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Gen Ali Kuli Khan, ex-CGS PA, in his rejoinder to Musharraf's Line of Fire was pretty scathing in his comments on Kargil, I don't see any notion of PA superiority or blame for Sharif in his comments. He blames Musharraf for the "debacle". Extract and link follow: In Chapter 11 of this rather...

Having attack helis supporting RR battalions would be useful in Kashmir.Time and again we hear about cordons thrown around militants holed up in the forests in Kashmir and three days later media reports that they got away...they could also support RR in urban combing ops. Otherwise IAF has...

Remember it was the public outcry that led to the sacking of the Home minister, Maharashtra CM and DyCM, so Mumbai was different. Chidambaram admitted the lapses publicly. In Kargil, due to the remoteness and minimal impact to civilian population, public accepted the MoD findings/recommendations...

The proposed deal sounds like pretty ground-breaking stuff if true. It probably would have involved a multi-year phased reduction in troops and opening of borders depending on improvement in ground situation - infiltration, militant activity, etc... I wonder what the proposed agreement was...

Who the hell is VHP to order anyone to issue fatwas or prove their patriotism? They are not representatives of anybody, just a bunch of right-wing losers depending on an ever-shrinking audience of bigots. Their star is fading fast and they know it.

There is definitely some hesitation in pro-establishment sections of the press, especially when operations are ongoing, like Kargil or Mumbai when its important for a nation to stand together. Once the dust settles down though, matters do get deconstructed, albeit not to a degree seen in the...

Comparison is a tad unfair. For a true comparison, we have to wait till Pak economy posts 9% GDP growth with a booming private sector and multinationals competing for young educated professionals. I don't suppose that's the case today. Having said that, with the increasingly gloomy economy, it...

But are drones, however effective they maybe, enough? These guys probably number 5000, if not more? And they're all well entrenched and now apparently have a unified command and control structure. PA being a conventional army will face a Herculean task operating against such a powerful enemy in...

Very interesting points...I would be interested in other precedents in history where such power-sharing has been successful. I suspect there are not many, because they are hard to structure, hard to administer. Just look at how complex the workings of the usual Indian or Pakistani State or...

Hmm...I am not entirely sure the Taliban is really as unified as they and others claim to be. I've come to realize that Gates may have a point to make here... Over time, divisions happen in any organization and Taliban is no exception. Case in point: Khmer Rouge was as reviled as the Taliban...

Let's assume the allegations are all true, every single one of them. What the heck is GoP doing about it? Post-Mumbai, GoI mounted an international diplomatic offensive, got FBI involved and achieved the desired result: Admission that 9 out of 10 conspirators were Pakistani and they set out...

IMHO, Indian analysts are overly pessimistic about Obama govt intentions in Kashmir and Pak analysts are overly optimistic. Why? Consider foreign policy issues facing Obama (not even mentioning US economy): - Exit from Iraq - Continuing involvement in Afghanistan - Iran inching closer to...

Not explicity in Der Spiegel, but he did seem to defend Mullah Omar...and an ISI officer specifically mentioned Haqqani as an ISI asset. I can't recollect the reference, maybe Coll, maybe not... Yeah, what's with that? Why make a statement that he knows is false - Gates knows that the...

Okay, it does say they spoke for four hours and Saleh accepted an invitation from Islamabad. And the rhetoric may have lessened recently, but does that indicate a fundamental shift in relations, especially when Pasha still obviously considers the Taliban, who directly threaten the Karzai...

This is the first post I've read where cooperation with the Afghan Intel has been proposed. When I've mentioned Afghan Intel chief Amrullah Saleh in a few posts in the past, members have roundly bashed him as an incompetent nincompoop, paid Indian agent, etc... Saleh on his part is not very...

Surely IA has thought about it. The Kashmiri jawans may be stationed in Assam or designated as strategic reserves used for domestic emergencies like flood relief and rescue, etc....not sure IA will post young armed Kashmiris in Kashmir, at least not yet, maybe this may change in future. Someone...

I don't know about his political aspirations so cannot comment on that aspect. I admire the fact that he saved many from penury and a life of abject poverty. He is a Nobel Prize winner, so the world majority thinks he is definitely a person who deserves respect. Still the larger question...

Good fantasy, but let me help you get real....I was serious when I mentioned Bangladesh. The sort of leaders who can help you move forward are those like Prof. Muhammad Yunus, your fellow-citizen and world-renown founder of Grameen Bank. You don't need a messiah, a mullah or a maulvi. You simply...

Well, they are really the only ones who have the means to effect change in the Islamic world. They have the holy places, they have the oil....and yet they lack the unity, they lack the will, they lack the progressive attitude that made the West great powers. Will Bangladesh lead the Muslim world...

This is one of the most parodied phrase and represents a forlorn hope instead of being based on facts. The world saw how united the Muslim world is recently: The Arabs were reluctant even to attend a summit on Gaza, let alone a common statement condemning Israel. The country that took the...