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Obama’s Toughest Decision? 30,000-Troop Afghanistan ‘Surge’
What was President Barack Obama's hardest decision during his two terms in office? A massive troop surge in Afghanistan, he said in an interview aired Sunday. "Toughest decision was early in my presidency when I ordered 30,000 more troops into Afghanistan," Obama, who leaves office in less than two weeks, told ABC's "This Week." After a protracted debate inside the administration that pitted US military commanders against White House advisers, Obama announced the 30,000-trooop "surge" in December 2009. The decision would bring the US contingent in Afghanistan to nearly 100,000 troops along with almost 50,000 allied troops. "I think it was the right decision because the Taliban at that point had gotten a lot of momentum before I'd gotten into office, partly because we hadn't been paying attention as much as we needed to Afghanistan," Obama said in the interview taped Friday. The president had hoped to withdraw most US military forces from Afghanistan by now, leaving behind just a small force. But the United States still has some 8,400 military personnel in the country, and announced Friday it is sending some 300 Marines to Helmand province in the coming months. Meanwhile in Iraq, more than 5,000 US soldiers are still on the ground providing critical support to the country's army, which is unable to man a war alone against the Islamic State group's extremist fighters. Asked whether he found it disappointing that so many troops remain in both countries, Obama said the United States is "not going to get the kind of decisive, permanent victories in this fight against terrorism that we would get from fighting another country." "But we don't have this huge footprint, we are less likely to be targeted as, you know, occupiers," he added about the reduced number of troops. Even after decimating Al-Qaeda in Pakistan's tribal areas and killing the jihadist group's leader Osama bin Laden, groups in the region still "have both the interest and the capacity if we don't maintain...
US Bombings in Pakistan Drop To Record Low
US bombings in Pakistan dropped to a record low – three – in 2016, compared to more than 24,000 bombs it dropped in Iraq and Syria last year, says a study by a US think-tank, Council on Foreign Relations. The statistics indicate a change in situation on the ground in Pakistan’s tribal areas, which US defence experts say are used for launching attacks at American and Afghan troops in Afghanistan. In the past, a major terrorist attack on targets inside Afghanistan or the increase in terrorist activities inside Pakistan’s tribal areas led to US bombings inside Pakistan. Since June 2014, when Pakistan launched a comprehensive military operation against terrorist hideouts in Fata, the terrorist attacks have decreased and as have US bombings. The statistics also show that the United States has shifted its focus away from the Pak-Afghan region and is now targeting terrorist strongholds in Iraq and Syria. Most of the bombings conducted in 2016 sought to destroy the militant Islamic State group (IS) positions in these two countries. The increase in bombings in these two countries also indicate the Obama administration’s determination to lessen US ground combat operations in foreign wars, except in Afghanistan where US troops still participate in combats. The administration argues that ground operations not only put lives of Americans at stake but also stir anti-America feelings in those areas. The bombings, however, are more precise and are often carried out to help local authorities in their fight against the terrorists. But the Council on Foreign Relations noted that the administration’s claim that bombing “reduces the threat posed by extremists operating from those countries and improves overall security and governance on the ground -- is highly contested”. In President Barack Obama’s last year in office, the US dropped 26,171 bombs in seven countries. This estimate is undoubtedly low, considering reliable data is only available for airstrikes in Pakistan, Yemen,...
Will India’s Lobbying Change U.S. Policy Toward Pakistan?
At a time when India-Pakistan tensions are high, New Delhi has once again ramped up its efforts to get Washington on its side. Hopes are high that that a new foreign policy team under the Trump administration might possess the key to curb the asymmetric warfare India faces from its western neighbor. In this context, it will be important to note how the relationship between the two countries’ national security advisors develops and to what extent National Security Advisor Michael Flynn may be able to influence U.S. policies on Pakistan. New Delhi has every reason to believe that engaging with the new NSA offers a golden opportunity to break the long-standing Pakistan paradox. There’s no doubt that U.S.-India defense ties have soared under the Obama administration, but there has always been a feeling in New Delhi that Washington has not done enough to rein in the anti-India non-state actors operating from Pakistan — despite U.S. attacks having taken out both Osama bin Laden and, more recently, Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour on Pakistani territory. Under a Trump administration, collaboration between the U.S. and Indian NSAs (who share intelligence backgrounds as well hawkish traits on Pakistan) may potentially define U.S. policies toward Pakistan. Unsurprisingly, Indian NSA Ajit Doval has a strong background on the Pakistan issue. He spent much of his career in intelligence, where he is even said to have secretly stayed in Pakistan for seven years as an undercover spy. The so-called ‘Doval doctrine’ of “Defensive Offense,” according to which the terrorists targeting India should be bought over and used against the enemy, has unnerved Islamabad. In his earlier career with the Indian Police Service, Doval’s handling of high-risk assignments, a number of them dealing with threats emanating from Pakistan, played an important role in getting him considered for the NSA position under the Modi administration. Meanwhile, Flynn has an apt understanding of the role...
