Sunday, November 20, 2022
OPINION: Did the Midterms Save American Democracy?
ROSS DOUTHATFor everyone furiously debating the condition of American democracy, the 2022 midterms were a beautiful thing — a gift to both sides of the argument, a Rorschach test that yields to either interpretation. Suppose, first, that you were among the democracy-in-peril alarmists, for whom Trumpism and MAGA Republicanism represent not just a chaotic populism but an existential threat. What did you see happen?Well, you saw an embattled president, Joe Biden, decide to make the defense of democracy itself his key election theme. For this, he was scorned from multiple directions — for ignoring kitchen-table issues, for conflating normal conservative positions with authoritarianism, for failing to offer the kind of radical bipartisanship that his diagnosis would imply. Yet in the end it seemed to work: Voters who were otherwise inclined to vote for G.O.P. candidates did tend to reject exactly the kind of “MAGA Republicans” — the Trump-endorsed and Trump-imitating, the most paranoid-seeming “Stop the Stealers” — that Biden’s argument tried to single out. The red wave predicted by fundamentals and history disappointed, in part, because Americans judged a subset of Republican candidates too extreme to entrust with normal democratic powers. The public did the work of de-Trumpification that Trump-era Republicans themselves had failed to do — and they did so, one could argue, precisely because of alarms raised on democracy’s behalf. Thus the happy conclusion for the alarmist camp: Democracy was in danger, and for this cycle, at least, we saved it. But then imagine yourself a non-alarmist, looking at the same results. For the last few years you’ve heard the alarmists argue that the problem isn’t just Trump or his epigones — that the entire Republican Party has been remade as an authoritarian formation, that its preferred election rules are basically Jim Crow 2.0., that the structures of American government are enabling permanent minority rule by a white-identitarian right, that the United States is on the brink of low-grade civil war, that Jan. 6 never ended and the right won’t accept any election result that doesn’t go its way. Yet what did you see happen? Most Republican candidates losing their elections and conceding entirely normally, the MAGA candidates included. Georgia, supposedly ground zero for the new Jim Crow, delivering normal turnout and another strong performance for its African-American Democratic senator. The structures of American government delivering Republicans less power in Washington than their current raw vote totals would imply, with a Democratic Senate and the thinnest House majority for the G.O.P. despite their solid-seeming majority in the House popular vote. A continued migration of minority voters into the Republican Party, suggesting that the country is actually growing less polarized by race. And a conspicuous absence of the kind of violence that the new-civil-war prognosticators keep expecting.Between these two interpretations of 2022 — the alarmists celebrating a hard-fought victory for democracy and the non-alarmists seeing a predictable return to normalcy — is any synthesis or handshake possible? Let me propose two possible concessions, one from each direction. First, the alarmists might concede that the unique shamelessness of Trump himself, joined to the wild, weird circumstances of 2020 — a pandemic, a wave of riots and protests, an on-the-fly remaking of election procedures — were probably more determinative of Republican voter-fraud paranoia and its Jan. 6 consummation than some deliberate ideological turn toward authoritarianism or semi-fascism. In other words, the results of 2022 don’t vitiate the original alarmist idea that Trump is a dangerous figure who shouldn’t be entrusted with the presidency. But they do call into question the systemic alarmism, the belief that the entire Republican Party is seceding from normal democratic politics and that Trump’s ascent was just a trigger for that process. Then likewise, the non-alarmist might concede that such fascism-on-the-march alarmism, overblown as it may seem, may itself be one of the forces that tends to stabilize a democratic system, by mobilizing and balancing against excesses and paranoias on the other side. That the hyperbole before the midterms — think of the TV historian Michael Beschloss envisioning a right-wing dictatorship arresting and executing children — may have been one reason among many why so many “Stop the Steal” candidates got pasted in their races. And that such alarmism has arguably always played a version of this balancing, stabilizing role, all the way back to the early days of the Republic when the various factions reliably traded accusations of monarchism and Jacobinism. This last image, of extremisms and anxieties about extremism balancing one another out, also suggests a hopeful way for the alarmists and non-alarmists of the Trump era to think about our relationship to one another: not just as rival interpreters of our democracy’s discontents, but as partners, in some strange way, in its continuing stability.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/19/opinion/midterms-democracy.html
Chinese CH-4B Drone Spotted Over #Balochistan; Reports Indicate #Pakistan Army Is Using Them To Crush Rebellion
Drawing lessons from the Russia-Ukraine war that saw a surge in drone warfare, Pakistan has become the latest state to press its Chinese-origin combat CH-4B drones to hunt Baloch rebels.
Earlier this month, Pakistan allegedly conducted a massive military offensive against Baloch rebels in the Bolan region by deploying unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), fighter jets, and Gunship helicopters, along with SSG Commandos, according to Balochistan Post-English.
According to reports, the Pakistani Army deployed jets against Baloch nationalists in the highlands of Bolan in Balochistan.The Pakistani military operations were resisted by the Baloch militias, which, in turn, killed two SSG Commandos. EurAsian Times could not independently verify the number of Pakistani commandos killed by the rebels.
While the Pakistani Army has used fighter jets and armed helicopters against Baloch rebels for several years, the use of combat UAVs is new and is continuously increasing. The Balochistan Post-English tweeted that China and Turkey have supplied various models of combat UAVs to Pakistan.
According to the information on the microblogging site Twitter and Pakistan-based defense blogs, Chinese CH-4B UAVs were spotted over Bolan, Balochistan, where the rebels killed two SSG Commandos.
