Drone strikes kill terrorists

US drone

Yesterday a drone strike killed Wali ur Rehman Mehsud, the 2nd in command of the Tehrik e Taliban Pakistan (TTP). News reports say he was killed with his close aide Fakhr-e-Islam and 5 other Uzbek militants.

When I rejoiced at the thought of this snake being killed in a drone strike on Twitter, a very dear friend of mine pointed out that this is unacceptable and should not be tolerated under any circumstances. Normally I'd be prone to agree with him. After all, which country would tolerate another country's weapon of mass destruction firing missiles into its territory?

But these are not normal circumstances. Why does the US feel it has to fire missiles into Pakistan to kill terrorists? Because a) our army does not/dare not go into North Waziristan Agency which has known hideouts of terrorists and b) the Pakistan army has given its blessing to the American drone strike program. And for good measure. Many terrorists have been killed by these very drones that the Pakistani public loves to hate. The government maintains plausible deniability (or used to; recently the US has gone solo on the program so now the government actually has no advance knowledge of a drone strike according to the NYT) and builds up anti US rhetoric which keeps the masses united in their hatred against anything to do with the West and also keeps the terrorists from sparing them (or so they hope!).

Drone strikes have taken out legions of terrorists. According to the Bureau of Investigative journalism, there have 366 drone strikes in Pakistan up to now. Between 2,537 - 3,581 people have been killed in these strikes. Of these people killed between 579 - 1,081 are civilians and children. Whatever way you cut it, that means there's between 1000 - 1500 terrorists who have been killed in these drone strikes. In war there is collateral. And this collateral, between 1000 - 1500, is very limited considering the kind of dangerous animals have been killed.

But of course collateral damage of any kind is unacceptable. And then there's the issue of Pakistan's sovereignty. Ah. The fabled sovereignty. Countries with honest leaders, and honest people have sovereignty. Countries who are willing to fight to the death to defend their honor have sovereignty. Countries who are ready to face long periods of hardship have sovereignty. Iran has sovereignty. Venezuela has sovereignty. Cuba has sovereignty. We only have tatters of indecency which are sold for peanuts. So the myth of Pakistan's sovereignty is just a smokescreen designed to fool the gullible. But let's get back to the drone strikes, and how they violate Pakistan's sovereignty. Fair enough. Why doesn't the Pakistan military shoot down some drones? If we have sovereignty, why doesn't the Pakistan Air Force take down a couple of drones? Show the world we've got some muscle, no matter how puny, and we aren't afraid to use it to defend our honor?

And when the Pakistani people talk about "sovereignty" will they please explain to me where that sovereignty goes when Uzbeks, Tajiks, Afghans and Arabs decide to recreate scenes from Call of Duty on our streets? Uzbeks, Tajiks, Afghans and Arabs are not "Pakistani" people. Will the Pakistani people explain to me how these are "our" people and yet they found it so easy to slaughter 50,000 civilians? Innocent people who had nothing to do with this heinous war? Will the Pakistani people please explain to me what "sovereignty" they talk about when motherless bastards such as Hakeemullah Mehsud order the slaughtering of 130 innocent people in the 10 days before elections just because those people "support" a certain political viewpoint? What sovereignty is there when Pakistani land is allowed to be used to devise and plan terrorism acts WITHIN Pakistan, let alone the rest of the world?

The drones have killed 3500 people. A majority of them terrorists. Terrorists have killed 50,000 people. 46,000 of whom were innocent bystanders, or first responders. 4,000 of whom were military personnel. These are FACTS.

Another point that's objectively raised is will the US allow such drone strikes to occur on its own soil? Of course it won't. It's the world's most powerful country. Other countries dare not touch it. Besides, terrorists are not known to live and train in the US. Terrorists are not known to have safe havens in the US.

Let's get something else clear as well. The love Afghanistan and Afghan Taliban narrative that's eschewed in Pakistan has bitten us on our ass many, many times now. The Afghans have so much hatred for Pakistan, it's unbelievable. Instead we've taken 3.5 million Afghans and given them homes and jobs. The Afghan Taliban, vicious beasts that they are, were the ideology that led to the birth of the Pakistani Taliban. Declan Walsh is right when he says the Pakistani Taliban are a nihilistic organization. Snakes.

Also when you read and research about the objectives of the Pakistani Taliban, it is not to wage a war against the conquering forces. It is establishment of THEIR version of Sharia which as we've clearly seen is bordering on the insane - a far cry from Islam, or any other religion for that matter. So if the Pakistani people think once the US leaves the region things will get back to normal, they are highly mistaken.

Are drone strikes in a moral grey area? Sure. But they've been helpful. They've been helpful in killing the snakes who desecrate the Pakistani people's homes, maim their children, violate their women. And for that, I am thankful for the drone strikes.

And if you still want more certainty, here's a list of the world's most wanted terrorists killed by drone strikes:

1. Nek Muhammad Wazir
2. Haitham al-Yemeni
3. Abu Hamza Rabia (3rd in command of Al Qaeda)
4. Abu Laith al-Libi
5. Abu Sulayman al-Jaziri
6. Midhat Mursi
7. Abu Ubaidah al Tunisi
8. Khalid Habib
9. Abu Jihad al-Masri
10. Rashid Rauf
11. Usama al-Kini
12. Baitullah Mehsud
13. Tohir Yoldosh (leader of Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan - what the hell was he doing in Pakistan?)
14. Ilyas Kashmiri (was supposed to be a successor to Osama bin Laden)
15. Sayeed al-Misri
16. Jamal Saeed Abdul Rahim
17. Bahadur Mansoor (responsible for the FIA HQ bombing in Lahore)
18. Hussain al-Yemeni
19. Hamza al-Jufi
20. Sheikh Fateh al-Misri
21. Wali ur Rehman Mehsud

I've obviously missed out on a lot of other terrorists killed in these strikes but this ought to prove to you their effectiveness. These terrorists are responsible for killing millions of people around the world. Also, most of these terrorists aren't even Pakistani yet were killed in Pakistan. Proves the ineptness of our security apparatus. And yet we still want to blame the US for sending in drones?

