Pakistan

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Pakistan-versus-India is *very* scary. Pakistan is small enough and outnumbered in conventional forces so badly, that if the Indian army crossed their border they would probably instantly respond with nukes, to which India would reply in kind.

The other problem, which is what I guess you're asking about, is that Pakistan has nukes, and many pro-terrorist individuals in their military ranks. So what are the chances of a Pakistan nuke falling into the wrong hands? Who knows. I would assume there are really large numbers of US intelligence & special forces types watching that situation around the clock.

Dave Fischer, Saturday, 8 March 2003 23:35 (twenty-one years ago) link

>>is pakistan a danger? does it have a lot of weapons for an unstable country?<<

Well, they have a fairly large military, everyone and their mother has a weapon on some kind (gun running is a popular pastime), and they have nuclear weapons. However, considering their recent pro-US stance on most things and their assistance in caputring terrorist "leaders", I doubt they're about to hand over nukes to terrorists, and I bet they're pretty well defended.

Russia, Iran, and Syria are far bigger concerns when it comes to nations that may allow (knowingly or unknowingly) weapons of any kind to fall into terrorist hands).

-
Alan

Alan Conceicao, Sunday, 9 March 2003 00:17 (twenty-one years ago) link

Chechnya has changed Russia's attitude towards middle east extremists. They wouldn't risk letting anyone in that area get a nuke, since it might make its way to Chechnyan hands. The Russian *mob* of course, is a different issue entirely. (Is that what you meant by "unknowingly"?)

Dave Fischer, Sunday, 9 March 2003 00:23 (twenty-one years ago) link

Yea. The mob also doesn't have nearly as many qualms about who they sell them to in the end either. You're right; they're a bit more paranoid recently about that happening than in the early 1990s.

-
Alan

Alan Conceicao, Sunday, 9 March 2003 00:32 (twenty-one years ago) link

yesterday my friend told me her uncle (who works in karachi) got shot in the leg on his way to work by an american soldier. yes, pakistan's dangerous.

Maria (Maria), Sunday, 9 March 2003 02:15 (twenty-one years ago) link

Yes, I would throw my lot in with the India-Pakistan situation being the scariest thing in the world right now. Yes so the current regime supports the US, I think that is small comfort.

N. (nickdastoor), Sunday, 9 March 2003 02:32 (twenty-one years ago) link

waqar younis is a horrible captain, which is probably the reason behind their constant underacheiving

webber (webber), Sunday, 9 March 2003 05:10 (twenty-one years ago) link

nineteen years pass...

So...these floods...

xyzzzz__, Monday, 29 August 2022 08:24 (one year ago) link

Sounds like they are much more severe than what was happening in parts of India a month or so ago? But both off the back of 50 or near-50C heat

nashwan, Monday, 29 August 2022 12:06 (one year ago) link

I think this is the most unfathomable thing to happen in my lifetime. I understand it but I can’t wrap my head around it. Hard to not be alarmist. The world’s glaciers are simply melting. https://t.co/18kfUHYjKX

— Human Resources at Paulo Freire Charter School (@postcyborg) September 2, 2022

xyzzzz__, Friday, 2 September 2022 09:23 (one year ago) link

It's getting worse.

Rising floodwaters might soon cause Pakistan's largest freshwater lake to burst its banks.

If it does, hundreds of thousands more would be affected on top of the already 33 million people impacted by climate change-induced floods. pic.twitter.com/WdQdDA7xQf

— DW News (@dwnews) September 7, 2022

xyzzzz__, Thursday, 8 September 2022 09:42 (one year ago) link

"According to preliminary estimates, 65 percent of Pakistan’s main food crops—including 70 percent of its rice—have been swept away during the floods, and 3 million livestock have died...45 percent of agricultural land is now destroyed."https://t.co/RCOTDMU5E7

— Hamna Tariq (@hamnatariq97) September 9, 2022

xyzzzz__, Saturday, 10 September 2022 22:56 (one year ago) link

I guess I was naive, I assumed when the climate crisis arrived it wouldn't simply be ignored.

death generator (lukas), Sunday, 11 September 2022 16:43 (one year ago) link

Well it is simply being treated as a natural disaster where the first reaction would be to aid people.