Afghan Weekly (Dec 31 – Jan 05, 2016-17)
Pak-Afghan relations seem to have experienced a slight thaw in bilateral tensions as Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa telephoned Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah and his counterpart General Qadam Shah Shahim last week on 31st December felicitating them on the beginning of another year. This was announced in a statement tweeted by Pakistan’s military media wing’s Chief Major General Asif Ghafoor which said that the Chief of Army Staff pledged to work together in the coming year with Afghanistan for peace in the region, adding that “peace in both countries is in the greater interest of the region”. The Afghan civil and military leadership reciprocated by extending an invitation to the Chief of Army Staff to visit Kabul, the tweet said.[1] Amid promises for peace in Afghanistan, on the other hand, while skepticism surrounded regarding the viability of the Russia-China-Pakistan strategic talks, due to the absence of United States which has thousands of troops still based in the war-torn country, and Afghan government itself, the United States, on its part, has hoped the meeting would lead to peace. At a news briefing in Washington on January 03, State Department spokesman John Kirby stated that while the United States recognizes Afghanistan’s right to hold all negotiations with other nations on issues that concerns the country and its people, “what we welcome is any international effort to help Afghanistan become secure and more prosperous. And we continue to support, as we always have, an Afghan-led reconciliation process.” The United Sates welcomes any talks held to discuss “the same secure, safe, prosperous Afghanistan that we all want to see”, he added, stating that such talks could be constructive if they came up with “ideas to pursue that, in keeping with mandates from the international community and in particular NATO,” he said.[2] Below follow other updates on the security, internal politics,...
Afghanistan Still Facing Challenges: John Kerry
Afghanistan continues to face challenges today even as the unity government in the war-torn country has kept alive the chances of future progress, US Secretary of State John Kerry has said. “We played a pivotal role in forging a national unity government in Afghanistan that, while still facing challenges, has kept alive the chance for future progress,” he said at his final press conference as the Secretary of State on Thursday. Kerry had played an instrumental role in the formation of the unity government led by President Ashraf Ghani and CEO Dr Abdullah Abdullah. “We all know how difficult that could have been when an election had serious problems, and the country was poised to perhaps see the government fall apart and maybe even enter into civil war and yet we helped broker and pull together the parties into a unity government that still today is managing to move forward in Afghanistan,” Kerry said. When Obama came to power in 2009, there were more than 100,000 troops in this war-torn country, which has now reduced to less than 10,000. Afghanistan now has a well-trained armed force which has been successfully meeting the challenge posed by the Taliban and other terrorist groups, he said. Despite best efforts, the Obama administration has not been able solve all the global problems, Kerry acknowledged. “Obviously we have not solved every problem. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict continues, but we are absolutely right to support a two-state solution and to warn about the danger of actions on any side that could obstruct that possibility. “We are also right to insist that a diplomatic path is the only way out of the disastrous situation in Syria, one of the most intractable and complex conflicts in modern history and the worst humanitarian catastrophe since World War II,” the top American diplomat said. Kerry said that despite the US’ best efforts to mobilise a unified response from the international community, and to ease tensions and reduce violence and save...
Assadullah Sarwari Freed From Prison: What Chances Of War Crimes Trials In Afghanistan?
