Deception: Pakistan, the United States, and the Secret Trade in Nuclear Weapons

The book traces Pakistan's nuclear history, wherein Pakistan with Chinese, Saudi, American and North Korean help (and a whole lot of private contractors) developed numerous types of nuclear weapons and delivery systems.

The book is really interesting, not because of the exact details of how Pakistan developed the bomb, but the insight it gives on how Pakistan really operates. It was Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto who kicked of Pakistan's nuclear programme, famously declaring "we will eat grass if we have to, but we will make the bomb". For the next 20 years this statement was literally and figuratively true - everything took a backseat was tens of billions of dollars were poured into two competing nuclear labs.

This is the most depressing account of Pakistani/American political history I've read. The old maxim "the end justifies the means" was the one and only motto of the Pakistan Army & the Republican Party, which ran the country for the next 30 years, sucking in practically every dollar of foreign aid and diverting it to nuclear weapons development and regular arms procurement. They had to let parts of the billions of dollars pouring in for the Afghan war though, under American pressure, but development aid money was mostly fully diverted to the bomb.

A Perilous Course: US Strategy and Assistance to Pakistan

For American assistance to be effective in a large-aid-recipient state such as Pakistan, it must go beyond transactional, quid pro quo deals and address the country’s main drivers of conflict, instability and extremism. Despite more than $10 billion in U.S. assistance since September 11, 2001, distrust, dissatisfaction and unrealistic expectations continue to undermine the official goal of developing a strong, strategic and enduring partnership.

Pakistan’s main drivers of conflict, instability and extremism include: a culture of impunity and injustice, discontent in the provinces, ethnic and sectarian tensions, a rapidly growing and urbanizing youth population, and extremist views among traditional allies. Militant groups exploit these underlying conditions to recruit followers on the basis of a narrative of shared suffering and injustice and the failure of the state to provide stability or prosperity. Link

A short summary of the report: America is not getting it's desired bang for it's 10 billion plus bucks and they are upset. The reports view of Pakistan is damned bleak.

Randy Paush's last lecture: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

Almost all of us have childhood dreams: for example, being an astronaut, or making movies or video games for a living. ... all » Sadly, most people don't achieve theirs, and I think that's a shame. I had several specific childhood dreams, and I've actually achieved most of them. More importantly, I have found ways, in particular the creation (with Don Marinelli), of CMU's Entertainment Technology Center (etc.cmu.edu), of helping many young people actually achieve their childhood dreams. This talk will discuss how I achieved my childhood dreams (being in zero gravity, designing theme park rides for Disney, and a few others), and will contain realistic advice on how you can live your life so that you can make your childhood dreams come true, too.

Vanity Fair on the American Media

Vanity Fair, in a rare introspective piece on the many failings of the American media:

Al Gore couldn't believe his eyes: as the 2000 election heated up, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and other top news outlets kept going after him, with misquotes ("I invented the Internet"), distortions (that he lied about being the inspiration for Love Story), and strangely off-the-mark needling, while pundits such as Maureen Dowd appeared to be charmed by his rival, George W. Bush. For the first time, Gore and his family talk about the effect of the press attacks on his campaign--and about his future plans--to the author, who finds that many in the media are re-assessing their 2000 coverage. #

The article is long winded, so here is the short summary: Seven long years after the 2000 elections, parts of the American media are finally looking back at their coverage of the 2000 elections, and starting to realize that it was a bit biased towards the republican side.

By attacking Gore so viciously, often with made up quotes and stories, they helped to swing the elections away from him. As Jonathan Alter points out, "Overall, the press was harder on Gore than it was on Bush.... The consequences of [that] in such a close election were terrifying."

