Posts Tagged ‘War on Terror’
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For the entire article, click here (Courtesy of CNN.com)
“Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has made it clear that a U.S. military mission to capture Osama bin Laden or other top al Qaeda leaders on Pakistani soil would be unwelcome and “against the sovereignty of Pakistan.”"
Let us analyze this: Pakistan is an independent state. It has a functioning government. The country is not like an open door to a house.
The U.S. claims that it is considering “expanding” the operations in the Northern part of Pakistan to shore up support for the president. This gives away two things: First, the U.S. armed forces are in fact on Pakistani soil. The other, more important thing is this: A major population of Pakistan dislikes the United States government (and not the whole of the U.S.). In order to increase support for Musharraf, the U.S. threatens its own international image. This will perhaps be the third or fourth country it “invades” and will cause a major outcry from the people of Pakistan. What does this say to the U.S.? Stay out of Pakistan. Not just what Musharraf is implying, but the whole of Pakistan is implying. U.S. presence in Pakistan is already a discourse which is a thin thread waiting to break under tension.
“I do not lead a war on terror on behalf of the United States, but on behalf of Pakistan,” Musharraf told French newspaper Le Figaro in an interview published Saturday. “
This is a very important statement. This shows Pakistan’s commitment to the war on terror initiated by the United States. It shows that Pakistan, on its own accord has decided to intiate its own “chapter” on the war on terror, and is doing a great job at that.
“The United States seems to think that what our army cannot do, they can do,” he said. “This is a very wrong perception. I challenge anybody to come into our mountains. They would regret that day. It’s not easy there.”
This statement is not to be taken out of context: It is not a threat to the U.S., it is a show of concern: Pakistani terrain in the north is not easy to conquer, and as far as comparison goes, the Pakistani army has more in-field experience patrolling and securing this terrain than the U.S. armed forces. They also understand how the minds of the terrorists work in this region and as such, are able to anticipate their moves. Another important thing to note is that many of the Pakistani soldiers have been trained in international training camps, mostly in the United States. Musharraf himself has had higher level training in the west. This is not necessarily true for the western armed forces.
It seems that Musharraf is a good communicator. He knows what to say, how to say it, and the message comes across loud and clear: It is not muddled up, it is honest. Musharraf and his military (well, ex military anyway) seems to be doing a fairly decent job taking care of the terrorism which has been on a rise due to the threat to the dogmatic extremists from possible secular law in Pakistan.
- In: Information | Pakistan | Politics
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This is a quick informal update.
On December 28, 2007, an All Parties Conference was held to decide the future steps for the country. During the APC which was chaired by Secretary Interior (R) Javed Iqbal Cheema, the Secretary (R) mentioned that Benazir’s death was due primarily not to the gunshot wounds or the suicide bomb, rather, it was due to a depressed fracture on her temporal region on the right side which she hit against a level of the sun roof of the car as she tried to get back in to the car to protect herself. Cheema distributed the photograph of the sunroof lever and x-ray photograph showing there was no foreign element in her body. Cheema also distributed transcripts of the intercepted message in Pushto (translated into Urdu) by Baitullah Mehsood congratulating his men.
Cheema asked the people of Pakistan to understand that the country is facing the gravest challenge. Terrorists are systematically targeting our state institutions in order to destabilize the country.
Sources of Design, Photograph, Communicate tell us that it seems like Karachi has become terrifying : Cars and busses, gas stations, hospitals, government offices, trains, factories, and even police stations have been set on fire, or are closed.
War on Terror or War on Islam?
Posted on: November 22, 2007
- In: Politics | Psychology | Society
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For quite a while I had been thinking that the United States had generalized its war on terror where every muslim, mainly of Middle Eastern descent and the Sub Continent were considered “terrorists.” The term terrorist and fundamentalist are now widely negatively associated with the Muslim Ummah. The Global Village needs a gentle reminder that with the advent of technologies, we are now closely linked together, and hence we are a Global Village. We need to learn to live together since we are technically sharing the same physical spaces. Also, being a fundamentalist says nothing about anything. A mathematician is a fundamentalist due to his firm belief and acceptance in math being the fundamental governing force of all physics in the universe. A doctor is a fundamentalist as the root cause of all physical problems lie in chemical and biological disbalance and this is the starting point for the doctor from where he initiates a diagnosis.
This isn’t the first time, however, where there have been negative connotations to words. The best and most important example is the African-American community – or Blacks. As sensitive a topic this is, it is important to remember the early years. Our African brothers have been discriminated, hated and have had other heinous crimes commited against. Even now, a major portion of our society still associates the African-American community to drug addicts, alcoholics, and thieves. The Black Is Beautiful movement did try to change the dominant ideology in West about this, and to an extent has succeeded.
Coming back to the point, is the war on terrorism and those exclusive, selective individuals and organizations that commit acts of terror? Or has the Western media generalized the term?
On 21st November, 2007, ArabianBusiness.com reported Lieutenant General Dhahi Khalfan Tamim of Dubai as saying that “the US was responsible for strengthening the Al-Qaeda organization by inciting a “war of civilizations” with Arabs after the attacks of September 11.”
By launching a “war on civilizations” as opposed to a war on terror, the U.S. had strengthened Al-Qaeda. The fuel to the fire, so to say. The article says, “He said the US had “created the Satan” by ostracizing the Arab world and, more directly, by teaching Al-Qaeda “how to make and explode bombs” during their involvement with the organization when Afghanistan was battling Soviet insurgents during the 1980s.”
“Brian Jenkins, a Rand Corporation think tank expert on terrorism and former advisor to the US administration, refuted the general’s charges against the general population’s perception of Arab people in the US, saying that most people there do not believe that the war on terror ‘is a religious war, is a conflict against Islam or is a conflict of civilizations.’ “
“I must agree with General Tamim that a number of decisions taken in the name of the ‘war on terror’ are contrary to American values” adding that certain decisions made by the Bush administration had been “strategically stupid.”
While it is not diplomatic or polite to say that a government had messed up in their decision, the position is politically correct. Not just from a standpoint of one individual, but from the entire Muslim Ummah.
It is time to ask ourselves, remind ourselves, and foresee the repercussions of this “war” since September 11, and the further repercussions, say, within the next 10 years. Do we want another Martin Luther King Jr. ? Better than rogue armies which retaliate with equal or greater force of Al-Qaeda. The dominant ideology of muslims as terrorists has been built into us since alot of us have not had direct encounters with the muslim world, and if we have had such, those encounters have been with people who have become really sensitive to any relating issues and immediately go on the guard. As for Muslims, we are ambassadors of Islam – not just the religion, but what it stands for: Peace.
