EuropaWorld 23/11/2001 Bombs And Crackers

Since the first attacks on Afghanistan, Pakistan has been convulsed. In this special article for EuropaWorld, the distinguished columnist and Director General of the Pakistan National Council of the Arts, Raja Changez Sultan wanders through the hills and valleys of American motivations and Muslim sensibilities.

Uprighto is up in arms once again. He has just returned from a whirlwind tour of Afghanistan and seen first hand, the devastation caused by the American bombing in Kandahar, Kabul, Herat, Mazar-i-Sharif and Jalalabad. Worse still, in between the various stages of a Taliban debacle, he has witnessed the terrible plight of the poor, fleeing in all directions to avoid the onslaught of an incensed enemy.

"What could be more surreal?" he asks, "Salvador Dali could not have painted the scene better. "It isn't David versus Goliath, but a rogue elephant versus an ant. Osama or no Osama, how could the Americans do this?"

Indignation aside, Uprighto knows the answer. September 11th., shook their very foundations when their much revered symbols of brass and business came tumbling down. Without exception, they got a rude awakening to the horrors of an ugly world.

Since then, they have only one over riding desire: that their Government hunts down the enemy, no matter who he is, no matter where, or how.

This carte blanche has unleashed a thoughtless war on a hapless lot who have seen no let up in their daily diet of bombs and crackers for well over a month now.

"But why crackers as well?" I asked. "Surely it isn't as if they are bombing the Kafirs of the Kailash valleys, who, as tradition has it, must send food rations along with their dead."

"Of course not. You wouldn't expect the Americans to be aware of such subtleties even if their life depended on it. No, it is because they wish to appease their own conscience, knowing very well that there is everything imprecise about their 'precise' bombing.

"So much for that. But what about the haste shown by Pakistan in joining the coalition against terrorism?" I asked.

"What about it?" he retorted. "The Americans knew very well we would have no option. Caught between India and 'the evil doers' in Afghanistan, Bush figured we'd be all too eager to support his objectives - lest we be declared targets to be taken out as well!"

Look at our Afghan policy and you need no further convincing. All through the 80's, we supported the Mujahadeen. Zia ul Haq was the man of the moment. His commitment to ousting the Soviets from the Afghan soil was so strong that he rallied the Americans behind him and set about the task as if Pakistan's very survival depended on it.

And then, when the Soviets died an instant death for reasons well beyond their Afghan incursion, we masterminded the creation of the Taliban and propped them up against the other warring factions until they were able to exercise control over most of the war torn land.

And what did we get in return? For one, well over two million refugees hell bent on taking over major chunks of our economy and masterminding the hugely lucrative but illicit worldwide drug trade. For another, the emergence of a gun culture and a spate of madaris - religious schools, funded by our own governments and ultra right parties over the period, as well as by fanatic vested interests, to nurture the birth of a new breed of youth to be led down the garden path of a so-called jihad.

Soon Pakistan became a hot bed of fundamentalist politics. So hot, in fact, that none of the regimes, democratically elected, or those run by back door entrants, dared to confront these internal issues entirely on their own. Instead, all of them, Benazir Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif, as well as General Pervez Musharraf, chose the easy option of closing their eyes and burying their heads in the proverbial sand, hoping that the country will, once again, miraculously come out of the mess, all on its own!

Hence, the sectarian violence, the industrial kidnaps, terrorist activities in urban areas, bomb blasts, threats, the lot.

No wonder then, that the Osama Bin Ladens of this world moved their operations to Afghanistan and set up their bases. These safe havens soon began training international dissidents and broadening the scope of their activity to take on issues much beyond regional boundaries. Palestine, Iraq, Somalia, Kosova, Chechnya, Indonesia, Kashmir, wherever a Muslim struggle was at hand, all became valid causes to fight for and to engage the Western powers . Hence the spate of attacks on the US embassies in East Africa and the first bombing of the Twin Towers in New York.

Given these developments, and a huge population of unemployed youth, Pakistan soon became a happy hunting ground for a whole lot of gun toting Osama supporters and a fan club for his international deeds - or misdeeds.

And so, when September 11th dawned with all its cataclysmic horror, and the Pakistani leadership instantly joined the US led international anti-terrorist coalition, it did not surprise anyone here. They saw it as a God sent opportunity to put the extremist genie back in the bottle with the help of an infuriated United States and the rest of the members of the international coalition. This so we could find our way back to centrist politics and far away as possible from fundamentalist concerns once again.

Of course there is outrage as each night of bombing brings a doomsday scenario for the guilty and innocent alike. Pathetic images of drought struck, hungry innocents who make up the majority of the 25 million Afghans are flashed on television screens across the world.

None the less, for the time being at least, the vast majority of Pakistanis continue to support the Government's stand for an end to terrorism globally, and in particular, regionally. The latter may come as news to the Indians who would want the world to dearly believe, as they do, that we support terrorists and not freedom fighters for the liberation of Kashmir .

There are some aspects to this war that need looking at, none the less. For one, no one in the Muslim world is enamoured by the use of words such as 'crusade' and 'evil doers' by the American President. He needs a vocabulary that is, at the very least, as antiseptic as that of his British ally, Tony Blair. Without it, he may botch up the efforts of the international coalition, and in the process, make the world a sorrier place for all of us to live in. For another, his call for similar measures as are being employed against Afghanistan by the Coalition to be deployed against other Muslim Countries too, is not well received. Nor his apparent lack of differentiation between terrorists or freedom fighters in different parts of the world.

Leadership at the highest level demands a heap of wisdom and an uncanny sense of doing what is right for the world - regardless of the religion, colour or creed of its various populations. It requires an individual who is above mere rhetoric, or desirous only of winning a media war against a set of self denounced infidels.

As long as some one, somewhere, is willing to measure up to that calling, we will continue to side with the Americans - at least until a stray bomb looking for Osama, or some long bearded Taliban, finds us instead!