The changing Pakistani identity

Pakistanis have turned to a Muslim identity which in itself is quite OK for the country is an Islamic republic. But to put all onus on religious identity alone, deprives the country of its own national genesis. Without a cultural identity there remains hardly any difference between people of the same faith living in different parts of the world.

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PAKISTAN’S IDENTITY CRISIS

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Waris Hussain

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The recent outburst of homegrown terrorists from the Pakistani-American community is an alarming development, especially considering the tenuous relationship between Islamabad and Washington. The central issue seems to be why Pakistani-Americans are turning to such violent organizations.

The answer is not so simple, and while many point to the racism and xenophobia of American society that alienated these individuals, I believe the problem started in Pakistan. The national identity of Pakistan has been replaced by a religious one, and this identity crisis has siphoned down not only to Pakistanis, but also their children who were born abroad.

Zahid Ibrahim wrote this week in Express Tribune that the New York Times Square bomber, Faisal Shahzad, turned to terrorism because the apparent hostility of American society towards Muslims. Mr. Ibrahim claims that if these young people like Shahzad could espouse their extremist Islamic rhetoric in the public sphere openly, they would not turn to violent terrorist groups. While I agree with Mr. Ibrahim that American culture must open itself up to its immigrant populations, the question still remains as to WHY these individuals, specifically Pakistani-Americans, espouse such religiously extreme ideals.

For many who move to America or were born here of Pakistani descent, they experience an identity crisis because they want to assimilate but are also viewed as representatives of Pakistan. But what happens when the country you are supposed to represent lacks any national or cultural characteristic? Indian-Americans, regardless of their religious beliefs, represent Indian culture with its music, literature, and films Yet, Pakistanis, have turned to the Muslim identity and the concept of Ummah rather than explore their own cultural identity.

This paradigm has affected me, as I would have arguments with my father about how Pakistan is in the same category as other Muslim nations across the world. My ideal of Pakistan being merely a part of the Ummah was emblematic of Pakistan losing its own cultural identity for that of the “Muslim World”. Individuals from my father’s generation are infuriated at the thought of Pakistan forgoing its own identity because it delineates from the vibratant social and political life they experienced growing up in Pakistan.

One should not confuse my distinction between Ummah and Pakistan’s national identity, as an attack on the concept of Ummah. I believe there are several examples of how this Ummah has helped Pakistan as well as other nations in times of poverty or war. However, we see the violent effects of this concept being the ONLY one learned by individuals, without an understanding of the tradition and culture they belong to as Pakistanis.

The misperception of national identity was no more apparent to me than when reports surfaced of a group of American-born Pakistanis being arrested in Pakistan for conspiring to commit terrorist acts. The most striking part of the report was that it stated the Pakistani-American men did not even speak Urdu and were joining the jihadi movement. This raised a red flag in my mind considering these young men did not have any idea of their cultural heritage, but followed the modern religious trend towards extremism and violence nicknamed international jihad.

The solution to me is not allowing these confused individuals space in our public sphere to discuss extremist rhetoric, but to look to each and every immigrant home. The conversations occurring within these homes are where this seed is sown for these young individuals to understand their roles not only as Americans, but as Pakistanis. If all they hear on the news and all they are told by their parents is that Pakistan is part of the Ummah and they only owe duties as a religious follower, they will fall in the trap of extremism far more easily.

However, if one discusses the ideals of secular governance by Jinnah, or talks about the poetry of Iqbal, or mentions the history of Sufism in Pakistan- they fully understand their own identity and Pakistan’s. These discussions would remind Pakistanis of their vibrant national history and could bring new creativity to the nation.

More significantly for immigrants and their children, understanding modern philosophical and artistic movements helps them adjust to American society, which has also experienced similar movements of freedom. Thus, the understanding of Pakistan’s identity as part of the Ummah denies a true understanding of the complexity of the culture and can lead to a rise in extremist thought.

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Source: Wichaar, Title image: The Pakistan Update

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the ‘Wonders of Pakistan’. The contents of this article too are the sole responsibility of the author(s). WoP will not be responsible or liable for any inaccurate or incorrect statements contained in this post.

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McChrystal calls Marjah a ‘bleeding ulcer’ in Afghan campaign

In this critical phase of the Afghanistan war, Gen. Stanley McCrystal says NATO and Afghan efforts to secure Marjah are moving too slowly. ‘By day there is government. By night it’s the Taliban,’ says one Afghan tribal leader.

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McCHRYSTAL GETTING IMPATIENT WITH MARJAH CAMPAIGN

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Dion Nissenbaum

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Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top allied military commander in Afghanistan, sat gazing at maps of Marjah as a Marine battalion commander asked him for more time to oust Taliban fighters from a longtime stronghold in southern Afghanistan’s Helmand province.

“You’ve got to be patient,” Lt. Col. Brian Christmas told McChrystal. “We’ve only been here 90 days.”

“How many days do you think we have before we run out of support by the international community?” McChrystal replied.

A charged silence settled in the stuffy, crowded chapel tent at the Marine base in the Marjah district.

“I can’t tell you, sir,” the tall, towheaded, Fort Bragg, N.C., native finally answered.

“I’m telling you,” McChrystal said. “We don’t have as many days as we’d like.”

The operation in Marjah is supposed to be the first blow in a decisive campaign to oust the Taliban from their spiritual homeland in adjacent Kandahar province, one that McChrystal had hoped would bring security and stability to Marjah and begin to convey an “irreversible sense of momentum” in the U.S.-led campaign in Afghanistan.

Instead, a tour last week of Marjah and the nearby Nad Ali district, during which McClatchy had rare access to meetings between McChrystal and top Western strategists, drove home the hard fact that President Barack Obama’s plan to begin pulling American troops out of Afghanistan in July 2011 is colliding with the realities of the war.

NOT ENOUGH TROOPS IN HELMAND

There aren’t enough U.S. and Afghan forces to provide the security that’s needed to win the loyalty of wary locals. The Taliban have beheaded Afghans who cooperate with foreigners in a creeping intimidation campaign. The Afghan government hasn’t dispatched enough local administrators or trained police to establish credible governance, and now the Taliban have begun their anticipated spring offensive.

“This is a bleeding ulcer right now,” McChrystal told a group of Afghan officials, international commanders in southern Afghanistan and civilian strategists who are leading the effort to oust the Taliban fighters from Helmand.

“You don’t feel it here,” he said during a 10-hour front-line strategy review, “but I’ll tell you, it’s a bleeding ulcer outside.”

Throughout the day, McChrystal expressed impatience with the pace of operations, echoing the mounting pressure he’s under from his civilian bosses in Washington and Europe to start showing progress.

Progress in Marjah has been slow, however, in part because no one who planned the operation realized how hard it would be to convince residents that they could trust representatives of an Afghan government that had sent them corrupt police and inept leaders before they turned to the Taliban.

A hundred days after U.S.-led forces launched the offensive, Marjah markets are thriving, the local governor has begun to build a skeleton staff and contractors have begun work on rebuilding schools, canals and bridges.

Marines are running into more firefights on their patrols, however. Taliban insurgents threaten and kill residents who cooperate with the Americans, and it will be months before a permanent police force is ready to take control of the streets from the temporary force that’s brought some stability to Marjah.

The U.S.-backed Marjah governor, Marine officials said, has five top ministers. Eight of 81 certified teachers are on the job, and 350 of an estimated 10,000 students are going to school.

CREEPING TALIBAN OFFENSIVE

In an attempt to contain the creeping Taliban campaign, Lt. Col. Christmas’ 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, in northern Marjah recently ceded direct control of an outlying rural area, collapsed its battle space and moved a company back into the population center, which had been neglected.

“There was no security,” said Haji Mohammed Hassan, a tribal elder whose fear of the Taliban prompted him to leave Marjah two weeks ago for the relative safety of Helmand’s nearby provincial capital, Lashkar Gah.

