English: A Pakistani Chengdu F-7PG aircraft conducts a training mission during a multinational exercise Dec. 9, 2009, in Southwest Asia. Aircrews from France, Jordan, Pakistan, the U.A.E., the U.K. and the U.S. are training together in the Air Forces Central area of responsibility. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Pakistani guys on the Deira docks in Dubai (Photo credit: CharlesFred)Bin Laden was killed in a joint Pakistan-US operation
Nauman Sadiq at Incredible credulity - 2 days ago
Operation Neptune Spear by the US Navy Seals in which Osama Bin Laden was
killed on 2 May 2011 was actually a joint Pakistan-US operation.
A lot of online material is available about the incident and the
Pakistangovernment has also released the Abbottabad Commission’s Report
(which is still classified) but the whole episode and its reporting sheds
light on the complicity, sensationalism and spin-doctoring by the Western
corporate media.
By ‘joint operation’ I mean that the operation was carried out in full
coordination with the Pakistani Air Force and ground forces which secured
t... more »
( He thinks he's cynical. I merely wonder who really was killed. A 6'4" dying man on dialysis over 10 years - while supposedly in hiding despite daily hospital services - is not a credible assessment. Not even for a Saudi prince, CIA paymaster, and intimate of the Bush family. )
Structural faults in the Pakistani politics
Nauman Sadiq at Incredible credulity - 1 week ago
The ignorance of the masses is actually a failure of the privileged
educated elite of a society in performing their duty: to educate the
masses. The relationship between the privileged classes and the
underprivileged masses in the developing countries can best be understood
by drawing an analogy to the relationship between the factory-owners and
the factory-workers. The factory-owners and their minions: the managers,
assistants and financial advisers occupy a higher position on the social
ladder; as a class, they are educated, well-dressed and posh; while the
factory-workers are ill... more »
Terrorism as pretext for intervention
Nauman Sadiq at Incredible credulity - 1 week ago
The fear of terrorism is partly a fact and partly a hype to militarily
intervene in the oil-rich Middle East and North Africa region. Obviously,
any incident of terrorism is a big human tragedy in which many innocent
human lives are lost; and governments all over the world, try to avert such
an incident from happening. But the actions of the governments, and their
proportionality, needs to be carefully examined to judge their real
intentions. Can it be said about the Zia regime that it felt a genuine love
and affection towards their brothers-in-faith; and that’s why they chose to
gi... more »
The role of Saudi Arabia in spawning Islamic extremism
Nauman Sadiq at Incredible credulity - 1 week ago
Introduction: The Pakistani military establishment is rightfully blamed for
creating the Taliban; but the phenomena of religious extremism and
terrorism is not limited to Pakistan; this conflagration has engulfed the
whole of Islamic world from Iraq and Syriato Algeria and Indonesia and even
the Muslim minorities in China, Thailandand Philippines. Pakistani
establishment does not has access to all these regions, thus, aside from
local actors, some regional and global actors are also responsible for
creating the menace of Islamic extremism and terrorism. A more holistic
understanding... more »
Three categories of militants in Pakistan
Nauman Sadiq at Incredible credulity - 1 week ago
The trouble with Pakistani liberals is that they don’t understand what do
they want? PPP and ANP opposed the Afghan Jihad; and the resultant
extremism and terrorism in Pakistan in the aftermath of Afghan Jihad is in
a way a vindication of their rightful stance. But mere vindication is not
enough, we need to find solutions for the pressing problem. And what is
their solution? Military-bashing, right-wing-bashing and a false victimhood
syndrome. Actually there is more to extremism and terrorism than meets the
eye. It is only partly an issue of human rights and minority rights; more
th... more »
A pacifist solution for curbing militancy and terrorism
Nauman Sadiq at Incredible credulity - 1 week ago
Some of us tend to take a binary approach towards most issues; like either
you are with us or against us. But there are always many reasonable options
in between. For instance: a complete surrender of the writ of the state in
the tribal areas of Pakistan or its full restoration. Restoration, by the
way, implies re-establishment of the writ; which we never had in the first
place; we used the tribals to achieve our strategic objectives in Kashmir
and Afghanistan; and we abused them by militarizing and weaponizing them.
