Abdul Jabbar Khan

WITH sporadic incidents of firing killing opponents or innocent citizens of Karachi the situation has not been controlled yet and the government efforts have not paid any results. There is no political will of the government for restoring peace nor has the dispute purely on political considerations been addressed by the government and its coalition partners. The presence of ANP in the city in its strongholds having negligible representation in the house of Sindh province, still the question of having claim over large share in cake is the contentious issue which the government of PPP is still not ready to negotiate with parties in the city. This stalemate has resulted in continuous killings of people which have added fear among the peaceful citizens and the claims of the government having any selected operation are still wanted. The question is vital as whether this time the government would be able to achieve tangible results or as a result of a mishap, the PPP would have to lose a big partner, MQM from its fold.

This is a dilemma with the PPP and its provincial leadership. There is a division among ranks of the PPP right from the top to the lower cadre. If at the entire situation gets worsened further the ultimate analysis would that the ever-eroded graph of PPP across the country would receive a jolt and that may terminate at any note. Positivity is not at all expected in the given scenario as the public opinion across the country is not encouraging for PPP. This time floods have been another source of embarrassment for PPP leadership where millions have been displaced and rescue and relief work has not been positively reaching to the affected families in large number of districts in all the four provinces. The rescue work is only visible undertaken by armed forces of Pakistan who in this time of distress reached in time and still playing a very commendable job. The US and other countries aid and assistance are in the pipeline but not that too much to face this grave situation. A critical situation could be seen in worst affected cities and towns while the rural areas with no water and food to eat are the worst sufferers and thousands of people have so far died or injured.

There is still a dire and urgent need for relief work and joint efforts. In piecemeal the work so far has not been effective accepting the challenge.

The government should on a war-footing mobilize all civil aid workers, non-governmental organizations and city and town administration so that the relief work, foods and edibles are distributed by any means available. The use of choppers is under way and so far thousands of people have been rescued from marooned position to safer areas. This kind of efforts should continue at all levels and the ministers of provinces and the centre should be asked to sit in all the affected tehsils and districts. The opportune moments never come for leadership to solicit their position rather this is a time to reach to help and rescue to the people who want desperate help and assistance from any quarter. Besides the government should call a national conference of experts, scientists and political groups to sit across and work out a national plan for water conservation. Sheer waste of most expensive natural commodity is not a wise act at all. Political exigencies and expediencies would never work and they have not worked in the past.

A consensus is drawn on this issue of critical vitality and importance. The country needs water conservation and storages besides power generation projects. This would yield long term benefit to national economy in all the four provinces. The government should ensure the protection to life and property to the people as the performance during past one month could not be appreciated. Popularity of the government has been eroded and it would further erode by the passage of time.

Dr. S.M. Rahman

TERRORISM abhors power. It tends to even multiply, contrary to the US predilection to eradicate every single Al-Qaeda brand ‘terrorist’ besides the hard core Taliban, who are considered potential threat to US security and dread, perhaps a replay of 9/11 type tragedy. The limits of military power has been heroically demonstrated by the Afghans, even those who are not Taliban-followers. The Afghan mind is irrevocably tuned to keeping their territory free from foreign occupation, be they British Empire builders or the Soviet compulsive grabbers of foreign lands. The neo-colonialists, conditioned by the neocon sensibility – USA – is not motivated to grab territory per se, but to swell its economy by controlling the oil wealth of the Gulf region, followed by Iraq and eventually the Central Asia – specially the Caspian basin, a rich reservoir of energy – oil as well as gas. Afghanistan was to be softened through “shock and awe” modality to fiercest possible destruction through use of incessant carpet bombing and weapons like bunker-busters, to display how outrageously callous the Super Power could be. It was capable of turning mountains into pebbles and pebbles into dust. But human “Will” to preserve freedom is indomitable among nations like Afghanistan. But who knows it better than USA, that Afghan ‘Psyche” knows no compromise on its cherished ‘sovereignty’. Power is a red-rag to them and they will fight and continue fighting, as surrender is inherently repugnant to their existential predicament. These hard core ‘fighters’ were strategic assets of USA to be used against the Soviet forces when it invaded Afghanistan. But when USA turned ‘invader’, ‘resistance’ ironically became evil. The ISI was hand-in-glove with CIA against the Soviet invaders, but now ISI must prove instrumental in eliminating all Afghanis, indiscriminately, as they don’t favour USA’s occupation of their country.

