Whose 'grand moment'?
In two days' time, Iraq is to have an election that President George Bush calls "a grand moment". Ironically, the US president's enthusiasm about the polling coincided with the highest number of US casualties in a single day since the Iraqi war began.
The 36 killed on Wednesday take the American casualty toll to 1,428 dead and 10,372 injured. An equally large number have developed psychiatric problems. Mr Bush said the casualties were depressing, but those deaths were necessary because the US had "a long-term objective" in Iraq - spreading freedom.
Twenty-two months after the end of the Baathist Iraq, the US is nowhere near its aim of bringing democracy to Iraq. Instead, what American soldiers have done to the people of Iraq has spread anger throughout the Arab-Islamic world.
The minimum Iraqi civilian death toll has been estimated at 100,000 by a British medical journal, which said the outer estimate could be as high as 200,000. At his Wednesday's press conference, first in his second term, Mr Bush declined to give a date for the withdrawal of American forces from Iraq.
This means that the US has doubts if the Iyad government will be able to raise a new security force capable of giving peace to Iraq. The militants have warned the Iraqis not to go to the polling stations and have vowed to disrupt polling.
By all indications, the Sunni triangle will boycott the vote, though there is likely to be a substantial turn-out in Shia south and Kurdish north. The big issue is whether the election results will be accepted by the people of Iraq.
From the start, the US has tried to go it alone in Iraq. It launched the war without UN authorization and ignored opposition to war from Russia and China and Nato allies France and Germany.
Once in occupation, Washington has tried to monopolize Iraq. In matters of lucrative contracts, it has been selective - denying contracts to the critics of its Iraq policy - and, more regrettably, it has sidelined the UN.
The world body has been given no role in the running of the post-war Iraq, nor is the UN involved in a meaningful way with Sunday's election. The end-result is the very opposite of what President Bush said at his press conference.
Indeed, the prospects of the Middle East continuing to remain "the cauldron of resentment (and) hate" and a recruiting ground for terrorists were never higher than before.
A series of blunders have served to strengthen the extremists' hands - the slaughter at Fallujah (despite a warning by Mr Kofi Annan), the prison abuse at Abu Ghraib, and the shooting to death of prisoners.
When the Iraqis and Arabs see all this against the background of America's total support to Israel's genocidal policies in Palestine, one can understand what their reaction will be.
Results of an election held under American occupation of the country will not be considered credible by most Iraqis. If the US wants to save more of its soldiers from getting killed and maimed in the "cauldron", it must devise a credible exit strategy.
Elections held and supervised by the UN alone will produce a government in which the Iraqis will have confidence. America then can withdraw after handing over power to the real representatives of the Iraqi people. Any other course will mean continued misery for the Iraqi people and more body-bags for America.
Antique smuggling racket
There are indications that the smuggling of Pakistani antiques out of the country may have become an organized racket. The interception last month of a huge consignment of stolen objects by American customs officials in New York is a case in point.
The container full of Gandhara, pre-historic and World War II relics was shipped to the US from Dubai by an 'unknown party' - a euphemism often used by western officials for historical and intellectual property thefts involving organized criminals.
It is hard to imagine how a big consignment booked from an Arab city and destined for New York could not be traced back to its sender in a post-9/11 world or its consignee in the US tracked down.
Followed by London and Paris, New York is believed to be the biggest hub of stolen antiques from around the world before they change hands. US police now want to see documentary proof of the recovered artefacts in the form of Pakistan archaeology department records of the stolen items before they could be restored to Pakistan.
And this is where part of the problem lies, because a large number of relics smuggled out of the country are not documented museum exhibits. In most cases antiquities are excavated directly from historical sites by impoverished local residents who sell them to the smugglers for little more than a pittance.
The situation underscores the need for greater vigilance and security at the so-called protected historical sites. An overwhelming number of stolen relics come from many Gandhara sites spread across Taxila, Swat and the Peshawar valley and from the pre-historic site at Mehrgarh in Balochistan.
Smuggling needs to be stopped at the source rather than relying solely on the customs officials posted at airports, seaports and border crossings. By the time a stolen object reaches these exit points, its monetary value has increased manifolds, with a buyer already lined up overseas; hence the resort to bribery to ensure smooth sailing for the smuggled relics out of the country.
That done, the government must also address the abject poverty prevailing in regions that are only archaeologically rich.
Lyari's gang wars
The death of a policeman during an attack on a police party escorting a suspected criminal to a lock-up in Lyari reflects the state of lawlessness in Karachi's notorious trouble spot.
In recent weeks, as a result of a continuing gang war, dozens of lives have been lost, with the authorities failing to stop the mayhem. Clearly, the methods used by the law enforcement agencies to stem the tide have not worked, underlining the fact that the knee-jerk measures like barricading streets with heavy police deployment and conducting house-to-house search have not had the intended effect.
Prone to endemic violence and rampant drug and arms trafficking, Lyari's current state of lawlessness is the result of years of neglect the area has suffered. From all accounts, it can be safely said that the sway the gangs, drug dealers and arms traffickers have over Lyari is in large part because they have either political patronage or that they have bought the loyalty of the law enforcement agencies.
This allows them to pursue their 'trades' and the related illicit activities with relative impunity, much like the underworld in Mumbai which has been accused of having close links with the police or local politicians.
One can only wonder for how long the authorities will look the other day while Lyari slides deeper into anarchy and violence. The gangs making life hell for the area's residents should be reined in and the law and order restored there on a firm footing.
Further, a package for the area's socio-economic uplift should be launched. It should focus on deploying police officials with clean records to clamp down on the criminal gangs and the drug mafia, and seek to improve education and health care facilities, encourage small-scale enterprise and, above all, emphasize rule of law.