The flag isn't communist Azad kashmiri Ḥubb al-Waṭan min al-Īmān
Based Republic of Pakistan
Joined June 2019
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Would humbly request you people to follow this account. Perv one I was running got suspended.
David lit retweeted
Republicans are going to have a terrible night, and the simple reason why is that Trump has put up perhaps the worst *performance* this term of any president in a century or more.
Remember that he entered with an actual mandate: the House and Senate, a popular vote victory and a swing-state sweep, and 6-3 Supreme Court. Democrats were afraid enough to vote for mild but real immigration restrictionist legislation in the Laken Riley Act. Everyone wondered how far the "Vibe Shift" would go.
Trump managed to turn that into essentially zero durable wins whatsoever. He personally *hates* the very idea of legislation, the notion that he would have to spend time going back and forth with Congress, learning details and making compromises. So he simply didn't do it! He didn't make a compelling case for abolishing the filibuster. He didn't try communicating clearly to the public in support of popular bills to get to 60 votes. He just decided not to do it at all.
So they passed an unpopular tax cut, some funding for ICE, and a sop to the crypto industry, and that was basically it. Least productive Congress in decades, due to the tastes of one man.
Trump adopted one of the worst macro policies we've ever had: high deficits, high tariffs, and attacks on central bank independence. We managed to pay higher interest rates while still having high trade deficits AND weakening the dollar. Just a total failure.
On immigration, perhaps THE signature issue, Trump essentially min-maxxed effectiveness and backlash. Instead of trying to leverage the political moment for new laws and a self-deportation agenda (that is, walling off the economy to remove the benefit of irregular presence in the US), he opted for a maximally aggressive approach. The administration spent attention, funds, legal manpower on stunts like deporting random people to Salvadoran prisons with essentially no due process. ICE and Border Patrol were encouraged to be aggressive and confrontational, which helped contribute to the shooting deaths of American protestors. It turns out, that's extremely unpopular!
What about the approach of going after employers? The obvious vector? Trump hated that idea! He repeatedly has said he doesn't want to target businesses (especially farms) that use large amounts of illegal labor. This is just an incomprehensible position. Instead of charging a few dozen businessmen and removing the incentive for millions of illegal workers to be here, you arrest people off the street one by one at the cost of thousands of dollars in manpower per each, while their crying wives and kids post TikToks about it.
Upshot on immigration: electoral strength turned into a crippling electoral weakness in exchange for deporting maybe 6% of the illegally present population.
The tariffs were a total shitshow. Embarrassing rollout, no underlying theory of action at all. No targeted focus on key industries. Our country tariffed products we can't grow. We tariffed *inputs* of our own valuable exports. The schemes and amounts changed constantly, sending the stock market reeling and presenting scenes of chaos to the world.
Trump's messaging throughout has been generationally bad. While facing nearly 2:1 unpopularity, he spends his days posting AI slop, saying he'll rename New Mexico or invade allies, among other bizarre remarks. He brags about a ballroom and a pool repainting while gas hits records. At no point has he ever attempted any kind of message discipline.
Then there are the deeply unpopular attacks on rule of law, his "game-recognize-game" pardons for all manner of scammers and criminals, the crypto schemes that he and his family engage in, the evilly conceived and embarrassingly executed legal attacks on Comey, Jerome Powell, and others. With his monthslong stand on NOT releasing the Epstein files, he became maybe the first president ever to stake out a 99-1 issue on the 1% side.
That's not even getting into Iran, DOGE, his candidate recruitment choices, or countless other things. Simply put: Trump has managed to royally screw up virtually every single facet of his presidency. It's been undeniable, voters have noticed, and there's really no escape from it. This is what the GOP base chose in early 2024, and this is the world they're living with now. Where they handed the reins of history to a fat, vain, washed-up old man and let him drive.
How does one balance security with personal and political freedoms? Increasingly, I don't see the former's worth in justifying the curtailment of the latter when there is no promise of either economic betterment or even basic peace.
David lit retweeted
You cannot call it an occupation and undo our history because of the present fascism and state brutality.
