International nation state system is based on anarchy, where every state has to ensure its security by itself. In the perspective of Westphalia, there are two peculiarities of a nation state; no internal parallel and no external superior (supra-state) over and above a state. In the international politics, 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 is considered as the most significant and unquestionable factor. Traditionally, the military of Pakistan has acted as a very strong pillar of national power. In this perspective, Pakistani militaryfaced numerous challenges while defeating the aggressive designs of rival powers at regional and international level.
In order to demonstrate its desired power potential, the military needs the support of masses of Pakistan. Customarily, 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 especially in combating the terrorism. 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 main stream as well as the social media for their disinformation campaigns to defame and politicize the military and its premium intelligence agency; Inter-Services-Intelligence (ISI). It appears that this politicization of Pakistani Military is part of a larger agenda which may prove very dangerous against this most organized, highly professional, most popular and most 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 receiving from the masses. Pakistani military draw its strength from the masses of Pakistan. This intimate bond and devoted connection is the real area of concern for the rival power(s) 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 indirect strategy of defamation while negatively agitating the sentiments of masses and creating abhorrence against the institution of Pak Army.
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 a dedicated support from people of Pakistan. The enemies of Pakistan had tried it many a time, last being the global war against terrorism. The intimacy and strong association between Pakistani military and the masses enabled the former to combat, defeat and dig-out the roots of this internationally sponsored terrorism against state and society of Pakistan. Nevertheless, the brave armed forces of Pakistan crushed these terrorists and their backers and abettors. This annoyed the planners and compelled them to diversify their strategies against Pakistan.
A critical analysis of war against terrorism would reveal that, it was an internationally sponsored campaign against Pakistan and its highly professional military. At 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 rest of the country. There were many other splinter groups that attacked directly and indirectly while supporting the TTP agenda. 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.
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 indirect strategy to weaken the Pakistani military. They assume that, after weakening the Military, there will 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, hatching plots and conspiracies, politicization of key institutions and causing hatred against institutions of national security.
At this crucial moment of Pakistan, 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.
Today, Pakistani military ranked among the top few militaries of the world from the perspective of professionalism, bravery and dedication. Its brave men have safeguarded its borders against all sorts of military aggressions and security challenges, hence defamation of this institution cannot be allowed. It is hard to imagine the challenges and hardships the military face while confronting the challenges of modern warfare. It is obligatory for the masses of Pakistan to respect the Military as an institution stand behind the men in uniform to further strengthen the institution of Military.
The writer is Professor of Politics and IR at International Islamic University, Islamabad.
