NY Times: Rebuilding Lags in Pakistan Area After Offensive

By ADAM B. ELLICK

Published: November 12, 2010

A lack of progress after the military’s campaign against the Taliban has raised fears of renewed militancy. [More]

-- The Kettle

NY Times: Racing Time and Taliban to Rebuild in Pakistan

Racing Time and Taliban to Rebuild in Pakistan

 By SABRINA TAVERNISE and IRFAN ASHRAF

Published: October 11, 2009

 

Reconstruction of battered villages has yet to begin in the upper Swat Valley, making the area ripe for another Taliban takeover. [MORE]

-- The Kettle Rumbles

BBC: Fleeing from South Waziristan dangers

Fleeing from South Waziristan dangers

Up to 100,000 civilians have left their homes in South Waziristan, where the Pakistani army is fighting the Taliban and al-Qaeda. [More]





-- The Kettle Rumbles

BBC: Profile: Hakimullah Mehsud

Profile: Hakimullah Mehsud


Hakimullah Mehsud, who the Taliban say is their new leader in Pakistan, came to prominence in 2007 after a number of spectacular raids against the army. [More]


---


How futile it is to drop bombs from 20,000 feet in the air to kill the leadership of an organization whose ranks are quickly replenished by young men like Hakimullah Mehsud. Hakimullah had no education but from a madrasa. How different would his life had been and the conflict in Pakistan would be if we, who have so many opportunities ourselves, had cared whether he had any... 


-- The Kettle Rumbles

FEER: Why Islamic Extremists Hate India

October 2009

Why Islamic Extremists Hate India

by Salil Tripathi

EXCERPT: [...]India is a danger because by its pluralistic nature it is a real threat for Islamic extremists. Not only does India have the world’s third-largest Muslim population (Pakistan finally overtook India recently), despite domestic differences with the majority Hindus, Indian Muslims have remained loyal to the Indian state, and have fully embraced democracy. While many Muslims live in poverty in India, so do other Indians, including Hindus. And Muslims alone are not victims of human rights abuses in India. What’s more, talented Muslims have often reached the top of Indian corporations, judiciary, armed forces, bureaucracy, and other fields, entirely on merit. They are able to express their grievances through the democratic system. It is no surprise, then, that of all the recruits al Qaeda has been able to attract around the world, barely a handful of Indian Muslims have been swayed by al Qaeda’s nihilist ideology. [MORE]

-- The Kettle Rumbles

CAI: A quote from a CAI teacher

I was catching up to reading a CAI newsletter and came upon the following quote, which I think summarizes much of the good the CAI's work does for the communities they serve and the world at large:

"If you can't read, then you must believe what the imam tells you," said Shaukat Ali, a former Kashmiri freedom fighter and Taliban member who now teaches at the Gundi Piran school. "If you are only a listener, not a reader, if you cannot read the language, you can get the wrong idea. And that is a misfortune. But slowly, slowly, we can encourage modern education, encourage people to send boys and girls to school. If we invest, it will come back to us. We have to deal with problems of tradition and culture. But we can stop extremism. If people are educated, we can fight against poverty, cruelty, and injustice."

These words, coming from someone who was a militia and Taliban member, but now is a teacher for the CAI school, is so poignant. I am amazed at the wisdom, courage, and open mindedness of the CAI staff.

-- The Kettle Rumbles

Gulf Times: Suspected Taliban rebels bomb school

Suspected Taliban rebels bomb school

Suspected Taliban militants bombed a primary school on the outskirts of Peshawar yesterday, underscoring the Islamist threat in northwest Pakistan despite a series of military offensives. [More]

-- The Kettle Rumbles

NYTimes: Central Asia Sounds Alarm on Islamic Radicalism

Central Asia Sounds Alarm on Islamic Radicalism

By CLIFFORD J. LEVY

Published: August 18, 2009

Officials in the region fear that homegrown militants may be moving north to take on the area’s brittle governments. [MORE]

-- The Kettle Rumbles

NY Times: Teacher, Can We Leave Now? No.

Teacher, Can We Leave Now? No.

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

Published: July 19, 2009

Watching the delight in the faces of Afghan girls crowded into a school waiting to learn put a new perspective on the war. [MORE]

---

Thomas Friedman writes about his thoughts after being at one of the Central Asai Institute's schools in Afghanistan. The impression he got was enough to give him hope that perhaps not everything that has happened in Afghanistan is bad and that perhaps the world can't just leave and abandon the region (again).

