There is much talk of an end game in Afghanistan but apart from conjectures, suggestions and analyses there is nothing that indicates that some kind of end game has actually started or is about to start in Afghanistan. On the other hand there are clear indications that US/NATO/ISAF are going to be on the ground till 2014 perhaps with some marginal reduction in numbers. There are also enough reports that clearly imply that some kind of ‘strategic frame-work agreement’ is being worked out between the US and Afghanistan. This agreement will probably be for the period beyond 2014 and in this context 2024 has been mentioned. From the overt source information available it seems that US forces will stay on their bases in Afghanistan that will either be jointly manned with Afghan Forces or will be under ‘Afghan control’ with the US forces as ‘guests’. The transition that is supposed to herald the end game will translate into Afghan Security Forces being given responsibility for selected areas and a front line combat role. The US/NATO will be there as back-up with Special Forces, air power and Drone strikes.
I wanted to take the opportunity to apprise you of the recent torrential rains that have caused tremendous damage in Pakistan’s southern provinces of Sindh and Balochistan. According to the NDMA (National Disaster Management Authority of Pakistan) over a million people have been displaced. In Badin district (Sindh province) alone the count is estimated at over 200,000 people affected as a result of 100 villages that have been swept away due to flooding from a 200 foot wide gap in the salinity drain there.
Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi’s four-decade-long rule over the country was crumbling at breakneck speed as hundreds of rebel fighters swept into Tripoliand took control Monday of the symbolically significant Green Square in the heart of the city.
A couple of weeks ago, Fox News published an article on their ‘World’ section titled ‘No 1 Nation in Sexy Web Searches? Call it Pornistan’. The article has subsequently been the source of much discussion online, and has been published and circulated to a fairly wide audience. While the point of the article was unclear, the article called Pakistan the ‘world’s leader in online searches for pornographic material’ and stated that “Google ranks Pakistan No 1 in the world in searches for pornographic terms.”
My reaction to reading the article, particularly some of the lewd terms for which Pakistan ranked #1 in, was bewilderment. Perhaps this was why Pakistan’s economy is in such poor shape? It appeared that that everyone was seeking the wrong type of stimulus.
Continue reading United States of Erotica calls Pakistan Pornistan
Two years after the tragedy, the Christian community in