American strategy in Afpak

About the US soldier going postal in afghanistan…

By Omar Ali

I wrote this comment on the SWJ site and I just thought it would be interesting to see what people here think of the American “strategy” (or lack of one) in Afghanistan.
The killings today, while tragic and awful, are themselves indicative of nothing new beyond one soldier going nuts…could and does happen in most wars and more likely when a war has stretched on for a while and more likely with soldier and locals being different people (not necessarily different nationalities..pakistani soldiers in Bangladesh or even some Indian soldiers in Kashmir could feel equally surrounded by aliens). It will have a huge propaganda effect though. Anyway, my comment is more about the US strategy: what is it? what should it be? What would it be if you were president?

No contradiction when it comes to Gen. Kiyani

by Adnan Farooq

One expression of hegemony that in Antonio Gramsci’s view sustains rulers in power, is self-censorship practiced by mainstream media professionals. Here is a case in point:

Noted Geo-anchorperson and Jang-columnist, Hamid Mir, in his column last week (November 04) titled “Yeh Nawaz Sharif Bhi Kehtay Thay” claims that on September 14, 1999, he informed Nazir Naji to convey to the then Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, that his government would be shown the doors if he did not mend his ways and stopped interfering with the state institutions.

One wonders if Mr. Hamid Mir had access to such sensitive information, why he kept it to himself or only shared it with Nazir Naji. Was Nazir Naji the only person in Pakistan who could save the democratic system by merely sharing it with Mian Nawaz Sharif.

Mr. Mir asserts in his column that he mentioned two advisors to Mian Nawaz Sharif and criticized his government policies during a live PTV talk show hosted by the late Khalil Malik. The show was ‘fortunately was being watched’ by Mian Shahbaz Sharif. He received a call from Mian Shahbaz Sharif soon after the PTV talk show was hooked off.

If one goes by journalistic ethics, Mr. Mir should have shared this information with the peoples of Pakistan in the same columns of his newspaper so that people and civil society could be mobilized to pre-empt unscrupulous General Pervez Musharraf from overthrowing an elected government and pushing the country in the throes of dictatorship for almost a decade. It certainly involved risks. But to champion democracy when Musharraf’s boat was about to sink, is nothing to boast about. …

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