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Drones are a red herring!
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Anjum Niaz
The writer is a freelance journalist with over twenty years of experience in national and international reporting
"The drones don't fly out of Pakistan," grandly declares President Asif Zardari. It makes headline news. On the same day our army chief expresses similar sentiments. Earlier Prime Minister Gilani and Nawaz Sharif make brave declarations against the drones. Are Pakistanis meant to jump up with joy when our leaders civilian and military make such statements? Listen, the drones are a red herring. Don't get embroiled in them. It's mere public posturing. We have mixed up our priorities. Outsiders think this country is in its death throes. Pakistan is lurching towards chaos. Our rulers are numbed into inaction. Meanwhile the Don Quixotes of our media are tilting at windmills, riding with their lances to kill the giant who is their perceived enemy. Little do they know that this giant whose other name is the United States of America has our rulers' license to kill. Al Qaeda is their target. If the drones fail to eliminate these foreign thugs, America will hunt them down with boots on the ground.
Will then our armchair jihadis, mushrooming in our television sets, go out and fight the Americans man-to-man?
"More than 70 United States military advisers and technical specialists are secretly working in Pakistan to help its armed forces battle Al Qaeda and the Taliban in the country's lawless tribal areas," according to American military officials quoted in the New York Times. The paper claims that they are training Pakistani Army and paramilitary troops, "providing them with intelligence and advising on combat tactics." This "secret task force" is being overseen by the "United States Central Command and Special Operations Command" according to the paper. The Times further goes on to claim citing an unnamed senior Pakistani military official that a "new Pakistani commando unit within the Frontier Corps paramilitary force has used information from the CIA and other sources to kill or capture as many as 60 militants in the past seven months, including at least five high-ranking commanders, a senior Pakistani military official said."
So what's the brouhaha about?
Holbrooke, 67 is the brouhaha. "Admiral Mullen, cerebral and soft-spoken, often seemed more the diplomat, and Mr. Holbrooke, brash and overbearing, the one with four stars," is how the New York Times describes the duo's engagement in the region recently. It's being said Holbrooke is badly shaken hearing the people in this region support the Taliban. He's flummoxed.
Who can deny that the militants have infiltrated all across Pakistan. They are threatening Islamabad. But our blinkered media continues to drone on about drone attacks not questioning their rulers why they speak with forked tongues. Why are they not taking the citizenry into confidence? Vigilantism is our only survival. The initiated must move beyond the drones and fight to save Pakistan. A nuclear country of 170 million does not "disintegrate" or does it? We're being reminded that we are on artificial respiration and the plug can be pulled out any minute. The Americans and the British have their finger on the hot button. It will be a three-way war, between the US, Taliban and our military guarding our nuclear assets. "The Americans will take out the nuclear arsenal, throw us to the Taliban and calmly walk away," is the common perception among people whose hearts and heads are in the right place.
Red lines, cyber trenches, surveillance satellites, predator reapers, boots on ground, arm-twisting, carrot and stick stories, backchannel negotiations and media leaks dominate our days and nights. Global recession has taken a back seat. Individual bankruptcies are passé. Who cares if families have lost their savings and homes? Who cares if the world is throwing up starving people by the second? Instead all eyes are on Pakistan. The word "disintegration" is pandered across the Atlantic. Pakistan has become the "sick man of the world" just as the Ottoman Empire had become the "sick man of Europe" in the 19th century because it had fallen into a state of decrepitude. Eventually it collapsed.
Will Pakistan also collapse?
When the American administration plans action against a country, it first tests the waters in its own media. "The year 2009 is the year of delivery by Pakistan. If that doesn't happen, the Americans have their own plan of action," Shaheen Sehbai reports from Washington. The countdown has begun. Foreign Minister Shah Mahmud Qureshi can holler down Holbrooke at the press conference or Geneal Kayani can be best friends with his counterpart Admiral Mike Mullen, but Godzilla is getting ready to trample all over our sovereignty.
Today, the Taliban and the Americans appear in charge of Pakistan's future. Not the bulky finance adviser Shaukat Tareen who should be exercised, as the Americans call it, about the impending budget. Should he not be sweating over his figures unless he plans to duck the budget speech next month? Or like Zardari, does he await the largesse promised by the Friends of Pakistan later this month in Tokyo. Those 'friendly' billions will put food on our tables, so to say. And if they don't come in time, will the poor eat grass? Or will Zardari government sign on the dotted line as ordered by America to get that promised $1.5 billion?
