Posts Tagged ‘U.S. Taliban’
Why was Pakistan forced to launch an offensive while Sri Lanka was being asked to abandon it?
International news in the past week has been dominated by two important developments in South Asia: Sri Lankan Government’s action against the LTTE and Pakistan’s compliance of the Taliban’s expansion. Political and popular opinion across the globe condemned both developments and early this week Pakistan and Sri Lanka showed signs of reversing/halting the official policy. Following the developments in Pakistan and Sri Lanka, I have been pondering over the ironic situation the national governments are facing vis-à-vis the forces of violent socio-political opposition. The Pakistani Government is being criticized for not acting against the Taliban while the Sri Lankan Government is being criticized for launching an all out offensive against the LTTE. In dealing with the forces of extremism, the national governments are dammed if they do and dammed if they don’t.
President Obama’s Diplomatic Outreach
The U.S. has for long sought to define and relate to its allies in unambiguous terms. President Bush epitomized this approach in his famous ‘either with us or against us’ speech and through his policy of pre-emption. The Obama Presidency appears to have opened with the objective of de-categorization of countries in U.S. foreign policy. President Obama is challenging the traditional tags for casting friends, enemies, competitors or facilitators while discarding the rigid criteria of ‘either with us or against us’. President Obama’s foreign policy approach puts Lord Palmerstone’s contention into action: “We have no permanent allies, we have no permanent enemies, we have only permanent interests.” This change of policy goes beyond a simple transition from Republican to Democratic administrations; it involves a transformation of global relations. Click to continue…
Pakistan - The Matryoshka Doll of Terrorism
Matryoshka Doll commonly referred to as Russian nested doll is a set of dolls of decreasing size placed one inside the other. Matryoshka is derived from the Latin root ‘mater’ meaning mother. As a breeding ground for terrorists and exhibiting different forms of terrorism, Pakistan can undoubtedly be likened to a matryoshka doll of terrorism.