Elimination of Terrorism, a Huge Challenge

How can Taliban (students) perceive themselves as Muslims without even knowing how to practise the Quran and Ahadith? In other words, they live and die without proper Islamic knowledge or with little knowledge. In either case, they can’t practise Islam. Hence, they tend to end up as totally confused/the most vulnerable species on the Earth. Because of their naivety, they are up for grab by the anti Islam/anti Pakistan forces (internal or external) for ulterior motives.
Secondly, there are those who have nothing to do with Islam except defaming it; they cunningly manage to fake as practical Muslims.

It’s evident the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) actually is one of the most dangerous – fully trained for guerilla warfare and armed to teeth “anti-Pakistan groups,” its members chose Dec 16 for a reason: They gave a painful message reminding the nation of crippling Pakistan when it lost its eastern wing in 1971. They carried out the Tuesday bloodshed, the most inhuman heinous crime against the innocent children of an army Public school on Warsak rd Peshawar.

According to sources, the TTP spokesperson vowed more such militant attacks and told Pakistani civilians to detach themselves from all military institution, adding: “We are still able to carry out major attacks. This was just the trailer.....” Horrible!

Obviously, the ferocious animals are planning more attacks at schools in Pakistan. Apparently, they are taking revenge for the Pak military operation zarb e azb which they claim has killed their innocent children. One survivor told how children belonging to army backgrounds were picked out and gunned down.
Nevertheless, by killing school children, the TTP has crossed all limits of barbarism.
Despite having been reminded many a times, the government has not been able to re-evaluate its counterterrorism strategy, to take the right steps and initiate the right policy so that we do not witness this kind of atrocity.

Good Show:
Pakistani nation has a fragile unity to deal with the national issue. Subsequent to the all parties conference APC headed by the prime minister and attended by Imran Khan among others in Peshawar and all participants had a single voice to defeat the terrorists. In other words, the sacrifice of 132 martyred kids and 9 martyred school staff has enabled the fragile nation to narrow the gaps if any. They have almost unanimously voiced for uniting to fight off the menace of terrorism.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf called off its 126 days long “Sit In” in D chowk Islamabad without any logical ending with regard to Naya Pakistan or the formation of Judicial commission to probe the election rigging in four constituencies.

Disappointment:
Last year, the Nawaz regime drew up the National Security Policy (NSP) and showed its seriousness in countering the growing terror threat in the country. Strengthening of the National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) to coordinate and assemble all efforts to fight the terror threat was talked about loudly yet one can’t see any progress on the issue beyond lip service.
The politically embattled federal government has failed to realise that the military operation can’t be totally successful unless there is other counter terrorism strategy well in place. That is why, the ferocious militants were more than encouraged to commit a preventable carnage on December 16.

Normally, we can’t blame on security lapse, yet a counter strategy would have saved many innocent lives from being lost.
The truth is there is a trust deficit which is why a negotiated settlement is out of questions. So far, no talks with Taliban did ever bring any peace as they are not trust worthy. The terrorists have no religion, no conscience and no remorse; they are transformed into monsters that are paid and hired by the vested interests to damage our national interests. In this game, they kill if they have to. They please their masters.
Terrorist Attack at Karachi International Airport, attacking at the Wagah border and now killing so many children is part of enemy’s strategy.

The terrorists burnt and shot the kids to death; toddlers and nine members of teaching staff at the Peshawar Army School were not spared either. This clearly indicates what type of people in the name of Islam they are.
Although, the Pak military is heavily engaged in Operation Zarb-e-Azb, yet the fact is it can’t continue fighting successfully engaging the conventional methodology. Historically, such operations have failed to totally eliminate terrorists and provide security to the common Pakistani citizen.

Fresh strategy to fight against the menace is an absolute necessity.
Unpredictability: The TTP militants have the capacity to emerge at will anywhere in the country to carry out their brutality on innocent civilians. Many citizens, including non-school going children, have died peacefully to serve their so-called national interests. Moreover, Pakistan has lost more than 50,000 people already, and more than 5000 military/security personnel have lost their lives while fighting the terrorists (enemy commandos). There are no two ways about it; the nation is paying the cost in the blood of its innocent people and now its children (students). The Pakistanis finally realize that the ongoing war on terror is Pakistan’s war.
Finally, the Justice system is allowed to work against the terrorists. Once the mercy petitions are rejected, death warrants are issued and the convicted terrorists are hanged till their last breath.

Recommendations:
Since providing the 24/7 fool proof security everywhere is almost impossible, the people are morally obligated to be watching for any suspicious activity near them,
Furthermore, the needed “Intelligence gathering’ is of utmost importance, so is sealing the borders to discourage the free inflow and outflow of militants. Also, a counter-terrorism strategy needs to be in place to disrupt the enemy supply line right at the original source.
Beyond doubt, the Pak military knows its job very well as to how, when and where to carry out a pre emptive strike aimed at repulsing the terror attackers right at their door step.
Importantly, the government, the military, the police and the civil society must stay on one page to get rid of the ongoing menace to save the country, now or never.
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COMMENTS:
Sp Osman, Crystal Hobbs, Muhammad Khalid Mansoor and 3 others like this.
2 shares

Sp Osman: War is not the way, this is name of violence ideology ......peace is the best way to survive....the global entertainers creating the way for evil...they have not concern with the humane blood....the draw back in the counter militants attack is the la...See More
5 hrs · Like

Sp Osman: War is not the way, this is name of violence ideology ......peace is the best way to survive....the global entertainers creating the way for evil...they have not concern with the humane blood....the draw back in the counter militants attack is the la...See More
5 hrs · Like

Tariq MJaved: Taliban should not mess with Pakistan no matter what.... they are brutal and are being supplied arms to finish Pakistan. They must rethink and get out of killer attitude ----they must not kill women and children as Islam never allowed that stupid thing. REAL ISLAM must survive.

