Pakistan’s war with terrorism is a complicated affair. For one, we are not entirely sure who we are fighting and why. There is no clear definition of the enemy. Some say that we cannot fight our fellow Muslims. Others say that the enemy is, in fact, not even Muslim. Our standing army, which has been brought up on the diet of fighting the non-believer, cannot be blamed for being disoriented.
This is further knotted by the fact that we are also supporting some and fighting others. Short-term gains then, short-term gains now.
Remember Kargil? Win a war but lose the battle.
The loyalties that we buy at such a high price also change with time.
There are games within games. Even we are not sure who is who. Now the Americans and the Afghans are ready to talk to some. Without any thought to our long-term interests, we are now releasing some prisoners on the insistence of others. There is chaos in thinking.
So, it is not surprising that our military campaign in the tribal areas is gradually yielding us lesser dividends and more frustration. We take one hilltop. The ‘enemy’ takes another. Are we really winning this war, one wonders.
An ongoing conflict that stretches over years saps the morale of any army. Body bags being delivered on a regular basis to towns and villages across the plains are a daily reminder of the cost that we are paying for this war.
Things are also complicated by the role of the US and Afghanistan.
American actions through drone strikes are seen by some as a necessary evil. But these strikes have brought the conflict into our homes.
Every drone strike is met with a response. And it is Pakistanis that bear the brunt of this. Our leadership is not honest with its people on where they stand on this.
On both sides, there is no clear command structure. No one is entirely sure who calls the shots on our side — is it us, or the Americans? A more important question for us now is: where do we go from here?
Half of our country lives in fear of day-to-day conflict. The other half worries when they, too, will face the same situation. The year 2012 has been one of the bloodiest years in the country’s recent history. People have been killed in suicide attacks, drone strikes, bomb blasts, targeted killings and in other violent actions.
There are days when there is a feeling that the government ceases to exist. When people come out on the roads to protest, we have seen the law enforcement agencies withdraw. Many have died in street protests and property worth billions has been damaged. This is also terrorism. Our government does not seem to see it as a problem when people take the law into their own hands.
Our government’s response is mostly words, much of them targeted a foreign audience. Our politicians use terrorism as a stick to get more financial help from sympathetic lenders and donors. One can only wonder how long we can sustain this charade.
Gradually, extremists have now entered our cities. Some of these militants are home-grown, others are imported over the years. Many of them are independent of the government while others are not. Now, we are listening to discussions about the good and the bad militant, as the US also enters into talks with them.
When will we, as a country, understand what is in our interest? When will we have answers to questions that are in our minds? The answers cannot come from our present political and military leadership — more so because they seem to have taken sides already.
Other political parties are also economical with the truth. Maulana Fazlur Rehman, otherwise a sane and pragmatic person, seems to be beholden to the militants. Same is true of Qazi Hussain Ahmad whose claim that the US was behind the recent attack on his motorcade makes one wonder what he thinks of the rest of us.
We need more discussion and more answers. But the sad part of this is that no political party has mentioned terrorism as an issue in the forthcoming elections. Are the blind leading the blinkered once again?
Published in The Express Tribune, December 10th, 2012.
COMMENTS (34)
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@numbersnumbers: Dear Numbers, Which hoax do you wish to discuss? The Holocaust, 9/11, Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, or the one about Pakistan backing up the Taliban. I personally think we should make comments which are pertinent to the article above, which I thought was the matter under discussion. But then you do have a habit of running off on tangents. Getting back on track, Pakistan is currently being squeezed between a rock and a hard place. First off, Pakistan has to deal with the idiots in Washington whose only conscious thought is to rampage around the world killing innocent people, with their main thrust currently being Pakistan/Afghanistan, and after nearly 12 years have not learned that the war is lost. Secondly, Pakistan has to live with a huge percentage of its population who are diametrically opposed to the current illegal activity of Washington. They know they are on a winner, and they just have to wait until America bankrupts itself.
