Iraq: 'a US foreign policy failure'

What follows is an email from Baghdad written by Wall Street Journal correspondent Farnaz Fassihi describing the situation in Iraq as far worse than anything we've read about in the mainstream press.

The email found its way to The New York Times editor Andrew Rosenthal, who sent it to his wife, Mary Beth, who forwarded it to friends - and from there it is now making the rounds on the Internet.

Fassihi's email follows: Being a foreign correspondent in Baghdad these days is like being under virtual house-arrest. Forget about the reasons that lured me to this job: a chance to see the world, explore the exotic, meet new people in far-away lands, discover their ways and tell stories that could make a difference.

Little by little, day-by-day, being based in Iraq has defied all those reasons. I am house-bound. I leave when I have a very good reason to and a scheduled interview.

I avoid going to people's homes and never walk in the streets, can't speak English outside, can't say I'm an American, etc, etc. There has been one too many close calls, including a car-bomb so near our house that it blew out all the windows.

So now my most pressing concern every day is not to write a kick-ass story but to stay alive and make sure our Iraqi employees stay alive. In Baghdad I am a security personnel first, a reporter second.

Despite President Bush's rosy assessments, Iraq remains a disaster. If under Saddam it was a "potential" threat, under the Americans it has been transformed to an "imminent and active threat," a foreign policy failure bound to haunt the US for decades to come.

Iraqis like to call this mess "the situation." By this they mean: the Iraqi government doesn't control most Iraqi cities, there are several car-bombs going off each day around the country, killing and injuring scores of innocent people, etc. The situation basically means a raging barbaric guerilla war.

The numbers are so shocking that the ministry of health has now stopped disclosing them. Insurgents now attack Americans many times a day. Young men openly place improvised explosive devices into the ground.

For journalists the turning-point came with the wave of kidnappings. Earlier we felt safe around Baghdad because foreigners were being abducted on the roads and highways between towns, but now kidnapping takes place at homes and victims are being beheaded.

The insurgency, we are told, is rampant and growing stronger, with the various elements cooperating and coordinating. I went to an emergency meeting for foreign correspondents with the military and embassy to discuss the kidnappings.

We were sombrely told our fate would largely depend on where we were in the kidnapping chain once it was determined we were missing. Here is how it goes: criminal gangs grab you and sell you up to Baathists in Fallujah, who will in turn sell you to Al Qaeda.

In turn, cash and weapons flow the other way from Al Qaeda to the Baathist to the criminals. My friend Georges, the French journalist snatched on the road to Najaf, has been missing for over a month with no word on release or whether he is still alive.

As for reconstruction: first, it's so unsafe for foreigners to operate that almost all projects have come to a halt. Oil dreams? Insurgents disrupt oil flow routinely as a result of sabotage and oil prices have hit record high of $49 a barrel.

I heard an educated Iraqi say if Saddam were allowed to run for election, he would get the majority. This is truly sad. Then I went to see an Iraqi scholar to talk to him about elections here.

He has been trying to educate the public on the importance of voting. He said: "President Bush wanted to turn Iraq into a democracy that would be an example for the Middle East. Forget about democracy, forget about being a model for the region, we have to salvage Iraq before all is lost."

A.B. SHAHID

Karachi

Revival of KCR

The only possible way to implement the Karachi Circular Railway scheme without foreign loans and within a short time, making it viable and affordable for low-income commuters, is as follows:

The 1990 approved Mass Transit Master Plan recommended the eastern portion of the KCR to be discontinued for low travel demand. The western portion can be made viable if it is in some way integrated with the 1990 master plan. This can be done by building the following branches.

1. Nazimabad to Nagan Chowrangi, about seven kilometres.

2. Liaquatabad to Sohrab Goth, about six kilometres.

3. Tower to the Quaid's Mazaar, about five kilometres, or preferably up to Jahangir Quarters: a total of seven kilometres as basement level subway, utilizing the economical technique as proposed by the regional transport cell in 1976-78.

The first and second branches can be easily built initially at grade in the wide median or even on one lane of the eastern portion of the road and operated like trams as convoys of six trains, following each other at 10-minute intervals for about an hour in the morning and evening peak hours. Each branch can be built within a month or so once the right of way is cleared, especially at roundabouts.

The third section can be implemented within a couple of years, without causing any disturbance to road traffic. The work could be done in planned stages under 300ft-long and 50ft-wide movable steel ramp bridges, mounted on rollers, with rails embedded in the road surface, allowing light vehicles to move freely over it.

Most of the construction activity can be done under the ramp bridge, while the debris can be taken away by rail wagons through the completed subway to be used in making additional berths in West Wharf.

This will allow linking the KCR in the basement level station and bus terminal at Tower. Thus, the cost can be cross subsidized through commercial exploitation of the various station sites and the construction of West Wharf berths.

S.M.H. RIZVI

Karachi

Misspelt signboards

English spelling mistakes crop up everywhere, from hoardings and advertisements (including university advertisements) to shop signboards. Sometimes one can smile at the variations, but it grates the nerves to see misspelt words at important places and in documents.

One expected that the inside of the PM's secretariat would be free of such gaffes. But enter after being frisked by a guard and you see a board point to "masque", "conference" and "centeral" (sic). Did I get that right?

On a recent visit to the campus of the National University of Modern Languages (NUML) in Islamabad, after considerable difficulty, I found a copy of the prospectus with a student - the library did not have one. NUML's logo includes the slogan: "Then Why Don't You Think!". This appears on every page of the glossy prospectus, including the cover.

Don't is spelt "Do'nt" (sic). Inside, all the degree titles are misspelt. A dean at NUML complained that the on-campus press made these mistakes. Earlier, the press manager on being pointed out the mistake on the cover of the prospectus said that the editorial staff did not do its job well.

Who is one to believe? The prospectus does not even have a date of publication. Who will take the blame for that?

"God is in the detail" is a lovely phrase attributed to Wittgenstein. Or maybe it is the Devil. When a national institute of languages messes up and when the PM's secretariat does not care to fix its spellings (or repair its toilets and its dirty, tattered carpets), we are in trouble.

Q. ISA DAUDPOTA

Islamabad

Civic Centre in bad shape

If someone wants to see how poor a country Pakistan is and how poorly its citizen are dealt with by its government officials, he must visit the Civic Centre, Karachi.

The place is in a dilapidated condition and it seems that no cleaning or maintenance work has ever been done since the building was made. Some offices are set up in the parking ground on an ad hoc basis and those within the compound put up a very sorry show.

Walls are stained with betel juice. Fountain moats are filled with dirty water and floating litter. A major portion of the floor is damaged. Water from the air-conditioners on the upper floors drip on people standing below.

Another example is provided by the excise and taxation department. The commotion over there makes you feel as if you are in a fish market. Most of the staff sit on broken furniture, with leftover chairs/plastic stools chained to their desks. Compartmentalization of rooms is done by piling up heaps of files. How can people working in such an environment be asked to deliver?

The authorities concerned must understand the importance of clean, organized and disciplined workplaces. Unless this is done, citizens will always face difficulties in getting their work done.

FAISAL SIDDIQUI

Karachi

Board meetings of listed companies

Recently a new trend has set in to postpone planned board meetings of listed companies. Excuses are given that directors are not available or that the quorum is not complete. This is very harmful for a healthy investment environment.

When investors come to know that such meetings have been postponed, it creates panic. Such postponements also cause the price of the company's stock to vary, further creating uncertainty.

The result is that those with inside information take advantage of this situation. Under the code of corporate governance, the board of directors of a listed company has to meet at least once every quarter of a financial year.

Written notices (including agenda) of meetings are circulated at least seven days before the meeting. The Securities and Exchange Commission should direct all listed companies to hold board meetings according to schedule.

SHEERAZ MAHMOOD

Karachi

Investigating the 1965 war

Dawn has run several letters recently such as Mr S.M. Kazim Naqvi's "Investigating the 1965 War". As I served in then West Pakistan from November 1963 until June 1965, I would like to offer a few personal observations:

1. At the end of January 1965 there was a skirmish in the Rann of Kutch, which I understood to have been driven by the then Soviet oil and gas exploration team starting the rumour that they had discovered "rich" oil and gas deposits in the disputed marshes of the Rann of Kutch.

To this day, no one has satisfied me that any such "rich" oil and gas deposits exist. I felt in 1965 and still do that this was a largely false rumour used to create war and mayhem for purposes beneficial to the USSR regime.

2. The USSR's 1965 era war plans scheme was to obtain warm water ports. One route, if you will, would have been through Afghanistan, thence through then West Pakistan, to the Arabian Sea.

The USSR briefly occupied part of Iran during World War II before being dislodged by the western allies, by both threat of allied force and by negotiation, as an example of a mid-1940s quickly aborted attempt by the Soviet Union to gain warm water port(s) access, and perhaps some oil along the way.

3. Since 2000 India has been putting on world wide web pages here to fore unknown information on the composition and location of some of its military forces in the Rann of Kutch region. These data indicate that the then Indian army was poorly equipped in the main. Your readership can go on line and search out these data for themselves.

4. As for avoiding "big powers" involvement in a 2004 study of the 1965 war, this is illogical as the US Military Advisory Assistance Group was providing both equipment and training to Pakistan and to India, perhaps more so to Pakistan, leading up to the 1965 war.

Then US Major General George Ruhlen, US Army, retired, who died in the autumn of 2003, was my next-door neighbour in 1965 in the USMAAG housing compound in PECHS, Karachi.

He might have been a good source for some additional background information. General Ruhlen was in his 90s when he died in 2003. Similarly, former US ambassador to Pakistan Walter P. McChoneghy died in 1999 and would have been a good information source. The ambassador was from here in Birmingham, Alabama.

5. British Air Vice-Marshall P. G. K. (Pete) Williamson, RAF, retired, deceased, was in 1964 an RAF group captain and the Karachi-based air adviser to the government of Pakistan for the UK, equivalent of the US air attache. Pete, who was also a friend, I know from what he told me, tried to oppose then President Ayub Khan's actions toward war, in particular as regarded Kashmir in 1965.