The Manipulative Oil Politics

Upon experiencing the cheaper prices at pumps, general public expected a drop in food prices as well, yet that hasn’t happened simply because Canadian dollar (known as “petro dollar”) gains its strength from the higher fuel prices. This means the higher the price of oil goes, higher the value of loonie will be and vice versa. Second, Let’s not be surprised as the price of imported grocery continues its trend of rising or staying the same at least; it’s all based upon the going exchange rate.

As long as Canadian dollar negatively travels below parity with the US dollar, the imports will be becoming more expensive and costlier.

Declining oil prices have significant economic consequences around the world; there is some uncertainty over how long the low oil prices would last. However, the ongoing global over-supply of oil despite the weak demand due to economic slow-down in China, and Europe is a cause of concern for the oil producing countries. Beyond doubt, cheaper gasoline brings relief to the general consumers.

As said above, the countries doing trade in the US currency are in trouble, because the imports remain expensive for them.

The Canadian buck already nosedived quite a bit below parity against the greenback. Since the Canadian oil is also priced in US dollars, the lower loonie keeps offsetting most of the price drop.

The factor of weaker demand and higher supply caused oil prices to start lowering from their June 2014 peak of $115 per barrel down to around $70-$75 per barrel now; but a decade ago or so it was around $40 per barrel.

Energy economist James Hamilton points out, instability in Libya, Iraq, or Nigeria could do it. And, of course, if Canadian and the US oil producers pull back sharply in response to lower prices to stabilize the oil market, that will be great.

True, the producers prefer to sell despite the lower going price to avoid extremely high cost of storing. Actually, oil production can’t be paused/discontinued, as such exercise of stopping oil production and then starting is highly expensive, hence not recommended.

Obviously, the winners are those who have more than enough financial resources to outlast the competitors.

Negative effect of low interest rates: Most probably, over-production of shale oil is result of a long stretch of too low interest rates. Easy money has resulted in over supply causing a big inventory all over. Other fear is prolonged availability of low interest rates may cause deflation. But the current dis-inflation is the result of low priced oil and low interest rates, if the condition persists and becomes chronic then deflation will ruin us all economically.

Furthermore, there was a lot of heated debate among OPEC (the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) in Vienna on November 27, about how best to respond to this currently low oil prices. Venezuela and Iran, wanted Saudi Arabia to cut back on her production in order to jack up the price of oil.

Bad news/good News: If the price of oil keeps falling, some US producers may go out of business. If oil prices stabilize and OPEC maintains its market share, the beneficiaries would be dancing.

According to the International Energy Agency, about 4 percent of US shale projects need a price higher than $80 per barrel to stay afloat. But many projects in North Dakota's Bakken formation are profitable if prices are above $42 per barrel.

It seems as if the “strategy of over producing” is designed to push the vulnerable oil boomers out of the market.

Apparently, some oil producing countries are playing manipulative politics by over supplying to make oil boom of other countries vulnerable.

Steven Mufson of The Washington Post estimates that the annual revenue of OPEC nations could shrink by $590 billion if prices stay this low. Russian government, for its part, have been planning for $100-per-barrel oil in its 2015 budget. As prices are down to around $70, Russia is likely to go through a difficult economic condition.

Moreover, the price-fall also poses unpleasant economic scenarios for some of the US states that are particularly dependent on oil drilling. Wyoming, Oklahoma, North Dakota, Alaska, and Texas are likely to be hard hit. Certainly, lower prices mean less revenue and less economic activity.

It was the high prices that also spurred companies to mine the oil sands of Alberta — leading to a similar boom up in Canada. This year, oil prices have been crashing, with the price for West Texas Intermediate crude falling from $100 per barrel in July to below $70 in early December. That's partly because there's so much new oil coming out of the US and Canada, and partly because demand in Europe and Asia continues to weaken. Some experts believe falling oil prices may adversely affect US and Canadian oil production.

Scotia Bank’s estimates of the breakeven price for various US shale and Canadian oil sands projects:

"The reasons for the oil price collapse are varied. China’s energy-reliant economy is slowing down. New shale oil production from the U.S. is creating an excess. The OPEC has been unwilling or unable to enforce high prices."

Most of the OPEC nations except the Saudis are willing to "enforce high prices," through production cuts. Nevertheless, the Saudis are fearful that Congress would lift the overseas export ban on U.S. crude, so they're attempting to push as many of the U.S. shale oil producers out of business as they can.

The U.S. shale oil drillers can survive with $42.00 per barrel.
while, Saudi Arabia can break even at $30.00 per barrel. It’s sitting on huge foreign currency reserves, so it can afford the expensive strategy of keeping the oil oversupplied to keep cheaper oil available. This appears to be the classic price manipulation on the part of Saudi Arabia to retain market share for some time to come.

Is there a ‘U Turn’ in future? Yes, it can be safely forecast based on past experience: Provided, there is a shortage in supply in the next few years, the prices will start soaring back up as part of the next economic cycle.

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Sources:

points out                                          http://econbrowser.com/archives/2014/11/a-glut-of-oil

NRNovember 30, 2014 at 4:19 pm http://econbrowser.com/archives/2014/11/a-glut-of-oil#comment-186456

was a lot of heated debate        http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/28/us-opec-meeting-shale-idUSKCN0JC1GK20141128

about 4 percent                              http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/28/us-opec-meeting-shale-idUSKCN0JC1GK20141128

..http://www.vox.com/2014/12/2/7319307/gas-prices-falling

spurred

oil prices have been crashing

estimates                                          http://www.gbm.scotiabank.com/English/bns_econ/bnscomod.pdf