U.S. Soldiers Strain Against Rules of Engagement

Riding shotgun in an armored vehicle as it passed through the heat and confusion of southern Afghanistan this month, an Army sergeant spoke into his headset, summarizing a sentiment often heard in the field this year. “I wish we had generals who remembered what it was like when they were down in a platoon,” he said to a reporter in the back. “Either they never have been in real fighting, or they forgot what it’s like.” The sergeant was speaking of Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal and the circle of counterinsurgents who since last year have been running the Afghan war, and who have, as a matter of both policy and practice, made it much more difficult for troops to use airstrikes and artillery in the fight against the Taliban. No matter the outcome of his meeting on Wednesday in Washington over caustic comments he and his staff made about President Obama and his national security team, the general, or his successor, faces problems from a constituency as important as his bosses and that no commander wants to lose: his own troops. As levels of violence in Afghanistan climb in another deadly summer, there is a palpable and building sense of unease among troops surrounding one the most confounding questions about how to wage the war: when and how lethal force should be used. Since last year, the counterinsurgency doctrine championed by those now leading the campaign — often called population-centric tactics — has assumed an almost unchallenged supremacy in the ranks of the American military’s career officers. The doctrine, which has been supported by both the Bush and Obama administrations, rests on core assumptions, including that using lethal force against an insurgency intermingled with a civilian population is often counterproductive. Since General McChrystal assumed command, he has been a central face and salesman of this idea, and he has applied it to warfare in a tangible way: by further tightening rules guiding the use of Western firepower — airstrikes and guided rocket attacks, artillery barrages and even mortar fire — to support troops on the ground. “Winning hearts and minds in COIN is a coldblooded thing,” General McChrystal was quoted as telling an upset American soldier in the Rolling Stone profile that has landed him in trouble. “The Russians killed 1 million Afghans, and that didn’t work.” COIN is the often used abbreviation for counterinsurgency. The rules have shifted risks from Afghan civilians to Western combatants. They have earned praise in many circles, hailed as a much needed corrective to looser practices that since 2001 killed or maimed many Afghan civilians and undermined support for the American-led war. But the new rules have also come with costs, including a perception now frequently heard among troops that the effort to limit risks to civilians has swung too far, and endangers the lives of Afghan and Western soldiers caught in firefights with insurgents who need not observe any rules at all. Young officers and enlisted soldiers and Marines, typically speaking on the condition of anonymity to protect their jobs, speak of “being handcuffed,” of not being trusted by their bosses and of being asked to battle a canny and vicious insurgency “in a fair fight.” Some rules meant to enshrine counterinsurgency principles into daily practices, they say, do not merely transfer risks away from civilians. They transfer risks away from the Taliban. Before the rules were tightened, one Army major who had commanded an infantry company said, “firefights in Afghanistan had a half-life.” By this he meant that skirmishes often were brief, lasting roughly a half-hour or a little more. The Taliban would ambush patrols and typically break contact and slip away as patrol leaders organized and escalated Western firepower in response. Now, with fire support often restricted, or even idled, Taliban fighters seem noticeably less worried about an American response, many soldiers and Marines say. Firefights often drag on, sometimes lasting hours, and costing lives. The United States’ material advantages are not robustly applied; troops are engaged in rifle-on-rifle fights on their enemy’s turf. One Marine infantry lieutenant, during fighting in Marja this year, said he had all but stopped seeking air support while engaged in firefights. He spent too much time on the radio trying to justify its need, he said, and the aircraft never arrived or they arrived too late or the pilots were reluctant to drop their ordnance. “I’m better off just trying to fight my fight, and maneuver the squads, and not waste the time or focus trying to get air,” the officer said. Several infantrymen have also said that the rules are so restrictive that pilots are often not allowed to attack fixed targets — say, a building or tree line from which troops are taking fire — unless they can personally see the insurgents doing the firing. This has lead to situations many soldiers describe as absurd, including decisions by patrol leaders to have fellow soldiers move briefly out into the open to draw fire once aircraft arrive, so the pilots might be cleared to participate in the fight. Moments like those bring into sharp relief the grand puzzle faced by any outside general trying to wage war in Afghanistan. By its own definitions, an American counterinsurgency campaign seeks for support from at least two publics — the Afghan and the American. Efforts to satisfy one can undermine support in the other. The restrictions on using fire support are part of a larger bundle of instructions, known as rules of engagement, that guide decisions on how troops can interact with Afghans, and how they can fight. The rules have shifted frequently over the years, gradually becoming tighter and tighter. Each change, often at the urging of the Afghan government of President Hamid Karzai, has shown the delicacy of the balance. NATO needs the Afghan government’s support. But restrictions that are popular in Kabul have often alienated soldiers and Marines whose lives are at stake, including rules that limit when Western troops can enter Afghan homes. Such rules, soldiers and Marines say, concede advantages to insurgents, making it easier for them to hide to fight, to meet and to store their weapons or assemble their makeshift bombs. It is an axiom of military service that troops gripe; venting is part of barracks and battlefield life. Troops complain about their food, their equipment, their lack of sleep, delays in their transportation and the weather where they work. Complaints about how they are allowed to fight are another matter and can be read as a sign of deeper disaffection and strains within the military over policy choices. One Army colonel, in a conversation this month, said the discomfort and anger about the rules had reached a high pitch. “The troops hate it,” he said. “Right now we’re losing the tactical-level fight in the chase for a strategic victory. How long can that be sustained?” Whatever the fate of General McChrystal, the Pentagon’s Afghan conundrum remains. No one wants to advocate loosening rules that might see more Afghan civilians killed. But no one wants to explain whether the restrictions are increasing the number of coffins arriving at Dover Air Force Base, and seeding disillusionment among those sent to fight.

Obama 'angry' after reading McChrystal's remarks

President Barack Obama was "angry" after reading Gen. Stanley McChrystal's remarks about colleagues in a Rolling Stone article, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Tuesday. McChrystal -- the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan -- has been recalled to Washington to explain his actions to the president. He is expected to meet with Obama in the Oval Office on Wednesday, Gibbs said. Gibbs refused to speculate about McChrystal's fate, but told reporters "all options are on the table." McChrystal is prepared to resign if the president has lost confidence in him, a national security official told CNN. But most of the Pentagon brass hopes he will be upbraided by the commander-in-chief but sent back to continue the mission. Obama, questioned about McChrystal before a Cabinet meeting Tuesday afternoon, said he had not made a decision. "I think it's clear that the article in which he and his team appeared showed poor judgment, but I also want to make sure that I talk to him directly before I make that final decision," he said. The White House will have more to say after Wednesday's meeting, Gibbs said. He noted, however, that McChrystal did not take part in a teleconference Obama had with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and other top officials on Tuesday. The "magnitude and graveness" of McChrystal's mistake in conducting the interview for the article were "profound," Gibbs said. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said McChrystal had "made a significant mistake and exercised poor judgment." Several elected officials have strongly criticized McChrystal but deferred to the president on the politically sensitive question of whether the general should keep his position. A couple of key congressmen, however, have openly called for McChrystal's removal. McChrystal apologized Tuesday for the profile, in which he and his staff appear to mock top civilian officials, including the vice president. Two defense officials said the general fired a press aide over the article, set to appear in Friday's edition of Rolling Stone. "I extend my sincerest apology for this profile. It was a mistake reflecting poor judgment and should never have happened," McChrystal said in a Pentagon statement. "Throughout my career, I have lived by the principles of personal honor and professional integrity. What is reflected in this article falls far short of that standard." In the profile, writer Michael Hastings writes that McChrystal and his staff had imagined ways of dismissing Vice President Joe Biden with a one-liner as they prepared for a question-and-answer session in Paris, France, in April. The general had grown tired of questions about Biden since earlier dismissing a counterterrorism strategy the vice president had offered. "'Are you asking about Vice President Biden,' McChrystal says with a laugh. 'Who's that?'" "'Biden?' suggests a top adviser. 'Did you say: Bite Me?'" McChrystal does not directly criticize Obama in the article, but Hastings writes that the general and Obama "failed to connect" from the outset. Sources familiar with the meeting said McChrystal thought Obama looked "uncomfortable and intimidated" by the room full of top military officials, according to the article. Later, McChrystal's first one-on-one meeting with Obama "was a 10-minute photo op," Hastings writes, quoting an adviser to McChrystal. "Obama clearly didn't know anything about him, who he was. Here's the guy who's going to run his f---ing war, but he didn't seem very engaged. The Boss (McChrystal) was disappointed." The article goes on to paint McChrystal as a man who "has managed to piss off almost everyone with a stake in the conflict," including U.S. Ambassador Karl Eikenberry, special representative to Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke and national security adviser Jim Jones. Obama is not named as one of McChrystal's "team of rivals." Of Eikenberry, who railed against McChrystal's strategy in Afghanistan in a cable leaked to The New York Times in January, the general is quoted as saying, "'Here's one that covers his flank for the history books. Now if we fail, they can say, "I told you so.'" Hastings writes in the profile that McChrystal has a "special skepticism" for Holbrooke, the official in charge of reintegrating Taliban members into Afghan society and the administration's point man for Afghanistan and Pakistan. "At one point on his trip to Paris, McChrystal checks his BlackBerry, according to the article. 'Oh, not another e-mail from Holbrooke,' he groans. 'I don't even want to open it.' He clicks on the message and reads the salutation out loud, then stuffs the BlackBerry back in his pocket, not bothering to conceal his annoyance. "'Make sure you don't get any of that on your leg,' an aide jokes, referring to the e-mail." Both Democrats and Republicans have been strongly critical of McChrystal in the wake of the story. House Appropriations Committee chairman David Obey, D-Wisconsin, called McChrystal the latest in a "long list of reckless, renegade generals who haven't seemed to understand that their role is to implement policy, not design it." McChrystal is "contemptuous" of civilian authority and has demonstrated "a bull-headed refusal to take other people's judgments into consideration." Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-North Dakota, became the first member of the Senate Democratic leadership to call for McChrystal to step down, telling CNN that the remarks were "unbelievably inappropriate and just can't be allowed to stand." Senate Armed Services Committee chairman Carl Levin, D-Michigan, deferred to Obama on the question of a possible McChrystal resignation. He said the controversy was sending a message of "confusion" to troops in the field. I think it has "a negative effect" on the war effort, he said. Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman John Kerry, D-Massachusetts, urged a cooling off period before a final decision is rendered on the general. My "impression is that all of us would be best served by just backing off and staying cool and calm and not sort of succumbing to the normal Washington twitter about this for the next 24 hours." Sens. John McCain of Arizona, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Jim Webb of Virginia -- also key senators on defense and foreign policy issues -- were each strongly critical of McChrystal's remarks, but noted that the general's future is a decision for Obama to make. Karzai weighed in from abroad, urging Obama to keep McChrystal as the U.S. commander in Afghanistan. The government in Kabul believes McChrystal is a man of strong integrity who has a strong understanding of the Afghan people and their culture, Karzai spokesman Waheed Omar said. A U.S. military official said Tuesday that McChrystal has spoken to Biden, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Adm. Mike Mullen and other officials referenced in the story, including Holbrooke, Eikenberry and Jones. An official at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul said Eikenberry and McChrystal "are both fully committed" to Obama's Afghan strategy and are working together to implement the plan. "We have seen the article and General McChrystal has already spoken to it," according to a statement from an embassy official, making reference to McChrystal's apology. "I have enormous respect and admiration for President Obama and his national security team, and for the civilian leaders and troops fighting this war and I remain committed to ensuring its successful outcome," McChrystal said in the closing to his apology. Rolling Stone executive editor Eric Bates, however, struck a less optimistic tone during an interview with CNN on Tuesday. The comments made by McChrystal and other top military aides during the interview were "not off-the-cuff remarks," he said. They "knew what they were doing when they granted the access." The story shows "a deep division" and "war within the administration" over strategy in Afghanistan, he contended. McChrystal and his staff "became aware" that the Rolling Stone article would be controversial before it was published, Hastings told CNN Tuesday. He said he "got word from (McChrystal's) staff ... that there was some concern" about possible fallout from the story. Obama tapped McChrystal to head the U.S. military effort in Afghanistan in the spring of 2009 shortly after dismissing Gen. David McKiernan.

