The Gazan blood hasn’t dried yet

Gaza on fire

I have avoided writing about this topic for as long as possible. After all, as a Pakistani my first duty is to talk about Pakistan and all the atrocious nonsense taking place in my homeland. But there comes a breaking point, where no matter who you are or what you believe in, you have to speak up against the injustice. My breaking point came after seeing pictures of dead children lying on the streets of Gaza, and people like Nick Kristof (who generally I have much respect for), blatantly trying to justify Israel’s genocide of Gazans.

As of this moment, 400 Palestinians have died in Israeli aerial and land bombardment. The UN says 80% of all those killed in this genocide are civilians. But of course that matters none to President Barack Hussain Obama, who at the White House Iftar Dinner stated “Israel has every right to defend itself”. Might one ask Mr President, what about the Gazans? Do they also have a right to defend themselves? Yes? No?

There are people, and learned people at that, who claim that if Hamas stops firing homemade rockets into Israel, Israel will become a good boy and go play in its own backyard. But these learned men and women are simplifying the last 70 years of Israel’s existence. Why pray, did Hamas come into existence in the first place? Well it came into existence because Israel is an occupier of the Palestinian territories and the Palestinians want them to get the fuck out of Palestinian lands. Hamas was founded in 1987 at the end of the First Intifada, which incidentally was a Palestinian non-violent movement to get Israel off of Palestinian properties. So Mr Kristof, your suggestion that Palestinians indulge in non-violent resistance movements [sic] has been tried before by the Palestinians. Didn’t really work out in their favor, buddy.

I have no sympathy for Hamas. Their blatant disregard for Palestinian life is self evident. However to call the Israeli Palestinian conflict a fair fight is bordering on the insane. You see every single logic you can concoct to justify Israel’s genocide of Palestinians (Hamas throws rockets at Israel; Hamas has built tunnels in Gaza; Hamas is a terrorist organization and must be eliminated) falls flat in the face of hundreds of women and children that have been killed by Israel’s bombs. So instead of asking Hamas to show restraint, why don’t you ask Israel to grow the fuck up, and act like a responsible fucking state by stopping the Palestinian genocide? And then you can feel free to cuss at Hamas all you want.

Many hundreds more will die. Many of them innocent people, who were trying to escape the Israeli genocide. Once a truce is announced, we’ll forget all about it, until it starts again and then the same bullshit arguments, and the same bullshit justifications will be used when Palestinian deaths are announced.

The Taliban apologists and the conspiracy theorists

I never fail to be amazed by the arguments put forth by the conspiracy theorists and the Taliban apologists. The conspiracy theorists amaze me because they say crazy improbable stuff that would make any sane, self thinking man, woman or child laugh their head off.

Exhibit 1:

From Zaid Hamid's official Facebook page

As you can clearly see a lot of people like what they're reading. No matter that it makes no sense. Has no meaning. Sounds really stupid and lame. Yet, these conspiracy theories still attract a lot of people because they provide a means of blaming our terrible problems on somebody who is not us. It is too difficult to acknowledge our mistakes because acknowledging them would mean we would have to fix ourselves, and fixing ourselves simply isn't something we like doing.

Then there's the second kind of people I abhor. I call them the Taliban apologists. What are the Taliban apologists? I'm glad you asked. The Taliban apologists are people who instead of condemning the barbarianism of the Taliban instead try to find ways of defending them by portraying their victims as having deserved what they got.

For example:

Malala Yousafzai is a 14 year old girl from Swat. One day on her way home from school, two Taliban stopped her van, asked who she was then shot her in the head. In the process of attempting to assassinate Malala, they ended up injuring two other girls as well. For the common man this would be it. This would be enough to prove what cowards, vile and depraved animals the Taliban are. For the Taliban apologists, well nothing ever is enough.

A Taliban apologist will conjure scenarios where he will attempt to persuade you that the whole Malala shooting was fake. He will tell you that it was a ploy by the US government to force the Pakistani government to launch an operation in the tribal belt. He will tell you that the Pakistan army is a pawn in America's war. He will tell you Malala was never really shot, and that she is actually an American agent. The problem with the Taliban apologist is that he simply cannot bring himself to accept the fact that America is not somehow responsible for the ills that he is facing in his life. According to the Taliban apologist everything wrong with the world is America's fault. His bathroom tap is broken: America's fault. He has constipation: America's fault. His dog barks in the night: America's fault. Somebody steals his cow: America's fault.

Diagnosis:

The Taliban apologist needs somebody to blame for the misery he has to see everyday, and he ends up blaming America because all his life he has been told time and time again that America is the real root cause of evil; that he is perfect and he can do no wrong; that what he does is correct and what others do is wrong.

You would imagine that the Taliban apologists and conspiracy theorists would go hand in hand? Right? Wrong. You see according to the conspiracy theorists, even though everything wrong with the world is America's fault, they believe that the Taliban, the Pakistani government and anybody who doesn't believe in their garbage is an American agent.

So in essence, there argument goes something like this:

The Taliban shot Malala in the head to force the government of Pakistan to launch an operation in the tribal belt using the Pakistan military to wipe out the Taliban because somehow that will allow Obama to win the 2012 Presidential election.

To me what they're saying is:

The American agents shot an American agent to force the American agent to launch an operation in the tribal belt using the American agent to wipe out the American agents.

Even when you shove the fallacy of their arguments in their face, they will not accept it. They will then label you as an American agent and that will be the end of discussion.

This post could go on for pages but there's no point in dragging it. May Allah have mercy on Pakistan. Amen.

O Pakistan... You have been screwed.

Literally. And repeatedly.

This is going to be a short post. Here's the thing. I get frustrated with people when they refuse to understand the obvious. It isn't their fault. Everyone's different, everyone has different views, opinions and ideas. But it just sort of annoys the creeping hell out of me.

Anyway, the title of the post has a literal meaning. Let me just say that the enemy (whoever that maybe) has partially succeeded. Internal strife has now become a regular affair. Other than that, raging division lines have appeared all across the country segregating people by thought with different thought holders looking at each other with the lust of blood in their eyes.

And finally, Pakistan has now become Hypocrisy Central. Hypocrites are as rampant here as the craters and potholes on Barki road.

I do have one final question though. If I were to agree with the opinion that the CIA, Mossad and RAW are following an objective to break up Pakistan, then what is there for them to gain out of our break up?

Anyone?

The injustice that is Israel

Normally, I wouldn't really care what Israel is doing in Palestine because that isn't what concerns Pakistan. There are atrocities going on inside this country that need to be highlighted and fixed before I can start finger pointing at other countries and their abhorrent human rights records. But today, I make an exception. Because today, I got to read a news report in the Guardian newspaper of the UK, thanks to Mehreen Kasana (regular and avid tweeter).

While the world looks the other way, Israel continues to decimate the human civilization which goes by the tag of the Palestinians. I know the US supports the Israelis but I also know that they possibly cannot be so stupid as to completely be unaware of the ground realities that occur in Promised land. I mean, if they can build a network of spies inside a country like Pakistan, I'm sure they can do ten times better in a place like Israel.

But coming back to the news report. It is 7 years old as this incident happened in 2004. Murdering an innocent 10 year old girl in cold blood and putting 17 bullets into her is barbaric. Only last night I was watching the Discovery channel on which they were showing a tigress hunting prey to feed her young ones. Compared to what the Israeli soldiers did to that poor girl, the tigress' antics appear to be quite humane; merciful even.

So why does the US support these monsters? Well the answer is shockingly simple. Much like the US has created a network of spies in countries like Pakistan, the Israelis have created a network of Parliamentarians in the US which control its Congress and other legislative bodies. When you have such a huge network of legislators in the world's most powerful country, it becomes crystal clear why the US continues to support Israel when it knows that doing so is wrong.

The really sad bit however is that ever since the conflict started between Palestine and Israel, 124 Israeli children have died due to military actions (such as the home made rockets that are fired from Palestine into Israel). On the other hand, 1452 Palestinian children have died at the hands of the Israeli aggressors. And yet, the Palestinians are to be blamed for all the mess plaguing the promised land.

The Israelis drove them out of their homes, burned down their farms, usurped their territory by building a wall confining them to certain quarters while the US yapped, and then supported its ally. Well calling the US an ally of Israel would be doing injustice to the many Israeli lawmakers in the US which consider the US and Israel as basically the same entity.

Maybe if the citizens of the US could see the other perspective to the world view that they are made to see via their media, maybe then they would understand why the hatred for the US that the world has keeps germinating. Blatant support for oppressors, murderers and tyrants even if they are your friends is wrong. And if the US cannot live without supporting Israel (which obviously is impossible) then maybe it should drop its hypocritical attitude towards the Libyan uprising and support for the Saudi monarchy. Maybe for a change, the US needs to look down its own alley and see what a mockery of world justice it has created.