Bashing Pakistan
By Dr Shireen M. Mazari
It seems no
matter what we do as a country in the context of
the war on terror, we will continue to be the West's
whipping boy -- especially the US media. Given the
close links with this media and the US Administration
-- the two together having set the dubious tradition
of embedded journalism (another name for self-censorship)
to paper over the overwhelming abuse of human rights
in Iraq, alongside the overall abuse of prisoners
in Afghanistan and in Guantanamo Bay. Finally, George
Bush has accepted and defended the US's right to
use torture as a tool in the war on terror. So on
what grounds can the US State Department continue
to produce reports critical of human rights abuses
by other countries, most of which happen to be developing
countries. Meanwhile, allies like Israel never have
anything to fear as they continue with their state
terrorism.
Be that as it may, as far as Pakistan is concerned,
it can never do anything right. The latest accusations
come once again from that anti-Pakistan newspaper,
the Washington Post, which now claims that the key
to the whole resurgence of the Taliban is simply
Pakistan. The person who wrote the piece for this
paper, CNN's so-called terrorism expert Peter Bergen,
falls into the typical US mindset of seeking simple
explanations that will sell (and what better than
to lay all the sins of bad US policies in Afghanistan
at Pakistan's doorstep -- a militarily strong Muslim
state with a nuclear capability which will always
sit uncomfortably with the West).
As one continues to read Bergen's tirade, it becomes
clear that what is frustrating the Americans is
the ganging up of disparate forces to fight the
US in Afghanistan. Hekmatyar and Jalaluddin Haqqani
-- both past foes of the Taliban -- seem to have
joined forces with their former opponents to fight
US and NATO forces in Afghanistan. Even when Hekmatyar
was being supported by the US and Pakistan, during
the fight against the Soviets, he was not given
to taking instructions from Pakistan. Hence, it
hardly seems likely that Pakistan would now have
persuaded him to join the Taliban when it has itself
turned against them. But logic has never been an
American strong point and the world continues to
suffer for this shortcoming.
Surely it is time the US and its coalition partners
undertook a serious review of their Afghan policy.
One British officer has resigned and gone public
with his criticism of this faulty policy. As for
those Pakistanis who pander to what the West, especially
the US, wants to hear, perhaps those listening to
them should try and understand that these individual
experts and NGOs rely on their funding from their
Western donors --and criticizing Pakistan pays for
their lifestyles. It is time for Pakistan to follow
India and Indonesia's lead and respond forcefully
to NGOs such as the International Crisis Group whose
study of madressahs in Pakistan, which used almost
a single source for most of its data and claims,
was questioned by scholars in the US. But the damage
had been done. How long will we indulge such agenda-driven
NGOs in the name of "freedom" and "liberalism"?
Coming back to the US, its arrogance continues to
grow vis-a-vis Pakistan and the hostility is building
up to time with President Musharraf's visit to the
UN and US. A US spokesman in Kabul haughtily declared
in a style reminiscent of imperialism that the truce
deal signed by the Pakistan government in North
Waziristan would be "monitored". Even
more disturbing is a news item that appeared in
an English newspaper which said that a special US
unit can enter Pakistan at will to hunt for Osama.
Have we been so cowed down by America that we are
now formally undermining our sovereignty voluntarily
to it? According to this report, which cites, yet
again, the Washington Post, complaining that "Pakistan
will permit only small numbers of US forces to operate
with its troops", and therefore US troops say
they have too little to do.
Even one US soldier operating with our troops is
one too many. As for US soldiers having little to
do, surely they must be joking, given the dire law
and order situation in Afghanistan. The fact that
they still have not stabilized that country shows
how much work there is for them to do, or do they
want the NATO troops to act as cannon fodder for
their faulty Afghan policy? In any event, it is
high time the US assumed responsibility for its
failures in Afghanistan -- despite their high tech
weapon systems and randomly distributed largesse
amongst the warlords.
The Post continues its litany against Pakistan by
declaring that "not a single senior Taliban
leader has been arrested or killed in Pakistan since
2001", but how many Taliban "leaders'
have been identified and named by the US post-9/11,
apart from Mullah Omar? Clearly, the newspaper is
confusing the Taliban with Al Qaeda where the leaders
are identified down the hierarchy and many of them
have been captured either by Pakistan or with the
help of Pakistan. But such recognition would not
gel with the Pakistan-bashing being conducted by
the US media presently.
In all this, it is strange that given the US and
Europe's vocal condemnation of terrorism perpetrated
by Muslims, there has been little condemnation of
the act of terror against Muslims as they were praying
at a mosque, in western India. The Mumbai blasts
were lead stories in the Western media but where
were the headlines reporting the death of over 40
Muslims, with dozens more wounded, in Malegaon caused
by a series of bomb blasts? One bomb went off inside
a mosque, another outside its gate and the third
in the town square. A clear case of targeted terrorism
against the downtrodden Muslims of India.
However, equally obvious is the fact that the killing
of Muslims by Hindu terrorists seems to be acceptable
to the West even as they rant and rave against "Islamic
militants". The Bush-Blair combine's silence
is the most damning. Similarly, the US and the Karzai
government ignoring the office of the BLA in central
Kabul is a clear signal that both these players
are giving this terrorist outfit at least their
tacit blessing.
Under these circumstances, Pakistan must chart its
own independent stance to fight terrorism both within
and outside. And it must now evolve a more encompassing
strategy, unlike the US approach of relying primarily
on a military strategy, to deal with the root causes
of terrorism. We have been reiterating the need
to deal with root causes at the declaratory level
and the Waziristan truce deal is one small step
in this direction. But we must do more and we certainly
should not be detracted by US criticism of our approach
– especially given their own dismal failure
so far in Afghanistan and Iraq – and Lebanon
also. Given the new vitriol coming out of Washington
against Iran, we should prepare ourselves for the
worst from the Bush-Blair combine even as we chart
a more rational course in our own war on terror.
(The writer is director general of the Institute
of Strategic Studies in Islamabad. Courtesy The
News)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
