In 2008, a twenty-five year journey through tragedy and suffering finally ended on a high note of personal triumph for Benezir Bhutto's husband, the so-called "Black Widower" Asif Ali Zardari (pictured) who assumed office on this day as the first President of the newly independent state of Sindhistan.

The War on Terror Plus, Part 1 ~ The Triumph of the Black WidowerResponding to criticism that she had married below her station, Prime Minister Bhutto had separated her personal and professional lives by indicating that "[Asif] will not be involved in my political career at all, and I have no intention of visiting his cement works in Karachi". Zardari himself recognised the even greater gulf in their leadership abilities with the Pakistani proverb that "The camel only finds out that there is something taller than him when he comes beneath a mountain".

Zarari served in his wife's cabinet as the Minister of Investment; accused of bribery and corruption he was unfairly labelled "Mr Ten Percent". And by the time Bhutto returned from exile in October 2007, Zardari had been incarcerated at Karachi Central Prison for eleven and a half of the previous eighteen years. Badly tortured, her husband had collected a sickle-like scar on his tongue, a slashing wound by his jugular vein and severe back injuries from being repeatedly struck by a rifle butt.

When Bhutto's family and supporters buried her, Sindhis chanted, "We don't need Pakistan! We don't need Pakistan!".And that political violence was hardly exceptional - the country that Bhutto returned to was already teetering on the edge of the abyss. Because American actions in Afghanistan had forced the Taliban to regroup over the border in Pakistan. Even worse was to follow. On 27th December, Bhutto herself was assassinated.

Pakistan burned for days with the the worst rioting occurring in the couple's home province of Sindh.

When Bhutto's family and supporters buried her, Sindhis chanted, "We don't need Pakistan! We don't need Pakistan!". And this nationalist sentiment was clear from Bhutto's handwritten will "I would like my husband Asif Ali Zardari to lead my people in the interim period until you [the Sindhis] and he decide what is best. I say this because he is a man of courage and honour. He spent 11 1/2 years in prison without bending despite torture. He has the political stature to keep our people united".

At one of the most volatile and dangerous moments in the country's history, Zardari led a Sindhi revolt, pushing Pakistan over the brink and into the abyss of dissolution. Sixty years after he had founded the "Fortress of Islam", Mohammed Jinnah's national dream for Pakistan ended in a most frightful nightmare.

In 2009, on this day the NATO commander in Afghanistan General David McKiernan (pictured, left) was fired by Defense secretary Robert Gates.

McKiernan's replacement would be General Stanley McChrystal, previously the head of the Joint Special Operations Command and therefore considered more able to lead the new strategy devised by the President - counter-insurgency raids across the border into the former Pakistan.

The War on Terror Plus, Part 2 ~ Marching OrdersThe leading obstacle to the new strategy would prove to be the Prime Minister of Sindhistan, Asif Ali Zardari (pictured, right) who had held President Musharraf accountable for bringing Pakistan into the War on Terror.

The political violence that had sprung from that showdown would smash the "Fortress of Islam" into a thousand pieces.

And worse, because NATO operations in Afganistan had displaced the violence, forcing the Taliban to withdraw to the mountainous border zone, destabilising the whole region. Now India was breaking up too.

McKiernan had actually been in charge of Ground Troops during the Iraq Invasion in 2003. And his then subordinate, David Petraeus was the man who was later considered to have rescued the whole mission from ignominous defeat. "I hope they are not looking for a silver bullet; there isn't one," ~ senior NATO commanderInevitably, Petraeus's success was McKiernan's failure. In fact dismissal had already become a certainty during the previous year.

Because on the eve of the 2008 Republican National Convention in Saint Paul, Minnesota, John McCain suffered a debilitating heart attack. A desperate Republican National Committee had selected Petraeus as the Presidential Candidate most likely to prevent Barack Obama achieving a run-away victory. Such an outcome would have undone all of George W. Bush and Karl Rove's hard work to establish a republican strangehold on all levels of the US Government. A new Eisenhower was now in office and the project could proceed as planned ..

In 2009, the newly appointed NATO commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal was given his first mission objective, to search and destroy the US supplied F-16 bombers across the border in the former Pakistan.

The War on Terror Plus, Part 3 ~ Search and DestroyBecause forty F-16s were supplied to Pakistan during 1981 in the aftermath of the Soviet invasion of Afganistan. Four years later, the U.S. Senate banned military aid for Pakistan unless it halted its efforts to develop a nuclear bomb. In fact the Senate rightly feared that Pakistan's F-16s would be the main vehicle for annihilating Indian cities in an all-out war.

Nevertheless in 1989, George H.W. Bush sold Pakistan another twenty-eight of the jets for $22 million apiece.

But then the Soviets retreated from Afghanistan, and so the jets were mothballed at a military base in the Arizona desert known as "The Boneyard". Washington refused to reimburse Pakistan for the $656 million it had paid to U.S. defense contractors, even charging Pakistan for storage and maintenance costs.

During 2008, "the Fort of Islam" descended into anarchy climaxing in the dramatic resignation of General Musharraf. The most powerful successor state was Sindhistan, with its new Head of State, Asif Ali Zardari (pictured right). And it would be "the Black Widower" himself that would warn President Barack Obama that the nuclear-armed F-16s were in imminent danger of falling into the hands of Al-Qaeda.

In 2009, on this day in Ottawa terrorists stormed the Parliament Buildings with a radiological dirty-bomb.

