Pakistan

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 2, 2009
10:32 AM

Paul Kawika Martin, Political Director, 301.565.4050 x 316, 951.217.7285 cell,
pmartin@peace-action.org

Progressives Respond to Petraeus

WASHINGTON - April 2 - Peace Action, the nation's largest peace organization, responded to General David Petraeus' testimony today to the House Armed Services Committee regarding the Administration's strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"General Petraeus doesn't seem to be listening to his own advice: ‘Afghanistan has been known over the years as the graveyard of empires. We cannot take that history lightly.' Instead he is following the same failed path of requesting more troops," said Paul Kawika Martin, the group's political director, after walking out of the hearing room.

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Founded in 1957, Peace Action, the United States' largest peace and disarmament organization with over 100,000 members and nearly 100 chapters in 34 states, works to achieve the abolition of nuclear weapons, promote government spending priorities that support human needs and encourage real security through international cooperation and human rights.

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Posted in drone attacks, Afghanistan, Pakistan

The AfPak Paradox

There is a new acronym in the lexicon of Obama administration national security moguls. "AfPak" stands for Afghanistan and Pakistan. The term denotes the administration's desire to take a unified approach to policy and strategy for these two countries. President Barack Obama correctly views them as the central front of the war on terrorism and - also accurately - sees so many aspects of the strategic problem of the Afghan war playing out in both countries that it is far more useful to consider them intertwined.

Posted in Af-Pak, Afghanistan, Pakistan

US Expands Pakistani Drone-Strike Zone

ISLAMABAD - A pilotless U.S. drone aircraft fired a missile at a Taliban compound in Pakistan's Orakzai region on Wednesday, killing 12 people in the first such attack in the area, a security official and residents said.

The raid came a day after Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud said his group had carried out an assault on a police training center in the eastern city of Lahore in retaliation for U.S. drone attacks.

Posted in drone attacks, War/Empire, Afghanistan, Pakistan

Liquid War: Postcard from Pipelineistan

What happens on the immense battlefield for the control of Eurasia will provide the ultimate plot line in the tumultuous rush towards a new, polycentric world order, also known as the New Great Game.

Posted in oil, water, Afghanistan, Asia, Iraq, Pakistan, Russia

The Zardari-Sharif Battle in Pakistan

At Tuesday's State Department briefing, spokesman Robert Wood -- admittedly speaking quickly, and off the cuff -- said the following about Pakistan, when asked about the political tensions between President Asif Ali Zardari and his rival, Nawaz Sharif:

"It's a complex country. It's got a major problem that it's dealing with, and that's called terrorism."

Posted in Pakistan

US Weighs Taliban Strike Into Pakistan

WASHINGTON - President Obama and his national security advisers are considering expanding the American covert war in Pakistan far beyond the unruly tribal areas to strike at a different center of Taliban power in Baluchistan, where top Taliban leaders are orchestrating attacks into southern Afghanistan.

According to senior administration officials, two of the high-level reports on Pakistan and Afghanistan that have been forwarded to the White House in recent weeks have called for broadening the target area to include a major insurgent sanctuary in and around the city of Quetta.

Posted in Afghanistan, Pakistan

Pakistan in Turmoil

The Nation Editor's Note: In a concession to opposition leader Nawaz Sharif, the Pakistani government agreed Monday to reinstate Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry.

Posted in Pakistan

Pakistan Ex-PM Sharif Defies House Arrest

LAHORE, Pakistan - Pakistan's main opposition leader Nawaz Sharif defied house arrest Sunday and urged thousands of supporters in Lahore to march on the capital, ramping up his challenge to the government.

The former premier, now the most popular political leader in the country, led about 6,000 supporters in a banned protest in Lahore, where riot police fired tear gas and clashed with stone-throwing mobs in pitched battles.

Posted in protest, Pakistan

Marching for Democracy in Pakistan

Imagine this scenario: What if a U.S. president, in blatant contravention of the U.S. Constitution, fired every Supreme Court justice because he didn't like their decisions, and filled the court instead with his own cronies? What if a new president was elected on a promise to restore the rightful judges to their legal positions after he was in office?

Posted in Pakistan

The Pakistani Monster

Recently, a top US diplomat warned that Pakistan poses a bigger security threat to the world than Afghanistan.

Posted in Pakistan