US Assistance to Pakistan since 9/11

Interesting article on US Assistance to the Pakistan Army: When $10 billion is not enough: Rethinking US strategy towards Pakistan. The picture is taken from the article, and aptly sums up the situation. Over 90% of official US assistance to Pakistan has gone to the Pakistan Army, and more interestingly, the article estimates that besides the official figure over $10 billion of classified US money has also gone to the Pakistan Army! That's over $20 billion dollars from 9/11 to now - a heck lot of money, most of which has been spent on high tech toys for the army.

Creationist Nonsense

When Charles Darwin introduced the theory of evolution through natural selection 143 years ago, the scientists of the day argued over it fiercely, but the massing evidence from paleontology, genetics, zoology, molecular biology and other fields gradually established evolution's truth beyond reasonable doubt. Today that battle has been won everywhere--except in the public imagination.

Scientific American: 15 Answers to Creationist Nonsense :: Opponents of evolution want to make a place for creationism by tearing down real science, but their arguments don't hold up. Based on the Bible, the universe was created about six thousand and 9 years ago, so it stands to reason that evolution isn't possible for so many people the world over.

Fast Food Nation

An eye opening book on what lies behind the shiny facade of most fast food restaurants today. The book pokes deep inside the modern American meat packing industry, which the race for the ever cheaper and larger McMeal has turned into a monstrosity. Micheal Pollan's brilliant interview on modern meat covers the some of the basics talked about in the book very well. A key factoid: By the time a modern American beef cow is six months old, it has seen its last blade of grass for the rest of its life. Industrialized meat farming is more akin to medival europe back in the dark ages than something out of this day and age.

Charlie Wilson's War

This is the book on how the US got involved in Afghanistan supporting Islamic militants against the Soviets. Highly recommended. George Crile's Charlie Wilson's War is the story of how one man, U.S. Congressman Charlie Wilson, almost single-handedly launched the several billion dollar CIA/Saudi operation in Afghanistan to force out the occupying Soviets, without a vote in Congress, and without the clear approval of the President. What started as barely a nuisance campaign turned into the greatest covert operation in CIA history.

Besides the Afghan war, this book gives a brilliant insight on how the US government works. Those from the third world will find themselves at home with all the congressional wheelings and dealings. The amazing thing is the amount of power US congressmen and senators have. Thirdworld senators are barely able to push around a few million dollars, while their US equivalents are dealing in the billions.

An Inconvenient Truth

A film on the dangers of global warming. It's basically Al Gore presenting a very slick slideshow, but there is no more important subject. It's illuminating, fascinating and sometimes frightening.:

Gore's point is a simple one: We have a moral imperative, as individuals and as a nation, to do something about global warming, the dramatic, precipitous rise of world temperatures in the atmosphere, on land and in bodies of water, caused by greenhouse gases.

Gore has a gift for making scientific data digestible, understandable and intriguing. He is so consumed by the subject and impassioned in his efforts to change minds that it is hard not to get caught up in his fervor.

Why Do You Work So Hard?

Interesting article on work: Why Do You Work So Hard? Is it maybe time to quit your safe job and follow your path and infuriate the establishment?

In Pakistan, the term work used to have different connotations that in the West. That is slowly changing, with much of the corporate sector demanding employees adhere to the American work ethic, but minus the american pay.

Of course, much parts of the Pakistani work sector still function at their own pace. The public sector is stuck way back in the colonial ages - the major difference being that the english had natives to do their work, and got them to do it - now that the natives are the colonials there is no one left to do any work!

New Orleans

Hurricane Katrina has devasted New Orleans, and one feels for the people there. A million websites have much information on the ongoing rescue mission and so on, but aside from that, many interesting factoids have come out from this disaster.

See the Wikipedia entry on Hurricane Katrina for the best coverage and a detailed overview.

The cost of Iraq

The Iraq election results are in, and as the Washington Post says: Iraq Winners Allied With Iran Are the Opposite of U.S. Vision.

