On the assassination of Benazir Bhutto: Partitioning Pakistan and Counting the Dead

http://www.chycho.com/?q=node/1480

I posted the following information when Musharraf declared a state of emergency, and unfortunately the analysis remains valid now that Benazir Bhutto has been assassinated.

To understand the seriousness of the situation in Pakistan consider watching or listening to the following interview with the acclaimed British-Pakistani historian, novelist, political campaigner and commentator Tariq Ali at Democracy Now! (video, audio and transcript). It is a great analysis of what is happening in Pakistan and what it may lead to:

“the situation is very critical. Musharraf is incredibly unpopular at home now. Benazir is being savagely attacked by some of her own supporters for doing a deal with him under State Department pressure. And General Naseerullah Babar, who was her Interior Minister, has just publicly resigned from the party against the deal. So the situation politically is very volatile…

"It’s not the case that Pakistan is sort of, you know, frothing with religion. This is limited to the Pakistan-Afghan border region. And the image Western media often present is bearded guys skulking in the Hindu Kush Mountains, waiting to take over, and all that stands between a jihadi finger on the nuclear trigger is General Musharraf and now Benazir Bhutto perched on his shoulder. This is not going to do the trick…

"The big problems began when she (Benazir Bhutto) — after General Zia was blown up in a plane with the US ambassador, there were elections again, and Benazir won. But she was unable to do anything the first time. And the second time she came to power, her government was incredibly corrupt, and the military then, when Musharraf came to power, charged her with corruption. The evidence is there; it’s irrefutable. And as part of the deal now, this corruption is being ignored, which is making people incredibly cynical…

"On the western borders of Pakistan, there’s a continuing war being waged, and Musharraf has antagonized the local population by being over-keen to carry out these bombing raids. These bombing raids are tied to the situation in Afghanistan. And what is going on in Afghanistan is that the actions of NATO and especially US bombing raids, which have killed lots and lots of innocent civilians, have now sent people in the direction of the Taliban, which is increasingly becoming an umbrella for the resistance to the NATO occupation and is being revived as a major political force. This then spills over into Pakistan, because it’s a very long porous border. There is no way anyone can control it. You can’t have barbed wire, you can’t build a wall.

"And so, the solution to the situation in Waziristan lies in Afghanistan, and we need a peace settlement there as soon as possible and the withdrawal of foreign troops."

As for why the situation is getting out of hand in Pakistan, it is very likely that it is related to the US plans to create a New Middle East, the plans for which were revealed in 2006 by retired Lieutenant-Colonel Ralph Peters. The map, with the redrawn borders of the Middle East, indicates that Turkey would lose a large portion of its territory while Iraq would be split into three autonomous regions. This map also shows plans to partition Pakistan and reduce Iran’s territory, along with numerous other imperial agendas.

Present Middle East
http://www.chycho.com//images/Middl...
click map to enlarge

New Middle East
http://www.chycho.com//images/new%2...
click map to enlarge

Unfortunately for the world however, such an endeavor as redrawing the borders of so many countries would be nothing less then World War III. A conservative estimate of how many people would die in this global war can be obtained by assuming that the same percentage of people that died in World War II would also die in World War III.

In the 1940’s the world population was approximately 2.3 billion. World War II resulted in 72 million deaths (42 million of which were civilian casualties). This means that approximately 3.1% of the worlds population was killed.

At present, the world population is approximately 6.6 billion. If we assume that the same percentage of people will die during this world war then the last, it would mean that over 200 million people will be dead in the next few years. This is a conservative estimate since nuclear weapons were introduced at the end of World War II, while they are being proposed at the beginning of World War III. The number of wounded will be well over 1 billion if we assume a kill to wounded ratio of 5 to 1.

http://www.chycho.com/?q=node/1480