This refusal of President Zardari to reinstate Chaudry to his former post as Chief Justice led to such violent protests and marches on Islamabad from all over the country that Zardari was finally forced to reinstate Chaudhry to his former post on March 16, 2009.
This was greeted by the Pakistanis and by much of the world as an opening towards democracy, but we haven't seen the end of the game. It is clear that President Zardari has been severely weakened by the political turmoil caused by his refusal to reinstate Chaudhry and the dubious reasons he gave the world to account for this refusal. Also the democratically elected former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, ousted by Musharraf, joined the opposition movement to reinstate Chaudhry. He is now the leader of the opposition against Zardari.
The country is at this time involved in internal political fights that noone can foresee the outcome of. During the period of the British intervention in Afghanistan, ethnic Pashtun territories were divided by the Durand Line, an arbitrarily drawn border between the two countries, in the midst of a mountainous and inaccessible region. This artificial border line has never had any real significance for the people inhabiting the region. The two countries have never ceased to dispute territorial rights and relations between the them have for ever been strained.
The new regime, more of the same
The Obama administration seems to believe that Afghanistan and Pakistan can be treated as one entity, the AfPak problem. The terrorists, call them jihadists, call them the Taliban, call them the Pashtun rebels, are spread mainly around the border territory between the two countries. Thus, or so they think, it's all one problem.
Add to the enormously fragile situation in these two countries, the precarious relations between the United States and Iran, the rock solid and dangerous alliance between the U.S. and Israel, which is becoming an international pariah, and it should be easy to see that Washington will have a hard time getting itself out from this part of the world, which it once thought it would be a cakewalk to invade and dominate.
Washington has, ever since its overthrow of Mohammed Mossadegh and the installation of the Shah in 1953, thus getting rid of a regime they feared was too Soviet friendly, had a fixation on asserting domination over this part of the world, the major center of oil production in the world. Thus the unwavering support of Israel and all its horrendous internationally condemned actions against the Palestinians, their eternal victims.
I find it pretty amazing that President Obama is still trying to convince us that the present world order can go on essentially in the same way, just with more cooperation between nations. BUT with the United States as the continued world leader. How long is the rest of the world going to buy this lunacy? More troops to Afghanistan? Why? How? With what money? For what reason? Will 17,000 American advisors, as they are obviously going to be called, save and unite a fractured country that has never been really held together by any government???
This is the end game – the future will be very different
An era is over, the neocons have been playing monopoly with the world in the last rays of light of the world that is now crumbling. The empire they dreamed up was altogether dependent on the abundant resources of oil and coal that are now drying up as well as contributing in a major way to the destruction of the environment. They most likely knew this all along but they went on playing their game until darkness fell.
Well, the light is going out but we now have to look around us and light another lamp that will show us the path to survival. President Obama has to give up on his goal of dominating the world. It is much too late for any such ambitions. This new era that is just beginning has no room for an empire, no room for a superpower.
Bare-knuckled capitalism has proven that it only leads to disaster, to poverty and misery for the masses and the good life for another couple of seconds for the tiny handful of hardboiled capitalists, the multi-billionaires who are playing this game till the very last drops of honey are squeezed out of the flower.
What the future will be like, nobody knows. There are not enough people who seriously try to build a world founded on true democracy, not the kind touted by U.S. and other world leaders, which is rather more what should be called corporatism than a form of government where people have the least significance. However, the one thing that is certain is that today's world will not last much longer in the state it's in.
It's clear that even without the economic meltdown and global warming occurring simultaneously for not unrelated reasons, the world the way it is today does not stand a chance of surviving for generations to come. The killing, the torturing, the unending aggressive wars, mainly fought by the United States over the past few decades and the horrendous economic inequality throughout the world could not go on without finally leading to a massive uprising by the people of the world. With today's means of communication, unimaginable just a few decades ago, the world would not sit still and watch the poor getting poorer, the rich getting richer, the innocent being tortured and the environment getting ruined for the profit of the big corporations. The wealthy presumed leaders of the world have dug their own grave by ignoring basic human rights and nature's incredibly delicate balancing act to protect and to make all species survive.
It's curtain fall for the present world order. Will we be able to continue this century with such totally different priorities that the human race and the planet can be saved?
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