January’s B-side
The Gaza genocide is made the key focus of January’s B-side. Imran Khan’s letter to President Obama is the second key focus with Kashmir becoming the third key focus for this month’s B-side.
January’s B-side contents are:
- The Gaza Genocide by WASIM ARIF
- Imran Khan’s Open Letter to President Obama by IMRAN KHAN
- David Miliband’s Kashmir Comments by WASIM ARIF
The Gaza genocide … need I say more?
The Gaza Genocide by Wasim Arif
Other Pakistan’s unwritten rule and remit is that it focuses strictly on Pakistan. However as a lifetime supporter of the Palestinian people I cannot go on without passing comment on the recent genocide of Gaza.
In calling the collective punishment and massacre of innocents a genocide I echo the words of the President of the UN General Assembly Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann who condemned Israel’s killings of Palestinians in its Gaza offensive as “genocide”.
Israel’s evil since its bastard birth (meant in its true form as an illegitimate entity) can be taken as a given. However the Gaza genocide broke its previous records in evil for it was a massacre engineered as a crude electioneering exercise to show a strong Israel to the brainwashed Israeli masses.
However the fools of Israel have only won a battle and not the war as today Israel stands isolated in the world. Even Israel’s arch-supporters namely Uncle Sam stand disgraced and degraded with their words of support today. However the best comment of condemnation has come from the legendary British parliamentarian Sir Gerald Kaufman.
For your information Sir Gerald Kaufman is a British Member of Parliament, who was raised as an Orthodox Jew. In the House of Commons he delivered a blistering attack on the evil of Israel declaring that Israel was taking advantage of the guilt many non-Jews feel over the Holocaust to ruthlessly press ahead with its offensive in Gaza.
In a thundering speech Sir Gerald Kaufman spoke the raw truth saying that “the present Israeli government ruthlessly and cynically exploits the continuing guilt from Gentiles over the slaughter of Jews in the Holocaust as justification for their murder of Palestinians.” The full speech can be seen below:
Imran Khan’s open letter to President Obama is analysed in detail.
An Open Letter To President Obama by Imran Khan
Dear President Obama,
Your extraordinary ascent to the U.S. Presidency is, to a large part, a reflection of your remarkable ability to mobilize society, particularly the youth, with the message of “change.” Indeed, change is what the world is yearning for after eight long and almost endless years of carnage let loose by a group of neo-cons that occupied the White House.
Understandably, your overarching policy focus would be the security and welfare of all U.S. citizens and so it should be. Similarly, our first and foremost concern is the protection of Pakistani lives and the prosperity of our society. We may have different social and cultural values, but we share the fundamental values of peace, harmony, justice and equality before law.
No people desire change more than the people of Pakistan, as we have suffered the most since 9/11, despite the fact that none of the perpetrators of the acts of terrorism unleashed on the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2001, were Pakistani. Our entire social, political and economic fabric is in a state of meltdown. Our sovereignty, dignity and self-respect have been trampled upon. The previous U.S. administration invested in dictators and corrupt politicians by providing them power crutches in return for total compliance to pursue its misconceived war on terror.
There are many threats confronting our society today, including the threat of extremism. In a society where the majority is without fundamental rights, without education, without economic opportunities, without health care, the use of sheer force and loss of innocent lives continues to expand the extremist fringe and contract the space for the moderate majority.
Without peace and internal security, the notion of investing in development in the war zones is a pipe dream, as the anticipated benefits would never reach the people. So the first and foremost policy objective should be to restore the peace. This can only be achieved through a serious and sustained dialogue with the militants and mitigation of their genuine grievances under the ambit of our constitution and law. Since Pakistan’s founding leader signed a treaty in 1948 with the people of the country’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas and withdrew Pakistani troops, they had remained the most peaceful and trouble-free part of Pakistan up until the post-9/11 situation, when we were asked to deploy our troops in FATA.