War rooms have been erected across Pakistan and the world. We are in the eye of the storm. Life plays out moment to moment. The media has the best war rooms. In Pakistan their guns are aimed at America. And in America, the US media's guns are aimed at Pakistan Army and its ISI. In Britain, Pakistani youth of Pushtun origin are being watched. They are accused of being Taliban supporters. A popular TV host of a late night show in Islamabad insists that we go to war against America. It's the Americans we should fight, not the Taliban, he insists. Many of his callers agree with the jihadis. General (r) Hamid Gul cites the RAW, MI 5, Mossad and CIA working in tandem to destroy Pakistan. He continues to push his plan of forming a lashkar and attack India (the source of all our ills including insurgency in Balochistan). Baitullah Mehsud has offered to command the lashkar.
"It's looking increasingly difficult to save ourselves from the mess we have created," writes a Pakistani from abroad. "The Israelis are professionals at what they do. I remember how we Muslims used to defend the suicide bombings in Israel and now we are getting the taste of the same medicine. How times have changed! We need to reflect on our society and the hatred that we breed for each other in the name of God."
Gen Petraeus, commander for Iraq and Afghanistan, has told a Senate panel recently that militants in Pakistan "could literally take down their state" if left unchallenged. "How does this end?" asks a weary senator. Michele Flournoy, the under-secretary of defence for policy, replies: "a key point of defining success is when both the Afghans and the Pakistanis have both the capability and the will to deal with the remaining threat themselves." Gen Petraeus "echoes" Ms Flournoy. "The task will be for them to shoulder the responsibilities of their own security."
The latest impression leaking out from Washington DC is that neither President Zardari nor General Kayani are willing to embrace serious counterinsurgency measures being forwarded by the Americans. The army chief meanwhile is in Saudi Arabia and the Emirates holding important meetings.
Will our General bring back a blank cheque from the Saudis and the wealthy Gulf States or will he bring back a tacit agreement from them that US drone attacks must only target the Taliban/Al-Qaeda insurgents? If we get real lucky, the army chief may bring back borrowed drones to shake off America. Let us kill the militants ourselves.
Email: aniaz@fas.harvard.edu
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Anjum Niaz
The writer is a freelance journalist with over twenty years of experience in national and international reporting
"The drones don't fly out of Pakistan," grandly declares President Asif Zardari. It makes headline news. On the same day our army chief expresses similar sentiments. Earlier Prime Minister Gilani and Nawaz Sharif make brave declarations against the drones. Are Pakistanis meant to jump up with joy when our leaders civilian and military make such statements? Listen, the drones are a red herring. Don't get embroiled in them. It's mere public posturing. We have mixed up our priorities. Outsiders think this country is in its death throes. Pakistan is lurching towards chaos. Our rulers are numbed into inaction. Meanwhile the Don Quixotes of our media are tilting at windmills, riding with their lances to kill the giant who is their perceived enemy. Little do they know that this giant whose other name is the United States of America has our rulers' license to kill. Al Qaeda is their target. If the drones fail to eliminate these foreign thugs, America will hunt them down with boots on the ground.
Will then our armchair jihadis, mushrooming in our television sets, go out and fight the Americans man-to-man?
"More than 70 United States military advisers and technical specialists are secretly working in Pakistan to help its armed forces battle Al Qaeda and the Taliban in the country's lawless tribal areas," according to American military officials quoted in the New York Times. The paper claims that they are training Pakistani Army and paramilitary troops, "providing them with intelligence and advising on combat tactics." This "secret task force" is being overseen by the "United States Central Command and Special Operations Command" according to the paper. The Times further goes on to claim citing an unnamed senior Pakistani military official that a "new Pakistani commando unit within the Frontier Corps paramilitary force has used information from the CIA and other sources to kill or capture as many as 60 militants in the past seven months, including at least five high-ranking commanders, a senior Pakistani military official said."
So what's the brouhaha about?
Holbrooke, 67 is the brouhaha. "Admiral Mullen, cerebral and soft-spoken, often seemed more the diplomat, and Mr. Holbrooke, brash and overbearing, the one with four stars," is how the New York Times describes the duo's engagement in the region recently. It's being said Holbrooke is badly shaken hearing the people in this region support the Taliban. He's flummoxed.
