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The Axis of trouble: America, Army, Mullahs.
by Yousaf Nazar at The Dawn.
Well Yusuf almost correct……Obviously America is a problem ALL Pakistanis clearly understand and appreciate. But the “American problem” would not be possible without the cooperation of the Pakistan military, from Ayub to Kiani.
The mullahs are manageable side actors and proxies of the Pakistan military, who have enjoyed minimal popularity with the vast majority of ordinary decent Pakistanis, since 1947, and pose minimal nuisance value except when the Pakistan military utilise them to full -fil their agenda internally (eg. Using such groups in East Pakistan with genocidal consequences in the 1971 civil war, where 3 million civilians were killed by the Pakistan military, remember ?; The Pakistan military creating the Taliban with American guidanc in 1994, and more recently setting up the Swat Taliban replete with their own radio station using a military frequency), but in the final analysis in the end always as proxis which can easily be switched off. This is what happened with the Swat Taliban, as a result of American pressure earlier this year.
Ordinary Pakistanis, or educated Pakistanis like yourself cannot account for America and its peculiar illegal behavior around the world…….that is a struggle for Americans. However what is reasonable and logical for ordinary Pakistanis is to seek justice from their own military, the Pakistan military, because it is an organization (800,000 serving military, 300,000 paramilitary….1,000,000 reserves) which is not made up of the sons of Zamindars/Tamindars who loot the country and off load their wealth in Swiss, London or NY bank accounts, or the sons of the 30 commercial families who do the same, or hail from fundie backgrounds though ominously many in the military display beards……….but the majority of the military personal from officers to soldiers come from ordinary backgrounds who love Pakistan and wish with sincerity serve their country.
This is the class and group that the struggling Pakistanis need to engage with through daily personal contacts and communication, and thus in this process marginalise the senior American bought officers who have sold their country for some $ and their lieutenants in the ISI, which operates as a slave of the Americans.
The security tragedy of Pakistan is the work of this lot……the 10,000 in the ISI (staffed by military officers exclusively), and the top military brass of Pakistan who follow security agenda’s slavishly of foreign powers without the will or Izzat to pause and say no, and which are having dire short, medium, long term consequences for Pakistan…..which is so so apparant for all to see.
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Pakistan’s so-called Islamic parties and groups never get tired of blaming America for all the country’s problems. (But they never blame their masters the Pakistan military, and as if America magically creates by itself without any internal help all the problems of Pakistan)
The military has traditionally blamed the politicians.(The Pakistan military will never publicly blame America……..I’ll bet a whole rupee on this….Because in the normal world the civilian politicians destabilised or marginalised would be running the country. Civilian political rule, not withstanding 1 year of Zardari’s tenure is far far better than the military’s rule of endemic national disasters…..Ayub to Musharaf, which is taking Pakistan to the Abyss)
The Americans blame the extremists and terrorists for Pakistan’s current woes. So do Pakistan’s liberals.
( The extremists and terrorists of Pakistan are controlled by the Pakistan military, which is a defacto slave military of American geo-strategy for the last 50 years especially after 1954.
Put it another way, there are no spontaneous home grown militant extremist groups which can survive in the internal security scene of Pakistan without the tacit approval and guidance of the Pakistan military, often with inserted serving military personnel {LeT/Taliban}……..This fine tradition began in 1948, when irregular Pashtuns were sent into Kashmir to liberate the state for Pakistan, and this policy strategy has continued to this day….. many of these groups are now Islamic fundamentalist.
This is a 60 year legacy continued by the Pakistan military.
The Pakistan military uniform did not change for 60 years from the British colonial era until America introduced reforms funded and supplied by America, very recently.
Or lets put it another way…..ALL the terrorist ops within Pakistan, on the above fact must therefore be conducted by the Pakistan military against their own people, either for some mysterious agenda of the Pakistan military which I can’t fathom (destabilisation/control of society/discredit Pakistani civilian rule), or for the benefit of a foreign power….no body especially in Asia should apprehend sympathy for such an ignoble military, OR IDENTIFY THEMSELVES WITH IT; often refered to as the worst in the world by certain American security experts, behind their backs of course.
The American contempt for it is palpable and is de riguer for at least the last 30 odd years…….they kick it metaphorically; they kill their top brass; make threats against it daily; bribe it; ignore it; decieve it; cheat it; humiliate it; betray it; use it; discard it when it please the Americans {ALL in the same day} and the Coolie chamar in the Pakistan military will always respond with a smile and acha sahib!!!!!!!!
As to the liberals of Pakistan………what does that mean? This sounds more like people who don’t really understand the real security scenario or power structure of Pakistan, and their daily views of Pakistan are superficially shaped through CNN or the British run al-Jazeerah)
In the context of the recent past and Pakistan’s history, Pakistan’s biggest tragedy and the principal reason for its break-up was and has been the axis of trouble between America, Pakistan’s army, and the religious parties.
(Again yes and no.