The Pakistani military is accused by the people of Balochistan of the excesses committed against them and has intensified its armed assault in recent times.
According to a recent report of The Balochistan Post, the Human Rights Council of Balochistan received 41 cases of enforced disappearance and thirty cases of extrajudicial executions in Balochistan during October 2022.
Pakistan received five Cai Hong 4 (Rainbow 4, or CH-4) multirole medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) UAVs from China in January 2021. At the time, it was not revealed which variant of the CH-4 drone was acquired by Islamabad.
However, later reports suggested it was the CH-4B variant.
A Chinese PLA detachment based in Pasni, Gwadar, allegedly helps the Pakistani military operate these CH-4 drones. The Pakistan military has a naval air station at Pasni known as PNS Makran. China is developing the Port of Gwadar under the China-Pakistan Economic Agreement (CPEC), a premise for deploying PLA troops in the region.
China pursues a “strategic strongpoint” concept, whereby its military can use strategically located foreign ports with terminals and commercial zones run by Chinese companies.
This makes it plausible that the PLA detachment would assist the Pakistani troops in operating the CH-4B. However, we could not independently corroborate this notion, and Pakistani netizens dismissed it as propaganda.
That being said, Pakistan’s use of combat drones against Baloch insurgents is yet another example of militaries turning to drones for combat after watching the deployment of UAVs in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict.
The conflict has led to a proliferation of drones. Pakistan is slated to receive Bayraktar Akinci and TB2 drones from its ally Turkey.
CH-4B Drones
The ALIT and China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC)-developed CH-4 family of multirole MALE UAVs features a wide range of sensor options.
The People’s Liberation Army of China is known to use two variants: the standard CH-4A, which has a flight endurance of 30 hours and is primarily designed for reconnaissance missions, and the strike-capable CH-4B, which can carry a 345-kilogram weapon payload but has a shorter flight endurance of 14 hours. The Pakistani Army reportedly uses the CH-4B Strike variant.
Pakistan’s CH-4 drones were spotted at a Pakistani airbase close to India’s border in August 2021, as reported by EurAsian Times. Satellite imagery shared by an open-source intelligence showed four CH-4 combat drones at the Bahawalpur airbase in Pakistan’s Punjab province.
The drone has attracted many customers worldwide. Just a day before the CH-4B was spotted over Balochistan, Chinese state media Global Times reported a record demand for the CH-4 drone in the international market.
Citing the manufacturer China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), the report said it had sold over 200 units of CH-4 drones to international customers.
It has a weapon that can be fired from a distance of up to 5,000 meters and is made explicitly for high-altitude operations over land and water. The UAV also features a retractable electro-optical sensor turret and a data link to the ground control station.
In addition, the CH-4 has a contemporary, two-person control station that allows for both line-of-sight and satellite communications, according to Popular Science. According to military watchers, this Chinese drone resembles the American MQ-9 Reaper.
https://eurasiantimes.com/chinese-ch-4b-drone-spotted-over-balochistan-reports-indicate/
Bilawal asks protesting PTI to spare army chief’s selection week
https://www.dawn.com/news/1721984
آج کے بچے کل کے لیڈر ہیں، بلاول بھٹو
وزیر خارجہ بلاول بھٹو زرداری نے کہا ہے کہ آج کے بچے کل کے لیڈر ہیں، ان
کے ذہنوں کو رواداری کے ساتھ پروان چڑھانے کی ضرورت ہے۔
بچوں کے عالمی دن کے موقع پر دیے گئے پیغام میں بلاول بھٹو نے کہا کہ بچوں کو تمام مطلوبہ سہولیات فراہم کرنا حکومت اور معاشرے کی ذمہ داری ہے۔
انہوں نے مزید کہا کہ تعلیم، صحت، صاف اور پُرامن ماحول بچوں کی صحت مند نشونما کے لیے ضروری ہیں۔
وزیر خارجہ نے یہ بھی کہا کہ پاکستان کو داخلی اور خارجی محاذ پر متعدد مشکلات کا سامنا ضرور ہے، ہماری اولین ترجیح ہے کہ ہمارے بچوں کا مستقبل ہونا چاہیے۔
ان کا کہنا تھا کہ پولیو کے تقریباً ایک چوتھائی کیسز محض پاکستان سے رپورٹ ہو رہے تھے، شہید بینظیر بھٹو نے بطور وزیراعظم اپنے دوسرے دور حکومت میں انسداد پولیو مہم شروع کی۔
بلاول بھٹو زرداری نے کہا کہ آج ہم پولیو سے پاک ملک بننے کے قریب ہیں، مساوات اور یکساں مواقع ہر بچے کے ناقابل تردید حقوق ہیں۔
انہوں نے کہا کہ سیلاب سے متاثر بچوں پر خصوصی توجہ دینے کی ضرورت ہے، سیلاب اور بارشوں سے متاثر 33 ملین افراد میں سے ایک تہائی بچے ہیں۔
وزیر خارجہ نے کہا کہ موسمیاتی تباہی کے نتیجے میں تقریباً 19 ہزار اسکولوں کو نقصان پہنچا، میں نے عالمی فورمز پر موسمیاتی انصاف کی افادیت پر زور دیا ہے۔
ان کا کہنا تھا کہ ہم مستقبل میں موسمیاتی آفات کا شکار پوری دنیا کا مقدمہ لڑ رہے ہیں۔