Replied by(Ghost) Replied on (28/Sep/2006)

With deteriorating conditions in both Iraq and Afghanistan, President Bush is in a desparate need to maintain good relations with both Gen. Musharraf in Pakistan and President Karzai in Afgh
Dear All,

With deteriorating conditions in both Iraq and Afghanistan, President Bush is in a desparate need to maintain good relations with both Gen. Musharraf in Pakistan and President Karzai in Afghanistan. The fact that both those heads of their respective states have been fighting like elementary school children, is not helping GWB's cause, neither at home here in the US nor in their own countries.

Musharraf was recently in Afghanistan where he, in his opinion, was clear about the state of affairs between the two countries and was able to brief President Karzai about the realities across the common border. He had explained to Karzai that the problem is spread all over Afghanistan. It was not a matter of a small group of insurgents, instead the Taliban movement, spurred by the recent gains achieved by the insurgents in Iraq and emboldened by the Hizbullah victory over Israel, had become a grass-roots movement among the Pashtoon tribes all across southern and eastern Afghanistan. If he fought that movement in earnest, he was in danger of alienating his own Pashtoon tribes living on the Pakistan side of the border. Eventhough, they are a minority in Pakistan, they are the second largest ethnic group in Pakistan.
Given their history of hard fighting, their ability to frustrate any enemy inlcluding the British in the 19th century and the Soviets in 1979, and their treacherous nature, they have the potential of becoming a hornest's nest for the Pakistani government. So far, Musharraf has been able to contain them by allowing them to enact a provincial law to bring in harsh measures, in their opinion Islamic but actually by brutalizing Islamic law to use it to suppress freedom of women and smaller groups who are different from their own, and recently by concluding a treaty with the tribal elders of Waziristan. Musharraf is afraid, and is rightly so that, if that situation gets out of hands, it will only add up to the Balochistan insurgency. The real solution will come only by spreading education in the tribal area which is vehemently opposed by the tribal leaders. They think that if education comes to the area, it will only go to corrupt their youth and their women. In fact the religious and tribal zealots are scared to lose their hold over the general populace.
There is no doubt that Musharraf is a military dictator, but he had been acting very prudently considering all the circumstances. Karzai on the other hand, is a puppet of the US and other powers. He knows that he is in the ruling role only at the pleasure of GWB. His real problem is that he was a corporate manager who was hurriedly pushed into the country's driving seat because there was nobody else available at the time on whom the US could put its trust. He has no training in the real leadership of men nor much education in world politics. He is now living in a security cordoned Kabul and has very little control over the warring tribal warlords in Afghanistan and much less on the re-emerging Pashtoon Talibans. He finds it easier to push all the blame across the border on Pakistan. Musharraf, with all his serious thinking about the problem, travelled to Kabul and, in his opinion, explained the situation to Karzai in a personal meeting. He was incensed when he saw that as soon as Karzai arrived in New York recently, he bagen bad-mouthing him and Pakistan in general.
Musharraf became even angrier when he saw that GWB was echoing what Karzai had been saying. As a reaction he bagn telling his side of the story. First he exposed the harsh, callous and insulting approach that the US had made towards Pakistan right after 9/11. And then he turned to Karzai and said, he was living inisde his safe heaven in Kabul and had no idea what was going on in the rest of the country. and that he had been turning a blind eye towards the reality like an ostrich. THat was really mean. Musharraf gets a B-minus from me on that.

Last night, CNN's Wolf Blitzer interviewed Karzai and presented those remarks made by Musharraf to him. He then asked Karzai: "Do you think Gen,. Musharraf is an ostrich." Karzai, very prudently, smiled slightly and replied: "I wouldn't say that." That was brilliant. He frustarted the media's efforts to see two heads of small countries fighting in public and exchanging insults. That would have provided great entertaintainment for the viewers and high ratings for CNN. But Karzai frustrated those efforts by remaining pragmatic in his comments. He gets A-plus from me on that.
GWB has been watching all that. That is why he said in late afternoon: "I have to watch the body language of both my guests at the dinner."

Musharraf is visibly frustrated by the comments made by both the Afghan authorities as well as those by GWB that he wasn't doing enough in the war on terrorism. He feels that he was let down by Karzai when, inspite of his meeting with Karzai in Kabul only days before they both came to New York, Karzai just kept repeating the old accusations without considering the precarious situation he was in both at home as well as abroad.