-- The Kettle Rumbles

Lubbock Online: Banned group helping out Pakistan refugees

Banned group helping out Pakistan refugees

RIAZ KHAN
Associated Press Writer

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — A banned charity with alleged links to the Mumbai attacks is helping refugees fleeing the fighting between the Pakistani military and the Taliban, a group member said Thursday, raising questions about the government's pledge to crack down on the outfit.

www.apakistannews.com: President Asif Ali Zardari has asked the United States to provide drone technology

http://www.apakistannews.com/us-to-provide-pakistan-drones-technology-zardari-119065

"WASHINGTON: President Asif Ali Zardari has asked the United States to provide drone technology and other necessary equipment to help Pakistan fight terrorists more effectively and rejected the notion of American personnel joining the anti-terror fight on the Pakistani soil."

--

Not sure the U.S. should be giving Pakistan drone technology...but some encouraging mention of building a solid peace with India. As for President Asif Ali Zardari, some believe he was (maybe is) corrupt, having stolen from Pakistan. (He's currently a billionaire...and has been accused of stealing $1.5 billion from Pakistan). Maybe the accusations of murder and corruption were drummed up by his adversaries? Who knows anymore!? One thing I'm learning about Pakistan...It's very complicated, and unless you were there, it's hard to tell who's telling the truth.

As for the drone technology, you can't deny that they inflict considerable damage to the enemy...and is probably the only weapon Taliban and Al Qaeda fear, but these same weapons have killed scores of civilians during the current conflict, and those deaths will continue to feed the violence around the world and breed distrust and ill-feeling between the U.S. and the people of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Seeing as how the U.S. can't even use these weapons without managing to injure their own cause, I shudder to think what the spread of this technology would mean for the world. The U.S. once almost killed Hamid Karzai with a misdirected bomb...He lived, but 20 of his loyal tribesmen died, as did 3 U.S. Special Forces soldiers. I've also read accounts of how some Northern Alliance commanders had disingenuously directed Americans to use drones to bomb non-Taliban/non Al Qaeda targets when the Afghanistan "invasion" was taking place. War is bad enough...perhaps it's even worse when you can't even really see the person you're about to obliterate. We all look kinda alike from thousands of feet in the air...

-- The Kettle Rumbles

NY Times: Pakistan Strife Fills a Hospital With Refugees

May 7, 2009

Pakistan Strife Fills a Hospital With Refugees

By DEXTER FILKINS

"MARDAN, Pakistan — The dank and shadowed hallways of the Mardan Tuberculosis Hospital, crumbling relic of another age, were transformed here on Wednesday into a clinic of a more modern sort, when the refugees of nearby battles came streaming in the whole long day."

Excerpt: "If you do something wrong, if you miss your prayers or something like that, the Taliban will flog you in the street," he said. "We are Muslims. We don't have much problem with people trying to enforce the religion — it's when they cut the throats of the policemen that people become angry. Yes, they are doing that."


---


It's interesting that the refugee the author interviewed expressed the same suspicion of the Pakistani military with regards to their links (and seeming complacency--and according to some, outright support in the past) to the Taliban as I've read in "Descent into Chaos" by Ahmed Rashid and "Punishment of Virtue" by Sarah Chayes. How much of the offensive going on now in Swat and Buner is merely a show to to placate the U.S.? It could very well be that many soldiers do have a genuine mission to eliminate the threat, but is their toil and suffering merely a calculated setback for leadership in Pakistani military intelligence that still sees Islamic militants as a useful tool to covertly support Pakistani military interests in Kashmir and Afghanistan? I hope not--it's bad enough that civilians are caught in the middle. Perhaps the military's position on the issue will change as they have apparently lost control of the same militants they had fostered all these years (as it seems is widely believed)...


-- The Kettle Rumbles

WSJ: Thousands Flee Pakistan's Swat Valley

Thousands Flee Pakistan's Swat Valley By ZAHID HUSSAIN



"ISLAMABAD -- Thousands of panicked residents on foot and crammed in buses, vans and trucks fled Swat valley north of Pakistan's capital Tuesday following the breakdown of a fragile truce between government forces and the Taliban."

NY Times: Porous Border With Pakistan Could Hinder U.S. Troops

Porous Border With Pakistan Could Hinder U.S. Troops

By JANE PERLEZ and PIR ZUBAIR SHAH

Published: May 5, 2009

"Afghan militants are able to cross the border with ease, according to interviews with a logistics tactician for the Taliban."