We must declare ‘state of war’

[SparklingCrescent]

Monday, November 02, 2009

By Mohammad Malick

Let’s face it, we are at war. The ridiculous arguments about the terrorists only targeting government establishments, or it is the West’s war, it’s a Jihad against infidels, etc, were blown to smithereens last Wednesday afternoon in Peshawar’s Meena Bazaar.

The powerful car bomb, which ripped through the thickly-congested market place — a favourite shopping area of lower and middle class families in particular — showed that it is a war with terrorists standing on one side of the blood line, and we the people on the other. The dead count had a heart wrenching abnormally high share of women and children. The message has come loud and clear: every Pakistani is a target, even the women and children are no longer off the hit list of the terrorists.

In fact, they may just be the new preferred targets, as they surely constitute the softest underbelly of our hitherto collective and dithering national will to fight back with all that we have got.

Some analysts will view it as a perverse outcome of Hillary Clinton’s visit. Others may view it as the continuation of the expected surge in such explosions in the backdrop of the ongoing South Waziristan operation. And both are right. Then there will be terrorists’ apologists like Qazi Hussain Ahmed, Maulana Fazlur Rehman and their ilk, who will once again repeat the mantra of the ‘holy warriors’ only targeting security establishments and government buildings and will try to mislead the people into venting their fury at Delhi, Washington etc, you take your pick.

Does it really matter if India’s RAW was behind it? Or whether it was Mossad? Or the CIA? Because for arguments sake, even if we concede that to be the case, what really matters is that they are able to function because of the conducive environment provided by our so-called Taliban and their al-Qaeda friends.

Enough of this confusion and dillydallying. We must wake up to the reality that contrary to what Qazi sahib and others may want us to believe, terrorism has no rules, no protected segments of society. On the contrary, a new rule has emerged, that ‘there are no rules’ and that women and children are fair game.

Background briefings by top security officials, interactions with relevant stakeholders, information gleaned from sources within such terrorist elements had already left no doubt that the battle of Waziristan will really be fought, and won or lost, not in the rugged Waziristan hills but in the cities of Peshawar, Islamabad, Lahore and others.

A massive spate of suicide and car bombings will consume our cities and our resolve to fight back and to hold the line. And the expected fear is translating into reality. The time has come that either we own up this war as our own, stand collectively or die individually in one bomb blast after another.

The wars of 1965 and 1971 lasted for a few days, and weeks, and yet the whole nation was knit into one unit. Whereas this war of ours has been going on for months but owing to a deliberately created confusion, we are still debating its ethos, arguing over its ownership.

Meanwhile, terrorists continue to kill and maim. What is alarmingly missing is the recognition of it being a full-blown war, and not some civil war or mere insurgency as many of our ignorant rulers and confused leaders would have us believe. Months down the road and even the media remains embroiled in the self-defeating exercise of determining whose war it is. Well the answer was written in the blood of women and children at Meena Bazaar. It is our war, and the state must declare that we are in a state of war.

Sending troops into terrorists’ lair is a laudable step, and long overdue, but a lot more needs to be done. For starters tough decisions need to be taken eschewing short-term political expediencies. The nation must be told that we are not in the midst of an insurgency but it is war, pure and simple.

It is imperative that people are given the awareness to clearly see past the smog of confusion created by Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Maulana Fazlullahs, and the Mianwali Khans of this world. Too much innocent blood has been spilled to act tolerant anymore.

We now also know that our children are a prime hostage bargaining chip, sitting ducks for a killing spree that will numb our senses and take the winds out of our sails. The rulers must take their egoistic heads out of the sands of ignorance and for starters remove the children from the killing fields. Close down all schools if they must, till the expected ferocious terrorist backlash against the ongoing military operations loses momentum.

A few weeks of lost school time is nothing compared to losing even one little life. Schools were closed down in 1965, in 1971, again in 1979, so why can’t it be done in 2009. This war is far more ruthless anyway.

It is ironic that we are being forced into closing our schools while madaris of all hue run unchecked. It is tragic that moderate political forces cower down in fear while the political advocates of terrorists hog airtime and hit headlines. It is scary that a war is being painted as a manageable insurgency by our own rulers.

