You gentlemen have been going back and forth on Jihadi elements.. and reform for the army.(and eventually the ISI).
What I ask is.. that while being India centric in its inception, whether as a necessity or conspiracy if you may.
the PA needs the idea of Jihad for its soldier to be effective...
Every base, every piece of equipment.. every war cry is based on Islamic history.
From the cries of "Allah o Akbar" at an attack.. to the verses written on every training center and base.
This isnt a skin you can take out and graft a new one on.
Its the skeleton on which this Army is now built... whether good or bad.. its there.
The Idea can no longer be on removing this element.. but rather using it correctly for the right purposes rather than the lies and deceit that have fed its being. Which will end up with the core problem of defining what common terms do Pakistani's define themselves.. and on what common terms do the Muslims in Pakistan define themselves...since no Pakistani Hindu or Christan or Zoroastrian has killed each other that much over differing definitions of their religion.
You cant take the Jihad out of the NCO.. but you can take a look at the system that creates an officer.. and where the black sheep find the loopholes to get ahead .
The whole Jihad thing worked fine in Bangla as well till our Racist president decided to go all out.
Thank you for that excellent post, Santro - I do understand the terrible unease most Pakistanis experience when confronting the consequences of the Islamization project, a project in which the Pakistan army has been a major promoter.
Armies generally concern themselves with their core competences, that is to say defending the nation by killing the enemies of the nation.
Would you agree? And if you do, you would then have to grant that the Pakistan army's preoccupation with ideology, not of patriotism or nationalism, but Islamism, puts it in another category when compared to other armies.
You suggest that this Islamization project is now irreversible - and perhaps you are right, I really do not know whether Pakistan can muster the will to save itself or not, I really don't know. However, till this fundamental contradiction is not dealt with, the Pakistan army cannot said to be a army that can be counted on to defend Pakistan - Why? Because it's orientation cannot withstand being at war with groups that are actually as Islamist as the Pakistan army itself is.
Indeed, it's record of failure over these last 10 years, against the Islamist enemy, does not inspire confidence - much is made of a modern army confronting the Islamist enemy in Swat, yet even today, Swat remains not just dangerous to it's residents but the presence of the Army in the region cannot be said to have brought normalcy to the region - "uneasy" is a generous characterization of the Swat, we can all agree.
the core problem of defining what common terms do Pakistani's define themselves.. and on what common terms do the Muslims in Pakistan define themselves...since no Pakistani Hindu or Christan or Zoroastrian has killed each other that much over differing definitions of their religion
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Thank you this - you have hit the hammer on the head of the nail -- see, so long as the Pakistan army is a "carrier" of the ethic that Pakistanis are not equal before the law, that they must be discriminated amongst each other based on their confession and their sect or lack of either, the Pakistan army cannot said to be a army that will ever defend a Pakistan in which all citizens are equal before the law -- You highlight that the Islamist army is now in the positon of fighting and killing Islamists insurgents, who charge the Islamist army of turning apostate --- In other words, the entire narrative, is exactly as you have suggested, about ideology of Islamism, having sought and made enemies of Pakistanis, the Islamists have now turned on each other - the Islamist army under a cynical leadership and the Hardcore islamist insurgents, under foreign but "Islamist" leadership.
We unhappily return to where we began, do armies have any business being involved in promoting ideologies such Islamism?? Perhaps you are right that Pakistan have lost and Islamism is a malady it must live with or you may be mistaken, because if the islamist army defeats the islamist insurgents, granted a distant possibility, the Islamist army will no longer be able to think of itself as islamist, in fact it will have no societal constituency, after all, are the Pakistani people really braving bombings and assassinations, so that they can be Islamists?? Really??
You cant take the Jihad out of the NCO.. but you can take a look at the system that creates an officer.. and where the black sheep find the loopholes to get ahead
Exactly but the point is also moot, the ethic of the Pakistan army is Islamism, Jihad frenzy is just a given, and ultimately, as we see, the islamist having gorged on the blood of innocents will turn on each other - can the nation state of Pakistan survive that without "reconstructing" the army??
I argued with Bilal that the new Light Commando units are a reflection of that "reconstruction", even as they are a acknowledgement that turning islamist on Islamist, has effected the army to it's core.
Not the Army, but political leaders..
