Wednesday, June 27, 2012

The U.S.A 88, Pakistan 149, Israel 150

We're Number 88! We're Number 88! US Ranked Low on Global Peace Index

2012 Global Peace Index shows slightly more peaceful world from 2009

- Common Dreams staff

The just released 2012 Global Peace Index (GPI) from the Institute for Economics and Peace shows that the world has become slightly more peaceful over the last two years, with Iceland ranking as the most peaceful country and Somalia ranking as the least peaceful place. The U.S. ranks 88 of 158.Click on the image to use the interactive map. (Image: Global Peace Index)

The index takes into account factors including jailed population, political instability, conflicts fought and military expenditure.

"What comes across dramatically in this year's results and the six year trends is a shift in global priorities. Nations have become externally more peaceful as they compete through economic, rather than military means. The results for Sub Saharan Africa as a whole are particularly striking – regional wars have waned as the African Union strives to develop economic and political integration." said Steve Killelea, founder and Executive Chairman of the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP).

"Peacefulness has returned to approximately the levels seen in 2007, but while external measures of peacefulness have improved, there has been a rise in internal conflict. This is particularly noticeable in the rise in fatalities from terrorist acts which have more than trebled since 2003," states Killelea.

The findings also highlight the fact that peace has an economic advantage. The IEP estimates that global peace in 2011 would have had an economic benefit of $9 trillion.

* * *

Video uploaded by Vision of Humanity with highlights of the 2012 Global Peace Index

* * *

10 Most Peaceful Countries

Source: 2012 Global Peace Index

Rank

Country

1

Iceland

2

Denmark

2

New Zealand

4

Canada

5

Japan

6

Austria

6

Ireland

8

Slovenia

9

Finland

10

Switzerland

 

10 Least Peaceful Countries

Source: 2012 Global Peace Index

Rank

Country

158

Somalia

157

Afghanistan

156

Sudan

155

Iraq

154

Dem. Republic of Congo

153

Russia

152

North Korea

151

Central African Republic

150

Israel

149

Pakistan

 

* * *

Global Peace Index: Key Findings

  • Iceland is the most peaceful country for the second successive year
  • Syria tumbles by the largest margin, dropping over 30 places to 147th position.
  • Somalia remains the world's least peaceful nation for the second year running.
  • End of civil war sees Sri Lanka as biggest riser, leaping nearly 30 places
  • If the world had been completely peaceful in 2011, the economic benefit would have been an estimated US $9 trillion



Dr. S. Akhtar Ehtisham
(607) 776-3336
P.O. Box 469,
Bath NY 14810
USA
Blog syedehtisham.blogspot.com
All religions try to take over the establishment and if they fail, they collaborate with it, be it feudal or capitalist.


--
Shahzad Afzal
http://www.pakistanprobe.com/



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Wednesday, June 13, 2012

NATO will exit Afghanistan as Soviets did, through Central Asia

NATO signs deals with Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan to truck its military supplies from Afghan war out through Central Asia, giving it options instead of closed Pakistan route.

By Scott Baldauf, Staff writer / June 5, 2012

NATO may not know the final result of its intervention in Afghanistan, but it now has an exit plan. And the exit will take place through Central Asia, the same route the Soviet troops took after their withdrawal in 1988 and 1989.

As relations worsen between the United States andPakistan, NATO has signed deals with Uzbekistan,Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan (see map here) to move out the tons of equipment that must be withdrawn by 2014, when NATO makes its final exit from Afghanistan.

Speaking with Agence France-Presse news agency,NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussensaid that NATO now considers Central Asia and its Russian-built roads to be the most expedient route out of Afghanistan.  

"These agreements will give us a range of new options and the robust and flexible transport network we need," Mr. Rasmussen said.

Tarnished by more than a decade of war, mutual recriminations, and foreign policy goals that are increasingly at odds, the US-Pakistani relationship now has reached a nadir. From the early post 9/11 days, when NATO received 90 percent of its supplies for the Afghan war through the Pakistani port of Karachi, now Pakistan has cut off NATO's old supply routes. Last November, Pakistan banned NATO's use of Pakistani territory after NATO planes mistakenly bombed a Pakistani post, killing 24 Pakistani soldiers.

For Pakistan, the NATO bombing was the last straw, following the violation of its territorial sovereignty last year when US Navy SEALs captured and killed Osama bin Laden in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad.

Pakistani officials complain that Washington simply cannot grasp the difficulty of reining in popular Islamist militant groups in a country that sees itself constantly under threat from outside. Washington fails to see the threat that Pakistan's larger rival, India, poses to Pakistan's very existence, and fails to understand how angry Pakistani citizens become after each successive aerial attack over their territory. For its part, Washington has come to see Pakistan as an unreliable ally, a country where the Pakistani military maintains ties with the very groups that attack US troops on Afghan soil, where America's biggest enemy, Mr. bin Laden, was taking up residence in a military garrison town.

NATO and Pakistan could still patch things up. Pakistan has been hinting lately that there is still room for dialogue, with Pakistan's Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar suggesting that the US simply needed to apologize for the November bombing of its troops.

"For us in Pakistan ... the most popular thing to do right now is to not move on NATO supply routes at all. It is to close them forever," Ms. Khar told AFP in an interview. "If I were a political adviser to the prime minister, this is what I would advise him to do. But I'm not advising him to do that ... because what is at stake is much more important for Pakistan than just winning an election."

Khar may not want to wait for an apology, given America's current election season. President Obamaseems disinclined, to say the least, and his Republican rival, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney – whose campaign strategy is to attack Mr. Obama as weak on national defense – is about as likely to push for a NATO apology as he is to push for gun control.

So in the meantime, NATO is looking north, and expanding its options.

Trucking out tanks, artillery pieces, and other military devices that were designed specifically to destroy theSoviet Union, on a route through the former Soviet states themselves, is not only rich with irony, it is also quite expensive. The cost of the northern supply routeis nearly double that of the Pakistani route, but at least it's cheaper than flying all that equipment out by air, which costs the US military $14,000 per ton.

--
Shahzad Afzal
http://www.pakistanprobe.com/



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