“By day there is government,” he said. “By night it’s the Taliban.”

Even in Nad Ali, where British commanders have had success holding elections, opening schools and building the beginnings of a functioning local government, there are significant pockets of Taliban resistance. The local police force, the British commander said, is about half the size that’s needed to patrol the area.

“What we have done, in my view, we have given the insurgency a chance to be a little bit credible,” McChrystal said in one meeting. “We said: ‘We’re taking it back.’ We came in to take it back. And we haven’t been completely convincing.”

Still, no one proposed sending more troops to Marjah.

GIVE TALIBAN MORE TERRITORY?

McChrystal’s top commanders in southern Afghanistan did weigh a suggestion from the top U.S. Marine general in the country, who said the time had come to gamble on turning over some areas to Afghan control more quickly than planned.

“I think if we want to shorten the timelines, then we are going to have to assume more risk in certain areas,” said Marine Maj. Gen. Richard P. Mills.

In the final briefing of the tour last week, one American civilian strategist told McChrystal that it would be hard to force Marjah residents to shed their skepticism quickly.

“The vast majority of people are going to be on the fence, and they’re going to wait,” said the U.S. official, who asked not to be identified because the meeting was meant to offer candid advice to McChrystal.

“The hard question for us is: Can we push them off the fence or do we have to wait for them? It will take time, and even if you throw two more battalions in there, it is still going to take months and months.”

“It was a long way gone; therefore I think patience is necessary,” said Mark Sedwill, NATO’s senior civilian representative in Afghanistan. “But I can quite understand why the sheer amount of attention created a sense of expectation that is hard to fulfill.”

The military shares the blame for generating great expectations about how fast the Marjah campaign could turn the tide against the Taliban, expectations that defense officials in Washington, speaking only on the condition of anonymity, said the Obama administration was eager to embrace.

In February, as the intense battles with Taliban fighters around Marjah were winding down, British Maj. Gen. Nick Carter, the commander of coalition forces in southern Afghanistan, told Pentagon reporters: “Looking downstream, in three months’ time or thereabouts, we should have a pretty fair idea about whether we’ve been successful. But I would be very cautious about any triumphalism just yet.”

Nearly three months to the day after making that prediction, Carter was sparring with McChrystal over whether they’d sent too few troops to seize Marjah.

“I think that we’ve done well, but I think that the pace of security has been slower,” McChrystal said in one meeting. “I’m thinking that, had we put more force in there, we could have locked that place down better.”

“I don’t agree with you about putting more forces in there,” Carter argued, reflecting the inherent tension between defeating the Taliban and winning over civilians. “This is about convincing people.”

“You’re going to feel that way,” McChrystal cut in with a deadpan joke. “It’s your plan.”

“I am, sir,” Carter replied. “You would have to put about five brigades in to achieve the effect you’re talking about and, even then, I bet the Taliban would get through, because it’s in the minds of people.”

Like other commanders throughout the day, Carter pleaded for patience.

“I think what’s going to make the difference, whether we marketed it right or not at the beginning, is time,” he said. “And it’s about persuading people.”

McChrystal appeared unpersuaded.

“I think we have let too much move along without overwhelming-enough security,” McChrystal said, “and I think we are paying the price for it.”

On the flight back to Kabul, McChrystal said he’d intentionally asked provocative questions about troop levels to light a fire under the team and to convey a renewed sense of urgency.

McChrystal now has 13 months to produce some elusive, irreversible momentum before Obama plans to start bringing U.S. forces home — and the president expects to stay on schedule.

“I am confident that we’re going to be able to reduce our troop strength in Afghanistan starting in July 2011, and I am in constant discussions with General McChrystal, as well as Ambassador (Karl) Eikenberry, about the execution of that time frame,” Obama said earlier this month during a joint news conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

The tension between political and military timetables was apparent again Sunday, when the foreign minister in Britain’s new, Conservative-led government criticized withdrawal deadlines as counterproductive.

“I don’t think setting a deadline helps anybody,” Foreign Secretary William Hague told the BBC during a visit to Afghanistan. “I think so much of what we’re doing in Afghanistan, setting targets for people then to jump through hoops towards, doesn’t help them in their work.”

If there’s concern in global capitals, said NATO’s Sedwill, a former British ambassador in Kabul, it’s as much a product of inflated expectations as of unmet promises.

“If there are politicians anywhere in the alliance who are making a judgment that we shouldn’t have gone for the surge unless we could have been confident by the end of 2010 it would all look completely different, then we shouldn’t have gone for the surge, because that was never practical,” he told McClatchy.

Related Post: Marjah, ‘This not Falluja’.

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Jonathan S. Landay in Washington and McClatchy special correspondent Hashim Shukoor in Kabul, Afghanistan, contributed to this article.

Source: McClatchy Newspapers

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the ‘Wonders of Pakistan’. The contents of this article too are the sole responsibility of the author(s). WoP will not be responsible or liable for any inaccurate or incorrect statements contained in this post.

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Hatemongers Attack Pakistan Again

Suspected militants have killed around 93 and injured hundreds in coordinated strikes against minority sect mosques. The attacks in Lahore Friday were the worst ever against Ahmadis, reviled

AHMEDI MOSQUES GUNNED, 93+ KILLED.

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by Adil Najam and Owais Mughal

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The forces of hate are attacking Pakistan again.

This time targeting Ahmadi worshipers in two separate locations in Lahore, killing over 70 people, [according to latest reports, the figure has reached to more than 93] injuring more than 100, taking others hostage, and spreading their terrorizing message of hate in society.

There can be nothing but rage and loathing for those who kill for the pleasure of killing. Who kill for the purpose of spreading terror and mayhem. Who kill to hide their own inadequacies of faith. Who breed in the fires of hate and kill as an expression of hate. These are the enemies of Pakistan. The enemies of the very religion they think they are safeguarding with venomous hate. They are, indeed, the enemies of humanity.

Ultimately, the person who is killed is not a Pakistani or Indian or American or even Muslim or Jew or Christian or even Barelvi or Ahmadi or Wahabi. Ultimately, the person killed is just another human. And the person who kills, is not. Because in the very act of killing for hate he has stripped himself of that distinction, of his own humanity.

Words escape us, once again. What can we say that we did not say about Karachi, about Quetta, about Swat, about Peshawar, aboutIslamabad, about Kohat – indeed about Lahore itself, again and again.

What can one add except to wipe the tears from ones eyes, to say a silent prayer – a silent prayer that society’s silence over these atrocities may break. Because when the good amongst us go silent, then only the hate of the bad resounds.

Here are the details as reported by Dawn:

Gunmen attacked worshippers from the Ahmadi community in two worship places of Lahore on Friday, taking hostages and killing at least 70 people, officials said. The gunmen opened fire shortly after Friday prayers and threw what could have been grenades at two Ahmadi worship places in residential neighbourhoods in Pakistan’s cultural capital.

Sajjad Bhutta, deputy commissioner of Lahore, said at least 70 people had been killed in the twin attacks on worship places in Garhi Shahu and Model Town. A total of 78 were injured. The death toll at Garhi Shahu was higher, Bhutta said, because three attackers blew themselves up with suicide vests packed with explosives when police tried to enter the building. Police are still searching the area as two attackers were still at large.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani strongly condemned the attacks, expressing “deep sorrow and grief over the loss of precious lives”. Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif said the incidents would generate greater resolve to combat extremism. “It’s a reminder to the nation that Pakistan will achieve its destiny only after we get rid of the worst type of extremism and fundamentalism,” he told a news conference. “The entire nation will fight this evil.” He said one attacker had been arrested. Police in Model Town confirmed one gunmen had been arrested and another killed.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but suspicion quickly fell on the Pakistani Taliban. “It’s too early to say who is behind these attacks,” said a Lahore-based security official. “But my guess is that like most other attacks, there would be some link to the Taliban or their associated militants.” Punjab’s Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said the arrested attacker was a teenage Pashtun. This, he said, indicated a link to the tribal area of Waziristan and strongly hinted at a Taliban link.