That is why Musharraf has been all too eager to reveal all in the media and he had been showing up at all kinds of TV shows.

Musharraf has now suggested a fence across the long common border and mining all the little and big passes in the mountains --- and that only if some one else pays for it.

One can imagine what kind of dinner it was last night after having read all this.

Read on.

Sincerely,

Syed-Mohsin Naquvi
mnaquvi@yahoo.com

President, bickering anti-terror allies meet for dinner at White House
WASHINGTON - President Bush appealed to the bickering presidents of Pakistan and Afghanistan on Wednesday to put aside their differences and “strategize together” over dinner on ways to defeat the common enemy of terrorism.

Standing between Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Bush emphasized “the need to cooperate, to make sure that people have got a hopeful future” in both countries.
Judging by the body language Bush himself had said he would be watching, there were plenty of tensions to overcome over a light dinner of soup, sea bass and salad. The meal was billed as an “iftar,” a meal that breaks the daytime fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Musharraf and Karzai are Muslims.

The Afghan and Pakistani leaders stood stiffly on either side of Bush during a brief Rose Garden appearance before they ate. The pair, key U.S. allies in a volatile region, shook hands with Bush, but not with each other.
“Today’s dinner is a chance for us to strategize together” and find common solutions, Bush said.
Musharraf remained expressionless during his host’s brief remarks, while Karzai repeatedly nodded agreeably.
“These two men are personal friends of mine,” Bush said. “They are strong leaders who have an understanding of the world in which we live. They understand that the forces of moderation are being challenged by extremists and radicals.”

After the meal, the White House issued a statement that called the session a “constructive exchange” but outlined no new agreements or initiatives. The White House did not make any officials available for questions.
“They committed to supporting moderation and defeating extremism through greater intelligence sharing, coordinated action against terrorists and common efforts to enhance the prosperity of the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan,” said the statement from press secretary Tony Snow said.

Trading barbs
For months, Karzai and Musharraf have been trading barbs and criticizing each other’s efforts to fight terrorists along their long, remote, mountainous border.
Afghan officials allege that Pakistan lets Taliban militants hide out and launch attacks into Afghanistan. Musharraf says Karzai has bad information and notes that Pakistan has deployed 80,000 troops along the porous border.
Karzai says Musharraf turns a blind eye to hatred and extremism being bred at Islamic schools in Pakistan. At one point, Musharraf said Karzai is behaving “like an ostrich,” refusing to acknowledge the truth and trying to shore up his political standing at home.
Right up to Wednesday night’s White House dinner, they also have pointed fingers at one another over al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and other terror leaders. Each says bin Laden isn’t hiding in his country and suggests the other might do more to help find him.
Musharraf wants Karzai to agree to “a verbal cease-fire” and stepped-up intelligence cooperation to fight terrorism and bring peace to both countries, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri said Wednesday in an Associated Press interview.
All this comes as Afghanistan suffers its worst reversals since the U.S.-led ouster of the extremist Taliban regime nearly five years ago.

Taliban regrouping
The Taliban militants have regrouped and launched an offensive earlier this year whose strength and organization took Afghan and U.S. officials by surprise. They have adopted methods commonly used by militants in Iraq: suicide bombings, ambushes and beheadings. Illegal opium production has risen yearly despite billions spent to suppress it, and Afghanistan is now the source of more than 90 percent of the world’s supply.
Bush’s three-way dinner party, just weeks before the November congressional elections, comes as he is working to convince voters that Republicans are best able to guide the U.S.-led war against terrorism. He faces declining American support for both the U.S.-led war in Iraq and the U.S. military commitment in Afghanistan.
Bush administration officials say that Karzai and Musharraf, along with the influential and relatively moderate Iraqi Shiite cleric Ali al-Sistani, are the “indispensable men” of post-Sept. 11 foreign policy for their ability to hold Islamic extremism at bay.
Musharraf faces little political opposition within Pakistan, but he lives under constant threat of assassination. Karzai is increasingly embattled, hard-pressed to extend his political control into many regions of Afghanistan and facing a loss of popular support.
© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed