Pakistan's radical reputation
By Daud Khattak
Friday, October 28, 2011 - 3:05 PM
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Intolerant,
fundamentalist and extremist. This is the general impression of Pakistani
society in the world outside Pakistan, though a deeper look would lead the
observer to discover another layer - altogether different than the one visible
from Europe and America. Following the Urdu-language Pakistani media, one is
easily brought to the conclusion that there exists widespread radicalism and
fundamentalism among Pakistanis. The television anchors and their repetition of
‘national interests' aside, the key question is: Is the Pakistani society
really extremist? A cursory look at the events of the past few years can tell
the answer.
Following the highly-rigged
general elections
in 2002 in favor of the now defunct religious alliance, Muttahidda
Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), Pakistan's
religious parties looked poised to assert their newfound power in the country.
But just six years later, in the February 2008 general election, Pakistanis
overwhelmingly supported
secular political parties such as the ruling Pakistan People's Party (PPP)
and the Awami National Party (ANP), while the religious parties managed to
retain only seven seats in the country's National Assembly. The religious
parties and their affiliates also failed on several occasions to start a political
movement by using issues such as the jailing of Pakistani doctor Aafia Siddiqui,
the US drone strikes in Pakistan's tribal northwest, the Raymond Davis episode,
or the U.S. Special Forces raid in Abbottabad and killing of al-Qaeda chief
Osama bin Laden.
Pakistan's security establishment also contributes to the West's fundamentalist
and extremist image of Pakistani society. Over the years, the Pakistani state
has supported the armies of Kashmir-focused jihadists in order to gain leverage
over its more powerful and several-times-larger rival India, as well maintain a
Pakistan-friendly government in neighboring Afghanistan. To achieve these goals,
the establishment willfully encouraged a number of elements within its own borders,
ranging from pro-jihadist religious parties to extremist literature in schools,
colleges and universities, in order to generate support for the jihadist cause.
Within Pakistan, the armed forces are often presented as heroes and the true
custodians of Pakistan's ideological and geographical frontiers, while the
liberal political forces are labeled (albeit with some truth) as vested
interests, too corrupt and inefficient to run the country and ensure its
defense. Pakistani youth are flooded with hardliner propaganda and find
attraction in extremist views because of the stance of the esteemed military,
the jihadist literature in classrooms, government-controlled electronic media,
and a state policy of encouraging certain jihadist organizations.
This policy approach, although it dates back to the creation of Pakistan,
was institutionalized during the 10 years of military rule under the dictator
General Zia ul-Haq, who championed jihad and the Islamization of society. The majority
of the secular leaders at that time were either won over one way or another, forced to keep
silent, or pushed into exile, thus leaving room for the fundamentalists to come
forward and "purify" the society by holding mass gatherings in cities, speaking
on the official electronic media, becoming involved in educational institutions
and spreading jihadist literature. Zia and his rightist support base thus
maneuvered hard, and the ultimate result was the emergence of a hardliner
approach among the upper layer of the Pakistani society to Muslim causes - be
it Kashmir, Afghanistan,
Palestine, Bosnia,
Chechnya,
Kosovo or any other place in the world. The support for extremists and
jihadists did not end with the death of Gen. Zia. Elements in The state security apparatus continued the same
policies, eventually resulting in the emergence of the Taliban in Afghanistan
who converted areas of the country into a safe haven for extremists and
jihadists all over the world.
However, this is only one side of the picture. A few thousand miscreants
fighting in the tribal areas, or some baton-wielding madressa students marching
a street in Punjab, in no
way represent the majority of the 180 million-strong Pakistani populace, who
disapprove of the Taliban's terrorism and vandalism. Today, the tribal areas
are being presented to the world as a tinderbox where everyone is a radical fighter
or suicide bomber, only to convince the western world to shower more money on
the Pakistani elites in order to avert this purported threat to global peace. In
fact, this is a well-orchestrated plan in which the tribal people are the real
victims. Victims in the sense that they are presented to the world as the
trouble-maker while in fact, they are hostages at the hands of the Pakistani
security agencies (and the militant groups), who over the years have supported
or ignored the presence of jihadist and terrorist groups on Pakistani soil.
To understand the state's approach to the tribal areas, one must look at a few
simple but thought-provoking questions: Why have the Federally Administered Tribal
Areas (FATA) been discriminated
against over the past 60 years? Why are they being run under the
colonial-era Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) laws, and why were political
parties banned from the area until very
recently?
How many schools, colleges, universities, hospitals, roads, canals, dams, power
projects, and agriculture projects have been launched in FATA over the years?
There are many other such unanswered questions, and the motive is clear: Keep FATA
residents in the dark and mold their image as and when needed.