It is called Azad Jammu and Kashmir, because our ancestors fought and liberated the territory, giving it the name 'Azad' JK. Our founding fathers chose this name.
Started this at the recommendation of the venerable @Radion_Popalzai . Will be periodically posting excerpts I find interesting.
David lit retweeted
Why are people mad at this? Shes making a correct point lol.
Youthias need some Introspection instead of punching down every voice that isn’t 100% aligned with them.
People be saying anything nowadays.
General Abdul Waheed Kakar is dead. He was 89. He died quietly in Rawalpindi on a Monday, which is how he lived his whole life. Quietly, and on time. The papers will say it was old age. But it was polonium poisoning, and the man who ordered it now wears the Field Marshal's baton i,e Asim Munir.
Kakar was born in Zhob, in Balochistan, in 1937. He joined the army in 1956 and fought in the 1965 and 1971 wars against India. He later commanded a corps in Quetta. In January 1993 Nawaz Sharif made him army chief. He was not the senior most officer. He was jumped over several men who were older than him, and those men were not happy about it. The appointment was messy. It was also the last time this country got lucky with an army chief.
Because Kakar did the one thing army chiefs here are not supposed to do. He went home. He did his three years, from January 1993 to January 1996, and when they offered him an extension a few weeks before he was due to retire, he said no thank you and handed over the baton. Think about that. An army chief in Pakistan, offered more time and more power, and he just said no. Here that is not normal. Here that is almost strange.
And the reason he said no is the same reason we should remember him. Kakar did not want to run the country. In 1993 the President, Ghulam Ishaq Khan, and the Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, were fighting each other so hard that the country was close to a breakdown. Kakar did not pick a side. He sat both of them down, worked out a deal, and sent both of them home. Calmly. No stick, no tanks, no midnight knock on the door. People called it the Kakar Formula. For a while Pakistan was run by people who were not scared of the army. He also pushed out officers who had started playing politics, like Asad Durrani. His message was simple. If you wear the uniform, stay out of politics.
But his real crime was India. Kakar wanted peace with India. Not big speeches. Not Kashmir on fire all the time. Just trade, quiet borders, normal neighbours. He did not think India was an enemy for life. He thought India was a neighbour you make peace with. That was his whole idea.
And this is what makes today's army, Asim Munir's army uncomfortable. Munir's army runs on the opposite idea. For them India is identity, Kashmir is the itch you keep scratching, and the uniform is the only thing in this country that lasts. Kakar was proof that it did not have to be like this. He was a general who made peace look easy, who made the civilians look like they could actually run things, who did his time and left. A general like that makes the ones who sell endless conflict look useless.
So they retired him. Not with a bullet. Bullets are loud. Bullets leave marks. Bullets get investigated. Polonium is better. It has no taste, no smell, it is slow, and nobody finds it unless they go looking. It does not look like a coup. It does not look like a murder. It looks like an old man of 89 whose body finally gave up. That is the point. It is the perfect exit for a man who never wanted a fight. And the timing is too neat. He dies on a Monday, ISPR puts out a statement, Munir and all ranks say they are very sad, and everyone moves on. The theory is not some fringe thing either. Reporting this month on the ISI's own internal fights talks about poisoning and radiation inside Pakistan's security setup. Polonium fits.
I will say it straight. Pakistan just lost its last apolitical general. The army he left behind was quiet, professional, and knew its place. It saluted the civilians and it went home on time. That army is gone. What we have now is an army that salutes itself.
Farewell, General. You retired on time, you said no to the extension, and you wanted peace with the neighbours. In this army that is a full life. The army you left behind would not even recognise you.
For the Iranian question. Remember one major leverage Iran has over Pak, is the threat of backing Afgh with drone and military support, thus bolstering their capabilities in the current hostilities. Any formal or informal peace deal/ceasefire with TTP-IMP might be to prevent that
but that would then mean the estb is seriously thinking of confronting Iran in one or more theatres and so would want to make a Faustian bargain to keep quiet on one front at least. Overall, this will have major negative impacts for Pak's internal security down the line.