Dear God, please don't let this be a Muslim

Security officers on site leapt to the aid of those injured

Dear America,

You're smarting from a great tragedy. A terrible, terrible event happened in Boston. A joyous occasion was brutally crucified to make way for pain, blood and agony. Innocents were hurt. Innocents perished. The cowards who did this did not have the guts to own up to it. They deserve to rot in an open square with people ogling at them, taking cognizance of the abomination that these barbarians are.

As news reeled in off those who were killed, and those who were injured one prayer leapt to my lips:

Please dear God, don't let this be a Muslim. Don't let this be a Pakistani. Please dear God. Don't let this be.

But I see I was late in my prayer. You see a Fox News employee had already sent out a tweet condemning me to death. He also condemned the 1.6 billion other followers of Islam to death by saying "let's kill them all".

When I read that tweet I realized something. I realized how broken we all were. How disoriented, how unattached from one another. We're all humans yet we've demonized each other beyond reproach. To some all brown people appear as worthy of death. To some all white appear as worthy of death. We can't stop ripping each other a new one all the time. In all this madness people like me, those trying to keep sane amidst the insanity are crushed brutally.

Today I thought back to Pakistan. I thought about the 20 or so people who die there everyday. Then i came across this Facebook status from a friend:

Watching all the media about the Boston bombings, can't help but wonder if this is how the people of Pakistan feel all the time

So I wondered do we feel this way all the time? When a drone fires a Hellfire and kills innocent school children. When the terrorists bomb a market. When sectarian groups engage in systematically wiping out those who are opposed to them. Doesn't our heart weep when we hear about how another bystander was lost? About how a kid lost his parents? About how that poor woman lost her legs? What do we feel if not but pain? What do we do if not cry tears of blood day in and day out, over and over again?

My thoughts went out to the 50,000 innocent Pakistani lives lost in this craze. And then I realized how emotionally detached I was from my own people's suffering. The Boston Marathon explosions had left me shaking, but the 20 people who die in Pakistan everyday simply does not affect me at all. I was ashamed of myself. I was so very ashamed of my insensitivity. Did I think an American life was worth more than the life of my fallen Pakistani fellow? Did the Pakistani life just equal a nameless statistic forever confined to the annals of history to be used in pie charts, or bar charts to explain the year on year increase in casualties?

And then I realized, my desensitization was a defense mechanism.

If we Pakistanis started to give a shit about all those we lose every single day, we would go insane

I feel the same pain, but I refuse to acknowledge its existence. Because acknowledging its existence would mean I have to deal with it, and I can't. None of us can. It's easier to ignore and carry on than to deal with the great tragedy that takes place day in and day out.

Dear America the pain you feel today, I have felt for 11 years now. Every single day like a searing white hot pin piercing my heart. Dear America, when you accuse us of being responsible for all the ills plaguing the world we look at each other, we look at the 50,000 graves we have dug and we weep for the men, women and children we buried who can find no peace even in death. Dear America we die everyday only to find a thankless world tell us we're rogue terrorists who deserve to be locked up and wiped off the face of the earth. Our children's cries do not equal the cries of your children; the weight of our dead bodies does not equal the weight of your dead bodies. Our sacrifices do not exist, because you never see them. Our efforts go in vain because we've been demonized so much.

Dear America we've been so traumatized that now we are scared of saying we're Muslims, we're ashamed of our brownness and we feel deeply uncomfortable and guilty for belonging to the countries which you largely equate with the devil's personal backyard.

Dear America what you feel today is what millions of people living in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan have felt for many years now. I do not even for an instant suggest that you forgive those who have threatened you. I just request that when you send out a prayer for the victims of the Boston Marathon explosions that you remember the 37 Iraqis who were killed yesterday. I request you send out a quiet prayer for the 30 guests at a wedding which was "accidentally" bombed by a US bomber in Afghanistan. I request that you send out a quiet prayer for the 50,000 innocent men, women and children who have paid the ultimate price for a war that they were thrust in for no fault of their own except for having been born in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Dear America you see what it has come to now? You see how terrorized, demonized and scared we feel?

Dear God, please, don't let this be a Muslim.

Celebrating Pakistan's independence day. Or not.

Yours sincerely, Pakistan

I've always wondered why we celebrate our independence day on 14th August. I mean Pakistan gained independence from the Indian subcontinent at 00:00 hours on the night of 14th and 15th August. Which technically means we were independent on the 15th of August because 00:00 hours signify the next day. But of course in our inadvertent desire to be distinguished from India, we decided we would celebrate our independence day a day earlier than reality. But of course that is neither here, nor there.