But, in one of the greatest ironies of the U.S. intervention, Iraqis instead went to the polls and elected a government with a strong religious base -- and very close ties to the Islamic republic next door. It is the last thing the administration expected from its costly Iraq policy -- $300 billion and counting, U.S. and regional analysts say.

John Ashcroft

U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft Resigns:

The demands of justice are both rewarding and depleting. I take great personal satisfaction in the record which has been developed. The objective of securing the safety of Americans from crime and terror has been achieved. The rule of law has been strengthened and upheld in the courts. Yet, I believe that the Department of Justice would be well served by new leadership and fresh inspiration. I believe that my energies and talents should be directed toward other challenging horizons.

Kerry Wins!

Since it's common amongst journalists to predict the outcome of elections, I thought I should preempt them. Come Nov. 2nd, John Kerry will be elected the 44th President of the United States of America..

The world will heave a collective sigh of relief as Bush finally exits. Comedians around the world will be shattered as once again they will have to come up with new material. Of course, Bush has left them enough material to last for a few more years yet. Tony Blair will be wondering what to do, as he will finally have to come up with his own todo list.

Jon Stewart on Crossfire

Jon Stewart rips apart the American media. For those wondering how exactly is it that moron's like Bush get elected, they need to watch this. Jon Stewart to the american media:

"Stop, stop, stop, stop hurting America."

The show is available here, and if you don't have a fast connection, then read the transcript: CNN.com - Transcripts - Jon Stewart on Crossfire

Are you listening, America?

In 50 years, we could cure our oil addiction, but in the meantime...

the above picture describes the America's dependance addiction to oil beautifully - sometimes a picture does say more than thousands of words

The Underground History of American Education

A Schoolteacher's Intimate Investigation Into The Problem Of Modern Schooling.

John Taylor Gatto is a former New York City school teacher. During his 30-year career, he has taught at 5 different public schools, has had his teaching license suspended twice for insubordination, and was once covertly terminated while on medical leave. He has also won the New York City Teacher of the Year award three times and the New York State Teacher of the Year award once during the final year of his career. The whole time he has been an outspoken critic of the school system. Nine years after leaving his career, he published The Underground History of American Education (full text available here), in which he puts forth his insider's vision of what is wrong with American schooling. His verdict is not what you'd expect: the school system cannot be fixed, Gatto asserts, because it has been designed not to educate.

...The true purpose of schooling, according to Gatto, is to produce an easily manageable workforce to serve employers in a mass-production economy. Actual education is a secondary and even counterproductive result since educated people tend to be more difficult to control.

...The real function of the school system is not to empower people by giving them knowledge, but to crush this instinct toward self-improvement before it makes the workers too independent and troublesome.
>> Slashdot

Well the Pakistan public educational system doesn't even pretend to teach educate any longer... but it's hard to imagine a first world country letting it's educational standards slip so low. The book makes very interesting reading. Read it online or print it.

George W. Bush

Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we. - George W. Bush

Wow. Of all the hundreds thousands of bushisms out there tripping over each other, this one is a shining gem. It's still up on the whitehouse.gov website - generally they 'correct' them fast.

These guys are having a field day:

• Daily Kos: Bush finally tells the truth

America

"America is a country that doesn't know where it is going but is determined to set a speed record getting there." - Laurence J. Peter

More quotations on America.

America

"America is a country that doesn't know where it is going but is determined to set a speed record getting there." - Laurence J. Peter

More quotations on America.

Older Entries

• America is a religion - Posted 01 Aug 03 in America
• Bush Lies update - Posted 17 Jul 03 in America
• Bush administration admits to record deficits - Posted 16 Jul 03 in America
• A Quagmire for Bush? - Posted 13 Jul 03 in America
• Tenet Had to be Pushed to Take Responsibility - Posted 13 Jul 03 in America
• Ritalin for America - Posted 07 Jul 03 in America
• Great Empire or Grand Illusion? - Posted 04 Jul 03 in America
• Americas Dying - Posted 03 Jun 03 in America

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