War
against terrorism
Sir,
After
having spent billions of dollars in the
war against terrorism, the USA is still
not nearer to its objective. The heat of
resistance against the US forces is
gaining momentum in Afghanistan.
Simultaneously things are going wrong for
the US President in Iraq too. The reasons
for US failure to achieve the desired
success are many. However, the two main
reasons that affected the war against
terrorism and at the same time also
provided the breathing space for the
terrorist groups to re-organise are
choice of wrong allies and change of
priority mid-way.
In the war
against terrorism, the USA, chose the
allies, who were themselves harbinger of
terrorism. Musharraf Govt was far from a
perfect partner in US campaign against
terrorism. Pakistan's deep involvement in
the proxy war against India was well
known to the US leadership when they
asked Pakistan to join hands against
Taliban/AI Qaida set up in Afghanistan.
Also was known to the Americans the fact
that Pakistani military rulers- both
present and past- have been using
religion for political legitimization.
These military rulers have traditionally
not only appealed to Islamic ideology but
also to the long standing enmity with
India to conceal ethnic, sectarian and
linguistic fissures in the society.
Therefore, the military in Pakistan badly
needed religious parties and their jehadi
militia not only for the low intensity
conflict in Kashmir, but also for
sustaining the larger consensus on the
religiously charged Kashmir conflict.
Therefore, when Gen. Musharraf joined the
US led war against terrorism in
Afghanistan, he only compromised with
Pakistan's 'forward depth' policy in
Afghanistan without making any compromise
on the offensive he had launched in
Kashmir. As a result, when the war
against terrorism began in Afghanistan,
the Pak soldiers stationed in Afghanistan
in the garb of Taliban militia ensured
that key Taliban/Al Qaida leaders escaped
unhurt and unhindered to safe sanctuaries
on Afghanistan- Pakistan border. The
Pakistanis were happy to arrest the Arab
terrorists to show their commitment to
the cause but they were reluctant to
pursue the Taliban who enjoyed sanctuary
of their Pushtun tribal brothers within
the country. These terrorists have now
reorganized themselves to fight a war of
resistance against the USA. Mullah Mohd.
Omar has recently announced from his
hideout of the formation of a Council by
the ousted Taliban regime with the sole
objective of driving foreign troops out
of Afghanistan.
Victory of
US-UK forces in Afghanistan, no doubt
gave temporary set back to terrorist
groups, but Americans failure to take the
war to its logical conclusion in the
region gave them sufficient time to
organize themselves to again be a force
to reckon with. Soon after having
established the Karzai Govt in
Afghanistan, the Americans forgot the
priority in the region and instead
diverted its attention to Iraq purely for
its economic consideration. In the
process, its agenda of war against
terrorism remained unfinished. It did not
destroy the institutions responsible for
producing terrorists in large numbers,
not it put sufficient pressure on
Pakistan to completely shut the terror
institutions and put an end to
cross-border terrorism.
Yours'
etc....
Prof Arshad Mustafa
Jammu.
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