Over the past many years I have celebrated 14th August with a lot of fanfare and joy. I have found something to celebrate even if it is pinning that tiny pin up flag that's sold for Rs 10 to the front of my shirt. I have bought many small paper flags strung together and hung them on my house's balcony much like the Americans' fetish with TP (toilet papering). I have bought firecrackers and something called a "sootur bum" which is like a very dangerous kind of firecracker. In my time I have thrown firecrackers into a squash court just to hear that unbelievable blasting sound that actually caused guards to come rushing to the sports complex. I have taken part in the mandatory night parade celebrations of 13th August on Rawalpindi's famous Murree road. So yeah. I've celebrated. A lot.

This year is different though. I didn't get any of those celebratory pangs of joy that precede 14th August. Maybe its got something to do with my mood. I am in a bit of grey mood nowadays if I'm honest. But I think my lack of joy has less to do with my mood and more to do with the environment of my country. I have experienced first hand corruption, nepotism, jobbery, ineptness, hypocrisy, impatience and a lot of other traits that have come to define the Pakistani strata. I have seen people not care. I have seen people die. I have seen law enforcers breaking laws. I have snapped. I have given the finger to many policemen escorting VIPs because they told me to back off and not cross the car of the motherfucking prick they're escorting. I have become angry. I have lost patience. I have lost the dream of seeing a happy, prosperous Pakistan.

Pakistan is just a geographical identity. Pakistan is a bit of land sandwiched between Afghanistan and India. What makes Pakistan, Pakistan, are the people who live in this land. Sometimes those people do amazing things. Sometimes they become lazy inept losers. This year those people are morbid. This year 14th August doesn't have the same joy. This year those people have killed 14th August.

I wish I had the same energy that I had last year during 14th August. But when my grand vision has been shattered and my joy reduced to nothing, there is nothing left for me to call that energy upon and expend it. I wish this 14th August was a happy one. I wish we could sing and dance, and laugh and play. We can't. Because our idea of 14th August which had already been reduced to a mundane display of flags and firecrackers is nothing more than that. A flawed idea.

A happy albeit subdued independence day everyone. May God bless us all. May God bless Pakistan. 

Good Taliban, Bad Taliban

If it were merely blithering idiots giving us the good Taliban, bad Taliban story, we would simply laugh and move on. But that's not the case. The good Taliban, bad Taliban is deeply embedded into the minds of our intellectuals and journalists and hence this rhetoric finds its way onto the mainstream. Which is problematic for two reasons: 1) it creates confusion amongst the masses, and 2) it keeps the Pakistani establishment hovering two feet above the air when it needs to be brought back down.

Why does the Pakistani establishment keep floating in the air when this rhetoric is flowing though? The answer is simple. They are the ones who have fooled us into believing in this rhetoric in the first place. While the Afghan Taliban are good Taliban, the Pakistani Taliban are the bad Taliban. Unfortunately for the Pakistani people, the Taliban refuse to distinguish themselves as the Pakistani or Afghan Taliban. To them they are just the Taliban. Hence the Pakistani Taliban claim that Sirajuddin Haqqani is a commander of the Taliban while the Pakistani establishment believes that because Sirajuddin Haqqani is an Afghan, he is good for Pakistan.

I have questioned repeatedly and vigorously as to what benefit the Pakistani establishment sees when it tries to enforce upon the masses that creating a strategic depth in Afghanistan is paramount to Pakistan's future. However no answer has ever been forthcoming. So, we don't know what good will come from having a war torn and destabilized Afghanistan on our west border with the Taliban in the government's seat other than somehow it will help us against India.

Reverting to a point I made earlier regarding Pakistani intelligentsia's fallacy of falling for the rhetoric that is spewed by the establishment, it becomes doubly dangerous because this propaganda is passed off as facts. When national newspapers become the playgrounds of manipulation, the concept of objective journalism evaporates. It is indeed the need of the hour that the Pakistani journalistic community get its act together and pushes for an objective viewpoint that questions the intentions of all parties involves and condones transparency and the point of views that are beneficial for Pakistan as a whole; not simply for those pulling the strings.

Trying desperately to save face

Last night all the top politicians of Pakistan got together to chalk out a united strategy in the face of extreme pressure from the United States. Much as I would like to tell these same politicians what's really on my mind, I do believe they deserve tremendous applause for being man enough to tell the world that there is still some semblance of sanity that exists within Pakistan and its political ranks.

The joint resolution that was presented at the end of the 9 hour meeting says what we've always been hearing: that Pakistan is a peace loving country and that it will always keep its interests supreme. We already know from the last 60 odd years that that's not true. We also know that we're absolutely unsure about what Pakistan's interests are and who decides them. Supposedly, supporting the Haqqani network of the Taliban in Afghanistan is one of the interests of Pakistan. Like I questioned in my blog yesterday, to what end?

The resolution also failed to distance Pakistan from its image of always helping the wrong side and of double dealing. You see while the Pakistani government may feed us all lies about how our establishment is so sweet and nobody loves it, the world has become quite sick of our shenanigans. The Pakistani nation is identified in vile terms and its image is scorned upon. Did the resolution address any of these critical exclamation marks? Afraid not.

So what did the joint resolution of the APC achieve then? Well the answer to that will be nothing really. General Pasha and General Kayani simply denied all allegations of wrong doing. Even with Nawaz Sharif's rather testy remark that wherever there is smoke there is fire, the military men refused to concede that they are responsible for maintaining links with the Haqqani network. Ironically the resolution fails to say that Pakistan does not, will not and has not maintained any links with the Haqqani network. Does that amount to admission of guilt? You're free to draw your own conclusions.

