The Raging Fire of Revenge
General Mirza Aslam Beg
The end of the Cold War brought in its wake a sense of relief that the fire of hatred between the East and the West had at last been extinguished and that the world will see the emergence of a culture of peace and cooperation where justice would be the abiding principle. Sadly the hope could not be fulfilled. The intellectuals of the civilized world could not reconcile to the idea that without enemy the progress and affluence – the hallmark of their civilization – could not be sustained. Islam came in handy after Communism was knocked out from the ideological arena, and was immediately projected as the threat to their global interests. Clash of civilization thesis was an intellectual conspiracy symbolizing West with tolerance, liberalism and upholder of pluralistic values, whereas Islam was depicted as its anti-thesis – backward, regressive, belligerent, bigoted, extremist and prone to acts of terror. And thus, Islam with which the west had coexisted for centuries, became the new found enemy and an orchestrated campaign was started against it, as revealed by ESPOSITO: “Distorted portraits, or caricatures of Muhammad (PBUH) and Islam were created – mostly fabricated, with little concern for accuracy. Often beliefs and practices, which run directly counter to its most basic beliefs – were attributed to Islam”.
Having identified the enemy the fault lines were drawn from Albania to Chechnya, Kosovo, Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Kashmir and beyond to Indonesia, blowing inferno of hatred which enveloped New York and Washington. “Steel birds” struck the massive Trade Centre buildings reducing then into rubbles. And the ghastly scenes of death and destruction, witnessed through T.V. thousand of miles away surpassed the magnitude of tragedy seen a decade ago during the Gulf War, when the allied warplanes and missiles had devastated the city of Baghdad in the spectacular display of fire power. Now an intense realization has dawned that if atrocities and injustices are not speedily combated, gruesome tragedies would proliferate in the world, as the concept of Safe War has become outdated, and its dimensions have expanded to reach the threshold of every dwelling and nothing remains protected.
New York and Washington were subjected to most deplorable acts of terrorism which must be condemned unequivocally, as it tantamounted to the murder of humanity. But who are these terrorists against whom USA has now declared war, when operationalized, it would be the deadliest war, reviving the memory of the Crusades and true to the Biblical Revenge, using the atomic and chemical weapons. The rhetoric is incessantly being repeated by the electronic media. The ferocity of anger is understandable, as the most formidable power of the globe has experienced, the gravest shock to its ego. The very nerve centre of its military power – Pentagon – considered impregnable, is badly deformed, mingled with blood and debris and the symbol of economic power, the World Trade Centre was dashed to the ground as the steel walls melted into fire.
Afghanistan is being targeted for revenge, the unfortunate country which is the victim of twenty long years of war, death, destruction, disease, hunger and famine. Over one and a half million people have lost their lives and there remains practically nothing to be destroyed. Yet the only intact assets are the courage, confidence and their faith in Almighty Allah, which were instrumental in humbling the mighty power of the Soviet Union, and the combined conspiracies of Russia, India, Iran and Central Asia. Now Afghanistan is pitted against the lone super power of the world – conjuring up an image of clash of two civilizations which the world is likely to witness. Who would be the victor and who the loser is hard to tell. But Afghanistan has nothing to lose, but only to gain as a free and proud nation and will fight to preserve its cherished values and principles and even if it falls, it would retain the right to rise again out of the depths of sorrow and sacrifice.
History is a witness to the fact that no aggressor had to encounter much difficulty in entering Afghanistan, but the doors of return were slammed and there was no exit except shame and defeat. No nation could ever enslave them. History further tells us that whenever Afghanistan faced external aggression, the people have united as one, to face the challenge, just as Iran did to defeat Iraq’s aggression. When Iraq invaded Iran, the general impression was that Iraq would overrun Iran within a few weeks but this did not happen. Iran recoiled back, crossed Shat-ul-Arab and concentrated its forces in the Faw peninsula, preparatory to the offensive towards Basra. Iraq feeling utterly helpless, used chemical weapons supplied by the so-called civilized world. Iran had no option but to agree to the ceasefire, as it had no defense against chemical weapons.
