The policy

• The 30,000 additional troops will be sent to Afghanistan. There will be a rapid surge of 30,000US troops in 2010.
• Setting 2011 as the date by when the American combat presence in the country will start thinning out.
• During this period, additional Afghan troops will be raised and trained to take over there responsibility from the US forces.
• There will be improvements in civil administration in Afghanistan and stepping up of the infrastructure development with involvement of UN and other countries.
• There is a promise of a longer term partnership with Pakistan going well beyond the period of operations against the extremists in the region. US will commit itself to the stability and prosperity of Pakistan. Islamabad is required to put in all out efforts in eliminating all extremists.

Analists say The American campaign against the Taliban and the al-Qaida suffers from four deficits — political attention, military doctrine, Afghan capability, and a Pakistani commitment the new policy is directed towards it.

1. The new Obama policy has hopefully ended the attention deficit triggered by the Bush administration's foolish and criminal invasion of Iraq in 2003.
2. But the other handicaps still remain. Over the past few years, American military doctrine has leaned too heavily on the deployment of overwhelming firepower, deployed from afar, rather than on the granulated application of force. Thereby, U.S. casualties have been low but an unconscionably large number of Afghan civilians have died in what the Pentagon euphemistically calls "collateral damage." If the Taliban are to be defeated, the U.S. and its allies will have to be far more intelligent in their military methods than they have been so far.
3. The Obama package is supposed to address a part of the third deficit — Afghan national capabilities in the security field — but the kind of emphasis we have seen so far does not inspire much confidence. If the U.S. is serious about setting 2011 as the date by when the American combat presence in the country will start thinning out, the Afghan National Army will have to be staffed, trained, and equipped at a much higher level, a task that requires a higher magnitude of funding.
4. By far the biggest weakness of the new Af-Pak policy is Mr. Obama's inability to craft an effective strategy to deal with the Pakistani side of the equation. the U.S. president spoke of a cancer that has spread on both sides of the Durand Line & threaten Islamabad into taking action against the Taliban and other extremist groups which operate from its territory. The only problem is the 2011 exit date that Mr. Obama announced alongside the surge. With very little indication that the Pakistani military is ready to jettison its strategic patronage of terrorist groups, there is the possibility that Rawalpindi might well be tempted to instruct the Taliban to lie low till the appointed hour only to emerge triumphant once U.S. troops begin to leave.

For India- Pakistan is have expressed concern about an expanding Indian presence in Afghanistan. However in the Indo-US joint statement, Obama appreciated India's role in reconstruction and rebuilding efforts and the two leaders agreed to enhance their respective efforts in this direction in Afghanistan. It is obvious that Obama has Rejected Pakistan's concerns on the Indian presence in Afghanistan. Whether he will now go further and request Indian help to train Afghan troops, overriding Pakistani objections,remains to be seen.
The speech within the speech

Australian Parliament defeats Bill on global warming

• Australia's plans for an emissions trading system to combat global warming were scuttled on Wednesday in Parliament, handing a defeat to a government that had hoped to set an example at international climate change talks next week.
• The Senate, where Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's government does not hold a majority, rejected his administration's proposal for Australia to become one of the first countries to install a so-called cap-and-trade system to slash the amount of heat-trapping pollution that industries pump into the air.

EU draft on Israel-Palestine Proposal in The draft

• EU Foreign Ministers are expected to officially call for the division of Jerusalem, with each part serving as the respective capital of Israel and a Palestinian State. A draft authored by Sweden.
• The EU draft calls for the resumption of talks between Israelis and Palestinians, leading to the emergence of "an independent, democratic, contiguous and viable state of Palestine, comprising the West Bank and Gaza and with East Jerusalem as its capital."
• The EU also welcomes that proposal of Palestinian Authority (PA) Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's to unilaterally declare Palestinian independence. The PA has adopted this position after Israel refused to accept an unqualified settlement freeze in all occupied territory including East Jerusalem.
  Reaction
• Israel rejects the division of Jerusalem, and has defied international calls for a settlement freeze in East Jerusalem — the territory, along with West Bank and Gaza that it occupies following the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
• Israel has cautioned the European Union (EU) that its intention to formally back East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state will be counterproductive and undermine its mediatory role in resolving the Israel-Palestine issue.

