Open Letter to the Taliban

Open Letter to the Taliban

I agree with this letter 100%, and not just because I have greatly respected its author, Barnett Rubin, for over a decade. Barnett Rubin has conducted secret negotiations with the Taliban on behalf of the US government and has a very distinguished academic and diplomatic career.

I strongly urge every reader of Brown Pundits to read this Open Letter to the Taliban in full.

A few days ago, magic happened. The “ENTIRE” international community, led by  China, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar and USA placed Pakistan on a Terrorism Financing List. Please read the comments on this historic development by our very own Brown Pundit, the ever wise ever erudite Slapstik. Everything has changed.

Our best friends at Deep State GHQ [General Headquarters] are considering new possibilities for the first time since . . . well for the first time since the 1970s. The Taliban issued a peace letter. And we are off to the races! Where will we end up? Do you think I have a clue? :LOL:

Please share the “Open Letter to the Taliban” with all your friends. And share your comments below.

For reference Barnett Rubin has written a summary of the situation in Afghanistan, the various internal players and their external sponsors that is worth reading. Additionally, the UN has released their 2017 report on Afghan civilian casualties. Of special note are pages 45-47 on civilian casualties caused by the growing Afghanistan Air Force (AAF).

Love you all. Checking out 🙂

Review: Stalin, waiting for Hitler..

Stephen Kotkin is a historian who has written several outstanding books on Russian history and is now in the process of distilling his lifetime work into a monumental three part biography of Stalin. Volume 1 dealt with Stalin’s early life and his progress from relatively peripheral disciple of Lenin in 1917 to Lenin’s handpicked general secretary of communist party in 1922, to undisputed (though not yet completely all-powerful) boss and ruler of the Soviet Union by 1928. By the end of that volume, Stalin was firmly ensconced in this position, having successfully seen off the challenge from Trotsky, who lost out partly because almost nobody around him liked him, but mostly because he was neither as hardworking, nor as competent, iron-willed or crafty as Stalin.  It is true that Trotsky imagined himself as the real “Marxist intellectual” in this fight, but the autodidact Stalin was no intellectual slouch, and Trotsky’s low opinion of him in this arena is also a (small) part of why he lost this fight; he underestimated his opponent. Of course, both of them believed fully in the Marxist-Leninist picture of history and society, complete with the necessity of class war, the central role of the proletariat and the idiocy of the peasants, so it is easy to dismiss the intellectual output of both parties as equally delusional, but that is not how it looked in the 1920s, so we should leave such retrospective wisdom out of the discussion. In any case, by 1928, Stalin had kicked Trotsky out of the Soviet Union, and had defanged or sidelined all his other rivals within the Bolshevik leadership.

Stalin with Lenin

Continue reading Review: Stalin, waiting for Hitler..

Something is rotten in the State of Dubai

The SD story isn’t adding up.

BK flies back to surprise his wife (he does back to back reverse flights, which is rough on anyone).

He just happens to be there when she has a massive heart attack and drowns in the tub.

Usually when people have a heart attack, they shout, exclaim or make some juddering noise..

How & why would someone as fit & slim as SD have such a major heart attack at the age of 55?

I incidentally went to a memorial service of a similar aged lady on the same day the news broke out. It was a heart attack but there were signs of ill health a year running up to that..

The North-West Frontier in 1947

A piece from military historian Dr Hamid Hussain. It includes some details (including the role played by Governor George Cunningham, a Scotsman and an “old frontier hand”) about the mobilization of Pakhtun tribesmen to attack Kashmir in 1947, an invasion covered in greater detail in a recent detailed Brownpundits article about the Kashmir war. 

Following piece is outcome of several related questions about frontier policy at the time of independence in 1947, order of battle, question of British officers staying in Pakistan etc.  It was linked with Kashmir incursion; a fact not noticed by most historians.

Regards,

Hamid

Frontier in 1947

Hamid Hussain

Sir George Cunningham, Governor of the NWFP

In August 1947, British departed from India after partitioning the country into two independent states.  Two pillars of stability; Indian Civil Service (ICS) and Indian army were divided between two countries.  Pakistan inherited the north-western frontier of India and its associated tribal question.

A tribal territory under British protection separated Indian administrative border from Afghanistan that in turn served as a buffer state between British India and Tsarist Russia; later Communist Soviet Union.  East India Company encountered these tribes after the demise of Sikh Durbar in 1849 when Punjab was annexed. In the next four decades, this relationship evolved over various stages.  By 1890s, Afghanistan’s borders were stabilized with demarcation of boundaries with Persia, Russia and British India.

Continue reading The North-West Frontier in 1947

Why do English nonmuslims treat English muslims so badly?

Honestly, I can’t figure it out why UK nonmuslims treat UK muslims so badly.

Nonmuslims in general treat muslims badly and I am tempted to write similar articles about most nonmuslim majority countries; but this article will focus on the UK.

This article is a sequel to these two previous articles on nonmuslims mistreating muslims and their comment sections.

I can think of no better example of this phenomenon than the story of Tania Joya, a Bengali UK muslim mother of four who recently divorced one of the highest ranking living leaders of Daesh, assuming he is still alive:

Continue reading Why do English nonmuslims treat English muslims so badly?

Rome’s Colosseum turned red to protest Pakistan blasphemy law

Shame on Pakistan

https://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKCN1G80VR?__twitter_impression=true

My wife gets very offended if I ever compare India and Pakistan in the same breath. I have to agree with her; whatever India’s handicaps, Pakistan is spiralling into a vortex of shame, hate & regressiveness.

Does this have to do with Islam? Maybe maybe not.

But the future is not Pakistan.

It is rapidly becoming the Land of the Impure

India’s Rotherham

http://indianexpress.com/article/india/rajasthan-almost-three-decades-after-a-rape-blackmail-case-rocked-ajmer-surrender-of-an-accused-opens-old-wounds-5076914/lite/?__twitter_impression=true

I predicted that cases like these were happening in India, did happen in India earlier as well but were not being shown in media as whole. There are many cases happening even now but here is evidence from over 2 decades back. The case of muslims preying on non muslim girls, the methods used are similar.

Muslim Impostor, Pretending to be Hindu BJP Supporter, Lures & Abducts Girl – Baghpat, UP

The term people use is “loveJihad”, while one can question some of the sources, in absence of mainstream media outing such instances, one must go by these alternative news outlets.

2 gangs have been busted in last 4 yrs in 2 different cities , but I am unable to find them as the terms used are described suchthat it is hard to find.

 

https://m.jagran.com/lite/news/national-force-to-change-religion-by-rape-video-viral-16082337.html

 

Nuanced understanding of British Colonialism

Please watch this video, followed by the following video:

I have read many books on India preceding and during British rule from many different perspectives and as a child spoke to many old people who were nostalgic about the British. What does nostalgia mean? It means that they all celebrated independence and had a nuanced bitter sweet understanding of the English. They spoke about the English as they were, warts, strengths, good aspects and all. Aspects of English policy and English colonization of the mind are mixed or negative; but the Anglo people themselves enriched India greatly. Anglo means English nationals who lived a large part of their lives in British India and mixed English/South Asian ancestry descendants. One of the great tragedies of South Asian history is that many Anglos left South Asia. India would have been better off had the English lived on in India as patriotic Indian citizens and continued to serve in high positions inside India alongside their fellow Indians. Hence the bitter sweet.

Continue reading Nuanced understanding of British Colonialism

At U.S. Urging, Pakistan to Be Placed on Terrorism-Financing List – The New York Times

China, the GCC, the US and the whole world are putting Pakistan on a Terrorism Financing List. What does everyone make of this?

My main take-away is the sea change in the UAE, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Qatar regarding Pakistan. MBS is the most liberal, least pro Jihadi, least pro Islamist Wahhabi Salafi leader in Saudi Arabian history. While it is easy to snidely say “compared to what?”; I really hope and pray that MBS is authentic and succeeds. The alternative is just too scary.

What does everyone think?

Brown Pundits