Pakistan – Losing Sight

Mahboob A. Khawaja, Ph.D.

The US administration accuses Pakistan of being complacent in last week’s Haqqani group Taliban attacks on the US compound in Kabul. It is not only absurd but unexpected from an ally waging proxy war on behalf of the US. The inept and wicked Pakistani elite and politicians deserve immediate accountability for their crimes against the interests of the people.   But the people can only demonstrate and get burnt, echoing competing and disgusted voices often with fatigued spirit and run-down bodies of decades old protests challenging the incompetent military dictators and crime riddled sadistic political rulers. This week, an elder Pakistani political observer informed me about “prostitution run politics flourishing in Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi.” No wonder, why many Pakistanis would identify Zardari-PPP and the Generals as shameless (“baigharat”) and prostitution agents (“kanjars”).  What an insult to morally conscientious Pakistani people?

Reminiscent of the British Empire have long been erased by the changing pulse of time and history but the New American Empire wants to reassert its political hegemony over South West and Central Asia. After Iraq, Muslim people of Afghanistan and Pakistan are the net victims of this tragic plan well in progress but the mindless and mostly bribed rulers are happy - life brings many pleasures and comforts to them. The US is defeated and it wants more to share the same fate and image at least to argue with the American voters in forthcoming presidential elections. No matter how illiterate, the people are perceived to be in global imagery, Pakistanis have wide range of knowledge and understanding of the US led bogus war on terrorism. Its ultimate aims are to destabilize and cripple Pakistan within by its ruling monsters – PPP- Bhutto-Zardari, Geelani, the Generals and their accomplice bureaucrats. Is it something new to the Pakistanis? Wolfwoltz, the former neo-con architect of the Iraq war and Bush appointed President of the World Bank asked General Musharaf to phase-out pro Islamic and pro-Pakistani senior military and civilian officials and phase-in pro-American and pro-secular officials to govern Pakistan. Musharaf complied with the demands of the Master. Corruption and treachery is part of the Pakistani current governance. Zardari-PPP gang and the Generals must face legal – political accountability or both law and firing squads for their treachery and wickedness to the interests of the people of Pakistan.

ANI in its report of May 12, 2011 makes it known that

“Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operatives have infiltrated the Taliban and Al-Qaeda networks, and have created their own Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) force in order to destabilize Pakistan. Much of the information-gathering network of Pakistan's supreme security service was curtailed in the country's tribal areas during former military ruler Pervez Musharraf's era, consequently giving an edge to America's CIA, The Nation reported. The CIA was given direct access to the entire territory of North and South Waziristan, which has since developed its stronghold in the belt, it added…….the CIA operatives have infiltrated the Taliban and Al-Qaeda networks, and have created their own TTP force…….This force has been recruited, trained and equipped by these CIA operatives to target the Pakistan Army personnel, armed forces' installations, markets, hospitals, schools and public places to destabilize Pakistan.” In 2006-2007, the US purchased $60 million worth of Soviet era made weaponry from Russia and distributed to various groups active in Afghanistan and adjacent tribal belts of Pakistan. This would enlarge the scope of killings and empower the insurgency.

The paper quoted the sources, as claiming that the Soviet Intelligence Agency had already disclosed that CIA contractor Raymond Davis and his network had provided Al-Qaeda operatives with chemical, nuclear and biological weapons, so that US installations may be targeted and Pakistan be blamed, and pressed to do more in areas such as conducting operations in North Waziristan.

"After the civil government justified the CIA operation in Abbottabad all of them have again indulged in their original nefarious activities," the sources added.

It is a public knowledge worldwide that the US-India and Britain are working collaboratively to destroy the nuclear arsenals and the integrity of Pakistan. Andrew Gavin Marshall (“Imperial Eye on Pakistan: Pakistan in Pieces, Part 1- Global Research. 5/30/2011) adds the proper perspective: ‘Pakistan in Pieces’ examines the changing views of the American strategic planners – particularly the military and intelligence policy makers in Washington – towards Pakistan.

“In particular, there is a general acknowledgement that Pakistan will very likely continue to be destabilized and ultimately collapse. What is not mentioned in these assessments, however, is the role of the military and intelligence communities in making this a reality; a veritable self-fulfilling prophecy. This part also examines the active on the ground changes in American strategy in Pakistan, with increasing military incursions into the country.”

Andrew Marshall streamlines the core issue:

“In 2005, the Times of India reported on a US National Intelligence Council report, written in conjunction with the CIA, which predicted a “Yugoslavia-like fate” for Pakistan, saying that, “by year 2015 Pakistan would be a failed state, ripe with civil war, bloodshed, inter-provincial rivalries and a struggle for control of its nuclear weapons and complete Talibanisation.”

Leading American Democratic and Republican politicians were actively engaged in belligerent statements that Pakistan represented a greater strategic threat than Iran.

The Asia Times Online (12/2007) ran a story about the US plan to rid Pakistan of President Musharraf, and that the US and the West, more broadly, had begun a strategy aimed at toppling Pakistan’s military. As part of this, the US launched a media campaign aimed at demonizing Pakistan’s military establishment.