Even a cursory knowledge of Pushtun history shows that for reasons of religious, cultural and social affinity, the Pushtuns on both sides of the Durand Line (which marks the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan) cannot remain indifferent to the suffering of their brethren on either side. The Pushtuns are proud of their history of resisting every invader from Alexander onwards, to the Persians, Moghuls, British and the Russians (all superpowers of their times) who were all bogged down in the Pushtun quagmire. So, no government, Pakistani or foreign, will ever be able to stop Pushtuns crossing over the 1,500-kilometer border to support their brethren in distress on either side, even if it means fighting the modern-day superpower in Afghanistan. Recent history shows how the mighty Soviet Union had to retreat from Afghanistan with its army defeated even though it had killed over a million Afghans.
To an average Pushtun, notwithstanding the U.N. Security Council sanction, the U.S. is an occupying power in Afghanistan that must be resisted. It is as simple as that. Therefore, the greatest challenge confronting U.S. policy in Afghanistan is how to change its status from an occupier to a partner. The new U.S. administration should have no doubt that there is no military solution in Afghanistan. As more innocent Pushtuns are killed, more space is created for new Taliban and even Al-Qaida recruits-revenge being an integral part of the Pushtun character. So, as with Iraq, the U.S. should give a time table for withdrawal from Afghanistan and replace NATO and U.S. forces with U.N. troops during the interim period.
The Pushtuns then should be involved in a dialogue process where they should be given a stake in the peace. As the majority’s stake in peace grows, proportionately the breeding ground for extremists shrinks.
The crucial lesson the U.S. needs to learn-and learn quickly-is that you can only win against terrorists if the majority in a community considers them terrorists. Once they become freedom fighters and heroes amongst their people, history tells us that the battle is lost.
Terrorism worldwide is an age-old phenomenon and cannot be eliminated by rampaging armies, no matter how powerful. It can only be contained by a strategy of building democratic societies and addressing the root causes of political conflicts. The democratization part of this strategy demands a strategic partnership between the West and the people of the Islamic world, who are basically demanding dignity, self-respect and the same fundamental rights as the ordinary citizen in the West enjoys. However, this partnership can only be forged if the U.S. and its close Western allies are prepared to accept and coexist with credible democratic governments in the Islamic world that may not support all U.S. policies as wholeheartedly as dictators and discredited politicians do in order to remain in power.
The roots of terror and violence lie in politics-and so does the solution. We urge the new administration to conduct a major strategic review of the U.S.-led war on terror, including the nature and kind of support that should realistically be expected of Pakistan keeping in mind its internal security interests. Linking economic assistance to sealing of its western frontier will only force the hand of a shaky and unstable government in Pakistan to use more indiscriminate force in FATA, a perfect recipe for disaster.
The stability of the region hinges on a stable Pakistan. Any assistance to improve governance and social indicators must not be conditional. For the simple reason that any improvement in the overall quality of life of ordinary citizens and more effective writ of the state would only make mainstream society less susceptible to extremism.
However, if the new U.S. administration continues the Bush administration’s mantra of “do more,” to which our inept leadership is likely to respond to by using more force, Pakistan could become even more accessible to forces of extremism leading to further instability that would spread across the region, especially into India, which already faces problems of extremism and secessionist movements. Such a scenario would benefit no one-certainly not Pakistan and certainly not the U.S. That is why your message of meaningful change, Mr. President, must guide your policies in this region also.
Imran Khan is chairman and founder of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (Movement for Justice), and served as an elected member of Pakistan’s parliament from 2002-08. The captain of the Pakistan team that won the cricket World Cup in 1992, he founded the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Center, the biggest charitable institution in Pakistan. He is chancellor of the University of Bradford, in the U.K.
Published in Forbes
WASIM VIEW- Imran Khan’s letter to President Obama is spot-on. The references to the history of the passionate Pashtuns who have and never will cow in to occupiers is essential reading for the new American administration and must frame their policies in the region. Obama promised change within and without, however the newest drone attacks ordered by him alone do not provide me with any hope and I fear worse.
Indeed if not careful Afghanistan could become Obama’s Vietnam. In his urge to prove his strongman credentials his sanctioning of drone attacks could just be a trailer of the feature film and the beginning of another Vietnam of another American century.