Despite
all of this, a vast majority of FATA residents are still in favor of education,
development, political reforms and (no doubt) peace. We are hearing more and
more accounts of tribal Pakistanis spending their hard-earned money to send
their sons and daughters to colleges and universities to become doctors,
engineers, teachers and scholars. Would a person sending his son or daughter to
university support the Taliban's jihadist agenda?
In
Pakistan's cities meanwhile,
despite the fact that the secular political leadership is often rendered
useless by criminal elements and their supporters, the vast majority of people
disapprove of militancy and extremism. The once popular religious political
parties are usually not able to gather more than a few hundred people at
rallies, even for flashpoint issues such as price hikes, power outages, fuel
shortages or foreigners' alleged disrespect of Islam. Anti-Americanism exists
in many countries and Pakistan
is no exception. But being anti-American does not necessarily mean being a
jihadist or a Talib. Protests in the United
States and around the world against the U.S. military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan
are non-violent examples of this sentiment.
Now is the time for the western world to understand the situation by looking
deep into Pakistani society instead of judging things on the basis of protest
demonstrations by a few hundred bearded young men, or some gun-wielding men in
videos from FATA. The key point to understand is that the real Pakistani
society lies under the superficial layer of radicalism being presented as a
serious threat to Pakistan
and the peace of the world at large.
We need to know that despite security threats, hundreds of thousands of
students are attending schools, colleges and universities; new private sector
educational institutions are being opened; new think-tanks are being launched;
the NGO network is spreading; and music, art and culture are flourishing. These
developments are even occurring in areas presented as the most conservative to
the outside world. It is high time for the world to look beyond the surface and
see the vast majority of Pakistanis, who have been taken hostage by the
few armed thugs who are propped up by
the state to achieve the foreign policy goals.
Extremism is without a doubt a serious issue confronting the state of Pakistan and the region. But the approach should be to take it head on with the support of the bulk of Pakistanis who disapprove of terrorism and believe in political dialogue as a resolution to issues both inside and outside the country.
Daud Khattak is a journalist currently working for the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Pashto-language station Radio Mashaal.
S.S. MIRZA/AFP/Getty Images
EXPLORE:AFPAK, AFPAK POSTER 4, AFPAK CHANNEL, AL QAEDA, CULTURE, PAKISTAN, POLITICS, SECURITY, TALIBAN, TERRORISM 
All I know is that I do business with people in Karachi and they are in no way, shape or form "extremist.". I talk with with them every day and I have more in common with a lot of them than I do people in my own hometown. They run their business better than most "first world" companies I've ever dealt with do. People are people. When you get down to the "street" level, who knows? I'd be terrified to find out the average American Wal-Mart shopper's political views, too.
Anecdotal evidence is NOT evidence.
The Pew Research Center poll in 2010 found that:
85% of Pakistanis FAVOR making GENDER SEGREGATION in the workplace a law in the country
85% of Pakistanis FAVOR punishments like WHIPPING and CUTTING OFF HANDS for crimes like theft and robbery
82% of Pakistanis FAVOR STONING people who commit adultery
78% of Pakistanis feel that people who convert from Islam to another religion should DIE.
DR.KUCHBHI, Listen to the voice of maoists!!
Indians may bark all they can, but Pakistan is rightly smacking the arse of India and Afghanis and Americans.
THe INdian army of moronic barbarians and the INdian police of pigheaded animals, are the biggest extremists, fundamentalists and religious warriors in the entire world. These dimwitted devils drink and bath in the urine of the cow. These foolish people worship the animal which others slaughter and roast. Once they have taken the blessings of their cow mother, they slink into naxalite localities and rape, murder and maim women and children. THese extremist barbarians who believe in the hindutva, are the biggest danger to the entire world.
I extend my gratitude to THe ISI, the indian bashing agency of angels, for fully supporting maoists in our war against the Indian state and Indian army.
I would also like to request the chinese and people of other freedom loving countries to support us in taking on the might of India.
THE SILENT MAJORITY Vs the "SUPERFICIAL LAYER"
The writer is spot on when he says:
"The key point to understand is that the real Pakistani society lies under the superficial layer of radicalism being presented as a serious threat to Pakistan and the peace of the world at large."
The key question is: do the spin-doctors in the west want to hear the voice of the majority in Pakistan? Not now, not ever. Orientalism is alive and kicking in the western intellect.
How Long Pakistani Society Fear Radicals and Fanatics?
Striver,
It is always the small number of people who make difference to the world and take people along by persuasion, reason or fear and intimidation.
The feeble civil society of Pakistan has for decades allowed itself to be exploited and ruled by galaxy of bad rulers and twisted opinion makers.
When Lawyers shower rose petals on killer and intimidate judges, can it still be be called "Civil"?
Nevertheless, being oblivious of the hard and dirty realities, please carry on striving for blatant obfuscation under acute paranoia and schizophrenia fueled by Jingoist Pakistani Army/ISI, the real owners of Pakistan.
Majority is authority-- the first rule of democracy
India claims to be the biggest democracy. IT ahould rather call itself a dramacracy. Its citizens are so unaware of rules of democracy.
IF one percent indians say India is a nation of bastards, will you accept that. I hope you dont, keeping in view the long traditon of dramacracy in your country.
Hope you got striver's point.
A person having an abusive ID must not be here
Mohan Das Karam Chand.......,
Stop preaching, something you have no idea about
Have some manners and decency first.
Foreign Policy Editors,
This person has an abusive ID and not fit to be on any serious discussion board.
I am one of the editors, perhaps!!
Vision tunnel,
I dont understand what vision you have besides proving pakistan to be full of terrorists. As far as your tunnel goes i dont know what do you mean by that. Perhaps vision at the end of a bloody tunnel.
How pathetic your cries are, editors he should not be here!!!
Yell all you can nothing will happen.
My ID is abusive , how ??
SHIRI tunnel, it is the name of the founder of extremist hindu india, Mohandas karam chand Gandu.
WHat's wrong in that.
You should be proud of the fact taht the name of the father of iNDIA is GANDU. THis truly speaks volumes of the nature of indians.
IT was MR. Gandu who called HITLER, THE murderer of JEWS, mY friend.
and Still Mr. Gandu is a pacifist in the eyes of the INDIANS. Strange.
Every person, group, organization, society and country have strengths, weaknesses and are faced with several opportunities and threats. If a new course and corrections are needed, an unbiased and brutal assessment has to be carried out. But the hard fact is that, such ventures are hardly deemed necessary when megalomania and schizophrenia are the prime movers.
Making an important remark at the end of his book, Who Killed Daniel Pearl?, the French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy expressed this terrifying conclusion: “I assert that Pakistan is the biggest rogue of all the rogue states today. I assert that what is taking form there, between Islamabad and Karachi, is a black hole compared to which Saddam Hussein’s Baghdad was an obsolete dump.”
Even the present loquacious Pakistani envoy to USA, Haqqani had sharp words for the Pakistani military relationship with extremist groups and its negative effects on the country's development into a modern state.His analysis of the nation and its defining problems were the subject of the controversial 2005 book, Pakistan: Between Mosque and Military, authored while a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
But the so called timely scholarship and the apparent present day duality of Haqqani as an Ambassador, also manifests the classic Pakistani traits that has led to the repeated failure of leadership because of opportunist mentality:Before he wrote whatever was necessary to have a book published and was relatively honest about the realities. Now as an ambassador he lies to please same Military bosses, he has severely criticized and lampooned.
In the end, he accomplishes nothing. This is why Pakistan has accomplished what ever could be hardly termed as noble, reasonably desired and expected form a modern nation.
Haqqani also made, an otherwise well known observation : "Hostility between India and Pakistan continues; in Pakistan it serves as an important element for national identification."
For Hussani Haqqani, ambassadorship is an important addition in his already impressive CV and would result in significant monetary benefits by way of better speaking assignment in future along with possibility of perhaps playing a bigger role in Pakistani politics.
Unfortunately for Pakistan and the helplessly confused Pakistanis, Haqqani is not unique, as likes of him have always set forth the social-political agenda and ruled the country.
Right from times of Iqbal, Jinnah to the present crop, ably represented by the Playboy turned Puritan Imran Khan, the paucity of modern thinkers, opinion makers, administrators, leader and rulers , sadly continues.
Young Pakistanis are supposed to be admirer of Imran Khan.
But different he offers to them, other than further exploiting and promoting hate for USA/West in Pakistan?
Imran Khan supports and justifies the stupid blasphemy laws, promotes conflict with India by appreciating offer of Jihadis to help Pakistani Army during any war with India, doesn't say a word against the Army and neither provides a new narrative.
Perhaps a new narrative will not work in pure Pakistan, is the real problem.
He comes around as another replica of well known opportunistic Pakistani leaders-devoid of honesty, will and ability to address the real issues.
His School boyish views about US/West/Capitalism/IMF and problems of Pakistan only betray the inherent illiteracy and dishonesty.
Former Indian Ambassador to Pakistan Mr. G. Parthsarthy knows the Pakistani Terror Terrain like back of his hand.
Following article throws light on various Pakistani actors, their acts and script they religiously follow and improvise.
Rogues who run Pakistan:
Excerpt about ISI role in 9/11
Throughout the hijacking of IC 814 in December 1999, the Taliban was guided by ISI handlers who took charge of the three terrorists released by us. One of them, Omar Syed Sheikh, proceeded to kill American journalist Daniel Pearl. Shortly thereafter, with the help of the then ISI chief, Lt General Mahmud Ahmed (later sacked at the instance of the Americans), Sheikh transferred $100,000 to Mohammed Atta, the leader of the 9/11 hijackers. Maulana Masood Azhar, another recipient of Indian generosity during the hijacking, soon met Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar in Kandahar and organised the December 13, 2001 attack on our Parliament.
http://www.dailypioneer.com/pioneer-news/edit/12882-rogues-who-run-pakis...
The day the ISI killed hundreds in mumbai, we in chattisgarh celebrated. Do you know why?
I tell You why.
Your army and paramilitary forces have fallen into the habit of killing innocent women and children. You are not human beings , you are ogres. It is always a pleasure when ogres like you are snuffed out by the hundreds.
Thankyou pakistan , Thankyou ISI for shoving a big stick up the arse of extremist Hindu India.
INDIAN rashtriya swayem sevak sangh is bursting at seams with blood-drinking hindus and they have been granted fully liberty to massacre people whenever they feel like filling up their bellies with human flesh and blood. remember the gujrat massacre of muslims. you hindu beasts killed thousands of muslims and still you dare to call others extremists.
Maoists-Mad Mullah Nexus ist he Biggest Threat to the World
Maoist of India,
You may be a twisted-trouble Jingoist Pakistani or even a Mad Maoist gleefully exploiting the poor tribal for idiotic ideological war.
But it does not make any difference to the realities, as both hate ideals and practices individual freedom, democracies, market and capitalism.
If you rejoiced ISI mounted Mumbai attack and killing of innocent people, it only betrays the total inhumanity of dehumanized insanity.
Maoists killed thousands of people and unleash destruction.
Nothing else is expected of such insane people.
I have lived in parts of former East Germany after the welcome fall of Berlin Wall, and know what dehumanized communists did to the east Germans and others who some how come under their draconian utopian prisons across the world.
Half way across the globe, Cuba has debunked Communism and opened the Cubans to integrate with the world at large.
At least believe in what the tallest living revolutionary King Fidel Castro has said about failure of Communism after anointing her brother Raul to the throne.
I know a lot about Maoism and Maoists, as one of my late friend was foolish enough to become one. He told me lot about what happens in Jungles.
Anyway, may be its utter wastage, as I know its futile to talk-back to teeming Mad Maoists and Jingoist Jihadis.
Neurotic Indians are transfixed by the courageous pakistanis
WHereever you look , you see a pakistani.
Perhaps pakistanis have smitten your smutty arses so many times that even your father spanking you seems to be a pakistani to you. blood doesnot run in your veins any more, its the fear of pakistan and pakistanis.
I wish I were part of that great nation of india-bashing pakistanis but alas i am not. I am one of the maoists who are like a big dick up the collective arse of India. I hail from chattisgarh, the home of maoists, and i have come with the message to indians, go fuck yourself , maoists will win freedom soon.
soon maoist freedom fighters will swoop down over delhi and put an end to pesky swines running india from swanky offices. soon maoists will conquer india.
long live maoists , ling live communism.
Down with indians
Stop Living Under Influence of Ideological Opium
Maoist or whatever,
Its futile to indulge in talk with any lunatic who is fit to be locked up.
I am still not certain about who the hell you are, but it wont matter.
My advice, if likes of troubled tortured you listen to any:
Grow up , stopping living under influence of ideological opium, be human and get life.
It is well known, You can only abuse and dream of destruction and death.
Jingoist Jihadis and Mad Mullah are only a passing idiotic phase.
BTW have some shame for siding with religious nuts who were abused and lampooned by stalwarts of communist utopia.
Look at Cuba have some shame and reform yourself....and other inmates of lunatic asylum, you guys have thrown in to willingly...
DEAR VISION TUNNEL,
WOuld you please spare some time for the excesses of RAW, the indian agency of terrorsits. All the time you keep on denigrating THE ISI.
abusing indians does not exactley give credit to a maoists IQ
dear moaist
im a pakistani and if im to be praised in such a rude,blunt manner then please refrain from commenting at all and for once listen to yourself. the very purpose of being able to post on this site is to stimulate debate and opinions from people all over the world not to start a swearing match. i have great respect for the indian people and find them to be intelligant,generous and hardworking people. do not forget that once upon a time pakistan and india were one.i believe that pakistan should try to better its relations with india not only establish peace but also because india being as large as it is and with a lot of oppurtunities it is in a nutshell advantageous for both sides pakistanis are not as bad as they may seem i assure you and niether do we sink as low as you apparently want us to.you sound to be very impulsive and angry if it seems to you that this problem persists then please i suggest you talk to someone.....a psychatrist maybe.may you get well soon
with regards
peace37
My dear VisionTunnel,
You, whoever you are, definitely have a tunnel vision. No kidding.
I am not, now, or for that matter, ever, an admirer of Pakistan style democracy and autocracy, Oops, dictatorship. Not that I care.
