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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Doc Bones who wrote (8841)	11/4/2001 3:40:06 AM
From: KLP	Respond to of 281500

From the Straits Times in Singapore: Allies must take stronger act now NOV 2, 2001 straitstimes.asia1.com.sg Allies must take stronger action now By M.P BHANDARA RAWALPINDI (Pakistan) - It is a race against time. Pakistan is the keystone in the allied arch. And although the government of President Pervez Musharraf is holding firm at the moment, it is getting frayed at the edges. Consider: The writ of the Pakistan government scarcely runs in the Malakand agency in the North-West province. The Karakoram highway leading to Gilgit and China has been blocked at different places by pro-Taleban Pakistanis. And 10,000 armed men have collected at the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in Bajaur agency since last Friday to join in jihad against the United States, awaiting entry permission from the Taleban. Christians were massacred in a church last Sunday in Bahawalpur by Islamic extremists. One suspected group is the Jaish-e-Mohammed. It claimed responsibility for the car bomb massacre of more than 40 people in Srinagar on Oct 1. An airstrip in the north has been taken over by protesters. Adding to these woes, Abdul Haq, the most respected fighter among the exiled King's supporters, got himself trapped in Afghanistan and was eliminated by the Taleban. At the moment there are few visible signs of an anti-Taleban Pashtun force. When I met the King's representatives last week in Islamabad, they claimed to have the support of 9,000 warriors. With the death of Abdul Haq, this force, if it ever existed, must be seriously dented. The Taleban defence tactic in Kabul of seeking cover among the civilian population has succeeded. The onus is on the Americans to inflict heavier collateral damages, and thus add fuel to the flames of revolt in Pakistan and the public outcry in the West. Nov 17, the day Ramadan commences, is a deadline for at least two reasons. If bombing and overt military actions of the allies continue in the holy month, this is likely to intensify internal strains in the Punjab - the Pakistani heartland. The army, which within its ranks has quite a few fundamentalists, would have little stomach to quell a large-scale civilian protest. In addition, by the end of this month, the northern areas of Afghanistan will be snowbound, a condition that favours a military stalemate. FROM OSAMA TO OMAR IF THE allies are not to get bogged down in an endless no-win war chasing and missing shadows from high above, the coalition must bite the bullet let loose its commando forces to capture at least two major cities, possibly Kabul and Kandahar, before Ramadan. The view in Pakistan is that the US reluctance to suffer casualties has much delayed ground action. Ground forces should have entered Afghanistan much earlier. The emphasis as regards the main target of this war should shift from Osama bin Laden to Mullah Omar. The former without the latter is rendered considerably less effective and hence easier to smoke out. The Northern Alliance is anything but an alliance. General Fahim, military commander of the alliance, would be glad to string up his partner, Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, at the first opportunity because he is convinced that Mr Sayyaf instigated the killing on Sept 8 of Ahmed Shah Massoud, the late leader of the alliance. In recent days the credibility of the King has been nowhere near what it was at the opening of hostilities, especially after the elimination of the redoubtable Commander Haq. In this ever-changing landscape a possibility that has surfaced is a Taleban leadership without Omar that might be prepared to reach a compromise with the Americans. Pakistan could broker this, once Omar was eliminated. Americans would be well advised not to ride the high horse when dealing with the Afghans. The evidence against Osama should be presented to a panel of Muslim judges known to the Organisation of the Islamic Conference for their judicial integrity. One of the contributing reasons for Pakistan's turnabout after Sept 11 was the compelling nature of the evidence provided by the Central Intelligence Agency to Pakistan intelligence last year on Osama's culpability in the bombings of the US embassies in East Africa. If a respected panel of Muslim judges were to find that Osama had a case to answer for the East Africa bombings as well as the Sept 11 terrorism, this might help bring about a qualitative change in the present anti-American feelings running high in the billion-strong Islamic world. The future is a land without any maps, but one thing is certain: The world will not be the same again after Sept 11. A terrorist's bullet, which assassinated Archduke Ferdinand in 1914, inaugurated the real 20th century. Will Sept 11 mark the beginning of the real 21st? The writer is a Rawalpindi businessman and a former member of the Pakistan National Assembly. He contributed this comment to the International Herald Tribune. Copyright @ 2001 Singapore Press Holdings. All rights reserved.