“The prayer leader was giving a sermon when we heard firing and blasts. Everybody stood up and then two gunmen barged into the place of worship and sprayed bullets,” Fateh Sharif, a 19-year-old student, told Reuters from Model Town. “They had long beards. They were carrying rucksacks.” Bhutta said a suicide vest laden with explosives was recovered from the Model Town worship place, where some attackers escaped. One fired at a television van before the area was made safe. “He was young, clean-shaven. He sprayed bullets at our van while fleeing the scene,” Rabia Mehmood, a reporter told Reuters.

ATTACKS LAUNCHED AFTER PRAYERS

Witnesses said the assaults were launched shortly after prayers. “I saw some gunmen run towards the Ahmadis’ place of worship and then I heard blasts and gunfire,” Mohammad Nawaz, a resident, told Reuters. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) said it had warned of threats against the Ahmadi community centre in Lahore for more than a year and demanded “foolproof security and protection” from the government. It expressed concern over “the increasing sectarian dimension” of militancy in Pakistan, which it called “a big security threat to the entire society”.

Friday’s shootings were the worst attacks in Pakistan since March 12 suicide attacks seconds apart killed 57 people in Lahore while targeting the Pakistani military. Nine attacks have now killed more than 220 people in Lahore over the past year, a historical city, playground for the elite and home to many top brass in Pakistan military and intelligence establishment.

Another sad day for Pakistan. Another day when hatred overwhelms tolerance. Another day when we will cry. But a day when we should really be thinking. And thinking hard – and not just about those who will commit such evil, but about ourselves and about our having tolerated a society which would tolerate such hatred.

This poem by Ahmad Faraz, which we have used a few times before, was written for a different context. But it was written for the same context. Do please listen. Do please think:

Aashna hath hi aksar mairi janab lapkay
Mairay seenay maiñ sada appna he khañjar utra

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Source: Pakistaniat Image: Nailsea Court

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the ‘Wonders of Pakistan’. The contents of this article too are the sole responsibility of the author(s). WoP will not be responsible or liable for any inaccurate or incorrect statements contained in this post.

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Wonders of Pakistan supports freedom of expression and this commitment extends to our readers. Constraints include comments judged to be in violation of WoP Comments Policy. We also moderate hate speech, libel and gratuitous insults.

Facebook Fiasco

Muslims protesting against the page on prophet Muhammad [PBUH] at the social networking site Facebook.

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Adil Najam

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WHAT WOULD THE HOLY PROPHET [PBUH] DO?

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This is a painful post to write.

Ideally I would have preferred not to have had to write this post. But I have over 300 messages in my in-box of people fussing over the so-called “Draw Muhammad Day” page on the social networking site Facebook and now the Lahore High Court’s decision calling for a ban on Facebook has forced the issue. And that is what pains me.

I hope that Facebook administration will remove the page. Not because of any “banning” movement and not because of the Lahore High Court, but just because the page and the idea behind the page is inflammatory and offensive.

Regardless of what your belief or religion might be, to throw out offensive and hateful vitriolic for the simple and primary purpose of hurting someone else’s feelings – when you know that (a) those feelings will be hurt and (b) when hurting those feelings is really the only purpose of doing what you are doing – is inhuman, cruel, and clearly offensive.

If Facebook does not recognize that, then it knows nothing either about “social” or about “networking” and certainly not about “community.”

But at one level, that matters little now. Whether Facebook removes the offensive page or not. The page and its creators have already fulfilled their purpose, met their goals. And it is we ourselves who have helped them do so. And that is what pains me.

I have not visited the offensive page in question and do not intend to. I had also not intended to help publicizing that offensive page, but by having to write this post that is exactly what I am doing. And that pains me.

I am offended by the idea that page purports and the goals it seeks to achieve. So, why should I dignify it by a visit? Why should I publicize it? Why should I give it the attention it was created to seek. Yet, all of us (now me included, which is why writing this is uncomfortable) are doing exactly that. And that is what pains me again and again.

Many of the emails I have received give me the link to that page and invite me to visit it so that ‘I can see for myself how offensive it is.’ I do not need to do that. Yet, that is exactly what we have been doing.

We have been acting exactly as the creators of that page intended us to. Acting as the promoters and publicists of that page.

And now having turned it into an international legal matter giving the attention seekers behind the page the exact thing they wanted: Attention.

But we have done more than that. With the Lahore High Court decision we have allowed the PTA and authorities another precedent and excuse to aggressively “manage” the internet; something that can and will be misused in the future.

I have not been receiving emails from the proponents of that page. The only ones who seem to be noticing us is us Muslims (and for some reason Pakistani Muslims more than any other). If we too had ignored the offensive page – as it deserves to be ignored – it would have gone the exact same way to oblivion as thousands of other sophomoric attempts at cheap attention seeking on the Internet. Instead we have now turned it into an international incident and given it far more limelight than it ever deserved.

Let’s think about it, what did the creators of the offensive page want to do when they set it up? First, they sought attention, and hits, and notoriety in a world where attention is too easily confused with fame. Second, they wanted to ridicule Muslims by the reaction they excepted from this. If you think of it, irrespective of whether Facebook removes the site or keeps it, the organizers of the page have achieved their goal. Well beyond what they expected.

Now every other Islamophobic nutcase will get new ideas about how to have his little 10 minutes of fame spewing bigotry and hatred against Muslims.

But more importantly, they simply could not have done this without us.

The only people who have turned this from nothingness into a huge issue is us. I am sure that those who set up the page are jumping up and down and thanking us for making their page such a huge success! And that is what pains me.

I am also pained by the sacrilege of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) that this entire drama signifies. As pained as anyone else, and as pained as I would have been at the sacrilege of any other Prophet or religion. But unlike for many others, that pain is neither reduced nor resolved by protesting against Facebook. For me, the antidote to that pain is in the teaching of the Prophet (PBUH) themselves. What would the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) have done in such a situation.

The one thing I am absolutely positive of, is that the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) would not have done what we are doing now: making an international public spectacle of ourselves. Most likely he would have just walked away and ignored (the ‘look the other way when someone throws garbage at you’ model), he might have negotiated with Facebook on the basis of their own stated rules (the Hudabia model), he might have reasoned with detractors (the discourse and discussion model).

Nearly certainly our holy prophet Muhammad (PBUH) would have handled it with grace, with composure, and maybe even with a touch of good humor.

Most importantly, the Prophet (PBUH) would have kept focusing on his own actions and proving his point with his own deeds rather than with slogans, banners and naara-baazi.

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Source: Pakistaniat

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the ‘Wonders of Pakistan’. The contents of this article too are the sole responsibility of the author(s). WoP will not be responsible or liable for any inaccurate or incorrect statements contained in this post.

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Folk Tales of Pakistan: Mirza Sahibañ

True love is the experience of a passion that makes spirits reach the height of extreme delight, an ecstatic feel which only the lovers can perceive. Love transcends generations, geographies, and cultural diversities & it exists in all aspects of life. Only lovers can feel the power of love.

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Mast Qalandar

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MAAR KOI TEER O MIRZIYA, KHICH KE WAL ASMAAN!

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In an earlier post on Sohni Mahiwal, I had said folklore was a mixture of beliefs, facts and fiction and that it was always a poet who immortalized a love story. But, it is also true that a poet chose to sing a particular story, and not the other, because of its inherent beauty, drama and poignancy. Mirza-Sahibañ is one such poignant story of blind love.