Pakistan may be good country or a bad country. For the citizens of Pakistan, their friends in high places, their cunning, crafty, crazy cabal of secular, religious leaders, sectarian leaders, thinkers, philosophers, planners, military planners, secret services, not so secret services to the imperialistic, selfish fishermen in uniform in troubled waters, enemies like India, friends like China, former enemies, like Russia, future friends, like Iran, former brothers, like Bangladesh, I wish very happy hunting.
Keep your weapons ready to fire. Keep your powder dry. Keep your self interest on the top of your agenda. Keep your poker face calm, collected and expressionless.
This game of chicken, ain't over. Why, it just started. America wants to threaten their former closest allies. So be it. US may bark, embark, eat bark, throw bark, bark all they can.
Wait till Pakistan bites their bog, bad butt.
May Allah be praised, (PBUH).
Peace.
...and I am Sid Harth@arabuhuru.org
Leftists have always been horribly wrong
NAVANAVONMILITA,
You are entitled to your leftist wisdom of permanent friends and eternal enemies.
Americans have done blunders, but in Afghanistan, USSR was wrong to foist a Godless Marxist Hegemony in a Muslim nation, with no history of such Marxist Class War afflicted conquests.
If Pakistanis are only able to throw the wrong kind of leaders, there has to be some thing terribly wrong in their concepts and practices of nationhood.
Actions of their lawyers is symptomatic and representative of the Pakistani society, stewing in hateful teachings, religious obscurantism, expansion and use of terrorism as foreign policy tool.
No wonder they have been faced on 24x7 basis with bomb blasts, deaths, destruction, burning flags and blaming others.
It is perhaps not possible for US/West to substantially curtail engagement with myopic rulers of Pakistan.
One can send a lunatic person to a mental asylum and let the shrinks take care of her/him.
But that is not so simple with a country of 180 million helpless, radicalized and confused people led by fanatic ideals and ruled by bunch of psychopaths-megalomaniacs on path of eternal self destruction and mayhem.
The most sad aspect is, so far, there is no one in Pakistan, who is able and influential enough to change the violent-intransigent path.
The new darling of Pakistani youth-Playboy turn Puritan, Imran Khan speaks same language and betrays the age old bankruptcy of right ideals and goals, the hallmark of galaxy of Pakistani leaders/rulers.
US/West will continue the engagement, Jiahdi elements with in Pakistan and elsewhere will continue their obsessions with violence, destruction and highly dysfunctional strain of fanatic religions to rule the world, live and die for Islam and dreaming of an endless debauched after life in heaven with 72 nubile nymphs under fountains of wine.
Following link tells about what inspire and compels the teeming Islamic Terrorists:
http://www.npr.org/2011/10/05/140947193/terrorists-in-love-the-psycholog...
Despite denials, Pakistan has earned its radical reputation
Pakistan has earned its radical reputation by choice while Pakistani establishment as well as society continues to deny any terrorist connections as prime minister Gilani did to Hillary Clinton recently.
Let us examine some facts:
1. Nobody forced Pakistani government to facilitate relocation of Osama bin Laden from Sudan to Afghanistan in 1996. Benazir Bhutto’s democratic government of Pakistan chose to do so of its own free will.
2. As Sandy Berger, Clinton’s national security advisor told 9/11 Commission in 2004, Pakistani Army was the midwife of Taliban. UN report on Bhutto killing released on 4/15/10 confirmed this fact when it noted that "The PAKISTANI MILITARY ORGANIZED AND SUPPORTED THE TALIBAN TO TAKE CONTROL OF AFGHANISTAN IN 1996“.
3. Declassified DIA Washington D.C., "IIR (intelligence Information Report) Pakistan Involvement in Afghanistan," dated November 7, 1996 states how "Pakistan's ISI is heavily involved in Afghanistan," and also details different roles various ISI officers play in Afghanistan. Stating that Pakistan uses sizable numbers of its Pashtun-based Frontier Corps in Taliban-run operations in Afghanistan, the document clarifies that, "these Frontier Corps elements are utilized in command and control; training; and when necessary combat“.
4. Declassified U.S. Department of State, Cable "Pakistan Support for Taliban" from Islamabad dated Sept. 26, 2000 states that "while Pakistani support for the Taliban has been long-standing, the magnitude of recent support is unprecedented." In response Washington orders the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad to immediately confront Pakistani officials on the issue and to advise Islamabad that the U.S. has "seen reports that Pakistan is providing the Taliban with materiel, fuel, funding, technical assistance and military advisors. [The Department] also understand[s] that large numbers of Pakistani nationals have recently moved into Afghanistan to fight for the Taliban, apparently with the tacit acquiescence of the Pakistani government." Additional reports indicate that direct Pakistani involvement in Taliban military operations has increased.