While the world continues to move on berating Pakistan for its duplicity we vehemently and strictly refuse to acknowledge our shortcomings. We refuse to accept our mistakes and we refuse to correct them. We live in denial. We like it. Unfortunately the world doesn't like it and hence it has run out of patience with Pakistan. Mike Mullen was just one man who made one allegation. Very soon (if we keep our charades) a whole corps will be out there doing the same.

10 questions that need to be answered at the All Parties Conference

As you all might know an All Parties Conference (APC) is currently under way in Islamabad to chalk out a united response from the country's political leadership to the threats and accusations made by Admiral Mike Mullen in which he accused the Taliban's Haqqani network as being a veritable arm of the ISI. Almost 58 politicians belonging to all the major political parties are attending this conference including Nawaz Sharif, Imran Khan and Chaudry Shujaat Ali. The important question is whether this conference will actually achieve anything substantial?

We of course need a united stance on the American accusations and allegations which are by their nature very extreme. To help the politicians achieve that, General Ashfaq Kayani (COAS) and General Ahmed Shuja Pasha (DG ISI) will be presenting themselves before the politicians and answering the various questions that they might have.

Some of the questions that I have and which I would really like to be answered are as follows:

1. Does Pakistan actually have any "veritable" links to the Haqqani network?
2. Does the Pakistani military support a "strategic depth" doctrine in Afghanistan?
3. If yes, then what exactly does the Pakistani military intend to achieve with that strategic depth in Afghanistan?
4. Does the ISI share strategic intel with the US intel agencies?
5. Does the Pakistani military have compulsive, incriminating evidence against CIA/US double dealing in Afghanistan and Pakistan?
6. Does the Pakistani intelligence apparatus have compulsive, incriminating evidence against Indian involvement in Pakistan's tribal areas and Balochistan?
7. Does the Pakistani military believe that it can defend the country in the event of a ground invasion by the US forces?
8. Why did the Pakistani military allow a known CIA operative who is also a murderer (Raymond Davis) go scot free?
9. Has the Pakistani military officially sanctioned the lease of Shamsi airbase to the UAE and further on to the USA?
10. How can General Kayani and General Pasha convince the Pakistani nation that after the OBL fiasco (being discovered in the heart of the Pakistani military) a repeat of that episode will not take place?

These are just some of the many questions that I would like to be answered. Because they form the bedrock of the many confusions plaguing our nation regarding the intentions of our armed forces.

A reply: The Gloves Come Off

Karen Bleier/AFP/Getty Images

On Foreign Policy magazine's online website today, you will find a hard hitting article by Daniel Markey regarding the US pressure vis-a-vis Pakistan. In that unfortunate article, Daniel Markey has just talked the talk and labelled the Pakistani military as being a sponsor to terrorism in Afghanistan. Being a Pakistani, this hurts me deeply for obvious reasons. However, while some part of me may believe that the Pakistani military has not been entirely honest with the US (they've been much less honest to the Pakistani people) I do believe that the American people must know of the inadvertent failures of their own armed forces in a country that they shouldn't have attacked in the first place.

The US has taken the Pakistani case to the press and has played hard ball with it. Twisting the Pakistani military's arm in front of the camera must have been a massive adrenaline rush for Mike Mullen and Leon Panetta but the fact remains that there's hardly anything else they can do.

While the world looks with dazed eyes on the volley emanating from both sides, there is little doubt that they have both hit a stalemate. Frankly speaking though, the Pakistani government and military might just be about to enter the bad boy zone by unilaterally telling the US to piss off. Ramifications for such an action are far reaching and dangerous; already the IMF and World Bank heads have refused to meet with the delegation of Pakistanis headed by Hafeez Shaikh the finance minister and there is little doubt the US will squeeze every remaining drop of blood from the Pakistani veins.

If Mike Mullen and Leon Panetta feel confident in berating Pakistan publicly and delivering some not so veiled threats then it must mean that they have credible information regarding Pakistan's double game. Surprisingly however this time around the Pakistani's have hit back with a vengeance and have counter alleged that the CIA itself has links to many terrorist organizations and that the Haqqani network, which is the bone of contention, was a blue eyed boy of the CIA for many years.

So what can the US really do in such a situation? Well it can ill afford to wage a new war in Pakistan. Sure it can replace the drones with B-52 bombers which make a much higher impact but lets not forget that in these freezing times, the Pakistani military just might grow the balls to actually scramble the F-16s that it keeps touting about.

Most importantly though, and I cannot over emphasize this enough, the Americans have failed on the frontier that they should've won -- the Pakistani people. Like I said before the US has never really worked on winning the hearts and minds of the people of Pakistan. It has always tried to push through its policies in the region via the corrupt, the weak and the dishonest governments of Pakistan whether they be civilian or military. When foreign minister Khar stated that "...the US cannot afford to alienate the people of Pakistan," she forgot that the US has already alienated the majority for the last 60 years. She also forgot (because she lives above the common man?) that her words ring hollow back home.

If the US wants to win the war in Afghanistan, it will have to win the people of Pakistan. The governments, the military and the agencies will always fight their two faced wars because they want to maintain a stronghold over this country and the mantra of "strategic depth" and "India is our no. 1 enemy" holds a large majority of the people hooked. 

$800 million less aid? Good riddance!

Athar Abbas says the army doesn't care if the US doesn't 

give it more aid.

