May 26, 2011

Attacking the generals, not the military

I’ve just finished reading Sana Abid’s blog titled “Stop attacking our military!

I am the son of an army officer. I know the "hardships" that Sana talks about. But let's get something straight? Free phone, free water, cheap electricity, free medical services, staff cars, armed guards, plots in DHAs, PAs to do all your work and to stand in lines while you lounge about, cheap memberships to golf courses? Yes, that's exactly the life of a general.

The armed forces personnel die every day, like PNS Mehran for instance while an Admiral, a Navy's general comes on TV and blabbers forth like a God forsaken idiot about how it wasn't his fault, that there was no security lapse. I beg your pardon? 13 armed personnel died! A whole Naval base came under attack for a mind boggling 16 hours and in the end, some terrorists still managed to escape!

When we talk about the armed forces and how they have sold this country, we talk about the generals, admirals and the Air Marshals. Look at the BMW Nauman Bashir travels in. If he had any shame, he would travel on a donkey cart instead of a BMW with the donkey sitting on the cart, and Nauman Bashir pulling it.

If Shuja Pasha and Kayani had any shame they would publicly hang themselves because the best defence they could come up with after Pakistan's sovereignty had been raped was that they would "review" the military and intelligence cooperation between Pakistan and the US. What honour is there in that sort of military service? When you are effectively the servants of someone else?

My dad is a shamed soldier today. He is ashamed at how his generals have let him down. He is ashamed at how his generals have ruined this country. He is ashamed at their naked extravagance. He is ashamed at how they have ripped this country into smithereens.

I can go on and on but I think you get the point. A lot of people here say that they sleep peacefully at night because the army safeguards this country's borders. That's the whole point. They have been so "busy" in defending the "borders" and the “ideological boundaries” that they just couldn't be bothered to defend their GHQ, their regimental centers, their air bases. These very generals who come on TV and denounce the US secretly gave away a whole air base to the US and the UAE to operate drones out of. These generals because of their incompetence and lack of foresight have let 35,000 people die. They set up road blocks and check points not to capture terrorists, but to make the life of the common man hell. Because hey, a general does not have to stop anywhere.

What have the officers of the Pakistan army done to deserve plots in DHA? If anything, they should only be given to the jawans who sacrifice their lives and embrace Shahadat. What extraordinary thing has my dad done to deserve a plot in DHA and a house in some Askari somewhere? I can bet and he says this himself, that there have to be a million Pakistanis out there who are more deserving of these amenities; who have done more than the officers of the armed forces' combined; who deserve to be treated as heroes but instead are left to rot like garbage.

Let talk about fairness. Let us call a spade a spade. Look around. You will see how the generals and their ilk have ruined this country.