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Posts tagged with: McCain
Oct 27, 2008    |       6 comments

Open letter to Obama & McCain by Amina Masood Janjua

The News, Sunday, October 26, 2008

Dear Barak Obama and John McCain,

Whichever one of you wins this election, I wish you success and I hope from the depths of my heart that you will transform the image of America into what it should be. I pray that you are able to show the true face of America to the rest of the world — a face which reflects the values of your ordinary citizens, many of whom I met in a recent trip abroad and which was an eye-opener for me.

I was invited by Amnesty International to visit member states of the EU, the UK and the US on a speaking tour in August/September 2008, to meet politicians, parliamentarians and ordinary citizens, and to convey to them the agony and torment that hundreds of other family members, including myself, of ‘enforced disappeared persons’ are going through. I was amazed that many of the people I met had no idea about this burning issue; of the illegal abductions, the detention of these persons in so-called ‘safe houses’, the torture they are subjected to and the fact that they are denied the right to a fair trial. I was touched by the sympathy and promises of moral and any other support that they could offer in order to relieve us of this ongoing pain.
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Oct 10, 2008    |      Comments Off on [MiniLinks] Sepia Mutiny: Parties in Political drag

[MiniLinks] Sepia Mutiny: Parties in Political drag

Sepia Mutiny asks some very compelling questions about the impact of the US elections on Pakistan. Doesn’t Obama sound like a Republican, with his insistence that US national security should take a precedence over the sovereignty of other countries? & McCain, in his objection, is forced to sound like a Democrat, talking about soft power and how American arrogance can lead to more support for terrorism. The candidates continue with their positions frozen at some point over the summer, with neither one of them raising this change in tactics, and the moderators ignoring it as well. This conspiracy of silence is quite bizarre. Read the entire post on Sepia Mutiny

Oct 10, 2008    |       3 comments

[MiniLinks] Sarah Palin’s ‘Folk’ Problem – NewsWeek

Yes, she won the debate by not imploding. But governing requires knowledge, and mindless populism is just that—mindless. Do we want leaders who are everyday folks, or do we want leaders who understand everyday folks? Therein lies an enormous difference, one that could decide the presidential election and, if McCain and Palin were to win, shape the governance of the nation – NewsWeek Cover Story

Oct 9, 2008    |       41 comments

Why I as a Pakistani, choose to support Obama, instead of McCain

For a few days people must have noticed that I have starting sporting a button on my blog which loudly proclaims ‘I Support Obama‘, and consequentially many friends have questioned my reasoning to opt for the Democratic candidate instead of the sweet talking McCain. Firstly I accept the fact that as a non-American whatever I say or do will not matter on the outcome, but if there are still any undecided voters and are willing to be swayed by my position then so be it, but I feel its important to support the candidate which I feel could be best for Pakistan

The conclusion I have achieved is most definitely debatable, I choose to look beyond mere words and see a possible solution for the mess in Pakistan. For me Obama represents a fresh change in the White House, it is my understanding that they both propose ‘approximately’ the same line of action for Pakistan. Obama wishes to quickly clean up the terrorism threat in Pakistan, while McCain proposes a slow but extensively drawn out plan of action, which I feel actually means a long term American presence in Pakistan. If they are both generally coming with the same mindset then I feel I would carefully put my eggs into Obama’s basket.

My reasoning is based on a couple of articles that I contributed to Al-Jazeera Election coverage. The first was written immediately after the First Presidential debate while the next one just recently after the Vice Presidential face-off. I must admit that I was unable to physically watch the second presidential debate, but the transcripts I have read on Pakistan show the general position is fairly the same
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Oct 4, 2008    |       2 comments

[MiniLinks] Mad Dog Palin : Rolling Stone Magazine

Rolling Stone magazine does a very interesting editorial. which boasts a very worrisome cartoon depicting McCain and Palin to say “The scariest thing about John McCain’s running mate isn’t how unqualified she is – it’s what her candidacy says about America” – the dirtiest jab was when they said “Not only is Sarah Palin a fraud, she’s the tawdriest, most half-assed fraud imaginable, 20 floors below the lowest common denominator, a character too dumb even for daytime TV” Ouch!

Oct 2, 2008    |       9 comments

McCain’s ‘failed state’ reference, challenged by ex-US Ambassador to Pakistan

The US Presidential debates are still over a month away, but the campaign frenzy is nearing its climax and mud slinging has slowly started to peak. The numerous comments made during last weeks Presidential debates are still being carefully analyzed with a magnifying glass and their subsequent meanings deciphered endlessly. As we may recall Pakistan was a hot topic in the discussion last Friday, due to its strategic importance on the war on terror, today an email report has surfaced where an ex-US Ambassador to Pakistan challenged McCain’s reference to Pakistan being a failed state in 1999 [I’m glad somebody stood up for us!! ]

During the debate if we may recall, McCain referred to Pakistan as a failed state in 1999 when President Musharraf came into power via a military coop, McCain in turn accused Obama to have not understood the problem in Pakistan and blamed him for an unrealistic plan of action. But in an interesting move William Milan the US Ambassador to Pakistan at the time of the coup, has categorically come forth to say that it’s McCain who doesn’t understand.

Matthew Yglesias asked Ambassador Milam about this issue and his response was
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Sep 29, 2008    |       4 comments

Sarah Palin’s: ‘Blonde Moment’ on Pakistan

Saturday night, while on a stop for cheese-steaks in South Philadelphia, Republican VP Nominee Sarah Palin was questioned by a Temple graduate student about whether the U.S. should cross the border from Afghanistan into Pakistan.

Waziristan is blowing up!,” he said. “Yeah it is, and the economy there is blowing up too.” responded Palin,

“So we do cross border, like from Afghanistan to Pakistan you think?,” asked the temple graduate. “If that’s what we have to do stop the terrorists from coming any further in, absolutely, we should,” Palin said.


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Sep 27, 2008    |       9 comments

President Kirdari: McCain & Obama debate on Pakistan

In roughly 37 odd days from today, The United States of America will be electing its 44th President. Though the elections are limited to only the citizens of United States of America but the outcome of electing the new President has a far greater global impact then being limited to the confines of the borders of US of A. In recent times Pakistan has come under an greater scrutiny and is considered a hotspot to become a core discussion issue during the first Presidential debate and both candidates shared their opinions about the various US-influenced problems in Pakistan.

McCain kicked off the Pakistan series by offering a more soft and understandable approach, he suggested in taking the people of Pakistan into confidence on the war on terror and moving forward hand-in-hand to irradiate the menace of terrorism, he said “We’ve got to get the support of the people of Pakistan. He [Obama] said that he would launch military strikes into Pakistan“, to which Obama quickly reacted “Nobody talked about attacking Pakistan. — if the United States has Al Qaida, bin Laden, top-level lieutenants in our sights, and Pakistan is unable or unwilling to act, then we should take them out.”
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