Has OBL left the building?

Unless we plead incomp­etence, the suggestion that ISI is a terror­ist organi­sation will only be cement­ed furthe­r.

I just don’t understand how our TV anchors are glib enough to justify calling Osama bin Laden a shaheed. The man had no regard for life, especially Muslim life. He engineered attacks on the West, so they would retaliate and kill Muslims en masse in their vengeance upon selected countries. Every Muslim was a pawn to his mad dreams.

But true to form, the Americans have ably demonstrated their incompetence with uncanny ability. When will they realise that the Muslim street thrives not on falafel and biryani, but conspiracy theories?

By killing Osama and not releasing pictures of his body and hastily dumping the corpse at sea, it is the perfect storm of facts that could now be used to create doubt about the man’s demise. If the victory in killing him was largely of symbolic value, then what good will it be if it has a looming shadow of doubt cast over it?

But forget about the ‘I-saw-Elvis!’ phenomenon that is likely to follow in the wake of his demise. What is truly concerning is not what this means for al Qaeda or their reprisals, but what will happen to Pakistan.

As usual, the army and intelligence agencies have taken the easy way out. They haven’t explained their role in the killing, even if it is just one of sharing intelligence. If a land operation like this in Abbottabad was truly done without their sanction, aid or go ahead, then the only logical conclusion is that we have terribly incompetent soldiers.

That, I am sure, they don’t want you thinking. So what are other possible conjecture at this time when information is still scarce? Well, one is that the ISI finally helped reset its relationship with the US after a very damaging round of WikiLeaks by throwing them this bone.

If that is true, boy are we in for a lot of trouble. When the smoke settles in Abbottabad, the inevitable thrust of the conversation will not be our cooperation in the targeted operation, but how someone so wanted could live for this long next to Kakul and an army presence.

Unless we wish to plead absolute incompetence, the new suggestion that the US views the ISI as a terrorist organisation because of its support to certain other organisations will only be cemented further. Forget the brief honeymoon that will ensue after Osama’s death between Pakistan and the US — when the celebrations are over the deliberations will begin, and Pakistan will be seen as the Copacabana of choice for terrorists once again.

If anything, what’s urgently required now is a total and systematic denunciation of our strategic depth doctrine, our urge to play God with terrorist groups needs to end in totality if we are to present a face to the international community that prevents us from being seen as more culpable than we actually are.

It’s safe to say that the US can never be trusted as an ally, nor as a state that respects international conventions, witness the Iraq invasion. But it’s also a predictable nation, one that has set security parameters. If there is any further attack outside this country that was planned and ordered from Pakistan, it’s safe to say the drones won’t stop in the tribal areas.

If Osama was found in Waziristan, we would have had plausible deniability because the writ of the state is so weak in these areas. But being found in a hill station in the lap of relative luxury in scenic surroundings so close to the heart of where the Pakistan Army is manned; well, we now have an entirely different problem on a scale that we have yet to digest.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 4^th, 2011.