Saturday, October 4, 2008, Shawwal 4, 1429    

American bombs: Pak must reflect!

Dr Abdul Ruff

Of late, the US-Pakistan relations have entered a drifting posture with US strategists accusing Pakistan of not killing enough Muslims in the country on “terrorism” plank and US military killing innocent Pakistan Muslims as a lesson–cum-punishment for an “uncooperative” Pakistan. This month, U.S. commandos mounted a helicopter-borne ground assault on a Pakistani border village. Pakistan condemned it saying such attacks violate its sovereignty and the army has vowed to defend Pakistani territory. But Pakistan does not want to engage in a conflict with the U.S. But at the same time it’s saying ‘please respect our sovereignty’ and it’s giving some sort of clear signal, while trying to be as conciliatory as possible”. With long bi-lateral ties behind them, Pakistan needs the USA for economic reasons and the U.S. needs Pakistan for conducting its war against “terrorism” in Afghanistan. This arrangement would continue until most of the Afghans are killed. Both recognize the need for cooperation, but both are also trying to maximize their gain by building pressure on the other to an early withdrawal of hostilities. Alarming as the sight of the nuclear-armed allies shooting at each other might be, US-Pakistan hostilities, therefore, are unlikely to intensify although more such incidents were possible, with both sides driven by different compulsions. Apart from anti-Islmism, there is an element of economic aspect of US interests. Paksitan has to worry about Indian manipulartions.

The USA has stepped up strikes on “militants” on the Pakistani side of the border by missile-firing drones. USA bombed Pakistan , a close ally, killing a few Muslims on the spot. The USA and its allies are waging a terror war in Afghanistan with an intensifying “Taliban insurgency” to thwart the imperialist move to control the country, which has raised doubts about the success of the West’s seven-year involvement. U.S. officials say Taliban and al Qaeda-linked fighters use the ethnic Pashtun tribal regions along Pakistan’s side of the border as an operating base to launch attacks inside Afghanistan , in Pakistan and to plot violence in the West. Targeting those safe havens has become a priority as frustration grows that Pakistan has not been doing “enough” to clamp down on fighters in the remote region. Since Sept 11 the US-ed terror forces have killed thousands of Afghans.

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said his country’s forces had only fired flares at the U.S. helicopters to tell them they had crossed the border. Like his predecessor Musharraf did, Zardari and his government also have pledged Paksitan’s commitment to the U.S.-led terror campaign against the so-called “militancy” and the army has killed up to 1,000 “militants” in recent offensives in the northwest. But the alliance with the United States and the attacks on militants are unpopular with many Pakistanis, and cross-border strikes by U.S. forces erode the public support the government is trying to nurture. It’s very bad as far as winning the people over, which is essential for the war on terror.

It appears it is only a “limited” war in Pakistan. Neither the United States nor its ally Pakistan will let a clash between their forces on the Afghan border escalate since both countries depend on each other for different reasons. US and Pakistani forces exchanged fire on the Afghan border on 25 Sept after Pakistani forces shot at two U.S. helicopters from a Pakistani border post, the latest in a string of incidents that has ratcheted up diplomatic tension between the allies. The Pakistani military said its soldiers fired warning shots after the helicopters intruded over Pakistani territory, but a Pentagon spokesman insisted the helicopters had not entered Pakistan. No one was hurt. The word does not know the whole truth. The U.S. attacks into Pakistan also put pressure on the government to stand up to what many see as U.S. aggression. If Pakistan let U.S. activity go unchecked they lose domestic credibility. So they have to do this kind of thing but not with the intention of destroying U.S. helicopters. Even during the occupation of Afghanistan by Soviet forces in the 1980s, Pakistan did not try to shoot down intruding Soviet aircraft but only to scare them away. A commentator said: “I don’t think things will get worse but if they do, even then Pakistan will avoid shooting down American helicopters.” The USA is the biggest donor of aid to Pakistan, desperately in need of foreign inflows as it struggles with a sharply deteriorating economy. Pakistani analysts also see the stepped-up U.S. strikes as an attempt by the U.S. administration to score points in the run-up to a November presidential election. As such, the U.S. attacks into Pakistan, particularly the drone missile strikes, are likely to continue and more minor clashes were possible. There is a perception that the possibility of such an incident in future cannot be ruled out but things will not spin out of control.

One does not, however, fail to infer that the US-Pakistan war is not quite serious enough and it has some other goals than the stated ones. In this era highly secretive manipulations and maneuverings, it is beyond the capacity of ordinary people to comprehend the real motive behind the current fiasco. Interestingly, Islamabad’s neighbor India has not yet made any “panicky” statement about the “explosive situation” prevailing in Pakistan with US fires. It is strange so because even when there is some little domestic disturbances in Pakistan, India would like to make a big hue and cry over the situation there speculating about their impact on “innocent” India. Media reports suggests that Pakistan got what it deserved from USA

Pakistan has remained in a state of steady turmoil. Ramadan is a month the Muslims all over the world are expected to repent for their crimes and other atrocities committed against Muslims and rededicate themselves to the cause of Islamic way of life. As an Islamic Nation, Pakistan has an important duty to do for the regular killing of Muslims in Pakistan and nearby border in the company of the global terrorist USA. . Pakistani leadership is terribly mistaken if they think their own killing of Muslims, even on US payment basis, would be tolerated by the people of Pakistan. In the name of “terrorism” not only US-Pakistani forces have killed Afghan Muslims, but also a good number of Muslims in Pakistan as well. Pakistan leadership should realize that the global Muslims despise any horrendous acts of state terrorism against Muslims, especially by the so-called Islamic nations for what ever reasons. For the same reason Muslims across the globe got disillusioned over the Lal Mosque genocide perpetrated in Pakistan, killing Muslims entrapped in a mosque. When it is understandable that the anti-Islamic states continue killing of Muslims around the world, it is atrocious and devastating, rather strange to see Pakistan, an Islamic nation, also doing the same job of killing Muslims mercilessly. Anti-Muslim India kills Muslims in Kashmir and torture Muslims in India; USA and its terror allies kill Muslims in Islamic world, particularly in Afghanistan and Iraq; Israel kills Palestinians in a sustained manner in order to make lands available for Jews new settlements. India wants to kill every Kashmir Muslim. But these counties are known as democracies and secular countries and hence they take liberty to do the ghastly genocide against Muslims. These anti-Islamic terror states can justify anything done to Muslims today.

But why should Islamic Pakistan? Do Pakistani leaders and media lords think that Pakistan was established in 1947 by its founder Jinnah exactly for killing Muslims in their own land and nearby? Are they sure they have got the sanction and legitimacy and mandate for the current genocide of Muslims under “terrorism” category? If so, are they not repeating what the Christians in the then Muslim Spain did long ago killing almost every Muslim? Americans want to kill every Afghan and other Muslims in Afghanistan and nearby because that is their accepted mandate.The name Islamic Republic means welfare of Muslims and encouragement of Ismaic way of life and does not denote any US or Indian culture.

If, however, Pakistani leadership is still not worried about Pakistan’s place in Islam and would like kill Muslims in Pakistan and nearby, then why not Pakistan change its constitution also to read as “secular and democratic” Pakistan so that it could kill Muslims officially and more forcibly at par with other so-called democrcies?