Pakistan’s War on Terror Up to and Beyond 2014

While Pakistan continues to be a frontline state in the global war on terror, it is simultaneously fighting domestic terrorism in a war that will seemingly continue well beyond 2014. In recent months, terror attacks targeting the Shia Hazara minority in Baluchistan indicate a transformation of the terror problem in Pakistan. The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi present two different sides of Pakistan’s terrorism problem, however, the two organizations have increasingly converged operationally to the extent that Pakistan cannot eliminate one without simultaneously confronting the other. BACKGROUND: The September 11 terrorist attacks on the U. S. in which thousands of innocent lives were lost led Pakistan to join the U. S. -led global war against international terrorism in which Pakistan has over the years made an invaluable contribution. However, with the passage of time, Washington increasingly came to view Islamabad as part of the problem rather than the solution. Most U. S. and European policy makers believe that Pakistan is providing a safe haven for the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. Western media is full of stories about a presence of the Taliban leadership in Pakistan, including of Mullah Omar’s alleged base in Quetta. Since the summer of 2008, U. S. military and intelligence agencies are sharing minimal intelligence with its Pakistani counterparts, instead focusing on drone attacks against suspected terrorist movements and hideouts. Pakistan is a signatory to the UN’s Palermo Convention. At the regional level, Pakistan has signed and ratified SAARC Regional Convention on the Suppression of Terrorism and the SAARC Convention on Narcotic Drugs Substances and the ECO Protocol against drugs. It has extradition treaties with 29 countries and bilateral agreements or MOUs on terrorism with 50 countries. Pakistan has played a major role in eliminating a number of terror networks such as the Al-Qaeda Anthrax network, the Alghuraba network, the UK-based Anglo-Pakistani group and Jundullah. Prominent targets captured include Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, Abu Alfaraj Alibi, Al Shib, Abu Zubaida, Abu Talha, Khalid bin Attash or Walid bin Attish, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, Mohammad Naeem Noor Khan, Abu Laith al-Libi, Hasan Bana, Hamza Rabbi, Sharif Al Masri, Abu Mushab Masri, Jaffar Uttayyar Alkashmiri Yassir Al-Jaziri, and Abdul Rehman Al-Masri. Umar Patek was arrested in Abbottabad by Pakistani forces and may have provided important leads to Osama bin Laden’s whereabouts. Since 9/11, Pakistan has also become a victim of terrorism. The direct and indirect cost suffered by Islamabad in the war on terror has been around US$ 35 billion. There has been a constant increase in the number of terror attacks in Pakistan since 9/11 and a number of prominent Pakistanis have lost their lives in such attacks. These include the two-time Prime Minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto and the former head of the Pakistan Army’s Special Service Group, Maj. Gen. (Rtd) Ameer Faisal Alvi. Most of the jihadists in Pakistan, especially the splinter groups of various organizations, are now operating under the umbrella of TTP, a Deobandi Sunni organization established in December 2007. TTP’s objectives include cleansing Pakistan of foreign, meaning the U. S. and overall Western, presence, implementing Sharia and establishing a Caliphate. Over the years, TTP has been involved in a number of suicide bombings, rocket attacks, remote controlled bombs, abductions, and beheadings. It has widened its area of operations beyond Pakistan’s tribal areas and targeted a number of government installations and organizations in the mainland, including the Federal Investigation Agency’s Lahore office, the Naval War College in Lahore, the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, the Wah ordinance Factory, the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore, a police training school, the GHQ Rawalpindi and the Navy’s Mehran base in Karachi. It is also involved in kidnapping for ransom, bank robberies, forced taxes and drug trade. IMPLICATIONS: Since 9/11, the TTP has increasingly converged with the staunchly anti-Shia militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. A