Obama and the west consider terrorism as a cancer

Asif Haroon Raja

Obama has several times referred to extremism in Pakistan as cancer, but fails to divulge the whole truth as to who injected this fatal disease in the body of Pakistan. He again chided Pakistan of getting out of Indian obsession and to fully concentrate towards the main threat of terrorism. It is an established fact of history of South Asia that India itself suffering from cancer of terrorism has been transferring infection to all its neighbors. It had inflicted the cancer of Tamil Tiger insurgency in Sri Lanka, which remained afflicted with this disease for 25 years. It is to the credit of Sri Lanka that after suffering from this fatal disease for so long, its security forces succeeded in curing the Indian imposed cancer. India is now hell bent to inject cancer of terrorism into the body of Pakistan and has succeeded in making certain parts cancerous. Having failed in Sri Lanka it wants to succeed in Pakistan. Tehrik-e-Taliban-Pakistan (TTP) in FATA and Baloch Liberation Army in Balochistan are RAW’s infectious tools which it is employing with impunity.       

Obama and the west consider terrorism as a cancer, but instead of curing it through treatment they desire its aggravation. Having made Pakistan cancerous, the US has done little to treat the fatal disease. Rather, it is aggravating it by allowing India to carry on with its subversive activities in various parts of Pakistan and pushing Pakistan to keep chasing the ghosts of terrorism. It has all along been miserly in providing much needed medicines to treat the cancer. Knowing the gravity of the disease, it has released funds and counter terrorism equipment in small bits and pieces, much lesser than the requirements. The Army and paramilitary forces woefully short of funds and equipment like combat helicopters, humvies and high tech electronic means have been bravely fighting foreign trained and equipped terrorists in FATA, Swat, Malakand Division and Balochistan and have produced pleasing results. Had the desired funds and equipment been provided, the cancer could have been cured by now. Ironically, the US has all the right medicines in abundance but has miserably failed to cure the cancer in Afghanistan and Iraq.  

It is incomprehensible as to why should the US ink Kerry Lugar aid bill (KLB), hold strategic dialogue with Pakistan, promise to meet its counter terrorism equipment needs, praise Pakistan efforts in war on terror generously and seek closer cooperation to help solve Afghan imbroglio if it is the most dangerous country in the world, breeding ground and a hub centre of terrorism where Al-Qaeda and Taliban leadership resides, where extremists are in cahoots with Pakistan Army and ISI, where nukes are vulnerable, where political situation is messy and economy fragile and the country is on the verge of failing or imploding from within? If Pakistan has become cancerous, the US should stay away from it rather than making repeated overtures.

The US and western armies have been fighting cancer of terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan for the last 7 and 9 years respectively and have employed excessive force without achieving any results. The bleeding wound has become cancerous. Trigger happy gung-ho occupation forces have been firing their weapons ruthlessly mowing down both militants and civilians. Ratio of civilian deaths has been much higher. Torture dens have been in operation at Gitmo, Abu Gharib, Baghram base and other places inflicting inhuman cruelties upon prisoners most of whom were innocent. Women prisoners were abused and raped. Dr Afia Siddiqui is still languishing in American jail. Dogs were unleashed on tied and stripped prisoners and water board techniques were employed and were justified by George W. Bush. The two victim countries have been made into killing grounds where loss of human lives and miseries of the people do not bother the offenders.

Even after perpetrating so much of barbarity, the US is still bloodthirsty and wants to continue with its policy of bloodletting. Obama called for closer collaboration against al-Qaeda, Afghan Taliban, Haqqani network, Lashkar-e-Taeba and Pakistani Taliban. He said ambiguity in Pakistan’s relationship with any of them could no longer be ignored. James Jones warned if Pakistan cannot deliver, the US may be impelled to use any means at its disposal to rout insurgents based along Pakistan’s western and southern borders with Afghanistan. Feeling pleasure in killing Muslims in millions, the US gets very disturbed when an American gets killed.  

Pakistan, caught up in the vortex of cancer injected by foreign powers has suffered immensely. Since 9/11, Pakistan has been rocked by terrorists every tenth day. It has seen 340 terror incidents. Besides, it is suffering unabated onslaught of drones which kills 98% innocent people. Drones are contributing towards spreading cancer in the body of Pakistan. Philip Alston, a UN investigator, moved by the call of conscience, declared drones operated by intelligence agencies against other countries as illegal. He wrote in his report to Human Rights Council that drones amounts to giving a license to kill and is akin to extra judicial killing or target killing. He warned that this undesirable practice if allowed to go unchecked is likely to be copied by others and will lead to chaos. 40 other countries are in possession of drones.      

Rather than Pakistan making noise that it is the victim of terrorism and should be adequately compensated for immense sacrifices rendered, strangely it is India which is sniveling. Its sole contribution in war on terror was to fuel cancer of terrorism in the region. Having made Pakistan cancerous, the US, India and Israel seeks its death.

The US has been spending $30 billion a year in Afghanistan in its bid to treat the cancer but has failed. Conversely, it has spent only $10.4 billion spread over nine years in Pakistan, which comes to $1.1 billion per year. Even this paltry amount has been released with lot of hiccups. Pak Army which faced the brunt of terrorism was accusingly asked to account for the amount released, implying that it had not been judiciously spent. The story of KLB worth $1.5 billion is well known how this apparently well meaning project was converted into a source of friction.

Instead of attending to the patient suffering from fatal disease, both the US and India are hanging swords of Damocles over the head of Pakistan. With one voice the two strategic partners warn Islamabad of dreadful consequences in case any terror attack or terror plot was traced to Pakistan. For 9/11, no such advance warning was given to Afghanistan, but now series of warnings have been hurled at regular intervals by US and Indian leaders. The botched up Times Square incident on 01 May was one example quoted by Hillary Clinton. In anticipation to the attacks, the perpetrators of perceived future attackers have also been described.

Of late TTP has also been declared as a cancer patient that may infect USA. To give strength to its concoction, a fabricated video interview of born-again Hakimullah was aired in May in which he had described USA as chief foe and threatened to burn down US cities. His spokesman had claimed TTP’s linkage with Faisal Shahzad. A militant carrying a dirty bomb in suitcase and exploding it in USA is another frightful scenario being painted to scare the Americans and to justify their continued usage of force in Afghanistan and drones in Pakistan and also to keep Pakistan on tenterhooks. The brainy US leaders want to keep the disease of cancer away from USA through such harebrained threats and loony stories not realizing that USA, Israel and India are already in the advanced stage of cancer.