Happy Fourth of July to ALL our Allies

[Capt.Popeye]

He already mentioned he never got to the hunt........

Thanks. Sorry, I overlooked that part. But I'd heard the narrative before, so I read through some-what cursorily.

 

[American Eagle]

I never had a grude against either India nor Pakistan.

My dislike was of then Foreign Minister Bhutto, who together with General Musa goaded President Ayub Khan into a series of provacations that caused the 1965 India-Pakistan War.

Our "encounter" on Sunday, Jan. 30, 1965 was not the first mini-encounter between Pakistan and India in the Rann of Kutch. When I recovered and returned to work at the US Embassy (some 45 days later) I learned from our Intel folks, AFTER I had already been wounded, that dust ups between Pakistan and India in and over the Rann of Cutch actually began during December, 1964.

Ironically one of my two Pakistani hosts for the aborted boar hunt was a young foreign service officer in the Karachi HQ of the Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs and even HE did not know about the dangers already developing inside the Rann of Kutch. It had been kept very quiet at the Foreign Minister, President, and Chief of Army staff levels. The Chief of the Pakistan Air Force (Air Marshall Ashgar Khan, who I still admire and like very much as a top example of an officer and a gentlemen in Pakistan, together with the Commander in Chief of the Pakistan Navy were kept totally in the dark and did not know about these dust ups either...at that time.

I have never been in India. However, I admire the democratic free enterprise economy world class which India has achieved.

Pakistan has many bright young people but suffers terribly from "brain drain" due to the historic lack of a sustainable democracy and series of military dictatorships. Today's religious radicals, who have been around since before the USSR occupation of Afghanistan, have of course cursed the image and reputation of many good, non-radical folks in Pakistan. I and we have very good ex-patriate friends here in our city from Pakistan. They are business people, PhDs and MDs, as well as RNs. But we also have real troubles here with born in the US of Pakistani parents younger folks who have been radicalized and turned terrorist recruiters on us. Sad as they have had the advantages of the freest democracy in the whole world and prefer the non-democracy of radical religion over freedom of all religions here.

 

[American Eagle]

I know only since 911 on the Internet only the Treasurer in Bedford, England of the JKLF (Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front). This as you know some 15 more year years ago is a peaceful movement for a Kashmir free of both India and Pakistan. The JKLF which is grassroots Kashmir based, not off in mainland Pakistan nor mainland India, is the most likely future for all parts, Chinese, Indian, and Paksitani of Kashmir.

I favor the Andorran Model which defacto President Musharraf used to resolve, long term, the three Kashmirs issue.

Kashmir is not a quick fix and is a real waste of time, energy, and assets when the crying needs of the people of Pakistan, as well as the still very many poor people in India, are paramount. Kashmir has been used as a brainwashing tool by a long series of Pakistani military dictators. The current struggling democracy in Pakistan is in my view trying to continue the Andorran Model approach via negotations with India, which I applaude as the right thing to do.

 

[American Eagle]

This is what I found in a Utah newspaper on the topic of events of Paksitanis in Utah today:


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Utah’s Pakistanis lament Muslim-Christian friction
By Peggy Fletcher Stack

The Salt Lake Tribune
Published: January 14, 2011 11:45AM
Updated: March 22, 2011 11:13PM

Al Hartmann | The Salt Lake Tribune Utah's Pakistani Christian community is responding to recent attacks in their home country, including the murder of a governor in the Punjab who had supported changing the country's blasphemy laws. Pastor Ernest Khokhar, of Miracle Rock International Ministires, left, Naila Samuel, Reverend Silas Samuel, and Kelash Isaacs gather at the Westvale Presbyterian Church in West Valley City. Reverend Samuel is a leader in the Pakistani Christian community. In Utah, Pakistani Christians and Muslims are friends, allies, fellow spiritual travelers.

But, in their Muslim-dominated homeland, those relationships are much more complicated, even strained.

In a country of 184 million people, fewer than 4 percent are Christians. Anyone can be severely punished for insulting the Prophet Muhammad or the Islamic faith. Last fall, Asia Bibi, a Christian mother of four, was sentenced to death for violating these laws.

Long-simmering tensions between the two faiths erupted again Jan. 4, when a bodyguard gunned down Salman Taseer, the Muslim governor of Punjab province who questioned the draconian blasphemy laws and opposed Bibi’s death sentence.

On Sunday, thousands assembled on the streets of Karachi to defend the shooter and the laws. A day later, Pope Benedict XVI called on Pakistani leaders to do away with the laws — in response to which an influential Islamist party leader told the pontiff to stay out of his country’s business.

“The pope has given a statement today that has not only offended the 180 million Muslims in Pakistan, it has also hurt the sentiments of the entire Islamic world,” Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, a senior leader of Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islam, told Reuters. “We respect the pope, being head of Christians and their religion, but he should also refrain from interfering in Muslims’ religious affairs.”