Assadullah Sarwari, one of a handful of convicted Afghan war criminals, has been released from prison in Kabul. As head of the intelligence service immediately after the 1978 communist coup d’état, he was responsible for the torture and arbitrary execution of thousands of detainees. Yet, the lack of transparency and the irregular and illegal aspects of his detention and prosecution (including 13 years of pre-trial detention and a continued three and a half years of detention after his sentence had been fulfilled) point to fundamental problems with the Afghan state’s capacity to deal with complex war crimes. This is significant, argue AAN’s Ehsan Qaane and Sari Kouvo, not the least in the light of the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) ongoing preliminary examination. Assadullah Sarwari was the first intelligence chief after the April 1978 military coup d’etat which brought Nur Muhammad Tarakay and his Hezb-e Dimukratik-e Khalq-e Afghanistan (the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan, or PDPA) to power. The intelligence agency, AGSA, (1) launched mass purges of those it considered its enemies, with mass arrests, summary executions and disappearances (for detail and background, see the Afghanistan Justice Project’s (AJP) report. After the Soviet invasion in December 1979, a different wing of the PDPA seized power and the new president, Babrak Karmal, appointed Sarwari as deputy prime minister. Soon after, however, he was removed from government and posted (or exiled) as ambassador to Mongolia. For reasons that are unclear, Sarwari returned to Afghanistan in May 1992, after the overthrow of the last PDPA government and the takeover of the mujahedin – and was then detained. Below, we will first provide a chronology of Sarwari’s detention and trial and then discuss what the proceedings against him tell about justice in Afghanistan. Chronology of events 26 May 1992: Arrest Sawari returned to Afghanistan on 11 May 1992. Two weeks later, he was arrested from his home...
Sabawoon Showcase: Importance of Extra and Co-Curricular Activities
January 4, 2016, Peshawar: The latest episode of Sabawoon[i], flagship radio program of Center for Research and Security Studies (CRSS), analyzed the significance of extra and co-curricular activities. The discussion themes included the role of co-curricular activities in capacity building among students, difference between co-curricular and extracurricular activities, role of parents and teachers in students’ lives, activity-based learning, and career grooming and counseling. Furthermore, the program discussed the role of education department in facilitating co-curricular activities in colleges and universities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The program was aired under the theme of Jwandai Jazbey (living spirits) on Wednesday. Mr. Khalil Ahmad, event management specialist Peshawar, and Mr. Jasvindar Kumar, a student from University of Engineering and Technology (UET) Peshawar, were the studio guests. A radio report highlighted the impact of extracurricular activities such as debate and essay writing competitions, speeches, scouting, expos, and students’ festivals on the capacity building. Mr. Ahmad shared his personal experiences of how co-curricular activities helped him achieve of his career goals. Sabawoon airs Monday through Thursday on FM-101.5 Peshawar & DI Khan 711 KHZ from 3:20 PM to 4:00 PM. [i] Sabawoon is a flagship radio program by CRSS in the KP/FATA region, designed to highlight local issues, and promote fundamental global values such as women’s rights, rule of law, equal citizenry, democracy, governance and accountability. It airs four times a week, under four themes. On Monday, Jarga Marrakka covers current affairs and issues, coupled with government and other senior officials. On Tuesday, Da Semi Jaaj gives a holistic regional overview of the most important stories across the length and breadth of KP/FATA. On Wednesday, Jwandai Jazbey covers issues most important to youth, students and females. Finally, on Thursday, Ranra covers social...
Reduction in Violence
A NEW report shows that the number of fatalities and injuries from violence in 2016 declined sharply from the previous year. The report, prepared by the Centre for Research and Security Studies, shows there was a 45pc reduction in fatalities last year due to violence, though the decrease in injuries from violence was a more modest 11pc. There are grounds for some cheer in this report, and taken as a whole, the figures at the national level point towards an improvement in the security situation in the country. But a closer look reveals a few disturbing patterns. For one, violent incidents of a sectarian nature appear to have spread to areas that were previously unaffected, particularly towns in Sindh. Second, the terrorists appear to have adapted to the tougher security measures around the country by resorting to more attacks using improvised explosive devices, landmines and suicide attackers, which killed almost twice as many people in 2016 as in the previous year. These attacks have also become more indiscriminate, killing women and children as well as members of all communities who happen to be in the vicinity. The attack in Gulshan-i-Iqbal Park in Lahore is a prime example. Supposedly an instance of communal violence, the suicide bombing claimed the lives of those belonging to many faiths, including 29 children in the playground. The reduction in the overall level of violence is to be welcomed, but the patterns of violence in 2016 suggest that the terrorism threat in the country is adapting in deadly ways and much work remains to be done to turn the corner in this battle. An emphasis on civil law enforcement is crucial to carry the battle forward into the new era of terrorism threats that appears to be opening up before us. It will be vital to reform the police and enhance judicial capacities to meet the new challenges, as well as work harder to de-legitimise terrorist and extremist narratives in order to drain this swamp. This editorial appeared in Dawn News,...
