Bush's Union Address: Comments ......

Bush'r failours ......... To the Editor: When speaking about Iraq, President Bush told Congress, “And whatever you voted for, you did not vote for failure.” This is the president’s way of reframing the issue. Of course no one voted for failure, and the president’s opponents are not hoping for failure. The president knows full well that the failure has already occurred, but instead of looking at that failure as a way of learning how not to repeat it, he’s framing the discussion so that his opponents — including the 70 percent of the American people who disapprove of the way he’s handling the war — can be blamed for their lack of “resolve.” Here is a short list of the president’s errors: listening to his secretary of defense instead of the generals who cautioned him that we needed 500,000 troops to secure the peace; not clearing the troops out within six months of his announcement that “major combat operations in Iraq have ended”; not listening to any voices, especially the Iraq Study Group report, urging anything but continued staying the course. I don’t include his justifications for the invasion — the W.M.D. or Saddam Hussein’s involvement in 9/11. Those weren’t errors. Those were lies. Nat EhrlichEast Lansing, Mich., Jan. 24, 2007 • New York Times .... dated 25th January,2007. (Letter to the Editor Columns)

All fixed for 2007 elections in Pakistan.

All fixed .....? All fixed?The picture of a young man stripped of his clothes in the leading papers represent the degeneration of our militarized society. General Musharraf has finally reached where Ayub was after his decade of development, Yahya after December 1971, and Zia after his referendum in 1984 when he had given the nation a choice between "Zia's Islam or nothing". In other words it is the beginning of the end. The relatives of the missing wanted to march up to the GHQ to lodge protest for the release of persons held against the law. Where courts cannot protect the rights of the citizens, street turn into courts and the victims become judge, jury and the executioner. Similar scenes were witnessed during the periods in previous regimes before the bell tolled for the rulers. This goes to show that we are at an absolute stand still on the scale of human rights ever since the coercive forces swamped the institutions of the state. Senator Babar Awan claims that Musharraf cannot contest polls even if he sheds his uniform as he has already taken the oath of the office of the President twice. Benazir and Nawaz Sharif have been declared ineligible under the same rule. When Zia wanted to continue by all means (by hook or crook), he said to his Chief of Staff Gen Rafaqat after dismissing Junejo in May 1988: "Pirzada kay pas kuch masala hai." (Shareefuddin Pirzada can wriggle me out of this jam). So we don't need to worry too much, the general will find a way. When Baluchistan, NWFP and Sindh are fixed, politicians have been fixed, as logical follow up, why should not the election be fixed? -ASLAM MINHAS, Karachi, via e-mail, December 30. Daily Nation, Lahore, Pakistan. dated 19th January, 2007.

Molly or Misbah stays with father in Pakistan

Misbah and her father jubilant after court's ruling.

Wage peace .....

Bush, please wage peace instead of war.... Pro-Jew lobby in Bushs close circle is forcing him to take action against Iran and Syria in spite of the fact that general voter in the USA voted against the Repblicans, in the recent mid-term election, for they did not endorse the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and, I had believed that President Bush would wage peace in Middle East, like President Ike, in his second term but it appears now a dream only. War against Iran will be a grave mistake now as it will bring more re-action against Isreal. I urge Bush to talk to Iran than to go to war against this country. By Zulfiqar_Butt Jan 17, 2007 8:03:20 AM Request Removal