The story came down to us through a 17th century Punjabi poet, Piloo (Peeloo), in oral or ballad form. Since then, many poets and writers have written the story. But, because of its unique rustic style, brevity and boldness, Piloo’s version of the story became popular, and is widely sung and celebrated in rural Punjab even today.

The story has also been translated into Urdu, both in poetry and prose, and a short version in English is included in a book ‘The Legends of the Punjab’ written, in 1884, by one Captain R. C. Temple.

The Education Department of Punjab, Lahore, published Mirza-Sahibañ in Urdu in 1951, interestingly, with the title: Mirza Sahibañ (for adults)!

Since most of the readers, I assume, are adults, I have no qualms in relating the story to them, as I know it.

The dates are controversial, but the events of the story are generally believed to have taken place around the time of the Mughal king Akbar. And the geographical area where all this happened was located somewhere between the rivers Ravi and Chenab.

In a village called Khewa, near present day Jhang, a woman named Noorañ gave birth to a boy. Noorañ died when the child was still in infancy. Therefore, the boy was wet-nursed by another woman who had a suckling daughter. Thus, according to the traditions of the time, the boy and the girl became siblings. The boy grew up to become the chief of his village and also of the Sayyal tribe, which inhabited the area. He came to be known as Khewa Khan. His “sister” grew up to become Fateh Bibi and was married to a man named Wañjal (or Bañjal), of the Kharral tribe, who lived in village Danababad, which, today, is in Tehsil Jarrañwala, district Faisalabad.

The towns, Khewa and Danabad, were short of a day’s ride apart on horseback.

Mirza, the hero of our story, was born to Fateh Bibi and Wañjal while Sahibañ, the heroine, was the daughter of Khewa Khan. As already explained, since Fateh Bibi and Khew Khan were suckled by the same woman, Mirza and Sahibañ ended up being “cousins” according to the prevailing traditions.

Mirza must have been 8 or 9 when his parents decided to send him to Khewa to live with his “maternal uncle”, Khewa Khan. It was not unusual those days for parents to send their children to live with their mother’s or father’s relatives for education or for other reasons.

Khewa Khan enrolled both Mirza and Sahibañ at the local mosque, the usual place for basic education those days. A student would start off with alphabet, or patti as it was called, and then graduate to reading the Quran, chapter by chapter, and then to other subjects, if any, depending on the interest of the student and his/her parents. The imam of the mosque, commonly called maulvi or qazi, would be the sole teacher.

Like most teachers of his time, the maulvi who taught Mirza and Sahibañ was a stickler for pedagogical rules, and his golden rule was: Spare the rod and spoil the child. As a tool of punishment, he used what in Punjabi is called a chhammak. It is a long, thin, green twig or branch of a tree, shorn of the leaves or any thorns. When struck on any part of the body it sends a flaming sensation through the body — and the soul, too, I guess.

Years passed, and both Mirza and Sahibañ advanced into adolescence and to adulthood. They discovered that they liked to be in each other’s company. Actually, Mirza and Sahibañ had fallen head over heals in love with each other — a love that was honest, blind and reckless. Often in the “class”, they would be more absorbed into each other than to paying attention to the maulvi. The maulvi had to resort to the use of chhammak to get their attention.

According to the story, Sahibañ, once, when struck by the maulvi for not memorizing her lesson correctly, addresses him thus:

Na maar Qazi Chhamkaañ, na de tatti nooñ taa
Parrhna sahda raeh gaya lae aaye Ishq likha

O Qazi, don’t beat me with the stick; don’t burn me. I am already burning [with love]. Books are of no use to us, for love is now writ in our destiny.

Sahibañ had grown into a beautiful young woman. Piloo, the poet, describes her beauty with the usual poetic exaggeration. He says, when Sahibañ went shopping, the grocer would be so distracted by her beauty that he would place wrong weights in the weighing scale (tarakrhi), and that instead of oil she wanted he would pour honey for her. At another place the poet says, when Sahibañ walked past the fields the farmers would stop plowing and would stand transfixed by her beauty.

Mirza also grew into a strapping, handsome young man. He had shoulder length hair, was a good horseman, was known for his physical courage, and was a deadly shot with his bow and arrow. His marksmanship was legendary.

Mirza and Sahibañ’s love affair soon became the talk of the town. When Sahibañ’s father heard of it, he was mad. He would have none of it, and soon packed Mirza off to his home in Danabad. Also, a suitable young man, named Tahir Khan, from the same tribe, was found to marry Sahibañ, and a date was set for the wedding.

Sahibañ, when she came to know of her imminent marriage, sent an emissary to Mirza asking him to come and get her before she was bundled off to a new home.

Mirza couldn’t and wouldn’t let this happen. He announced his decision to go to Khewa and get Sahibañ. His parents and sister tried to dissuade him saying that the Sayyal women could not be trusted, and that he was taking a big risk going to Khewa. His father’s words of advice and warning are quite revealing of the values of the time, some of which persist even today. He says: “To hell with these women. Their brains are in their heels. They fall in love laughing and, later, tell their story to everyone crying.” Strange as it may sound, the father goes on to say: “One should not step inside the house of a woman with whom he is in love.” However, when the father realized that Mirza would not be dissuaded, he relented, saying: “I see you are determined to go. Now, go, but don’t come back without Sahibañ. It’s a question of our honor. Bring her with you!”

Mirza readies his horse, collects his bow and quiver and sets off to Khewa on the day Sahibañ’s wedding is to take place. He reaches Khewa when the wedding party (barat) has just arrived and is being feasted. Sahibañ, decked in her bridal dress, her hands and feet died with henna, is tucked away in a room somewhere upstairs.

Mirza, knowing the layout of the house from the years he had spent in it, quietly slips inside and asks a woman confidante to alert Sahibañ of his arrival. He, then, climbs up to her room, brings her down, helps her into the saddle on his horse and, with Sahibañ clinging to him, gallops away into the night.

It takes a while for Khewa Khan’s household to find out what has happened. Sahibañ’s brother, Shamair, accompanied by his other brothers, the bridegroom and others set off on their horses after the runaway couple.

Confident that he had gained sufficient distance and that it would not be easy for his pursuers to catch up with him, Mirza wants to stop and rest for a while. He was too tired.

Sahibañ warns him that her brothers might catch up with them and urges him not to stop. But Mirza boastfully tells her that, first, they won’t be able to catch up with them and even if they did it would take only one arrow to take care of Shamair, and one more to get rid of her betrothed. And that he had sufficient arrows to take care of the whole bunch of the Sayyals. Confident but tired, he lies down under a clump of trees — and dozes off while Sahibañ keeps watch.

In the quiet of wilderness, Sahibañ is assailed with doubts. What if they catch up and kill Mirza? What if Mirza, quick and accurate marksman that he was, kills his brothers? Like a typical Eastern sister, her love seems to be divided between her lover and her brothers. She doesn’t want either of them to be killed. Somehow, she believes, or hopes, that this whole thing could end without bloodshed. So, she quietly takes Mirza’s quiver and hangs it on a branch, out of his reach.

Soon, there is the drumming sound of hoofs, and in no time the pursuers appear on the scene. Sahibañ shakes Mirza out of sleep. Mirza wakes up with a start and instinctively reaches for his quiver but doesn’t find it there. In that split second, an arrow from Shamair’s bow pierces Mirza’s throat and he falls to the ground. Another arrow pierces his chest. With two arrows stuck in his body, Mirza looks accusingly into the eyes of Sahibañ and utters those memorable words, somewhat reminiscent of Shakespeare’s “Et tu, Brute?”:

“Bura kitoyee Sahibañ, mera turkish tañgiya jañd!”

[Sahiban, you did a terrible thing by hanging the quiver away from my reach!]