Gen. McChrystal recalled to Washington after controversial remarks.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal, America's top military commander in Afghanistan, has been recalled to Washington amid his controversial remarks about colleagues in a Rolling Stone article, officials said. McChrystal was summoned to attend a meeting on Afghanistan and Pakistan in person rather than by video conference, a senior administration official said Tuesday. "He has been recalled to Washington," another official said. McChrystal apologized Tuesday for the profile, in which the general and his staff appear to mock top civilian officials, including the vice president. Two defense officials said the general has also fired a press aide over the article, set to appear in Friday's edition of Rolling Stone magazine. "I extend my sincerest apology for this profile. It was a mistake reflecting poor judgment and should never have happened," McChrystal said in a Pentagon statement. "Throughout my career, I have lived by the principles of personal honor and professional integrity. What is reflected in this article falls far short of that standard." In the profile written by Michael Hastings, the author writes that McChrystal and his staff had imagined ways of dismissing Vice President Joe Biden with a one-liner as they prepared for a question-and-answer session in Paris in April. The general had grown tired of questions about Biden since earlier dismissing a counterterrorism strategy the vice president had offered. Video: Kerry on McChrystal remarks RELATED TOPICS Stanley McChrystal Afghanistan War Joe Biden Rolling Stone LLC "'Are you asking about Vice President Biden?' McChrystal says with a laugh. 'Who's that?'" "'Biden?' suggests a top adviser. 'Did you say: Bite Me?'" McChrystal does not directly criticize President Barack Obama in the article, but Hastings writes that the general and Obama "failed to connect" from the outset after the president took office. Sources familiar with the meeting said McChrystal thought Obama looked "uncomfortable and intimidated" by the room full of top military officials, according to the article. Later, McChrystal's first one-on-one meeting with Obama "was a 10-minute photo op," Hastings writes, quoting an adviser to McChrystal. "Obama clearly didn't know anything about him, who he was. Here's the guy who's going to run his f---ing war, but he didn't seem very engaged. The Boss (McChrystal) was disappointed." The article goes on to paint McChrystal as a man who "has managed to piss off almost everyone with a stake in the conflict," including U.S. Ambassador Karl Eikenberry, Special Representative to Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke and National Security Adviser Jim Jones. Obama is not named as one of McChrystal's "team of rivals." Of Eikenberry, who railed against McChrystal's strategy in Afghanistan in a cable leaked to The New York Times in January, the general said, "'Here's one that covers his flank for the history books. Now if we fail, they can say, "I told you so.'" Hastings writes in the profile that McChrystal has a "special skepticism" for Holbrooke, the official in charge of reintegrating Taliban members into Afghan society and the administration's point man for Afghanistan and Pakistan. "At one point on his trip to Paris, McChrystal checks his BlackBerry, according to the article. 'Oh, not another e-mail from Holbrooke,' he groans. 'I don't even want to open it.' He clicks on the message and reads the salutation out loud, then stuffs the BlackBerry back in his pocket, not bothering to conceal his annoyance." "'Make sure you don't get any of that on your leg,' an aide jokes, referring to the e-mail." The White House did not immediately issue public comment on the article. A U.S. military official said Tuesday that McChrystal has spoken to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Adm. Mike Mullen and officials referenced in the story, including Holbrooke and National Security Adviser Jones. An official at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul said Eikenberry and McChrystal "are both fully committed" to Obama's Afghan strategy and are working together to "implement" the plan. "We have seen the article and General McChrystal has already spoken to it," according to a statement from an embassy official, making reference to McChrystal's apology. "I have enormous respect and admiration for President Obama and his national security team, and for the civilian leaders and troops fighting this war and I remain committed to ensuring its successful outcome," McChrystal said in the closing to his apology.