number of prominent TTP operations were conducted by known Lashkar-e-Jhangvi operatives. In recent months, the Hazaras in Baluchistan are increasingly becoming a prime target of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. Both TTP and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi consider Shias kafirs (infidels) and hence legitimate targets. Terrorist activities showed no sign of receding in 2012, indicating that after more than a decade of fighting terror, Pakistan is nowhere close to the finishing line in this war and the problem is taking an even uglier shape. According to various sources, Pakistan suffered more than 6000 casualties in different terror attacks in 2012. More than 450 terror attacks were recorded in 2012 in which at least 39 were confirmed suicide attacks. Another important development in 2012 was the increasing operational alliance between the TTP and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, although the two groups have cooperated with each other also in the past, the group led by Amjad Farooqi in 2003-2004 being a case in point. However, in 2012 the two groups largely converged operationally in the sense that they declared a war against Shias. This convergence has resulted in the worst attacks to date against Shias, especially the Hazaras in Baluchistan. In 2012, Shias were targeted in 113 attacks in which 396 people lost their lives, indicating the increasingly sectarian features of Pakistan’s terrorism problem. So far, more than a thousand terror-related deaths have occurred in 2013. Apart from a closer alliance emerging between TTP and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, TTP has also established Ansar Al-Aseerian (Helpers of the prisoners) in partnership with the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. According to media reports, Adnan Rasheed has been appointed the head of this group. The purpose of this group is to free all militants held in custody by Pakistani security forces and in various jails. TTP is also attempting to expand its activities and area of influence to Karachi, Pakistan’s major financial hub. Karachi, which is also considered to be Pakistan’s major Pashtun center, has been a preferred hideout for TTP, while some TTP and other jihadi activists have received medical treatment in Karachi. 2013 also witnessed two developments that will have long lasting effect on Pakistan’s war against terrorism. Firstly, Pakistan’s national Assembly unanimously passed the National Counter Terrorism Authority Bill 2013 on March 8, 2013. The establishment of a National Counter Terrorism Authority (NCTA) will play an important role in the efforts to combat terrorism. According to the mandate given to NCTA, it will â€Å"coordinate counter terrorism and counter extremism efforts in view of the nature and magnitude of the terrorist threat; and to present strategic policy options to the government for consideration/implementation by the stakeholders after scientifically studying the phenomenon of extremism and terrorism in historic and professional perspective. † Secondly, Pakistan’s army is taking a tougher stance and increasing its attention to the terrorism problem, as indicated by the decision of Pakistan’s army chief to treat the problem of terrorism as an operational priority. 013 is also an election year in Pakistan, with national and provincial elections scheduled for May 11, 2013. TTP has already targeted a number of political events in Khyber Paktunkhwa and especially the Awami National Party’s election campaign. The political party or parties that will form the next government will not only inherit a crisis in the energy and financial sectors but will also have to make hard decisions about the country’s war against terror. CONCLUSIONS: Developments in Pakistan suggest that the country’s terror problem will only increase in the lead-up to 2014 and Pakistan will have to fight its war on terror well beyond 2014, if concrete and decisive steps against TTP and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi are not taken. Both organizations want Pakistan to be a Sunni state and are increasingly targeting Shias. The Pakistani people and armed forces have paid a huge price in people and material in this ongoing war. Unless Pakistan addresses the root causes of the problem, it will not only persist but also get worse.