Now I have been reading up quite a lot on the purported US cut in military aid to Pakistan which totals $800 million. Apparently this is big news and it somehow masquerades that the US government is oh so angry at the Pakistani military. Obviously the Pakistani military deserves to reap what it has sowed, but somehow the effect of the aid cut has materialized in the public sector instead of from the military establishment. Which I presume is good for the military establishment since it shows that the population of Pakistan is slowly forgetting the horrors and nightmares that army generals have wreaked across and upon this country, once more.

But before I get down to the nitty gritty of what the US aid cut means, if anything at all, I would just like to let everyone know that the very first thought that came to my mind after hearing about this news was: I don’t give a damn.

You see a lot of people, bloggers, like me have stopped writing. They’ve vanished, disappeared. Why? Well because there’s nothing much left to say or tell the world. We’ve constantly been saying the same things over and over again, and now there just doesn’t seem to be any point in conveying our words and thoughts to the population at large. Maybe it’s because we’ve become accustomed to the intuition that we are the world’s new favourite punching bag. Maybe it’s because we realize that we are partly responsible for the senseless monstrosities occurring with impunity in our homeland. But it’s mostly because we’ve become immune to the senselessness, and in this dark, depressed, depraved, deprived way of life, we’ve still managed to find something to cling on. Even though we’ve forgotten how to articulate our thoughts any more.

We need someone to blame. Every day when you see nothing good of your country being shown on international television and when people talk about your country as if it is hanging by a thread, you need to find someone or something to vent your anger out on. For us that someone/something is the US. Yes it is truly an evil that has grasped the world and poisoned the very roots of the concept of equanimity, brotherhood and peace. Maybe it isn’t the US; maybe it is the system it represents: A capitalistic overture that spouts for individualistic control over everything, at the cost of well everything. Human life is not sacred to the policy makers of the US. Countries’ sovereignties do not matter in their grand design. So what if they raped Pakistan (raid to capture OBL) and stabbed in the back (publicly stating they will not share any proof of OBL’s presence in Pakistan, but will go back and attack it again if they have ‘actionable intelligence’), and then left it to die (publicly telling the world the focus has shifted from Afghanistan onto Pakistan) before finally calling 911 (telling Pakistan there will be no suspension of aid at all), and then dashing back to put it on life support before it dies out completely (promising that the P3-C Orions and F – 16s will be delivered as promised), and then teasing it some more by lessening the amount of oxygen it was getting (reducing the total aid by $800 million)?

Here’s some food for thought. People in Pakistan don’t care how the US deals with the military of Pakistan. And that is the saddest bit. The US’ bigoted and selfish policies have only meant that the US only talks to the military and not the biggest stakeholder in Pakistan: The people of Pakistan. So the government decides to cancel aid from the USG as a form of rebellion, if I may be so brash to use that word. But the toothless rulers only cancel humanitarian aid. So here we are, a confused people, cursing the US for not giving us any aid, then rejoicing that we grew the balls to tell them to shove their aid where they may, and then cursing them some more for not providing aid for the hapless citizens of this country.

The military will find a way to get the $800 million that the USG has bitten back. But what will the people of this country get? More terrorism, more death and destruction, more sadness, more depravity, more misery.

Where the US could have made a mark, like educating children, or building basic infrastructure, or instead of training the military they could’ve offered to train the police so that we could’ve had real law enforcers instead of diseased pigs, or maybe started community projects to provide clean drinking water to the nation at large, the US did not bother. Because why should it? It’s already got the real players in the game by their balls.

So today, I don’t have any logic or reason left. Today I stand by the dozens and dozens of people in Pakistan who say that the pittance the US was paying us that they’ve now decided not to pay us is good riddance. Maybe like their money, they would also like to leave us alone. We will survive. We will win our battles. We have done that for 64 years. We will do it again.

Why the Pak army generals need to go home

A friend of mine wrote the following blog post. I thought I'd reproduce it here because it is an excellent read and it asks extremely pertinent questions.

Kayani must resign, right away. Never have I felt this let down as a Pakistani. For me, after 1971, this is the lowest point in Pakistani history of our failure as a state and as a nation. And I hold General Kayani responsible for this, as I hold AK Niazi and Yahya Khan responsible for the 1971 fall of Dacca. Let me tell you why:

A week before the fateful night OBL was killed the mighty chief of our army General Kayani had rather arrogantly declared that 'we have broken the back of terrorists'. He said this in a speech to the 125th graduating class of Pakistan's elite military academy, located in Kakul. At the time he was making this statement, OBL listened to Kayani's speech and his bogus words of 'victory' and Pakistan's 'impregnable defense', not from a TV or a radio but from a loudspeaker a mile away, located at the very place where Kayani was speaking. Yes, OBL was less than a mile away from the army chief on the day of April 22nd, 2011.

This wasn't the first speech OBL had heard live in his stay. Over a period of five years, in which he is reported to have lived in Kakul, various military dignitaries have spoken at the graduation ceremony at the academy, speeches in which they have made many tall claims about Pakistan Army's fullest preparedness to 'meet any eventuality' and thwart 'designs of aggression' by its 'enemies'. I can imagine OBL rolling in laughter on listening to claims about Pakistan Army's capabilities by the speakers all those years--and rightly so, for he had openly declared Pakistan Army its enemy and a 'jihad' in Pakistan to be mandatory, and still he was enjoying the hospitality of the 'Wazirsitani Haveli' right under the nose of Pakistan Army.