To: Doc Bones who wrote (8841)	11/4/2001 3:48:11 AM
From: Nadine Carroll	Respond to of 281500

I've never read anything by this author before, but she has a lot of nerve suggesting that the conservative hawks in the US government who think Iraq is a necessary target, such as Wolfowitz at Defense, are putting Israeli interests ahead of US interests. "It's a very simple proposition," one former ambassador to the region told me. "Now's the chance for us to get rid of all of Israel's enemies in the Middle East." So Wolfowitz is really working for Israel? I'm sure Wolfowitz would point out that the support we've been getting from our dear moderate Arab allies has not exactly been warming. But this smells of the State Department all over -- when your pro-Saudi policy has been shown up as worthless, call your opponent a Zionist agent.

To: Doc Bones who wrote (8841)	11/4/2001 6:10:41 AM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 281500

Meanwhile, Israel's hard-line Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has refused even to temper his attacks against the Palestinians, despite President Bush's constant requests. Yeah, the attack on our Foreign Policy that favors Israel is is really "revving up." The terror we experienced in September is what Israelis have lived with for decades, and the motive of the terrorists is the same. Their motive is not solely a hatred for Jews, though that is an important component. Their motive is a wider hatred for the West,for the free, secular society that allows us to flout Islamic law,for the industry, technology, and economic freedom that makes us wealthy,for the military might that makes us invulnerable to conventional attack. The terrorists grasp this commonality, and they hate America, not only because we support Israel, but because Israel shares and represents our values. As a Palestinian cleric declared last year in a sermon at a Gaza mosque,a sermon broadcast on Arafat-controlled television,"Wherever you are, kill the Jews, [and] the Americans, who are like them." This is the enemy against whom we have urged the Israelis to exercise restraint. The idea, is appears, is to launch a war against terrorism by cozying up to the Governments who harbor the terrorists in Syria and Iran.

To: Doc Bones who wrote (8841)	11/4/2001 6:30:43 AM
From: Seeker of Truth	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

The maintenance of the state of Israel is not a holy cause for which the U.S. ought to sacrifice plenty. Having said that I'm sure many folks would say I've reached the height of evil. But look at the history. The UN cavalierly handed over Arab territory to the Zionists. Why was this done? In part because the Holocaust made the West feel ashamed for not having given visas to the German Jews who wanted to escape during the 30's before the war. From Stalin's point of view it was a fine way to set up permanent conflict between the Arabs and the West. Some people .will say that it wasn't Arab territory, it was British, or Ottoman or Persian or Macedonian or Roman or Egyptian depending on which conqueror you want to go back to. But the people living there were mostly Arabs for 15 centuries. The Zionists will tell you that the land belongs to them because it says so in the Old Testament, (written by Zionists 3-4 thousand years ago.) So in guaranteeing the state of Israel we are taking sides in a religious dispute between two middle eastern religions. Why?? Did the UN have any right to hand over the territory? Were they not warned by all the Arab countries? I say give all the Israelis visas to Europe, North America etc. And stop keeping the Palestinians away from their ancestral homes by force. We must MUST wipe out bin Laden etc. But we don't have to fight for the state of Israel; it's not a just cause.

To: Doc Bones who wrote (8841)	11/4/2001 11:22:32 AM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Precisely true, unfortunately, q.v., our own Nadine, who doth protest too much. Sorry, Nadine, but the shoe fits.

To: Doc Bones who wrote (8841)	11/4/2001 12:30:05 PM
From: Win Smith	Respond to of 281500

Good luck on that line of argument, Doc. The AIPAC contingent here is pretty strong, and "focus" is not a popular word.