live in New Delhi.
“I enjoyed my visit to India,” says Honaryar. “India is a country which is helping Afghanistan politically and economically. And the two have so many cultural similarities and a shared heritage.”
Pal and Honaryar hope that they can serve as a bridge between their disenfranchised community and the government.
The odds against Pal winning the election are high as he is new to politics. However, he says he has many supporters.
“They are also our countrymen,” says Mohammed Ali, a 42-year-old pastry shop owner in central Kabul, of the Sikh and Hindu community. “May be they can serve us better than other Afghans.”
SIkhs are true to their country where ever they maybe. These 2 Afghan Sikhs are a shining example. One of them is a Sikh lady who is only 26 years old. May Waheguru give them victory and protect them.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/2-sik ... s/663777/0
2 Sikhs in Afghan poll fray, want to be first elected non-Muslims
Posted: Mon Aug 23 2010, 04:18 hrs
Kabul:
Election campaign posters plaster Kabul’s traffic circles these days but one face stands out. Of a Sikh. But he is not the only Sikh candidate in the fray — there is another, a woman.
Pritpal Singh Pal and Anarkali Kaur Honaryar are running for positions in Afghanistan’s Wolesi Jirga, the 250-seat lower house of parliament, elections for which are scheduled on September 18.
If they win, they will become the first democratically elected non-Muslim parliamentarians in the country — Afghan Hindus and Sikhs have held parliamentary positions before through nomination.
Both are Independent candidates from the Kabul province and are up against Mohammad Mohaqiq and Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, former Mujahideen commanders who are now established politicians.
“I want to serve people regardless of religion. I’m an Afghan,” says 44-year-old Pal, a native of the Pashtun-majority province of Paktia where his parents were also born.
Pal runs an ayurvedic medicine shop established by his father who moved from Paktia to Kabul. Frustrated with the current Afghan government, he says: “I’m running for parliament for the service of all of Afghanistan.”
Of the estimated 3,000 Hindus and Sikhs living here, the majority have had generations living in Afghanistan as far back as they can remember. So most identify themselves as Afghans.
Pal says it is a common misconception that all Afghan Sikhs and Hindus are Punjabis who moved to Afghanistan from India years ago. In fact, many members of this community consider themselves to be the original Afghans who never converted to Islam. And this sense of rootedness only gives their pursuit of governmental representation in Afghanistan more zeal.
Honaryar, 26, was born in Kabul. Her father Kishan Singh is an engineer who moved to Kabul from Khost province. Honaryar’s mother, also a native Afghan, was born in Paktia province.
“I’ve travelled to many countries, including India,” she says at her campaign office in the Karte Parwan area of Kabul. “But I want to serve my own country and countrymen. I love Afghanistan.”
Honaryar trained as a dentist, but became politically active at the age of 19 when she participated in the Loya Jirga — or public assembly — and realised the number of issues facing Afghanistan. She then joined the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission to work for women’s rights. In May, she decided to run for parliament.
Pal and Honaryar consider themselves truly Afghan but they are aware that as a minority group, the Sikhs suffer from problems such as “discrimination” in education, lack of representation, harassment to convert and, in particular, the struggle for cremation grounds.
Before civil war broke out in 1991, the Sikh and Hindu community in Afghanistan numbered 50,000 upward and held a large portion of Afghanistan’s business capital. Since then, their population and wealth have dwindled. They have had hard times, even after the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001.
Over time, these events have reinforced this community’s relationship with India. For example, while Pal chooses to remain in Afghanistan, his wife and three children live in New Delhi.
“I enjoyed my visit to India,” says Honaryar. “India is a country which is helping Afghanistan politically and economically. And the two have so many cultural similarities and a shared heritage.”
Pal and Honaryar hope that they can serve as a bridge between their disenfranchised community and the government.
The odds against Pal winning the election are high as he is new to politics. However, he says he has many supporters.
“They are also our countrymen,” says Mohammed Ali, a 42-year-old pastry shop owner in central Kabul, of the Sikh and Hindu community. “May be they can serve us better than other Afghans.”
Re: Afghanistan News & Discussion
Karzai aide arrested for corruption has ties to CIA - NY Times
Mohammed Zia Salehi, the chief of administration for the National Security Council, appears to have been on the payroll for many years, according to officials in Kabul and Washington. It is unclear exactly what Mr. Salehi does in exchange for his money, whether providing information to the spy agency, advancing American views inside the presidential palace, or both.
Mr. Salehi’s relationship with the C.I.A. underscores deep contradictions at the heart of the Obama administration’s policy in Afghanistan, with American officials simultaneously demanding that Mr. Karzai root out the corruption that pervades his government while sometimes subsidizing the very people suspected of perpetrating it.
Mr. Salehi was arrested in July and released after Mr. Karzai intervened.
Re: Afghanistan News & Discussion
X post from Af-pak thread.
Did not see this posted in the thread. Nothing that BRFits don't already know.
Baradar - Our vote goes to the ISI.
Did not see this posted in the thread. Nothing that BRFits don't already know.
Baradar - Our vote goes to the ISI.
"The ISI has apparently established parameters of Taliban conduct and strategy, reinforced by the threat of arrest. Independent contacts between the Taliban's former military commander, Mullah Baradar, and the Afghan government, possibly with a view to negotiations, apparently breached these boundaries, and so he and at least seven other Taliban leaders were arrested by the ISI in early February 2010. It appears that the arrests were intended to send a message to both the Taliban and the United States that negotiations could only take place if the ISI had a major role in, if not control over, the negotiating process."