Kayani, and his side kick, AS Pasha, now accept that they did not know of OBL's presence. I believe them. But if that is so then here are some questions which the two gentlemen holding the highest and most powerful offices of the country must think about:

1. Pakistan's declared enemy Osama Bin Laden lived under the nose of the Pakistan Army, in a cantonment for five years. Intelligence services, which abound in Pakistan, carry out a security clearance for all purposes, and leave no unturned in harassing the weak and the ordinary. Yet they were somehow unable to identify the many suspicious aspects of the 7-8 canal facility OBL was living in. Wasn't this an intelligence failure? And because Pakistan's enemy was living in Pakistan, was this not a blatant violation of Pakistan's sovereignty?

2. Four (or more) helicopters of United States armed forces entered Pakistan's territory undetected. Carried out an operation for forty minutes and took out their 'high value' target, undetected. Destroyed a helicopter using a missile, and then flew over Pakistan for four long hours towards Arabian Sea, undetected. That Pakistan did detect something at some point and scramble air planes is correct, but it is also true that this happened much after the Americans had left. Was this, I must ask, a breach of Pakistan's defense?

3. Osama was Pakistan's enemy. It is a fact -- which we can deny, but the man, the enemy himself minced no words in saying so. And still, the chief of CIA Leon Panetta declares to the world that Pakistan was not informed because it might have 'alerted the target'. That in the comity of nations, we are the providers of safety and security to all terrorists. That our citizens die on a daily basis because of bomb blasts by OBL's partners or affiliates, and still we are perceived to be comrades in arms with terrorists. Is this not an insult of every Pakistani?

The answers to these questions are simple and they lead me to conclude one thing, and one thing only. Pakistan Army failed in protecting Pakistan. On multiple counts. It failed those 3000 jawans who have died fighting OBL and his affiliates in the last ten years. It failed the ordinary Pakistani, who bears the cost of having the seventh biggest army in the world by continuing to live below the poverty line.

Yahya Khan never accepted that Pakistan Army failed in East Pakistan. Even after his top lieutenant general had quiet shamefully surrendered to the forces of Jagjit Singh Arora in the Race course ground of Dacca, he insisted on continuing. He did not accept that in its failure the army had failed the state and the nation. He refused to accept that by doing so Pakistan Army had taken away a sense of hope and security from Pakistanis.

Kayani, like Yahya, has also not accepted his failure. He is refusing to take responsibility for something he alone is responsible for. He assured Pakistanis of impregnable defense, highest levels of preparedness, ready to ward off any threat, any eventuality, etc...Claims too hollow to be even brought up again. He failed in providing any of that, and still he says 'incomplete information and lack of technical details about the issue had resulted in speculations and misreporting'.

What a farce? The man, who for some time was held in high esteem by many across the world, has anticlimactically brought his own institution, Pakistan Army, into disrepute. He has demoralized the Pakistani people. He has compromised the honor and integrity of the men he leads. And, he failed in bringing the killer of 3000 Pakistani soldiers to justice.

Kayani must resign.

- Asfandyar Ali Mir

Osama bin Laden is finally dead

Osama bin Laden was killed in Abbotabad by US 

Navy SEALs

Earlier today I posted a sarcastic blog that many people took wrongfully as my opinion on the whole OBL saga. Yes, from now on Osama bin Laden will be shortened to OBL because it's too long to type his complete name. So this second post will now serve two purposes: 1) What I feel about OBL's death, and what the general Pakistani population is saying and 2) it will help to put my earlier post (which was a sarcastic take on the whole OBL phenomenon) into perspective.

President Obama in a late night address "confirmed to the American people, and to the world" that the most wanted terrorist in the US had been killed by US troops in a raid inside of Pakistan. The raid was conducted by Navy SEALs who were flown in from Afghanistan. Official reports suggest a gunfight took place for over 40 mins before OBL's body was loaded into one of the two modified MH-60 helicopters (the other was destroyed by the SEALs after having developed some technical faults) and flown back to Afghanistan.

A lot of people in Pakistan (yours truly included) couldn't care less as to what happened to OBL. Yes, he is a good riddance. But frankly, it doesn't affect our lives any more than the rabid dog who roams Lahore's streets at night. There will be no let up in the harassment by the security forces in the name of "security"; the roads that were closed and permanently sealed due to "security threats" will not be opened; the army will continue to  lord over us like it has forever and as a whole, there will be no tangible improvement in the commoner's life in Pakistan.

But then there are those people who believe that OBL died in 2002 of some disease. Now these people are of the category who believe that since Obama was worried about the upcoming US Presidential elections in 2012, the billions of dollars being wasted in Afghanistan and finding a face saving solution to the problem, he declared OBL's death now. On the other hand there are those people, who instead of believing that OBL died in 2002 believe that he is still alive since his dead body was not shown to the media, nor any photos or videos were released to the public. Also, his rather hurried burial at sea just lent fuel to the wild speculations and confusion surrounding OBL's death.

Regardless of whether OBL died in 2011 or 2002, one thing is for certain now. OBL is dead or else, the world's most powerful man would not have taken the liberty of making a claim that he knew was false. A friend from the US asked me about the reaction of the people within Pakistan. Well, the reaction of the people can be gauged from the fact that even though they are not mourning OBL's death, they still have not become chums of the US. In fact, many are now predicting that the next battlefield that the US would open up would be in Pakistan, hence they are highly sceptical and on the defensive vis-a-vis the US policies that will emerge after the dust clears.