5. Pakistani ISI Director General Mahmud Ahmad had asked Omar Sheikh (the kidnapper of Daniel Pearl) to send $100,000 from a Dubai bank account to Mohammed Atta (the lead 9/11 hijacker) one year before those attacks. Mohammad Atta used that $100,000 for flight training, living expenses and to purchase flight tickets on the day of 9/11 attacks in US and returned unspent $25,000 back to same Dubai account. Musharraf was forced to retire ISI director General Mahmud Ahmad after Wall Street Journal exposed General Ahmad as the chief financier of 9/11 attacks. Pakistani ISI was heavily involved in planning of 9/11 attacks as corroborated by former Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Bob Graham.
So in a way, Pakistani government was in charge of Afghanistan when 9/11 attacks were carried out and hence Pakistani government was responsible for those attacks.
Lawyers showered the suspected killer of a prominent Pakistani governor with rose petals when he arrived at court and an influential Muslim scholars group praised the assassination of the governor who was recommending to reform Pakistan‘s sharia laws.
The Pakistani parliament’s joint session convened on 5/13/11 after Osama’s killing and ended after adopting a unanimous resolution condemning the American raid on the Abbottabad compound in which al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden was killed.
Pakistani parliamentarians did not appear to be bothered about Osama living in Abbottabad for the past five years and perhaps in other parts of the country since 9/11.
Adm Mullen had following to say about America’s primary ally in its fight against terrorism, to the foreign news media on 1/13/2011: “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, it [Pakistan] is the epicenter of terrorism in the world right now. It is absolutely critical that the safe havens in Pakistan get shut down. We cannot succeed in Afghanistan without that. It’s not just Haqqani Network anymore, or Al Qaeda or TTP (Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan), the Afghan Taliban, or LeT (Lashkar-e-Tayyeba), it’s all of them working together.”
Previous US ambassador Anne Patterson to Pakistan, wrote in a secret review in 2009 that ‘Pakistan's Army and ISI are covertly SPONSORING four militant groups - Haqqani‘s HQN, Mullah Omar‘s QST, Al Qaeda and LeT - and will not abandon them for any amount of US money‘, as diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks show.
Ambassador Patterson had NO reason to mislead her own State Department and U. S. government.
How can Pakistan be threatened by Islamic fundamentalists when Pakistani Army, ISI and even civilian government are SPONSORING those very Islamic fundamentalists led by Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda, Mullah Omar’s QST, Haqqani’s HQN and Hafiz Saeed’s LeT and will NOT abandon them for any amount of US money as reported by Ambassador Patterson?
You trot out american propaganda and wish paksitanis believe you
How naive you are, how childish your arguments are. You employ tosh( gospel truth for you) to hammer your point home. But Alas! you have miserably failed.
Henry kissinger once blurted out the reality in these words,
"America's friendship could be fatal. In any event it was far worse than being an enemy of America".
Pakistan, without an iota of doubt , is a victim of American friendship. America is a janus faced promiscous monstress that stabs the lover after having made love to him.
It was americans who first approched pakistan back in the 1950s, in the context of a fledgling but sinister cold war with ussr. It was americans who dished out military and financial aid to pakistan in the 1970s when the ussr invaded afghanistan. It was americans who trained the taliban through the services of pakistan. It was americans who made OBL the man he became. Further, It was americans who detonated the base of the world trade center. It was bloody americans who arrived in pakistan to catch OBL who was now blamed for what he did not do. Later , it was again americans first who entered into talks with the taliban. It is now once again americans who call pakistan a duplicitous country.
Perhaps, americans are suffering from amnesia encompassing a half century of its relationship with paksitan or they love to churn out lies. Sir, Your country's officials are downright scum who first throw mud at an unsuspecting friend and then taunt him being dirty. your country has double standards on a range of issues from palestine to the taliban. Still you, the pot, dare to call the kettle black. Bravo!
Your CIA funds almost every criminal, terrorist organisation in the world and it is surprising that your country has not earned the reputation that pakistan has "earned". In fact, this reputation has been foisted upon pakistan to further nefarious american interests in the region.
“to be fair, we had helped to create the problem we are now fighting because when the Societ Union invaded Afghanistan, we had this brilliant idea that we’re gonna come to Pakistan and create a force of mujahideen and equip them with stinger missiles and everything-else to go after the Soviets inside Afghanistan and we were successful. Soviets left Afghanistan and we said “great goodbye” leaving these trained people who were fanatical in Afghanistan and Pakistan leaving them well-armed creating a mess frankly at the time we didn’t really recognise we were so happy to see the Soviet Union fall and thought Ok fine we’re OK now everything is gonna be so much better now you look back the people we’re fighting today we were supporting in the fight against the Soviets.”
FOX NEWS 21.7.2010
Please stop striving for Obsfucation
After USSR went out, No amount of American nurturing and care would have changed the mindset of ISI, Pakistani Army, Osama Bin Laden, Jawahiri and other terrorists and war lords sitting on pile of arms and money.
The original Amir of Jihad, Abdulah Azzam wanted fighters give up arms and go home.