"Pakistan [the ISI] does not have only one representative on the Quetta Shura, they have representatives everywhere. As for Mullah Baradar's arrest, do you think they didn't know where he and others were before that? … the ISI have more than two, three or four [representatives] on the [Quetta] Shura. … Some [other members of the Quetta Shura] know they work for the ISI, but it's not discussed. … The reality is that the ISI controls the leadership. Mullar Omar has strong support of Pakistan; he has to listen to them and do what they say.'
"Both Haqqani commanders echoed the comments of Taliban commanders about the presence of ISI on the Quetta Shura. According to the senior commander: 'Yes the ISI control the Quetta Shura. When Mullah Baradar and Mullah Omar talked directly to the Afghan government – peace talks – the ISI arrested Baradar … because they want peace talks to fail. I don't know how many ISI are on the Quetta Shura … Honest Afghans who want jihad and are honest to their country, were disarmed, detained and became powerless ... I know many good high-ranking [former] Taliban who are not supporting the fight in Afghanistan ... the rest are listening to the ISI, [and] still have the control. I don't like this. Without the support of the ISI, Afghans cannot do anything, can't even have meetings. Both former and current ISI are on the Quetta Shura. New ISI members are not so reliable and do not have such a strong role in it; the former ISI have more credibility and influence. All the Taliban interested in the peace process are detained.' -- from The Sun in the Sky.
Re: Afghanistan News & Discussion
Graft-Fighting Prosecutor Is Dismissed in Afghanistan
By DEXTER FILKINS and ALISSA J. RUBIN
Published: August 28, 2010
KABUL, Afghanistan — One of the country’s most senior prosecutors said Saturday that President Hamid Karzai fired him this week after he repeatedly refused to block corruption investigations at the highest levels of Mr. Karzai’s government.
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I don't know why some Indians feel this clown is worth supporting. What is the point in supporting some corrupt crook?
By DEXTER FILKINS and ALISSA J. RUBIN
Published: August 28, 2010
KABUL, Afghanistan — One of the country’s most senior prosecutors said Saturday that President Hamid Karzai fired him this week after he repeatedly refused to block corruption investigations at the highest levels of Mr. Karzai’s government.
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I don't know why some Indians feel this clown is worth supporting. What is the point in supporting some corrupt crook?
Re: Afghanistan News & Discussion
Because his corruption has nothing to do with India's national interests.Sanjay M wrote:I don't know why some Indians feel this clown is worth supporting. What is the point in supporting some corrupt crook?
It is not as if we are so close to him that we too get tainted. He is the President of Afghanistan and India works with him.
Re: Afghanistan News & Discussion
In addition to what RajeshA said ... we need to be pragmatic ... expecting Afghanistan to show up at the top of Transparency Internationals ranking would be a foolhardy dream. Does anyone here think that if Karzai were to be replaced, corruption in Afghanistan will suddenly disappear ?Sanjay M wrote:Graft-Fighting Prosecutor Is Dismissed in Afghanistan
By DEXTER FILKINS and ALISSA J. RUBIN
Published: August 28, 2010
KABUL, Afghanistan — One of the country’s most senior prosecutors said Saturday that President Hamid Karzai fired him this week after he repeatedly refused to block corruption investigations at the highest levels of Mr. Karzai’s government.
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I don't know why some Indians feel this clown is worth supporting. What is the point in supporting some corrupt crook?
Re: Afghanistan News & Discussion
Karzai's govt is dependent upon corruption because it is "sekoolar" (by this, I refer not to their religious neutrality, which they have less and less of, but rather their ethnic neutrality)
Karzai's govt has to keep a fractious multi-ethnic population stitched together, when they would naturally rather split apart. So he does this by bribing elites among the various ethnic groups, whom he then uses to keep the patchwork from falling apart. This creates a bribery culture - rule of the multi-ethnic kleptocracy. This is very similar to the Kaangress Party.
A better solution would be to let the people naturally split up along ethnic lines, and live happily as they did before the patchwork was formed (through brute force of conquest)
Then there would be no basis for having a network of corrupt cronies, and the various separate nations could run themselves competently.
The more the corruption is allowed to fester, the more it will fuel the Taliban backlash. By removing the raison d'etre for the corruption, then it deprives Pak of fertile ground for creating jihadis.
Karzai's govt has to keep a fractious multi-ethnic population stitched together, when they would naturally rather split apart. So he does this by bribing elites among the various ethnic groups, whom he then uses to keep the patchwork from falling apart. This creates a bribery culture - rule of the multi-ethnic kleptocracy. This is very similar to the Kaangress Party.
A better solution would be to let the people naturally split up along ethnic lines, and live happily as they did before the patchwork was formed (through brute force of conquest)
Then there would be no basis for having a network of corrupt cronies, and the various separate nations could run themselves competently.
The more the corruption is allowed to fester, the more it will fuel the Taliban backlash. By removing the raison d'etre for the corruption, then it deprives Pak of fertile ground for creating jihadis.
