Anarchy Abroad; “Just Another Manic Monday..”
Some countries abroad are on the verge of collapse, while others are coming close to anarchy exemplified through violent, as well as, deadly protests.
Thailand, Pakistan and Afghanistan are three of those very countries that are facing this uprising and one is in a more precarious state than the others due to the radical terror groups that surround the area and have a significant influence over the region.
I am talking about Pakistan. Pakistan has various regions that are run by Al-Qaeda and the Taliban and the possible collapse, which some say could happen in the near future, could be detrimental to Europe and the United States. When governments collapse there is the possibility that an extremist group could wind up taking control of the country and U.S. forces are worried that Al-Qaeda would be able to maneuver this.
PAKISTAN could collapse within months, one of the more influential counter-insurgency voices in Washington says.
The warning comes as the US scrambles to redeploy its military forces and diplomats in an attempt to stem rising violence and anarchy in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
“We have to face the fact that if Pakistan collapses it will dwarf anything we have seen so far in whatever we’re calling the war on terror now,” said David Kilcullen, a former Australian Army officer who was a specialist adviser for the Bush administration and is now a consultant to the Obama White House.
Why should we be concerned with an extremist terror group taking control of Pakistan when it already exists over there? Because Pakistan has nuclear weapons and a decent defense arsenal in comparison to the other countries, like Afghanistan, in the Middle East. We don’t trade with many of the countries there, but Pakistan has been on and off the export list for a time being now. So, when Pakistan has been allowed to trade, they have been sold weapons that we have created and manufactured in the United States.
Laying out the scale of the challenges facing the US in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, Dr Kilcullen put the two countries invaded by US-led forces after the September 11 attacks on the US on a par – each had a population of more than 30 million.
“But Pakistan has 173 million people and 100 nuclear weapons, an army which is bigger than the American army, and the headquarters of al-Qaeda sitting in two-thirds of the country which the Government does not control,” he told the Herald .
Added to that, the Pakistani security establishment ignored direction from the elected Government in Islamabad as waves of extremist violence spread across the whole country – not only in the tribal wilds of the Afghan border region.
Pakistan is more complex than Afghanistan. Afghanistan’s terrain and primitive defense make it a tougher physical fight/war, but Pakistan would be more dangerous.
“In Afghanistan, it’s easy to understand, difficult to execute. But in Pakistan, it is very difficult to understand and it’s extremely difficult for us to generate any leverage, because Pakistan does not want our help.
“In a sense there is no Pakistan – no single set of opinion. Pakistan has a military and intelligence establishment that refuses to follow the directions of its civilian leadership. They have a tradition of using regional extremist groups as unconventional counterweights against India’s regional influence.”
Thailand has also been in the news recently and is on the brink of anarchy. The protest have finally subsided today and the leaders of these protests have “given up.” But many still state that they will fight and be the opposition to their government. We could see plenty more in Bangkok in the coming months.
Monday’s clashes occurred two days after protesters forced the cancellation of a high-profile Asian summit in Thailand, a big embarrassment for Abhisit who took office only in December.
Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s, both of which already have a negative outlook on Thailand’s sovereign ratings, said the renewed political unrest increased the risk of a downgrade.
[...]
Last year, politicians backed by the “Red Shirts” were in power and royalist “Yellow Shirt” supporters of those now in government held nearly non-stop protests, culminating in a week-long occupation of Bangkok’s main airport.
This sounds unusually like our situation right now – all those protests against George Bush, Iraq and Republicans in general and now the flip side is occurring.
The political strife died down for a while after Abhisit came to office through parliamentary defections that Thaksin supporters say the army engineered. They demand a new election.
[...]
“I believe the darkest days in Thailand’s history are yet to come as we see no swift solution to ongoing divisiveness,” said Prinn Panitchpakdi, a CLSA Asia-Pacific analyst.
Al-Qaeda Terror Plot (Pakistan) in the U.K.
This must be a case of those “so-called terrorists” from Pakistan that Helen Thomas was talking about! This would have been one heck of a “man-made disaster” as Janet Napolitano would also say. Glad to know that we have our “Overseas Contingency Operation” intact and ready to go!/Sarc.
Sources told The Daily Telegraph that the arrests of 12 men in the north west of England on Wednesday were linked to a suspected plan to launch a devastating attack this weekend.
Some of the suspects were watched by MI5 agents as they filmed themselves outside the Trafford Centre on the edge of Manchester, the Arndale Centre in the city centre, and the nearby St Ann’s Square.