Working to Help a Haven for Afghan Women Blossom

KABUL, Afghanistan — There was in the city an old garden, and in that garden there were trees, and under the trees there were women. And there were no scarves on the heads of the women who sat under the trees in the old Kabul Women’s Garden. That was all something remarkable once upon a time, as it is even now. Screened from male scrutiny by the leafy canopies of almond or apricot trees, women could go outside as they pleased, dare to wriggle naked toes in fountain water or just gossip without the veil. Now this oasis of freedom for women, surrounded by the misogynist desert of the capital city, is undergoing a rebirth. As with so much happening today in Afghanistan, the midwives are foreigners, the gestation is troubled and the parents are hopeful. Some say this fabled eight-acre enclosure in the Shahrara neighborhood of Kabul goes back to the days of Babur the Conqueror, in the 1500s. More reliably it is dated to the 1940s or ’50s, when King Zahir Shah was said to have bequeathed it to the state. Karima Salik tells the story of the Kabul Women’s Garden she remembers as a girl in the 1970s, a halcyon age for Afghanistan and its women, before the present 32 years of unbroken war began. “The trees covered everything,” she recalled. “There was laughter and chatter and music.” For the past three years, Ms. Salik has managed the garden, which is now in the midst of a $500,000 face-lift supported by the United States Agency for International Development and CARE International. Most of the money pays laborers who are landscaping, planting trees, rebuilding footpaths and raising the walls still higher. Women on construction projects are almost unheard of in Afghanistan, but the United States Agency for International Development program requires that at least 25 percent of the work force be female. Here they are 50 percent of it. Ms. Salik’s childhood witnessed one of the most liberated periods for women in Afghan history, when the communist government took over in 1978 and enforced equality, banned the burqa and mandated education for girls. The revolt of the mujahedeen, led by conservative, rural warlords, wiped that all out in a few years’ time. People desperate for fuel felled the garden’s trees for firewood. Militiamen held cockfights within the walls. Women dared not go near the place. In the Taliban era, the city was more peaceful but women were confined to their homes. The northeast end of the garden was appropriated by the mosque next door. A warlord who came over to the Taliban was rewarded with the southwest corner for a construction project. The rest, renamed the Springtime Garden, became a public dump. When Ms. Salik and the Ministry of Women’s Affairs took over three years ago, “We hauled 45 truckloads of trash out.” Now male police officers outside the tall steel gates open them only for women, or for male children if they are under 9. Inside the gates are those rarest of public employees: female police officers, two of them. They are reinforced by five female intelligence officers, whose main job is to look for suicide bombers who might hide explosives under the capaciousness of the burqa. Mostly the burqas come off once inside the gate, and there are dressing rooms where many of the women change into normal clothes, putting on makeup and high heels. Then, unheard-of things happen here. The women themselves have raised funds for a tiny mosque, with religious instruction given by a woman — one of only a handful of such places in a city where at least 1.5 million female Muslims live. A consortium of European Union aid groups built a spacious gym, and women in tights take fitness classes there or play badminton. The Italians started the Always Spring Restaurant, featuring something else unknown in Kabul, female pizza chefs. Between the compound’s outer and inner walls, a shopping arcade of little, female-run businesses grew up, many of them financed with microgrants: hairdressing, embroidery, children’s clothing, ladies lingerie. There are other such businesses in Kabul, but none are run by women, to whom the busy bazaars are off limits not by law but by hard custom. Some come here for opportunity, many for refuge of one sort or another. Fairly often, women who have run away from abusive husbands, or from fathers who threaten to commit a so-called honor killing, wind up here, and the staff members find them a place in one of the city’s secret women’s shelters. Arezo Ghafori, 22, has a talent for hairdressing and a family of eight for whom she is the sole breadwinner, but the men in the family refused to allow her to work, even if they starved, until she started a salon inside the garden. Leila Husseini, Afghanistan’s 25-year-old Asian tae kwon do champion in the women’s under-95-pound class, came here to train and also to lead courses for other women. All of this did not happen without a fight. Ms. Salik called in the police over the mosque’s encroachment, and the mullah led a noisy demonstration of male neighbors in protest. “I used religious arguments against him,” she said, “and pointed out it was a sin to use stolen land for prayers.” They compromised on a new wall, but the mullah, Abdul Rahim, is still seething. He says that a police officer was caught inside the garden in an improper assignation with a woman, but that the incident was hushed up. “I don’t care what the hell they do,” he said. “But inside the garden they get all dressed up and do their makeup and they have other intentions.” A politically well-connected former warlord named Amanullah Guzar had gained control of the Taliban warlord’s old building site, and a 13-story building began rising there, overlooking their walls and, worse, providing vantage points into the gym’s windows. Construction workers leered and jeered, and Ms. Salik went to court to stop the building, which she claims is actually on land belonging to the garden. “Women need to have privacy here or it does not work,” she said. Efforts to reach Mr. Guzar for comment were unsuccessful. “It is women against men,” she said afterward, uncharacteristically discouraged. “Our action will never succeed.” A few weeks later, she was hopeful again. She had found powerful allies who promised to intercede. In the meantime, work on the building was suspended and the aerobics classes resumed. The face-lift is due to finish July 5. Every 40 days a new crew of female laborers is brought in, giving new people an opportunity to earn money and learn skills. Some are jobless poor, like Zehia and Hassina, two 19-year-olds pushing wheelbarrows, who had baseball caps on over their headscarves and black veils across their faces — more out of shame than modesty. “We are like men here,” Zehia said. “It is an embarrassment for educated girls like us to work like this.” Both are English-speaking high school graduates who have rejected all offers of marriage, hoping to get into a university. “What would I do with a husband, especially an uneducated husband?” Zehia asked. “A job is much better.” In a broad sense, the success of the Kabul Women’s Garden is an admission of failure. Women simply cannot go to other parks in Kabul unless chaperoned by male relatives, and often not even then; most parks, like most public spaces, are overwhelmingly male. “You can’t change people’s ideas overnight,” Ms. Salik said. “So we need to address the immediate needs.” Ms. Salik has other projects in mind for the Kabul Women’s Garden. There is an unused parking lot beside the garden where women could learn how to drive, something almost unheard of here — not because it is illegal, just because it is not done. Most of all, Ms. Salik would like to see a program that would take women on brief trips to other countries, perhaps for job training, but really, she said, just to see how women live in lands where there are no women’s gardens. New York Times

Pakhtuns’ plea to Gen. Kayani

FRONTIER POST Jan Assakzai... Since the launch of army's crackdown on TTP, the army's Chief Gen Kayani still enjoys the support of overwhelming number of Pakhtuns. Gen Kayani by retaking Swat and partially wresting South Waziristan and Orakzai from the TTP has proved his credentials as military leader. The government is fully backing the army's campaign to eradicate the TTP from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's other anti-militant, democratic forces, legal fraternity, pro-development community, the media and nascent civil society are behind General Kayani in this anti-TTP drive. The campaign has now nearly gone through a year. The Swat has been retaken, the TTP denied a sanctuary in South Waziristan, and a partial sanctuary in the Orakzai Agency. As a result of the campaign the TTP though not completely knocked down, is on the back foot: the nasty incidents of suicide and merciless bombings have substantially been reduced. The strategy of the army proved that if there is a will, these fanatics can be taken out without appeasement. The fact is that these tactical victories of the army could not be made possible without the support of the government. From strategic point of view, particularly the provincial leadership in terms of standing up to the militants in Swat and the rest of FATA, in spite of great peril, created ideal condition for the army to conduct a relatively successful campaign in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and FATA. The apologists of the Taliban who are still clamouring that the army is fighting the US war, had the simplistic view that these militants could give up on intent and capability to harm people, through dialogue. But they have been proved wrong. Some un-elected retired bureaucrats and "security" official-cum-analysts (who have the habit of waiting for their next fat cheque every month from the government) mistakenly believed that "our brothers in arms" are misguided souls and hence should be co-opted. But they forgot that the game has past the stage of simple Taliban gone astray. Now the TTP has become Frankenstein drawing inspiration, adopting the methodology and gaining finances from its new mentor - al-Qaeda. They even adopted the agenda of al-Qaeda to mount transnational attacks as a far off place as New York. The monster of the TTP has reared its ugly head in Punjab where the ruling political elite's denial mode has helped create a new environ for militants to flourish and a danger of South Punjab sleep walking into a pre-Taliban Swat-like situation. Except, some pro-Taliban political actors (whose followers are known to have helped support, recruit, harbour some al-Qaeda operatives and their Taliban allies), criticising the current crackdown only to save the skin of their ideological "friends", there is overwhelming support for the present campaign. Because Pakhtuns understand that the terrorists have taken over their lives, their neighbourhoods, their communities, they have to reclaim back the ground lost to these militants. They believe it is not the fight of the US or any other foreign force rather it is a fight for their soul and hence for Pakistan which they want to see through. They reject the stereotypes and lies propagated by the right wing media anchors and writers that Pakhtuns resent action against the Taliban as if they are the equivalent of the Taliban. But for Pakhtuns it is far from the truth and they have one message for these apologists of the Taliban monster: "please not on my name". They understand that the Taliban they knew, never beheaded people, turned 15 years only teenagers into suicide missiles, and conspired to launch transnational attacks in league with the foreign terrorists. Thus one measure of their mindset was the sacrifices of hundreds of members of Amn Lashkars, tribal maliks, political leaders, workers, innocent men, women and children. For they always thought that Pakhtun culture, traditions and values were the opposite of terrorism and extremism. On the contrary they believed that these Taliban were propped up and they never voted for, nor chose. This is why they back the army's crackdown against the TTP and very much appreciate those servicemen who were killed at the hands of terrorists: for them these fine men did not lose their lives in vain but offered the ultimate sacrifice to keep the streets of Swat and other areas off guntotting terrorists. There is a consensus among Pakhtuns that the army take the campaign to its logical conclusion knocking down the TTP's sanctuaries, intent and capability to harm innocents citizens. Although, at national level, the right wing media anchors and the pro-militant PML(N) has created much obfuscation, the army should not confuse the resolve and the consensus of the Pakhtun democratic political forces, the legal and development community, the media and civil society on fighting the Taliban monster, with the incoherence and inconstancy of PML(N)'s leadership on the issue. The army knows that there is no solution except force to deal with militants in Punjab as well. However, because of foot dragging of the political leadership of PML(N) cannot take such action fearing that doing so could make the situation even worse. But inaction of the political leadership and the army's reluctance to use force, forced the hand of the government to negotiate away the writ of the state to well-entrenched Taliban in Swat. That said, the army's crackdown in FATA is not adequate yet. North Waziristan continues to serve as sanctuary for the TTP and al-Qaeda and its allies. Without military operation in North Waziristan, threat and intimidation to the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA and the rest of the country will remain and victories against the TTP will hang in the balance. Although Pakhtuns fully support the army to retake the areas from the TTP, they are concerned that the army has not yet addressed the problems it has created for itself by distinguishing between the "friendly " and "unfriendly" militants. The militants either friendly or rogue, cannot be grouped into categories as they ideologically pursue the same cause: local and transnational terrorism. This deliberate ambivalence could allow the Taliban and al-Qaeda to thrive and come back to hunt people in Swat and other neighbourhoods in the country and nullify the sacrifices of all those who laid their lives in getting rid of this monster. For, the past policies of containing Pakhtun nationalism with right wing extremism (thus militancy) backfired. janassakzai200@gamil.com

Pakistan's violent frontier.

Al Jazeera

Israel to loosen Gaza blockade

Israel has announced new steps to loosen a land blockade of the Gaza Strip amid mounting international pressure to end the crippling three-year siege. The administration of Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, said on Sunday that it would begin allowing all goods into the Palestinian territory other than "weapons and materials that Hamas uses". It did not specify what it constitutes as "materials Hamas uses", but Netanyahu's office said in a statement that it would publish a list of goods not allowed into the territory "as quickly as possible". The announcement marks a change in policy from currently providing a list of goods permitted to enter the territory. "Israel seeks to keep out of Gaza weapons and material that Hamas uses to prepare and carry out terror and rocket attacks towards Israel and its civilians," the statement said. "All other goods will be allowed into Gaza."

