I asked a few folks on the internet to give me their views regarding President Obama's policy regarding the war on terror, Afghanistan and Pakistan.. Thought you might be interested in what they had to say..
Let’s ignore the last 7 minutes of the speech since it was idealism for public and foreign consumption and has no impact on what the US actually does in reality. It also happened to contradict almost entirely the first 26 minutes of War of Terror babble. He keeps threatening us with removal of our national interest, our nuclear protection, with lies about Al Qaeda and the safety of our arsenal. This is after he acknowledges the unprecedented offensive we’ve undertaken against our own population on US’s behalf. We’ve suffered over 100 suicide attacks this year alone and similar numbers every year since this WoT started. Taliban and all these elements other than Al Qaeda had been around for decades before that, but we never had suicide attacks against us in Pakistan. We’ve lost countless lives, infrastructure, billions of dollars fighting this American war. The US itself acknowledges the drone program killed 14 terrorists and 700 of our innocent civilians. Now they say there are 100 Al Qaeda left...that means two things: First based on the ratio, they will kill another 5,000 of our civilians getting these 100 men. Secondly, these 100 men must have superhuman abilities to require so many militaries from around the world and all this WoT. If the security of the American people is at stake...I guess us Pakistanis have been thrown into the "collateral damage" pile....we don’t have interests...we just have to do more and give up our military and nuclear arsenal while we’re at it. They’ll throw US$ 1.5 at us over 5 years to buy our politicians with humiliating conditions while they throw US$ 1.1 billion per year on just 5 trucking companies in Afghanistan, one of them belong to 26 year old Hameed Wardak and a former CIA head honcho. "Increasing the stability of partners in the region" must not include Pakistan, Afghanistan or Iran....two of us are already occupied while the other is being threatened with military action. If he wanted to support Pakistan’s democracy, he wouldn’t support Mr 10% as defacto President along with 27 year old hereditary Chairman of PPP Bilawal Z. Nothing he said about respecting our interests, partnership with us, or anything relating to us is true except that he will continue to bomb our country, kill innocent civilians, threaten our safety, wreck our economy and then demand we do more! America will get no support from me! China is the future and a much better ally for Pakistan.
Khalid Yusuf
Karachi
President Obama, recently in a speech of his called for the deployment of 30,000 more troops in Afghanistan in an effort to turn the tide of the war; which is of no use as the Taliban are making a major comeback. The plan to deploy more forces throughout the country is not a good idea. They think more forces in Afghanistan will help them contain the situation.
Obama plans to bring home the US troops in the next 18 months that is after they have put down the Taliban resurgence, but what makes him think that the Afghan in the coming 18 months will do what they were supposed to do several years ago? Maybe sending more troops means more hatred amongst the Afghans for the US. How can Obama be sure that this plan of sending troops and removing the insurgents will work? If the US troops are not back home within the next 18 months, America will be in a state of re-election by then because nobody will forget the pledge Obama made on December 1st in front of the West Point Cadets.
I think the best way to control the whole situation is that the US should stop interfering and let the people live. They only ‘think’ that Pakistan is in a situation to find Osama Bin Laden as he may be hiding at the Pakistan side. They are not even sure about it. And this thought of theirs is killing a lot of innocent people in Pakistan, the people who don’t even know why they are being killed! And why all these drone attacks! The drone attacks are doing nothing but killing the innocent people of the region and increasing the hatred amongst them for the US and well as our own bloody leaders who are agreeing to the US plans. But then as someone said ‘let them do more, send more troops as this would only ignite anger, cripple their economy and ultimately send the so called super power to its knees.’
And if it weren’t for the offensive which Pakistan launched in mid-October the militants would not have responded with such anger.
Washington wants Pakistan to do more to fight militants who have crossed into Afghanistan from its territory. If Pakistan does want to do that, then it should do it itself and not allow America to enter the region. American interference, frankly speaking is just making matters worse. And the US knows it, they are not saying anything only because they want the control over this region (Pak-Af). And I don’t think that the problem is only the ‘militants’ or ‘osama bin laden’, its Islam. They know if the Muslims unite, they will have the power to rule the world as we did centuries back. Islam is a religion of peace and the work of the Muslims is to obey the orders of Allah and do what the Qur’an says which is to promote the good and stop (and fight if needed) the evil.
And I second this "Even if they bring the whole of America, they won't be able to stabilize Afghanistan. Only Afghans understand our traditions, geography and way of life." Esmatullah (A construction worker in Kabul)
--
Tehniat Aftab
D.A Degree College For Women, Phase VIII
When Obama came into power all in Pakistan were very excited that here is a man who will respect our sovereignty and will support us in our effort to develop ourselves. But his recent decisions about sending more troops in Afghanistan and his decision about drone attacks in Pakistan make us feel that he does not consider us capable enough to tackle our problems ourselves. The youth around us becomes aggressive because they don’t like other people entering our countries and taking charge. They would rather have the US government guide us the path and let us do our bit.
Afsa Babar
Manager-Career Guidance and College Placements
Views of my colleague:
I am a teacher working with the Academic Department of a reputed private school network in Pakistan. I strongly believe that the current condition that my country is in is a direct consequence of the friendship that we have with America. The decision of Liaqat Ali Khan, our first prime minister to visit America had immense implications on our future, trying to be friends with a country thousand miles away. A country which could in no way help us in our hour of need - an example being the 1965 war with India when the sixth fleet did not arrive. I believe China and Russia could have been far better friends. It is America which has made us go through repeated military coups, lack of education and illiteracy, enhanced military might which does not let economical development take place, a Frankenstein in the form of Talibans, Kalashnikovs and suicide bombs. We are in fact being run by Americans after getting freedom from the British in 1947. Out strategic position on the world map makes us an important country but we have to rise and get out of the shadows of friends like America. We have to realize our potential and develop on our own but if America leaves us alone. I would suggest Obama to stop interfering in the affairs of our country. An additional 30,000 American troops will only increase drone attacks on our people resulting into more suicide attacks and destruction in our country. He is just following The Bush Administration policies which will be no change. The change that he promised can only be brought through education- peace through education. The only ray of hope for us! The mess that we are in can be undone through educational development in this region. Go Ahead, You can Change! Yes you can!
Rukhsana Zafar
Curriculum Officer
I have great respect for yr President. he is winning friends, not losing them. It will pay off for yr country. Just stick with it.
With best wishes and regards
Zahid Shafiq
Director
Karachi & Lahore
Pakistan.
Well there you have it..views from Pakistan. I don't know what he is supposed to do. Most are critical of his Afghan/ Pakistan/ policies, including Democrats who are openly critical and didn't wait even five minutes before they started up. Last year he was brilliant. This year he's a bum. So I guess its Palin Beck in 2012.. This is so depressing.