Will 2017 See More Suicide Bombings? Sadly, Probably Yes
As the new year dawns, there is some final bad news from 2016. Figures collected by Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) and due to be published shortly show that 2016 was a particularly grim year for suicide bombings. Between January and November this year we noted 236 suicide attacks globally, as reported in reputable English-language media. Such terror strikes resulted in 11,621 deaths and injuries, a 19% increase on the same period the year before, and 78% (9,020) of the total harmed have been civilians. Suicide bombs have, it seems, shifted from being an exceptional weapon of war – used rarely – to one almost normalised. This year, 21 countries saw at least one suicide attack. Will 2017 offer some respite from suicide attacks? Sadly, it is not likely. If there is a dark prediction to be made, it is that more harm will come from suicide bombs than ever before. It is important to note that the annual number of suicide bombings globally, over the past six years (the time that AOAV has been running its global monitor of explosive violence), has not dramatically fluctuated. The year with the highest number of suicide attacks – 2013 – saw 270 strikes. The year with the lowest – 2011 – saw 205. Not that major a difference. What concerns, though, is that suicide attacks are becoming more expertly targeted and, in turn, deadlier. By the end of November 2016, the average number of civilian casualties per attack this year stands at 38. This compares to 24 in 2014. Furthermore, the fact that the armed group Islamic State is losing territory indicates a possible future rise in suicide attacks. Such attacks have already taken place from Paris to Jakarta, and are a result of tactical decisions made by Isis leaders, as well as a desire among Isis supporters to “avenge” the caliphate. In 2016, Isis claimed more than 1,000 “martyrdom” operations. Such figures are difficult to verify, but the group has certainly increased its suicide operations and Isis boasts a long list of willing...
Three Important Lessons Behind the Recent News Emerging from Afghanistan
Fifteen years ago, then-U.S. first lady Laura Bush guest-hosted the president’s weekly radio address to talk about Afghanistan. “Because of our recent military gains in much of Afghanistan, women are no longer imprisoned in their homes,” she told Americans, still reeling from the 9/11 attacks. “The fight against terrorism is also a fight for the rights and dignity of women.” But how are Afghan women doing today, 15 years into a war that has cost billions of dollars, and tens of thousands of deaths of civilians and soldiers? A few recent stories help answer this question. First the good news. Reuters recently reported on 20 women who are part of team of 80 engineers working to rebuild Kabul’s Darulaman Palace. This was no special program to empower women — a government official said the women were chosen simply because they were among the best applicants. Darulaman Palace, a grand ruin on a hill overlooking Kabul, is deeply symbolic. Built by a reformist king in the 1920s, it burned twice, and was reconstructed twice, before being destroyed a third time in 1990, as fighting engulfed the city. That female Afghan engineers are helping rebuild it says something deeply encouraging about both Afghan women and Afghan men. Only 15 years after the fall of the Taliban regime allowed women to regain access to education, at least a few Afghan women are excelling in fields like engineering, where women are grossly underrepresented around the world. Afghan men, who make up the vast majority of government officials in a country where gender inequality remains deeply engrained in society, are having the good sense to hire them. Now, the horrifying news. On December 17, five women who work as guards at Kandahar airport in southern Afghanistan were gunned down on their way to work, along with their male driver. A member of the Kandahar provincial council, Niamatullah Wafa, seemingly dismissed the murders in a Facebook post, writing, “Women should stay in their homes with hijab and...
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I am also a member of National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting. Recently, we held a meeting with the Director General of Radio Pakistan and we told them to initiate such local programs (like Constituency Hour) in regional languages to educate and inform people. Even Indian Radio can be heard in FATA which is being used for propaganda purposes and must be closed. Therefore, we should launch some standard and quality programs like CRSS that will change the taste of the listeners.