@Sexton Blake: Once again, asking everyone to believe in a position but refusing to provide any references to back up same might make people suspect that said position is fabricated! By the way, still waiting for you to tell all of us THE TRUTH about the Holocaust that you hinted at in previous comments!
@numbersnumbers: Dear Numbers, There is an old saying. Nobody is as blind as those who cannot see.
@Lala Gee: You stand by your considered opinion that all the terror outfits are sponsored by the ever convenient "foreign hand", but then say there is no proof! I would think that if you make such accusations that you could at least tell us where you get those facts "you stand by"!
@BruteForce:
"@Lala Gee: I thought you were of the opinion TTP was basically RAW."
I still stand by my considered opinion. TTP and BLA terrorists are funded, trained, and armed by the unholy alliance of RAW and CIA with the active support of Afghan NDS. There are, possibly many, "Eli Cohens" installed in these terrorist outfits. Now you will ask for proofs. Unfortunately such outfits don't do their business on legal papers - signed, stamped, and registered for legal battles - and everybody knows this fact. At the moment, pointers can be taken from the past track record and the statements of the caught culprits - who are, by the way, low level operatives having no knowledge of the real masterminds. Only history will unfold the reality, as it has now raised the curtains from the Indian machinations and sponsorship of 'Mukti Bahini', LTTE, TNA, etc.
"There is no extremism problem in Pakistan, so you don’t have to de-radicalize anyone, right?"
I never said that in any of my comments, not even implicitly. Well, lying and spreading disinformation seems to be part of the duty of Indian trolls, which they are doing relentlessly 24/7, day and night.
"I loved to brag India was better at Terror than Pakistan. Will you deprive me of that fun?"
You certainly are. So, no reason to feel dejected. For solace, watch this slide show available on 'Human Rights Watch' website. These slides will give you enough stuff to brag about the Indian's absolute superiority in brutality, malevolence, bigotry, malice, and intolerance as well.
@abu-uzhur:
Orthodoxy? Like in Religious? You are confused, my friend.
I alluded to something altogether different.
Although it is virtually blasphemous these days to say anything pro-ppp or pro-Zardari ,
you are dead right . PPP-Zardari are our best bet to move towards seculrism , and to
normalise our relations with India without which no positive change in the country is
possible . They are still, with all their humendous aberrations, closest to the vision
of Jinnah ------secular Pakistan , and close Indo-Pak relations as , in his words , between
America and Canada .
@BruteForce:
"@Lala Gee: I thought you were of the opinion TTP was basically RAW."
I still standby my considered opinion. TTP and BLA terrorists are funded, trained, and armed by the unholy alliance of RAW and CIA with the active support of Afghan NDS. There are possibly many "David Cohens" installed in these terrorist outfits. Now you will ask for proofs. Unfortunately such outfits don't do their business on legal papers - signed, stamped, and registered for legal battles - and everybody knows this fact. Only history will tell, as it has now raised the curtain on the Indian sponsorship of 'Mukti Bahini', LTTE, TNA, etc.
"There is no extremism problem in Pakistan, so you don’t have to de-radicalize anyone, right?"
I never said that in any of my comments, not even implicitly. Well, lying and spreading disinformation seems to be part of the duty of Indian trolls, which they are doing relentlessly 24/7, day and night.
"I loved to brag India was better at Terror than Pakistan. Will you deprive me of that fun?"
You certainly are. So, no reason to feel disheartened. There are couple of more things you can take pride of, because no other country on planet earth come close to Indians. For example, brutality, malevolence, bigotry, malice, and intolerance.
An excellent piece of introspection , i wish more people like the author accept the cold hard reality of truth however unpalatable it may be, The big question is where do we go from here? How do we dig ourselves out of the quagmire our successive leaders have put us into? The next elections are not really going to make a difference, The PPP could not even bring itself to carry out the death sentence of it's own Governors murderer!!!, It also failed to hunt down the murderers of its government Minister (Shabaz Bhatti). What chance do we the ordinary citizens have of getting justice with these spineless creatures in power. We the people MUST reject the current crop of pseudo politicians and........................................................................................ i Just realized that there is no one else!!!!