Sobbing and shaking, Sahibañ throws herself over Mirza’s body to cover him from any further hits. A shower of arrows rains on Sahibañ. Her body twitches and then lies still, and Miraz and Sahibañ enter the world of lore and literature.

In Punjabi literature today, just as Rañjha is identified with his flute and Sohni with her un-fired water pitcher (kacha gharha), Mirza has become a metaphor of courage and marksmanship. This is evident in one of Munir Niazi’s poignant poems when, engulfed in a pall of gloom, the poet invokes Rañjha and Mirza in the following lines:

Jattan karo kujh dosto, torho maut da jaal
Pharh murli O Rañjhiya, kadh koi teekhi taan
Maar koi teer O Mirziya, khich ke wal Asmaan

Do something, friends, lift this pall of despair
O Rañjha, take out your flute and play an enchanting tune
O Mirza, shoot an arrow at the sky to pierce this web of gloom

_______

Notes:

The story is based mostly on Piloo’s ballad of Mirza-Sahibañ, as discussed by Professor Hamidullah Hashmi in his book.

To express true pronunciation of a nasal n in Punjabi, a wave over English alphabet ‘n’ has been used throughout in this narrative.

Again to express the true rendition of an rh as in Punjabi word Paharh [mountain], an ‘r’ combined with h has been used to express the true connotation of that sound.

Source: Pakistaniat

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It’s Called ‘War Porn’

If kindness begets kindness, if healthy eating begets good health, if reading improves academic achievement, how can violence not beget violence?

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Tanya Cariina Hsu

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THE WAR & THE PORN

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“And so, to the end of history, murder shall breed murder, always in the name of right and honour and peace, until the gods are tired of blood and create a race that can understand.” George Bernard Shaw, Caesar’s Monologue, “Caesar and Cleopatra,” 1898
 
War has always been a turn-on, its thrill as old as mankind itself. It is intense; it is raw; it is primal. It reaches into every nerve, so carnal it borders on the sexually erotic. And many who cannot participate want to watch.

It’s called war porn.[1]

As a way to bypass blockages placed against credit card purchases placed from Iraq and Afghanistan, soldiers swap their own footage of enemy kills with sexual pornography sites, in exchange for X-rated videos. Military personnel regularly submit thousands of these’ snuff videos’ enhanced with heavy metal rock music; the more graphic the footage the higher the rating attributed by website viewers.
 
When the pictures from Abu Ghraib were published, the Pentagon worked overtime to claim the abuse of prisoners as isolated incidents carried out by a handful of aberrant military personnel. Whilst clearly apparent that the majority of military personnel do not find pleasure in killing, it is nevertheless indisputable that the demand for war porn photographs and videos prove an endemic euphoria from the humiliation, degradation, and death of the enemy. 
 
With Abu Ghraib came an onslaught of personal videos to YouTube and war porn websites such as www.gotwarporn.com. Millions of hits by viewers anxious for more merely reinforce their popularity. In 2004, 30,000 soldiers had registered with one website alone.[2]The US military has done nothing to close the sites, brushing the videos aside as impossible to trace, despite specific GPS co-ordinates, times, and tracking data clearly visible on the tapes. Only one website, www.nowthatsfuckedup.com, was shut down by the local Sheriff of Polk Country, Florida, who prosecuted the site’s owner for obscenity.[3] The Pentagon has otherwise seen fit to let the sites stand, evidence of ‘boys will be boys. Centcom spokesman Matt McLaughlin said that although the Geneva Conventions prohibit photographs of detainees or mutilated bodies, the military “has no specific policy on taking pictures of the deceased as long as those pictures do not violate the aforementioned prohibitions.”[4] The Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Congress nor White House has stepped in to put a stop to these explicit videos, and not a single troop has been disciplined for disseminating the materials.
 
The phenomenon serves a valuable dual purpose. Trading war footage for sexual footage contains desire. On the ground far from home, computer sex means that troops are less compelled to seduce – or worse attack – young village girls for relief, historically a norm in battle. Now it is all available online, straight to their personal computers in the desert.

Click here to view video: http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=f35_1227819846

It is also useful propaganda, support of US troops essential to the ongoing occupation. Whereas in wars past it remained the role of government ministries and media platforms, propaganda is now conveniently dispensed by those directly involved in the fight. War porn enables voyeurs to not only sense the gratification should they enlist to the cause, but enforces a hoped for success in a war against terror. War sells, war porn really sells, and peace is not good for the defence industry business.
 
If not to guarantee perpetual retaliation upon American targets, either at home or abroad, why else are the videos permitted to remain in the public domain?

Just as the slaughter of civilians can be viewed in the comfort of an armchair in America, the videos are just as readily accessible by the very enemy the US military seeks to eradicate. It is a worldwide web, after all. The Iraqi who has witnessed his entire family blown to pieces by an American bomb, the Afghan who has experienced nothing but war since his birth, the Pakistani who suffers US drones dropping missiles on his land: they are each able to watch the same scenes in their own homes. They too hear the thrilling cries of a soldier as he relishes dropping explosives upon families’ homes, on a mother and child walking along a road, or on a group of men returning from a day’s work. They too can see the macabre mauling and mutilation by dogs as they tear into the remains of an Iraqi soldier, or view compilation videos of ‘identify the internal body parts’ lay strewn across the ground, audible cheers in the background byte soldiers as they engage. Watching war porn, the enemy also feels a burning rush. Not of the electric bolt of adrenalin surging through his body when a trigger is pulled, but from the passion for revenge.

Twenty-first century warfare is more complex than the argument of an inherent desensitisation of the computer-game generation, of soldiers who view targets merely as pinpricks on a screen – the higher the number hit the higher their score. It is well known that those who learn aggression from video games are likelier to engage in aggressive behaviour.[5] Once upon a time, a creaking door in the night, a bloody knife lifted in a 60s horror film, a window suddenly thrashing open in a storm were enough to terrify a man to nightmares. Today’s soldiers laugh when seeing heads explode and limbs torn off, having been raised on a steady diet of the same on celluloid, television, and digitalised death games such as Mortal Kombat and God of War. 
 
If kindness begets kindness, if healthy eating begets good health, if reading improves academic achievement, how can violence not beget violence?
 
Tactical fighting methodology has drastically changed in modern warfare, systems operators in America carrying out much of the killing.  Driving to work with coffee and doughnut in hand, military technicians they can read their emails, enter their command centre stations, drop a few missiles thousands of miles from the zone of conflict, have lunch, fire a more weapons killing a few more Afghans and Iraqis, call their husbands or wives to check on what they ought to pick up at the supermarket on the way home before their children’s baseball game, only to calmly do it all again the following day after a good night’s sleep. Innocent men, women and children of a different religion and culture are irrelevant. There is no emotion to the result; they are numb to the consequences. 
 
War gives authority and control, another’s life entirely dependent upon whether a trigger or switch is pulled.  Nevertheless, we do not label it as terrorism or violence when mandated by divine righteousness in the name of God and country; violence and terrorism is reserved only for an enemy defending his land from foreign occupation. Only martyrdom in a uniform is honourable. 

End Game in Afghanistan

The players involved in the conflict in Afghanistan have all concluded that neither side can achieve a military victory and that it will end in some other way, probably through a negotiated solution. When Washington starts withdrawing its troops from Afghanistan in July 2011, its NATO allies in Europe will quickly rush to the exits. A power-sharing arrangement between Kabul, the Taliban & other stakeholders is a less than ideal solution, but it is the only realistic option if the West pulls out.

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ENDGAME AND THE STAKEHOLDERS

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F.B. Ali

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The players involved in the conflict in Afghanistan have all concluded that neither side can achieve a military victory and that it will end in some other way, probably through a negotiated solution.

Since each of them has different goals, this end game is likely to be both confusing and complicated. What is likely to make it even more so is that within each of the parties involved there are factions and interests that have differing ideas on the desired end state and, therefore, the appropriate tactic to achieve it.

