Our two competing hatreds
We are nursing our two hatreds in competition with each other, our hatred for America and our hatred for the Taliban.
We have learned to hate America which tried very hard to teach us to hate the Taliban. The Taliban communicate with us — not by asking us to ‘do more’ — but by killing us and telling us we are not good Muslims. The army was the first to hate America — there was always a strong tendency within it for that, courtesy the likes of Hameed Gul — after we got the Kerry-Lugar bill aid.
Then, the army reacted angrily over Raymond Davis, Osama bin Laden and Dr Shakeel Afridi. It hounded the elected government in tandem with the Supreme Court and got rid of its ambassador to the US. After Salala, it blocked the Nato supply route. Then, it got parliament to pass a tough resolution against the US. We all started collectively hating America, climaxed by a violent self-damaging rage over a blasphemous video made in the US.
We felt comfortable not hating the Taliban. We were ready to forget the innocent Pakistanis they killed and the girls’ schools they destroyed. The Taliban then queered the pitch by trying to kill Malala Yousufzai in Swat. Suddenly, we realised that we hated this act. Now, we were required to nurse two hatreds in competition with each other.
We are suffering because hating the Taliban is tougher than hating Americans. After a spurt of unfamiliar human sympathy for Malala, we think we should revert to the comfort of hating America.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik first erred by issuing an anti-Taliban statement but then came to our rescue by saying the plot to kill Malala was hatched somewhere close to our border in Afghanistan. He was saying the Americans got her killed to confound us with two hatreds. More of this life-saving stuff followed, gratefully swallowed by the nation.
Writing in Jang (October 12, 2012) an ex-Amir of the Jamaat-e-Islami, Qazi Hussain Ahmad, opined that Malala had been attacked according to a sinister plan to facilitate attack on North Waziristan and that the girl had once said that President Barack Obama was her hero. And the NGOs were active on cue after Malala had been built up by the foreign media.
Talking to Ausaf (October 13, 2012) Jamaat-e-Islami chief Munawwar Hasan stated that those who tried to kill Malala were the very people who had supported attack on South Waziristan. He referred to a video tape that showed a girl being flogged by the Taliban in 2009 and said that it was a fake video. He said the youth will have to unite to stop America from interfering inside Pakistan.
Famous ex-army chief General Mirza Aslam Beg, facing charges of extortion and embezzlement, told Dunya (October 13, 2012) that people who recommended attacking North Waziristan were implementing the American agenda in Pakistan. No one, including the US and Nato, can defeat the Haqqani network. He said President Asif Ali Zardari had been told by Americans that he was of no use any more and the next turn was of Nawaz Sharif to serve the Americans. He added that Imran Khan was now “lifeless” and could win only two to four seats in parliament.
We hated the USSR and defeated it; we are now hating the US and are about to defeat it (sic!). In the process, we may have lost our moral compass, but our honour is intact. We are trying our best to move back to a single-hatred nation for the sake of clarity. But the issue to consider is that the US is far away and the ebb of its power is uncertain, just as it was after Vietnam; but the Taliban are here to take over and stay.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 21st, 2012.
Then, the army reacted angrily over Raymond Davis, Osama bin Laden and Dr Shakeel Afridi. It hounded the elected government in tandem with the Supreme Court and got rid of its ambassador to the US. After Salala, it blocked the Nato supply route. Then, it got parliament to pass a tough resolution against the US. We all started collectively hating America, climaxed by a violent self-damaging rage over a blasphemous video made in the US.
We felt comfortable not hating the Taliban. We were ready to forget the innocent Pakistanis they killed and the girls’ schools they destroyed. The Taliban then queered the pitch by trying to kill Malala Yousufzai in Swat. Suddenly, we realised that we hated this act. Now, we were required to nurse two hatreds in competition with each other.
We are suffering because hating the Taliban is tougher than hating Americans. After a spurt of unfamiliar human sympathy for Malala, we think we should revert to the comfort of hating America.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik first erred by issuing an anti-Taliban statement but then came to our rescue by saying the plot to kill Malala was hatched somewhere close to our border in Afghanistan. He was saying the Americans got her killed to confound us with two hatreds. More of this life-saving stuff followed, gratefully swallowed by the nation.
Writing in Jang (October 12, 2012) an ex-Amir of the Jamaat-e-Islami, Qazi Hussain Ahmad, opined that Malala had been attacked according to a sinister plan to facilitate attack on North Waziristan and that the girl had once said that President Barack Obama was her hero. And the NGOs were active on cue after Malala had been built up by the foreign media.
Talking to Ausaf (October 13, 2012) Jamaat-e-Islami chief Munawwar Hasan stated that those who tried to kill Malala were the very people who had supported attack on South Waziristan. He referred to a video tape that showed a girl being flogged by the Taliban in 2009 and said that it was a fake video. He said the youth will have to unite to stop America from interfering inside Pakistan.
Famous ex-army chief General Mirza Aslam Beg, facing charges of extortion and embezzlement, told Dunya (October 13, 2012) that people who recommended attacking North Waziristan were implementing the American agenda in Pakistan. No one, including the US and Nato, can defeat the Haqqani network. He said President Asif Ali Zardari had been told by Americans that he was of no use any more and the next turn was of Nawaz Sharif to serve the Americans. He added that Imran Khan was now “lifeless” and could win only two to four seats in parliament.
We hated the USSR and defeated it; we are now hating the US and are about to defeat it (sic!). In the process, we may have lost our moral compass, but our honour is intact. We are trying our best to move back to a single-hatred nation for the sake of clarity. But the issue to consider is that the US is far away and the ebb of its power is uncertain, just as it was after Vietnam; but the Taliban are here to take over and stay.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 21st, 2012.