It is alarming that elements everywhere, even within the media, continue confusing the people about the reality of this war as being our own. It is criminal not to inculcate the reality into public consciousness.

The time has come for the nation to go into a full war mode and the first step is to recognise the fact that we are in the midst of one, whether we call it so or not. Silence shall be at our own peril.



We must declare ‘state of war’

 

[SMC]

An aside comment. Is the author implying that it is less worrying if men get killed only and that men getting killed has lesser significance? Is their life worth less? Maybe I can understand children, because they still can contribute lot to this world.

 

[arslan_treen]

the author speaks my mind finally some 1 in our media who's not just acting on throw a bone and see the dogs fight strategy of our other media so called pundits who seem to be pissing in there pants because rumours suggest that there are some 10 or 30 black water mere security guards in islamabad !! i mean common who stupid are the people who watch and believe those so called eye opening videos who are so afraid of a bunch of security guards in a country of 200 million half of them carrying guns .

 

[iPhone]

Monday, November 02, 2009

By Mohammad Malick
Then there will be terrorists’ apologists like Qazi Hussain Ahmed, Maulana Fazlur Rehman and their ilk, who will once again repeat the mantra of the ‘holy warriors’ only targeting security establishments and government buildings and will try to mislead the people into venting their fury at Delhi, Washington etc, you take your pick.

This is the problem we're facing in this war.

A massive spate of suicide and car bombings will consume our cities and our resolve to fight back and to hold the line. And the expected fear is translating into reality. The time has come that either we own up this war as our own, stand collectively or die individually in one bomb blast after another.

This is the solution.

The wars of 1965 and 1971 lasted for a few days, and weeks, and yet the whole nation was knit into one unit. Whereas this war of ours has been going on for months but owing to a deliberately created confusion, we are still debating its ethos, arguing over its ownership.

Meanwhile, terrorists continue to kill and maim. What is alarmingly missing is the recognition of it being a full-blown war, and not some civil war or mere insurgency as many of our ignorant rulers and confused leaders would have us believe. Months down the road and even the media remains embroiled in the self-defeating exercise of determining whose war it is. Well the answer was written in the blood of women and children at Meena Bazaar. It is our war, and the state must declare that we are in a state of war.

once against the problem in confusion and solution in unity highlighted.

It is imperative that people are given the awareness to clearly see past the smog of confusion created by Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Maulana Fazlullahs, and the Mianwali Khans of this world. Too much innocent blood has been spilled to act tolerant anymore.

and here come the fasadis, the terrorist sympathizers, people responsible for creating this confusion for Pakistani people in this war.

It is alarming that elements everywhere, even within the media, continue confusing the people about the reality of this war as being our own. It is criminal not to inculcate the reality into public consciousness.

now that the author has mentioned media and it's role and this article coming from a major Pakistani news paper group (Jang), I consider it their responsibility esp. their Urdu service and their major tv channel Geo, to clear this fog of confusion among public. Dawn and their tv channel have already launched a media war against taliban but being exclusively English their demographic is small. Jang group and their media counterpart is a mammoth of news outlet, Jang, the urdu newspaper is read by millions in Pakistan and Geo watched by millions, they can put a serious dent in terrorist sympathizers twisted effort of creating confusion in public if they decide to go all out against taliban. I'm not undermining Jang's and Geo's efforts but I feel more can be done.

 

[Vassnti]

An aside comment. Is the author implying that it is less worrying if men get killed only and that men getting killed has lesser significance? Is their life worth less? Maybe I can understand children, because they still can contribute lot to this world.

Perhaps he just speaks to the humanity in us all that to harm a child is the worst thing some one can do.
As for women at least personally i still feel an emotional urge to protect them even though some of the women i know are a lot tougher and more capable than i am, so weird as it might be in a modern world I at least at an emotinal level am more upset about a blast that kills 20 women than one that kills 20 men. Perhaps that is why the terrorsits do it.