With so many players and sub-players, and so many competing agendas, it would be foolhardy to try and predict how this end game will play out (although it is possible to foresee the near-term moves and their probable fate, as well as some of the major forks likely to appear in the road ahead).

The best approach is to look at the parties involved, their goals, and how they are likely to try and achieve them.

The mainstream viewpoint in the US administration, espoused by Secretary Gates and the military hierarchy, accepts the inevitability of a negotiated settlement but wants one that preserves a friendly government in Kabul that continues to lean on the US for support. If Taliban participation is unavoidable, it must be as limited as possible. They believe the insurgency has not yet been weakened enough to accept this kind of a settlement, and thus further military action is necessary. Hence the forthcoming Kandahar operation, as well as renewed pressure on Pakistan to complete the military takeover of its tribal areas.

President Obama is going along with this policy for now but does not appear committed to it; he could abandon it if the approach does not work as successfully as its proponents promise.

Another school of thought in the administration (possibly including VP Biden) could be termed the minimalist position: it would agree to any kind of a negotiated settlement between the Afghan parties that would enable the US to get out of there expeditiously. They would like Hamid Karzai to pursue this option as soon as possible and get the best deal he can.

There is also still a maximalist position in the US, advanced by those groups who believe the US should dominate the world with its military power, and who were the original backers of the Iraq and Afghan wars. This group advocates the continuation of the war until the Taliban are defeated and al-Qaeda is eradicated from the region. Its supporters in the administration maintain a low profile since this position is unlikely to ever become administration policy.

NATO and other European countries in Afghanistan appear to have had their fill of this ‘imperial’ adventure. In spite of all the brave talk from some of their leaders, most of them are now closet subscribers to the minimalist position.

In Afghanistan, President Karzai has no illusions about his standing with the US. He knows the current friendliness (even deference) being shown to him is only because the US could not get rid of him in (and after) the recent elections, and now has no other choice. Aware of the danger of being dumped at the first available opportunity, he realizes that his future survival in a position of power depends on arriving at an early settlement with the insurgency that would bring them into the government and thus end the war.

The first step is the grand jirga he proposes to convene shortly, which he expects will open the way to negotiations with the leaders of the insurgency and an eventual ‘Afghan’ settlement of the conflict.

The other influential faction in the Afghan government consists of the warlords and leaders of the old Northern Alliance. They are well content with their present status (which gives them a free hand in their own areas as well as plenty of opportunity to add to their wealth) but realize it cannot continue. They are also aware that the US (and ISAF) will be departing sooner rather than later. Thus, even though there is no love lost between them and the insurgents, they are likely to back Karzai’s efforts to arrive at a settlement with them based on a sharing of power, in the hope of preserving much of what they currently have.

A dark horse on the government side is the leadership of the budding Afghan army. These generals, appointed to their positions by the current power brokers, could become independent players if no political settlement has been arrived at by the time there was a significant reduction of foreign troops in the country, and a corresponding increase in the role of their army. In the interim, they are likely to go along with whatever Karzai attempts.

The Afghan insurgency comprises three main factions: the Taliban, the Haqqani group, and the followers of Hikmatyar. Though these three groups have different interests and agendas, they are all Pashtun/Afghan/Islamist nationalists and all have a common primary goal: the removal of foreign troops (and, even, influence) from Afghanistan. With the Obama ‘surge’ of US troops into Afghanistan, it became clear to the insurgency that they could no longer hope to force foreign troops out of the country through military pressure. The chances of just waiting them out through a prolonged military stalemate are being rapidly reduced with the increasing influence of the US on Pakistan’s policies.

In the conduct of their operations, the insurgents are heavily dependent on their bases in the tribal and border areas of Pakistan and the denial or impairment of their use would weaken them significantly. They are thus being forced to move towards a negotiated settlement.

The Hikmatyar faction is the weakest of the three, with the least outside support and the weakest links to the other groups in the insurgency. Fearful of being left out of any peace negotiations, it has already made formal proposals to the Karzai government for a settlement. The largest insurgent group, the Taliban, has held some indirect talks with representatives of Hamid Karzai and some intermediaries. However, when some elements in the group began to get serious about negotiations (without Pakistani permission), the Pakistan military (with perhaps the blessings of the US) put a swift end to them by arresting the Taliban military chief, Mullah Baradar. The point made is likely to inhibit any such future moves by the Taliban unless they had the blessings of Pakistan. The Haqqani faction is much more dependent on Pakistani goodwill, since its main force is based in the Pakistan tribal area. It has not made any move to negotiate so far, and is unlikely to do so until permitted by Pakistan.

Within Pakistan, there are two main players: the government and the military. The overriding aim of the Zardari government is to keep the United States happy so that US and international aid money keeps flowing in. This ongoing and large-scale infusion enables the government to remain in power (as well as materially increasing the personal wealth of the rulers and their henchmen).

However, their ability to influence Pakistan’s policy and actions relating to Afghanistan is limited since this area is firmly controlled by the military, principally the army. Currently, though, the government has a little more clout because the army chief is to retire later this year, and the government will pick his successor (or, possibly, grant him an extension).

The Pakistan military is the decisive voice in determining the policies that affect the country’s security; thus, Afghan policy is their domain, as is the scale and scope of military operations in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. The military’s main concern is the threat they perceive from India, part of which is the danger of an Afghanistan that is under Indian influence, or hostile to Pakistan. This makes it imperative that the outcome of the present conflict should be a government in Kabul that is friendly, even dependent.

Hamid Karzai is distrusted because of his past ties and present friendship with India. Conversely, the Taliban and the Haqqanis have old ties to Pakistan, and are greatly preferred as future rulers of Afghanistan. (Hikmatyar was the original favourite of the Pakistani establishment (and the USA) during the anti-Soviet jihad, but those links faded long ago). As an interim stage, the military would accept a coalition government between all these Afghan parties, but not one in which its candidates had only a token presence, which is the goal of the mainstream faction in the US administration.

An intricate game is being played out between the Pakistan military and the US administration. The latter needs the military to take effective action against the insurgency in order to weaken it significantly. The military is dependent on the US for financial and material aid to maintain and build its combat power, but, if it fully complies with US demands, it will jeopardise its strategic goals in Afghanistan.

The rise of the Pakistani Taliban came as a godsend, and has enabled the military to put off serious operations against the Afghan insurgency while it dealt with its own rebels. This stage is ending, and the military is now reduced to promising that it will widen its operations “soon”. The US, for its part, has sought to make it easier for this to happen by agreeing that Pakistan’s interests should be considered in a negotiated Afghan settlement (as well as allowing the military to use some of the US aid to bolster its anti-India capability). Neither side is taking these mutual assurances at face value. US pressure (supported by the Pakistan government) will continue to build up on the military, while the latter will continue to try and avoid carrying out operations that would damage its own hand in the Afghan poker game.

So, how will this end game in Afghanistan play out?

It is possible to discern some of the likely moves in the near term. President Karzai will hold his grand jirga, and it will likely call upon him to initiate negotiations with the insurgency for a settlement. Since the Pakistan military will not want these to take place at this stage of the game (nor, for that matter, would the US), the insurgents will not respond. Except, perhaps, for Hikmatyar, but that would not make a material difference.

Gen McChrystal will segue into his Kandahar operation, but this is unlikely to prove any more effective than the Marjah one. That would leave Pakistan military operations against the insurgents as the only means of bringing about the conditions that would lead to the US mainstream’s preferred end state, so pressure on the military will ratchet up. They will try and put these off for as long as they possibly can, in the hope that developments in the US will push Obama into adopting the alternative minimalist solution (that is, any negotiated settlement that would allow the withdrawal of US troops as early as feasible). This kind of negotiation is one the military would find more to its liking and would, accordingly, encourage. It is an open question who would fold first: the Pakistan military or Obama’s backing of the mainstream US position.