Re: Afghanistan News & Discussion
Sanjay M, India need not take a high moral ground on any issue and preach to the rest of the world as it used to do in the Nehru days. Especially on corruption. India must learn to work for its national interests. Personal traits of integrity and practice of statecraft should not be mixed up. If the Karzai government needs to be gotten rid of, then that is a different matter, but at present, India probably feels comfortable with him. It may be TINA also.
Re: Afghanistan News & Discussion
How is India hurt by supporting Karzai?
Will the alternative be any better?
Will the alternative be any better?
Re: Afghanistan News & Discussion
I'm not talking about preaching, I'm talking about switching the horse we back. We should immediately support Northern Alliance in its de facto independence from the rest of Afghanistan, as soon as the Americans leave. Pashtuns will have to be ethnically cleansed from the north in order to ensure security, and to crowd them into the South, where Pashtun nationalism can take hold, to Pak's detriment.
Re: Afghanistan News & Discussion
Big Bro,
The time for that will come. Today, it is more beneficial to support karzai.
The time for that will come. Today, it is more beneficial to support karzai.
Re: Afghanistan News & Discussion
The trick is not to switch horses, but to maintain as many as possible. And we are not going anywhere. We are sitting right next door like a huge benevolent monster whose muscles are growing by the day, and not because of "food" Afghanistan or Pakistan provides. And we are in no hurry. We simply want to trade and do business with and thru Afghanistan. And we keep repeating this mantra, and doing good things which have a positive impact on the Afghan people while not getting involved in the bloodletting. It's not a glamorous approach. But, over the long term, it will prove to be the most effective. It is also in line with our civilisational outlook and heritage.
It does not matter to us, therefore, whether the Taliban or Karzai or some other dispensation prevails in Afghanistan anymore than whether Pakistan has an ICBM or not. Indeed, to "play", we may even feel the need to encourage the Taliban to takeover in Afghanistan. Will they not want to do any business whatsoever with India? Will they - once they get control of the country and suppress their women, prevent music and movies, and all the rest of it - still refuse to do any business or "other" interaction with India? Even if there is significant money in it for them? Is wealth against Islam? Is the Af-Pak Pashtun allegiance to Pakistan's Punjabi generals' "strategic Islam" greater than their loyalty to their people and to wealth? Hell, is their allegiance to Islam on a personal level in each case greater than to that of personal and familial comfort. Don't make me laugh. Will they, given their control over Afghanistan and sufficient incentive, rule out the possibility or striking back at the entity that seeks to keep its hands at their throats - i.e. the Punjabi-dominated civil/military elite in Pakistan and their co-opted allies? The Afghans have shown that they have no problem with the blood of their near and dear ones being shed from Karzai down to the last Taliban commander. It remains to be seen whether the above-mentioned elite is similarly resilient.
Contrary to appearances, there aren't that many open squares for the Pakjabis on the Afghan chessboard. And increasingly, their only option to promote change is through violence.
Like I said, there is no hurry. We needn't be affected in the least by artificial "deadlines" set by the Americans or anyone else, especially while even those who have set these deadlines don't believe in them.
As the saying goes, you can't buy an Afghan but you can rent him.
It does not matter to us, therefore, whether the Taliban or Karzai or some other dispensation prevails in Afghanistan anymore than whether Pakistan has an ICBM or not. Indeed, to "play", we may even feel the need to encourage the Taliban to takeover in Afghanistan. Will they not want to do any business whatsoever with India? Will they - once they get control of the country and suppress their women, prevent music and movies, and all the rest of it - still refuse to do any business or "other" interaction with India? Even if there is significant money in it for them? Is wealth against Islam? Is the Af-Pak Pashtun allegiance to Pakistan's Punjabi generals' "strategic Islam" greater than their loyalty to their people and to wealth? Hell, is their allegiance to Islam on a personal level in each case greater than to that of personal and familial comfort. Don't make me laugh. Will they, given their control over Afghanistan and sufficient incentive, rule out the possibility or striking back at the entity that seeks to keep its hands at their throats - i.e. the Punjabi-dominated civil/military elite in Pakistan and their co-opted allies? The Afghans have shown that they have no problem with the blood of their near and dear ones being shed from Karzai down to the last Taliban commander. It remains to be seen whether the above-mentioned elite is similarly resilient.
Contrary to appearances, there aren't that many open squares for the Pakjabis on the Afghan chessboard. And increasingly, their only option to promote change is through violence.
Like I said, there is no hurry. We needn't be affected in the least by artificial "deadlines" set by the Americans or anyone else, especially while even those who have set these deadlines don't believe in them.
As the saying goes, you can't buy an Afghan but you can rent him.
Re: Afghanistan News & Discussion
Let's not forget that the blood of other Afghans, the Afghans have spilled has often been at the behest of the ISI through ISI's manipulation of the leaders of the Taliban. Even though the Afghan Pushtun has no qualms in attacking the Crusaders in his lands, he would rather not kill his brethren. It is the ISI that promotes wanton killing of Afghan civilians through suicide bombings and the like. Even the Taliban foot soldiers abhor this. But due to current situation they give in to the commands of ISI.JE Menon wrote:The Afghans have shown that they have no problem with the blood of their near and dear ones being shed from Karzai down to the last Taliban commander. It remains to be seen whether the above-mentioned elite is similarly resilient.
Some day soon there will be reckoning.