But now, onto something that has left me baffled. We are a country that has been forced to take pride in its military. In fact, General Kayani even told the world that this country will not sacrifice its honour for prosperity. In a rather excellent blog post by Kala Kawa it clearly emerges that the Pakistani military thinks of itself as something of a demigod. Then how was it that the Pakistani military couldn't spot OBL who was living just 4km away from the Pakistan Military Academy? Is this a massive communication and intelligence failure? If it is (and exceedingly it appears to be one) the Pakistani military will have to take face saving measures and in that case, some heads will roll. My suggestion, chop off all the generals who had their tenures extended. They've all failed us. But if this wasn't an intelligence failure, and the Pakistani military knew exactly where OBL was, why didn't it take action? Were they waiting for the Americans to violate our sovereignty? In which case, bravo gentlemen, bravo!

What is even more embarrassing is that the Pakistani military did not conduct a joint operation with the Americans to rid the world of OBL. It was the Americans alone. The Pakistani military is yet to condemn the US for violating its airspace, and just to set the record straight, how come the Pakistan Air Force radars not pick up unidentified aircraft over its airspace?

The Pakistani populace has shown a generally mild response to OBL's death. Yeah, he's dead. Who cares? And they've shown the same mild response to the Americans violating Pakistan's sovereignty by conducting a full fledged military operation just 130km from Islamabad. Surprising.

So that's the Pakistani perspective on the whole Osama bin Laden saga. For the American perspective, you might want to read this blog post by Nick Kristof, the world renowned reporter of the New York Times.

A response

InshaAllah. (Photo: Ivarfjeld.wordpress.com)

People have so many issues in life. People have so many issues in life with yours truly. There are those who call me a lying, bungling useless jock of a guy who has too much free time on his hands and has nothing better to do than type away aimlessly, and for good measure quite pathetically, on his keyboard spewing up hatred for XYZ people. Then there are those who proclaim that they are going to defend the “ideological borders” of Pakistan and turn it into a fortress of Islam from whose murky depths the Great Awakening shall raise. They also question my intentions and believe I am the new spokesperson of RAW, the Indian intelligence agency. Still there are those who are pissed at me for being pissed at everyone. It is quite impossible to keep everyone happy at the same considering you have a brain, two eyes and two hands to type away incessantly at your keyboard.

I am not here to defend my views. I believe everyone has the right and entitlement to form their own unique and diverse views. I realize I upset a lot of people with my thoughts and views but then, I do believe I am entitled to believe what I want to believe. So for instance, I severely doubt the incumbent proposition that Pakistan is Madina-e-Sani. Let me not hide behind a facade of mockery or ill-will here. Let me state that the term Madina-e-Sani has been coined by Mr Zaid Hamid and I strictly disagree with his concourse. I do believe that instead of preaching us war with India, it would be more prudent to adopt a line of dialogue and constructive trust building measures to thrash out our differences. After all, doesn’t Islam ask us to be good and kind to everyone? I wonder why we have to harp on about the decimation of “kaafirs” and “paleed Hindus” when Allah has expressly told us they’re going to rot in hell. I also wonder how a country can be Madina-e-Sani when its people are busy in selling and buying prostitution, indulge in rampant and leisurely corruption, and take God’s name to murder innocent people. Maybe if Mr Zaid Hamid had cared to follow up on his original premise of preaching God’s word to the ignorant rather than capitalise on the anti-India sentiment prevalent in Pakistan, I might’ve found something to admire in the man.

And then there is the question of my loyalties. No, I am not a RAW agent. Just because I dare to question the wrong policies, attitudes and beliefs that prevail in Pakistan does not mean I hate my country. And also, if I tell people to admit the mistakes that we as a nation have made, I don’t think that entitles me to hell in any way. After all, don’t we all teach our kids to own our mistakes regardless of what the opposing party has done or not done? People tell me Shariat and Islam is the only way forward for Pakistan. They quote Iqbal and tell me the things that they hear from Mr Zaid Hamid but when someone asks them what they have to say to the notion that Iqbal did not leave what Islam would constitute a “moral” life, they say that it doesn’t matter. Why? Why doesn’t it? Is Islam a toy that is to be used when it is wanted to be used, and discarded when it intrudes on personal space? Is this a joke? My only wish is for people to drop this pretentious, hypocritical air that maintain around them. It would be good for everyone to start facing and accepting reality as it is.

No one is absolving the US of any blame. Yes they have committed wrongs, but so what? Does our blaming them make everything right? Does it absolve us of our wrongs? The key to survival is to be smart, not whining donkey. So while it is great to look at history and see who went wrong where, who wronged whom, and who is responsible for the mess we find ourselves in, it is equally pertinent to note that it is we ourselves, who will have to roll out of this mess. Our enemies and foes will not do that no matter how much we whine. We need to learn to accept our mistakes without stating India has hundreds of consulates in Afghanistan. Fact is they only have 5. We need to stop blaming CIA, Mossad, RAW for all our ills because the evil that we commit against each other outweighs everything. Unless we can find a solution to our home grown menaces, there is no point of harping on about them. That is what I believe. You are of course, entitled to believe what you want to.

While you continuously boss us around…

The American War Machine in Afghanistan is losing;
and blaming Pakistan for the loss. (Photo: Dawn.com)

The thing is, I’m a proud Pakistani, and like all proud Pakistanis, belittling my country gets my blood roiling. Therefore, despite the legitimacy of American claims and demands, their outrageous actions and words spark a torrent of bubbling anger in my gut.