Instead of listening to wise advice and counsel from regional experts who denounce the present US strategy I believe Obama could commit Uncle Sam to more ignomy in Afghanistan and Pakistan by opting for a gung-ho option that will bring only more turmoil. The continuing drone attacks need to stop, the Taliban need to be brought into the electoral arena and a regional strategy to stabilise Afghanistan can only be the solution. Afghanistan and Pakistan desire a change in US policy, remember President Obama change we can!
And I finish January’s B-side with some praise for David Miliband because of his ‘the-truth-hurts’ statement on Kashmir that riled India.
David Miliband’s Comments on Kashmir by Wasim Arif
The British Foreign Secterary David Miliband and I have not always seen eye- to-eye in terms of Pakistan-UK relations. However David Miliband’s recent comments on Kashmir have knocked me for a six.
In an article for The Guardian newspaper David Miliband wrote that the ‘”resolution of the dispute over Kashmir would help deny extremists in the region one of their main calls to arms and allow Pakistani authorities to focus more effectively on tackling the threat on their western borders”.
Furthermore good old Dave even had the tenacity to discuss the Kashmir issue with his Indian hosts during his trip to India. The truth hurts and the absolute truth hurts absolutely with the Indians not best pleased expressing displeasure at the “aggressive style, the tone and manner in which David Miliband conducted himself during talks with the prime minister and the foreign minister”
The Indians then went in overdrive in rubbishing Miliband as “a young man, I guess this is the way he thinks diplomacy is conducted,” said an unidentified official. The Hindu newspaper quoted an Indian official saying the two government meetings with Miliband were “pretty awful”. Even when Miliband was in India, the government made its displeasure known. “We do not need unsolicited advice on internal issues in India like Kashmir,” said the foreign office spokesman Vishnu Prakash.
Since the Mumbai massacre, India has been seeking to rally the international community to pressure Pakistan to become subservient to Indian hegemony and how they have failed! The fact that David Miliband discussed Kashmir in India face-to-face proves Indian pretensions of becoming an emerging global player are delusions of grandeur.
What the Indians ignore or rather choose to ignore is that what David Miliband said is the truth and that until the Kashmiri people are free from occupation they will never sit easy. This truth hurts and the cumulative effect has been that the Indian’s chief cheerleader midget Mukherjee has grown even smaller on the world stage after the world shunned their blame game, and his boss Manmohan Singh is bed-ridden, need I say more….
- WRITTEN UNDER MARTIAL LAW (My thanks to cowards Tariq Pervez. Sabihuddin, Sardar Raza & Co for selling out)
Although i am not an expert in the language of this blog but still want to question Dr Zarina Khan whose words are completely unjust about Madaras it looks she has copy pasted the words of jews or christians , you will say that she has quoted verses of the Holy Quran but I remember Clinton’s speech to Pakistani nation he also read the translation of the holy Quran.Will u say him Muslim for that .I am not saying she is none Muslim.To whom Dr Zarina is saying Handmaidens of Devil they Also recite the same Quran.And a lot of them remember it by heart.Dr Zarina’s comments are unjust for She is speaking against all “moulvi’s” and word molvi is meant Islamic Teacher or Scholor here .Does she mean people study Islam because their mothers don’t have food for them so they go to Islamic Schools if they are “devils” then atleast one “devils”must be present at the nikah ceremony of Dr Zarina’s Parents.Did she forgot two doctors Dr Israr and Dr Zakir Naik have they taken Islamic education because there mothers were unable to feed them they were practising medical doctors .Why did they get Islamic Education there are other names Saeed Anwar,Junaid Jamshaid, Yousaf Estes, Abdur Raheem Gareen why she is against every moulvi if moulvi means Religious scholar then she must not forget the Islamic History.If one says many moulvis are cheeter he could be right but if he includes all he himself is a cheeter.And about Taliban they were those who made Afghanistan mini Pakistan and before American drama 9/11 Air Show they were heroes of Pak Govt.I can’t believe everything that is shown on CNN and BBC .I know there is a kind of war known as media war.And Dr Zarina is traped by news casters and maide in US thinkers.Don’t forget Beacon House and Educator’s ,”Chheen li rooh teri de k tujhe fikre mayash.”Salam for Dr Zarina and for Taliban.
↓ Quote | Posted February 24, 2009, 12:50 pm