STRAY OBSERVATIONS ON WORLD NEWS

DOES THE RECENT KILLING OF OSAMA BIN LADIN DISILLUSION THE CONCEPT THAT PEN IS MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD?

Capturing Osama Bin Ladin alive would have lead to further intelligence in keeping America and the west more secure.

There was and still is great speculation as to whether there had been an actual human landing on the moon. The media and the general public are playing the news of the recent death of Osama Bin Ladin flat out in the form of the first human landing on the moon.

The flaw that is inadvertently picked out by the speculative public is in the media video of the American flag being planted on the moon in the manner of having wind movement of the flag in space. And as all of us are aware there isn't any wind on the moon

The compound was not a huge compound as reported in the media. It was a modest size compound and their are tons of those in Abattabod. This is as much as a failure of US intelligence as it is of Pakistani intelligence. Osama was not living in that compound for the past 10 years, infact that compound was sold to its current owner in 2006. Where was he before that? For all the so called superior intelligence that US has, why did it still take them 5 years to find out that Osama was living openly in a compound. Nice coincidence that he got caught just when Obama's approval ratings were dropping to a new low and the US economic crisis keeps on growing. Most importantly the first question I would have been asking as an American is, why did the US not capture him alive. You would think interrogating him would provide them with much more information about who was harbouring him and also much more about the al-Qaeda network, than to just start blaming Pakistan for it. He was unarmed, the so called compound he was living in had absolutely no security, you would think it wouldn't be too difficult for the Navy Seals to capture him? I guess we live in a world where might is right. How would you feel if a foreign country sends its apache helicopters into our air space without our permission, in your neighbourhood to arrest Bush (who is responsible for killing more people that laden is), completely violating the country's sovereignty and ignoring all the UN protocol. I find all these claims of cutting down aid absolutely hilarious. Pakistan would have never needed this aid, had it not been for Pakistan supporting us lot in this so called war on terror. Pakistan was a much much peaceful country back in the 90s. Ever since our support for US following 9-11, we have at least one suicide blast each week, costing us billions of dollars. And sadly unlike US and India Paksitan doesn’t have the media power to blame our problems on other countries. Just because US cant fully secure Iraq, and the fighters their are still resisting the illegal occupation, US can easily blame Syria and Iran. Same as in Afghanistan, every time something happens, it is the insurgents coming in through the Pakistan border. What about all the Afghani insurgents that cross over the border to terrorise Pakistan?
US created these Taliban’s to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. All of these Taliban’s including Osama are US creations.



One real fact is known; the war with Iraq was based on the grounds that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. This war really began in order to end the brutal stress related to implementing no fly zones, by which I mean the human effort and risk of life associated with it, besides the known reason of financial expenditure associated with it.

On the political side America didn't feel the engagement of a comprehensive victory over Iraq after 34 countries had to pull Iraq out of Kuwait. The no fly zones were imposed over a 10 year period which felt like bottomless pit, with great expenditure both in financial sense and risk of life, while Sadam Hussein still remained in power despite his defeat in withdrawing from Kuwait. An attempt on President George Bush father's life was a cause of further humiliation for the former President and America, besides the known fact that Iraq had a wealth of oil standing on its territories that could be utilized in a favourable manner in the case of a regime change.

Did this regime change come at the cost of 9/11? This only the public can decide. There is same sort of speculation surrounding Usama Bin Ladin's death. With the price of oil reaching almost $5.00 per gallon and no good conclusive outcome of the economy, is the democratic President lying about the death of Bin Ladin like Bill Clinton was lying about his Monica Lewinsky affair? This seems to be highly unlikely as the CIA head Leon Panetta is on the President's side. But not much can be said about the opposition senators who still haven't debated the legitimacy of the pictures besides calling them fake.

The question "Is Usama Bin Ladin really dead?" could only be concluded if the U.S had trusted members of the Pakistan elite like 'Edhi' by verifying his death with a public display of his body and so forth.

Similarly, we can't make any exact confirmation of Usama Bin Ladin's death until there is verification from the Taliban or Al-Qaeda for that matter. The thing that is really perplexing is the disposal of the body in the sea. There is no reasonable explanation as to why the body was disposed of in this manner, as I know perfectly no body has been dumped in the sea in case of a Muslim burial. The proper Islamic burial is on land with the body given a proper bath before being wrapped in white cloth.









The recent death of 8 C.I.A operatives in northern Afghanistan has rightly been described as Afghani Pearl Harbor.

It has raised concerns in media outlets and general public about the wisdom of decision to send additional 30,000 combat troops to Afghanistan. The Administration main rationale is based on the fact that surge worked in Iraq and, therefore, it is likely to work in Afghanistan. The analogy is not sound. The ground situation in Iraq and Afghanistan are quite different. Afghanistan is exclusively a tribal society dominated by warlords. There is no Afghani national identity. Iraqis are proud of their national and Arab identity.

There is little hope that Afghani Security forces will be able to face the Taliban in 18 months. Moreover, there is long tradition of hatred towards foreign forces on Afghani soil. The surge will result in pushing the Taliban towards Southern Waziristan and thereby further destabilize the shaky government in Islamabad. The Afghan problem cannot be solved without the help of Pakistani Army. But Pakistan Army and the majority of people in Pakistan have a poor opinion about long term goal of U.S.A in the region. People still recall that U.S.A abandoned both Afghanistan and Pakistan after Soviet defeat and withdrawal from Afghanistan. Pakistan faced exodus of more than 3 million refuges from Afghanistan in the neighboring province of NWFP which created economic, social and cultural havoc in Peshawar and the surrounding areas.

I feel that U.S.A should not increase the level of combat forces if it really wants to help the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Instead of sending additional troops in Afghanistan, Obama Administration should consider sending doctors, engineers, social workers, teachers, sociologists, psychologist, para medical staff and commit itself in nation building activities spread over 3-4 decades. Perhaps, it is asking for moon?