The 1971 tragedy, where 3,000,000 Pakistani civilians wer genocided by the Pakistani military, and 300,000 raped, and the country destroyed……did the Americans have a role in that; maybe in the background? But not overtly….the center stage in that tragedy was the Pakistan military, also using as proxies certain fundie forces..razakar’s and al-badr.
Baluchistan; security ops of 1973–1977 where between 50,000–100,000 Baluchis died was ordered by ZA Bhutto to keep the military busy it is alleged, BUT the Pakistan military carried out the security operation in their usual ham fisted colonial manner. The Pakistan military to this day continue to conduct such operations in an ham fisted colonial era manner without treating the Baluchi problem as an internal problem involving fellow Pakistanis. America or the mullahs extremists have had minimal role in the Baluchi tragedy.
The problems of the NWFP currently is a problem created by the Pakistan military in pursuit of policies in Afghanistan, with active American backing dating back to the late 1970′s, and the covert funding of extremist fundamentalist Afghan groups first, and the natural evolution of that concept INTO the domestic scene in the 1980s by Zia in the whole of Pakistan under a misguided Islamisation program, where a whole array of extremist fundie armed groups were created and guided by the Pakistan military.
This has created the current destabilised situation in Pakistan, and the even more dangerous image and scenario of being labelled terrorist hub number one……………by guess who????……………………..America…..which is also conveniently labelled a failed state number 9 which may require saving from itself by America, so some Americans whisper repeatedly.
The Pakistan military also play a critical role in maintaining for America the “al-Qaeda” myth, which has dangerous consequences for Pakistan.
Soon there will be 280,000 American fighting personnel in Afghanistan (180,000 private contractors….and 100,000 regular soldiers) and 40,000 NATO forces………America cannot attack Pakistan directly, it is a nuclear power, with a substantial military, and finally a DEMOCRACY,………but the Americans using the Coolie chamars in the ISI can destabilise it, over throw the democractic government and then create the condition for invasion in the future.
This is what ordinary decent Pakistanis need to be alert about.
Until and unless the axis is broken, neither the reconstruction of the Pakistani state nor the so-called democratisation of Pakistan will bring peace or prosperity to the latter’s 170 million people, nearly eighty per cent whom live below the poverty line of $2 a day.
(YES………….BUT how do you destroy the Pakistan military, and then create in its place something resembling a true national defense force that respects and represents the people, instead of fighting its best and most vicious wars against the Pakistan people……..and continually shitting themselves when confronted with professional opposing militaries?????? India/USA………The Pakistan military is enemy number one of Pakistan)
Pakistan’s elites have little interest in the reconstruction of the state because they have the most to lose if power is truly exercised by the people.
(Yes true, but when you say the Pakistan elite please qualify it……there are elites and then there are elites. Some elite groups in Pakistan have real power in Pakistan which has consequences, whilst others do not.
The 500 Tamindar/Zamindars families and the 30 commercial families……..I know they are reapeatedly mentioned as the main source of the elite problem, but I wonder as with ZA Bhutto, Benazir Bhutto, Gilani….hailing from that class whether they exercised REAL power which had ultimate adverse consequences for Pakistan, as civilian leaders.
Yes a post colonial rentier class who owe their good fortune to the former colonial masters can’t EVER be good for Pakistan, they should have been abolished as India did in 1948……..shifting some where between $150—300 billion of Pakistan’s assets to Zurich, London and NY…….and stifling Pakistan’s natural development into a successful modern independent state (exports $18 billion……steel production 1.1 million tons……….electric power production ….100 billion kwt……….GDP 170 billion……..national budget….$33 billion???……Punjab , Punjab and Punjab….lopsided development…BUT
This colonial class needs to be dealt with of course, but howeverhaving said this I still maintain that the main problem of Pakistan was and is the Pakistan military working exclusively with current American security agenda’s which are having obvious negative affects on Pakistan overall…..The Pakistan military is lead by officers of middle class and lower middle class background, and NOT FROM THE “RULING ELITE”….so)
The army has no incentive to break the axis of trouble (a legacy of the great game) because it thrives on the perpetuation of conflicts in the region and the largess it receives from the United States.
(Yes and no. Yes the Americans do provide it with inducements and toys, and the feeling that they are top dog in Pakistan metaphorically…..Admiral Mullen visits them regularly, as do top Ameican politicians. The Pakistan top brass are trained and brain washed at Fort Bragg, or simply bought as with Saddam’s generals in 2003.
The Americans work closely with the ISI which is a key instrument of controlling the Pakistan military………joint ops etc. On the other hand, there may be a tipping point where for Pakistanis it becomes all to obvious where the problem is, and we have mass mutiny within the ranks of the Pakistan security apparatus…..this is what I would be hoping for as a Patriotic Pakistani…in defense of the country…..Finding out which officers work for America and which for Pakistan)
The Americans cannot afford to antagonise the army for the simple reason it is the only power that matters. And the mullahs? They have thrived due to a combination of factors. Most important among the factors is the failure of the so-called mainstream parties to provide honest and credible leadership.