Firm tied to Blackwater gets Afghan contract

A firm affiliated with the former Blackwater security company has been awarded a contract to provide protection to U.S. consulates and diplomats in the Afghan cities of Herat and Mazar-e Sharif, a U.S. State Department official confirmed on Saturday. The official said U.S. Training Center got the contract on Friday. It is part of Xe, the new name of Blackwater Worldwide. Blackwater became the target of widespread outrage in Iraq after its contractors were involved in the September 2007 shooting at Baghdad's Nisoor Square that left 17 civilians dead and 24 wounded, straining relations between Iraq and the United States. The deal is a one-year contract with an option to extend up to 18 months. If the contract is fulfilled for that entire period, it would be more than $120 million. The State Department official, insisting on anonymity, said past history with Blackwater did not prevent U.S. Training Center from bidding on contracts and that in this case the company was the best qualified for the work in Afghanistan. U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Illinois, said on Saturday she was "extremely disappointed" over the deal and that the former Blackwater shouldn't be receiving more U.S. contracts. "This is a company whose cowboy-like behavior has not only resulted in civilian deaths; it has also jeopardized our mission and the safety of U.S. troops and diplomatic personnel worldwide. Instead of punishing Blackwater for its extensive history of serious abuses the State Department is rewarding the company with up to $120 million in taxpayer funds," she said in a statement. The congresswoman has introduced legislation that would phase out the use of private security contractors. "Though the name Blackwater has become synonymous with the worst of contractor abuses, the bigger problem is our dangerous reliance on such companies for the business of waging war." As for the Nisoor Square violence, the U.S. Justice Department is pushing forward efforts to put five Blackwater guards on trial in connection with that incident.

SHARABI GHAZALS

Afghan refugees in Pakistan want to go home

In the premises of an refugee camp constructed with around seventy mud houses, idle adults and children playing, swinging and flying kites, were unaware of any refugee day, but they did hope to return to their homes back in Afghanistan. "I want to go back to Afghanistan but there is a war going on so I can not. I have been there once and I miss my country," 25- year-old Abdul Qadir told Xinhua after showing around the camp in the southwest outskirts of Pakistani capital Islamabad. Qadir, who came to Pakistan 18 years ago from the northern Afghan city of Mazar Sharif, now lives with some twenty family members, including his nephews and niece, in five mud rooms in the refugee camp. As his father is too old to work, Qadir and his elder brothers have to journeywork in nearby grocery market for about 150 rupees a day (1 U.S. dollar equals 84 Pakistani rupees). The camp rarely has electricity supply and a tent school where the children study in hot weather has no fans or even no seats to sit at all. Elders of the camp consider it is a waste of time for these children because in such hot weather and with this substandard education these children can not compete the life style out of this camp. The women in the camp have to fetch water from a tube well which is about six kilometers away from the refugee camp or they have to wait for long hours for their turn as a thousand refugees depend on the only working hand water pump. Some other several pumps have long gone broken. Hawaldar, a 44-year-old Afghan refugee, showed Xinhua his bedroom without bed and kitchen without cooking ware in a small court yard. "I have eight children, we are not happy here, we miss our country. The living condition is not good here but we don't have peace in Afghanistan," said Hawaldar, who came to Pakistan 30 years ago from the northern Afghan province of Kunduz. His parents have been buried in a neighboring graveyard. "None of the Pakistani or Afghan officials visited the camp since they left us after allocating the site to build the refugee camp," Hawaldar told Xinhua. "I want my children to enjoy life in Afghanistan during my life time as my parents had the dream once and I know that day will come soon," Hawaldar hoped. According to a UN report, there are about two million Afghan refugees living in Pakistan, a country hosting the largest number of refugees in Asia, as itself already plagued by the millions of internally displaced persons (IDPs) due to years of military offensives against the Taliban. The United Nations is marking the World Refugee Day on Sunday with the theme of "Home" by reminding the world of the 15 million refugees who are unable to return to their homes. "On this observance of World Refugee Day, we must note a troubling trend: the decline in the number of refugees who are able to go home," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a message on Saturday. In 2005, more than a million people returned to their own country on a voluntary basis. Last year, only 250,000 did so -- the lowest number in two decades. In December 2000, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution to decide that from 2001, June 20 would be celebrated as the World Refugee Day.

Afghan refugees in Pakistan want to go home

She was burnt alive

Here is a letter,published in the frontier post of ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF PAKISTAN...........COUNTRY OF CHAMPIONS OF ISLAM,FORT OF ISLAM. The Frontier Post bY Muhammad Ashraf Khan 0345-8912524 It is sad and gloomy story of my younger daughter Saeqa. She was 20. She met a fatal incident about 10 days back when she was burnt alive by an influential family of my village Munasa, Tehsil Dheer Kot, Azad Kashmir. My village is situated at a distance of 160 kilometres from Islamabad and 35 kilometres from Muzaffarabad, Capital of Azad Kashmir on way to Bagh and Rawalakot. You may have listened about Kohala Bridge. My village is just six kilometres from Kohala. My daughter Saeqa was misbehaved in a dark night 10 days back. I being a paralyzed person kept listening her cries while she was facing cruelty of an influential person namely Kazim Khan and his two sons. They played with her for an hour and before leaving my house they set her ablaze. They even locked her in a room and there was no person to rescue her from that late night operation. However, her cries forced some villagers to come to her rescue. She was severely wounded. They shifted her to the Combined Military Hospital, Muzaffarabad where she was kept under treatment for next one week but she lost her life. She was laid to rest at Munasa. I could not see her off personally because I was unable to move. Local people demanded arrest of theculprits but again their influence helped them to save their skins from police chains. They are still free and threatening me as well as my other family members. They are being backed by the white collar criminal elite of Azad Kashmir headed by the present ruling party. My family members approached the Prime Minister of Azad Kashmir Raja Farooq Haider to make sure arrest of culprits but till date he was unable to do so. They are still at large. They are addressing press conferences while I am unable to move from my death bed. I take this opportunity to just ask all justice loving people to come forward not only for allowing law of the land to take its course of action but to save my remaining family as well. Saved from: http://www.thefrontierpost.com/News.aspx?ncat=le&nid=1686&ad=19-06-201 Dated: Saturday, June 19, 2010, Rajab 06, 1431 A.H

Get tough with Pakistan’s army

THE UNITED States and NATO cannot endure an open-ended military commitment in Afghanistan. But they know — or should know — that there can be no hope of ending the war unless Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency stops arming, funding, and training Afghan insurgent groups.President Obama must recognize the necessity of persuading Pakistan’s military leaders, who control the ISI, to stop playing a double game with America. This can be done. Washington has valuable carrots to offer and credible threats to make. To succeed, however, Obama must be willing to play hardball. There is no point applying pressure on Pakistan’s civilian government. Whatever its flaws, the government of President Asif Ali Zardari is aligned with the United States on fighting Islamist extremists. Zardari’s wife, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, was assassinated by Pakistani extremists. Rather, it is the army chief of staff, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, himself a former head of the ISI, who has the power to end the agency’s backing for the Taliban. Pakistan originally sponsored the Taliban in the mid-90s as a proxy force that could ensure Afghanistan would be friendly to Pakistan and not be absorbed into an Indian sphere of influence. Anxiety about India’s role in Afghanistan remains the driving force behind the ISI’s support for the Taliban. Recent attacks on India’s embassy and Indian nationals in Afghanistan point to the Pakistani military’s continuing obsession with Indian designs on Afghanistan. And when Kayani held high-level meetings in Washington this March, he reportedly objected to a plan for India to train Afghan soldiers under NATO auspices, offering instead to have Pakistan train them. Obama’s leverage over Kayani is this same fixation on India. Obama should make a few things clear to the general: that America knows the extent of the ISI’s backing for the Taliban; that Pakistan’s army will not keep getting money and weapons from Washington if it goes on backing groups that kill American soldiers; and that if Pakistan does not end all support for its Taliban proxies, the US will seek India’s assistance in stabilizing Afghanistan. Then, if Kayani makes the right choice, Obama can use America’s growing influence with India to help reduce tensions with Pakistan. This is the key to a stable future for that part of Asia. To extract American troops from Afghanistan without leaving behind a crucible for new calamities, Obama will have to master the craft of balancing power.

