View from India: ALL EYES ON GILANI’S VISIT TO CHINA

by B.RAMAN

All eyes in Pakistan are on the four-day visit to China from May 17, 2011, by Prime Minister Yousef Raza Gilani. The dates of the visit were finalized some weeks ago to enable him to participate in the year-long observance of the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries. It has since acquired special significance in the eyes of Pakistani analysts as it is taking place at a time when Pakistan has come under severe criticism in the U.S. for failing to detect the presence of Osama bin Laden for over five years at Abbottabad, the cradle of the Pakistan Army, where the Pakistan Military Academy is located. OBL was killed by helicopter-borne U.S. naval commandos on May 2.

2.According to Chinese sources, the documents and computer records seized by the raiding party at OBL’s residence do not appear to have yielded any evidence so far to indicate that Osama was in touch with any of the Pakistani agencies. However, the examination of the records and computer documents is still on. In the meanwhile, the Pakistani political leadership, at the urging of the Army and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), has kept the focus more on the security failure which enabled the U.S. naval commandos to raid OBL’s place without being detected by the Pakistan Air Force and the Army than on the intelligence failure that enabled OBL to live at Abbottabad for over five years.

3. The anger over the clandestine U.S. raid has been widespread in Pakistan and has led to demands for a re-examination of Pakistan ’s relations with the U.S. and of the intelligence and counter-terrorism co-operation between the intelligence agencies of the two countries. A resolution passed during an in camera session of the two Houses of the Pakistan Parliament on May 13 has also reportedly threatened to stop the flow of logistic supplies to the NATO forces in Afghanistan from the Karachi port if the U.S. continued with the Drone (pilotless plane) strikes in the two Waziristans and carried out any more unilateral raids by its commandos in other parts of Pakistan.

4. According to reliable Pakistani sources, Gilani is expected to raise with Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao two issues which were not originally on the agenda---namely, the possibility of an increase in Chinese economic assistance to enable Pakistan to resist the U.S. pressure and Chinese military assistance for the strengthening of the air defences near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Even though Pakistan Air Force officials have attributed the non-detection of the intrusion of the U.S. choppers to the USA ’s superior stealth technology, there is also a feeling that the air defences on the Afghan border were not as good as they are on the Indian border and hence there is a need to strengthen them.

5. In the present estranged atmosphere, the U.S. is unlikely to help Pakistan in this regard. The Pakistani sources say that Gilani is expected to request the Chinese for urgent assistance in this connection. Pakistani expectations of an enhanced Chinese role to enable Pakistan to reduce its dependence on the U.S. have put the Chinese in an embarrassing position. Though they would like to oblige Pakistan to the extent possible, they would not like to do anything which could come in the way of the fresh initiatives under way for improving China ’s military-military relationship with the U.S.

6. After a gap of seven years, Gen. Chen Bingde, the Chief of the General Staff of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), is on a week-long visit to the U.S. from May 15. The Chinese would not like any jarring note in the military-military relations with the U.S. during Gen. Chen’s visit due to any special gesture shown by them to Pakistan. The Chinese are also keen that the U.S. Drone strikes should continue since some of the strikes in the past were directed at the training camps of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) and the Islamic Jihad Union (IJU) in the Waziristans, which were also training Uighur jihadis from the Chinese-controlled Xinjiang province of China .

7. Since the May 2 Abbottabad raid, the Chinese have maintained a high level of oral support for Pakistan on the counter-terrorism issue, highlighting the sacrifices allegedly made by the Pakistani security forces in the fight against jihadi terrorism. At the same time, they have avoided any dramatic gestures of a concrete nature such as increasing significantly their economic assistance to Pakistan or giving additional military assistance.

8. While they may give some concrete assistance of a limited nature during Gilani’s visit, they are likely to advise Pakistan to cool it and not to let its relations with the U.S. and its counter-terrorism co-operation with the U.S. reach a breaking point. (16-5-11)
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(Bahukutumbi Raman is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai, and Associate of the Chennai Centre For China Studies. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com)

View from India: Wake Up Call

by Parvathi

It was unexpected - the killing of Osama - in the sense, we were not aware of how hot the pursuit must have been. It was said to have taken place without anyone knowing. That's hard to believe. Either way, Pakistan is absolutely miserable about its public image - America's favorite, not being told about the operation that took place just a few miles from its capital. Or worse, did Pakistan trade Osama for Afghanistan?

Strangely enough, Osama bin Laden no longer had what it takes to evoke any great emotion. In the ten years after 9/11, Al Qaeda has morphed and metastasized into a movement in which Osama appeared no longer to be central. It had become an ideology - a social movement, some say - that can no longer be easily wiped out. Who knows, maybe Osama hiding in Pakistan hated his miserable life - whatever. The most suspicious thing to me about the whole operation were the repeated reports by the press about Osama's burial at sea, complete with proper Islamic rites. Burial at sea when he was killed on land? Islamic rites - really?

Someone seems to have slipped up on their homework. Was it even Osama who was killed? Or was it all staged to boost President Obama's sagging public image? He now goes down in history as the man who avenged the carnage of 9/11. What about Osama's image as a martyr to the cause? What about the backlash for not giving him a proper Islamic burial (facing Mecca)? Who knows? Time will tell. My commitment to politics reaches only as far as the armchair remote; I see only generalities.