Re: Afghanistan News & Discussion
Karzai is an old fashioned Afghan nationalist by conviction, and he has a very real charisma if you meet him in person. His biggest problem is that he has not built a machinery that allows him to mobilise support in to a movement that is bigger the state.
The Taliban has ideology, organisation and money. It is a movement first, and parallel government second. That is the source of its vitality - governments are not inspiring things, but ideas combined with opportunities are.
A movement is what you get when you combine ideas and feelings that have a following with organisation and action. Afghan nationalism is a real thing with the potential to win, but it lacks the structure and resources of the Taliban.
It is not the Afghan state, or international NGOs, or foreign countries that can build and operate an educational infrastructure that can produce the committed human material to beat the Taliban and its Deobandi madrasa factories.
Most of the people in power in countries trying to help Afghanistan have no experience of what its like to build a movement, and that it takes a movement to beat one.
The Taliban has ideology, organisation and money. It is a movement first, and parallel government second. That is the source of its vitality - governments are not inspiring things, but ideas combined with opportunities are.
A movement is what you get when you combine ideas and feelings that have a following with organisation and action. Afghan nationalism is a real thing with the potential to win, but it lacks the structure and resources of the Taliban.
It is not the Afghan state, or international NGOs, or foreign countries that can build and operate an educational infrastructure that can produce the committed human material to beat the Taliban and its Deobandi madrasa factories.
Most of the people in power in countries trying to help Afghanistan have no experience of what its like to build a movement, and that it takes a movement to beat one.
Re: Afghanistan News & Discussion
In other words - we need to put a blanket of Hindustani benevolence over the entire AfPak region.JE Menon wrote:The trick is not to switch horses, but to maintain as many as possible. And we are not going anywhere. We are sitting right next door like a huge benevolent monster whose muscles are growing by the day, and not because of "food" Afghanistan or Pakistan provides. And we are in no hurry. We simply want to trade and do business with and thru Afghanistan. And we keep repeating this mantra, and doing good things which have a positive impact on the Afghan people while not getting involved in the bloodletting. It's not a glamorous approach. But, over the long term, it will prove to be the most effective. It is also in line with our civilisational outlook and heritage.
It does not matter to us, therefore, whether the Taliban or Karzai or some other dispensation prevails in Afghanistan anymore than whether Pakistan has an ICBM or not.
Re: Afghanistan News & Discussion
Dont know if these Afghan pictures have been posted before...from a time not long ago..
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2 ... n?page=0,0
What savagery the pakbarbarians and taliban have inflicted...
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2 ... n?page=0,0
What savagery the pakbarbarians and taliban have inflicted...
Re: Afghanistan News & Discussion
pedophile capital of Asia
Too often, soldiers on patrol passed an older man walking hand-in-hand with a pretty young boy. Their behavior suggested he was not the boy's father. Then, British soldiers found that young Afghan men were actually trying to "touch and fondle them," military investigator AnnaMaria Cardinalli told me.
For centuries, Afghan men have taken boys, roughly 9 to 15 years old, as lovers. Some research suggests that half the Pashtun tribal members in Kandahar and other southern towns are bacha baz, the term for an older man with a boy lover. Literally it means "boy player." The men like to boast about it.
Afghans say pedophilia is most prevalent among Pashtun men in the south. The Pashtun are Afghanistan's most important tribe. For centuries, the nation's leaders have been Pashtun.
Reasons behind this --In Kandahar, population about 500,000, and other towns, dance parties are a popular, often weekly, pastime. Young boys dress up as girls, wearing makeup and bells on their feet, and dance for a dozen or more leering middle-aged men who throw money at them and then take them home. A recent State Department report called "dancing boys" a "widespread, culturally sanctioned form of male rape."
So, why are American and NATO forces fighting and dying to defend tens of thousands of proud pedophiles, certainly more per capita than any other place on Earth?
Sociologists and anthropologists say the problem results from perverse interpretation of Islamic law. Women are simply unapproachable. Afghan men cannot talk to an unrelated woman until after proposing marriage. Before then, they can't even look at a woman, except perhaps her feet. Otherwise she is covered, head to ankle.
Even after marriage,
That helps explain why women are hidden away - and stoned to death if they are perceived to have misbehaved. Islamic law also forbids homosexuality. But the pedophiles explain that away. It's not homosexuality, they aver, because they aren't in love with their boys.
Likely combination of tribal customs with Islam make this a sad story of abuse of young boys. Little chance of removal unless the belief systems are removed. The question is how can the beliefs be removed without folks shouting "Islam khatre main hain"As one boy, in tow of a man he called "my lord," told the Reuters reporter: "Once I grow up, I will be an owner, and I will have my own boys."
Re: Afghanistan News & Discussion
^^^Follow the dictum espoused by Brihaspati on many of the threads when it comes to dealing with ROP. This is a belief system not worth preserving. It must be allowed to die. What ever can be done to hasten the prosess must be done.
Re: Afghanistan News & Discussion
Deadly days for US troops,who are suffering v.heavy losses in bomb attacks.Why the US is not revealing whether they were killed in foot patrols or vehicular casualties beats me (stated in the full report),as the Taliban definitely know what they did!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... hours.html
Afghanistan bomb attacks kill twenty-one US soldiers in 48 hours
Twenty-one American troops have been killed in Afghanistan since Friday in one of the bloodiest periods of the summer.