Looming over these developments are other possible regional events that would reduce Afghanistan to a minor sideshow. Pakistan’s intractable organic problems could spin out of control, leading to serious instability and, possibly, a radical change in governance. And then there is the ‘all-bets-are off’ scenario that would follow an attack on Iran. Either would reduce to irrelevance all these games that the various players are currently playing on the Afghan board.

_______

Source: Turcopolier Title image: OpEd News

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Do Empires End In Afghanistan?

Afghanistan: Graveyard of Russian tanks

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— With collapse of the dollar as international reserve currency, the viability of the American empire of over 1,000 foreign military bases is endangered.

— In order to save the empire and the banking system and the dollar as the reserve currency all stops are being pulled.

— In its last act of desperation what US is doing in Afghanistan is TO WIN but Afghanistan is nicknamed the “GRAVEYARD OF EMPIRES”

— EVERYONE THAT GOES THERE, LOSES

IS IT U.S. TURN NOW?

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By Gulam Mitha

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Over the past 30 years [from 1979 to 2009] we find some interesting similarities between the Soviet and American led occupations of Afghanistan. But first a look at the historical brief about the country of interest to all empires including the prehistoric one- of Alexander the Great [in 330 BC] and the Mongols [around 13th century].

The word Afghan is a Persian word. Historian-traveller Ibn-e-Battuta while visiting Kabul in 1333 AD wrote that “the town is inhabited by a tribe of Persians called Afghans”.

–Stan in Persian means place. Afghanistan in Persian, therefore, means the place of the Afghans. Pashtuns (originally called Afghans) are the major tribe of modern Afghanistan. 45% (or 13 million) of Afghanistan’s 30 million population are Afghans and another 28 million live in the northwest and tribal belt (FATA) of Pakistan, which part of Afghanistan was annexed by the British into India in the late nineteenth century.

In pre-historic times, Afghanistan was also known as Ariana [around 275 BC]. Later on Eastern Iran, north-western Pakistan, the tribal belt of FATA, all of Tajikistan and southern parts of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan were known as Khorasan. The second Muslim Caliph Omar ibn al-Khattab defeated the Persian Sassanids in 637 AD and by 640 AD it became a part of the Islamic Empire along with the region of Khorasan. Under the Islamic empire, this region continued to be known as Khorasan with the other two regions being Eraq-e-Arab (Arabic Eraq) and Eraq-e-Ajam (Iran or non-Arabic Eraq).

Geo-strategically, Afghanistan, a landlocked nation is the gateway connecting Middle East, Europe, Russia, China and the Indian Ocean. The objective of the great game originally had been to control this gateway as a trade route but now it has become crucially important as a passage to the Indian Ocean for the vast energy reserves of the Caspian basin via Pakistan or Iran. Control of the Caspian would provide the west, an energy monopoly and a future stranglehold on both Russia and China.

Afghanistan’s history is too rich to be detailed here but the point to be made is that it has been a part of Persia since the pre-Islamic Sassanid Empire from 224 AD and that the Afghans are originally Persian.

The US-NATO alliance now labels the Afghans as Taliban, though Taliban was an ideological movement established in Pakistan [after the fall of Soviet Russia in 1989] with the assistance of the Americans to counter any future Soviet incursion into Afghanistan. Most of the senior Taliban who fought the Soviets were Afghans from north-western Pakistan, FATA and Afghanistan along with some Arabs as well as Uzbeks and Tajiks from northern areas of Afghanistan (the Northern Alliance). The senior as well as the younger generations of Taliban are now victims of Zionist genocide, sans the Arabs and Northern Alliance, and have now turned upon the US-NATO occupiers of Afghanistan.

Superpowers crumble from within. There are two important factors which cause the internal collapse. Consider these factors as balloons; a balloon can only stretch to the limits of its elasticity or only a specific volume of air can be introduced in it before it will burst.

The first factor is stretching the political and military control sphere of an empire. The Soviet sphere stretched from its southern Russian borders as far south into Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan in Asia and then from its western borders deep into Czechoslovakia in Europe. Half of Europe was under the Communist influence including Latvia, Estonia, Belarus, Lithuania, Poland, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Albania and Romania. These countries were economically, militarily, industrially and politically subservient to the Soviet Union.

The Kremlin made the strategic error of an adventure into Afghanistan in 1979 knowing very well the licking has made every empire to suffer for this misadventure. The Soviet Union was confident that if not sooner then certainly later, it’d be at the warm waters of the Indian Ocean. The Kremlin faced its political and military defeat in Afghanistan in 1989. The US should be thankful to the Afghans for this defeat.

The second factor is stretching the economic control sphere of an empire. The Soviet Union suffered a huge economic setback as it undertook the military misadventure into Afghanistan. Internally Moscow started crumbling as it could not economically, politically and militarily sustain the 10 year war from 1979 – 1989. And as Moscow’s economic crutches started to weaken, the US-NATO wolf pack alliance moved in to politically kill the enemy in its far defences of Poland and Czechoslovakia in Europe. The European Communist bloc was left with no option but to align with the western capitalist system and with NATO. By year 2000, there was nothing left of Soviet Communism and Russia was considerably weakened. The Zionists then planned the invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001 under the pretext of ridding Afghanistan of al-Qaeda, Osama bin-Laden and Mullah Omar who were held responsible for the 9/11 attack on USA.

We now have a historical lesson which can be offered to US and its European partners in NATO. Whether or not the west sees the historical writings on the wall, the fact of the matter is that the capitalist west is militarily, industrially, politically and economically weakened by its nearly 9 year misadventure into Afghanistan and Iraq.

The economic malaise which hit the US has now crossed the eastern Atlantic shores of the US into Europe and is causing fissures in the military control sphere in Afghanistan. Just as the west moved in to kill the Soviets in Europe, there is another wolf pack lingering in the shadows waiting for the kill. The world can only discern the blurring images of these non-uniformed wolves howling in the mountains of Khorasan. Another year and the US-NATO alliance will match the 10 year Soviet record of its strategic mistake into Afghanistan.

Russia or Britain did not become extinct as countries but their existence as empires exist only in the history books. Similarly future generations may well read about the American empire in history books even as it continues as a nation on the geographical map.

Interesting that the great British Empire too faced its partial defeat in Afghanistan and the end of an empire in the economic jewel called the Indian sub-continent. Is it that the Afghans (of Khorasan) are waiting to provide the final defeat to the British, part of NATO, also?

—

Source, Title Image

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Supreme Court – The only Ray of Hope

March 9, 2007 was a new epoch in the history of Pakistan. On that day Chief Justice Iftikhar Choudhary defied the military dictator and refused to resign. With that act of courage, he triggered a revolution and changed the course of history. This was the moment when Pakistan lifted its head and began to fight back against the dictator.