 

[SMC]

Perhaps he just speaks to the humanity in us all that to harm a child is the worst thing some one can do.
As for women at least personally i still feel an emotional urge to protect them even though some of the women i know are a lot tougher and more capable than i am, so weird as it might be in a modern world I at least at an emotinal level am more upset about a blast that kills 20 women than one that kills 20 men. Perhaps that is why the terrorsits do it.

Well like I said, children I can certainly understand, but not women. What you said about the emotional state of being is due to social conditioning done by men themselves and women too that sort of gives women's life more importance and elevate them above men.

Nevertheless, 120 lives, male or female, being taken away like that have to be accounted for. These savages have nowhere to run except get killed or get captured.

 

[TalibanSwatter]

Monday, November 02, 2009
The Taliban/jihadist outfits are busy raising the bar in excessive barbarity on a daily basis and it has come to pass that the risk of death by indiscriminate violence, in 2009, of a Muslim in Kashmir is less than that of a Muslim in Peshawar, Lahore or Rawalpindi. Even on the assorted mullahs, leading the cohorts of modern day barbarians, and their many vocal media supporters, this grotesque irony cannot be lost. In the latest episode of a reality horror show, over 100 innocents were slaughtered in one single incident in Peshawar on Oct 28.

It is now received wisdom that these fighters who were nurtured over decades by the foreign and domestic policy whiz kids of successive Pakistani dictatorships (and by various accounts maintained as an asset until very recently) years after their original paymasters, who created them for a proxy war against the Soviets in Afghanistan, had washed their hands off them. There have been some segments of the Pakistani society, particularly the religio-political parties, that tacitly approve of the jihadi violence against the ‘other’, whether it be the Indians in Kashmir or Mumbai, Soviets or NATO forces in Afghanistan or in the 1990s Afghanistan against the educated liberals and against women and other religious sects and minorities. For a long time this had the blessing of the state whether it was the dictatorship of Ziaul Haque or Pervez Musharraf. As the jihadis have now turned against the military, the security forces and unarmed poor civilians, the religious democrats never come forward to condemn such atrocities. This is perhaps based upon the misconceived logic that my enemy’s enemy is my friend or may be because these parties have thus far considered the jihadis as the militant wing for their political aspirations.

There is, however, a majority segment in Pakistani society which abhors the violence of the jihadis, realises that their advance will bring nothing but misery to their lives, but yet cannot bring itself to condemn their atrocities, even when the evidence of culpability is overwhelming and self-admitted. Perhaps in their minds adherence to their religion, which they believe defines them, is so great that anyone claiming its banner is absolved from any blame. Their response is beyond denial. It is now also beyond blaming their other real and perceived enemies. Their response is that of disownment and paralysis: we cannot deny that they are our own, we see it with our own eyes but we cannot believe that anyone who invokes the name of Islam will kill their Muslim brethren — they can’t be ‘real’ Muslims.

If Pakistan is to survive this onslaught, its politicians, of all hue, must unite against a common enemy. Its army needs to resolve not only to fight and destroy these monsters but also to relinquish any thoughts of them as assets in its futile quibble with its neighbour. When confronted with an existential threat, survival depends on unity of purpose. Unity can only be achieved if the sights are focused upon the real enemy. The battle of minds needs to won before the monster of extremism can be defeated. It can only be won when all these constituencies realise that their real enemy resides within. This enemy claims their religion, practises their customs, speaks their language and it is slaughtering their brothers and sisters.

The Taliban/jihadi movement has followed the trajectory of other fascist movements whose sole purpose becomes control through fear; anyone who does not submit, completely, can become the ‘other’. It is evident that their ruthlessness allows them to turn on past supporters, various allies or even the people who they claim to save.

October 2009 was the grimmest month in the history of Pakistan — with the death count of civilians reaching the hundreds. One can only hope that the latest incident will now serve to awaken the vast majority of Pakistanis from their slumber to face their real enemy. A quotation from the Sun Tzu’s, Art of War says: If you know your enemies and know yourself, you can win a hundred battles without a single loss. If you only know yourself, but not your opponent, you may win or may lose. If you know neither yourself nor your enemy, you will always endanger yourself.” The defining question for Pakistanis today is: does their enemy within represent their values?

R Matif

London