Police were forced to round up the alleged plotters after they were overheard discussing dates, understood to include the Easter bank holiday, one of the busiest shopping weekends of the year.
“It could have been the next few days and they were talking about 10 days at the outside,” one source said. “We had to act.” Police are now engaged in a search for an alleged bomb factory, where explosives might have been assembled.
If such a plot was carried out, it would almost certainly have been Britain’s worst terrorist attack, with the potential to cause more deaths than the suicide attacks of July 7, 2005, when 52 people were murdered.
Officials have now determined that the attack was being orchestrated by militant Pakistani’s involved with Al-Qaeda and were using students and the student visa system to attempt the latest attack.
Suspects being questioned today after one of the biggest anti-terror operations since the July 7 attacks exploited lax student visa regulations to enter the UK from Pakistan, Whitehall sources said yesterday.
As police continued searches in Liverpool, Manchester and Clitheroe, Lancashire, after the raids on Wednesday, the Home Office said student visa checks had been tightened in the last fortnight because of widespread abuses of the system.
There are concerns inside government and the security services that the 11 Pakistani nationals being held in the north of England could have gained entry on student visas in order to form a sleeper cell. Gordon Brown talked of the police having foiled a “very big terrorist plot”.
The operation which led to the arrest of the men, along with one Briton who is said to have roots in the same tribal area, was rushed forward after the country’s top anti-terror officer carried papers under his arm detailing the raids as he walked into 10 Downing Street in full view of photographers.
Apologising for the blunder, Bob Quick, the Met’s head of specialist operations, resigned from his post yesterday. His departure reignited tensions over the running of the force after London mayor Boris Johnson broke the news of the resignation on BBC Radio 4, angering the home secretary, Jacqui Smith, and Scotland Yard.
Taliban Publicly Flogs Woman in Pakistan
I guess this would go along with all those humane, pro-female laws that Afghanistan just passed – like being able to rape women…/major sarcasm!
I Hope the “Overseas Contingency Operation” is Ready for Pakistani Militants in D.C.
I’m glad we have our priorities straight in the Beltway. Instead of the “War on Terror,” we now have the “War on Capitalism.” Meanwhile, the War on Terror is now called the “Overseas Contingency Operation.” Helen Thomas would be so proud of how we are treating those “so-called” terrorists.
Great timing for the name change especially when the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, Baitullah Mehsud, warned on Tuesday that he was planning an attack in Washington D.C., the likes of which has not been seen yet.
Mehsud’s troops reside in the South Waziristan region of Pakistan, close to the Afghanistan border, working closely with al-Qaeda. Mehsud said that his attack would avenge the deaths of his soldiers killed by the recent drone aircraft attacks from the United States.
A senior U.S. official said, “We’ve seen a widening of the attacks,” out of the tribal areas, and added, “this has had the effect of having a lot of Pakistanis binding together. “
Obama a New War Mongerer? – Watch Out Pakistan!
President Obama has just laid out his new war strategy. And he’s made it clear that the fight is both in Afghanistan and Pakistan. So I asked Dennis McDonough, with the National Security Council: Does that mean U.S. ground forces in Pakistan? Or more drone attacks? “I’m not going to comment on the notions you laid out there,” he answered, during a White House conference call with bloggers.
But during a separate press conference, Bruce Reidel, who recently completed a strategy review of the region for the White House, offered some hints. “Thus far, our policy sees Afghanistan and Pakistan as two countries, but one theater of operations for our diplomacy, and one challenge for our overall policy,” he said. “We have very concrete proposals for increasing economic assistance to Pakistan, proposals that have already been put forward by the Congress. We’re also looking at what we can do on the military side.”
Michele Flournoy, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, added, “I certainly believe we are going to be increasing our intelligence focus in this theater, and as opportunities arise that may increase the pace of operations, as well.”
Richard Holbrooke, the administration special enoy to the region said of Pakistan: “of all the dilemmas, problems and challenges we face, that’s going to be the most daunting, because it’s a sovereign country and there is a red line. And the red line is unambiguous and stated publicly by the Pakistani government over and over again: No foreign troops on our soil.” Yet I haven’t seen anyone in the administration state unambiguously yet that U.S. troops won’t go to Pakistan. If anything, they’ve side-stepped the question.
Draw your own conclusions. But to me, they’re saying: Yes, there will be more troops (both human and robotic). We’d just rather not talk about them.
I hope all those people with Endless War stickers, Coexist Stickers and Peace Now stickers protest this… I’ll be waiting. I would just like to see someone for once, stand on principle and not be hypocritical. Read more
