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Saturday, June 25, 2011

The Three Stooges of anti-terrorism

Afgahnistan, Iran and Pakistan have decided to team up and end the scourge of terrorism all by themselves.  This is like asking the stooges to install plumbing while the water is turned on: fun to watch but in the end all is destroyed by the flood.


From The Khaleej Times June 25

Afghan, Iran, Pakistan to jointly combat terrorism

The presidents of Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan agreed to join forces in combating militancy as they attended a counterterrorism summit in Tehran.



The joint statement by the three neighbours also came hot on the heels of an announcement by US President Barack Obama that Washington will withdraw 33,000 of its 99,000 troops from Afghanistan by the end of next summer.


“All sides stressed their commitment to efforts aimed at eliminating extremism, militancy, terrorism, as well as rejecting foreign interference, which is in blatant opposition to the spirit of Islam, the peaceful cultural traditions of the region and its peoples’ interests,” the statement said.


“All sides agreed to continue meeting at foreign, interior, security and economy ministers’ level to prepare a roadmap for the next summit due to be held in Islamabad before the end of 2011,” added the statement carried by Iran’s official IRNA news agency.


Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his Iranian and Pakistani counterparts Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Asif Ali Zardari held three-way talks on Friday ahead of a six-nation counterterrorism conference on Saturday.


The three leaders discussed “ways of battling terrorism, extremism and drug trafficking,” IRNA said.


In his speech at the opening session of the two-day summit, Karzai said that despite his government’s efforts, militancy was on the rise both in his country and in the region.


“Unfortunately, despite all the achievements in the fields of education, infrastructure and reconstruction, not only has Afghanistan not yet achieved peace and security, but terrorism is expanding and threatening more than ever Afghanistan and the region,” the Afghan leader said.


The Pakistani president said: “Terrorists violate both human and divine values by inflicting death and destruction on fellow human beings. They have no religion.”


He said attacks had resulted in the deaths of 35,000 people in Pakistan, 5,000 of them law enforcement personnel, and material damage totalling $67 billion.


In his speech to the opening session, Ahmadinejad again accused Iran’s archfoe, the United States, of using the September 11, 2001 attacks as a “pretext” for sending troops to the region.

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