IN the domain of international politics, the national power of a state is considered as the hallmark while determining the status of a state. The national power of any state relies on the combination of many elements and factors, commonly known as the elements of national power. Among these elements of national power, military power is an undeniable factor. Traditionally, the military of Pakistan has acted as a very strong pillar of national power. In this perspective, the military of Pakistan faced numerous challenges while defeating the aggressive designs of rival powers at regional and international levels. In order to demonstrate its desired power potential, the military needs the support of the masses of Pakistan.
Traditionally, the masses of Pakistan respected and loved the military for its effective role in all wars and while combating the non-traditional security threats and challenges. The well planned defamation campaign against Pakistani military by some political forces and non-state actors is an attempt to create a split among masses and military. These groups make use of mainstream as well as the social media for their disinformation campaigns to defame and politicize the military and its premium intelligence agency in particular. It appears that this politicization of the Pakistani military is part of a larger agenda which may prove very dangerous against this most organized, highly professional and most popular and loved institution of Pakistan.
Domestically, defamation and the politicization of Pak Army aims at relegation of the love and respect, the men in uniform have been getting from the masses. The Pakistani military draws its strength from the masses of Pakistan. This intimate bond and devoted connection is the real area of concern for the rival forces of Pakistan. The foes of Pakistan, therefore, have chosen to target this intimate relationship in phase one of their larger anti-Pakistan agenda. During this phase, the planners would like to create differences between masses and military through an indirect strategy of defamation while negatively agitating the sentiments of masses and creating abhorrence against the military institutions. Indeed, no external power can succeed in overpowering Pakistan in the presence of a very strong and highly professional military which enjoys the unswerving, resilient and dedicated support from the people of Pakistan.
The rival forces had tried it many a time, last being the global war against terrorism. The intimacy and strong association between the Pakistani military and the masses enabled the former to combat, defeat and dig out the roots of this internationally sponsored terrorism against the state and society of Pakistan. Nevertheless, the brave defence forces of Pakistan crushed these terrorists and their backers and abettors. Upon this the planners had to diversify their strategies against Pakistan. The contemporary phase of defamation and indirect war against the institution of military through hybrid warfare means is at its peak.
A critical analysis of war against terrorism would reveal that it was an internationally sponsored campaign against Pakistan and its highly professional military. At the domestic front the Pakistani military had to confront many zones of conflict: the sub-nationalist in the Province of Balochistan, the hardliner and so-called religious groups like TTP in former FATA, KP and the rest of the country. There were many other splinter groups that attacked directly and indirectly while supporting the TTP, besides the militants from Afghanistan who frequently attack along Pak-Afghan border on military posts.
Despite Taliban rule since August 2021, terrorist outfits like TTP, the sub-nationalists are still using Afghan soil for terrorist attacks against Pakistan. Rather, Afghan Taliban militia is directly attacking Pakistani military posts alongside TTP and other terrorist groups. While debating the external dimension of targeting Pakistan and its military, it appears that after having failed in their strategies and efforts of weakening the Pakistani military through direct approach, the international spying network have adopted an indirect strategy to weaken the Pakistani military. They assume that, after weakening the military, there will be no force to resist the international and regional forces to ruin Pakistan, the way it happened with Iraq and Libya.
Defamation and politicization of Pakistani military is an indirect approach to devastate Pakistan in a future scenario. It is a strategy of war, used by ancient military strategists like Carl Von Clausewitz (Prussian General and military theorist) and Sun Tzu (Chinese General and military strategist). These strategists and many others have advised their governments to formulate strategies to defeat your enemy from within. Defeating the enemies from within have many dimensions: creating fault lines, causing split, defamation and humiliation among masses, hatching plots and conspiracies, politicization of key institutions and causing hatred against institutions of national security.
At this crucial moment, the people of Pakistan must understand the regional and international conspiracies to weaken Pakistan through an indirect approach of targeting its military. Since all other strategies to weaken and defeat the military have failed over the years, therefore, rivals are resorting to use and invest on those elements that can politicize and defame the military at home for creating a sense of demoralization among the fighting outfits and causing a split among the masses and it’s military.
It is to be noted that the Pakistani military is among the top few militaries of the world from the perspective of professionalism, bravery and dedication. Therefore, let’s not allow defamation and politicization of the Pakistani military. It is hard to imagine the challenges and hardships the military face while confronting the challenges of modern warfare. In this regard there is a need for initiating an awareness campaign at social level which should be led by Pakistani youth. Youth of Pakistan should be made as the key stakeholder to counter the social media campaigning against the military institutions.
— The writer is Professor of Politics and IR at International Islamic University, Islamabad.
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