BY
Lt Col (R) Tariq Mahmood Butt, TI (M)
Every quandary in the Pakistan US relation is followed up by a reverberation of the clause, “Pakistan aid be linked to its cooperation”. Comical as it seems, what else the US would need. Does it expect us to crease our integrity and put it to sleep or should we roll back our nuclear program and lay bare in pretense, allowing every Tom, Dick and Harry to simply cross over, rule us for a decade and leave us hapless and abject as Iraq and Afghanistan or does it want to create an anarchy to the extent that we face as big a predicament as Tunisia, Libya or Egypt. What are the Americans looking for?
Needless to mention, that the entire Arab read Muslim world has been going through cataclysmic events since the beginning of 2011. The first political conflagration broke out in Tunisia, ending with the ouster of a long governing dictator through the action of the brave citizenry of that most secularized North African country. Then came Egypt’s turn, after having suffered under three successive military regimes since 1952, the masses rose up and acted on the slogan, Kifaya, i.e. enough of Hosni Mubarak. No sooner had Mubarak left Cairo for an unknown destination, the winds of amends moved westward. This time, the bonfire was at Libyan Jamahiriyya, the unusual Arabic nomenclature for “republic” invented by the semi-rational Colonel Qaddafi. (The normal Arabic word for republic is “jumhuriyya,” with its equivalent in Turkish, “cumhuriyet”).
“And the vibrant PTI chief Imran is seen calling for civil disobedience in every public address. Pakistan cannot withstand the impact of a revolution – not at this stage – do you really think that the west read US is going to sit back and watch—they will quote yet another memo and try to step in”. For the alienated US cum west, rest assure that Pakistan is not an easy tablet to swallow. Despite the existing political, sectarian and socio ethnic divide, the nation stands united with its armed forces to sentinel any intervention and give a befitting response. For Imran, why look for more trouble and provide opportunities to the west for intervention. It is valued that desperate times call for desperate measures but they should not be hysterical to the extent of losing everything.
The beneficiary of Egyptian dilemma came out to be Islam as predicted by Walid Phares, a Mideast expert and adviser to Congress who commented, “The Arab Spring has failed in Egypt, and the Muslim Brotherhood may turn the most populous nation in the Middle East into an Islamist state within months, and if the Obama administration doesn’t alter its flawed strategy in confronting this threat, the entire region could be in turmoil by this time next year. At the end of the day, it is really the Muslim Brotherhood who is taking advantage of the process and we may end up seeing an Egypt, a few months from now, next year, as an Islamist state”.
In another yet fascinating expansion, the start of this year saw several predominantly northern Nigerian Muslim states introducing Shariah Law. The referred Shariah law had triggered a wave of violence described by President Obasanjo (a US crony) of Nigeria as "the worst incidence of bloodletting" that the country had seen since the end of the Nigerian civil war in 1970.
“and Allah is best of Schemers” Ale Imran verse 54 - Al Quran.
Consequential to the dreadful drone strikes, a legacy of Musharaf era, the relationship of Pakistan and US has been utterly dysfunctional and inherently unstable. Sadly so, the killing of innocent and miscreants alike were acknowledged as ok, keeping in mind the no of militants killed, according to certain statistical opinion makers, where as ground realities suggest differently. A total of 2,659 people have been killed since 2004 in 306 predator strikes. There is a strong likely hood for a number of human right violation stories cum campaigns emerging as a result of the referred strikes and GWOT as soon as the Americans leave Afghanistan (maligning Pakistan and not the Americans). Reservations in this regards have already cropped up in a recently published CMC (Conflict Management Centre) report.
The uproar in Pakistan on back to back episodes of Raymond Davis and the killing of Osama bin Laden should have been more than enough proof of just how fragile things really are. And as we were just trying to perk up from the referred shocks, they give us yet another bashing at Salala and for no reason at all. Although we are somewhat financially dependent on US aid, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that we would always grin and bear it whenever our patrons anger us.
In her recently launched hardback, “No Higher Honour” the former US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice acknowledges out rightly her, read American role in brokering a deal between Shaheed Benazeer and Mushharaf. Appealing to note are her mention of short time discussions with President Bush in which she is always pleading her case for supporting democracy and holding elections by some sort of a power sharing deal between the two moderates (Musharraf and Benazeer), while the American President is always supportive of Musharraf. An excerpt of the referred book goes, quote, “Mr President”, I said. “I’m on the hook for him to take off his uniform and allow Bhutto to run for Prime Minister. He (Musharraf) made a direct promise to the secretary of state of the US. If he backs off that now, we will have no relationship at all in Pakistan--- even if we have one with Musharraf.” She continues. The only other people in the Oval Office were the Vice President, Steve and Josh Bolten, so we could be very direct with one another. President Bush replied, “I don’t want people to trash him.” The vice president added that Musharraf was essential to the war on terror.
