Oil price
In July this year, price per barrel of oil in the international market was US$ 147.00. Today, it is less than US$ 44.00 a barrel. The difference is a staggering US$ 103.00 per barrel.
Now who robbed the consumers worldwide? Nobody seems keen to dig, because the robbers are the big guns from the USA and Europe. But it is time the brave people of the world raise their voice against the oil cartel and the racket controlled by top oil traders in Wall Street.
Habib Khondkar
Shantinagar, Dhaka
The US must not replicate the failed Soviet mission
I am writing with reference to the article, ‘Why Afghans do not give up?’ by Dr Zakir Husain (December 3).
The basic reason why the United States and its NATO allies have failed to contain the Taliban is that they are replicating the failed Soviet mission in Afghanistan by taking up the combat themselves. When 80,000 Soviet forces invaded Afghanistan to stop the US-backed Mujahedins from ousting the pro-Moscow regime in Kabul, they took up the combat and did not equip and train the Afghan army to do the job. The Soviet commanders were supremely confident that they could do the job themselves. The Soviet Union was a formidable superpower and the Soviet forces were backed up by fighter-bombers, helicopter gunship, tanks and mechanised infantry divisions in full combat gear. The ragtag mujahedins had little chance against such a formidable military machine.
But the mujahedins resorted to hit-and-run attacks using Pakistan’s tribal areas as their staging posts. The only way the Soviets could stop such attacks was to take out these bases inside Pakistan. But Pakistan was an American ally and any attack on Pakistan would have triggered a direct confrontation with the United States which was already providing lethal weapons to the insurgents. The Soviets balked at the prospect of fighting a war with the American superpower and as a result, the Red Army was left to fight a largely ineffective war and was forced to withdraw after suffering heavy casualties. As the Soviet Union did not equip and train the local forces, the Afghan army was not prepared to face the Mujahedin onslaught and collapsed like a house of cards.
By taking up the combat, the Americans seem to be replicating the failed Soviet mission. As before, the Taliban and its surrogates have regrouped in Pakistan’s tribal areas and now as then are carrying out attacks using their sanctuaries in Pakistan as staging posts. The American forces are facing the same dilemma the Soviet forces faced: how to dismantle the Taliban bases inside Pakistan? Although, Pakistan is still an American ally, it will never allow the Americans to carry out any cross-border raid as it will enrage the tribal population. Drone attacks have proved to be largely ineffective as the Taliban bases are widely dispersed and such drones can cause only limited damage to the Taliban military capabilities.
What 80,000 far more heavily-armed Soviet forces could not do then, 50,000 American and NATO forces cannot do now. The very presence of foreign troops only provides the Taliban a propaganda tool that the Americans are here to enslave the Afghans. Moreover, Pakistan has proved to be a dubious ally. Moreover, the Taliban and its allies are virtually controlling the North West Frontier Province and they are enjoying far greater support now than they received during the war against the Soviet forces.
The only way the Americans can stop the Taliban from ousting the Karzai government will be to equip and train a combat-capable Afghan army. President Barack Obama has promised more US troops for Afghanistan, but more American troops will not make any difference as long as the Taliban and its acolytes enjoy safe haven in the tribal areas (the Soviet Union increased its troops to 100,000 at the later stage without any effect). What Afghanistan needs is more Afghan troops. A well-equipped and well-paid Afghan army of about 200,000 will be able to contain the Taliban because they know what their fate will be if the Taliban return to power. Instead of sending more American troops, Obama will be well advised to change the strategy from combat to equipping and training the Afghan army. The American troops should provide the logistic support, but the bulk of combat should be left to the Afghan army. Such an Afghan army will be a formidable force as the Taliban will not be able to depict them as foreign invaders.
Mahmood Elahi
Ottawa, Canada
Military on red alert in Pakistan
History repeats. We know. But must history repeat with such awesome routine. Once was not enough. India and Pakistan went to war three times. Is there a need to prove ‘mutually assured destruction’ yet again?
As if that is not enough, the two are on the brink yet again. One is playing the departing George W Bush whose favourite phrase ‘All options on the table’ is adopted by the Indian ministers and expert political commentators. Little do they realise what America can do and get away with, India or China or Russia cannot.
And what Pakistan does? As usual it rallies people and parties behind the army, which dutifully promises to pull a punch way above its weight. This subcontinent has been famous for rhetoric. But the times changed. Rhetoric has to face realities. If modesty had any virtue it had never been so much needed.
To both India and Pakistan, the message is: please go easy on lofty or nasty rhetoric; go hard on poverty and illiteracy of people. If you cannot or would not release your people from those curses, least you could do is spare the generations ahead from destruction and death.
Husain
Dhaka