But the Islamic faith is an unique one. For one thing, it speaks of an abstract God who is beauty and truth. There is no image to focus on and pray to. Islam also recognizes that all men and women are equal: the beginnings of Socialism perhaps?

I had a wonderful experience of staying with a Hyderabadi Muslim family, years back, when I was in college. The men and women ate separately sitting round a low table. What fascinated me was this: their servants also ate with them - something I had never seen anywhere else before. These people were very rich upper class traders, but at the table all were one. I saw this again while watching a Bergman movie about the 19th century Swedish middle/upper-middle class. Of course here the men and women were not segregated as in the Muslim household. Neither way seemed particularly unnatural. It has always stayed with me, this wonderful feeling of community that came across.

This morning while walking on the beach I saw a beach party in progress. A big group of young people were celebrating someone's birthday with cake and candles. They were busy cutting pieces of cake, serving each other, drinking fizzy soda pops and all the rest of it. Standing at the fringe of it all and watching avidly were two beach urchins. The smaller one was asking his big brother questions: what are they eating? why the candles? how does a cake taste?

A man stood watching the two kids. He had a prayer cap and sported the traditional Muslim beard. He walked up to the group said something to them. The young people cut a couple of pieces and the man went up to the boys with the pieces of cake. The older one said he did not like cake, but the younger one just grabbed his and ate it with gusto. He looked positively ecstatic. The older one then reluctantly took the other piece. They thanked the man with the prayer cap. He said, "Allah is just, beautiful, and true." and walked away. The beach urchins turned and went their own way.

I never thought of telling the group to share their cake with the two kids.

-- from Parvathi's blog FINE LINE; reprinted by permission.

Is Osama Dead?

It’s now pretty clear that Pakistan has been playing a double game. It’s likely that U.S. intelligence knew this. Pakistan represents the pivot between East and West. It’s always solicited money from both sides. If you notice, the major tensions in the world right now are all happening to the west of Pakistan right now. China views Pakistan as a dam to keep the poisoned sectarian waters flowing east.

The bin Laden killing has very little to do with all this. For one thing, ‘getting bin Laden’ was only important to America – especially to Obama who needs it as a reelection prop. The confusion disseminated by the WH in the aftermath of the assassination points to something that the WH does not want the American public to know. It was orchestrated primarily to make America’s current president look good. Indications now are that Obama had help. (1) It is no longer credible that Pakistan was unaware; and (2) given Pakistan’s close ties with China, we can assume that China knew as well.

As far as both Pakistan and China are concerned, neither one particularly cared whether bin Laden lived or died. What it finally took was a request from the WH to make it happen and any incentives that the Obama administration was willing to provide.

My own pet theory is that Osama died years ago in some cave of kidney failure; that this too was known. And that the raid was staged. This would explain some of the scrambling for a narrative we are witnessing. What happens next will depend on the likely dead-cat-bounce in Obama’s poll numbers.

Pakistan and China have now got theirs as well. Obama will declare “mission accomplished” and withdraw his troops from Afghanistan, leaving the field wide open for them. Perhaps this is why we have been so reluctant to destroy the poppy fields, the only viable industry in the country. China will use Pakistan as a proxy to restore tranquility to the region. The Saudis will help. With America now completely out of the picture, the next move is Iran’s.

Is Osama dead? Probably. When did he die? Unknown.

View from India: DEATH OF A JIHADI FRANKENSTEIN’S MONSTER

by B.RAMAN

(Written at the request of the Editor of the “Economic Times”, New Delhi)

Osama bin Laden (OBL), the head of Al Qaeda, was killed by the U.S. Special Forces during a past midnight chopper-borne raid on his hide-out at Abbotabad, a garrison town, about 100 kms from Islamabad, on May 1. He influenced thousands of young Muslims, who grew to adulthood in the 1980s and the 1990s, to take to jihadi terrorism as a weapon of defiance. He wanted them to use this weapon to correct what he looked upon as the historic injustices done to the Ummah by the non-Islamic world.

Among such instances of historic injustices to the Muslims, he cited the Jewish occupation of Palestine and the occupation of lands, which, according to him, had historically belonged to the Muslims by non-Islamic forces. He also wanted the Muslims to take to arms against ideological influences that tended to corrupt Islam.

He initially fought against the corrupting influence of the Marxist ideology in Afghanistan against the Soviet and Afghan troops in the 1980s. He saw nothing wrong in accepting the assistance of Western ideological forces for countering Marxism and to force it to quit Afghanistan.

He might not have acquired the iconic image which he developed subsequently but for the use of him by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIAS) and the agencies of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia which projected him as a jihadi fighter par excellence in order to use him for mobilising Muslim youth of the Arab world for the jihad against the Soviet troops and the Marxist ideology.

With the assistance of these agencies, he forced the Soviet troops to withdraw from Afghanistan and helped to bring Afghanistan under the control of medieval Islamic forces in the form of the Taliban. His medieval version of Islam, which is condemned today by the U.S., was encouraged by the U.S. in the 1980s to use it as a strategic weapon against Marxism .

