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Title: PAKISTAN: A military coup is unfolding
Source:
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URL Source: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0912/S00302.htm
Published: Dec 17, 2009
Author: Tarek Fatah
Post Date: 2009-12-17 18:44:22 by Jethro Tull
Ping List: *What Voting for Obama got Ya*
Keywords: None
Views: 514
Comments: 32
A year after rogue elements of Pakistan's intelligence services disrupted Indian-Pakistani peace talks by staging the Mumbai massacre, the democratically elected government of President Asif Zardari is facing a putsch from within its ranks, engineered by the men who run Pakistan's infamous military-industrial complex. The men who wish to replace Mr. Zardari represent the religious right-wing backers of the Taliban and al-Qaeda, adding a new obstacle in Barack Obama's war effort in Afghanistan. For years, the Pakistani army received billions of dollars in direct American aid while it backed the Taliban and staged faked armed encounters to deceive the Pentagon. The army views the government's efforts at peace with both Afghanistan and India not only with suspicion but also with alarm. Peace with India would undermine the very raison d'être of Pakistan's massive military. The army's patience with Mr. Zardari ran out in October, when the U.S. Congress passed the Kerry-Lugar bill that promised billions in aid to Pakistan, but with a crucial caveat: The money would go through the channels of the civilian administration and if the military interfered with the democratic process or bullied the politicians and the judiciary, the Americans would halt all aid to the military. The generals were in an uproar. Having lived their entire lives with a sense of entitlement that rivalled medieval caliphs and emperors, the men in uniform started a campaign to dislodge Mr. Zardari and his ambassador in Washington, Husain Haqqani – the authors, they said, of their misfortune. Addicted to the billions in U.S. aid that have made them among the wealthiest in their impoverished country, Pakistan's generals are in a Catch-22. If they overthrow the government, they risk losing the manna from America. If they do nothing, they lose their veto over government policymaking, domestic as well as foreign.Stung by this loss of power, the generals have asked the pro-Taliban media to whip up an anti-U.S. and anti-India frenzy in the country, claiming that Mr. Zardari has sold out to the Americans and the Indians. Mr. Zardari also is being depicted as the epitome of corruption and thus unworthy of governing Pakistan. Working from within the government, military intelligence was able to coax a junior minister to release a list of thousands of supposedly corrupt politicians and public officials in the country. Leading them was Mr. Zardari himself – notwithstanding the fact that before he was elected president, he had been imprisoned for more than a decade by the military without a single conviction. What irks the generals is not just that they are now answerable to a civilian but that Mr. Zardari belongs to an ethnic group that is shunned by the country's ruling Punjabi elite. Mr. Zardari is a Sindhi. The hysteria among Pakistan's upper-class elites demanding a military dictatorship is best reflected in an article written by a retired military officer in the right-wing newspaper The News: “Military rule should … return. … The problem with democratic governments is that they remain under pressure to go with what the majority of the citizens want, not what is best for them. … People of several South American countries that have returned to civilian rule after a long time are now beginning to feel they were better off under dictatorships.” If Mr. Obama wishes to succeed in bringing the Afghan war to an end, he had better make sure Mr. Zardari's elected civilian administration is allowed to govern until the end of its term. A coup in Islamabad will mean failure in Kabul.
Poster Comment:
In the West's war against terrorism, Mr. Zardari is probably the only politician in Pakistan who has the guts to identify the cancer of jihadi extremism and order the Pakistani army to root it out. With reluctance, the army has complied, but only half-heartedly. With him gone, it's almost a certainty that Canada and the United States, as well as Afghanistan and India, will once more face the deception and fraud that became the hallmark of Pervez Musharraf's military regime.
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#1. To: Jethro Tull (#0)
" After over a century of Russian control, Tajikistan became independent in 1991, and began looking for allies. India was a natural, even though nearly all Tajiks are Moslem, and most Indians are Hindu. Both countries are fearful of Russian or Pakistani interference in Central Asia, and the Indians like the idea of having an air base north of Pakistan.
Ya' think our military is connected with our enormous debt? Like a hooker pays off in trade, our kids are payment for IOUs.
In politics, when no distinct answer is available on some subject, you need to place it in odds mode to find the most acceptable answer. Paki and Iran have or will have A weapons. They,Iraq and Afghan are Muslim. The major powers in the area have problems with Muslim minorities, they being India, China and Russia. All of those three plus Israel would be glad to see the US neutralize the A question. For public consumption they most likely would rant and rave but in private cheer us on. Let us do the dirty work and get our nose bloodied if it turns out bad.