The book The Client by John Grisham meets the expe Essays

The book The Client by John Grisham meets the expe Essays The book The Client by John Grisham meets the expectation of a typical thriller book because it embodies the conventions that thriller readers expect. Grisham's use of enigmas, extravagant crime events, antagonists and protagonists, cliff-hangers and a climax that lands the central characters in danger endorses the thriller genre by meeting all of our thriller expectations! 15189205715 " Engaged me to the point w here there was little time when the book was not in my hands. "020000 " E ngaged me to the point w here there was little time when the book was not in my hands. "Protagonists can be identified in central characters. Mark Sway for example, he is the focal "goodie" in the novel. This idea is developed right from the beginning with him being labelled as a victim of domestic abuse, this persona of a victim is advanced throughout the book through events such as him being held by "The fat...[suicidal]lawyer..." (p.15) where he was almost killed followed by the overwhelming and intrusive publicity and the constant stalking and death threats from the mafia. Reggie Love on the other hand is painted as more of an anti-hero with her alcohol abused past that tarnishes her reputation initially but is redeemed by her charitable and maternal actions towards Mark and his family such as her one-dollar service fee. To make it that bit more obvious that Reggie is in fact a "goodie" her last name is Love surely that was put there for a reason! Some Characters throughout the novel are even portrayed to make the other characters look a certain way. Ricky Sway is portrayed as a symbol of innocence through the few extracts that he appears in. He was terrified when Jerome Clifford pulled up and tried to kill himself and his brother Mark, and was scared to the point he fell into a comma. His character makes Mark look extremely brave as he is too a child and experienced the same if not more than Ricky did and he, although slightly shaken-up, was in almost perfect physical shape. This technique can also be identified when comparing Reggie Love and Dianne Sway. Both can be identified as maternal figures yet Dianne makes Reggie look like a more stable figure, with her history of domestic abuse, residents in a trailer park, her unstable employment and her addiction to smoking. Antagonists such as Jerome "Romey" Clifford and Barry "the Blade" Mudano alternatively represent the "evil" in the book. Romey displays pure selfishness and insanity by attempting to force Mark to die with him. Barry the Blade conversely shows your typical nasty gang member who doesn't take responsibility for his actions. As a devoted thriller fan the uses of significant events such as the suicide of Romey Clifford and the suspenseful journey to find the body of the late senator which landing Reggie and Mark as fugitives, engaged me to the point where there was little time when the book was not in my hands. The book began with events that seemed like 2 young boys just trying to act older than their age, to the suicide of a lawyer followed by an investigation which lands Mark in the middle of it all which leads to the Mafia threatening the young boy driving him to achieve justice without the authorities recruiting Reggie as his trusty side-kick. The chronological order of the book takes the reader on an "emotional rollercoaster" by displaying exactly what Mark was feeling thought these events. Some of these emotions were quit blatantly exposed such as when Mark was in the car with Romey, "Mark was crying. "Please let me out of here," he said, lip quivering, voice cracking." (p.16) claims like this clearing demonstrate that Mark was frightened and upset. However, in other segments more subtle approaches are taken in order to display his feelings for example the when Mark and Reggie found out that they were being stalked Marks un-easy slightly worried emotions where exposed when Grisham de scribed his breakfast experience, "holding a muffin but not eating it, just staring blankly at the floor[whilst]Doreen watched every move. "Are you okay, sweetheart?" she asked him. Mark nodded slowly, "Oh I'm fine," he said in a

Analysis of Character in “Young Goodman Brown” Research Paper Example

Analysis of Character in â€Å"Young Goodman Brown† Research Paper Example Analysis of Character in â€Å"Young Goodman Brown† Paper Analysis of Character in â€Å"Young Goodman Brown† Paper In Nathaniel Hawthornes short story, â€Å"Young Goodman Brown,† the title character is a man who sets out on a mysterious journey into the woods and unknowingly ends up discovering a truth about himself that he cannot reconcile. At the beginning of the story, a newly-married Goodman Brown bids his young wife, Faith, goodbye and sets out on his journey to meet â€Å"a grave and decently attired† elderly man. While at first reluctant to keep on his journey, Goodman Brown allows himself to be persuaded by the elderly man to continue deeper into the forest. Once they reach their destination, Young Goodman Brown is shaken by the discovery that he is at a Black Mass, that most of the townspeople, including his wife are there and that his elderly companion is actually the Devil. Realizing that Faith is about to pledge herself to the Devil, Goodman Brown cries out in dismay. Suddenly, he finds himself standing alone in the forest, unsure if what he â€Å"witnessed† was real or a dream. Unable to cope with the discovery from his journey that all men, including himself, have the capacity for evil, Young Goodman Brown changes from a confident, religious and trusting man to one ruled by disillusionment, suspicion and fear. In the beginning of the story, Goodman Brown is confident and trusting in what he sets out on his journey, reassuring Faith that he must go and that everything will be okay. As he walks through town, his confidence and intent falters when he spies Faith watching worriedly from a distance. He shakes off his doubts, making the excuse that even though she would not approve of his reason for his journey, it will be just this one time and after that her goodness will rescue him from evil. He starts down the dark road into the forest and he meets an older man, who looks somewhat like himself. As they converse, the man makes Goodman Brown feel uneasy about what he is doing. Goodman Brown travels down the path accompanied by the man and is told that his father and his grandfather before him have both walked this same path. This makes him feel extremely uneasy about the journey. His doubts grow as he meets an old woman, who he has seen before in town, and she converses with the older man about witchcraft and the devil for a short moment. Later on, he becomes distraught after he sees his wifes ribbon flutter to him, indicating that she was taken. When he reaches the Black Mass, he sees the people from town there including his wife who is to be inducted with him, and it is this that changes him to become suspicious and paranoid. When Goodman Brown finds himself standing alone in the forest, he cannot figure out if what he’d just witnessed was real or a dream. When he returns to town the next morning, he cannot see the town or the people in it the same way he did before his journey. After seeing what he saw of others during his journey, he is a sad and distrustful man always wondering about other people’s true motives. Now, he looks at Faith, not with joy and love, but with suspicion and condemnation. His determination to avoid evil, doesn’t allow him to appreciate the good he has in his life. When Goodman Brown dies years later, a bitter old man with numerous family members and friends in attendance at his funeral, no one can think of one good thing about him to put on his tombstone. In this story, Goodman Brown starts out trusting and confident, but ends up fearful and suspicious when he discovers that all men, including himself, have the capacity for evil. His loss of faith in himself to overcome this evil, turns him bitter unable to truly love his wife and to see the good in life. In the end, his attempts to keep away from evil by silently condemning everyone around him, he ends up seen by everyone else as a sad man without hope.