Having tasted success in Afghanistan, he and his force of Arab youth, trained and armed with the help of these agencies in secret camps in Pakistan turned against their Western benefactors and mentors and transformed their jihad against Marxism into a new jihad against the Crusaders and the Jewish people in the 1990s. The icon of the 1980s, toasted by the U.S. because of his success against the Marxists, became the dreaded Frankenstein’s monster of the 1990s and thereafter.

This jihadi Frankenstein’s monster, jointly created by the agencies of the U.S., Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, became the world’s most dreaded terrorist who spread death and destruction across the world through his Al Qaeda and International Islamic Front (IIC) starting from 1996. The 9/11 terrorist strikes in the U.S. Homeland made the U.S. realize that the reach of this monster of its own creation had extended up to the U.S.

The slaying of this monster became the driving force of the so-called war against international terrorism. It has taken nearly 10 years and an expenditure of billions of dollars to slay this monster. At the end, the death of this monster came at the place where it was born, namely, in Pakistan. After 10 years of search the monster was traced .

The monster was found hiding in the place where the Pakistan Army was born and where its new officer-recruits are trained every year. Abbotabad is the cradle of the Pakistan Army and in that cradle was found the monster. There were indicators of a cosy relationahip between the monster and one of its original creators----the Pakistani Army and intelligence.

The death of the jihadi Frankenstein’s monster in the cradle of the Pakistan Army has thrown the spotlight even more intensely than till now on another Frankenstein’s monster --- namely, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan.

Since the 1980s, the ISI was was pampered, fed and fattened by the U.S. along with the Pakistan Army. The U.S., which closed its eyes to the pernicious role played by this State Frankenstein’s monster in sponsoring terrorism of various kinds against India, Afghanistan and other countries, is confused and does not know how to act against this State Frankenstein’s monster after having killed the non-State monster.

The end of OBL will not be the end of international jihadi terrorism. The non-state head of international jihadi terrorism may be dead, but the State of Pakistan, which continues to use this terrorism, lives in a denial mode. Neither the State of Pakistan nor its civil society is prepared to admit that Al Qaeda and its surviving leaders have managed to escape arrest, prosecution or death so far, because of the support extended to them by the State of Pakistan. The same is the case with the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET) and other jihadi affiliates of Al Qaeda.

Unless the U.S. and other members of the international community are prepared to draw the right lessons from the discovery that OBL had been living and surviving in an important garrison town of Pakistan and force the State of Pakistan to stop using terrorism as a weapon of the State, OBL’s death may not mark the beginning of the end of international jihadi terrorism.

OBL may be dead but jihadi terrorism in some form or the other will survive so long as it enjoys the support of the State of Pakistan.( 3-5-2011)

(Bahukutumbi Raman is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India)

Clouds Gathering

Things are starting to come into focus. Let’s stipulate for a moment that all we’ve been hearing is true; that Obama is actually native born, and that he succeeded in finding and killing Osama; that Osama hasn’t really been dead for years and that it’s not only just now that Obama is taking credit for his corpse. Let’s even say that Pakistan was involved in the ruse (which now seems likely) and that the whole thing hinged on a deal by which Obama get’s Osama and Pakistan gets Afghanistan. How does this help Obama?

Well, for one thing, judging from the reaction of both the left and right media, Obama is counting on his poll numbers to go up – and stay up. He’ll be able to say to the American public that the war in Afghanistan is now over and we can withdraw our troops. Americans would view this as welcome news and give full credit to our heroic and victorious president - and reelect him to a second term.

The problem is that the world has changed since 9/11. What has changed is that the Left and the Islamists are now united and are working in consort for a common goal. The movement that started with bin Laden is no longer strictly Arab based. It is based on the far broader idea of ending western capitalism. There are strong indications that Obama is quite on board with that. This would make POTUS our very own home-grown “Jihad Johnny” (Walker, a.k.a. ‘The American Taliban’).

The fly in the ointment is the Islamic inviolable desire to push Israel into the sea and that this must occur before anything else happens. POTUS has already shown himself as being no particular friend of Israel. Yet, he still depends heavily on (liberal) Jewish support. This would require him to play a double game. He must seem to please both the Arabs as well as the Jews.

The best way for him to proceed would be to work against Israel in a stealth manner. We note that every maneuver of his is designed to weaken Israel and strengthen her adversaries. It is my belief that he intends for Israel to fall while keeping his own hands clean. I do not believe this strategy will work. When push comes to shove, Israel will either successfully defend herself or receive help from an unexpected source. (China?)

At this point, the Left-Islamic coalition will come off the rails and the game will be exposed. The West will turn on a dime and fight back. None of this will be pretty to watch; but in the end all will turn out alright. The cleanup will be tremendous though. Economies will be in ruins and there will be plenty of blood. Islamists will meet up with their sainted martyrdom and the Left will be pursued to the ends of the earth.

We are reminded of the start of the Second World War. It’s difficult to imagine such a war without the U.S. being on the side of the good guys. But Germany turned out alright in the end, after everything was said and done. It’s just a shame that we will have to go through the whole mess all over again.