Anyway, instead of taking a binary approach of complete restoration... more »
Syrian conflict and Israel's regional security
Nauman Sadiq at Incredible credulity - 1 week ago
Syrian Conflict: A War on Hezbollah.
Let me admit at the outset that Assad is an illegitimate tyrant who must
abdicate his hereditary throne to the will of the people when the opportune
moment arrives. But at the moment our primary concern shouldn’t be bringing
democracy to Syria; at the moment our first and foremost priority should be
reducing the level of violence in Syria. There are two parties to this
conflict: the regime and the rebels. It is not possible for the regime to
get off the back of the tiger because the tiger will eat it alive. The
regime is fighting a war of defense... more »
The cost of war on terror
Nauman Sadiq at Incredible credulity - 1 week ago
This write-up is a rejoinder to Omar Ali’s well argued post: Drone and
anti-drone. Omar Ali’s arguments are premised on a sub-conscious assumption
that the Western powers honestly wants to rid the world from the scourge of
religious extremism and terrorism; a deeply held belief of the intrinsic
goodness of the Western Empire (North America and Western Europe) which
overlooks a simple fact that the Empire created these Mujaideen/terrorists
during the Cold War with the help of Pakistani military establishment and
the Saudi and Gulf sponsors. The paradigm of international politics chang... more »
Cold war and the genesis of terrorism
Nauman Sadiq at Incredible credulity - 1 week ago
In the book of most neoliberals, violence is the worst sin in today’s
world. I am also pacifist by nature but I see a contradiction in the
neoliberals’ pacifism: they want us to meet violence with violence; to
fight crime with crime; to wage a war against a war; but an eye for an eye
will make the world go blind. It is an issue of emotions, loyalties and
value-based subjective narratives which is presented to us in a veneer of
rational argumentations and an appeal to logic.
To understand this we need to look at the history of the Cold War and the
genesis of the petro-terrorism. Ther... more »
True lies of Petro-terrorism
Nauman Sadiq at Incredible credulity - 1 week ago
This blogpost is an assortment of some of my earlier comments at different
forums on the subject of petro-terrorism. There is no denying the fact that
terrorism is a real threat. But at the same time we cannot overlook the
fact that 9/11 provided an opportunity to the Big Oil in the West to
intervene in the Middle East region to secure its vast natural resources
from the competing powers. Hence the name, True Lies of Petro-terrorism.
In his article titled “True Lies” Nadeem F. Paracha (NFP) of Dawn News asks
an interesting question.
NFP: If US drone strikes in Pakistan’s tribal areas... more »
Spin-doctoring surrounding shale oil
Nauman Sadiq at Incredible credulity - 1 week ago
Reuters reports: U.S. to surpass Saudi as top oilproducer by 2016 – says
the International Energy Agency. The United States will stride past Saudi
Arabia and Russiato become the world's top oil producer by 2016, the West's
energy agency said, bringing Washingtoncloser to energy self-sufficiency
and reducing the need for OPEC supply.
And the Bloomberg goes a step further: The U.S. will surpass Russia and
Saudi Arabia as the world’s top oil producer by 2015, and be close to
energy self-sufficiency in the next two decades, amid booming output from
shale formations, the IEA said.
By re... more »
Mass media: A commercial or social enterprise?
Nauman Sadiq at Incredible credulity - 1 week ago
We expect from the individuals and the business enterprises to act in their
self-interest. But then why do we expect from the government to work in the
larger public interest; from the legislature to make laws and devise policy
for the benefit of an entire nation; and from the judiciary, bureaucracy
and the law enforcement to enforce law and justice throughout the country?