(Yes….The Pakistani military is the only power that matters in Pakistani society today unfortunately…..because of its size…800,000 serving military + 300,000 paramilitary + 1,000,000 reserves………its control of and share of the economy….6—9 %…$14—20 billion real expenditure based on PPP, AND American donations………AND its use of violence as a means of strategic objectives which are subsequently blamed on its controlled extremist Islamic proxies. I wouldn’t worry too much about the mullahs)
It is customary to blame Zia and his successors, including Musharraf, for the growth of the Frankenstein forces of extremism and terrorism, but the buck does not stop there.
In many other countries, for example, in Latin America, the unholy alliance between the local military, rightwing forces and Americans undermined democracy but the nationalist and democratic forces eventually triumphed because they had capable and credible leadership.
(Good point!………But there is a qualatative difference between called terrorist hub number one in the world where your proxies wage war for the Pakistan military, and America in Iran via Jundallah, in Afghanistan through the Taliban, in China, and of course India…………….and the Guatamalan military backing death squads at the behest of America………The consequences for Pakistan of such a wild policy may be very serious.
Within Pakistan, a nation of 180 million, there must be capable leaders who will eventually emerge to save the nation, but I am not seeing them among the current bunch. A Sharif regime might do better than Zardari’s, but only marginally better….and the current military cannot, and must not provide any leadership….they should stick to their job)
Pakistan has been cursed by civilian and military leaders who are too eager to follow the US agenda. From Ayub to Kayani, there is not a single army chief who can claim to have pursued Pakistan’s strategic interests independent of US goals in the region.
(Yes……………Jewish America can never be good for Pakistan, its that simple. In fact quite the opposite, but the great military leaders seem not to notice this fact. American aid does nothing for Pakistan…in any case most of this aid will end up you know where, earning interest in certain Jewish banks)
Since US interests have largely been military and revolved around the containment of Russia and China in the region, its most natural ally has been the military at the cost of democracy and democratic governance.
Politics has been demonised to a degree that save for incompetent and allegedly corrupt individuals like Mr Zardari or Mr Nawaz Sharif, or creations of the establishment like Altaf Hussain or Maulana Fazlur Rehman, few wish to navigate the treacherous and murderous waters of stormy Pakistani politics.
It is easy to say that we need democratisation and decentralisation of power and the provinces should be given full autonomy. But how? We have had many elections since 1985 after Ziaul Haq imposed martial law in 1977 but virtually nothing has changed.
It is even more ironic when otherwise well-meaning intellectuals and civil society leaders lecture about democratic governance and the fight against extremism as if these were the only important issues.
Some believe the judiciary offers some hope. An independent judiciary is an oxymoron in Pakistan’s current objective conditions. The so-called revolt by some in the judiciary against Musharraf was a manifestation of a power struggle inside the establishment.
The judiciary is as much part of the collapsing Pakistani state structure as some of the big media personalities, some whom also openly admit to have been offering advice to the powers that be.
The ugly reality is that the business of the state and politics has become a mafia enterprise with the usual mix of big money (read business, drugs, land) interests and crime.
This criminal enterprise has the active support of the Americans who find it convenient to use a corrupt instrument that a puppet state is, be it military or quasi-military. Either in its pure form or in a diluted form; that is, in a coalition with some corrupt politicians.
Many developing countries have passed through this phase. But the will of the people ultimately triumphs. So Pakistanis must not despair.
However they need to be clear that the forces of oppression and corruption have thrived not only due to the support from the US but also due to the fact that the people themselves have allowed autocratic and corrupt forces to divide, coerce, silence and deceive them.
The people must unite. But for a movement to succeed in Pakistan’s current conditions, it must and has to involve, mobilise and relate to the masses and not just the educated few.
It is therefore the need of the hour that all citizens think seriously about what is the crux of the issue. The country needs freedom from corrupt leadership (civil or military) and America and the axis of trouble.
It is not the sole privilege of any political party or a civil rights group to fight for this. This should be the common goal of every Pakistani who wants to see the rule of the people.
The two main obstacles to the creation of a free, just and democratic Pakistan are the establishment (including its civilian collaborators) and America. It is logical that Pakistanis raise their voice against both as well against the religious extremists.
From Ayub Khan to Yahya to Ziaul Haq to Musharraf, it is the United States that has sided with the generals as it historically did in all developing countries. To expect that a democratic movement can succeed without confronting the dictatorship’s biggest and most powerful supporter is hoping against all hope.
If civil society and journalists forget this and continue to focus on issues like the repeal of the 17th Amendment, it is unlikely that such an agenda would capture the imagination of the masses who are quite aware of who really pulls the strings in Pakistan.
Until and unless a movement emerges that appeals to popular sentiment and represents the people’s real aspirations to create a genuinely democratic state, Pakistan’s chances of survival in its current state are slim.
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Omar bin Laden (www.dailymail.co.uk/.) whose wife has a £550,000 home in the village of Moulton, in the UK. (Omar’s uncle, Salem bin Laden attended Millfield, the English boarding school. Ambrose Cary, son of the 12th Marquess of Queensberry, and head of a British security and intelligence firm, has a sister Caroline Carey who married the late Salem bin Laden, prior head of the global Bin Laden family corporation.[3][4])