You might want to re-read my article entitled “The Tables Are Turning”, posted June 4th, 2010 for some background re elitism and how Israel fits into the overall picture.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Ding Dong The Witch is Dead

Good story, this morning’s news. I don’t know if my heart can take it. In less than a week’s time we’ve unearthed no less than two holy grails: Obama’s alleged birth certificate and Osama Bin Laden’s alleged body. Both make Obama look like Superman, himself of now questionable citizenship.

Note that by POTUS’ own admission, we have now entered the silly season. In Obama’s mind, he sees himself as running against both Bush and Trump. Both opponents – one clearly virtual; the other quite real – have been one-two punched in early sparring. It makes Obama seem heroic and effective. “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.”

The way our present political system is structured, we need a boogie man inspire and maintain cohesion. If bin Laden is indeed dead – as everyone is currently reporting – it would serve as somewhat of a blow to our hawkish stance re Afghanistan. I note that the president made sure to take personal credit for the kill. All that was missing was the banner proclaiming “Mission Accomplished”. The mystery that remains is who will be next to serve as a foil?

Unfortunately, holy grails no longer suffice to change the facts on the ground. These themselves are frequently contrived to distract from the obvious. Personally, I’m still somewhat confused. I’ve heard the phrase “architect of 9/11” applied to both KSM and Osama bin Laden. Which one is it? I’ve heard the term ‘justice’ thrown around to apply to practically anything and I note it’s even used do denote Eric Holder’s Federal fiefdom which to my mind hasn’t exactly distinguished itself.

I can hardly wait to see what the mainstream press will be making of these latest developments in the face of our continuing economic collapse and other tensions. It’s too bad that both Batchelor and Bahukutumbi Raman happen to be ‘away’ at this momentous juncture. Frankly, there are precious few others whose analysis I respect.

Suffice it to say, that we are now in full re-election mode and anything can still happen – even the improbable. Was happy to hear that bin Laden was buried at sea in full accordance with Islamic custom. I’m sure that the American military had been adequately instructed in advance. If bin Laden had been a Parsee, this exercise might have presented some logistical problems. But, never mind; what’s done is done and seems to have worked out nicely for our president and all concerned. If nothing more, Obama has discovered the power of documentation.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Second Coming

I remember back when a gallon of gas cost thirty cents; when there were pay phones and free road maps; when you could drop in on your doctor unannounced and the whole thing set you back less than ten dollars. I remember all that, and it just goes to show that things change. I remember a time when you could strap on a backpack and travel to Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan to enjoy the sights. I remember when Red China was still off limits to us, and Hong Kong was as close as you could get. And it just goes to show that some things get worse.

After yesterday’s presidential address I felt we had passed another milestone. Never have I heard so much malarkey being spouted from the mouth of the leader of a nation in a period of roughly 26 minutes.

He seemed uncomfortable in his own skin while speaking to the folks. Maybe it was because he wasn’t where he was supposed to be: in the Oval Office. Everything he said had been road-tested by his various apologists beforehand and then stitched together into an unruly quilt.

I was stunned. It was the first time I had actually witnessed unadulterated doublespeak.

What happened back in 2008 was not an election; it was a coup. Yesterday, our president looked lost and out of touch – would have felt much more comfortable among his UN buds. He did not want to give this speech; yet he had to, to maintain the pretense of representing a nation. Kaddafi seems much more convincing in this regard.

Obama echoed some past rhetorical abuses, saying how many lives were saved by this unilateral action. It brought to mind an earlier claim of ‘jobs saved’, implying that if it weren’t for him, nobody would now be working in this great country of ours.

Reminds of the film “Black Orpheus” (’59) in which the lead character gets up every morning and plays his guitar. He has convinced the town that if he were not to do it, the sun would not rise that day. After he dies, his young protégée takes up the task and the film ends.

We are left wondering what on earth we would do without BHO. How could we possibly keep rascals like Kaddafi in check? And even in this, he (Obama) displays a benevolent bent. He stops just short of giving the dictator the thumbs down. What compassion! What grace! What wisdom! …as transparent as any of these might be.
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Saif is not the elder. If he were to come to power, it would be enough for the American press to hail Obama as the second coming (again).

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Doorstop

There’s a door in our hallway that naturally closes. It has to be kept open with a doorstop - in our case, an antique Chinese casting of small dog.

I remember back around the time when Benazir Bhutto was assassinated, Pakistan was regarded as ours, to do with as we wished. We had been conducting drone strikes (inside Pakistan) as a part of our effort in Afghanistan. Pakistan had been voicing its objections, but our foreign policy experts chose to continue with the strikes anyway because, they reasoned, Pakistan couldn’t do much about it. We essentially viewed it as a failed and deeply divided state - the lesser half, heavily dependent on U.S. foreign aid. Since then, Pakistan has made strides in coming together - and not necessarily in our favor.

The Ray Davis affair shows that things have changed significantly; that Pakistan is now asserting itself in a way it has never done before. It doesn’t do to declare any nation a failed state simply because we happen not to like it. And , yes, we do not like the Taliban; and, yes, we do not like AQ; and, yes, we do not like Islamic extremism; shariah; and, yes, we do not like people who do not like us and pray daily for their god to hasten our demise.