Look, you looking just at Pakistan. Almost the whole of Muslim world has been radicalised. In Malaysia its criminal to be a Shia, by law! You would expect a modern economy, with a large section of non-Muslim population to be neutral in Religious matters.
Even such countries speak the language of the Taliban, how can you expect a proper Islamic Republic to suddenly start speaking the language of Gandhi or Nehru?
Take Egypt. Muslim Brotherhood which proclaimed they are all for moderation are now pushing through an Islamic Constitution, with its leader giving himself powers.
Why are all these Muslim countries behaving in such similar manners? They say Muslims are not a monolith. I say consider them as one and you will see a definite, unmistakable trend.
http://peddarowdy.wordpress.com/2012/11/26/islamic-terror-and-poverty/
This is not about Pakistan alone. Its about Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia where ever there are sizeable Muslim population.
If I say what is wrong so explicitly my comment will be censored. I'll let to get to the conclusion yourself.
@Lala Gee:
I thought you were of the opinion TTP was basically RAW. There is no extremism problem in Pakistan, so you don't have to de-radicalize anyone, right?
What happened suddenly? Changed your opinions? I loved to brag India was better at Terror than Pakistan. Will you deprive me of that fun?
Confusion reigns because of our attachment to religion and inability to distinguish between what is right and what is wrong further complicated by those who dominate political narrative in Pakistan. Writer mentioned politicians but failed to highlight role played by media in promoting populist opinion for the sake of ratings.
At this juncture, PPP seems to be the best bet. If given a working majority of its own, it may deliver on secularism and economy.
@Lala Gee, Thanks. Point taken. However, extreme situations require extreme measures. Extremists want to commit a social rape of society, I am suggesting that using extreme measures the society should deprive them of their ability to do so. As an example, in the 1980s, Indian Panjab had a similar menace of terrorism and extremism. No amount of persuation worked and the society was sick of this. No body ventured out of their homes at night and no body slept outside. The situation was brought under control by using extreme force against the individuals, their accomplices and in the process some innocents also died. Their was good support from people and with in 2 years Panjab became normal.The political will was there and it was achieved by the state police who had some extra powers that were subsequently withdrawn.
The heading of this article should not have been "When answers are rare". "When answers are not visible" seems more appropriate.. Can't blame the writer, for it is the season for such pieces; they are appearing on a regular basis in all periodicals and papers. No one comes out with even a possible solutions to a single issue from among our numerous ills. Probably, there are no solutions, or they are not visible except to Allah. One can, after reading such articles these days, do hardly anything but to dejectedly sigh:
Hunn Ki Kariye?
isn't it, 'win the battle but lose the war'?
Facing one's own reality and hypocrisy, acknowledging one's mistakes and facing them is the toughest battle of all. Historically this was one battle all muslim nations avoided (after all, anything done in the name of Islam cannot be wrong!). And this applies more so to Pakistan. Pakistanis only need to learn from the good Mustafa Kemal Ataturk did to Turkey by honest introspection.
How many Pakistanis believe that the root cause of all problems in Pakistan is its support for a bigoted cause of Kashmir becoming a part of Pakistan or a separate nation on the basis of religion?
180 million getting screwed with odious debts - Servitude to US taxpayer needs & wants is insane. Borrowing to get deeper into debts. @Insaan:
A very timely and pragmatic Op Ed by the editor and thanks for that. We had happily turned the Afghan internal situation into our war to get money and favors from the US starting 1979. That was the time our generals had sold our soul to get recognition and aid from the US that was stopped for a few years. We have not heard this kind of noises that it is not our war but the US war when we nurtured the mullahs, Taliban and called them mujahedeen. Now the chickens have come home to roost. The bumper crop is ready for harvest.