Obama Blasts Republicans For Blocking Vote On Jobless Bill

President Barack Obama on Saturday used his weekly radio address to blast Republicans for blocking attempts to allow votes on legislation that would extend jobless benefits and raise the liability for oil companies that harm the environment. Obama, in a twist to his frequent business-as-usual criticism of Washington, said he is disappointed to see a "dreary and familiar politics get in the way of our ability to move forward on a series of critical issues that have a direct impact on people's lives." Republicans, along with some Democrats, on Thursday voted to defeat ending debate on a bill that would extend jobless benefits and renew a series of tax credits implemented in 2009. Attempts to vote on a bill that would raise a liability cap for oil companies from $75 million, a figure considered outdated and low, have also been blocked. Obama said Americans deserve a simple up-and-down vote. He said more than 100 of his nominees to work in a host of federal positions are also awaiting Senate approval. Obama's call for a spirit of greater cooperation comes as he is set to meet with a group of bipartisan senators at the White House next week to discuss energy and climate legislation. He realizes there will be differences, but said the public deserves to see that Republicans and Democrats can at least sit down together and discuss important issues. Obama said passage of the jobless bill is necessary to help Americans who lost jobs through "no fault of their own." He added, "It would provide relief to struggling states that would help save the jobs of thousands of teachers and cops and firefighters." Republicans used their weekly radio address to criticize Obama's response to the Gulf oil catastrophe. Sen. Roger Wicker (R., Miss.) said the country needs to continue to learn "more and more disturbing information about gross negligence on the part of BP--and about some proposals from the Obama administration that will do more harm than good." Wicker pointed to Obama's Oval Office address to the nation on the Gulf oil disaster earlier in the week as a basis for criticism. He said Obama used a third of the speech to address advocating a new national energy strategy. He added, "Now is not the time to push a controversial, job-killing, partisan agenda through Congress." Wicker also criticized Obama's decision to put a six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf, saying it's a third wave of the disaster. "If left in place, the moratorium will permanently eliminate thousands of jobs and drive up the cost of energy for all Americans," he said. Obama has said he wants a presidential commission to look quickly into whether deepwater drilling can continue safely. Wicker also blasted Democratic proposals to increase oil clean-up fees. He said the proposals would take the country in the "wrong direction." Democrats plan to "raid those funds to pay for unrelated programs," he added. Wicker's comments come as the Republican Party encountered intense pressure for comments Rep. Joe Barton (R., Texas) made at a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing with BP PLC (BP, BP.LN) Chief Executive Tony Hayward. Barton apologized to the chief executive for the way the White House was treating the company. He said he found it shameful that the White House asked the company to set aside $20 billion to compensate Gulf residents whose economic livelihoods were affected by the disaster. Barton later apologized for the comments after heavy pressure from Republican leadership.

Handicrafts by Swati women next on display at Lok Virsa

ISLAMABAD—A unique display of handcrafted products by valiant women of Swat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the name of “Reviving Livelihood through Handicrafts in Post-conflict Areas” is being organized at Islamabad. Giving details, Khalid Javaid executive director Lok Virsa informed that the opening ceremony will take place at Lok Virsa Heritage Museum, Garden Avenue, Shakarparian, Islamabad on Saturday, 19 June 2010 at 6.00 p.m. Ms Sitara Ayaz, minister for culture and social welfare, government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will be the chief guest. The other prominent speakers will include Director UNESCO Dr. Warren Mellor, CEO Heritage Foundation Mrs. Yasmeen Lari and executive director Lok Virsa. The event is being organized by Heritage Foundation, UNESCO and UK Aid in collaboration with Lok Virsa. According to the organizers, the project “Reviving Women’s Livelihood in Swat” was initiated in mid February 2010. focusing on capacity building within mohallahs, 500 women have been trained in twelve Karavan Mini Craft Centres established in union councils of Islampura, Mingora, Barikot, Saidu Sharif, Charbagh and Landikus. 327 women have been trained to make highly salable embroidery products within their homes, 110 women in khaddi (looms) for home-based handloom production and another 53 women for making handmade yarn. All 500 women have been provided the required tools and equipment including sewing machines, khaddis and charkhas, as well as toolkits to enable them to produce quality products. As part of the programme assistance greater outreach has been provided for the revival of one khaddi centre in Islampura, one vocational training centre in Odigram, a women’s sewing centre in Landikus and one pottery centre in Charbagh. For ensuring sustainability and regular income, linkages to urban consumer markets are being developed such as permanent outlets in Islamabad and Karachi, capacity building of local representatives for promoting sales and establishment of permanent green women centre in Islampura.

Saudi Arabia Gives OK To Israeli Attack On Iran

Saudi Arabia has given its go-ahead to Israel to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, according to the 12 June edition of the Times UK. As the UN Security Council imposes stronger sanctions on Iran, Saudi military sources announced that Riyadh has agreed to allow Israeli attack planes to fly over Saudi airspace that they may shorten the distance for an attack on Iran. According to a US diplomat, “They [the Saudis] have already done tests to make sure their own jets aren’t scrambled and no one gets shot down. This has all been done with the agreement of the [US] State Department.” Riyadh has already carried out tests to make certain Saudi military interceptors are not scrambled, and missile defense systems are not activated, during an Israeli mission. Once the Israelis are past Saudi airspace, the Kingdom’s air defense systems will default to full alert. “The Saudis have given their permission for the Israelis to pass over - and they will look the other way,” confirmed a US military source in the region. Despite tensions between Israel and Saudi Arabia, they both share a mutual loathing of the Ahmadinejad regime and both fear Iran’s nuclear potential. “We all know this. We will let them [the Israelis] through - and see nothing,” said one anonymous source. The four main targets for any raid on Iran would be the uranium enrichment facilities at Natanz and Qom, the gas storage development at Isfahan and the heavy-water reactor at Arak. Secondary targets include the lightwater reactor at Bushehr, which could possibly produce weapons-grade plutonium when complete. The targets lie as far as 1,400 miles (2,250km) from Israel; the outer limits of their bombers’ range, even with aerial refueling. An open corridor across northern Saudi Arabia would significantly shorten the distance. An Israeli air strike would involve multiple waves of bombers, possibly crossing Jordan, northern Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Aircraft attacking Bushehr, on the Gulf coast, could swing beneath Kuwait to strike from the southwest. Passing over Iraq would require permission from Washington DC. So far, the Obama Administration has refused to give its approval as it pursues a diplomatic solution to curbing Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Military analysts say Israel has held back only because of this failure to secure consensus from America and Arab states. Military analysts doubt that an airstrike alone would be sufficient to knock out the key nuclear facilities, which are heavily fortified and deep underground or within mountains. But if the latest UN sanctions prove ineffective, the pressure from the Israelis on the USA to approve Jewish military action will intensify. Israeli officials refused to comment yesterday on details for a attack on Iran, which Netanyahu has refused to deny. In 2007, Israel was reported to have used Turkish air space to attack a rumored nuclear reactor being built by Iran’s main regional ally, Syria. Although Turkey publicly protested against the “violation” of its air space, it is thought to have turned a blind eye in what many saw as a dry run for a strike on Iran’s far more substantial and better-defended nuclear sites. Israeli intelligence experts say that Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan are at least as worried as themselves and the West about an Iranian nuclear arsenal. Each also worries about Israel's extensive nuclear arsenal and its willingness to employ it against neighboring countries Israel has sent missile cruisers and at least one Israeli nuclear missile submarine through the Suez to be deployed into the Red Sea, possibly to attack Iran. Israeli newspapers reported last year that high-ranking officials, including former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, met with their Saudi counterparts. Meir Dagan, the head of Mossad, also met with Saudi intelligence for their assurance that Riyadh would turn a blind eye to Israeli jets violating Saudi airspace en route to an attack against Iran. ___

Pashto poet living miserable life

PESHAWAR: Noted Pashto poet Akmal Lewanay was once the lifeline of almost every political gathering of the Awami National Party but nowadays he is living a miserable life at his home, suffering from acute paralysis for the last two years. Besides reciting his revolutionary poems at the public meetings of ANP or other literary gatherings, Akmal Lewanay also used to sell books and magazines outside these functions, which was the sole source of income for the 63-year-old poet from Katlang area of Mardan. “I have rented a shop at Katlang bazaar for the books and magazines but hardly shift these selling items to the literary or political functions to Peshawar or other far-flung areas of the province,” the paralysed Akmal told The News in Peshawar, where he had come for medical treatment. Author of three books, Akmal Lewanay was not only liked by the audience in the ANP political gatherings but also the nationalist leaders sitting on the stage often requested Akmal to recite his famous poems on the occasions. “I had actively participated in the meetings and rallies led by Baacha Khan and Wali Khan but when Abdul Wali Khan and other nationalist leaders were jailed, I read out a revolutionary poem at a public gathering in Mardan, presided over by Begum Nasim Wali Khan.” He recalled that the poem had received much praise from the audience and on the request of Begum Nasim he had been reciting such poems at almost all political gatherings of the party across the province. However, the erstwhile energetic poet has been confined to his hometown for the last two years, as he cannot move without support of a walking stick. “I have been suffering from paralysis since 1991 but for the last two years it has affected my legs,” he added. He said he was neither receiving any stipend from the provincial government nor has he any expectation from the ANP-led government. “I have not been affiliated with the nationalist movement for any worldly gains but composed poetry and struggled as per my conscience and ideology,” he said, adding that he was receiving stipends from the Pakistan Academy of Letters (PAL). Akmal Lewanay is also known for his comic poetry in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Afghanistan and has got published three books titled ‘Tortum’, ‘Chapawona’ and ‘Lewantoob’. He also has to his credit an unpublished collection of comic poetry and wants to publish it at the earliest.

Obama to challenge Ariz. immigration law

Obama administration officials have decided to file a suit to block a much-disputed Arizona law cracking down on illegal immigration, according to several news reports. The decision to intervene was confirmed by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in an interview last week with an Ecuadorian journalist. "President Obama has spoken out against the law because he thinks that the federal government should be determining immigration policy," Clinton said in the interview. "And the Justice Department, under his direction, will be bringing a lawsuit against the act." "But the more important commitment that President Obama has made is to try to introduce and pass comprehensive immigration reform," she said. "That is what we need. Everyone knows it, and the president is committed to doing it." When asked whether Clinton misspoke, Mark Toner, the director of the State Department's press office, told Bloomberg News: "The secretary's words stand for themselves." A Justice Department spokeswoman said the department "continues to review the law." But other administration officials said the decision to intervene has been made, only the details of the suit need to be worked out. The Arizona law gives local police greater power to check the legal status of people they stop and makes illegal immigration a state crime. Opponents fear the law will lead to racial profiling. The law has sparked boycotts and protests, both around the country and in Boston. On May 5, the Boston City Council passed a resolution urging that business ties be cut with Arizona in protest over the law. Mayor Thomas M. Menino joined the council, saying he would consider canceling city contracts with Arizona companies that support the law. The controversy has even carried over into Boston's sports scene. Demonstrators gathered outside Fenway Park this week to protest the arrival of the Arizona Diamondbacks, in town for a three-game series against the Red Sox.

