When compared to India, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka, things therefore do not look so terrible.
Pakistan is in fact a great deal more like India – or India like Pakistan – than either country would wish to admit.
Reference :
Pakistan A Hard Country.
Why army is the strongest institution in Pakistan?
The name Pathan recalls this great scholarly
tradition as well as the glorious military history of resistance to British conquest, both of which are crucial to
understanding developments among the Pathans of the
present age.
The modern Islamist political groups r trying 2 replace the clan & patronage politics of the ‘feudal’ landowners & urban bosses with their
own version of modern mass politics, so far with only very limited success.
The population of Pakistan has become 10X what it was 100 years ago.
This dependence on the Indus is the greatest source
of long-term danger to Pakistan. Human beings can survive for centuries without democracy, and even
without much security. They cannot live for more than
three days without water. The World Bank's 2004 report states :
According to a 2009 study by the Woodrow Wilson Center drawing on a range of different works, by 2025 population growth is likely to mean that Pak’s annual water demand rises to 338 billion cubic metres (bcm)
– while, Pak’s water availability is 236bcm -the short fall of 100bcm.
A British civil servant and ethnographer, Sir Denzil Ibbetson, after an official career lasting decades in the Punjab, he wrote about a strong system of Kinship :
"The only thing I know is that I know nothing, and I am not quite sure that I know that."
Iqbal Akhund wrote :
"The Pakistani Muslim thinks of himself as heir
to the Muslim empire, descended from a race of
conquerors and rulers. There is therefore a streak of militarism in Pakistan’s ethos, even at the popular level."
Why the anti-US sentiments grew in Pakistan after 1989?
➡ Sanctions on Pak.
➡ Leaving a mess in AFG, after the fall of USSR.
➡ Washington's tilt to India
➡ Nuclear partnership with India
➡ Pressuring Pak, but ignoring India
➡ Support for dictators
➡ Invasion on AFG & Iraq
Pakistanis tend greatly to exaggerate the degree
of hands-on control that the US can exert over Pakistani governments.
Mahatma Gandhi said :
[ Highlighted text below]
So great was religious enthusiasm(during the Khilafat Movement) that in
1920 some 20,000 Muslims attempted to emigrate
to AFG, as the last independent Muslim state left
standing.They were eventually expelled by the Afghan authorities after having been robbed of their possessions
The decisive moment for d demand for Pak came with the Govt of India Act of 1935
& the elections of 1937 which followed. Congress made informal promises to the ML that the 2 parties would form coalition govts in provinces with substantial Muslim minorities, but it never happened.
Jinnah in the end was bitterly disappointed with the ‘moth-eaten’ Pakistan that he eventually received.
Jinnah and the League leadership were completely unprepared for the realities of complete separation from India.
➡In 1950's, Ayub Khan imposed 'One Unit' to avoid Bengali dominance
➡ Yahya Khan abolished 'One Unit'
➡ Bhutoo rejected Mujeeb's 6 Points
➡ Sheikh Mujib-ur-Rehman emerged as a Bengali nationalist leader
➡ Mismanagement of 1970's Bhola Cyclone turned Bengali against West Pak
➡In Dec 1970's elections, Awami League won 160/162 seats in East Pakistan and PPP won 81/138 seats in West Pakistan
➡ A series of moves & counter moves took place in following months
➡ On 25 Mar 1971 started Operation Searchlight, the beginning of the end of United Pakistan
Unlike India, Pak lost its founding leaders in the first few yrs, which left a power vacuum for local elites & opportunistic politicians.Even if Jinnah lived, it wasn't sure that the Muslim League could continue 2 decide the fate of Pak.Bcoz its vote bank was left behind in India
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At the height of the Cold War, on Jan 23, 1961, when the Soviet Union and the United States were standing eye ball to eye ball, the United States of America almost nuked itself.
🧵
1/12
“Keep 19,” a Boeing B-52G-95-BW Stratofortress with the 4241st Strategic Wing, was on a 24-hour airborne alert mission off the Atlantic Coast of the US.
At that time, while the US and the Soviet Union were engaged in the Cold War,the Strategic Air Command kept B-52 bombers,
2/12
armed with nuclear warheads, flying 24 hrs a day,7 days a week. The plane was commanded by Maj. Walter S. Tulloch, @usairforce, with pilots Capt. Richard W. Hardin & 1st Lt. Adam C.Mattocks. It carried two Mark 39 hydrogen bombs, each with an explosive yield of 3–4 megatons.
3/12
“Let China sleep; when she wakes, she will shake the world.”
—Napoleon in 1817
Today, China has awakened, and the world is beginning to shake.
🧵
1/9
When Americans complain about how long it takes to build a building or repair a road,authorities often reply that“Rome was not built in a day.”Someone clearly forgot to tell the Chinese. By 2005,the country was building the square-foot equivalent of today’s Rome every 2 weeks
2/9
B/w 2011 & 2013, China both produced & used more cement than the US did in the entire 20th century. In 2011, a Chinese firm built a 30-story skyscraper in just 15 days. Three years later, another construction firm built a 57-story skyscraper in 19 days.
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Think for a moment about the Agricultural Revolution from the viewpoint of wheat. Ten thousand years ago wheat was just a wild grass, one of many, confined to a small range in the Middle East. Suddenly, within just a few short millennia, it was growing all over the world.
2/11
According to the basic evolutionary criteria of survival and reproduction, wheat has become one of the most successful plants in the history of the earth. In areas such as the Great Plains of North America, where not a single wheat stalk grew 10,000 years ago, you can...
▪️Title: #TheAfghanistanPapers
▪️Genre: War history
▪️Published: 2021
▪️Author: @CraigMWhitlock
▪️Length: 368
▪️Description: Secret history of the US' war in Afghanistan
▪️ Ratings : 4.44/5 @goodreads
Two weeks after d 9/11 attacks, a reporter asked Donald Rumsfeld, “Would US officials lie to media about military ops in order to mislead enemy?”
Rumsfeld responded by quoting Churchill,“In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.”
On Oct 7, 2001, when the US military began bombing AFG, no one foresaw that it would turn into the most protracted war in the US history—longer than WW-I, WW-II
& Vietnam combined.
For the 1st time, NATO invoked Article 5, which states "attack on one(country) is attack on all."
Plan Dalet: Blueprint for Ethenic Cleansing of Palestine
Thread :
From d earliest days of modern political Zionism,its advocates grappled w/the problem of creating a Jewish majority state in a part of d world where #Palestinian Arabs were d overwhelming majority of d population
For many, the solution became known as "transfer," a euphemism for ethnic cleansing.
The father of modern political Zionism, Theodor Herzl, wrote in 1895:
"We shall try to spirit the penniless population across the border by procuring employment for it in the transit countries,
while denying it any employment in our own country... expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly."
By August 1937, "transfer" was a major subject of discussion at the Twentieth Zionist Congress in Zurich, Switzerland.
Today, Israel blames Hamas for terrorism. But it is a lesser known fact that Israel helped Hamas to grow into one of the world's biggest militant organizations.
In 1980's, Israel was in conflict with a secular nationalist Palestinian resistance organization called Palestinian Liberation Organization(PLO) led by Yasser Arafat. In 1964, PLO had founded a militant wing called the Fatah. Gradually, this Fatah emerged as one of the most ....
... powerful anti-Zionist militant group. If there were any terrorist attack on Israel, hijacking, or assassination of a Israeli officials, Fatah would to be blamed. Arab states in 1974 declared the PLO the "sole legitimate representative" of the Palestinian ppl world-wide.