At some point, Pakistan had to chose between itself and us. It has chosen itself. The Ray Davis affair has brought the rift between us into sharp focus. Surely, we have offered untold sums to settle the matter quietly. And, while this might have worked in the past, it’s not working now. The people of Pakistan see America as a hated intruder; as interloper; as propping up illegitimate and corrupt governments that only serve to oppress to undermine their true desires.

The rulers of Pakistan have had to go along with the people’s wishes in order to remain in power. Another factor is the money we’ve been doling out. It doesn’t buy as much as it used to. Even the lowliest Pakistani citizen senses that America’s power is waning; that it will no longer do to try to keep themselves warm in the fading glow of dying embers.

On the other hand, Islam is on the rise. In order to survive, it has become necessary to throw in with Islam which appears to have even the once great America shaking in it’s boots.

Hanging the bastard publicly will serve as yet another signal that America’s days in the region are essentially over.

Things have indeed changed since Obama took power in America. Some would argue it was inevitable; that the door had been torn from its hinges long ago (translation: Bush). And now the doorstop has been discarded as well.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

JUMP!

Why is it so often the gun that makes the headline? Should I now be afraid that my own might some day turn against me? And then there’s the matter of blowing everything so out of proportion in these high-profile cases. Oh, I’m not arguing that it is or isn’t wall-to-wall. It clearly is. But is it justified? Frankly, I felt awkward listening to the show last night.

Some poor shmuck is found in a dumpster in Delaware and there’s hardly a mention. Only, as we would find, he wasn’t just some poor shmuck; he was a man of considerable position and influence. Still, hardly worth a mention - only the titillating speculation that he might have crawled into the dumpster to keep warm on a cold night - Republicans do this sort of thing, you know.

Then, it’s been reported, that our casualty rate in Afghanistan has reached proportions not seen since the thick if the Iraq war. But then, they’re only soldiers. They seem to be quite expendable. No longer is there a (public) count kept of the dead (as there was for Bush). No investigations over why things are going badly. Could it be we’ve placed too many restrictions on our soldiers? Hmm… I wonder.

And what about our citizens getting murdered along both sides our border with Mexico? What exactly is being done about that? I guess they too don’t count for much - like all the birds and fish found dead this past week (and don’t tell me that nobody knows what’s going on with that. God! I thought this was going to be the smartest, most transparent administration ever; one, that even promised to ‘return science to its proper place‘!) But apparently only those elected (or swindled) into the cult of political royalty count. For them we’re only too happy to pull out all the stops; make broad-brush statements, and draw grandiose, metaphysical conclusions.

Look, where was anybody watching as Jared Loughner went off the rails!? His views weren’t unknown. He was said to have been in a band; he broadcast on u-tube. Where was the school; the teachers he handed his written assignments to, and some he must have looked up to? Where were his parents? Most likely, he was encouraged - prodded on - like the man on a ledge. The crowd looks up and screams, “Go man, jump! Jump!” …and then we’re surprised when he does.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Crushed

Bahukutumbi Raman has been in the forefront of raising deeply troubling issues about Pakistan as it exists today. Pakistan is considered to be an ally of the U.S. Indeed, even if it weren’t, it would almost have to have been invented. Pakistan is said to have an arsenal of nuclear arms. It is one of the primary bases from which we fight terrorism in Afghanistan.

Those who have studied Pakistan have been warning that Pakistan may not be all it’s been cracked up to be. For one thing, Pakistan is deeply divided. This division has fissures extending into every Pakistani heart. On one hand, Pakistanis are a proud people who wish to join the modern world and be respected within it. On the other, there are those who have not exactly embraced modernity. This too springs of pride; only, it is a ruthless, savage pride that seeks to dominate and oppress on a most basic level. Modern weapons have exceeded their usefulness in curbing such appetites.

As such, when we speak of Pakistan, we speak of separate factions, each with its own way of doing things. An agreement with one will fail to satisfy the other.

The primary victims of Pakistani chaos are the majority of its people who are people like any other. It is they who are caught between a rock and a hard place, and suffering. Second, it is a threat to India. Pakistan has never healed from the partition which Gandhi and Jinnah engineered in the interest of peaceful coexistence. Jinnah demanded a separate Muslim nation to which Gandhi acquiesced.

The only difference between India and Pakistan is their religions. India’s (by no means less intense) devotion to Hinduism nevertheless remains tolerant of other religions and has been able to move forward in important areas under the banner of a more or less secular approach. Pakistan (and the Middle East in general) has not.

As Pakistan fell further and further behind, the need to blame others became acute. It did not help for Western nations to exploit Pakistan’s despair. Now Pakistan has become a problem that threatens to plunge the world into all-out war. It’s primary ally is China. (America only pretends to be allied with Pakistan for media consumption.) China, too, will not be able to deal with the chaos that is Pakistan. It will continue to promote and use such as it is for its own purposes.