Utah’s 2,000 Pakistanis — about 300 Christians and the rest Muslims — are watching these developments anxiously from an ocean away.

“We don’t feel any threat or harassment here. We are protected by the laws,” says the Rev. Silas Samuel, a Pakistani who has been living in Utah for decades. ”But it’s a tragedy for people who live in Pakistan. They have to face this reality every day of their lives. For them, faith has become a matter of life or death.”

Even broad-minded Muslims who oppose the blasphemy laws, Samuel says, “now have to think twice about what they say and how it might affect them or their families.”

Salman Masud, a Salt Lake City physician, is one of those broad-minded Muslims. He argues Bibi is innocent and that the tensions are political, not religious.

Average Pakistani Muslims are tolerant, says Masud, a member of the Pakistan Association of Utah’s governing board. Many go to Christian schools, are in business with Christians or even marry them without reprisal.

But power-hungry politicians stir up these religious tensions or increase the blasphemy punishments, he says, as a “decoy from the country’s real problems.”

Many Pakistanis “don’t have education, adequate health care, housing or food, and the infrastructure is falling apart,” he says. “These are the things people really care about.”

Instead of addressing economic issues, the government diverts attention to more peripheral and emotional issues — such as cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

“It’s so senseless,” he says, “but it’s the same game politicians play everywhere.”

Christians have made a huge contribution to Pakistan, he says. “Everybody respects them.”

They run Pakistan’s best schools and hospitals, Masud says. “I went to a school run by a mostly Christian faculty. How could I resent them teaching us? I am a product of that system.”

Masud, who is married to an Irish-Catholic woman, came to Salt Lake City 16 years ago because he felt it was the best American city in which to rear his children.

Around that same time, many Pakistani Christians arrived in Utah, but they were seeking political asylum based on the blasphemy laws.

Samuel, a pastor at Westvale Presbyterian Church in West Valley City, agrees with Masud’s overall assessment.

“The picture in Pakistan is not as dark as it seems from outside,” he says. “Not everyone is a fanatic. There are people who work together, who are friends or partners in business.”

Samuel is not even opposed to blasphemy laws. It is the Muslims’ right to pass such measures, he says. “I am only against using or abusing the law to attack minorities or to settle personal grudges.”

Christians have been living in Pakistan for many centuries, he says, and their faith teaches them to respect every person. To Samuel, that means raising his voice against any religious discrimination, even when it happens to Muslims.

In the aftermath of 9/11, some Pakistani Christians living in this country experienced job discrimination and harassment because their skin color, names and clothing styles were identical to Muslims, Samuel said a few years back. “Only our religious beliefs are different.”

 

[W.11]

american guy, im talking abt the UN resolution which was meant for referendum in jammu and kashmir of india not pakistan, pakistani kashmir is not facing terrorism, its indian army killing and suppressing the kashmiris, why you always try to defend india?? and bring pakistan into some non issue

 

[American Pakistani]

A Very HAPPY INDEPANDANCE DAY

God Bless USA.

 

[silko]

american eagle, you must be very old!

i mean like im only 17, but dam'n you travelled all around the world when i even wasnt in my moms stomack!

oh and by the way, happy independence day to all the americans in the world!

 

[untitled]

4th of july .. a bit early ???
it is the first of JULY ?

 

[W.11]

american eagle, you must be very old!

i mean like im only 17, but dam'n you travelled all around the world when i even wasnt in my moms stomack!

oh and by the way, happy independence day to all the americans in the world!

yes you are still in your mom's stomach, BWHAHAHAHAHAHA

 

[DESERT FIGHTER]

Pakistan an ally? i laugh at the statement.

And happy indepence day to u........ hope u free our country soon.

 

[Machoman]

Going Vegas Baby!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[TOPGUN]

Happy forth to us here in the US ... i think we are doing enough fireworks all around the world

 

[American Eagle]

My answer was already posted today on Kashmir. It is a non-idealogue topic for me and the rest of the world for either India,Pakistan, or China. You are aware that Pakistan gave China it's piece of Kashmir to spite India aren't you? Very inconsistent logic by the then in power Pakistani Government of President Ayub Khan. That decision was another taunt toward war done by Foreign Minister Bhutto.

When Pakistan since 1947 has ignored the UN Resolution creating Israel. You can't pick and choose which Security Council Resolution you want to favor.

Have a good Fourth of July weekend wherever you are.

 

[Tiki Tam Tam]

Best wishes to all Americans for 4th of July!

 

[Abu Zolfiqar]

im in DC at the moment; should be fun to go on national mall and view the fireworks with some of my American friend

should be a relaxing long weekend