Excerpt:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... hours.html
Afghanistan bomb attacks kill twenty-one US soldiers in 48 hours
Twenty-one American troops have been killed in Afghanistan since Friday in one of the bloodiest periods of the summer.
Excerpt:
A series of bomb attacks have badly hit US troops in eastern and southern Afghanistan in the past 48 hours.
The death toll among in the Nato-led coalition has reached 484 this year and is predicted to far surpass 2009’s total of 521.
Nato suffers deadliest year in Afghanistan since 2001 invasion
Afghanistan: two soldiers killed as Operation Panther's Claw declared a successDeaths have risen consistently each year since 2001. Afghan police and civilians have suffered far higher casualties.
The coalition blames the rise in troop deaths partly on the influx of reinforcements, which is allowing commanders to target previously untouched insurgent safe havens where rebels are mounting stiff resistance.
Gen David Petraeus, senior US and Nato commander in the country, warned last week fighting would “get harder before it gets easier”.
In two of the most deadly recent incidents, three Americans died in eastern Afghanistan on one bomb attack on Tuesday. Five died in a single bomb attack in the south on Monday.
Re: Afghanistan News & Discussion
Afghan authorities take over biggest bank to avoid meltdown
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 03018.html
Afghanistan's Central Bank has taken control of Kabul Bank, a politically potent financial institution partly owned by President Hamid Karzai's brother, and ordered its chairman to hand over $160 million worth of luxury villas and other property purchased in Dubai for well-connected insiders, according to Afghan bankers and officials.
Kabul Bank handles salary payments for Afghan soldiers, police and teachers, and has taken in more than $1 billion in deposits from ordinary Afghans.
The decision to move on Kabul Bank was made by Karzai after evidence was presented to him about the bank's illicit dealings by the Central Bank governor, Abdul Qadir Fitrat, at a meeting about a month ago. Top U.S. commander Gen. David Petraeus was present for the meeting, according to Kabul Bank insiders, who spoke on condition of anonymity and said that Petraeus urged Karzai to take action.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 03018.html
Afghanistan's Central Bank has taken control of Kabul Bank, a politically potent financial institution partly owned by President Hamid Karzai's brother, and ordered its chairman to hand over $160 million worth of luxury villas and other property purchased in Dubai for well-connected insiders, according to Afghan bankers and officials.
Kabul Bank handles salary payments for Afghan soldiers, police and teachers, and has taken in more than $1 billion in deposits from ordinary Afghans.
The decision to move on Kabul Bank was made by Karzai after evidence was presented to him about the bank's illicit dealings by the Central Bank governor, Abdul Qadir Fitrat, at a meeting about a month ago. Top U.S. commander Gen. David Petraeus was present for the meeting, according to Kabul Bank insiders, who spoke on condition of anonymity and said that Petraeus urged Karzai to take action.
Re: Afghanistan News & Discussion
Afghans seek India role in reconstruction
The Afghan NSA is known for his strong views against the US support of Pakistan even while it nurtured and trained terrorist groups carrying out violent activities in Afghanistan. To a pointed query on Islamabad's quest for strategic depth, he said: "There are two ways of turning another country into strategic depth — by building economic and cultural ties towards creation of an economic market. I'm a supporter of this approach. We are for economic integration and more transit facilities (including to India). But the Afghan people will never accept anyone attempting to undermine their destiny or national sovereignty (in pursuit of strategic depth)."
Re: Afghanistan News & Discussion
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/201 ... tan-legit/
Petraeus: Afghan concern about Pakistan is legit
Petraeus: Afghan concern about Pakistan is legit
. David H. Petraeus said he shares Mr. Karzai's concern about threats across the border in Pakistan but said the Pakistanis deserve credit for waging what he described as an "impressive counterinsurgency campaign" during the past 18 months.The Karzai government has been increasingly vocal in recent days about the need to destroy Taliban and al Qaeda sanctuaries in Pakistan.Afghan National Security Adviser Rangin Dadfar Spanta has argued that U.S. support of Pakistan amounts to nurturing the terrorists' "main mentor" and that the Afghan people are no longer ready to "pay the price for the international community's miscalculation and naivete."
"Given the very clear linkage between attacks on Afghan soil by individuals who have come from Pakistan and are commanded and controlled from Pakistan, I think President Karzai and Dr. Spanta have very legitimate concerns," Gen. Petraeus said. Still, he added, the Pakistani government has continued to "squeeze the locations in which these individuals have safe haven sanctuary, recognizing that more work needs to be done."
In a wide-ranging interview, Gen. Petraeus also said that Mr. Karzai's efforts to reconcile with top Taliban leaders are "beyond the surface, but they are certainly in the early stages.""He is the one who is pursuing this, but there have been some ways that we have facilitated some of the contact," Gen. Petraeus said
Re: Afghanistan News & Discussion
Yeah and he goes to Islumabad and says TSP concerns about India are legit!
Who cares for his opinions?
Who cares for his opinions?
-
RamaY
- BRF Oldie
- Posts: 17249
- Joined: 10 Aug 2006 21:11
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Re: Afghanistan News & Discussion
This is Bruce Bueno de Mesquita's (The Predictioneer's Game) strategy. They tried the same in Iraq.James B wrote:Petraeus: Reconciliation With Taliban is Ultimate Goal for Afghanistan's Future
Petraeus said that orders approved by provincial governors and local leaders Wednesday enable implementation of measures ordered by Afghan President Hamid Karzai to reintegrate the "$10-a-day Taliban" into society.