Will it be morally right if they take advantage of their position and
promote their own self-interest at the cost of larger public interest? No,
because the government, legislature, judiciary and bureaucracy are
g... more »
Post-911 transformation of Pakistani Establishment
Nauman Sadiq at Incredible credulity - 1 week ago
Aside from external actors there are certain local actors who are trying to
sabotage the peace process initiated by the PML-N and PTI. It is generally
thought that PPP is an anti-establishment party while the Muslim League has
been a historical ally of the military establishment. But such an
essentialist approach is fallacious because it tends to overlook the
dynamic and ever-changing nature of alliances and institutions. Unlike
democratic institutions, the military establishment is a different kind of
institution. It is based on the unity of command and blind obedience. The
head do... more »
Karachi: An urban dystopia
Nauman Sadiq at Incredible credulity - 1 week ago
Karachi’s worst problem is law and order. And the solution to this problem
is a complete deweaponization of the city. Global players, these days, are
very concerned about the militant ideologies but scant attention is being
paid to the proliferation of guns, firearms and all kinds of weapons.
Military strategists always measure the enemy’s strength by his capability,
not by his intentions; because intentions can change any time. If we apply
the same logic to religious extremism vs. weaponization issue, the latter
is a much bigger threat; and no actions are being taken to reduce the
... more »
Difference between urban and rural Islam
Nauman Sadiq at Incredible credulity - 1 week ago
In order for us to be self-critical, we must accurately define ourselves
first. Labels and ‘isms’ are always fallacious and lead us astray. Take
Islam for instance; if I believe that I am a Muslim, can I represent the
whole of Muslim ummah? It’s a fact that Muslims all over the world do share
certain similarities pertaining to beliefs, rituals and values; but what
does a Pakistani Muslim has in common with a British or American Muslim?
The latter have more in common with the Western culture and only a few
beliefs in common with the Eastern Muslims.
As I said earlier: individuals are... more »
Neocolonialism: Exploitation by deception
Nauman Sadiq at Incredible credulity - 1 week ago
Before helio-centricism, geo-centricism was in vogue: earth was reckoned as
the center of the universe. It was impossible for the ancients to envision
a world in which earth was not the center of the universe. Similarly,
Euclidean geometry was based on a three-dimensional model; it was difficult
for the classical physicists to imagine a four-dimensional space-time. It
is always the failure of imagination which stops us from thinking outside
the box. We naively accept the working paradigms, no matter how ridiculous
and unjust they may be. Unfettered capitalism and the prevalent
neo-c... more »
Democracy precedes liberalism
Nauman Sadiq at Incredible credulity - 1 week ago
JS Mill’s critique of majoritarianism or the will of the majority makes
sense; but only in its universal application. Mill, on the other hand,
makes a subjective and artificial distinction between the backward
societies and the advanced societies; and posits that majoritarianism
somehow works in the “liberal democracies” but not in the so-called
“backward societies.” One wonders, did the backward societies fought the
World War I, II, Korea, Vietnam and the Cold War; and did the backward
societies invaded Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya?
I don’t blame the citizens of the developed world ... more »
Halkbank scandal and the Chinese missiles
Nauman Sadiq at Incredible credulity - 1 week ago
The recent Turkish Halkbank scandal in which the Turkish ministers were
given bribes by an Iranian businessman, Riza Sarraf originally named Reza
Zarrab, to illegally transfer money/gold to Iran reeling under the pressure
of US sanctions on its nuclear program should be viewed in the context of
Erdogan’s decision to buy Chinese missile defense system to which NATO
strongly objects.
Al-monitor reports on the corruption/bribery scandal:
The [Turkish] government is looking for US and Israeli hands in the
operation because of the use of Halkbank to circumvent the sanctions
imposed on I... more »
PTI phenomena in the Pakistani politics
Nauman Sadiq at Incredible credulity - 1 week ago
We need to give credit to Imran Khan and the PTI (PakistanTehreek-e-Insaf)
phenomena that it has successfully managed to politically mobilize the most
impassive segments of the society: the students, women and the urban middle
class. These segments are generally only interested in cricket, scandals
and gossip. And it isn’t their fault; the environment of our baradari-based
(kinship-based) politics and the stereotype local politicians like Shaikh
Rasheed and Lalu Prasad Yadav are such that the refined people tend to stay
miles away from such political melee. But now due to the charism... more »
Social conditioning and cultural relativism
Nauman Sadiq at Incredible credulity - 1 week ago
Social conditioning plays the same role in cognitive science which natural
selection plays in biological sciences. Most attitudes and behaviors can be
explained by understanding how society influences and conditions the
mindsets of the individuals. But this ‘conditioning’ also rules out the
possibility of an objective reality and an independent mindset. As Jacques
Derrida beautifully articulates his concept of originary complexity: “Must
not structure have a genesis, and must not the origin, the point of
genesis, be already structured, in order to be the genesis of something?”
