Sunday, May 3, 2009

PRESIDENT OBAMAS FIRST 100 DAYS; AND, DISTURBING SITUATION IN PAKISTAN

PRESIDENT OBAMA COMPLETES 100 DAYS

It had to be someone with massive fortitude, patience and commonsense to confront the issues that enveloped US and the world when the 44th president of US took office. Fortunately, for the world and the US, Barack Obama came to the White House in Jan 2009. He has so far done an outstanding job; if one had to give him a grade, he should be given an A.

President Obama has shown statesmanship, leadership and unifying qualities during first 100 days of his presidency - at both global and national levels. It is shocking to see that certain sections of American society, namely, the ultra-rightists, the conservatives have chosen to be guided by their disgustingly irrational dogma rather than their saner and normal mental faculties.

One wonders how a certain section of TV media in US – Fox News – can get away with the vitriol and divisiveness their media personalities seem to purvey on the channel. Moreover, these apparently mentally atrophied personalities seem to abet, preach and fuel the irrational and psychopathically motivated views alluded to above.

The above cited channel also did not cover the President Obama’s news conference marking completion of his first 100 days in office. Commonsense dictates that the presidential presser was important to the people of US because their President was supposed to be stating his views on various issues of paramount concern to American people.

However, somehow the American people put up quietly with such pathologically malefic behaviour – there is hardly any public outcry, shaming, condemnation, boycott of such systematic campaign which is dangerous for the country. Probably this partly explains the systemic rot that has set in the American society. Probably it also explains why certain white collared diabolical crooks seem to be getting emboldened to design uniquely effective swindling techniques and making fast buck with it.

One hopes President Obama will not get de-motivated by such psychopathic lunatics, and instead will continue to lead US and the world in the right direction. May God bless him and his family!
====================================================
PAKISTAN’S DANGEROUS SHENANIGANS

One of the issues that the US President is grappling with is the Afghan-Pak conundrum. Pakistan is right now in the midst of a mind-boggling game of one-upmanship being played between the mentally unstable but power hungry and corrupt Zardari and the Pakistan Army.

It is simply beyond commonsensical comprehension as to why only a small number of Pakistani troops have been sent to Buner area to deal with the Taleban even though Pakistan has a reasonably big army equipped with armaments obtained through begging, borrowing from US and China. Obviously, some very insidious game is being played.

Fortunately, for the first time the US administration is adopting the right way of dealing with Pakistanis. It is also very important that US keeps a close vigil on the nuclear assets of Pakistan and takes all steps necessary to ensure these weapons do not fall in to the hands of Taleban.

If necessary, US military may have to take control of the vital military installations which store the nuclear weapons. For this to be successful, back up support from Canadian, Indian (and possibly Israeli) forces would be essential; hopefully, necessary coordination has been carried out and proper actionable plan has been put in place.

US and its allies have to bring all the intelligence they can bring to the table to make sure they have figured out what games Pakistan’s ISI is playing and whether there are some other forces, like, China and Saudi Arabia acting from behind the scenes.

One also hopes that US has figured out a scenario in which Pakistan’s current geographical entity may have to be allowed to be fragmented in to at least two pieces. One autonomous strip consisting of the NWFP, the pro-Taleban regions, and the other consisting of Punjab, Sindh and Multan. In such a scenario, the strip consisting of NWFP, Swat, Dir etc can be systematically squeezed from north and bottom.

At any rate, Pak-Afghan scene needs close monitoring and quick action as and when needed. When and how much help Pakistan needs to be given should be decided by Obama administration based on verified ground realities instead of sentimental pronouncements emanating from some US congressperson – not least of someone as naïve and incompetent as John Kerry.