The only problem I see is that it puts 100% emphasis on self-interests. Western world-view perhaps.
Re: Afghanistan News & Discussion
Pushtun concern about USA is legit!
Re: Afghanistan News & Discussion
Turkmenistan, Afghanistan ink pipeline framework deal
so that Afghanisthan becomes its border.
The countries agreed in 2002 to build a 1,700 kilometer pipeline to deliver Turkmen gas to Pakistan and India via Afghanistan but progress on the project has lagged because of the conflict with the Taliban.
Whole of J&K should be in India's control.The pipeline aims to transport over 30 billion cubic meters of gas annually from the Dauletabad gas fields in southeast Turkmenistan to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and possibly India.
Despite receiving financing from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) the project, whose route would take it through conflict torn-Helmand and Kandahar in Afghanistan and Quetta in Pakistan, has been held up by security problems.
Turkmenistan sits atop the world’s fourth-biggest natural gas reserves and Russia, China and the West are vying to expand their presence there as the country cautiously relaxes the isolation imposed by Berdymukhamedov’s late predecessor Saparmurat Niyazov.
so that Afghanisthan becomes its border.Re: Afghanistan News & Discussion
''
Could be. Mike Schuer was ranting that India was rebuilding the Afghan Parliament house in Kabul.
Re: Afghanistan News & Discussion
We won't keep India out: Spanta
Mr. Spanta disfavoured suggestions by Afghanistan's neighbours {Why plural ? What are these countries, apart from TSP ?} to keep India out, and said his government believed that no country had the right to impose strategic allies on another country.
Re: Afghanistan News & Discussion
X-post:
sum wrote:Posted in full as a good read:
No love for Pakistan
By Saeed Naqvi
Throughout the 90 minute conversation, what came across was Abdus Zaeef’s total distrust of Pakistan and its role in Afghanistan.
The unspeakable tragedy of the floods in Pakistan, on a scale unknown to man, has dwarfed much else in the region: 100 shot dead in three days of political, ethnic and sectarian violence in Karachi, the cloudburst in Leh, the Koochi (Pushotoon shepherds) and Hazara clashes, ironically, in Kabul’s Darul Aman or haven of peace.
Before I meander, let me focus on just one image, here in Kabul, which may provide a clue (among other such clues) to the Afghan jigsaw.
Through a maze of contacts, I am invited to meet Mullah Abdus Salaam Zaeef who, at 42, is a veteran of dramatic experiences of a variety that makes fiction riveting. An orphan, he joined the ranks of the Mujahideen fighting the Soviets. He was then 15, fresh from a Madrasa in Pakistan where his relatives had fled to escape the ‘Soviets.’
Mullah Omar, whom he even today refers to as Amirul Momineen, or the chief of the faithful, became his mentor and friend. Obviously, he left such an impression on Mullah Omar and others in the al-Qaeda-Taliban leadership that when the Taliban came to power in Kabul in 1996, he was posted as the Taliban ambassador to Islamabad. There were similar Taliban representations in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, but not Washington, leaving the US with suitable deniability of any affiliations with the ‘fundamentalists.’ It is another matter that ‘fundamentalist’ delegations made routine beelines to George Bush and his affiliates in Texas.
Fast forward to 9/11 and pictures of Donald Rumsfeld at Tora-Bora mountains pointing at the caves, flames leaping out: “Do you think they are cooking cookies in there?” He meant Osama bin Laden was hatching plots in those caves. He probably was.
Zaeef dutifully addressed press conferences outside his embassy in Islamabad. Then, in December, President Musharraf made a U-turn, joined the war on terror and remained George W Bush’s ‘most trusted ally’ to the very end.
As a prelude to the Bush- Musharraf romance, the ISI promptly handed Mullah Zaeef to the US forces who ferried him to Guantanamo Bay. His four year stint at this facility is now a book — in Guantanamo. He then wrote another book on his years with Taliban.
So, here I am at his two storey house protected by armed guards in an officially provided cabin outside the door. I am escorted to the terrace, lined with flower pots, a green synthetic carpet spread wall to wall.
Mullah Zaeef is a tall, burly man with a thick, bushy beard, blending with his black turban. There are no chairs. Taliban austerity, I suppose. We recline against colourful, rectangular cushions, bloated with extra stuffing of cotton.
As an opening gambit, I settle for the topic most current: negotiations with the Taliban. Who will you negotiate with: I ask.
“When Nato generals and ambassadors ask me that question I say: “Americans should negotiate with the people they are fighting — Taliban”, he replies.
Negotiations only with Americans
What about President Hamid Karzai? I continue. “He is only an instrument of the Americans”. But Gen David Petraeus, the US force commander, Pakistan’s Gen Ashfaq Kayani and President Karzai have been meeting to work out the modalities of negotiations. “Negotiations are possible but only with the Americans” he persists.
Surely, Gen Kayani and the ISI will insist on a role. After all, the ISI has invested so much in Afghanistan over the past 30 years. “The CIA has invested; the ISI has spent a fraction of that investment”, he does not even pause to think.