Counter-insurgency (COIN) against the terrorists, whether Iraqis or Afghanis, who were essentially George Bush’s military targets, and one has reasons to believe that Obama is now contemplating targeting Iran to add special feather to his cap to earn the second term in the Presidential elections. If he can muster strength to attack Iran either directly or through its surrogate-Israel – both the options entail horrendous consequences. Temptations do accentuate wishful thinking, but it cannot squarely face the hard realities. USA’s grandiose ideas of military invincibility got a terrible jolt at the hands of Afghan freedom fighters, no matter how much propaganda based attributes may be used to malign them as “terrorists”. These are semantic jugglery. Israeli myth was a similar casualty at the hands of Hezbollah who demonstrated the power of ‘men and missiles.’ Any misadventure against Hezbollah again by Israel would meet the same fate, perhaps even worse.

The US war doctrine envisages 3 Ps – prosperity, presence and partnership. (Edina Campbell, Eisenhower Moment: American strategic choice in Trans-atlantics Defence Relationship. ASPJ Africa & Francophonie pp 73-76). Prosperity is the ability to make desired investment in defence to be able to launch military assault on any country or group of countries, who are deemed to be recalcitrant to US hegemonic ambitions. Presence presupposes unbridled capability to deploy US forces overseas and to keep them stationed in countries of strategic interest. The same sensibility made US invade Afghanistan and Iraq, to be able to contain nations like Iran, China and the CARs (Central Asian Republics) and control their oil wealth as well as of Iraq. Attempt is being made to keep a sizeable US force in Azerbaijan as in Kyrgyzstan to deny Russia’s influence in its ‘near abroad’, besides of course denying China any leverage to meet its energy requirements.

Partnership is America’s cooperation with other countries in the pursuit of its defence objectives. Prosperity is seriously handicapped, as no US President except Rosewelt in 1933 faced the economic crisis due to great depression Obama is in the grip of acute recession. According to Campbell, “Obama will be faced with tough choices, akin to those that confronted the United Kingdom after World War I. Like Britain then, the United States today has extensive global defence commitments, a shrinking domestic revenue base, indebtedness to foreign powers, and a competitors for global fiscal primacy with no such global commitments – the European Union” Obama’s wishful assumption that there would be greater European military role in counter-insurgency (COIN) as well as for SSTR – Stability, Security, Transition and Reconstruction, in Afghanistan will not meet the reality.

The entire (COIN) is a flawed strategy. Resistance after all is a well deliberated response to state terrorism. Insurgency is essentially anti-colonial in sprit and defiance against subjugation. Not to defend ‘freedom’ would be disgraceful servility and to become a vassal state of the militarily monstrous nations. The atrocities that have been committed by USA to the so called prisoners of war in Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib and other places, outside the territory of USA are obnoxiously inhuman and devoid of decency, decorum and morality, which have surpassed what history, records as crimes against humanity – in ‘Gulags’ under the Soviets and Nazis’ holocaust against the Jews.

Mathew Alexander, in his article (Martyrdom Interrupted’, the National Internet March/April 2010 pp 10-16), advocates a strategy of deradicalization as the best option to deal with the so called extremists or fanatics. To turn away from the uncivilized method of interrogation, from torture to soft-velvet approach and turning the emotional, material, and spiritual allegiance of the detainees from radical misinterpretation of the Holy Quran to a realistic perception should be the objective of the interrogators. They essentially become facilitators “counterinsurgency and interrogators” as Alexander describes are conjoined twins. American military leaders must embrace the revolution in interrogation methods and incorporate them into their war-time strategy.” Brutality against prisoners was the notorious practice both in Iraq and Afghanistan and Gen Mc Chrystal finally got converted to the new approach.

Col. Karnavarian has pioneered an innovative approach of winning over the detainees in Indonesia, belonging to 88 Detachment. The interrogators, less than a dozen in number adopt the subculture of the detainees, pray with them, and use polite and dignified language. Money were paid to the family members of the detainees, so that they would not be concerned about their well-being. Those who were married, for them few nights we arranged in a hotel where their wives would be invited to join their husbands. The bachelor ones were provided opportunity of marrying girls of their choice and their relatives would be invited to attend the ceremony. This way, a good number of the detainees get converted into real Islam and despise killing of innocent civilians and suicide-bombing. A good number of the converted ones were employed into their police force.