First of all, we’re not man-servants of imperialist goons. We are independent despite the clichéd opinions of cynical intellectuals. Then we have a democratic government, which despite being the champion of subjugation still allows us to bash it on every front. This freedom to form opinion on a personal level is quintessential in explaining the notion of anti-Americanism that pervades our daily lives.

Despite the legitimacy of American claims, and counter claims, we always assume the worst about it. Why? Well when writers such as John Moreau urge the American government to stop caring what the Pakistani government’s interests are, then they should also have the decency of understanding that the Pakistani government is not honor bound to American whims. It has its own agenda just like the US has its own agenda, and therefore it is entitled to follow it, just like the American government expects to follow its own.

The bone of contention is the Haqqani Network which has ample presence in Afghanistan, and which continues to be a thorn in the side of the American war machine in Afghanistan. While America urges Pakistan to dismantle the network at their end (North Waziristan in FATA) because not doing so is proving counterproductive to American interests in Afghanistan, the Pakistan military and government are reluctant to do so. For some odd reason, the military insists upon viewing India as a threat and therefore needs a stronghold in Afghanistan to fall back on in case of an India – Pakistan war.

The safeguards in this scenario appear to be the Haqqani Network which will act as the Pakistani lobby in the Afghani establishment once the Americans withdraw. What the Americans fail to realize, or address, is the fact that Pakistan feels threatened by the increasing influence of India in Afghanistan and in the American policies. The American reluctance in isolating India is easy to understand given that India has emerged as the new economic hub of the world, and the world’s lone superpower would be stupid to ignore it. But that does not mean that it can outright deny the concerns of Pakistan.

The need of the hour is for both governments to chalk out a roadmap, because they both love doing that, and proceed with it. Pakistan does not want terrorists operating from its soil, and the increasing drone attacks (many of them emanating from within Pakistan) prove so. On the other hand, it would be stupid of the Americans to expect Pakistan to alienate a major power bastion in Afghanistan after the American troops’ withdrawal.

So contextually, the recent statement by Mike Mullen stating that Pakistan will soon launch an operation in North Waziristan, followed by an immediate rebuttal from the Pak army saying that it will do what its interests demand and not foreign dictates, is cause for major concern. It represents the growing concerns that have engulfed the two allies with serious repercussions for both countries, particularly Pakistan. Statements by top officials of the Obama administration have even gone so far as to say that the AfPak policy should be changed to PakAf, and writers such as John Moreau want full land and air invasions in Balochistan and FATA if Pakistan is unwilling to bow down to American pressures.

I think that the one thing we can all agree on is that bombing Afghanistan was one thing, but poking Pakistan in the eye with a stick will open a Pandora’s Box here and that is no one’s interests. American misadventures previously have cost the whole world dearly, and now is not the time to inflict more pain on it. Now having said that, the Pakistan government would be well advised to think through its long term policy and objectives. It would be utterly stupid, that in the quest of gaining an upper hand in Afghanistan, we end up isolating ourselves from the entire world. Saner voices need to prevail on both sides if Project Afghanistan is to succeed.

The Lost War

Afghanistan burns. Who will help? (Source: Dawn.com)

You have heard people rant on about the war on terror and what not. You have yourself rambled on about it to countless people. You have made your opinions, and your opinions are either accepted by the people, or rejected by them. Either you’re a for man, that is you want the ISAF to stay in Afghanistan, or you’re an against man i.e. you want the ISAF to get the hell out of Afghanistan and leave it the **** alone. Either way, you have diverse calculated arguments, and over time you have perfected them. In fact, some of you might even be bored with the whole drama that is taking place just across our Western border. You might imagine then what you might gain by reading on.

Simple answer is nothing new. Yes. But there are other things and ideas that haven’t been explored as yet. Such as the one that I am about to put across in the words of Mullah Omar himself:

“...The West may have the clocks, but we have the time...”

And after 9 years in Afghanistan, the prediction becomes truer day by day. The Western forces have been beaten at their own ball game. They are no more game for a war that is only exacting a heavy toll on them without giving them anything in return. Afghanistan was always a bees’ nest. Once rattled, there really isn’t a chance of containing the damage. Every day the ISAF and its foot soldiers grow tired of the war that has been forced onto them. And every day, the grim reality is rearing its ugly head even more. The Taliban’s back might’ve been broken according to official statements (I disagree), but they have all the time in the world to contain their damages and minimize their losses. The Western troops on the other hand don’t have unlimited time, and their resources are running shorter with every passing day.

Sooner or later, an evac order will be sent out to the embattled troops and Afghanistan will once again be left at the mercy of the Taliban. And that is what worries most of us. We Pakistanis tend to forget that India and Iran also hold strategic interests in this hotbed. After America pulls out, this whole region will plunge into chaos with the Pakistani state supporting the Taliban, and the Indian-Iranian axis supporting the Northern Alliance. The other option of course is to make peaceful overtures to all our neighbors but that is unacceptable to everyone in the government and the establishment. What we forget is that once the Taliban are in control, massive radicalization of Pakistan will occur and this time the furor will not be limited to the tribal belt. This time, the fracas has the potential of assimilating the whole country in its wake.

Our policy makers, regardless of whether they come from the GHQ or the Parliament, need to realize the bigger picture. Lasting peace will only be achieved if personal viewpoints and vested interests are left behind, and common ground is found amongst all concerned towards lasting peace. Of course one can only hope this happens as usually personal preferences are preferred when designing and reviewing foreign policy initiatives. Nonetheless, I continue to hope that the cause of the greater good will over rule the short term gains that our tacticians are thinking about all holed up in their cozy offices.