War on Terrorism - More Twist Than Tango

Opposition to the Iraq war is regularly dismissed by the Bush faithfuls as lily livered pacifism of the left. Wrong.  While some may be blanket pacifists, the vast majority of the critics saw the Iraqi adventure for what it really was - the wrong war in the wrong place for the wrong reasons.  That same majority also wishes that our resources and man power had been spent in the pursuit and defeat of real terrorists and terrorism - Al Qaida, the Taliban and their offshoots, operating out of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

In fact Pakistan's role as an ally may be one of the biggest smoke and mirrors game in the fight against global terrorism. Having long supported the corrupt and oppressive Pakistani military dictatorships in the hope of keeping huge and democratic India in check, (go figure !) the US finds itself unable to break the habit, even though Pakistan's role in promoting and nurturing terrorism is not a secret to anyone in the US State Department. A.Q Khan, the ISI and the Pakistani nuclear WalMart are some of the more egregious examples. And while we try to put pieces of Iraq back together, Pakistan continues to double deal on terrorism within its borders. Now the fascistic Talibanic school of Islam is flexing muscles in another one of India's neighboring countries - Bangladesh.  The Bangladeshi fundies have issued an edict that all women, including non-Muslims, must wear burqas in public or face death. They have also imposed curfews which forbid women from stepping out of their homes after sundown. How long before suicide bombing becomes a desired vocation? 

Jim Hoagland, who was wrong on Iraq has it right on Pakistan.

Pakistan an erratic dance partner in war on terror

"DEATH to America. Oh, wait. Thank you, America. Love you, big guy. No, hold on. Where's that Death to America banner? What have they done for us lately?

Easy come, easy go? Not exactly. The suffering villagers (victims of the recent earthquake) expressing gratitude have not suddenly morphed into the well-fed, bearded zealots marching in Peshawar. But the volatility of public opinion in Pakistan and of the government's reactions to U.S. help — and U.S. hurt — are revealing strategic indicators of the unsteady course of the Bush administration's war on global terrorism.

In its tangled relations with Pakistan, Washington rides something far more dangerous than an opinion roller coaster. President Pervez Musharraf's military regime is the most difficult government in the world to fit into Washington's struggle against Islamic extremist groups.

Pakistan is essential and helpful in fighting the al-Qaida network — except when it is not. Without Musharraf's help, the U.S. and its NATO allies cannot put down the rebellion in Afghanistan being waged by Osama bin Laden's fanatics and the Taliban. Without Musharraf's complicity, that rebellion could not continue at its increasingly murderous intensity. We've got Musharraf right where he wants us.

Suicide bombings and attacks with roadside explosive devices directed at U.S. and NATO troops as well as Afghan authorities have spiked upward in recent months. U.S. intelligence reports to the Pakistanis on terrorist locations and movements along the frontier have received no effective response from Pakistani authorities during this damaging terrorist upsurge.

"You can draw the Afghan-Pakistan border on a map by looking at the pattern of signal intercepts," says one U.S. official. "The bad guys chatter away in Pakistan, feeling they are safe. That area lights up like a Christmas tree. Then they go silent when they cross into Afghanistan, where they fear getting hit."

Washington needs to hold Musharraf's feet to the fire on al-Qaida and the Taliban, even as it tries to bolster him at home. Whatever else it did or did not accomplish, the Damadola raid surely demonstrated to the Pakistani president that he too has much to lose if the terror festival in Afghanistan continues to be run unhindered from Pakistani soil."

Update: Here is what the Pakistani Prime Minister had to say about the recent bombing of suspected Al Qaida terrorists in the village of Damadola, Waziristan in NW Pakistani territory. With friends like these.... etc. ?

Comments

[manoj joshi]

I think you are spot on. When we look back at the war on terrorism, the Iraq diversion will be seen as a major disaster. It has torn the social fabric of Iraqi society and created conditions for the breeeding of more terrorists. As for the real war-- that on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, it is now increasingly clear that it is being lost. Pakistan's entire tribal territory is in revolt and getting progressively Talibanised. The situation in Bangladesh is enough to drive you to despair. Yet all the world is compelled to focus on and waste resources, precious lives and emotional energy, on the blunder in Iraq. Many of us in India are convinced that the US is "advice proof" (as in water proof). They simply refuse to listen to anyone else. They did not heed the voices on Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme, and now it has emerged as the source of the greatest proliferation , sorry to use the word again, disaster.

[Nitin]

Ruchira,

I think one of the ironies of this "war on terrorism" is that the Bush administration did to Saddam what they had to do to Musharraf. Consider an alternative history, where the words Saddam and Iraq were replaced with Musharraf and Pakistan: every single statement Bush administration officials made would be true and every action they took would have been meaningful.