Now i... more »
Structure and agency
Nauman Sadiq at Incredible credulity - 1 week ago
I recently noticed that women can be very jealous and hostile towards other
women. Now, I can conveniently blame women for their jealousy and Muslims
for their bigotry. In other words, I can blame the actors for their
actions. But since I am not a neoliberal so I’ll choose to avoid taking
this reductive and unfair approach. From a post-modern perspective instead
of blaming the actors for their actions, we look at the forces which
structure the mindsets of the actors. Thus it isn’t women’s fault that they
are at times jealous and superficial; it is the fault of male-dominated
patriar... more »
The international system of injustice
Nauman Sadiq at Incredible credulity - 1 week ago
In a world where resources are limited, competition and conflicts are bound
to take place; it is the job of law enforcement and judiciary to curb crime
and amicably resolve the conflicts on the basis of just moral and legal
principles. But what if the police and judiciary becomes corrupt and starts
protecting its own self-interest over and above the common interests of
humanity? In such a case we don’t blame the violent human nature; or the
petty thieves, robbers, murderers and other social perverts; we blame the
state and its weak institutions, which not only failed to protect the
... more »
The urban-rural divide in Pakistan
Nauman Sadiq at Incredible credulity - 1 week ago
The urbanites commit a very big fallacy when they assume that the land
belongs to the central power in a state. This notion is somewhat like
infantile psychological projection: where the child believes that the rest
of the world thinks exactly like him. The city-dwellers live an
individualist life in the post-industrial milieu and they project their
ethos and values on a completely different rural-tribal setting.
The urban-rural divide in the underdeveloped countries is very sharp
because the impoverished state fails to provide all the amenities and
facilities of cities to the rura... more »
Education and discrimination
Nauman Sadiq at Incredible credulity - 1 week ago
We commit a big fallacy when we presume that our educational achievements
are our individual achievements. We like to believe that we were born with
a certain innate talent which made us intellectually superior to all the
rest. But the fact of the matter is: our innate talents aren’t all that
different. Some people are born with genes which make them grow to being 6
feet tall, while others are only 5.10 or 5.8, minor difference
nevertheless. Same goes with IQs. (I am only talking about ordinary mortals
here, intellectual giants are beyond the purview of this modest analytical
exerci... more »
Democracy, an end in itself
Nauman Sadiq at Incredible credulity - 1 week ago
Most people think of democracy as means to an end, not an end in itself.
The goal is always to establish one’s value-system after gaining power
through a democratic process. The value-system is based on our mindset and
worldview: liberal or conservative. Nobody, whether liberal or
conservative, really cares about the democratic process; so much so that
the Muslim Brotherhood vying to restore democracy in Egypt never even
mentions the word “democracy” in its statements; they call it the movement
for the restoration of “legitimacy.” Perhaps, this antagonism towards
democracy has somet... more »
Prejudice vs reverse prejudice
Nauman PK at Incredible credulity - 1 week ago
Reverse-prejudice is a very powerful emotion; one must guard oneself
against it as scrupulously as one guards oneself against prejudice because
after all reverse-prejudice is also a form of ‘prejudice.’ For instance: a
prejudice is when a Pakistani who is brought up as a Pakistani hates India.
