Realism on the war on terror

Solid citizens are also realists, want a government they can trust and a military that can demonstrate its resolve.

It should be obvious that extremism and moderation, much like civil liberty and martial law, cannot coexist because their antagonism is irreconcilable and when in conflict, one or the other must perish. It is facile, therefore, to think that extremism and moderation can be peacefully reconciled in Pakistan, as some believe they can, by opening negotiations with the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Or that the TTP can be sweet-talked into ending its struggle. Clausewitch, in a prefatory note to his classic work On War, captures this reality aptly: “Philanthropic souls imagine there is an artistic way of disarming or overthrowing the enemy without too much bloodshed and that this was what the art of war should seek to achieve. However agreeable this may sound, it is a false idea which must be demolished. In affairs so dangerous as war, false ideas proceeding from kindness of heart are precisely the worst.”

So in our case, the question arises whether we are lily-livered liberals who cannot bear reality and live in a world of wishful thinking, or is it that we are confused and hence divided and perhaps even scared? Probably both was the unmistakable impression some of us formed following the TTP’s capture of Swat in 2008 when the media scurried around, trying to get the attention of the TTP spokesman at the time, Sufi Mohammed, for a few pearls of wisdom that he may share with his nationwide audience. It seemed then that we had given up. Thankfully, the military situation changed and the former TTP chieftain and many of his ilk, though not nearly enough, sit in prison.

But the way we are conducting ourselves in the ongoing war against the TTP and our lack of clarity when it comes to evolving a plan to deal with this menace suggests that we are at sixes and sevens.

To begin with, there is too much uncertainty and insecurity. Daily acts of terrorism have driven off investment and fatally hampered our efforts to retrieve the economy from bankruptcy. Law and order in some of our cities has collapsed.

And yet very little that we do suggests that we appreciate the dire straits in which we are in. Instead, parties are planned, events scheduled, business projections discussed and even holidays arranged as if not a shadow of doubt exists about what the morrow will bring. So where is the cataclysmic war we are fighting to safeguard our very existence?

Actually, if you burrow a little, you will strike a rich vein of desperately concerned citizens who are deeply worried but who, for want of opportunity or whatever, are not yet rushing for the exits.

This lot realises that two and two make four and is desperate. They feel Pakistan is nearing the end of its tether and even if there is a lot of ruin left they do not believe that a flourish of the flag, a catchword or two will strike a chord and nor will patriotic jargon suffice. Solid citizens all, they are also realists. They want a government they can trust and a military that can demonstrate its resolve to take on the TTP.

The situation is grave. While many are hoping for a miracle out of sheer despair, some who benefit from anarchy are hoping for a richer harvest as the country goes steadily down the tube. It is clear that only a national government which can bring the civil and military together on a minimum programme on key issues to restore internal security, revive the economy, overhaul our ties with the US and work actively for a negotiated settlement in Afghanistan, will suffice.

Martial law won’t do anymore nor will the business as usual style of our politicians. The internal mess has gone on for far too long and instability has worked to the advantage of the extremists, the criminal underworld and others who are in league with those forces.

So we need to get off the current path to perdition and on to an emergency mode that can raise our morale and shake us into being more serious about our future. That way we can concentrate our political strength that is so badly needed to restore the supremacy of the state and its writ. A national government is by far the best option at this sensitive juncture of our history and would also provide a far better context for tackling corruption head on.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 27^th, 2011.