But Azzam was assassinated through a bomb blast in Peshawar. The blame for his extermination was linked with objectives of those who were opposed to his idea of stopping the war in region.
Blaming everything on Uncle Sam is sheer dishonesty and perfidy.
If Uncle Sam was the father, Pakistani Army and the back bending civilian rulers of Pakistan played the role of mother and midwife along with Saudi Arabia acting as auxiliary nurse.
Pakistanis told the panicky Americans to state objectives, provide needed funds and arms to fight Russians and later Al Qaeda.
Pakistanis played the main role in selecting and arming the war lords and band of tribal militia.
They were terribly cocky and gloated about playing role of main contractors for Americans.
But Pakistan was not fighting solely to achieve the American objectives.
The god sent opportunities, first in 1979 and later in 2001 was used by Pakistani Army to skillfully milk the American along with activating their own agenda of incubating and nurturing the proxies for own expansionist goals of annexing Kashmir, needle India and colonizing Afghanistan.
Drone attack were agreed in private by them and yet they said otherwise to hoodwink the growing public anger due to collateral damages.
After Osamd Bin Laden was located and killed in Abbottabad, they have been crying aloud about violation of their sovereignty and dignity.
But Pakistani Power Elite has shown no respect to sovereignty of other nations.
They have brazenly attacked India 4 times along with several huge terrorist attacks mounted by ISI through their well trained violent proxies.
They treat Afghanistan as their back yard and want to be their docile colony.
Why Pakistan never bothered about playing the dangerous game in the region?
Why Pakistan never focused on working for betterment of their poor and harassed people?
Why Pakistan always behaved as band of incorrigible street thugs?
Why Pakistan never listened to any save advise?
Answers to these troubling questions are perhaps hidden in basic concepts and philosophy of Pakistani nationhood which have been incubated and nurtured by their real rulers, the Army and ISI spy along with Fanatic Mullah establishment.
Civilian Rulers have never shown any ability, responsibility and will to realize and correct the dangerous path leading to self destruction and mayhem.
Does Pakistan believe in pluralism and tolerance?
The cancer eating away at Pakistan is the idea upon which it was founded, the "two-nation theory" (TNT). Imagine people of Mexican descent in the US declaring themselves to be a separate nation from Anglos. What will follow? Territorial disputes (California?), and implacable hostility between Anglos and Mexicans. This is what happened in South Asia. Pakistan trots out a long list of grievances against India, and now also against the US, but will never admit that the "first cause" of hostility between Pakistan and India is TNT. To do so is tantamount to admitting that Pakistan was never necessary. India does not seek the destruction of Pakistan, but it does seek the destruction of TNT, as it must. The US did not rest until communist ideology was defeated since this ideology was at such complete odds with America's political beliefs.
Can Pakistan repudiate the TNT, and still remain a nation? That is the question. Not whether the average Pakistani is a decent fellow or not? I'm sure he is.
Pakistan claims that Kashmir is the "core" issue between India and itself, and many in the US are naïve (or cynical) enough to repeat this clever piece of disinformation. No, the core issue between India and Pakistan is Pakistan itself. A nation that deliberately foments hatred of India and defines itself as "not India" cannot be at peace with India no matter what the fate of Kashmir. To claim that but for Kashmir the Pakistani Muslim basically wants to live in peace with Hindus only begs the question: why then was Pakistan necessary?
For Pakistan to reinvent itself will be gut wrenching, for nothing short of a complete makeover will suffice. If prosperity and security are Pakistan's goals, the existing institutional/power structures of Pakistan (army + feudal chieftains) can never deliver. In that sense, Pakistan has become a classic reactionary state. The more its functioning power and institutional structures are supported, the further behind the Pakistani nation will fall.
Pakistan - the nemesis of Hindustan
Whom the gods want to destroy they first make him mad.
THe governemnt of India may not be mad but indians are definitely out of their minds. A little economic progress and a conniving american tap on the back has led indians to believe that they are at the top of the game and Pakistan is fated to fail.
Even today when pakistan is beset by a host of socio-economic crises, the average pakistani is much better off financially than the average indian. A preponderant segment of indian society is floundering to survive. India is a country where still crores doze off hungry every night. Keeping in view this precarious situation of the man in the street, it would not be amiss to say that come a financial crunch and the indian economy will cave in. The Indian economy is nothing more than an inflated balloon that may be punctured by a gentle push of a needle. THerefore, my dear indians come out of self-deception and stop taunting pakistan.
Mr, GAANDI at the time of pakistan's inception sadly observed that The cow mother of hindus had been cut into pieces. The pieces at that time were two. Today THe cow mother risks being rent into a thousand and one pieces by keeping the flame of animosity with pakistan alive through silent and boisterous means. THe more you anger pakistan, the more you get vulnerable. Maoists are being supported financially and militarily by pakistan and today the maoist insurgency is blazing in vast areas of INDIA. Your intellectuals are cringingly chirping day and night about a possible take over of Delhi by maoists.