And a reverse-prejudice is when a Pakistani overcomes the India-hating
phase, after getting new insights and information, and begins hating
Pakistan. But why would someone hate one’s own country? There could be many
reasons; but one important factor is to avenge an insult to one’s
intelligence... more »
Will vs capacity in the war on terror
Nauman PK at Incredible credulity - 1 week ago
Global Jihad was a corollary of the Cold War. Back then, Pakistansupported
the Mujahideen; US supported the Mujahideen; and the whole of Western and
West-oriented world supported the Afghan Mujahideen. But the whole
geo-political framework changed after the untimely and sudden demise of
Soviet Union. Now, the US opposes the terrorists; the whole of Western and
West-oriented world opposes the terrorists; and even the Pakistani
establishment wants to curb this menace. With a sacrifice of 40,000 human
lives and a displacement and suffering of millions, after Afghanistan,
Iraqand Syria,... more »
Conspiracy theories and energy wars
Nauman PK at Incredible credulity - 1 week ago
Calling someone a conspiracy theorist, these days, is like issuing a fatwa
of Kufr on him. Of late, many people have labeled me as a conspiracy
theorist; and in a way it is true; because I am a nonbeliever in the
mainstream dogma. But it really gets difficult to fight back as an
individual with the Fourth Estate, the king-makers in the contemporary
PR-based world.
To understand how credible the corporate media is, we need to study its
structure. All the mainstream media outlets are controlled by the corporate
interests. The journalists write the stories, the editors make the
editor... more »
Structuration of male and female mindsets
Nauman PK at Incredible credulity - 1 week ago
The distinction between genders: masculine and feminine, is more of a
social construct than it is an immutable physical division. A tigress is as
good a hunter as a tiger. But the complexity of human existence is very
different from all other species. We, as social beings, have developed
advanced institutions and culture. The distinction between males and
females is based less on the bodily traits and more on their respective
mindsets. And these mindsets in turn are an outcome of social expectations
of behavior in a socio-cultural milieu. It is expected from the male
members of a cu... more »
The politics of Sunni-Shia divide
Nauman PK at Incredible credulity - 1 week ago
Ethno-linguistic and ethno-religious differences are always there between
groups of people inhabiting a state; be it Hindu/Muslim, Mohajir/Sindhi or
Shia/Sunni differences. But it isn’t as much about differences as it is
about other factors. If the people belonging to different ethnic or
religious groups don’t love each other; that does not necessarily implies
that they are at each other’s throats. It is more about politics, economics
and a preferential access to resources in a limited geographical space then
it is about the differences per se.
The role of the leadership becomes imp... more »
The myth of freedom
Nauman PK at Incredible credulity - 1 week ago
The freedom of an individual in a modern society is such a myth; there is
an invisible cobweb of power all around us; our lives are managed like the
traffic on the road. Mass ideologies are an outcome of the mass literacy
programs and the mass media. We are led to believe that we are free; when
in fact the only freedom we possess is the freedom to choose between the
corporate brands: Samsung or Nokia, HP or Dell, Nikon or Canon?
This emphasis on the elusive freedoms and liberties in a corporate setting
suits the interests of the powers that be. The only concrete outcome of the
vague... more »
Privatization vs State capitalism
Nauman PK at Incredible credulity - 1 week ago
The market fundamentalism of our finance minister: Ishaq Dar knows no
bounds. He still believes in the 20th century mantra of privatization as a
cure for all evils. But the 21st century has witnessed a new paradigm: the
state capitalism of a $8 trillion economic miracle in China (on the basis
of PPP $12 trillion comparable to $15 trillion economy of USA.) While I
agree that the private enterprises are more competitive and the customer
service is a lot better compared to the state-owned enterprise; but I
wonder why can’t the state-owned enterprise perform as efficiently as the
privat... more »
Allegory of the lake
Nauman PK at Incredible credulity - 1 week ago
The objective-subjective conundrum is one of the most difficult question of
philosophy. But in the vein of Plato’s allegory of the cave here I am
putting forward my allegory of the lake.