Authors Frederick Kagan and Michael O’Hanlon in an op-ed in the New York Times (November 2007) stated categorically that, “the United States simply could not stand by as a nuclear-armed Pakistan descended into the abyss,” and that, “we need to think — now — about our feasible military options in Pakistan, should it really come to that.”

The authors concluded remarks point out that “decline in Pakistan would likely be gradual, therefore allowing the US to have time to respond, and placed an emphasis on securing Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal and combating militants. They finished the article with the warning: “Pakistan may be the next big test.”

Defense Secretary Panetta and new CIA Chief General Petreaus asking Pakistan to do more in crushing the activities of Haqqani group tells all - how the US failed to quell the freedom fighters in Afghanistan. Now, it needs a face saving shield, and that means incursion into Pakistan and possible reactionary military attacks to occupy Pakistan.

Zardari and General Kiyani would have already consented to such plan - the faithful paid agents of the US strategic plan stationed in Pakistan. To the US, Pakistani masses will demonstrate for a while, get killed and go home - who cares?  The US appointed new administration and Generals will talk about human rights, freedom and justice as the core of American enhanced liberal democratic values – a model as is the Iraq blue print under the US-British military occupation. Pakistani Generals and Zardari are no strangers to these social interactions as they have worked for long time to bring this new phase of democracy to the besieged people of Pakistan.

Recently, in “Pakistan- Whithering Heights”, the author made the following observation:

Nation-building is not the role and task of the Generals, Bhuttos, Zardaris, Altaf Hussain or Sharif as they are dead entries in history books and artifacts in museum. To visualize rational remedies and workable change of the currently disastrous political events and ethnic bloodbaths and set a NEW DIRECTION to facilitate social, economic, moral and political RECONSTRUCTION of the oppressed nation, you NEED educated people, intelligent and visionary thinkers and leaders and experts in problem-solving and change management to avert the self-suicidal agendas being followed by the PPP-MQM and the Generals - Karachi is at the tipping edge - just a glimpse out of the sadistic and incompetent mindset of the few, wait and see what will be the next?

Do the THINKING PEOPLE of Pakistan care for anything at all?

How to free Pakistan from the grip of most corrupt, incompetent and criminally well known rulers - PPP- Bhuttos-Zardari and the Generals?

Could Pakistan fight another war against itself or anybody else?

With broken economy, shattered public confidence, destroyed businesses/trades/commerce, crippled resources, daily civilian bloodbaths, defeated armed forces under corrupt leadership - what else is there that Pakistani masses could look for to acquire sense of security and survival?  The Generals and Zardari gang see no evil anywhere around them except the one if they look straight in the mirror.  Deprived of any consideration, practically discarded as human beings and viewed as digits and numbers, and politically tortured and victimized, 180 million Pakistanis live under the virtual occupation and slavery of the few egomaniac blood thirsty Draculas. Pardon my ignorance, but why there is no typhoon or another big earthquake in the Presidential Palace, the Assembly or where the Generals occupy the public land? Everyday is fast becoming a tragic day. Human bodies –innocent civilians put to flames by the MQM-PPP gangsters in Karachi. Yesterday, a bomb blast in bus near Peshawar killing 60 passengers and injuring many. Today, a bus crash reported 37 school kids killed near Islamabad and many more wounded because of the failure of the breaks. Strange, why do the breaks of Zardari’s car or General Kiyani’s car not fail and turn them ups and down?  The global news media shows painful scenes of human miseries - hunger, sickness and helplessness affected by the flooding in Sindh. Political beggars come out to make case for global aid, yet nobody cares to help the people.  Why isn’t there a flood in Islamabad destroying the Zardari palace, Generals and the bogus National Assembly? People’s life and safety are left to the mercy of Allah, Who is indeed Merciful.  In an Islamabad masjid, an Imam completes the morning “Fajr” prayers and raises his hands to God:

“Oh Allah help us and save us from the treacherous plans and wickedness of the rulers - the fasiqs and fajars who are conspiring to destroy Muslims and Pakistan”

After witnessing the continued deaths, social, moral upheavals and intellectual destructions and burnt human bodies, a courageous female protester stands silent with a hand written poster on a roadside in Karachi to remind the thinking people:

“Don’t Blow your Horn - the Nation is Sleeping.” 

Pakistan NEEDS a strategic change and new policy direction disconnecting its affiliation with the US warmongering - a new political system and indeed much desired New Leadership. There is no systematic mechanism to expect this change to come out of the piled up political garbage of the PPP- Generals administration.  The logical way out is the IMMEDIATE formation of a non-partisan civilian government replacing the Zardari gang, and under new, educated and intelligent leadership providing a breathing space and an opportunity to make the navigational change, out of the prevalent and dangerous political present.  This should be the CORE THINKING of a sustainable change and new political direction. The People of Pakistan can make it happened - the only hope under the shadows of more wars, drone attacks, and more deaths and destruction in waiting as part of the US friendship baggage.