The taliban cannot harm pakistan much because pakistan holds the jugular vein of most of them but the recalcitrant maoists will definitely deal deathly blows to india. And keep another thing in your mind that Muslims of India are the fifth column for India. In the case of a conflict with pakistan, Indian muslims will support Pakistan. probably this fear of muslims lead hindu rascals to run amok in muslim localities in the wake of every pakistani victory against the pathetic indian cricket team.
Remember all nations fall on hard times and so has pakistan. If today pakistan is facing the edge of the knife , tomorrow india may find itself in a similar position. And the latter scenario is all the more likely to come about with the rise of China as the superpower of the world, pakistan's friend.
TIcki's comparison is flawed at best
THe Mexicans and the English are two ethnic groups,whereas the muslims and the hindus are two religilous groups. It was the religious group of muslims who demanded a separate country not an ethnic group. I hope you will understand this.
If only they'd listened to Pakistan back then...
A BIG U-TURN BY US.
After months of belligerent rhetoric, the US is now willing to hold talks with the Afghan Taliban – and is looking at Pakistan as its go-between
Hillary Clinton said she had asked Pakistan to “encourage the Taliban to enter negotiations in good faith.” These talks would also involve the Haqqani network, a move which speaks volumes for the US’ urgency to end the decade-old conflict in the war-torn country
If they had listen to Pakistan back then thousands of lives could have been saved. US would not be in such an economic mess and a military quick-sand
It would be harder to generalize Pakistan as extremist if...
They stopped blowing themselves up in marketplaces and schoolyards all the time. I don't think anyone is saying that all Pakistanis are crazy jihadists, but more of them are than most other countries. To me, that's enough to call them extremist.
Unfortunately, the creation of Pakistan in the name of Islam and the use of Islamic extremism as a tool of foreign policy implementation throughout its short history are the main problems of Pakistan. Millions attended the funeral of the carpenter who killed a Hindu book publisher because he had published offensive book about Islam right in the beginning of creation of Pakistan, which was repeated again just recently in the huge rallies in support of Qaderi the killer of Governor Salman Tasir. Pakistani elite now blame General Zia and the United States for the proliferation of extremism; however, long before 1980 is the supposedly secular Zulfuqar Ali Bhutto trained and sent Islamic extremists Ahmad Shah Masood and Gulbudin Hekmatyar to start terrorist attacks in Afghanistan. As long as Pakistan does not stop the denial of Islamic extremism in every aspect of its society and government and does not commit to a real fight against Islamic extremism, the terrorism threat in the region will continue.
"In addition, India has a growing Maoist or Naxalite insurgency that makes 30% of the country's eastern provinces unsafe for travel by land. The Indians withdrew all of their helicopters from UN peacekeeping in Africa, rebuilt over 100 Russian Antonov military transports, and refurbished several squadrons of 45-year-old Mig-21 fighters to bomb insurgents who don't have planes or anti-aircraft defenses. Some of the newer Russian planes that India bought can fly missions from India's aircraft carrier to support operations over the eastern provinces. India's prime minister has said that this insurgency is the greatest threat to India's national security. India wants the islamic irritant, that America helped expand, removed in order to face their main problem. However, India refuses to make concessions along the Indian-Pakistani border that might reduce the conflict, and some Indians want the border to be the Indus River as it was in ancient times."
The Radical Left and Radical Islam possess profound Threats
The radical reputation has come come over night, as the galaxy of Pakistani rulers have diligently worked for it.
Further some thing which have taken 5 decades to be nurtured and spread the influence over the society is going to stay.
Both the radical Left and radical Islam possess a profound threat and hatred for Western culture, for a capitalist economic structure that recognizes individual achievement, and for the Judeo-Christian heritage of the United States. Both seek to establish a new world order: leftists in the form of a classless communist society, and Islamists in the form of a caliphate ruled by sharia law. To achieve these goals, both are willing to "wipe the slate clean" by means of limitless carnage, with the ultimate goal of erecting their utopia upon the ruins of the system they have destroyed.
As history shows, leftist beliefs have spawned mass carnage and misery. Put into practice, they have caused the deaths of millions. Until now, it has been extremely difficult for rational people who value personal freedom to understand the motivations of those who live in comfort and yet embrace monstrous dictators, ideologies, and policies that leave only death and destruction in their wake.
There is a great similarity between inherent intolerance of Islamic fanatics towards non-believers and Marxist pathological hatred towards the capitalism. The Muslim extremists and the infantile Marxists were never impressed by the very idea of equality before the law. Rather they have multiple reasons to hate the very concept. The Islamic governments have history of enthusiastically assigning non-believers to second-class or "dhimmi" status, and reduced legal rights. The analogy is similar in the legions of Marxists who believe that socialist societies should deny the basic political liberties to the despicable capitalist forces.
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