The drum beats of war against terror are getting louder and louder. Allied forces are being mobilized and resources being orchestrated, indicate that the objectives of the war against terrorism, goes much beyond “get Osama dead or alive”. Perhaps the aim is to create several autonomous regions out of Afghanistan and install a protégée of King Zahir Shah at Kabul, the old Great Game of the British, to keep Russia and Mid-West China, land-locked, by creating “a shatter region of Afghanistan adding instability and turmoil at the cross-roads of Asia”.
And as the American pressure increases on Taliban, they will thin out from the distant areas, to fortify their base between Qandahar and Kabul. This will help the opposition, to implement their plan, worked-out at Dushambe, by Russia, India, Iran, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. This plan also aims at creating autonomous regions within Afghan and a pliable government at Kabul, but with a different objective. The Northern alliances is now well placed under the ex communist Generals Fahim and Dostam. Hikmatyar has left the alliance and Siaf just cannot work with the communists. Assassination of Ahmad Shah Masood, who had turned more pro-west, establishes the motive. This alliance has already consolidated their hold over Budakhsha province and Panjsher valley, and ready to push westwards to bring Mazar-e-Sharif region under control, where Dostam is already operating. From Panjsher valley they can threaten Kabul. To the north of Qandahar, Ismael Khan, from Iran, will regain control over Herat region. His supporters are already operating East of Herat. In the Bamyan region, the Hazarajats will be able to establish their autonomy over the region and will link-up with Ismael. This is the Dushambe Plan.
Leave the Dushambe plan at the moment, and look at the prospects of success of the Washington plan. With the launching of the allied military offensive against Afghanistan the tribal belt in Pakistan, which is linked with Afghan people in filial ties of blood, will join hands with them. The dimensions of war would thus considerably expand. The Afghan fighters who have established the superiority of their fighting skill over their adversaries during the last twenty years, will prove superior to American soldiers who may not be able to accomplish what they desire and their air power may not prove effective in the mountainous terrain of Afghanistan. Only the innocent citizens would be the casualty. There are no worthwhile targets in Afghanistan as it has ruthlessly been destroyed, and not a military or civil structure exists, equal to the cost of a single cruse missile.
Pakistan, justifiably has agreed to the demands of USA and a major crisis has been averted, otherwise India taking advantage of the situation could have targeted our nuclear and sensitive military installations. Pakistan thus joins USA in its war against terrorism. Pakistani people can go only that far and no more in supporting the war against terrorism. Use of Pakistan’s land or airspace by alien forces will be considered as military aggression against Afghanistan and there will be a wave of sympathetic reaction in our country. The religious elements and Jihadi groups will rise in protest, to be joined by the disgruntled and unemployed youth, who even though not belonging to any of the extremist groups are overly sensitive to the injustices and discriminations meted out to the Muslim world. Perhaps the same psyche prevailed among those eighteen young people who took part in the New York and Washington carnage. They apparently did not represent any fundamentalist stream of thought.
USA does not consider it enough that Taliban have asked Osama to leave the country on his own volition. The offer of dialogue has also been rejected. The suggestion, that Pakistan, China and Saudi Arabia should be allowed to intervene, has not been acceded to. As a consequence therefore the attack against Afghanistan is imminent with all its consequences. The vibrations will be felt in the entire region particularly in Pakistan, where the elections are to be held next year. Three elements i.e. religious and Jihadi groups, the youth, and the moderate political parties may coverage to determine the new contours of political power, which would be far different from what has been the usual pattern. It is also possible that in view of the grave situation, the elections may indefinitely be postponed, keeping democracy in abeyance, and at the mercy of the radical forces.
USA and the allies are fully poised to combat terrorism with state power. People all over the world know what has tragically occurred in USA is only a symptom of the real malady which exists in the minds and hearts of the people, breeding on injustices prevailing against the Muslim world and on the sinister idea of Clash of Civilization, which does not co-relate with the reality. Therefore, the priority must be given to eradicate this malady rather than punish Afghanistan. As the first steps, therefore sanctions and embargos on all the countries must be lifted. It will have a soothing effect and would establish confidence and credibility. This should be followed by a combined and concerted efforts by the world community to bring about the settlement of the three main conflicts, i.e. Chechnya, Palestine and Kashmir, which are the killing grounds of the unarmed and the innocent, breeding hate, contempt and revenge. If USA fails to address these problems it would only confirm what Edmund Burke said: “The greater the Power, the more dangerous is the abuse”.