Are you saying that Pakistan has no role in negotiating peace in Afghanistan? “None whatsoever,” he continues. “Afghan Taliban are fighting the Americans; Pakistan Taliban are fighting the Pakistan government... Pakistan Taliban or Afghan Taliban have no quarrel with the Pakistan nation, the people. The fight is with their intelligence agency, with their government.”
I come to the point directly. The Pakistan army has been talking to the Haqqani group which is extending its influence in Afghanistan. “There are no talks with Haqqani”. Who knows, Gen Petraeus may be right that there is no monolithic Taliban group, just a syndicate of groups. For Mullah Zaeef, the ultimate Taliban leader is Mullah Omar. Can I meet Mullah Omar? I ask him. “Extremely dangerous these days” he says.
Throughout the 90 minute conversation, what comes across is his total distrust of Pakistan. If you wish to see this cool man lose his composure, draw him out on Pakistan’s control on Taliban in Afghanistan.
“They cannot be trusted. It was from their air bases, that the Americans first struck Afghanistan. They facilitated the US troop movements. And do you think they will let the US leave? Do you know that Balochistan is the critical supply route for US Afghan operations? Will Pakistan ever give up this source of income and, above all, control on the Americans”. By now he is virtually frothing in the mouth.
“Even Israelis are not as harsh with their prisoners as the Pakistanis are. The torture our people have suffered….”. Remarkably, he said all this on TV. “First they entertained me as Ambassador, then handed me over to the Americans like an ordinary criminal. Why?” he explodes. The next government in Afghanistan will be neutral between Indian and Pakistan.
For perspective, let me explain where Mullah Zaeef stands in the Taliban hierarchy. Quite as important as Mullah Zaeef were Taliban foreign minister and representative to the UN, Wakil Ahmad Mutawakkil and Abdel Hakim Mujahid respectively.
After the September elections, we may hear these names as possible interlocutors, if there are to be negotiations, that is.
Re: Afghanistan News & Discussion
SS, You need to de-construct the Brig Raja and Michael Scheur articles.
Re: Afghanistan News & Discussion
India must engage with Afghanistan even more,both for infrastructure projects and leverage our relationship to get mining contracts,as the nation is reported to have 3 trillion dollars worth of mineral wealth,which the Chinese are lusting after.We can then use our own version of better behaved "contractors" than Blackwater,etc., to safeguard our interests in the country,which will also be a bulwark against Paki perfidy.By establishing a "permament" economic and cultural relationship with the Afghans,strengthening their militayr too with training,etc.,we can then preevnt the country from sliding back into Taliban hands.In this,even the west would like to see a neutral Afghanistan emerge after the US/NATO's withdrawal,so that another Taliban/AlQ regime,manipulated and controlled by the ISI is prevented from taking over.But we will also have to do a lot of teamwork with not just the west but also in particular the Russians and Northern states,who have much more at stake than just preventing the country from being used as a haven for terrorist.With Afghanistan under their control,the ISI,AlQ and the Taliban can spearhead Islamist strategy and terrorist attacks globally without interference,as they did before.
Afghanistan war logs: Secret CIA paramilitaries' role in civilian deaths/
Innocent Afghan men, women and children have paid the price of the Americans' rules of engagement
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/ju ... engagement
Afghanistan war logs: Secret CIA paramilitaries' role in civilian deaths/
Innocent Afghan men, women and children have paid the price of the Americans' rules of engagement
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/ju ... engagement
Re: Afghanistan News & Discussion
X-post:
A refreshing sight
A refreshing sight
By M K Bhadrakumar
The high-profile visits to New Delhi underscore the importance given by Karzai to forging a strategic understanding with India.
The consultations by Afghan foreign minister Zalmay Rasul and National Security Advisor Rangin Dadfar Spanta in New Delhi in successive weeks will be noted regionally and internationally. They took place at a critical juncture in the geopolitics of the region.
For Indian foreign-policymakers, Afghanistan assumes an unprecedented priority today as the stakes are high for national security, and harmonising our vital interests and core concerns with those of the international community becomes a formidable intellectual and political challenge.
To be sure, the consultations would have given clarity to our understanding of the intriguing undercurrents in the Afghan situation. Quite obviously, the war is in stalemate. In the past 5 days alone, 19 US servicemen have been killed and they are dying in vain. The ‘surge’ is fizzling out while the Pakistani floods provide the alibi for the top brass in Rawalpindi to plead overriding distractions. In short, the war is degenerating into a futile brutish operation by the US special forces.
Politically, the blame game has begun in direct proportion to the frustrations on the battlefield. A US-led vilification campaign against Afghan President Hamid Karzai has appeared, provoked by his dogged sense of independence and his growing proclivity to address policies through the prism of Afghan national sentiments and interests, and, most important, his disenchantment with his western partners and his consequential gravitation toward regional allies.
The regional milieu impacts in many ways. The US public opinion is wearied of bloodshed but Pentagon is nonetheless hell-bent on keeping its military presence in the region as part of the ‘containment’ strategy toward China — and is beefing up its military bases in Afghanistan and even constructing new ones. The Afghan opinion will always militate against foreign occupation. Russia and China resent the US military presence but cannot do without it either, given the unfinished business of the war on terrorism.
Pakistan continues to project power into Afghanistan for gaining ‘strategic depth’ and estimates that time works in its favour even as US frustrations keep mounting. The US attempt to leverage Pakistan by doling out a multi-billion dollar aid package will not induce any serious let-up in the Pakistani military’s support to the Afghan insurgents. Thus, the US and Pakistan make strange Siamese twins in their deathly dance of mutual accommodation.