It’s easy to define objectivity; when a subject studies an object: and
subjectivity; when a subject studies another subject but very difficult to
comprehend this distinction. Take Lake Tarbelafor instance: at some places
it’s water appears blue, at other green and at some places it appears
mud-colored. Now what is the true/real/objective color of the lake? To
answer this question we need to dig a ... more »
Technology and culture
Nauman PK at Incredible credulity - 1 week ago
In relation to the impact of new technology on culture, the printing press
of Johannes Gutenberg in 1450 single-handedly brought about the
Renaissance, a quantum leap of a cultural change that was a precursor to
all the marvels of physical sciences that we see around us today. Imagine
an intellectual life without a printing press, where every copy of a book
was hand-written. It’s like I taking upon myself the task of writing
Wikipedia, an impossible task even in ten lifetimes. The printing press
made knowledge accessible to the entire population of Europe. Before that
it was only a ... more »
What caused liberalism to backfire in the East?
Nauman PK at Incredible credulity - 1 week ago
It’s a picture of Veena Malik, our desi version of Paris Hilton, an epitome
of superficiality, shallowness and inferiority complex. When I googled
Veena Malik I had trouble finding an appropriate picture for a “safe
account.” Let’s avoid being normative here and think what caused liberalism
to fail in the East and especially in the Islamic countries? It is partly a
political failure but mostly it is the failure of commercial media as an
agent of social reform.
It is basically an issue of how a new technology interacts with the local
culture. Electronic media is a bridge that conne... more »
PTI: The new face of nationalist liberalism in Pakistan
Nauman PK at Incredible credulity - 1 week ago
In my previous post: Is democracy consistent with Islam? I made a
distinction between politics and culture and said that a democratic system
of governance falls in the category of politics while liberalism as a
value-system falls in the category of culture. When we say that Islam and
democracy are incompatible, we make a category mistake as serious as the
Islamists’ misperception that democracy is un-Islamic. They too mix up
democracy with liberalism. In my arguments I conceded that there is some
friction between liberalism as a culture and Islam as a religion. But
democracy isn’t a... more »
Is democracy consistent with Islam?
Nauman PK at Incredible credulity - 1 week ago
Some people are under the impression that democracy and Islam are
incompatible. But I don’t see any contradiction between democracy and
Islam. Though I admit, there is some friction between Islam and liberalism.
When we say that there is a contradiction between Islam and democracy, we
make a category mistake which is a very serious logical fallacy. We must be
precise about the definitions of the terms that we employ.
Democracy is simply a representative political system that ensures
representation, accountability, the right of the electorate to vote
governments in and vote governmen... more »
Neomilitarism and the Decline of Neoimperialism
Nauman at Incredible credulity - 1 year ago
At the moment China’s GDP is 11.3 trillion USD (PPP) compared to USA’s 15
trillion. But according to BNP Paribas China’s GDP will exceed USA’s by
2020. Neo-imperial economists are caught in a dilemma. If they formulate
protective trade policies against China, they will lose the moral
high-ground and they won’t be able to criticize and coerce all the other
developing countries who will follow suit and restrict imports not only
from Chinabut the whole North Atlantic corporate world and also Japan and
South Korea. And if the North keeps following the free trade mantra, their
relativel... more »
A Chargesheet against People's Party
Nauman at Incredible credulity - 1 year ago
It is understandable for a Pakistani liberal to support the Pakistan
People’s Party. They follow a value-system which is different from the one
followed by the urban middle class Pakistanis. I am a firm believer in
cultural relativism because the human minds are structured by their
respective cultures and environments and certain values are deeply
ingrained in the human psyche. Culturally I too classify myself as a
liberal. But there is a limit to cultural relativism. Certain moral values
are universal to all cultures and if you violate such norms you will be
loathed across the boa... more »
Cultural and Moral Relativism
Nauman at Incredible credulity - 1 year ago
Had we preached structuralism in the manner that we preach secularism, most
of our tolerance and social harmony related problems will get solved
instantly. What do you think is the rationale behind secularism and
multiculturalism? Moderns advocate these creeds partly for intellectual and
social progress but mostly for tolerance and social harmony. The precise
term for secularism for the sake of intellectual and social progress is
intellectual autonomy. To promote tolerance and social harmony, secularism
itself has a tendency of getting ossified and intolerant towards diverse
belief-... more »
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