The wars within

Why do I keep writing about wars? I recently started a YouTube channel, and all I have discussed on it since it began is wars. Perhaps because writing about the zillion other matters that weigh on the mind about Pakistan and its domestic complications is either not safe to talk about in the prevailing environment or will not fetch any recognition; nor will they ever be resolved because those in power don't seem to care. Neither does anything ever get done about them. Every news cycle only brings bad news. The relentless decay of Karachi – is it deliberate, or just that no one cares? It keeps reminding one of the ugliness that the country has become.

Ditto, the young children who become victims of easy child abuse in violations that just keep increasing in number every day. What has gone wrong with us as a society? Is it because of a lazy and fully compromised legal system in which there is no retribution for such crimes or any crime if you are monied, have influence, and can manipulate the right levers in higher places? The women are repeat victims of sexual crimes. There is neither lament nor abatement. The society is off its hooks. Why? Discipline, norms, mutual respect, lowered gazes, giving way; are these values of the past? Now antiquated? Any time I see a little girl out alone at an odd time of the day in the rather secluded environment that I live in, I worry about her and her safety. I follow her till she is in the safety of her walls. My bigger question: Does anyone care? At all? Or have we fallen to the lows that perk the animals in us?

Is it because we are attending to bigger matters? Of money and resources, and impending catastrophes that we feared would soon knock at our door? The entire leadership of this country has been fighting to bring peace to the world, while in the country, we are descending to new lows with every passing day. Perhaps staying away keeps the gaping holes inside out of our sight. Borrowed money counts as success. We live on that rung of the ladder where we hardly get noticed. But when we do, we are eager to be noted, will do someone's dirty work for them, or will jump to offer our services to remain in sight of wandering eyes. Mostly, the chores barely get done and, in consequence, may immerse us fully in quagmires that we find difficult to extract ourselves from. Our heft is low and the weight lesser, but we overreach in fulfilment of tasks that are onerous. And most wouldn't care if the work gets done, because they usually have their own goals and timelines. In the meantime, every passing day in the country only sinks us further, inch by inch.

The Islamabad MoU between Iran and the US was Pakistan's moment in the sun. The light shone on them. Just a year before, Pakistan had announced to the world 'it existed', with a remarkable display of grit and courage in the face of a brazen Indian attack on its soil. That some parts of the country and its systems still worked surprised many in the country, even the leadership. But work they did with aplomb and certitude lost to many in an increasing envelope of dismay and destitution. It seemed there still was hope. That we could recover. That there was this special spark that could still bring light to our increasingly darkening lives. But rather than using it to spread the glow inside the country, we took it abroad to showcase to the world. We chose to brighten foreign spots and make a name for ourselves. We may have been partially successful for as long as it lasted. Soon, the glow was blown over by the incessantly opposing winds that run their own course. The dark back home beckoned. Slowly, the men who had ventured abroad to lighten the world trudged back reluctantly to the corners of the realities that defined their own space and described their own predicaments.

Iran will do as it pleases and what drives its guts even if it isn't pleasant. Donald Trump may not have been the most dignified man to lead the USA; it is for him to extract himself from a war that he foolishly ventured into. It is for these two to come to terms with their inadequacies and vulnerabilities. Try as hard as we may to bring peace between them, they are being driven by their fears. And fearful men never make peace. We, a middling nation of poor people struggling to find our way through the inadequacies of our own, can try but then hardly have the capacity to continue to cover for others. We have spread ourselves too thin. We should focus only on our own needs and challenges and not take on other people's chores for them, even on the promises of money and investment. We need every hand here in the country to fight our own battles on multiple fronts. Failing at our primary tasks at home cannot be replaced with borrowed and contrived success from abroad, for services that this nation may find difficult to fulfil.

The unreserved winner of this unending war in Iran is not even a participant in the current phase of the war. Israel may have initiated a war of its choice and convenience, according to its envisaged plan and not succeeded. But now, it has Donald Trump and Iran doing the rest from the playbook that she had so carefully designed. While Israel now sits extracted, contending against local and weaker threats, the US continues to be embroiled in a war that Trump himself and his entire country think he should not have been fighting. Iran will pay the price for its overzealousness and rhetoric, not in the immediate term, but soon in the short-to-midterm. How Iran evolves in the long game is for the world to see, as unintended consequences shape events that will change countries and regions, if not the world. Iran is currently a fully conscious, deliberate executioner of the plot of which it will soon be the victim. In the meantime, each day of war brings Israel closer to its objectives in the Middle East.

How can Pakistan then hope to bring peace to people who each have their own reasons to fight and endure? There are some things best left to themselves. Fires in the bellies have their own timeline to fizzle. They need time to play out. Leave Iran to its whims and Trump to his shenanigans. Wars may be easier and louder to write about, but societies decay in silence. Home beckons. It is time to come back home.