@Chulbul Pandey: You have it somewhat right, but not quite. I thought everything was going fairly well apart from the spat with India, which neither side knows how to handle. Then the US decided it liked the concept of hegemony, and started attacking most of the Muslim countries, such as Afghanistan, then Iraq, followed by Libya, Syria and several other African countries. Now the US is trying to decide how it will finish off Iran. Unfortunately, Pakistan decided to help the US clean up the Taliban and other militant groups, and then the problems started for Pakistan. I do not think the Pakistan/militant problems will end any time soon. Too many harsh feelings have been created. The only thing that could possibly provide a solution is excellent diplomacy, and I have not seen too much of that from the US. America's solution to everything is to invade, bomb and kill innocent people. This is not a solution for creating good feelings.
@MSS:
"The only solution is the total erradication of extremism with force, even at the expense of some innocent lives call it collateral damage or sacrifice."
How the above statement of yours makes you less extremist or any different than Taliban? Please note that I am not a fan of Taliban or even their sympathizer. Did you learn any lesson from East Pakistan tragedy?
A nice summing up of the paralysing situation we are in . Wish it were
possible to find a lowest common denominator on which all sections of society agree ,
and which transcends all fissures in our society and in our minds . If we do , we will
be cured of our paralysis and regain our ability to act unitedly for survival .
Can the terms of this denominator be the following basic legal and moral precepts
accepted throughout the world ?
Under no cicumstances anyone will be allowed to
-----Challenge the writ of the state ; -----take law in his own hands ; -----impose his views on others with intimidation or violence .
Those who infringe these precepts should face the united might of the entire society
and our armed forces .
@Author: With due respect, the war started when some bright minds in Pakistan had the idea of using radicalized, newly unemployed jihadis against India in 80s. The current mess you find Pakistan in, is a direct result of it. You try to burn your neighbor's house but flames are bound to reach your own home!
Pin it on America all you want but it is pretty much Pakistan's war.
Political Parties have.. PTI and even MQM.. if you dont agree with their solution, doesnt mean they havent given one.. Political Companies have not.. I agree.. :)
"Remember Kargil? Win a war but lose the battle."
We lost the war and the battle!
Great piece. These are difficult questions with difficult answers. Our leaders are too lazy, and too wimpy to try and tackle them. We need brave people in the government. Courage is a virtue long forgotten in Pakistan, cowardice rules our institutions
Author "Our politicians use terrorism as a stick to get more financial help from sympathetic lenders and donors. One can only wonder how long we can sustain this charade."
This "war on terrorism" is all about money for Pakistan government, Some Pakistani businessmen, American contractors........ Only one getting screwed is American Taxpayer.
Excellent article once again Mr Editor. Let us all hope someone will listen to your advice.
we are not entirely sure who we are fighting and why. There is no clear definition of the enemy. Some say that we cannot fight our fellow Muslims. Army cannot be blamed for being disoriented. The helplessness expressed is understandable but the author should have made an attempt to give a lead. Everybody knows the enemy. Metaphorically, if you stand on a road and throw some stones in random directions, the chances are some terrorists will be hit. That is how bad it is. Muslims cannot fight Muslims? Iran-Iraq, Iraq-Kuwait, Afghans and Pakistanis are not they all killing each other? Look at the distant history and it has alsways been the same. Politicians are after votes only. PTI will not attack Taliban, ML(N) will not even speak against Taliban, PPP will perhaps try half heartedly but no determination and the COAS has just about recognised the problem. Out side of Pakistan, the situation looks worse than it is but it is not improving. The only solution is the total erradication of extremism with force, even at the expense of some innocent lives call it collateral damage or sacrifice. Put a ban on under eighteens praying in mosques as in Tajikistan to insulate them against firebrand speeches. It is going to take long and take some doing plus a lot of courage, good will, media support and external resources.