Must see: Tariq Ali on PBS: Our Pakistan Problem. (+ Video Link)

[EFerrari]

Our Pakistan Problem

How should President-elect Barack Obama handle our tricky relations with Pakistan? This week, David Brancaccio sits down with author and journalist Tariq Ali, who grew up in Pakistan, to discuss what he thinks team Obama should do to improve its standing in Pakistan in particular and the region as a whole.



"I think it should back off militarily. That's the key," Ali tells NOW. Ali says the U.S.'s roughly 20 reported attacks against Al Qaeda inside Pakistan's borders since late August are doing more harm than good because they "mainly have hit civilian targets."

The question of how to handle nuclear-armed Pakistan has become especially difficult amidst Indian claims of Pakistani links to the recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai, which left at least 170 people dead.

What's the best strategy for the U.S. in Pakistan and how will it impact the war in Afghanistan, where Obama has said he plans to send more troops? Watch for an insider's view of how the president-elect should proceed.

http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/448/index.html

Tariq Ali on Mumbai attacks:

The Assault on Mumbai

By TARIQ ALI

The terrorist assault on Mumbai’s five-star hotels was well planned, but did not require a great deal of logistic intelligence: all the targets were soft. The aim was to create mayhem by shining the spotlight on India and its problems and in that the terrorists were successful. The identity of the black-hooded group remains a mystery.

The Deccan Mujahedeen, which claimed the outrage in an e-mail press release, is certainly a new name probably chosen for this single act. But speculation is rife. A senior Indian naval officer has claimed that the attackers (who arrived in a ship, the M V Alpha) were linked to Somali pirates, implying that this was a revenge attack for the Indian Navy’s successful if bloody action against pirates in the Arabian Gulf that led to heavy casualties some weeks ago.

The Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, has insisted that the terrorists were based outside the country. The Indian media has echoed this line of argument with Pakistan (via the Lashkar-e-Taiba) and al-Qaeda listed as the usual suspects.

But this is a meditated edifice of official India’s political imagination. Its function is to deny that the terrorists could be a homegrown variety, a product of the radicalization of young Indian Muslims who have finally given up on the indigenous political system. To accept this view would imply that the country’s political physicians need to heal themselves.


http://www.counterpunch.org/tariq11272008.html

Wiki Bio: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tariq_Ali

Website: http://www.tariqali.org/

[Adsos Letter]

1. There is so much conflicting information and claims coming out of the region right now...

and I admit to being no expert; however, another poster put up something saying that India suspected that this group may be associated with several previous attacks, including the attack on the Indian Parliament in 2001.

If India connects the dots with that particular attack, I think Pakistan will be hard pressed to avoid a war of some scale.

But this is an uneducated guess on my part.

[EFerrari]

2. It doesn't look to me as though ISI did this. The Indian press

and government are hauling Pakistan into it to avoid the wrath of their populace, as far as I can tell.