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Showing posts from July, 2003
The Days of Wonder in Iraq By Mahbubul Karim (Sohel) July 31, 2003 Mr. Kiesling’s Warnings John Brady Kiesling came to the limelight with his courageous resignation from the State Department just before the war had begun in Iraq. He was a career diplomat. Colleagues and superiors had warned him that he would be throwing away his lifelong career for “nothing”. But Mr. Kiesling took the step beyond remaining ordinary, collecting the steady paychecks, and counting for his rewarding retiring days. After struggling through sleepless nights pondering on various aspects of the war issue, Mr. Kiesling came to the conclusion that a unilateral, "preemptive" strike against Iraq would simply not only be wrong, but harmful to the United States as well. In his widely circulated resignation letter Mr. Kiesling wrote, "The policies we are now asked to advance are incompatible not only with American values but also with American interests. Our fervent pursuit of war with
Global Warming and Uncertainty Dear Readers, Scientific uncertainty is the fact of life. There is not much argument about it. But the dogmatist attitudes in turning back from the present scientific data and warnings regarding the alarming global warming trend are not acceptable. Things can go exceedingly sour if ice in the poles melts. J.W. Anderson in his Washington Post opinion editorial writes, “when the sea level rises in the Bay of Bengal it also rises in California and along the Delmarva Peninsula.” Millions of people will be affected if the coastal nations and towns and cities get inundated with the rising sea, the devastations from that unthinkable scenario are too grim to perceive for many. But the government leaders are elected and paid to take prudent necessary actions. They have scientific and financial resources available to them to implement plan in preventing that crouching meltdown of civilization. Mr. Anderson provides three aspects of global climate chan
Bangladesh: Preventing the Launch Tragedies Dear Readers, Like the previous times, there will be multiple investigative reports and recommendations. Cabinet Ministers and Parliamentary Members will show outcry filled whimpers in their decorative visits in villages, homes of hundreds of victims perished in the Meghna’s recent launch M.V. Nasrin-1 capsize disaster. This is the similar trend observed in the previous catastrophes in Bangladesh. In a few months, the reports will gather dusts and recommendations will be discarded quietly while public attentions are transferred to other emotional issues of the days. The grief stricken father was hugging his son on the bank of Meghna. A veiled woman was wiping off her tears, and other anguished faces and eyes looked on. Only a few bodies are recovered. Hundreds are feared to be washed away in the vigorous river current. In 1994, around the same spot, M.V. Dinar was drowned with 400 travelers, that ship was never recovered. Bangl
Death Toll hits 44 in Pakistan Mosque Attack Dear Readers, Bodies were blown to pieces. The sectarian violence in Pakistan is not new. It has been going on for many years. Extremist Sunnis are killing innocent Shi'ites, Ahmedia, Christians, and the Shi'ites and Ahmedias are fighting back killing innocent Sunnis and other groups of people in the revenge attacks. Though it is too early to put blame in any one group, this is a very similar pattern of violence arising months after months, years after years. Now the scared civilians in Pakistan will be awaiting for the revenge attacks from the other groups, and this cycle will continue unabated unless the Pakistani Government takes impartial initiatives and implementations of their dust filled rules in stopping further killings. "If these incidents are not halted then terrorism will engulf the entire country," this was uttered by Sajid Ali Naqvi, head of Islami Tehrik Pakistan. Pervez Musharraf said, "It