The Obama Doctrine

From a Pakastani journalist writing for Dawn:

The real lesson to be learnt from the OBL raid — that is if we wish to learn — is that the US can find its enemies, no matter how long it takes, and with impunity eliminate them.

I'd rather our true friends and our enemies hear that than some premature "Mission Accomplished."

but then, I have always been a 'realist' - I hope.

Despair from Pakistan

A columnist whose work I admire and respect, Ardeshir Cowasjee, writes of the despair of the educated middle class youth of his country Pakistan. Many are desperate to leave the country.

Cowasjee seems to share their despair:
They point out that there is no governance because those who have been put where they are with an aim to govern have neither the will nor the intent, that their prime motivation is the lining of their pockets and the fleeting joys that accompany power. They have read and heard why and how, from president downwards, the main powerbrokers carry on their broad shoulders heavy baggage from yesteryear.
***
They know how a once viable country has been overtaken by religious extremism which, combined with the spirit of jihad as encouraged by the military that claims to be the ideological guardian of the nation, has spread a poison that has seeped into the national mindset. They realise the inherent dangers of the false pride that boasts of the possession of nuclear assets without giving one minuscule thought to the implications of such possession.

Cowasjee is not giving up. But I wonder how possible he thinks his solution is? Read the whole thing, if only to see English used in a totally un-English environment.

English as a legal language

There is a column by Jawed Naqvi in Dawn newspaper of Pakistan that focuses on what the writer believes is the latest piece of obstructionism in the investigation of the terrorist attack on Mumbai:

If Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has read any of these [Marathi] writers, it must be in Urdu or English, the two languages we know he knows.

It is highly unlikely that Home Minister P. Chidambaram, whose mother tongue is Tamil, would be able to read the Marathi or even the Hindi version of any of the fabled writers. His English is good though.

Given the inherent difficulties of dealing with diverse languages, it is baffling that authorities in Pakistan have been asked to decode Hindi and Marathi, the two languages in which India has given them Ajmal Kasab’s confession about his involvement, and that of his other Pakistani accomplices, in the November terror attack on Mumbai.

Pakistan requires the statement in Urdu or English if its judges are to proceed against the few suspects rounded up for the heinous act.

That's right. He angry that the Indian authorities didn't have the decency to use ... English. Apparently that would be much better than having to wade through Marathi or worse, admitting that a speaker of Urdu might be able to stumble through something written in Hindi.

He then calls for a solution:

Which means the confusion created by a surfeit of languages the subcontinent is gifted with must be overcome. This is a bold measure that could only be predicated on political will. A new lingua franca of peace is required, one that can be readily understood and accepted across the region – from Kathmandu to Colombo from the Chittagong Hill Tracts to the Panjshir Valley via Jaffna, Kashmir, Nagaland and Swat through Kandahar and Quetta.

Notice that he doesn't say what this language ought to be. There's always Esperanto though.

The Anglophone world becomes stronger every day.

POV of Politics

Wonder how our never ending presidential campaigns play out in foreign lands? Here is a bit from the article in Dawn, Pakistan's largest English language newspaper, about the selection of Joe Biden as Obama's VP. Notice the subtle shades of difference in what the writer thinks is important from what an American news writer might say:

Masood Haider adds from New York: Sen. Biden is an outspoken critic of the Bush administration’s policy of extending support to military regime in Pakistan under former president Pervez Musharraf. Recently, he had cautioned the Bush administration against taking any steps that could be interpreted as propping up the former army chief.

Biden is spearheading a piece of legislation for tripling Pakistan’s economic assistance to $15 billion payable in 10 years. He is known as one of the foremost supporters of democratic forces in Pakistan.

“The political future of (former) president Musharraf is a matter to be decided by the Pakistani people, through normal constitutional channels. Washington should not do anything that appears as thwarting their will,” Biden has said.

In recent years, Biden has twice travelled to Afghanistan and Pakistan and to Iraq eight times.

And it concludes:

In 2006, he said: “In Delaware, the largest growth in population is Indian-Americans moving from India. You cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I’m not joking.”

During his bid for the nomination last year, Biden criticised Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton. “Both Hillary and Barack didn’t get it right,” Biden said, when they had their “little spat” on whether a president could order a unilateral attack on terrorists in Pakistan or Afghanistan.

And he criticised Obama and former Sen. John Edwards for “playing the populism card, the idea that rich are bad, poor are good, the nobility of America lies in the poor. I think that’s a losing general election argument; I think it’s a losing argument, period.” He argued: “The rich are as patriotic as the poor, if you ask of them.”