Under the circumstances Karzai faces a tough choice in being called upon to talk to the Taliban through the Pakistani military and under close US watch, which effectively stymies his reconciliation strategy and threatens to alienate his allies in Kabul who include forces opposed to a Taliban takeover.
......
Strategic understanding
The visits by the Afghan dignitaries no doubt underscore the high importance given by Karzai to forging a strategic understanding with India. Karzai is keen to have India’s support while navigating the choppy waters ahead. Certainly, there is a mutuality of interests in this regard, too, insofar as New Delhi shares Karzai’s opposition to a force majeure Taliban takeover in Kabul and equally sees the imperative of a broad-based government reflecting the country’s plural society as the key to enduring peace.
Curiously, the calculus holds similarities with the one in 1989-90 under Najibullah. Now as well, India’s national security interests are best served by a democratic, independent, non-aligned and neutral Afghanistan free of foreign interference.
The consultations underscore that India will always remain a player in Afghanistan and that it is not gratis any third country in the region or outside of it that India remains so. Cutting across regions and ethnic groups, Mujahideen and communists, and royalists and democrats, there is goodwill toward India among the Afghan people.
Two, the consultations show up that India doesn’t need fig-leaves of ‘trilateral’ or ‘quadrilateral’ formats for pursuing its relations with Afghanistan, since it has never been an adversary, an aggressor or an occupier. India’s approach can be the same as China’s, which too places primacy on an independent line of thinking.
Three, India has a steadily deepening and expanding strategic partnership with the US — unlike Russia (which cannot quite make up its mind if it is the US’ ally or adversary) or Iran (which peers through the prism of its standoff with the US). Despite the apparent contradictions in the US and Indian approaches, both wish to see a stable Afghanistan that acts as a hub bringing together Central and South Asia.
Delhi is uniquely placed to influence Washington’s thinking. US President Barack Obama is due in November and he will have use for constructive inputs to go into his upcoming review of the AfPak strategy in December.
Of course, there is no scope for a military role for India. Nor is there any need of triumphalism vis-à-vis Pakistan, which will remain an influential player, thanks to the realities of geography, ethnicity, culture and history. But within these parameters, India can do much although it is a fine line to walk.
The warmth with which Rasul and Spanta were received certainly comes as a refreshing sight. The ingenuity of Indian diplomacy lies in transmuting the new thinking into practical measures that strengthen Karzai’s leadership and contribute to the stabilisation of Afghanistan.
Re: Afghanistan News & Discussion
Karzai condemns NATO air strike
Map of afghanisthan-- Rostaq is east of Kunduz and Takhar is named as Farkhar in the map.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai strongly condemned an air strike by NATO-led forces which he said killed 10 campaign workers for this month’s election, a sour note as US Defence Secretary Robert Gates arrived for talks.
That milestone has thrown the US military focus back onto Afghanistan, where violence has reached its worst levels since the Taliban were ousted in 2001, despite the presence of almost 150000 foreign troops, most of them American.
Thursday’s attack happened in the Rostaq district of Takhar, a spokesman for the provincial governor said, a province in the north near Tajikistan that has been relatively peaceful, unlike areas in the south and east where the resurgent Taliban are most active.
Spokesman Faiz Mohammad Tawhidi said the candidate, Abdul Wahid, and some of his supporters were wounded in the air strike. He said he had been told of the strike by security officials.
At about the same time, a statement issued by the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said coalition forces had conducted a precision air strike against a senior member of the militant group the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.
Afghanisthan mapThere are no foreign troops stationed in Takhar, according to an ISAF troop distribution map, (http://www.isaf.nato.int), but German units are based in Kunduz to the west and Badakhshan to the east.
Last September, a US air strike called in by German troops killed scores of people in Kunduz, at least 30 of them civilians. The strike led to the resignation of the German defence minister.
Map of afghanisthan-- Rostaq is east of Kunduz and Takhar is named as Farkhar in the map.
Re: Afghanistan News & Discussion
Finally the US appears to be getting something right .... Petraeus may be able to make real progress ... the big question is whether he will get political backing in Washington.Petraeus Says Afghan Raids on Rebels Exceed Iraq Pace
By Viola Gienger -
U.S. Army General David Petraeus, the top coalition commander in Afghanistan, said special forces operations against militants there are about four times more frequent than at the peak of the Iraq War.
“We are at the absolutely highest operational tempo,” said Petraeus, who replaced General Stanley McChrystal as commander of the U.S.- and NATO-led forces in Afghanistan two months ago. Operations have climbed in the past two weeks, he said.
In the past 24 hours, eight raids netted three targeted individuals and may have nabbed four more still to be confirmed, Petraeus told reporters traveling with Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Michael Mullen in the Afghan capital, Kabul, today.
Special units, which draw on intelligence to target and capture or kill militant leaders, conducted 4,002 missions in Afghanistan during the three months ended Aug. 30, an average of more than 40 a day. At the height of the “surge” of troops in Iraq, forces conducted about 10 a day, Petraeus said.
.....
Special operations have increased in the past week or two “in part because of some key detainees who have been very helpful with what they’ve provided about their organizations,” the commander said.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-0 ... -pace.html