More widely, it isn't the way it works. You might see the absence of certain goods now and then, or prices going up further. But connecting to events happening hundreds of miles away to then enforce protest and action is another order of things.

xyzzzz__, Monday, 12 September 2022 15:01 (one year ago) link

Obvs there is a strong "brown ppl don't matter" narrative in MSM, but, still, I don't doubt this would be getting more coverage were it not for Russia invading Ukraine, the energy crisis and the death of QEII.

Grandpont Genie, Monday, 12 September 2022 15:10 (one year ago) link

Most of the world gets very, very little coverage.

xyzzzz__, Monday, 12 September 2022 17:03 (one year ago) link

This catastrophe is much greater in scope than, say, the Ethiopian famine Buerk reported on in 1984 which led Geldof & Ure to do Liive Aid, yet the famine got more coverage. Some of this may be coz 24 hour news was not yet a concept, on UK TV at least, but was there also just less going on both internationally/domestically. I don't know, the Miners' Strikd was happening. What else?

Grandpont Genie, Monday, 12 September 2022 17:16 (one year ago) link

Well Band Aid, then Live Aid I guess. See also USA for Africa, &c.

Grandpont Genie, Monday, 12 September 2022 17:17 (one year ago) link

Yeah I'm not arguing we normally do a good job at covering disasters in "developing" countries, but this seems worse than usual. I also thought of the Ethiopian famine.

death generator (lukas), Monday, 12 September 2022 19:46 (one year ago) link

It's a very different time. The Ethiopian famine is alluded to but the solutions need to be very different.

https://gal-dem.com/pakistan-floods-mutual-aid-organisers/

xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 13 September 2022 08:54 (one year ago) link

The consequences of all this water also include malaria, dengue, cholera and other diseases, and reduced access for the little medical assistance there is to reach stranded populations.

Nabozo, Tuesday, 13 September 2022 12:53 (one year ago) link

Yup indeed, mentioned here

Sri Lanka - Pakistan - Bangladesh
Chartbook #153 surveys the polycrisis in South Asia. How finance, energy, geopolitics and climate shocks intersect. https://t.co/n1qg82ZzRD pic.twitter.com/SOPLeWXYKW

— Adam Tooze (@adam_tooze) September 22, 2022

xyzzzz__, Thursday, 22 September 2022 11:10 (one year ago) link

seven months pass...

Pakistan—notorious for its 23 IMF bailouts, for being a nuclear-armed state with active terrorist groups, for suffering climate catastrophe of biblical proportions—is being screwed by its domestic elites.

Our latest @polycrisis newsletter is daaark.https://t.co/2wz48agCbq

— Albert Pinto (@70sBachchan) February 24, 2023

xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 9 May 2023 18:02 (eleven months ago) link

written before Khan just got arrested and bundled into the back of a van by cops wearing riot gear, politics is fairly fucking crazy in Pakistan.

calzino, Tuesday, 9 May 2023 18:26 (eleven months ago) link

five months pass...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-67281691

"In the last two months around 200,000 Afghan nationals have already left Pakistan ahead of the 1 November deadline, according to the Pakistan government. The recent daily returnee figures are three times higher than normal, says the Taliban refugee ministry spokesman Abdul Mutaleb Haqqani."

xyzzzz__, Thursday, 2 November 2023 13:39 (five months ago) link

Pakistan is planning to forcibly deport 1.7 million Afghan refugees. This is a direct violation of the basic right to asylum and a death sentence to the many Afghans who would be targeted by the Taliban. Pakistan must change course. https://t.co/fX9kcyN9fg

— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) November 2, 2023

xyzzzz__, Thursday, 2 November 2023 15:33 (five months ago) link

Terrible

curmudgeon, Friday, 3 November 2023 17:30 (five months ago) link


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