The Golan Heights' ,Israel- Syrian

• Little has changed in Quneitra, former capital of the Syrian Golan Heights, since Israeli forces withdrew behind the barbed wire and minefields of the nearby ceasefire line in 1974.
• Syria has made no attempt to rebuild. Until Israel vacates the two-thirds of the Golan Heights it first seized in 1967 and annexed in 1981, as Syria insists it must, it prefers symbolism to salvage.
• President Bashar Al-Assad wants a full Israeli withdrawal from the Golan in return for ending the state of war. Implicit in such a deal is Syrian recognition of Israel, mutual security guarantees and normalisation of relations.
• Talks mediated by Turkey last year raised hopes of a deal. But Israel's attack on Hamas in Gaza caused Syria to pull out, while Turkey, shedding its neutral pose, condemned Israeli actions.
• U.S. President Barack Obama's willingness to engage with Syria also raised expectations of another "Damascus spring". This year he moved to ease sanctions, promised to send a U.S. ambassador back to Damascus and dispatched his West Asia envoy, George Mitchell, for talks.
• Relations with Saudi- arebia plummeted after Syria was accused of ordering the 2005 assassination of the former Lebanese Prime Minister and Saudi Arabia ally, Rafiq Al-Hariri.
• But like the Americans, the Saudi Arabians see a resurgent Iran, not Israel, as the primary regional threat. By repairing ties, they hope to break, or at least temper, Syria's links with Tehran.
• Mr. Mitchell said again this week that the U.S. wanted to advance the Syrian track. But concerns about Syria's role in Iraq, its support for Hezbollah in Lebanon and for Palestinian rejectionist groups, its human rights record, suspicious nuclear activities and alliance with Iran have increased domestic pressure on Mr. Obama to be cautious in reaching out to Syria, even though he might achieve a regional peace breakthrough.

Amnesty ordinance lapses

• The controversial National Reconciliation Ordinance, under which President Asif Ali Zardari and thousands of others received amnesty from corruption charges against them, lapsed on Saturday, raising questions about the potential implications for the Pakistan People's Party leader's political future and for the government.
• The PPP-led government was compelled to let the NRO lapse after it became clear earlier this month it would not be able to have the law endorsed by Parliament. Even its allies deserted it on this issue.
• In July, the Supreme Court had set November 28 as the deadline for parliamentary approval for the NRO and 36 other ordinances decreed by the former President, Pervez Musharraf, in 2007.
• Mr. Zardari repromulagated 28 of these ordinances on Friday night, including the National Command Authority Ordinance, which he amended to make Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani its chairman. The NCA controls Pakistan's nuclear weapons.

Zardari hands over nuclear weapons keys to Gilani

• Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari appeared to take the first step towards handing executive powers to the elected Prime Minister on Friday by divesting himself of the powers of the head of the nuclear chain of command and transferring them to Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani.
• In a late night development, Mr. Zardari reissued the National Command Authority Ordinance 2009, amending it in the process to make the Prime Minister the Chairman of the body that has overall control of Pakistan's nuclear weapons.
• The Ordinance was first passed by former military ruler Pervez Musharraf in October 2007, and was part of his effort to ensure that the NCA would be under his control after the February 2008 elections

U.S. panel to summon Salahis (Tareq and Michaele Salahi)

• Virginia couple who gate crashed into President Barack Obama's first state dinner. Nato secretary general: Anders Fogh Rasmussen

World Conservation Day - 03 Dec China silent on border road issue

• Foreign Ministry spokesperson Qin Gang neither confirmed nor denied reports that China had raised objections with the State authorities over the construction of an 8-km road in Ladakh near the Line of Actual Control, the effective demarcation between the two countries.

Solange Magnano

• Former Miss Argentina died from complications after cosmetic surgery. A 38-YEAR-OLD former Miss Argentina has died from complications after undergoing cosmetic surgery on her buttocks

HIV entry ban repealed

• The end of a 22-year-old ban on the entry of people with HIV into the United States.
• The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has followed up promptly, by publishing the rule in the Federal Register.
• The U.S. was one of a dozen countries that have archaic laws barring the entry of people infected by HIV.
• The ban in the U.S. was enacted in 1987 amidst widespread fears that HIV, like tuberculosis, was a communicable disease and spread through physical or respiratory contact.

Arab journalist throws shoe at Iraqi shoe throw

• An Arabic-speaking man on Tuesday hurled a shoe at the Iraqi journalist (Muntazer al-Zaidi) who one year earlier had thrown a shoe at former US president George W Bush.

Osama was within U.S. troops' reach: report

• Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was cornered by U.S. forces in the Afghan mountains of Tora Bora just months after 9/11 and could have been killed or captured, but the military top brass decided not to attack him with the massive force at their disposal,says a Senate report.
• The report, by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee,

Nepal Cabinet to meet at Everest

• The government would be holding a Cabinet meeting at Kalapatthar in the Everest region — at an altitude of 17,192ft — on December 4.
• The historic meeting would endorse a declaration on climate issues.
• Minister for Forest and Soil Conservation Dipak Bohara, who initiated the idea, on Sunday announced that the meeting would last around 20 minutes.

World Disability Day-03 Not for punitive approach, says India

• India, which voted for the IAEA resolution against Iran's failure to implement fully all its safeguard obligations under the IAEA regime, has also made clear that this resolution should not be the basis of a "renewed punitive approach or new sanctions" against Iran.
• In the meeting of the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)

Photo exhibition 'New China, New Look'

• to mark the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China in Chennai
  
  --
  with warm regards
  
  Harish Sati
  Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU)
  Maidan Garhi, New Delhi-110068
  
  (M) + 91 - 9990646343 | (E-mail) Harish.sati@gmail.com
  
  
  

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