How Oobleck Works

How Oobleck Works Oobleck gets its name from the Dr. Seuss book called  Bartholomew and the Oobleck, because, well, oobleck is funny and strange.  Oobleck is a special type of slime with properties of both liquids and solids. If you squeeze it, it feels solid, yet if you relax your grip, it flows through your fingers. If you run across a pool of it, it supports your weight, but if you stop in the middle, youll sink like its quicksand.  Do you know how oobleck works? Non-Newtonian Fluids Oobleck is an example of a non-Newtonian fluid. A Newtonian fluid is one which maintains constant viscosity at any given temperature. Viscosity, in turn, is the property that allows liquids to flow. A non-Newtonian fluid does not have a constant viscosity. In the case of oobleck, viscosity increases when you agitate the slime or apply pressure. Why? Oobleck is a suspension of starch in water. The starch grains remain intact rather than dissolving, which is the key to the slimes interesting properties. When a sudden force is applied to oobleck, the starch grains rub against each other and lock into position. The phenomenon is called shear thickening and it basically means particles in a dense suspension resist further compression in the direction of shear. When oobleck is at rest, the high surface tension of water causes water droplets to surround the starch granules. Water acts as a liquid cushion or lubricant, allowing the grains to flow freely. Sudden force pushes the water out of the suspension and jams the starch grains against each other.

Accounting for Decision Makers -Discussion Question Assignment - 4

Accounting for Decision Makers -Discussion Question - Assignment Example As an example for the second item, if the highest budget value was $154967 while the required budget for next year is less than that, this is a slack. The third item will create a budgetary slack because more money will be used to correct the situation. If $5400 gave the poor results, more dollars will be needed next year. Including depreciation value in the purchase budget will increase cost slightly: this is a slack too. For example if equipment costs $392 today while its charge is $8, the budgeted cost then becomes $400. Inflation rate and fixed cost to the estimates of purchase will slight relax the budget: for example budgeting with $450 for a facility that costs $400 today. Lastly, new employees require higher cost to make labor efficient. Using this cost for approximation of labor efficiency would create a slack. An example would be budgeting for an average $211 for labor efficiency of new employees while only about $110 dollars would be used for the same. I believe Bailey can justify the built-in budgetary slack to the company. The manager may need to explain would benefit the company like preventing frequent returns to the budgeting table or frequent withdrawal of projects. I would suggest for Bailey to improve the company’s budgeting by use of automated systems such as excel spreadsheets for budgeting and driver-based metrics (Hartgraves & Morse, 2015). In addition, honesty between departments and management should be maintained so that none is taken for a

Journal Entry Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 5

Journal Entry - Essay Example These and many other issues have made it necessary that all stakeholders in the nursing fraternity should seek to be active when it comes to developing health regulations and policies. This is contrary to the existing scenario in which government policy makers and not healthcare professionals are developing them. With the increasing complex landscape of patient care, it is the role of the nurses and nurse leaders to devise measures of providing the required care. This is because nurses are the healthcare professionals who execute all the roles required to foster faster and better recovery of patients. Additionally, they spend the most time beside patients’ beds. One of the major ways of addressing this is by implementing the all-round foci as taught in nursing school that range from preventive care, patient communication, improving efficiency, cost containment, and more importantly preventing relapse and costly returns to healthcare institutions by the patients. In a nutshell, the nurse can only be able to implement such if they become active in developing health policies and regulations since they understand the patients’ needs and welfare than do the federal and state bodies. The landscape of patient care is expanding and varying rapidly, and efficient strategies such those m entioned can only be identified and customized for the good of patients if healthcare professionals are allowed the necessary support and freedom. Nurses should take up the challenge of being politically active because it is a sacrifice required to bring a better healthcare system into existence. Political skills are required in addition to energy, time, will, and resources of power. One way to become politically active is by providing first-person perspectives on matters healthcare by highlighting the impacts that certain regulations, bills, or decisions are bound to affect the healthcare fraternity. This includes patients and

U.S. foreign policy in Iraq Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

U.S. foreign policy in Iraq - Essay Example The expression â€Å"the first casualty of war is the truth† would probably be appropriately applied to all of the wars between nations throughout the entire history of warfare. The Iraq war will always be branded as the only war that was based completely on lies.The truth died several deaths prior to the human deaths that occurred due to the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq (March 2003 – August, 2010). As the war progressed following the 2003 invasion, the American public progressively lost confidence in the Bush administration’s war policy as they grew to understand more and more what the majority of the rest of the world had realized since the first nights bombing of Baghdad. The war is undeniably illegal as defined by the United Nations (UN) and International Court of Justice (ICJ), the two most paramount legal bodies in the world. Iraq had no link to terrorism, no weapons of mass destruction (WMD), and no legal rationale to attack. Despite this, Bush dec ided to invade the Republic of Iraq for causes deemed objectionable to the majority of other countries so he frequently relied on and utilized false information to rationalize it. He lied. This discussion will examine how the truth was a casualty early and often during the lead up to the war and outlines some of the consequences brought about by these far-reaching and deadly deceptions. Bush voiced his disagreement to the concept of ‘nation building’ during the 2000 presidential election debates but as president waged an undeclared war against a sovereign country that had neither attacked first nor threatened to. Immediately following and as a reactionary reply to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, Bush stated the county’s intention to begin a ‘War on Terrorism’ which he portrayed as a protracted battle against those that would use terrorist actions in addition to the countries that enabled them. The eventual culmination of the selective le gal reasoning and rhetoric concerning the ‘War on Terror’ was Bush’s order of the military to invade both Afghanistan and Iraq, an illegal action on many fronts. Bush had constantly claimed that these actions were legal. First, he argued, due to language existing within the UN Security Council Resolution 1441 regarding Iraq and secondly, the invasions were an act of self-defense which is permitted by international law. Conversely, according to Richard Perle, advisor to U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and official of the U.S. Defense Policy Board, â€Å"international law ... would have required us to leave Saddam Hussein alone.† (Burkeman & Borger, 2003). However, this option would have been â€Å"morally unacceptable† according to the Bush administration. Bush chose to solicit then followed the advice of biased, self serving legal opinion from a low-level Justice Dept. employee despite strong disagreement by higher level personnel within the Dept. in addition to and the U.S. State Department which cautioned against ignoring international law and U.N. laws in addition to covenants of the Geneva Convention. The Bush administration was determined in its careless use of military force and disregard for laws established to by the world’s community of nations. The initial foreign incursion of the U.S. military along with the ‘coalition of the willing’ in its ‘War on Terror’ was Afghanistan, more specifically the Taliban terrorist faction based in that country. The U.S. claimed to possess ‘clear and compelling evidence,’ that the State of Afghanistan was giving refuge to terrorists, as did Iraq. However, if this assertion were true, why then didn’t the Bush administration divulge this information to the UN Security Council so as to obtain legal grounds to invade? The U.S. defended its invasion and occupation of Iraq to the countries of the world by announce, if not substanti ating, that it was a undertaking to remove WMD which endangered not only the U.S. but all other countries as