A Strange Tango

‘US bashing’ is a national pastime where I come from. Spend a little time on any given day during tea breaks at the office, lunch hour at a university cafeteria, at the barber store or an evening with some drawing room intellectuals and you’ll come away thinking the United States of America is truly evil. It’s easy for Pakistanis to blame everything on the United States (the west in general). The truth is that’s why they do it. Surely our economic and social woes have more to do with our own inability to right our ship, no matter how evil the Americans are (not, that they are).

Pakistan is a new nation still struggling with its identity. Caught in the political crossfire between fundamentalist Islam and a moderate Islam on one side and military rule and democracy on the other, her pragmatic people are merely concerned about making ends meet. Let the corrupt politicians, bureaucrats and cricketers fight over what’s left of the country. Yet, Pakistanis are a vibrant people, full of life and eternally hopeful that things will work out for the better. They seem to have decided though, that America is a thorn in that hope’s side. So what’s new? Everyone’s got it in for the Americans. Nobody likes them and no one trusts them. Right?

Wrong. A Pakistani’s mistrust for the Americans is much more deep-rooted than that. Most Pakistanis will make vague references to a Zionist conspiracy against Muslim nations, America’s support of Israel in the form of military and financial aid, American military presence in the Middle East since the Gulf war and now in Pakistan. They will regurgitate wild conspiracy theories, they’ve read in Urdu tabloids, about how America does not want conflict points like Israel-Palestine and Iraq solved peacefully because they want to control the oil and about pressure from the American military and weapons manufacturers...blah blah blah. But, these are distant things that don’t really affect the average Pakistani. We feel it is our duty to raise these issues as we are a part of the ‘Muslim Umma’.

The real problem, though, is closer to home. Afghanistan is the reality with which every Pakistani has lived with since 1978. Pakistan with her strings held by the United States has danced a strange tango with Afghanistan for the last two and a half decades. Pakistan never had brilliant relations with Afghanistan*. Pakistan’s relations with the United States were at their coldest in the mid 1970s. Then, at the height of the cold war, Afghanistan became an issue. The United States in its efforts to keep the Soviet Union out of the region supported the Afghani mujahideen against the Soviet army. It was a ‘Just War’. For this the US went to bed with a military dictator in Pakistan, General Zia-ul-Haq, who was crucial in channelling funds and weapons to the mujahideen. The US provided this group of Islamic zealots with the appropriate training to wage guerrilla war against the Soviets. Many Pakistanis of my generation grew up in a repressed society with soldiers and armoured vehicles in our streets under the rule of General Zia-ul-Haq. The military rulers squandered a decade of financial and economic assistance (this, albeit, cannot be blamed on any American). In 1989 the Soviets lost. Communism was defeated. The Americans let go of the strings. Pakistan went from ‘Trusted US ally’ to ‘US S*** list’ faster than you can say ‘God bless America’.

Throughout the last decade Afghani weapons, Afghani drugs and Afghanis themselves poured into Pakistan. Estimated figures for the number of Afghani refugees in Pakistan ranges from 1.5 million to 2.5 million. The weapons and drugs have caused havoc in places like Karachi (my home town). AK-47, stinger missile and heroine are now common place in our vocabulary. In this period the Pakistani military has (without any help from the US) backed the tyrannical Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

Me, and many in my generation, have grown up with military dictators, Afghanistan and the silent presence (or very loud absence) of the United States of America. In a way it’s unfortunate that we as Pakistanis seem to be so obsessed with and reliant upon the US. Many in my country cannot differentiate the actions of the US government and Americans (most of who were scarcely aware of the whereabouts of Pakistan and Afghanistan till recently, let alone know of their government’s involvement in Afghanistan). For them it is difficult to trust Americans. The US government used us while it suited them and then threw us aside. Perhaps most Afghanis think of Pakistanis in a similar manner. Our government used the Taliban while it suited us and then threw them aside. But most Pakistanis and Americans are busy going about the humdrum of ordinary life. They don’t influence the decisions taken at government levels. Maybe they should sit up and take notice. The Afghanis have a right to the humdrum of ordinary life as well.

At the beginning of the 21st century, the US government went to bed with a military dictator in Pakistan, General Pervez Musharraf, who was crucial in providing assistance to the US war on terror. It was a ‘Just War’......