Articles

Russia’s grip on the North Caucasus is becoming more complicated and therefore, loosening up as a consequence of recent developments.

Who says the Americans hate all the Haqqanis? Take the case of Husain Haqqani, the recently disgraced Pakistani ambassador to Washington, who was such a darling of the Washington neocons that he was publicly feted as a close ally.

Pakistan’s relations with the US have never been easy but recent developments have brought them to such a point that even the polite and usually soft-spoken Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani was forced to concede: “we do not trust the Americans.”

Pakistan’s boycott of the December 5 US-sponsored conference on Afghanistan in Bonn, Germany reduced it to little more than a farce. It was like a wedding without the groom. Pakistan boycotted to protest the November 26 US-NATO attack.

Ultimately, even the great rhetorical skills of Barack Obama could not hide the fact that the US military had been defeated in Iraq. American troops sneaked out of the country into Kuwait on December 15, a full two weeks ahead of the stipulated deadline.

It is now well established that foreign powers are deeply involved in destabilizing the regime of Bashar al-Asad in Syria. Such interference is not confined merely to anti-regime propaganda, although it plays a significant role by presenting misleading reports about civilian casualties to stoke anti-regime sentiment.

Exactly a year after peoples’ uprisings shook the Muslim East (Middle East) driving three dictators from power, considerable uncertainty still prevails. Elections have been held in Tunisia (October 23), Morocco (November 25) and Egypt (November 28–29; December 14–15 and the next round scheduled for January 9–10, 2012), but they have failed to stem unrest.

The Saudi regime has adopted a three-pronged strategy to deal with the storm that has erupted since the Islamic Awakening swept the Muslim East more than a year ago. Soon after two dictators — General Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia and General Hosni Mubarak of Egypt — were driven from power in quick succession, Saudi King Abdullah announced billions of dollars in handouts to buy people’s loyalty.

The truth about what is happening in “liberated” Libya is finally seeping through. Both Amnesty International and Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) have confirmed that prisoners suspected of being Qaddafi sympathizers have been systematically tortured and killed.