Value to Big Powers May Not Be Enough to Save Kyrgyzstan

MOSCOW — A year and a half ago, the world’s great powers were fighting like polecats over Kyrgyzstan, a landlocked stretch of mountains in the heart of Central Asia. The United States was ferociously holding on to the Manas Air Base, a transit hub considered crucial to NATO efforts in Afghanistan. Russia was so jealous of its traditional dominance in the region that it promised the Kyrgyz president $2.15 billion in aid the day he announced he was closing Manas. With the bidding war that followed, Kyrgyzstan could be forgiven for seeing itself as a global player. And yet for the past week, as spasms of violence threatened to break Kyrgyzstan apart, its citizens saw their hopes for an international intervention flicker and die. With each day it has become clearer that none of Kyrgyzstan’s powerful allies — most pointedly, its former overlords in Moscow — were prepared to get involved in a quagmire. Russia did send in several hundred paratroopers, but only to defend its air base at Kant. For the most part, the powers have evacuated their citizens, apparently content to wait for the conflict to burn itself out. The calculus was a pragmatic one, made “without the smallest thought to the moral side of the question,” said Aleksei V. Vlasov, an expert in the politics of post-Soviet countries at Moscow State University. “We use the phrase ‘collective responsibility,’ but in fact this is a case of collective irresponsibility,” he added. “While they were fighting about whatever — about bases, about Afghanistan — they forgot that in the south of Kyrgyzstan there was extreme danger. The city was flammable. All they needed to do was throw a match on it.” Kyrgyzstan may have unraveled anyway, but competition between Moscow and Washington certainly sped the process. To lock in its claim on the base after the threat of expulsion, the United States offered President Kurmanbek S. Bakiyev $110 million to back out of his agreement with Russia, which had already paid him $450 million. Congratulating itself on its victory, Washington raised the stakes by announcing the construction of several military training facilities in Kyrgyzstan, including one in the south, which further irritated Moscow. This spring, the Kremlin won back its lost ground, employing a range of soft-power tactics to undermine Mr. Bakiyev’s government. Mr. Bakiyev was ousted by a coalition of opposition leaders in April, and conditions in Kyrgyzstan’s south — still loyal to the old government — hurtled toward disaster. “Let’s be honest, Kyrgyzstan is turning into a collapsing state, or at least part of it is, and what was partially responsible is this geopolitical tug-of-war we had,” said Alexander A. Cooley, who included Manas in a recent book about the politics of military bases. “In our attempts to secure these levers of influence and support the governing regime, we destabilized these state institutions. We are part of that dynamic.” Last week, as pillars of smoke rose off Osh and Jalalabad, citizens begged for third-party peacekeepers to replace local forces they suspected of having taken part in the violence. Roza Otunbayeva, the head of Kyrgyzstan’s interim government, asked Moscow for peacekeepers, and when that request was denied, for troops to protect strategic sites like power plants and reservoirs. She asked Washington to contribute armored vehicles from the base at Manas, which she said would be used to transport the dead and wounded, she told the Russian newspaper Kommersant. So far, Moscow and Washington have responded mostly with humanitarian aid pledges — late on Friday, Russia’s Defense Ministry said that Ms. Otunbayeva’s request was still under consideration. The United States, overextended in Afghanistan and Iraq, has neither the appetite nor the motive for a new commitment. Russia, the more obvious player, sees the risks of a deployment outweighing the benefits. Russian troops would enter hostile territory in south Kyrgyzstan, where Mr. Bakiyev’s supporters blame Moscow for his overthrow, and Uzbekistan could also revolt against a Russian presence. Mr. Vlasov, of Moscow State University, said: “Who are we separating? Uzbeks from Kyrgyz? Krygyz from Kyrgyz? Kyrgyz from some criminal element? There is no clearly defined cause of this conflict. It would be comparable to the decision the Soviet Politburo made to invade Afghanistan — badly thought through, not confirmed by the necessary analytical work.” If the explosion of violence was a test case for the Collective Security Treaty Organization, an eight-year-old post-Soviet security group dominated by Russia, it seems to have failed, its leaders unwilling to intervene in a domestic standoff. In any case, neither the Russian public nor its foreign policy establishment is pressing the Kremlin to risk sending peacekeepers. “If you send them, you have to shoot sooner or later,” said Sergei A. Karaganov, a prominent political scientist in Moscow. “Then you are not a peacekeeper, but something else.” Though it seems that the worst of the violence has passed, great challenges remain. Beyond the immediate humanitarian crisis is an unstable state at the heart of a dangerous region. The Ferghana Valley, bordering Afghanistan, is a minefield of religious fundamentalism, drug trafficking and ethnic hatreds. If Kyrgyz-style violence should radiate across borders in Central Asia, the result could be a rise in Islamic militancy that would directly threaten Russia and the United States. The failure of international institutions last week should alarm both capitals. President Obama and President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia began their relationship with the crisis over the Manas base, and as they grope toward tentative collaboration in the post-Soviet space, Kyrgyzstan has dominated their conversation. Now, Kyrgyzstan needs help building a stable government that knits together the north and the south. Dmitri V. Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Center, suggested that NATO should be working with the members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization to develop a mechanism for collective action. The next time a Central Asian country is wobbling at the edge of a precipice, he said, someone must be prepared to accept responsibility. “You can abstain from a local conflict in Kyrgyzstan,” Mr. Trenin said. “You can close your eyes to it — it’s bad for your conscience — but you can live with it. It something happens in Uzbekistan, you will not be able to just let it burn out.”

Power of education is the real gold in Afghanistan

Amid all the dark news from Afghanistan, every now and then a sliver of light slips through the cracks. Afghanistan, it turns out, is rich in minerals. Trillions rich. It's going to become the Saudi Arabia of lithium, they say. Thanks to vast stores of that resource, plus iron, copper, cobalt and gold, this impoverished, war-torn nation could become a wealthy nation. No more wars, no Taliban, no heroin, no Osama bin Laden. Too good to be true, right? The deposits are real enough, but the question remains: Can a country without mining infrastructure and populated by people who've never known prosperity or possessed the collective memory of self-direction (70 percent of Afghans are under age 30) put its resources to constructive use? Although the potential is "stunning," according to Gen. David Petraeus, the sidebars and footnotes to this heartening story are full of caveats and "yes, buts." There's also potential for corruption, for fights between the central government and the provinces, for conflict along the border with Pakistan, where some of the richest deposits are located, and for a resurgent and enriched Taliban. Moreover, turning deposits into a functioning mining industry will take decades. But speculation naturally leads to the hope that Afghanistan could begin to fund its own reinvention and liberate other nations, notably ours, from that burden. The key, it seems, lies in educating the rising generation of Afghans -- in the liberal arts as well as in the technologies needed to advance this new economic potential. There is hope there, too, not least because of the American University of Afghanistan (AUAF), the nation's only private, nonprofit university. The school was launched with the help of a substantial grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development and built on 48 acres in Kabul. Instruction commenced in 2006, and the first class graduated last month. The school has 500 students, 20 percent of them women, and it hopes to expand to 800 students next year and to 2,000 in five years. Most Afghans can't afford the tuition -- 70 percent receive financial aid -- and are being educated in large part through American donations. Some of those donors attended a dinner in Washington recently to hear from students and to honor former first lady Laura Bush for her support of the university. A new fundraising project is underway for the Laura W. Bush Women's Resource Center, which will be the cornerstone of a new library and student services building with classrooms, conference space and an auditorium. And you thought all she did was sit and smile. The dinner, held at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, was attended by many of those who have worked in the private sector to help bring opportunity to Afghans, especially women. In attendance, to name but a few, were C. Michael Smith, university president; Leslie M. Schweitzer, chair of the Friends of the AUAF; Said T. Jawad, Afghanistan's ambassador to the United States; and Caroline Hudson Firestone, who has dedicated herself to helping Afghan women and is the author of "Afghanistan in Transition." It was one of those events familiar to Washingtonians where philanthropists and government officials convene to sip wine and, if the spirit moves the crowd, to write checks. If inspiration is the lubricant that compels luckier Americans to share prosperity, then this particular evening was rich. The highlight was the testimony of five students who trekked from Afghanistan to report on the results of American generosity. More than once, they urged the audience: "Don't feel sorry for us, be there for us." Each spoke variously of escaping the Taliban, losing family members, living as refugees in Pakistan. All spoke of feeling safe on the campus, of free speech, of open dialogue with professors and mutual respect -- all miracles we take for granted. But one young woman stood out. Masooma Habibi, a graduate of Goldman Sachs's 10,000 Women program at the AUAF, founded an Internet-related consulting business in Kabul and employs nearly two dozen people. Her head covered, she spoke softly in somewhat halting English. The AUAF is "like a dream," she said. When Americans educate an Afghan, "you are playing with life, so thank you." We knew just what she meant. It seems at times too much to hope that Afghanistan might ever become a stable country, where men and women could lead prosperous, peaceful lives. The key to that kind of future clearly lies in education. There's more to mine in Afghanistan than minerals. And there's gold in these students.

