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Regional Interests of Global Powers
President Zardari in a recent visit (May 2009) to Washington DC boasted that Pakistani army strength is 700,000. Pakistan has deployed 110,000 troops to counter insurgency (COIN) operations on its western border. A ratio of 7 to 10 troops per insurgent suggests that Pakistan estimates strength of Taliban and al Qaeda guided insurgent force to be in a range of 11,000 to 16,000. Another guesstimate puts it between 30,000 to 35,000 insurgents suggesting that the deployed army strength for COIN oper...
| K Bhatia |
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Global Terrorism and Pak Policies
In addition to nuclear capabilities of Pakistan the breaking news (mid-May 2009) reports demise of the Tigers in Sri Lanka and reelection of Congress party dominated coalition called UPA (United Progressive Party) headed by PM Manmohan Singh in India.Terrorism dominated parts of South Asia starting 1970s and its scale was such that it acquired global attention. Sikh Terrorists were militarily defeated in 1984 by the Indian Armed forces and Tamil LTTE forces were defeated in May 2009 by Sri Lanka...
| K Bhatia |
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Agenda after 2009 Elections
Elections are over. Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh was sworn in on May 22, 2009 for second time and some elected representatives are now jogging for a place in the cabinet. Personal ambitions and agendas of elected politicians are on display. However, India has to stay focused on its priorities for aam aadmi. Outlined here are details of Bharat Nirman Yojanas that potentially can make India a developed nation in about a decade....
| K Bhatia |
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Where Is the Frontline, Sahib?
The nuclear and missile armed Pakistani Generals are unable to maintain the writ of the nation by delivering law and order to a nation beleaguered by terrorists.So to the political masters, the Sahibs of Pakistan, I ask, what is the frontline status of Pakistan, Sahib?The revolution of 1979 forced the Shah in to exile and brought Ayatollahs to power in Iran. America was locked in to the Cold War against communism promoted by the USSR. The global oil crisis of 1973-74 had made the worlds second l...
| K Bhatia |
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Afghanistan, USA and Pakistan
The governance of Pakistan for past sixty-one years was mostly by autocratic rulers, elected or not and by the dictators with a feudalist warlord mentality. Over last several decades Pakistani ruling elites and the army Generals have developed an acute dependency on diplomatic oil or rent collections from America and Arab states around the Persian Gulf and Red Sea. Pakistan has exploited American policy for regional hegemony to control energy supplies to satisfy insatiable demand for fossil fuel...
| K Bhatia |
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Hinduism, Yoga and Modern Science
Broadly speaking two classes of religions are monotheism and polytheism. Monotheistic religions originated in Semitic and non-Semitic regions; Judaism, Christianity and Islam are Abrahamic religions of Semitic origin; Zoroastrianism is of non-Semitic Persia origin.Judaism is original Abrahamic religion. Christianity and Islam are of Abrahamic origin. Both Christians and Muslims have replaced the idols that existed in Abrahamic temples and other places of worship with some other symbols such as a...
| K Bhatia |
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Lahore Crisis
There are some elite defenders of Taliban occupation of Pakistan. These elites should understand what is in contention is proliferation of the 13th century fundamentalist Islam that is perceived as a threat to international peace. Yes, Saudis and other Arab states practice and proliferate it through the spread of madrassah brand education, but they do not bite the hands - international customers - that come to their pump stations for crude oil. I disagree with the contention that if America and ...
| K Bhatia |
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Nuclear Power, Solar Cookers and Alte..
In ten years global population is expected to increase by one billion people. If each of these persons should require power equivalent to a 50 watt bulb then the additional power required would be 50,000 MWs, which equals to investment in establishing new 100 X 500 MW power plants.If used properly as we do with fire, nuclear power is a source of clean energy as long as nuclear waste is processed for recycling. I am for nuclear power as we have only few choices to serve the energy needs of global...
| K Bhatia |
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Growth: Best Antidote for Poverty
Sixty-one years ago leadership of two newly independent nations in South Asia embarked on two divergent paths for nation building. Ignoring consequences of the choices of 61 years ago, in 2009, to frame an Op-ed by mining statistical economic data alone may lead to stepping on a dung-pile, if not careful. For example, a pundit used statistical data to frame an Op-ed to rhetorically ask, How long will India and Pakistan continues to beg, borrow and steal to fight each other? ...
| K Bhatia |
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Islam, History of Hindus and Jews
Simply put, the 2008 Mumbai mayhem, the 2001 attacks on Indias parliament, train bombings in London and Spain (2004 and 2005), steadily spreading terrorist attacks from tribal areas to urban Pakistan (2006 to present), the 2008 attack on Indian Consulate in Afghanistan and the 9/11 attacks on America kind of murderous violence may stop when all the good people in Pakistan, including the community elders and spiritual leaders who want a decent future for their country declare, as a collective tha...
| K Bhatia |
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Lets Buy or Destroy Pak Nukes
Mr. Bret Stephens wants to buy Pakistani nukes (WSJ, Dec. 16, 2008) offering a handsome sum of $100 billion and in case buying is not an option I suggest a coalition of America, NATO, Israel, Russia and India to destroy all Pakistans nuclear assets. For Pakistani army and the ruling elites the nuclear assets are for blackmailing global powers each time Pakistani lashkar or irregular elements are caught in acts of terrorism planned in collaboration with al Qaeda and Taliban leadership.For many pu...
| K Bhatia |
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Give Pak the Attention It Deserves
India has experienced terrorist attacks for over four decades. The Global Terrorism Database, START (the US National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism) is maintained at the University of Maryland. It shows that India faced more than 4,100 terrorist attacks between 1970 and 2004, accounting for about 12,540 terrorist-related fatalities or an average of almost 360 fatalities per year from terrorism in India. A University of Maryland statement said that the fatalities...
| K Bhatia |
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Random Uncertainties: Partition of India
Random uncertainty is a statistical expression to explain anomalies in life. In a monogram title, Fooled by Randomness, author Nassim Nicholas Taleb explains the hidden role of chance in life and in the markets. Random uncertainties are a part of daily life; however, every so often, in politics and economic arena, anomalies dramatically surface on the global stage to amazement of all. History is a witness and a useful tool to identify some interesting examples of random uncertainties.History is ...
| K Bhatia |
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Greed, Religion and Political Violence
Theoretically, religion is for personal salvation and it is concerned with morality and ethics for believers. Standards of morality and ethics are not same for personal salvation and political management of the state. A prudent mature civil society develops a political process such as secular democracy to keep the two separated.Courage is to recognize betrayal by those we had expected better from. Courage is to restrict religion to influence individuals seeking personal salvation and not allow m...
| K Bhatia |
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Flawed Democracies
A discussion is presented of the principles of democracy and how political process in European and American versions of democracies is influenced by religious beliefs and identities. Pakistan with a diffused Islamic ideology is an evolving democracy and the article traces a history of past three plus decades to show how fragile its constitution is. It suits successive dictators and elected rulers to conform to the political Islam imbedded in the Islamic trilogy of scripture/literature - Quran, H...
| K Bhatia |
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