The result was that President Ayub lost his temper with Pete and had him declared "persona non grata", forcing him to leave Pakistan. The "correctness" of the advice which Pete tried to impart in late 1964 was certified by his rise to his final posting as number two in the RAF.

6. Finally, as a junior USAF officer attached to the old US embassy in Karachi, I both saw, and in one case, became briefly "a part" of the 1965 war. I/we saw an Indian Air Force bombing raid on the port of Karachi and it's Pakistan naval base in late spring 1965.

What I recall is mainly high altitude vapour trails, followed by distant "crump, crump" explosion noises as the bombs hit harmlessly on beaches and in the water. No meaningful damage was done and the harbour remained open as best I can recall.

7. The other event was when the Pakistan foreign office and Pakistan International Airways took me as the sole western guest on what was intended to be a boar hunt in the Rann of Kutch on January 31, 1965.

We never made it to the "hunt" location, as a Pakistani truck driving towards us, away from the poorly defined border line in the Rann of Kutch between Pakistan and India, was hit by the Indian fire and "blown" into our PIA four-wheeler. We were all injured, thrown about on to the ground from our open top vehicle.

It remains my humble opinion that both Pakistan and India were "goaded" into the 1965 war by the old Soviet war plan which sought ways and means to warm water ports. Both Pakistan and India were "hair triggered" and thus easily "provoked".

Remember that in 1965 Pakistan was a member of Seato and Cento military alliances, which membership was largely abrogated by the irrational event of the 1965 war with India. This, too, was a desired outcome under the old Soviet war plans, to disrupt anti-communist alliances, when and where possible.

I maintain my friendly interest today in a successful, peaceful resolution of the Kashmir and Jammu crisis between India and Pakistan, and wish both nations continued success in their ongoing negotiations. This is a much better way to resolve disputes vs. what happened in 1965.

GEORGE L. SINGLETON

Colonel (retd), USAFR, Birmingham, Alabama, USA

Directorate of national savings

This refers to a report (Sept 29) about a draft law regarding conversion of the central directorate of national savings into an autonomous corporation. While the draft law covers many operational aspects, there is no mention of the security of funds of depositors, including small savers, pensioners, senior citizens and widows.

In the past, several public sector corporations, including the DFI and the NDFC, went down the drain. It is imperative that the finance division consider incorporating a provision for safeguarding the depositors' money and profit rates.

It is hoped that the proposed conversion will not result in the sinking of these savings. If the finance division does not safeguard savings, it is the responsibility of our lawmakers in the National Assembly and the Senate.

PENSIONER

Karachi

Rahimyar Khan's needs

The federal minister for industries, Jehangir Tareen, has announced that an industrial estate such as Sunder will be set up in Rahimyar Khan. This will help eliminate the sense of deprivation and turn this area into a developed district.

The following problems also merit attention:

(1) Rahimyar Khan is not in the category of upgraded railway stations.

(2) Local people demand that the Karakoram Express should have a stop at Rahimyar Khan railway station.

ENGR. SUHAIL SHAHZAD

Lahore

Bus service for DHA

Khayaban-i-Ittehad is now one of the main roads of Karachi Defence, connecting Korangi Road to Sea View area. There is no bus service which runs from Khayaban-i-Ittehad to I.I. Chundrigar Road or to Tower.

I request the Karachi nazim to start a metro bus service on this route as it will facilitate many office workers who live in phases II Ext., V, VI, VII and VIII.

SHAHID HAFIZ SHAIKH

Karachi

Sewerage system

The recent rain in Karachi has once again exposed the inefficiency of the city administration, including the DHA, in providing for a proper drainage system. The system is on the verge of collapse as it is old and badly planned.

Pipes and other materials used in drainage are substandard and not according to the specifications laid down in the tender documents. This has resulted in leaks causing contaminated, unhygienic and dirty water to mix with drinking water. Besides, our streets have been turned into cesspools.

We draw the attention of the city nazim and the DHA administrator to this sorry state of affairs and request them to ensure that only those pipes and materials that conform to international standards and are according to the tender specifications are used.

HELPLINE TRUST

Karachi

Pro-VCs

This is with reference to the report "Ibad orders 2 pro-VCs for each varsity" (Oct 1). I am happy with this decision. In fact, the post of pro-VC was created on my recommendation in 1975.

The logic was simple. A university is no less complex than a big corporation. No vice-chancellor can run a university on his own and hence needs a pro-vice-chancellor and a director of finance. This recommendation was accepted and implemented. Unfortunately, many universities later gave it up and the post fell into disuse.

The governor's decision will hopefully set things right. Also, it would not be a bad idea to also appoint some women as pro vice-chancellors.

MAHFOOZ ALI

First Pro-VC, Karachi University

Teachers' Day

We celebrated World Teachers' Day and said "Salam teacher" through newspaper ads. In his speech on this occasion, our prime minister promised to do his best and advised teachers to impart quality education.

It will not be out of place here to remind him that "jitna gurh dalogey utna meetha hoga". Empty stomachs can never deliver.

SALMA JAFRY

Karachi