Who can deny that the militants have infiltrated all across Pakistan. They are threatening Islamabad. But our blinkered media continues to drone on about drone attacks not questioning their rulers why they speak with forked tongues. Why are they not taking the citizenry into confidence? Vigilantism is our only survival. The initiated must move beyond the drones and fight to save Pakistan. A nuclear country of 170 million does not "disintegrate" or does it? We're being reminded that we are on artificial respiration and the plug can be pulled out any minute. The Americans and the British have their finger on the hot button. It will be a three-way war, between the US, Taliban and our military guarding our nuclear assets. "The Americans will take out the nuclear arsenal, throw us to the Taliban and calmly walk away," is the common perception among people whose hearts and heads are in the right place.
Red lines, cyber trenches, surveillance satellites, predator reapers, boots on ground, arm-twisting, carrot and stick stories, backchannel negotiations and media leaks dominate our days and nights. Global recession has taken a back seat. Individual bankruptcies are passé. Who cares if families have lost their savings and homes? Who cares if the world is throwing up starving people by the second? Instead all eyes are on Pakistan. The word "disintegration" is pandered across the Atlantic. Pakistan has become the "sick man of the world" just as the Ottoman Empire had become the "sick man of Europe" in the 19th century because it had fallen into a state of decrepitude. Eventually it collapsed.
Will Pakistan also collapse?
When the American administration plans action against a country, it first tests the waters in its own media. "The year 2009 is the year of delivery by Pakistan. If that doesn't happen, the Americans have their own plan of action," Shaheen Sehbai reports from Washington. The countdown has begun. Foreign Minister Shah Mahmud Qureshi can holler down Holbrooke at the press conference or Geneal Kayani can be best friends with his counterpart Admiral Mike Mullen, but Godzilla is getting ready to trample all over our sovereignty.
Today, the Taliban and the Americans appear in charge of Pakistan's future. Not the bulky finance adviser Shaukat Tareen who should be exercised, as the Americans call it, about the impending budget. Should he not be sweating over his figures unless he plans to duck the budget speech next month? Or like Zardari, does he await the largesse promised by the Friends of Pakistan later this month in Tokyo. Those 'friendly' billions will put food on our tables, so to say. And if they don't come in time, will the poor eat grass? Or will Zardari government sign on the dotted line as ordered by America to get that promised $1.5 billion?
War rooms have been erected across Pakistan and the world. We are in the eye of the storm. Life plays out moment to moment. The media has the best war rooms. In Pakistan their guns are aimed at America. And in America, the US media's guns are aimed at Pakistan Army and its ISI. In Britain, Pakistani youth of Pushtun origin are being watched. They are accused of being Taliban supporters. A popular TV host of a late night show in Islamabad insists that we go to war against America. It's the Americans we should fight, not the Taliban, he insists. Many of his callers agree with the jihadis. General (r) Hamid Gul cites the RAW, MI 5, Mossad and CIA working in tandem to destroy Pakistan. He continues to push his plan of forming a lashkar and attack India (the source of all our ills including insurgency in Balochistan). Baitullah Mehsud has offered to command the lashkar.
"It's looking increasingly difficult to save ourselves from the mess we have created," writes a Pakistani from abroad. "The Israelis are professionals at what they do. I remember how we Muslims used to defend the suicide bombings in Israel and now we are getting the taste of the same medicine. How times have changed! We need to reflect on our society and the hatred that we breed for each other in the name of God."
Gen Petraeus, commander for Iraq and Afghanistan, has told a Senate panel recently that militants in Pakistan "could literally take down their state" if left unchallenged. "How does this end?" asks a weary senator. Michele Flournoy, the under-secretary of defence for policy, replies: "a key point of defining success is when both the Afghans and the Pakistanis have both the capability and the will to deal with the remaining threat themselves." Gen Petraeus "echoes" Ms Flournoy. "The task will be for them to shoulder the responsibilities of their own security."
The latest impression leaking out from Washington DC is that neither President Zardari nor General Kayani are willing to embrace serious counterinsurgency measures being forwarded by the Americans. The army chief meanwhile is in Saudi Arabia and the Emirates holding important meetings.
Will our General bring back a blank cheque from the Saudis and the wealthy Gulf States or will he bring back a tacit agreement from them that US drone attacks must only target the Taliban/Al-Qaeda insurgents? If we get real lucky, the army chief may bring back borrowed drones to shake off America. Let us kill the militants ourselves.
Email: aniaz@fas.harvard.edu
