The growing reality is that the war on the Taliban has turned into a two front war, with the Pakistani government trying to push them back and perhaps out of Pakistan, and the United States, along with a small international coalition, trying to remove them from Afghanistan. The two growing issues seem to be (1) keeping the Taliban away from the nuclear arsenal in Pakistan (and yes, they are literally within 100 kilometers), and (2) a rapidly growing refugee crisis in Pakistan's Swat Valley. This is the real news story that we should be paying avid attention to. You can click here to get the latest from BBC News. You can also click here from the latest from NPR News.
Friday, May 8, 2009
Pakistan Continues to Heat Up
The growing reality is that the war on the Taliban has turned into a two front war, with the Pakistani government trying to push them back and perhaps out of Pakistan, and the United States, along with a small international coalition, trying to remove them from Afghanistan. The two growing issues seem to be (1) keeping the Taliban away from the nuclear arsenal in Pakistan (and yes, they are literally within 100 kilometers), and (2) a rapidly growing refugee crisis in Pakistan's Swat Valley. This is the real news story that we should be paying avid attention to. You can click here to get the latest from BBC News. You can also click here from the latest from NPR News.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
21 comments:
Wow civilians are being killed, not just militants. A lot of people recognize Sudan as having lots of displacement camps and displaced people, well here it is BBC just said its nearing the number one fear. The Taliban is already in control of som towns. These people did not ask for this, and now they are fleeing their own homes. Yet som cannot even do that just because the fighting is so bad. It's not good.
The civilians of the Swat Valley are situated right in the middle of this tragedy. They are being forced to flee their homelands, if they can or are allowed to, and are always under the constant threat of being caught in the crossfire. It seems that everywhere they look they can't escape the trouble. If they try and escape they could be separated from their family or even worse killed. The markets have also closed so they may be starved to death. And according to BBC, the situatioon is probably going to be long lasting.
Wow... im lost for words... well this is getting ugly. from past lessons, i knew that civilians were going to be targets since that is the only thing that really weakens a govt. It is an intense situation not being able to leave your home in fear of stepping on a land mine or being killed some other way. I dont see how this is "NORMAL" it is sick really.
The civilians are being affected in pretty intense manners. Food shortages begin a possibility? That's a bit of an extreme. Living in fear of wanting to leave in order to avoid this conflict is unfathomable. They had to fear if leaving would endanger their life by either land mines or just not being allowed to leave. Pakistan is trying to take precautions and make sure nukes don't go around everywhere, but this situation is not getting any better. Why should civilians suffer and leave their homes for something they weren't involved in?
MORE PEOPLE SHOULD READ STUFF LIKE THIS. i get so much out of reading these docs, it's nice. (:
the taliban controls the town. bombs are dropped on the town. civilians run and get killed. annnnnnnnnd what was the point of it? did we actually get anything accomplished? food shortages are not an accomplishment. there has GOT to be a more effective way of dealing with this.
wow now this is scary. after a year of class i know that civilians are going to be the targets. its really really ugly out there.
yet again, another attack on individuals. this is definitely not the 2st time a threat was on civilian population. The citizens of Swat Valley are forced to move elsewhere and constant threat of attack. It doesn't seem like it will end soon peacefully, which is very troublesome. food shortages are another response to all this madness which can become a even bigger problem in the future
so there are alot of people already moving out into other areas. and so many other people have been killed. that is really bad and all these other commotions are occurring. The government signed a peace agreement with the Swat Taleban in February, allowing Sharia law to be locally imposed so hopefully that did something.
It's so sad that families are getting torn apart because of the fear of the Taliban getting nuclear weapons. What's even worse is that if they get those weapons, no one is safe. Since the Cold War, nuclear weapons have gotten ridiculously more advanced to the point where they can't even be tested anymore because they'd completely wipe out tons of land with just one being used. Even if the people realized this, it wouldn't matter because they're being forced out either way. It's never just people in the military anymore. Citizens are being hit the hardest.
About a million who have fled so far. The refugee camps most be overflowing. It's good they are getting rid of the Taliban but uprooting a million civilians is pretty bad. I guess they cant let the Taliban get hold of their nukes otherwise it could result in the destruction of the world but still killing that many people. Targeting civilians works but its also just cruel.
oh... ok i read the bbc article now. so the area has been under the sharia law which is Islamic law so its religious. was that put in place to help the area, or... i think i'm not connecting something. bbc said that the people are blaming both sides, but what did pakistan's government do? did they somehow accidently urge the taliban on? i have to learn more now, great...
oh man, now i'm thinking of the things that could come if the nuukes are seized. a new kind of war. they would have just as much power as everyone else. but i don't think they will get the nukes because won't other countries step in to stop the advance? ugh. ok i'll stop posting now...
ok i lied, im not done posting
so the government (in pakistan) signed the thing to get sharia law which was wanted by the taleban to lead them on "the right path". the government was going to disarm b/c they hoped the taleban would too, but that didn't happen, and now there is fighting with civilians getting killed. i absolutely despise the stupid warfare created in ww1 ithink, the whole attacking civilians and stuff... ugh! well what are we going to do about. mean can't someone stop it! more people are going to die obviously and waiting until the last minute for someone to take control of the problem isn't going to help. now i see the anger toward their government, their "gameplan" didn't work out so well!!!
sorry if i got any information wrong, i'm only reading bbc right now. but i have to go so no more posting.
thats terrible that the are stuck between these two fighting forces, if we were to evacuate them, would that cause more problems?
I hate it when innocent civilians are being killed.. thats just horrible.. people are aving to leave there homes they have lived in for many years because this is way too bad to handle.. this is really sad and horrible
innocent civilians being killed? that is serously just rediculous. And making them free from their homelands. This doesnt seem too good. Hopefully they can make a turn around.
These people are normal civilians who are being forced to leave their homes and are being put into displacement camps. The stores and things are closing which is making the situation worse on top of the fighting becasue the people may begin to experience food shortages. Its really bad and predicted by some to not be a short lasting situation.
Omg this is rediculous, innocent civilians being killed b/c of government. Hasnt the world learned anything from its previous mistakes?
innocent civilians being killed is a major issue.making them leave their hoomelands forcfully is even worse.it seems to me that history repeatly is telling the same story with a different title.(by the wat prill can i get a grade report by any chance?send it to:sweetdecatur@yahoo.com if possible thanks:)
This is terrible. I cant believe things are so bad there. Now i really believe what you said about history happening every day.
Post a Comment