There are now many who are deeply entrenched inside Western camps who seek to destroy capitalism. Islam’s goal is the same. Pakistan (and Islam in general) is being used to undermine the West. It is only a tool (and tools can never exceed their specific function). In the end, Islam has no prayer of winning. When all is said and done; it, along with Western liberals (useful idiots), will be crushed.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

China Laughing While U.S. Downgrades Military To Paintball

Why even bother to report it? (North Korea's continued provocations.) We no longer have a dog in the fight. We’ve shown quite unambiguously that we are no longer interested in fighting/winning. We seem to be intent on castrating our armed forces. We no longer see them as a blunt tool to support our now thoroughly compromised diplomacy; rather, we are in the process of re-shaping this once awesome tool to reflect some ‘less is more’ ideology with the vague expectation that the world will think this is great and follow our lead.

The damage this president has done to our military in his two years in office is astounding. First, he has ordered it to engage in a war without aiming to win. He has placed restrictions on our fighting men and women that make it difficult even to stay alive. Wikileaks enters into it at some level, as does the heroic repeal of ’don’t ask, don’t tell’.

I predict within less than a year, the military will be hard up for recruits and we may have to revert to something akin to the draft. The outlines of this are already apparent: amnesty for service. Until now, we have seen very few minorities among our fighting forces in Afghanistan and Iraq. This has to be pointed out because the Left has up until recently always falsely claimed that America only sends it minorities oversees and into harm’s way to fight it’s dirty wars. (They’ve since had to be content with complaining about the relatively high incarceration rate among certain minority communities.) All this will change.

Prisoners will now fight ‘clean’ wars. They will not be expected to win - only to stay alive while ordered to hand out food and bandages to the starving and wounded. Military missions oversees will likely evolve into setting up abortion and sex clinics, and (don’t forget) welfare offices, thus providing an ever escalating stream of entitlement clientele for liberals here at home to administer.

It is unlikely that China will go along with the program though, admittedly, they may laugh themselves silly and thus suffer some minor set-backs in their quest to take over the world.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Is Obama Presidential? Is Palin?

All that’s missing is the “Mission Accomplished” banner behind the president as he speaks in non-sequiturs.

This one appears lost. The troops don’t applaud him with the same enthusiasm with which they did his predecessor - which is understandable. He does not speak to or for them. He speaks to his gaggle of rabid press flacks back home who know that he doesn’t mean a word he says but must pretend he does to keep their own credibility from flat-lining.

The other half of his supporters, the hard Left, holds its tongue. They realize they haven’t won the door prize yet. They are impatient. They know impatience will wipe out their dream of ejecting the Nuremberg heavies from their thrones. They can’t help themselves. They are determined to ascend to the heights of St. Peter within their own lifetimes - and time is running out.

It’s been said before under different cover, but you’ll remember the gist of it, As soon as the Left remembers to love America more than they hate Republicans, we can begin to make progress in this country. We can begin fixing things. Not before.

I find the attacks on Sarah Palin by the news media appalling. Haven’t we learned anything from the Bush years? Even our own side chimes in regularly. Even I… We jump on the slightest pretext into the routine for which we seem already primed. We see ourselves as heroic for finding a speck on which we can agree with the Left. The latest, of course is to say, “No, Palin can’t ever be president because…” Because? Because nothing! She’s done nothing to deserve such treatment - same as Bush. I understand that Bush gave away half the store. But if you’ll remember, he saw himself as president of the whole country. Half the country happens to trend left.

This one makes no pretense about it. He is left through and through. We ought to reject anything he says outright - not seek to understand, or search in vain for silver linings.

Now we’re all chortling because he went to Afghanistan to see the troops. It’s supposed to make us feel all warm and fuzzy inside; to make us forgive him of all his sins.

Yet, at the same time, we continue to beat up on Palin. We say she’s not presidential. Is Obama? - No, he’s not! He’s a disaster! Yes, I said it!

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Waves

As elections approach, one hears it more and more: election fraud. When Bush was elected they said, he was selected, not elected. What will they say after this one? I never heard anything of the kind after Obama became our president; yet, this time, even before all the ballots are cast and counted, I’m hearing rumors.

Not sure when the system changed. Absentee ballots, yes. Early voting, no. Military ballots, maybe. There was a brief flare-up when Democrats accused Diebold of manipulating results. Not much came of it.

This time, there’s noise all around. They say it’s a wave; that Democrats will be swept from office. I’m not so sure. Already there have been too many reported irregularities. It’s generally acknowledged that nobody is looking into it. Just noise.

Wave, yes! But some say, it’s a wave of fraud. Who is in charge of maintaining the voting machines? SEIU. Could that really be true? Who’s in charge of prosecuting election fraud? Eric Holder? Could that be true? Anyway, that’s what I hear. I also hear nobody is much concerned - even among Republicans. They say the wave is big enough. Which wave?

Have we reached the point where a relatively simple system has been overwhelmed? Where the simple task of casting and counting ballots no longer works? Have we lost faith in the system all together? Will the losers be satisfied? Will the winners be satisfied? And what about that election recently in Afghanistan that, by all accounts, was so riddled with fraud - which we all signed off on?

I hate to say it folks; but it doesn’t look good. I guess it’ll depend on which wave is bigger.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

We Will Never Change Them

Polls suggest that Americans on the whole like the president. They just don’t like his policies. Why, then, do we really want to win in November? Answer: To send a message; to get Obama to change direction; to change his heart and mind. It’s the same reason we stayed in Iraq as long as we did. It’s the same reason we are in Afghanistan.

