Tackling “Islamic” Terrorism in Af-Pak region, Radical Islamism and Jihad, NewAgeIslam.com

Radical Islamism and Jihad

Tackling “Islamic” Terrorism in Af-Pak region

Uncomprehending in ‘AfPak’

By Vikram Sood

Former Secretary, R&AW; Vice President, ORF Centre for International Affairs

Of the last thirty turbulent years, Afghanistan has seen active Soviet (Russian) involvement for about ten, US for about 18 years (in two spells), India for about ten (in two spells up to 1992 and presently) and the Pakistanis for all three decades.

The Soviets used 10 million landmines, caused 200,000 civilian fatalities and left behind 750,000 amputees, while a majority of the mines have still not been cleared. By 2001 about 8.26 million Afghans had fled to other countries, mostly to Pakistan, of whom some 4.64 million had already been (principally forcibly) repatriated to Afghanistan by that year.

The Americans sponsored the jihad, with help principally from Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, in the 1980s and later dropped 1,228 cluster bombs between October 2001 and March 2002, which released 248,056 ‘bomblets’ of which 12,400 are estimated to be lying around unexploded. Yet, Osama bin Laden has not been found, while American legitimacy has plummeted.

The Pakistanis gave Afghanistan the gift of the Taliban and all that this has signified, from the destruction of the Bamian Buddhas, religious obscurantism of the worst kind, the spread of narcotics, and endless misery on both sides of the Durand Line.

http://newageislam.com/tackling-CislamicD-terrorism-in-af-pak-region-/radical-islamism-and-jihad/d/1323

Aboard the Imperial Star Ship Ameriprise: Heading for the Final Frontier, Islam and the West, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and the West

Aboard the Imperial Star Ship Ameriprise: Heading for the Final Frontier

By William Astore

I grew up in the 1970s on reruns of the original Star Trek with Captain James Tiberius Kirk at the helm, backed by that ever logical Vulcan, Mr. Spock, Dr. "Bones" McCoy, and the rest of the intrepid, space-faring crew of the USSEnterprise. During the tumultuous 1960s, that sci-fi series -- before being canceled -- had pointed to a more promising future in which humanity would be united. Star Trek, after all, offered a vision of a post-racial society in which blacks and Asian-Americans would serve alongside whites as equals, and a post-nationalistic society in which Russian-accented Ensign Chekov could loyally follow a WASPy captain from Iowa.

Even as the Enterprise cruised the distant reaches of our galaxy, the show was distinctly a creature of its moment, of the tensions released by the rise of the civil rights movement and by the Cold War superpower standoff. Minorities were still struggling for equal rights when the first Star Trek aired in 1966, while the U.S. government was just putting the finishing touches on a nuclear command centerburied under 2,000 feet of granite that was meant to ride out a possible apocalyptic Russian sneak attack. So, having a black female officer like Lieutenant Uhura and a Russian one like Chekov on the starship's bridge certainly seemed like one small leap for mankind.

In a way, the Enterprise and its multi-national, alien-inclusive crew was the ultimate American melting pot (and, if you happened to be an aficionado of war films, the ultimate "lost patrol" as well). It was also "a wagon train to the stars." At least that was how its creator here on Earth, Gene Roddenberry, pitched the series concept to TV network executives at the time. In the early 1960s, remember, such execs were accustomed to green-lighting Westerns likeGunsmoke or Bonanza with lily-white casts, not a sci-fi series set elsewhere in the galaxy with a multi-racial line-up.

http://newageislam.com/aboard-the-imperial-star-ship-ameriprise--heading-for-the-final-frontier--/islam-and-the-west/d/1273

Libyan Leader Gaddafi visits Russia on arms, energy drive

Libyan Leader Gaddafi visits Russia on arms, energy drive

"They feel the Russians, who have long been their preferred providers of military equipment, gouged them on prices (in the past) ... and they don't like to be taken for a ride," he said. "What they would like to do is develop military trade with the West in order to be able to get better equipment but also to get more competitive prices (from) a diversity of suppliers."

http://www.newageislam.com/libyan-leader-gaddafi-visits-russia-on-arms,-energy-drive/islamic-world-news/d/957

US lacks guts to tackle Pakistan

US lacks guts to tackle Pakistan

By Premen Addy

Prof Robert Skidelsky, author of the masterful study, Keynes and the Ethics of Capitalism, in a Times opinion piece argued that imperial hubris in both countries, incubated over the centuries, had bred misunderstanding and discord. The Russians, emotionally fragile in the wake of the Soviet Union's dissolution , were inclined to see British spies and conspiracies everywhere, while "the British can't get over the feeling that it is their duty to lay down the law to lesser breeds. It is this mixture of Russian cussedness and British condescension that converts spats into more serious disputes".

http://www.newageislam.com/-us-lacks-guts-to-tackle-pakistan/war-on-terror/d/260