#10. To: Cynicom (#6)
Cyni, How many folks won't bother reading this, and how many more will miss the importance of how our military is being used - as guards to Chinese construction corporations. U.S. and China Work Together to Rebuild Afghanistan By MICHAEL M. PHILLIPS in Momaki, Afghanistan, and SHAI OSTER in Beijing The U.S. and China have formed an uneasy alliance in the effort to build stability in Afghanistan. In a valley long known as a Taliban haven, American troops live alongside Chinese road workers. The troops put their lives on the line protecting the workers. The workers put their lives on the line building a road the U.S. military desperately wants completed. "Asphalt is ammunition," says Lt. Col. Kimo Gallahue, commander of the 2nd Battalion of the 87th Infantry Regiment, quoting a phrase popular in the military. "Roads are one of the biggest needs in this province." Michael M. Phillips/ The Wall Street Journal U.S. soldiers like Lt. John Donovan, left, provide security for Chinese workers like Wang Shangkeui in Afghanistan. The Chinese are in Afghanistan mostly to make deals. "This is business -- we can work in Afghanistan or any other country," says Wang Shangkuei, an engineer for China Railway Shisiju Group Corp., a state- owned company with a $50 million contract funded by Italian aid money to grade and pave 33 miles of two-lane road past Momaki village in Wardak province. But, he says, "if there's fighting, we can't do the work." What's happening in Afghanistan is an extreme example of the way the U.S. and China must work with each other around the globe. China needs the U.S. to protect global trade routes vital to Beijing's export-oriented economy. The U.S. needs China's investment to boost unsteady, but strategically important, economies. Chinese companies were among some of the earliest to re-enter Iraq. This month, the Afghan foreign minister visited China to generate interest in oil, gas and iron-ore concessions. He and his Chinese counterpart agreed to study ways to open up commercial traffic on their 47-mile shared border -- located in a remote mountain region and largely inaccessible -- such as building a road through the area. China's biggest foray into its neighbor's economy so far is a $3 billion deal for two Chinese companies to develop the huge Aynak copper deposit in Logar province, south of Kabul. As part of the deal, China Metallurgical Group and Jiangxi Copper Group agreed to build schools, clinics, markets, mosques and a power plant. The Chinese companies say they will also build a railway expected to link Afghanistan with China, via Pakistan, and open a rail route to the north from the mine. The Afghan government predicts the project will generate 6,000 jobs. "It is very safe to conduct the project in Afghanistan because the Americans are guarding us," says Pan Qifang, board secretary of Jiangxi Copper. The Afghan Ministry of Mines recently said it will seek bidders to explore for oil or gas in northern Afghanistan and to exploit an estimated 1.8 billion- ton iron-ore deposit in the Hajigak mountains, located west of Momaki along the road that is now under construction. The Chinese are expected to be among the bidders. As of 2008, Chinese companies had 33 infrastructure projects valued at $480 million under way in Afghanistan, not including the big copper mine, according to Chinese Commerce Ministry data. Eleven Chinese aid and commercial workers have been killed in the country since 2004, scaring off some Chinese companies, according to the Commerce Ministry. Chinese exports to Afghanistan measured $152 million in 2008, down 10.4% from a year earlier. China Railway Shisiju started work in 2006 on the new road past Momaki. As the Taliban-led rebellion intensified last year, militants had free run of the valley. In June 2008, they kidnapped a Chinese engineer, who was rescued by Afghan forces after nearly a month in captivity. The Chinese stopped work for almost three months because of the security situation, built a little more, then stopped again for the winter. In February, a company of Lt. Col. Gallahue's men -- the first wave of the coming troop surge -- entered the snowy valley and established a fragile peace. Part of that mission means keeping the valley safe enough for road work to continue. "This road will provide easy access to Kabul," says Capt. Matthew Thom, 31 years old, from Beaverton, Ore. The paved surface will also make it harder for the insurgents to plant bombs, the soldiers hope. A platoon of U.S. soldiers occupies a hilltop outpost overlooking the Chinese compound, whose walls were chipped by bullets during an insurgent attack last year. The soldiers can keep an eye on the Chinese company's quarry and offices. "We work on the days when the security situation allows us to, and if it doesn't allow us to, we stop work," says Mr. Wang, the Chinese engineer. So far, the company has finished just 11 of the project's 33 miles. He says American officers call periodically to urge the engineers to speed up. "They've got their end-state, and we've got our end-state," Lt. Col. Gallahue says of the Chinese. "They may not be exactly the same, but they're not working against us. At least not yet." —Kathy Chen, Davide Berretta and Sue Feng contributed to this article.
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#2. To: Cynicom (#1)
#6. To: Jethro Tull (#2)
Replies to Comment # 6. online.wsj.com/article/SB124545705106832957.html
s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/NA- AY464_AFCHIN_D_20090619163652.jpg" vspace="0" hspace="0" border="0" alt="[US China Work Together to Rebuild Afghanistan]" height="174" width="262"/>
End Trace Mode for Comment # 6.