We need to accept the fact that there will always be enemies who want to hurt us. The extent to which racism exists within our own country must be acknowledged and dealt with reasonably. Ditto, anti-capitalism; anti-Americanism; poverty; ignorance; liberalism. All these reflect a minority view or condition. In a free society, this will never go away entirely. We are not obliged, however, to elect groups with such fringe concerns to high office and hope they will be satisfied and leave us alone.

They will continue to make noise and that noise (along with our own noise) is protected by our Constitution. The problem is, their noise is amplified by the media. It makes it seem that there are more of them than there are of us. Not true. We (the majority) own the country and it has worked tolerably well for us. No reason to change course now and become socialist, communist, Marxist or Islamic.

We have to accept that we will never change them. Trying to do so, will inevitably enrage them even more. But we need not play second fiddle to them either. We need not read their newspapers, buy their books or watch their films. We need not patronize their pundits. We can marginalize them just as they marginalize us. At the same time, we need not apologize for our own. We need not say ‘over the top’ to something that’s precisely on point.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Rats Fleeing

The departure of key personnel from the White House also marks the abandonment of the last vestige of any relevant metrics with regard to polls, vote count (Rahm and Axelrod), the economy (Summers), the war in Afghanistan (Gates) by which to evaluate the success or failure of the Obama administration. From now on the White House will be operating purely on faith. Faith does not require data, logic or reason as a basis for decision making. All it requires is the blunt outline of an ideology.

This, simply put, means that Obama will likely continue to do what he alone feels is right. He will no longer be required to pay attention to voters’ concerns or to statistics that define traditional economic realities, or actual conditions on foreign battlefields.

This shifts our Republic to an autocracy. If the president, even after elections, refuses to work with Congress, or even bypasses Congress altogether; if he refuses to listen to the wisdom of experts; if he chooses to ignore the complaints of the electorate, then we are all at the mercy of a single, possibly mad, mind.

As Hermann Hesse so eloquently puts it in “Steppenwolf”, his true magnum opus (as opposed to “The Glass Bead Game” which is commonly considered as such), “All interpretation, all psychology, all attempts to make things comprehensible, require a medium of theories, mythologies and lies…”

We now know that Obama is not the 'savior'. He may not even be the smartest among us. To trust any single man to steer our nation of 50 States is pure madness. The one item that was missing from the Republican plan - the most important item - was to immediately initiate impeachment procedures.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Petraeus: Between A Rock And...

Gen. Petraeus is between a rock and a hard place. He’s been given a job in which the only outcome can be failure. He is aware of that. The soldier in him would never allow him to say so publicly.

POTUS knows it too. He is quite prepared to sacrifice Petraeus when things begin to go come apart. By sacrificing Petraeus, he also sacrifices the military - a win-win for Obama: two birds with one stone.

POTUS has no intention in winning abroad. His only interest is in winning at home. Some would call it ‘failing’ To Obama, however, failure is a win. That is why Petaeus and Obama will never see eye to eye. They don’t speak the same language.

Petraeus is a patriot; Obama isn’t. Nothing more need be said.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

We Have To Pretend...

What’s disturbing is that we’re still in Afghanistan. Our government is running this show. Who knows why? Despite the media’s best effort to put 9/11 on the backburner, it keeps mutating - popping up in most surprising guises. The latest happens to be that pesky mosque our government wants to build in conjunction with Islam near our sacred Ground Zero burial site. This pits our people against the government which seemingly has aligned itself with our self-proclaimed enemy.

Who would have foreseen this twist back in 2001? You really can’t make this stuff up. When the Towers fell, we are told, we had the full support of the world. When Bush came to office he inherited a surplus. Everything that was good, we are told, was squandered by Bush. History started and ended with Bush. Now, poor Obama, our historic messiah is simply trying to put things right.

In order to do this we have to roll back time. We have to pretend 9/11 never happened. We have to pretend that Muslims don’t hate us. We have to pretend that they won’t fight to the last man to get us to submit (to sharia). We have to pretend that they wouldn’t murder every last Jew if given even half the chance. We have to pretend we’re unified. We have to pretend the opposition - defined as anyone criticizing Obama’s policies - has had its tongue cut out; that the noise it generates is mere gibberish. We have to pretend that our president is not a Muslim. We have to pretend that he doesn‘t want to change us fundamentally into some version of Satan. We have to pretend we’re continuing to fight an inherited war without strategy, without history, without reason. (Note: This last point could be true.)

We have to pretend we’re not simply going through the motions of governing. We have to pretend we’re fighting a war we are winning. We have to pretend that we are not the enemy. We have to pretend we are not doing our damnest to destroy the dollar. We have to pretend that the doors to the Trojan horse we dragged into our courtyard have yet to open.

With all we are asked to believe (that goes against everything we know to be true), what are we going to tell the Taliban that will change their precious hearts and minds?

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Changing Heart and Minds

Life is a series of circles within circles by which actions are constantly repeated. Logic and teaching seek to encourage the break-up of behavior that is determined to be destructive to self and others. It has been shown that the young are much more receptive to such instruction. Although the very same tendency can be exploited by demagogues to promote endless cycles of doom.