Historical particulars propose that American’s interest in Pakistan or elsewhere are best looked after at the hands of an autocrat. May it be the post or pre cold war era, or else the psychological conversion of a nuclear armed Islamist Pakistan to an enlightened and moderate country. A critical forensics of the much talked about memo gate scandal suggests that Americans were perhaps looking for another autocrat who should sail them through the final transition of their Afghanistan dilemma, but to their surprise and God willingly, The Army and Civil Government, both behaved pretty maturely and in best National Interest.
Needless to mention, that the entire Arab read Muslim world has been going through cataclysmic events since the beginning of 2011. The first political conflagration broke out in Tunisia, ending with the ouster of a long governing dictator through the action of the brave citizenry of that most secularized North African country. Then came Egypt’s turn, after having suffered under three successive military regimes since 1952, the masses rose up and acted on the slogan, Kifaya, i.e. enough of Hosni Mubarak. No sooner had Mubarak left Cairo for an unknown destination, the winds of amends moved westward. This time, the bonfire was at Libyan Jamahiriyya, the unusual Arabic nomenclature for “republic” invented by the semi-rational Colonel Qaddafi. (The normal Arabic word for republic is “jumhuriyya,” with its equivalent in Turkish, “cumhuriyet”).
“And the vibrant PTI chief Imran is seen calling for civil disobedience in every public address. Pakistan cannot withstand the impact of a revolution – not at this stage – do you really think that the west read US is going to sit back and watch—they will quote yet another memo and try to step in”. For the alienated US cum west, rest assure that Pakistan is not an easy tablet to swallow. Despite the existing political, sectarian and socio ethnic divide, the nation stands united with its armed forces to sentinel any intervention and give a befitting response. For Imran, why look for more trouble and provide opportunities to the west for intervention. It is valued that desperate times call for desperate measures but they should not be hysterical to the extent of losing everything.
The beneficiary of Egyptian dilemma came out to be Islam as predicted by Walid Phares, a Mideast expert and adviser to Congress who commented, “The Arab Spring has failed in Egypt, and the Muslim Brotherhood may turn the most populous nation in the Middle East into an Islamist state within months, and if the Obama administration doesn’t alter its flawed strategy in confronting this threat, the entire region could be in turmoil by this time next year. At the end of the day, it is really the Muslim Brotherhood who is taking advantage of the process and we may end up seeing an Egypt, a few months from now, next year, as an Islamist state”.
In another yet fascinating expansion, the start of this year saw several predominantly northern Nigerian Muslim states introducing Shariah Law. The referred Shariah law had triggered a wave of violence described by President Obasanjo (a US crony) of Nigeria as "the worst incidence of bloodletting" that the country had seen since the end of the Nigerian civil war in 1970.
“and Allah is best of Schemers” Ale Imran verse 54 - Al Quran.
Consequential to the dreadful drone strikes, a legacy of Musharaf era, the relationship of Pakistan and US has been utterly dysfunctional and inherently unstable. Sadly so, the killing of innocent and miscreants alike were acknowledged as ok, keeping in mind the no of militants killed, according to certain statistical opinion makers, where as ground realities suggest differently. A total of 2,659 people have been killed since 2004 in 306 predator strikes. There is a strong likely hood for a number of human right violation stories cum campaigns emerging as a result of the referred strikes and GWOT as soon as the Americans leave Afghanistan (maligning Pakistan and not the Americans). Reservations in this regards have already cropped up in a recently published CMC (Conflict Management Centre) report.
The uproar in Pakistan on back to back episodes of Raymond Davis and the killing of Osama bin Laden should have been more than enough proof of just how fragile things really are. And as we were just trying to perk up from the referred shocks, they give us yet another bashing at Salala and for no reason at all. Although we are somewhat financially dependent on US aid, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that we would always grin and bear it whenever our patrons anger us.
In her recently launched hardback, “No Higher Honour” the former US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice acknowledges out rightly her, read American role in brokering a deal between Shaheed Benazeer and Mushharaf. Appealing to note are her mention of short time discussions with President Bush in which she is always pleading her case for supporting democracy and holding elections by some sort of a power sharing deal between the two moderates (Musharraf and Benazeer), while the American President is always supportive of Musharraf. An excerpt of the referred book goes, quote, “Mr President”, I said. “I’m on the hook for him to take off his uniform and allow Bhutto to run for Prime Minister. He (Musharraf) made a direct promise to the secretary of state of the US. If he backs off that now, we will have no relationship at all in Pakistan--- even if we have one with Musharraf.” She continues. The only other people in the Oval Office were the Vice President, Steve and Josh Bolten, so we could be very direct with one another. President Bush replied, “I don’t want people to trash him.” The vice president added that Musharraf was essential to the war on terror.
Historical particulars propose that American’s interest in Pakistan or elsewhere are best looked after at the hands of an autocrat. May it be the post or pre cold war era, or else the psychological conversion of a nuclear armed Islamist Pakistan to an enlightened and moderate country. A critical forensics of the much talked about memo gate scandal suggests that Americans were perhaps looking for another autocrat who should sail them through the final transition of their Afghanistan dilemma, but to their surprise and God willingly, The Army and Civil Government, both behaved pretty maturely and in best National Interest.
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