Opinion

“Peace Under Fear Is Suppressed War”
By Mohammad Ashraf Chaudhry
Pittsburg, CA

“Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide”. - John Adams, America’s 2 nd President

Sermons on peace: The recurring mantra for “peace” that resonates day and night from the main leadership of Pakistan and from the “haters of bloodshed” garbed in various disguises, and that falls incessantly on the ears of poor and peace-loving people of Pakistan, is: “Peace is a great virtue; peace is the only solution. Please, Taliban, stop these senseless killings of women, children and soldiers. You are also Muslim, and many of you, even good ones. We understand you are just misdirected. Now that America is about to leave the region, please come back. Etc. etc. “.

Imran Khan even labels those who predict the fate of peace talks somewhat realistically as “war-mongering minority of elites”. The PM visits Imran Khan without any protocol, and furnishes the nation with a much-awaited cause to celebrate, by stating, “Talks have entered a meaningful phase. We want to accomplish peace without spilling any bloodshed.” Laudable comments, but logic, history, religion and commonsense do not buy it. Religion demands justice; history shouts that it doesn’t happen like that; logic demands to remove the dead dog first from the well or it will continue to stay as polluted. And commonsense just laughs.

The title of this article is borrowed from a saying of Henry Van Dyke (1852-1933), a famous American poet. “A peace which depends upon fear is nothing but a suppressed war”. The veracity of this statement is a valid and an established reality. “Peace has its victories, but it takes a brave man to win them,” said Emerson. That man of character and action is missing in the Pakistani leadership. Ideal peace exists only between equals, otherwise, peace is always won with a heavy price. A wish for peace like a wish for food does not bring peace or food.

Barbara F. Walter as a piece of advice to President Obama in his quest to find a diplomatic solution to the civil war in Syria, pointed out FOUR characteristics of civil wars that have ended in the last 70+ years. They are:

Civil wars don’t end quickly. Their average length since 1945 has been 10 years
The greater the number of factions, the longer a civil war tends to last.
Most civil wars end in decisive military victories, not negotiated settlements.
Finally, the civil wars that end in successfully negotiated settlements tend to have two things in common. First, they tend to divide political power amongst the combatants based on their position in the battlefield. Second, successful settlements enjoy the help of a third party willing to ensure the safety of combatants as they demobilize. This means that even if all sides eventually agree to negotiate (i.e. due to a military stalemate or increasingly heavy costs) it’s unlikely that any country or the UN will be willing to send the peacekeepers necessary to help implement the peace. (Conclusion is zero percent chance of success)

Add to these points two more elements: First, the element of ideology. Second, the provision of legitimacy to acts of terrorism and force, and then see that the only effective, meaningful, long lasting and tried method is a decisive military victory. Ideological wars are much longer and often are borderless. Who on behalf of Taliban will offer a warrantee that they will “fizzle out” in the air, and will live in peace in the future like the 180 million people of Pakistan. Peace lectures need to be directed towards the terrorists, and not towards the people of Pakistan who have become passive victims.

Unfortunately, the government and their hirelings predictably have become the endorsers of the Taliban ideology. Their statements, writings, public pronouncements and talks, all speak like daylight what they essentially stand for, what they espouse for, and wish for. The so-called peace talks are basically, a round table conference between Taliban-like, Taliban-type and Taliban themselves. Not a single man representing the concerns and views of what Pakistan actually stands for was included in the three so-called negotiating teams. Now even an office is being offered to them. What a way to rub salt on the wounds of those Pakistanis whose dear ones laid down their lives so that others could live in peace.

Last year a poll conducted by the Pew Research Global Attitude Project found that 93 percent of Pakistanis declared terrorism a big problem, while 45 percent showed concern about the Indian influence in Afghanistan.

Since lying, and lying day and day by making false statements, by hiding facts from people, by tailoring excuses to avoid steps that may affect adversely their voting bank, these politicians of most parties have collectively brought Pakistan, a country that was all set to rise like a meteor on the world horizon, to the brink of a big disaster. “Today Pakistani Taliban are no longer confined to the tribal areas straddling the Pakistan-Afghanistan border”. No. They are in every village, tehsil, district and division of Pakistan, and unfortunately, accordingly to the International Crisis Group (ICG), "The provincial capitals of Peshawar, Quetta, Karachi and Lahore ‘are bases of operations and financing for a range of extremist groups and criminal gangs that exploit poor governance and failing public infrastructure to establish recruitment and patronage networks.” Panjab hosts the largest number of Taliban-type, and Taliban sympathizers than all the three provinces combined.

Wishing for food does not appease the hunger of a hungry man; he has to start walking towards a source of food with money in his pocket. All this involves concerted effort. The shameful act on the part of the politicians is that they are scared to call a spade a spade. Under all sorts of euphuistic phraseology and illusions, they day and night engage themselves in convincing the people that military action would involve lot of bloodshed, loss of innocent lives, displacement of millions of people, spread of terrorism all over the country, multiplication of terrorist acts, etc. etc. Well! Even Somalia is moving its African United Forces against the terrorists that may entail a displacement of over three million people. India paid the price of its PM in 1984 to deal with the Sikh revolt; Sri Lanka chased the Tamils till they got tamed. Abraham Lincoln, the 16 th President, inherited a looming civil war; had generals who would not fight; received assassination threats on daily basis; had a cabinet of staunch rivals that bickered constantly and was divided; heard of news of the loss of life and of the debacles of his forces in the battlefield; had a good number of people who considered him just not worthy enough to be the president. In short, was there a thing that could favor him! After having lost close to 700,000 of his own people, and after obtaining a total victory, he famously said, “A civil war can never be brought to a close until the key is in our pocket.” Terrorism is like the ugly Greek goddess, Medusa, having snakes instead of hair on her head, apparently protective but actually very destructive, a combination of beauty and ugliness. In literature, it is equated with ambiguity and deception, because its enchanting stares mesmerize the innocent with a view to destroying them by turning them into stones. The more you cut its snake-hair, the more they grow. Therefore, watch Mian Sahib. You are playing a dangerous game for some cheap political benefits. Vipers are never friends. (Continued)