In the News -- With the "Trilateral" meetings at the White House yesterday, it seems apparent that the Obama administration's main foreign policy focus in on South Asia -- "Af-Pak," rather that Iraq or Israel-Palestine. That is not news, of course. These developments are right in line with the reality of events and with the President's priorities on diplomacy. The talks will have been successful if they get the Pakistani army to focus on the Taliban in country, rather than India. According to the report by Politico.com, President Obama says he is "pleased" by the Af-Pak meetings. The Financial Times (5/7/09) has a particularly good story on the talks. Quoting the FT summary:Islamabad on Thursday intensified attacks against Taliban militants in the northern Swat valley after Barack Obama, US president, welcomed the leaders of Pakistan and Afghanistan to the White House.
Thousands of people took advantage of a break in a curfew in Swat on Thursday to get out of the region as government aircraft attacked Taliban positions. United Nations officials said the campaign against the Islamic militants in Swat had prompted 100,000 civilians to flee the area over the past two days. Mian Iftikhar Hussain, a senior official in North West Frontier Province, where Swat is located, warned that 500,000 people might flee the conflict.
If Iraq is secure enough for the oil groups to return by the end of the year, despite the lack of an oil law, things must be getting more stable in that war-torn country with one third of the world's oil reserves. According to the New York Times (4/19/09), Iraq's parliament chose a new speaker after months of political infighting that stalled several pieces of legislation. He is a critic of PM Malaki. The commander in Iraq, General Odierno is certain that U.S. troops will be out of Iraq by late 2011.
Clearly President Obama has turned his attention to South Asia, and it is none too soon. The years of a Bush administration distracted in Iraq are somewhat behind us. The current administration is about the business that should have been finished with al Qaeda a long time ago.
References:
- Terror tech -- from CQ Behind the Lines, by David C. Morrison (5/6/09): “In the old days, we knew where the enemy was; the problem was we couldn’t kill them fast enough. Now it’s almost getting them person by person, and technology can help us do that,” National Intelligence chief Adm. Dennis C. Blair tells The Baltimore Sun. The advent of robotic weapons of “indiscriminate lethality” promises to “lead to less physical risk to the combatants deploying them but greater moral risk,” a Global Media Forum essay assesses — while The New York Times quotes a Taliban logistician judging as “very effective” the CIA’s drone attacks in Pakistan.
- "Obama says Pakistan nukes in safe hands," from The Financial Times (4/29/09). Summary of an article that provides a lot of good answers to the questions I have had about Pakistan's nuclear arsenal:
US president Barack Obama on Wednesday has backed assurances from Pakistan’s military, saying he believed the country’s nuclear arsenal of as many as 100 warheads was in safe hands.
Speaking at a White House news conference late Wednesday night, Mr Obama said while he was “gravely concerned” about the overall situation in Pakistan, he added that Pakistan’s military recognised the hazard of the country’s nuclear weapons “falling in to the wrong hands”. - "Almost 1 in 10 Afghans see the U.S. as the biggest threat to Afghanistan," from The U.S. News and World Report (4/15/09).
[Post date May 7, 2009]
See also Behind the Links, for further info on this subject.
Carol Gee - Online Universe is the all-in-one home page for all my websites.
Technorati tags: news foreign policy pakistan afghanistan iraq obama trilateral meeting
1 comment:
I'm always reminding myself when trying to talk to people about world events that they are unknowing participants in a Great Deception : as I was myself for many years.
The Taliban were the former government of Afghanistan. They were also the people who were supported by the U.S.A. in guerilla operations which bled the Soviets dry.Note I did not say al Qaeda : which means foreign fighters.
The UN warned late fall that 30% of Afghans were at risk of starvation.
I don't know what you think of marijuana here in America. It's a joke in this country that elected politicos had pot parties as a matter of routine. That stuff is a native medicinal weed : as it is commonly referred to. Yet its use is procribed to a point where one wonders if the purpose is not to supplant alcohol Prohibition as a revenue source for crime. It is a definite make work project.
Burning poppies may seem innocuous. That's because you don't make the connection between that activity and the slaying of the buffalo on the American Plains as a way to starve opposition : quite literally. Their crop is their money to buy food : and cheap painkillers for hospitals and clinics in India.
When the puppet dictator imposed by Americans cries that his people are being murdered : it is not in his interest to make that admission to you. But he must have that modicum of honesty to his dying countrymen.
There was an honest statement to come out of the Bush Administration : a signal event in a time when lying was reflex according to Rove's script. 'We create reality.'
Do you remember the scandal about 76 'impartial news advisors' to Washington media having military backgrounds ? Mm. Americans are not to be propagandized by their government. Think about what you now know about Bush/Cheney and tell me if you believe in the tooth faity too.
Was the Change Obama supposedly represents the great reversal of course from foreign occupations the people seemed to want ? Or did it merely change the target to new places where people could be murdered safely from afar ?
Somalia - the most dangerous place in the world - represents the fruits of taking away local government and replacing it with a plague of bandits. Think of all the theft of taxpayers money which occurred due to No Bid contracts and use of mercenaries : whatever else you might fancy Contractors to be : in Iraq. The infrastructure....the soldiers call it The Sewer.
That's what lies ahead for that area. India was savaged in the 40's by the partition and over a million lost their lives. Iraq has passed that mark already ( no, I know Iraq Body Count doesn't say so - another farce ) and the tempo in Afghanistan is increasing rapidly.
There is much more to tell. But you must take some initiative to explore. I have catalogued parts of what I have found out at http://my.opera.com/oldephartte/blog/ The Links section is big enough and growing : but the part dealing with deception centers around the New World Order, Moving the Overton Window...and unbelievable Mind Control programming available resources for information.
It really is an analogue to the Matrix.
The place to start might be a simple War Game which outlines how the forces of empire securing a strategic material ( petroleum ) away from foreign access drives policy. Why do that is a separate question which is also hard to swallow. Here is Step One
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB207/index.htm
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