The War on Terror Plus, Part 4 - The Dragon HuntersElements of the Canadian Special Operations Forces Command applied bomb disposal skills developed in the wilds of Kandahar province and seen mostly recently in action after a "nuclear suitcase" incident in Downtown Toronto. Of course pacifists indicated that it was the country's very involvement in the "Global War on Terror" that invited these attacks into Canadian soil.

The extent to which Canada has expanded overseas military operations in recent year is evident from the greatest deployment of reserve forces since World War II. A further expansion in "homeland security and defence" funding is considered certain due to the new threats from Chemical, Biological, Radiological or Nuclear weapons combined with the political leadership's desire to gain the respect due to a "middle power" with aggressive moves in the North Pole.

The belligerence of Canadian Foreign Policy is in sharp contrast to the broad sweep of national history. During the middle years of the twentieth century, enlightened politicians such as Lester B. Pearson marginalised British imperialism during the Suez Crisis and also foiled the attempt to grant independence to White Rhodesia. Ironically, it seems likely that during a period of alignment with the new Western imperialists, Canada might weaken ties with the United Kingdom by leaving the Commonweath and declaring a Republic.

In 2009, on this day a tense seventy-hour hostage situation in the Canadian capital city ended with the bloody climax predicted by the residents of Toronto.

The War on Terror Plus, Part 5 - "Dalton Day" CrisisWith the provincial government's expenditure running over $22bn over budget, Premier Dalton McGinty had been forced to introduce the unpaid public sector worker days that had been the subject of intense controversty for many years. These "Dalton Days" had fuelled an unprecedent strike of public sector workers, leaving government facilities in a state of absolute chaos. And during the third Dalton Day, terrorists had seized key buildings, taking terrorists and threatening to explode a radiological dirty-bomb.

Elements of the Canadian Special Operations Forces Command utilised robot technology that had been field-tested in the wilds of Kandahar province and seen mostly recently in action after a "nuclear suitcase" incident in Downtown Toronto.

Trade Unionists supported the pacifist view that it was the country's very involvement in the "Global War on Terror" that invited these attacks into Canadian soil. The extent to which Canada has expanded overseas military operations in recent year is evident from the greatest deployment of reserve forces since World War II. A further expansion in "homeland security and defence" funding is considered certain due to the new threats from Chemical, Biological, Radiological or Nuclear weapons combined with the political leadership's desire to gain the respect due to a "middle power" with aggressive moves in the North Pole.

The belligerence of Canadian Foreign Policy is in sharp contrast to the broad sweep of national history. During the middle years of the twentieth century, enlightened politicians such as Lester B. Pearson marginalised British imperialism during the Suez Crisis and also foiled the attempt to grant independence to White Rhodesia. Ironically, it seems likely that during a period of alignment with the new Western imperialists, Canada might weaken ties with the United Kingdom by leaving the Commonweath and declaring a Republic.

In 2009, senior ministers of the cabinet of Prime Minister Stephen Harper arrived by helicopter in Ottawa's new "Green Zone".

This Baghdad-style maximum security cordoned area had been hastily constructed over the previous forty-eight hours by elements of Canadian Special Operations Forces Command utilising robot technology.

The War on Terror Plus, Part 6 - "Operation Citadel"

Operational plans had changed dramatically in the two weeks since the first Olympic torchbearers Catriona Le May-Doan and Simon Whitfield had carried the Olympic flame through a crowd of thousands in Victoria. The slow-acting variant of the zombie virus known as "Solanum" that they carried with them was now raging through Canada, unhindered by the 50.4 million doses ordered by Health Canada from GlaxoSmithKline factory in Ste-Foy, Quebec. That order was cancelled in dramatic fashion, because the factory was now a smoking ruin after Al-qaeda crashed a hijacked Air Canada Jet Liner crashed into the production facility.

Prior to that devastating terrorist attack, Stephen Harper's government had devised Operation Citadel in which the then tiny population of Canadian zombies would be securely held in the purpose built Vancouver 2010 Olympic Village. Events had moved on a piece, and instead of building a twenty-first century leper colony, Special Forces were recalled from British Columbia in order to execute an altogether more desperate Operation Citadel. Rather than keeping the zombies in, the future of Canada now depended on these troops fields training in the wilds of Kandahar province in order to keep the zombies out of the Green Zone.

In 2009, on this day in Canada, the mortality rate from the zombie virus known as Solanum exceeded the pre-apocalypse unemployment count for the first time.

That the excesses of the credit crunch had been addressed by a population control measure foreseen by Thomas Malthus was of course of little cause for comfort to the Government. Because Stephen Harper and his senior ministers were desperately holed up behind a hastily erected maximum security cordon in Ottawa's "Green Zone".

The War on Terror Plus, Part 7 - "The Frozen Chosen"According to now irrelevant Olympic schedules, the Cabinet's focus should have been on the twenty members of the post who call themselves "The Frozen Chosen". Because on this, Day 10 of the cross-Canada Olympic torch relay, the Olympic athletes were due to arrive in the polar bear capital of the world, Churchill, Manitoba.

Their plan was to run with the flame into the Arctic darkness, which lasts 24 hours-a-day this time of the year. But instead, on day one the first torchbearers Catriona Le May-Doan and Simon Whitfield had carried the Olympic flame through a crowd of thousands in Victoria. Infected with Solanum, they also carried with them the deadly zombie virus.

Which was not to say that people werent arriving in Churchill, and in large crowds. Because the latest advice from Health Canada was for the non-infected to travel to the far north of the country, where it was hoped that the living dead would be unable reach...