This does not apply strictly to humans. Every Thursday night we keep our car garage closed because we can expect a visit from our local contingent of raccoons who will enter through a garage door left open, jump atop our garbage cans and rock them until they fall over. This will dislodge the lids and the animals can joyfully tear apart the bags and scatter their contents in advance of Friday’s morning pick-up. The rest of the week it’s just fine to keep the garage doors open. Any hunter will confirm my story as it pertains to the wanderings of deer as well.

As it is difficult to break one’s own habits (smoking, blogging, boasting, reading, etc.), it is even more difficult to intervene in the habits of others. How stale is the story of a young woman saying, in all sincerity, that her love alone will suffice to entice her lover to relinquish troublesome or even criminal habits?

This is why in the Middle East changing hearts and minds has always been a tall order. Besides betraying some degree of arrogance, it may well be fundamentally impossible. To stop the raccoons from coming back, we may well have to shoot them (or simply keep the doors closed on Thursdays). To put our nation back on track, we may have to impeach its present leadership. To save Afghanistan, we may have to abandon it. It will fall from within if the circle of distrust, brutality and loathing is allowed to fester beyond the people’s ability to contain it.

Conspiracy Theory

“How do we defeat such an enemy?” We beat them, pure and simple. We go in with all we’ve got and get the job done. We have the best fighting force in the world, bar none. If the Afghan government itself becomes a problem, there are strategies on a higher level to take care of that as well. Ditto, Pakistan. There is simply no excuse for America to lose any skirmish anywhere in the world.

What we lack is will. The Democrat Party has aligned itself with the anti-war movement for decades. They have politicized war and used it to keep Republicans from winning at the polls right here at home. They have thrown every conceivable obstacle in the way of any war effort for decades. They have been actively rooting for our enemies, especially under Republican leadership. They have struck words like ‘winning’ and ‘victory’ from the public debate. In the process they have succeeded in reducing our military to some ad hoc version of ‘meals-on-wheels’, a job it is wholly unsuited for.

If we decide to continue on our present course, we are guaranteed to lose. In fact, losing is virtually guaranteed if it is the aim, first and foremost, of our policy makers to lose (for whatever reason) as it now seems.

It has now been made clear that it is the aim of our present administration to reduce America’s influence around the world; that it considers American hegemony as the single most potent impediment to world peace. The obvious consequence of such policy is the demonstration of losses on the battlefield, the diminution of our dollar, and the seizing of political power over opponents here at home largely by the canard of blaming our losses on the opposition.

I’m as much a fan of conspiracy theory as the next guy. I was watching “The Fall of the Republic” just yesterday but couldn’t shake the feeling that what I was watching in itself might be nothing more substantive than propaganda. Conspiracy theories all follow a well-trodden path. There are heroes and villains and it all ends up in some kind of dystopian morass of dungeons and chains. I began to feel disgust and retreated to my history books. When it occurred to me that history itself is little more than conspiracy theory in reverse.

Which brings us to now. Clearly there is at present no will to win as far as America is concerned. All our efforts seem to be singularly focused on neutralizing the Tea Parties and their supporters. On the highest levels of our government it appears to have been decided that this is the only battle worth winning. All others - Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel, Taiwan, India, Central and South America - be damned.

Winners and Losers

I keep reading about fresh U.S. casualties in Afghanistan. The headline usually reads “worst month since…” And I can’t help but wonder what has gone wrong. The major news media used to make a big deal about U.S. casualties in Iraq. It was presented as a kind of game show countdown (or 'up'); some kind of doomsday clock. We were told it was Bush’s fault and that the war there was already lost and that any further action was meaningless - Bush’s war; not America’s war.

Now we’ve come full circle. The administration that got itself elected by promising to end Iraq and fight the ‘right’ war in Afghanistan now has exactly what it wanted. Still, the casualties continue to mount. It’s been a boon of sorts for Obama in that he can now claim victory in Iraq (which he has). But Afghanistan remains a daunting enterprise; first, because we don’t seem to know whom we’re fighting. According to the administration there are good Taliban and bad Taliban; there are corrupt politicians and despicable ones. And each and every one of them has turned against us.

The game there has become so skewed that we’ve been reduced to appealing for just one person to step forward and say, “Jolly good job, America! You can go home now and prosecute your soldiers for war crimes”; just one person we can manage to bring in front of cameras to attest to something good we may have inadvertently left behind: a school; a hospital; a charred poppy field; a woman left unscarred - anything at all that hasn’t immediately been erased in the time it takes to get an BBC news team to the site.

I wonder about the American families who have suffered the loss of dear ones in this wanton wasteland. I wonder if they understand how their personal loss advances America’s cause. I sure don’t.

These wars have been shamelessly politicized from the start to serve parochial political ends. As such, a great debate ensued between those who wanted us to win and those who wanted us to lose. That battle was decided right here in America when Obama came to power. While our first impulse to engage extreme elements within the Islamic tradition was proper - indeed unavoidable - since then, any thought about our actual mission there has been lost in the shuffle.

There have been winners and losers alright, but these have no longer anything to do with either Afghanistan or Iraq. Those people have been exploited for the purpose of bringing the Obama administration to power and subjugated Republicans. It is here that you find your winners and losers.