Amnesty International and FATA

By Zar Ali Khan Musazai. In a recent Report issued by Amnesty International regarding Human Rights situations in FATA concern was shown that nearly 4 million people in FATA live under Taliban rule where they suffer human rights abuses from both militants and the Pakistani Army. As if Hell Fell on ME, a report based on interviews with nearly 300 people, says millions live in a, human rights free zone, where militants torture and kill women aid workers and men without beards. Pakistani soldiers have also committed serious violations, including indiscriminate artillery fire and extrajudicial executions, as the army swept across the tribal belt over the past year, the report said. FATA is a buffer between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Pakistan termed it its geography but till this very day since its creation in 1947, she has done no good to this part of the world. Political freedom has been closed for the people of this area. Political parties act has not been yet extended to FATA. On Aug. 14, 2009 incumbent President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari announced abolition of FCR and extension of Political Parties Act but soon retreated back for the known reasons pressurized by military establishment not to dare intervene into the affairs of FATA. As for as we know, there are reasons for pushing FATA into hell, the foremost is that area in question is still not having any constitutional status as to whose part is it? The second is that Pakistani establishment has been in its control to use it against Afghanistan and to take into hands who rules the Kabul. People at helm of affairs in Islamabad have no interest in those living in FATA (Native People of FATA) rather they have their own interest in FATA. We see that FATA has been used for the terrorism for the last nearly 30 years. Religious extremism was promoted by the establishment. Seminaries were constructed and people were encouraged to participate. Politics was termed as a forbidden flower for the people of FATA. They were told that they were different from those living both sides of them. But actually people who at their west and east are of the same ethnicity, Pashtun. They were also told that they were more brave and courageous than others and they had a unique culture. Many a times they were presented as the soldiers having no formal salary out of the national kitty which is supposed to be filled by the alms getting on the very name of tribal people. Actually people of FATA have never been antagonistic to any country or people. They have always remained as peaceful and secular people. In Tirah valley of Khyber Agency so many people are living who are Sikh, by religion. More than 30 thousands Christians have been also residing in FATA but there has never been an incident of killing, abducting or abusing each other. They have all rights what a tribesman and woman have except some what the FCR has taken from them. This is an excellent example of tolerance and secularism. People in Tirah go to the funeral prayers of their sikh brethren and have a good relation ship and no one counts him or her as alien. They have never scorned at them for being different from what they practice. Now we have to come to the facts as to what are the reasons that turned the situations sour. Due to an area like a black hole having no know how about politics and political parties’ presence the religious extremism was promoted and encouraged by the state sponsored agencies for the reasons already mentioned above. Political Agent was imposed on them to decide about their future. Militants from across the world and Punjab were invited by establishment to FATA and a farce like situations was developed in which several actors have been performing their respective acts. Militants were handed over the guns and weapons while on other players started getting fund from international community to apparently wipe out terrorists. In this whole drama the marginalized people of FATA has no role. They and their land are just used for the stage and getting money. Pakistani establishment is a fund starved one and would be using all means and tactics to get the dollars to fill the pockets and have an occasion to loot and plunder with both hands and the recent report of Transparency International also supported our view. The report of Amnesty International should open the eyes of international community giving fund to the cheaters and robbers on the heads of tribal and FATA. People are hostage and they have been terrorized to the extent that no one in FATA could dare to discuss this issue and go to the bottom of the awful tale of the FATA residents. Most of the tribal have left for comparatively safer places to take shelter. Those who are still there are at the mercy of terrorists and military alike. More than 50000 innocent tribesmen and women were sacrificed for the sin they had not committed. About 3500 pro peace political people, tribal Malakan and influential were ruthlessly beheaded and assassinated Fund is coming and drowned the drain. Neither terrorism was wiped out nor did miseries of people come to an end. Now it is the responsibility of the Pakistan government to do something for the betterment of the people in FATA because it has been getting the fund on its name but no one knows where it goes. (The writer is a social and political worker and currently is Chairman Tribal NGOs Consortium, FATA and can be reached at email tncfata@gmail.com, www.tncfata.blogspot.com

Pakistan's SC seeks list of loan write-off beneficiaries from 1971

ISLAMABAD : Supreme Court of Pakistan on Friday sought the list of loan write-off beneficiaries from 1971, Aaj News reported. According to the details, a three-member bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry resumed hearing of suo moto case of Rs 54 billion write off loan on Friday. Chief Justice said that those who have not returned national capital will be sent to jail.

U.S. showed Pakistan evidence on militant faction

The United States has presented evidence to Pakistan that a militant faction aligned with the Taliban and based in Pakistan orchestrated brazen attacks last month in Afghanistan, a top general said on Wednesday. The United States has long pressed the Pakistani military to crack down on the so-called Haqqani faction in the North Waziristan tribal region, which borders Afghanistan, but Islamabad has so far balked at doing so. General David Petraeus, who oversees the Afghan war as head of U.S. Central Command, told a Senate hearing that he, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff raised Haqqani links in a recent meeting with Pakistan army chief Ashfaq Kayani. “We have shared information with him about links of the leadership of the Haqqani network located in North Waziristan that clearly commanded and controlled the operation against Bagram air base and the attack in Kabul, among others,” Petraeus said. Suicide bombers carrying rockets and grenades launched a brazen predawn attack on the base on May 19, killing an American contractor and wounding nine U.S. troops. About a dozen militants, many wearing suicide vests packed with explosives, were killed, the Pentagon said at the time. A day earlier, a suicide bomber attacked a military convoy in Kabul, killing 12 Afghan civilians and six foreign troops. Bagram is the main base for the U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan, with the largest airfield in the country. It was used by the former Soviet Union during its invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s. The Pentagon has expressed confidence that Pakistan will eventually mount an offensive in North Waziristan, but said Islamabad would decide on the timing. The Haqqani network has long been described by U.S. forces as one of their biggest enemies in Afghanistan. But there are strategic reasons for Pakistan’s hesitancy to attack the Haqqanis. Pakistan sees the group as a strategic asset that will give it influence in any peace settlement in Afghanistan so Islamabad will want those militants on its side. The United States has increased pressure on Pakistan to act in North Waziristan following a botched May 1 car-bombing in New York’s Time Square that U.S. investigators have blamed on the Pakistani Taliban. But Pentagon officials have said they understood the Pakistani military was already stretched by operations in other tribal areas.

Pentagon Claims Afghan Strategy Working Despite Problems

Official says progress is beginning to prove validity of President Barack Obama's strategy for defeating Taliban The Pentagon claimed Thursday that progress in some areas of Afghanistan is beginning to prove the validity of President Barack Obama's strategy for defeating the Taliban and related groups. The claim came after Defense Secretary Robert Gates expressed concern that news reports from southern Afghanistan, where the effort has run into significant challenges, are painting a more negative picture than is justified. Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell acknowledges that the situation in the southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar has been difficult, with slower progress than had been expected. But he says the fact that there has been some progress in ousting the Taliban, improving security and beginning to help the Afghan government assert its authority in several towns is significant. "I think we are beginning to see a proof of concept in some areas. The areas where our strategy has been employed the longest have improved the most," he said. Morrell told a news conference the Taliban's momentum in Northern Afghanistan has been reversed, and there has been progress in several towns in the West and in the difficult Eastern region, where insurgents can easily seek refuge across the Pakistani border. Even in the South, where journalists traveling with American forces have reported on distrust among local residents, attacks by tenacious Taliban units and other problems, Morrell says the U.S. Marines have been expanding security in a series of towns. "What they are effectively doing is creating a contiguous zone of security where farmers can move, people doing commerce can move freely, and business can be done, people can go to school. Now, we're far from perfect. We got a long way to go in each of those places. But this notion that there has not been progress made is an erroneous one," Morrel said. Morrell included the major town of Marja in his list of improved areas, even though he acknowledged "there is still too much intimidation" by Taliban forces there. He also said that in spite of some high-profile attacks, there have been improvements in security in the capital, Kabul. Experts say it is normal to have an uneven mosaic of progress and problems in a counterinsurgency campaign. Officials have acknowledged slower-than-expected progress in Kandahar City, a key Taliban stronghold, and have also said success in the city is essential for success overall in Afghanistan. On Wednesday at a Senate hearing, Secretary Gates appealed for patience, noting that the new strategy has only been in place for a few months and all the troops needed to implement it have not yet arrived. In answer to a reporter's question Thursday, Morrell echoed the secretary's call for people to give the strategy a chance to work. "Ultimately, Steve, it's up to us to prove it conclusively, and we're perfectly prepared to do that. We just want to make sure that the time is provided to do it," he said. Morrell and other officials note that the president's next strategy review is six months away, and his deadline for starting what is expected to be a gradual withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan is more than a year away. Officials say they expect to be able to prove more conclusively that their strategy is working by the end of this year, and to meet the president's deadline in July of next year.

