Instability awaits Kabul once US pulls out, Current affairs, NewAgeIslam.com

Current affairs

Instability awaits Kabul once US pulls out

By Vikram Sood

I DON'T do quagmires”, Donald Rumsfeld had once declared rather grandly. He didn’t believe in exit strategies either. Yet, eight years later with casualties rising to a little more than one death a day in Afghanistan and expenses crossing US $ 450 billion, in December 2009 President Obama, referred to July 2011 as the date by which the US would begin to pull out of Afghanistan . This state has been the result of a policy that presumed that military supremacy was an unqualified good born of American superiority. Great though the power of the American military machine might have been, it was not great enough to solve problems such as global terrorism of the al Qaeda variety. America needed help of friends, demonised its own supporters like President Karzai, it chose other friends wrongly and declined others’ advice. Consequently, it ended fighting the wrong war at the wrong place with wrong tactics.

The declared US objective has been to take out Al Qaeda from Afghanistan so that they do not become a threat to the US and its allies. Yet the Al Qaeda is not in Afghanistan; it is mostly in Pakistan with sanctuaries in Yemen and Afghanistan. It is the Taliban that is mostly in Afghanistan with sanctuaries in Pakistan, so the result is that the US has been fighting an obscurantist section of an ethnic component of Afghanistan whose objective has been to throw the foreigner out and seems to be succeeding. The Taliban now represent, by and large, the Pushtun sentiment in Afghanistan and they are spreading into Kunduz in the north as well. It is possible now that the US will re- evaluate its policy towards Pakistan following the killing of seven CIA operatives inside the CIA camp in Khost; an attack that originated with the Pakistan Taliban. This act highlighted not only the dangers of counter terror operations but also that the level of commitment in the opposition to the US was very high. The US now wants to achieve something in eighteen months what has not been possible in eight years.

http://newageislam.com/instability-awaits-kabul-once-us-pulls-out/current-affairs/d/2339

India can’t simply wait for America to deliver on Pak, War on Terror, NewAgeIsam.com

India can’t simply wait for America to deliver on Pak

By Vikram Sood

June 8: In 1999, Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, mentor of the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and Jamat-ut-Dawa, had announced in one of his numerous sermons that have been allowed to continue unchecked: "Today I announce the breakup of India, Insha Allah. We will not rest until the whole of India is dissolved into Pakistan." Nearly 10 years later, in October 2008, Saeed ranted: "India understands only the language of jihad, which cannot be suppressed. In fact with some support, jihad can break up India like the former USSR." For decades this man has poured pure vitriol on India under the benign eye of his benefactors and today he walks free in Lahore.

It has never been adequately understood in India that the Pakistan Army will never give up its perception of India as a threat, seek to avenge 1971 and use Hafiz Saeed and his hordes as an important weapon for this. Saeed has been an enduring favourite of the Pakistan security establishment and could not have been allowed to remain in any kind of custody for too long. The Pakistan Army cannot afford to have peace with India because should peace break out, then the primacy of the Pakistan Army will be lost. Its extensive business empire, valued at $38 billion, will be in serious jeopardy. The jihadis will become jobless and threaten Pakistan even more than they do today. It should not, therefore, surprise anyone that Saeed was released.

http://newageislam.com/india-cant-simply-wait-for-america-to-deliver-on-pak---/war-on-terror/d/1454

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

Indian Secularism versus Pakistani Islam, Islam and Pluralism, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and Pluralism

Indian Secularism versus Pakistani Islam

No love lost

By Vikram Sood

5 Mar 2009, 0000 hrs IST

Over the years Pakistan has come to believe that the world is beholden to it because it exists. This notion of indispensability allows those in power in that country to be wild, delinquent and dangerous.

Like the spoilt brat of a rich and doting parent, Pakistan either becomes petulant when it is not granted what it unjustifiably demands or becomes belligerent when it is granted that wish by its benefactor.

Today, Pakistan has a begging bowl economy; terrorism is its main export. Unending unrest in Balochistan and sectarian violence in Dera Ismail Khan and Dera Ghazi Khan, coupled with a creaking law and order and judicial systems, evoke little confidence in that country.

There are many in India who are ready to give Pakistan another chance forever. They say Pakistanis are like us but the poor souls are stuck with rotten governments and they need our help to get them out of their predicament.

It is incredibly naive of us to build policies for our future and security on fond nostalgia, which is mostly one way. They teach their children mostly how to hate India with warped versions of history, even in their mainstream schools.

It is strange that we still keep telling Pakistanis that we are all alike and have a common culture and so on. The truth is that they do not want to be like us and, quite honestly, we have nothing in common with them. Not anymore.

http://newageislam.com/indian-secularism-versus-pakistani-islam--/islam-and-pluralism/d/1229