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THESE ARE TIMES THAT TRY MENS’ SOULS 

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Roedad Khan

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Euripides once famously said, “Whom the Gods destroy, they first make mad”. President Zardari, symbol of the unity of the Federation, has declared war on the Supreme Court. The government’s refusal to comply with the Supreme Court directive is an alarm call of the most compelling kind. The fear of conspiracy against the Supreme Court hangs heavy in the air. Our history can show no precedent for so foul a plot as that which this corrupt, dying regime has hatched against the Supreme Court. Outwardly an illusory calm and an unreal air of bourgeois serenity seem to have settled over Islamabad. “Everything seems”, as Goethe said, “to be following its normal course because even in terrible moments in which everything is at stake, people go on living as if nothing were happening”. But a perfect storm is looming on the horizon. Islamabad is once again preparing for a collision between those who stand behind the Supreme Court, the defender of the Constitution, the Rule of Law, the protector of citizen’s liberties and those who represent the forces of darkness, whose hands are dirty, who have looted and plundered the resources of this poor country. “I can detect the near approach of the storm. I can hear the moaning of the hurricane, but I can’t say when or where it will break forth”. Three years ago, a judicial earth quake remade the political terrain of our country. On March 9, 2007 to be exact, began a new epoch in the history of Pakistan. On that day Chief Justice Iftikhar Choudhary defied the military dictator and refused to resign. With that act of courage, he triggered a revolution and changed the course of history. This was the moment when Pakistan lifted its head and began to fight back against the dictator. Napoleon needed the Terror, Caesar needed the Gallic Wars, Churchill needed the Nazis, and Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Choudhary needed General Musharraf to be raised to the pitch of greatness each achieved. In Pakistan, the Supreme Court’s historic role has been one of subservience to military dictators. Chief Justice Iftikhar broke with the past tradition and changed all that. The nexus between the Generals and the superior judiciary has snapped. An era of deference by the Supreme Court to the Executive has given way to judicial independence. Isn’t it ironic that today the people of Pakistan, especially the poor, the disadvantaged and the voiceless, expect justice not from the parliament, not from the presidency, not from the Prime Minister but from an unelected and unaccountable Supreme Court?  For once, the citizens of this benighted country have been assured that there is such a thing as true accountability. They have the comfort of knowing that those who have grown fat and rich on ill-gotten gains at the cost of starving millions, can be brought to book and shall be brought to book. No military dictator and no corrupt civilian ruler can afford an independent judiciary or an independent media. They cannot co-exist. Today both are under attack in democratic Pakistan. “These are times that try men’s souls. The best lack all conviction while the worst are full of passionate intensity. The summer soldier and sunshine patriot will in this crisis shrink from the service of his country, but he who serves it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman”. It is not enough to sit back and let history slowly evolve. To settle back into your cold-hearted acceptance of the status quo is not an option. The present leadership is taking Pakistan to a perilous place. The course they are on leads downhill. This is a delicate time, full of hope and trepidation in equal measure. Today it is a political and moral imperative for all patriotic Pakistanis to fight for our core values, to destroy the roots of the evil that afflicts Pakistan. Ultimately, the true guardians of the Constitution are the people of Pakistan. People power alone can protect the Supreme Court from corrupt rulers. Our rulers know that the street is all they have to fear. Confronting them has now become a patriotic duty. Today there is no other path for our country, but the one, which led to the restoration of Chief Justice Iftikhar Choudhary and other deposed judges. We have arrived at the epilogue, at the greatest turning point in our history. One feels in the air the sense of the inevitable which comes from the wheel of destiny when it moves and of which men are often the unconscious instruments. Zardari’s star has grown dim. He is losing political capital by the hour. Today it is hard to find anyone who believes a word of what he says. Today the only person willing to defend him is none other than Zardari himself, so alone and so beleaguered. It is time to turn the page. The time to hesitate is through. This is a moment of great hope for Pakistan. Don’t let it turn into a national nightmare. In this transcendent struggle between the Supreme Court and kleptocracy, neutrality is not an option. You’re either with the people or against them. There is no half-way house. As we approach the endgame, the nation has to decide between two conceptions of politics, two visions for our country, two value systems, two very different paths. Every citizen must ask himself now: if our core institutions are to survive, if Pakistan is to survive, whether we can afford to let our corrupt rulers remain in power and destroy all our core institutions. Today the Pakistan stage is clogged with bad actors playing lousy parts from commanding heights. Too many conflicting agendas. Too many egos. Too many so-called leaders with dirty hands. Major absentee on the stage: the people of Pakistan, barely mentioned by anyone. How can corrupt rulers occupy any place in the political order of Pakistan? This is equivalent to asking what place should be assigned to a malignant disease which preys upon and fractures the body of a sick man. Every democracy needs a vigorous and vigilant opposition to give voters a choice. I have never seen an opposition so nonplussed, so impotent, so clearly without a shot in the locker. Today we have no opposition party, worth the name, with its own pathway to the future. As Hazlitt put it, “the two parties (PPP and PML N in our case) are like two competing stage coaches which splash each other with mud but went by the same road to the same place”. This doesn’t mean we have no opposition. Today there is an intense anxiety on the part of ordinary people for decisive leadership. People are waiting for a stirring lead and a clarion call. It seems that while the nation craves for leadership, political leaders are equally determined not to lead them. Is it because they are all status-quo friendly and do not want to rock the boat? Isn’t it a great tragedy that today the destiny of Pakistan is in the hands of its reluctant leaders who refuse to draw the sword people are offering them? What prevents the opposition parties and their leaders from joining hands and presenting a united front against corrupt rulers out to destroy all our core institutions? What prevents them from taking to the street as they have in other countries and as they have in the past in this country? What prevents them from putting national interest above petty selfish interest?  Today we are at the crossroads of a historic choice. This is the last chance, the last battle. If we shall not stand out into the streets, a long polar night will descend on Pakistan. Isn’t it a great tragedy that at a time when a window of hope has opened, our political leaders are dithering and cannot forge a united front against corrupt rulers? The time has come when the ultimate sovereign – the people of Pakistan – must assert itself. If people want a change, they will have to vote with their bodies and keep voting in the streets – over and over and over. A regime like this, which is defying the Supreme Court, can only be brought down or changed if enough people vote in the streets. This is what the regime fears most, because it either has to shoot its people or quit. A bloodless revolution but a mighty revolution – that is what we need today. Otto von Bismarck once said that political genius entailed hearing the hoofbeat of history, then rising to catch the galloping horseman by the coattails. Today Nawaz Sharif is acknowledged leader of a mainstream political party and has a decisive role to play in the critical days ahead. The voice of history beckons him. Will he “seize the moment”? Will he “seize the hour”? Will he respond to the challenge or continue to prevaricate and stay on the fence? That is the question. On that would depend the future course of events in Pakistan? O! had I the ability, and could I reach the nation’s ear, I would today pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm and stern rebuke. For it not light that is needed, but fire, it is not the gentle shower, but thunder, we need the storms, the whirlwind and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened, the conscience of the nation must rouse; the proprieties of the nation must be startled, the hypocrisy of the corrupt rulers must be exposed. ________ Source: Roedad Khan Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the ‘Wonders of Pakistan’. The contents of this article too are the sole responsibility of the author(s). WoP will not be responsible or liable for any inaccurate or incorrect statements contained in this post. YOUR COMMENT IS IMPORTANT DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF YOUR COMMENT Wonders of Pakistan supports freedom of expression and this commitment extends to our readers. Constraints include comments judged to be in violation of WoP Comments Policy. We also moderate hate speech, libel and gratuitous insults.

The New Great Game: Part II.6

 

The Mujahideen fighter lurks with a US supplied bazooka to hit a Soviet convoy. As part of ‘operation cyclone’ the CIA started secretly arming every Mujahideen volunteer in sight, without considering who they were or what their politics might be–all in the name of ensuring that the Soviet Union had its own Vietnam in the mountains of Afghanistan.

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CONCLUSION

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by Hassan Rizvi

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This article conclusively proves that ‘Global Islamic Jihad’ was forged as an instrument for the pursuit of US strategic interests, and that it proved itself as a worthwhile CIA asset in Afghanistan. It’s very first operation – “Operation Cyclone” – the organizing and launching of the biggest covert operations the world had ever seen; proved a remarkable success; enabling the USA and it’s Jihadi allies to attain the stated goal of defeating and forcing the Soviet troops out of Afghanistan.

 Yet as we have seen in some of the remarks of US officials it was an instrument forged to pursue goal stretching far beyond the immediate objective of defeating the Russian in Afghanistan. It is here that except for some success in Yugoslavia –Bosnia and Kosovo-and Chechnya; the idea backfired very badly.