Taliban nexus

EDITORIAL Daily Times For years the Afghan Taliban have been considered an ‘asset’ in Pakistan’s establishment circles. They were trained and funded by the state so that we would not have an ‘enemy’ to deal with on our western border. But recent events should force the establishment to rethink its policy of nurturing them. A nexus between the local Taliban and their counterparts in Afghanistan has by now become obvious. More than 30 Pakistani troops are missing after an attack by the Afghan Taliban on a border checkpost between the Mohmand and Bajaur agencies. The Taliban have claimed that they are holding some Pakistani soldiers captive. This is quite alarming. It seems as if we are looking at another Frankenstein’s monster. After the US invasion of Afghanistan and the overthrow of the Taliban, the Northern Alliance came to power. Musharraf adopted a dual policy when it came to handing over militants to the Americans. The Afghan Taliban were protected while members of al Qaeda were caught and subsequently handed over. Now that the endgame in Afghanistan is on the cards, a process of reconciliation has begun in Afghanistan whereby the Karzai government is offering to negotiate with the Taliban. But the militants have so far refused the Afghan government’s offer, keeping in view that they are far stronger than the weak government in Kabul. The local Taliban have already disrupted peace in the country with their terrorist attacks both against the security forces and civilians. The Pakistan Army has conducted successful military operations in Swat and South Waziristan. Another one is ongoing in Bajaur, where the local Taliban have suffered heavy casualties. An unprecedented attack by the Afghan Taliban on a border checkpost is indicative of the emerging nexus between them and the Pakistani Taliban. They must have intervened at the behest of the local Taliban in order to put pressure on the army. Pakistan must now reverse its ‘strategic depth’ policy, which has proved disastrous. This attack by the Afghan Taliban on our forces leaves room for scepticism whether they would ever prove to be an asset for Pakistan. Even in 2001 the Afghan Taliban paid no heed to Pakistan’s advice to hand over Osama bin Laden to the US, so putting our trust in them again will probably backfire. The Taliban are no one’s friends but themselves. The US has presented evidence against the Haqqani network to Pakistan regarding their attacks inside Afghanistan, but to help eliminate the terror networks operating from our soil, the US should provide us with advanced attack helicopters. We have suffered heavy losses during the military offensives and if we are to launch one in North Waziristan, additional military equipment and funds are required. Another worrying aspect vis-à-vis the terrorist nexus is the emergence of the Punjabi Taliban, a loose terror network that is spread all over the country. This group is not only in cahoots with the Pakistani Taliban but they also have suspected links with al Qaeda. It is about time that the so-called assets of the state like the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Tayyaba are disbanded and crushed. These groups have enjoyed state patronage for years. Pakistan has suffered enough at the hands of its skewed foreign policy goals. We cannot afford to do so anymore. Enough is enough. Let our soil be finally cleansed of our sins of the past

Afghan vows to use Japan's aid effectively

Afghan President Hamid Karzai promised Thursday to use Japanese aid effectively to restore peace and stability in his country, as he sought to allay Tokyo's concerns that its support may be wasted on his corrupt and faltering government. Tokyo announced in November a five-year pledge of $5 billion to help the war-torn nation strengthen its police force as well as support agriculture and infrastructure projects. The Japanese have abandoned a refueling mission that supported troops in Afghanistan and now only offer humanitarian support. Japan is one of Afghanistan's biggest donors, but there has been no indication additional aid will be forthcoming on Karzai's five-day visit. Instead, Karzai is seeking to convince Tokyo that his government will use money already promised well. "I guarantee Mr. Prime Minister that Afghan people would do their best to have their money spent in Afghanistan for the best purposes of development and stability in Afghanistan," Karzai said in a joint news conference after holding talks with Japanese Prime Minster Naoto Kan, who took office earlier this month. Karzai is the first foreign leader to meet with Kan. The comments came a day after Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada warned Afghan Finance Minister Omar Zakhilwal that Kabul must tackle the problems of security, corruption and flagging public support "so that (Japanese) taxpayers' money is effectively used." On Thursday, Karzai and Kan discussed the Afghan government's recent efforts to strengthen governance and improve security, as well as implementation of Japanese aid measures. Kan said that Afghanistan is key to world peace and pledged Tokyo's continuing support. But he stressed the need for the Afghan government to improve security and fight corruption. "I certainly hope that $5 billion would be used to benefit the Afghan people and the global peace, and I offered to continue our support to achieve the goal," Kan said. Over the past nine years, billions in aid and the presence of international forces have failed to decisively turn the tide of the war, and the Afghan government continues to struggle to assert its authority over wide swaths of the country. Widespread corruption in Karzai's administration is believed to have attracted Afghans into the insurgency. Karzai met with Emperor Akihito earlier Thursday. He is also scheduled to speak at a seminar, pray at Hiroshima's peace park for the victims of the U.S. atomic bombing and visit Japan's ancient capital of Nara before leaving Sunday.

Afghan mineral wealth may be at least $3 trillion

Afghanistan is gearing up to award contracts to mine one the world's largest iron ore deposits buried in a peaceful province of the nation that has at least $3 trillion in untapped minerals, the country's top mining official said Thursday. Geologists have known for decades about Afghanistan's vast deposits of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and other prized minerals, but a U.S. Department of Defense briefing earlier this week put a startling, nearly $1 trillion price tag on the reserves. Afghanistan's Minister of Mines Wahidullah Shahrani called that a conservative estimate. He said he's seen geological assessments and industry reports estimating the nation's mineral wealth at $3 trillion or more. For Afghanistan, a war-torn, landlocked country with virtually no exports, it is a potential windfall, although formidable obstacles remain including lack of investment, infrastructure and adequate security in most of the nation. "The ministry has been working closely with the international organizations, including the World Bank, the U.S. Geological Survey and the international mining and finance community for some time to ensure all of the Afghan people benefit from our rich natural resources for decades to come," he said. Shahrani plans to travel to Britain next week to present 200 foreign businessmen with information about the estimated 2 billion tons of iron ore at Hajigak in Bamiyan province, where the Taliban and other insurgents have no significant presence. The project is to be bid on this fall with contracts awarded late this year or early next year, he said. Critics of the war in Afghanistan have been skeptical that the dollar amount of the country's untapped minerals was being promoted at a time when violence is on the upswing and the international community is hungry for positive developments in the nearly 9-year-old war. They argue that if impoverished Afghanistan is seen as having a bright economic future, it could help foreign governments persuade their war-fatigued publics that securing the country is worth the fight and loss of troops. But Shahrani insisted that the release of the information, first reported earlier this week by The New York Times, followed months of work to assess the mineral deposits, sometimes with the aid of data compiled by the former Soviet Union when it was fighting in Afghanistan. A. Rahman Ashraf, senior adviser to the minister of mines, said that during decades of conflict, an Afghan geologist safeguarded data about the mineral reserves at home. He said the geologist, who has died, gave the information back to the government in 2002 and that since then, it has been used to help make modern assessments of the deposits. Shahrani said the Ministry of Mines and the U.S. Geological Survey had been sharing information for months. "We were just waiting for the exchange of information from Washington to Kabul," Shahrani said. Shahrani added that the ministry recently completed a business plan to restructure, reform and modernize the ministry and improve oversight to international standards. He said those efforts coupled with new minerals and hydrocarbon laws will work to improve the transparency and efficiency of mining in the nation. Still, without increased security and massive investment to mine and transport the minerals, it could take years for Afghanistan to bank the rewards. A rail line, for instance, is needed before any iron ore could be transported from Bamiyan. And there's always the potential that such a discovery could bring unintended consequences, such as corruption and competition among nations for access to the resources. In November, two U.S. officials familiar with intelligence reports alleged that Afghanistan's former minister of mines, Mohammad Ibrahim Adel, accepted $20 million after a $3 billion contract to mine copper was awarded in late 2007 to China Metallurgical Group Corp. The former minister has denied having taken any bribes and said the contract went through all legal channels. Aynak, a former al-Qaida stronghold 21 miles (35 kilometers) southeast of Kabul, is thought to hold one of the world's largest unexploited copper reserves. Mining the copper could produce 4,000 to 5,000 Afghan jobs in the next five years and hundreds of millions of dollars a year to the government treasury, Shahrani said. Craig Andrews, a lead mining specialist for the World Bank, said Aynak was expected to start producing copper within two to three years. Production of iron ore at Hajigak could begin in five to seven years, and possibly sooner, he said. Andrews noted that studies show that every mining job creates five to 10 other jobs. "Clearly, these mines will have a huge economic stimulus effect on not only the national economy, but the region in which they are located in," Andrews said. "I think when people have jobs and they have an income, they have a stake in the future and the future does not include insecurity. I think once the communities are anchored in an economy that gives them jobs money and income they would be less inclined to support the Taliban or other insurgent groups." He said the government, however, must guard against raising the expectations of the Afghan public. Otherwise, "people are going to go off and pick up a rock and think that they can go to the bank," he said. "Unfortunately the business doesn't operate that way. It takes a lot longer."

In Pakistan Poverty claims two more lives

Poverty claims two more lives LAHORE: Unable to cope with miserable living conditions, two people committed suicide in Punjab and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) in separate incidents on Thursday. According to a private television channel, Shabbir – who hailed from Lahore – was working for a private company in AJK’s Kotli area. On Thursday, when he did not show up for work, his work colleagues began searching for him with the help of police. When they reached the house where Shabbir had rented a room, they found his body hanging from a fan, the channel reported. According to police, he was a resident of Muhallah Shalimar Road in the Chahmeran area, Lahore, the channel reported. Separately, a man committed suicide in the provincial metropolis’ Ravi Road area after failing to get rid of outstanding loans. Twenty-five-year-old Nadeem – a resident of Sadique colony – who worked as a commission agent at a vegetable market had borrowed money from several people. Nadeem had to face a number of financial losses due to which he had been unable to return the money he had loaned. After being increasingly harassed by the people he owed money to, Nadeem hanged himself, seeing it as the only solution. The deceased, who was an orphan, was supporting four younger brothers and sisters.