I wonder how big the Pakistani/American vote is here.

And here's another "Dawn" correspondent

Seems to be my day for reading Pakistani newspapers (I have a task to do that I really do NOT want to do so it is suddenly my civic responsibility to read up on world news). Here is another correspondent for the "Dawn" newspaper of Pakistan, this one reporting from India.

It seems that India is so vast that one part of the country (Bombay, or Mumbai) is having trouble with immigrants from other parts of India who won't learn the local language and assimilate! So Jawad's Naqvi's article is mainly about languages, their complexity and beauty, and the misuses a politically induced "language" law can lead to.

A Pakistani's view of Jihad ... and the West

It is easy to see Pakistan as a dysfunctional society overrun with the craziest of Islamist extremist who are on the verge of taking over ... and getting their thumbs on the nuclear button. This is too simplistic. Reading the English language Pakistani paper Dawn gives some idea of how secular, democratic, and international important segments of the society are.

A good example of this is a recent column by Irfan Husain, a regular contributor to the paper. He give a caustic overview of religious fanaticism and jihad, as well as an interesting view of the West's reactions. Here is a sample:

The theological underpinning of this [jihadist] logic requires a significant departure from orthodox Islamic teachings. For instance, standard commentaries prepared after decades of study by all the major schools of jurisprudence argue that only Islamic states can declare jihad. This is not something individuals can go around doing according to their whim.

However, radical Islamists following the teachings of Syed Qutb and Maudoodi argue that in the absence of a genuine Islamic state and a caliphate, true believers have a duty to bring Islamic rule to the whole world, by the sword if necessary. This line has appealed to two generations of Muslims, and there has been a steady hardening of these beliefs over the last 50 years.

After discussing the negative side of the jihadist movement, he concludes in what is clearly meant as a warning to Muslims in general and Pakistani's in particular:

But as incidents like the ones in London and Glasgow increase the uncertainty and fear in the host community, people are increasingly questioning why Muslims who hate their ways are allowed to enter and work in Britain. Several of those allegedly involved in these latest attempted attacks are doctors. This has horrified westerners who are more used to seeing doctors as peaceful professionals than as suicide bombers.

The question being asked privately in the UK is: “If these people hate us and our way of life so much, why don’t they just go back to where they came from?”

China, the Siege of the Red Mosque, and a brothel

Sounds like a Johnny Carson routine, but what do they have in common? An interesting story, told here on National Review Online. Here is the key to it:

This is all to do with Musharraf having finally authorized an assault on the "Red Mosque" seminary in Pakistan's capital. It's a nest of radical jihadis, who have been making a nuisance of themselves going round the city imposing Islamic virtue, Taliban-style. One of those impositions somehow led to them kidnapping the madam of a Chinese-staffed brothel much frequented by Pakistan's movers and shakers (if you'll pardon the expression).

So the denizens of the Red Mosque made two mistakes. One, they threatened to deprive the decision makers of their 'recreation.'

Two, they angered the Chinese, who unlike the Americans actually CAN tell Pakistan's President Musharaf what to do and when to do it. For one thing, they share a 300 mile long border with Pakistan and the world's largest army is on the Chinese side of it. For another, they are a lot meaner than we are. I forebear to say that they are also more competent then we are, though I am certain the Pakistanis sure think so.

Point taken, at least as far as Musharaf was concerned. The Islamists he has been telling us he simply didn't dare take on, are now being taken on.

I am still mystified, btw, with why Dan Simmons in his little 'Century War' fantasy discounted the Chinese completely. No one in that part of the world does.

The other war against the Talilban

Pakistan - remember them? There is a nasty little war going on in Waziristan (shades of "The Man Who Would be King") between locals and the government on the one hand, and "foreigners" on the other. Latest dispatch from "Dawn," a very interesting English language newspaper from Pakistan, available on the Web, is here. The "foreigners" they mention are mostly Uzbeks, Central Asian Turks. They have a reputation for ferocity and may be desperate. After allying themselves with the Taliban government they have no where to go.

I think "Dawn" uses the euphemism 'foreigners' to avoid spelling out that these guys are connected with the Taliban. The ISA mentioned is the Pakistani CIA. You know, those wonderful people who brought us the Taliban. Some elements of the ISA supposedly still want the Taliban back in power.

Very confusing if you can't tell your Uzbek from a Tajik.