Army Action in Wana and Our Responsibility

- Hi-tech satellite images of a decrepit area.

- Aerial snap shots of terrorist hideouts.

- Troops hunting Al-Qaeda holdouts.

- Gunship helicopters & fighter jets pulverizing militants’ strongholds.

- Collateral damage being reported in the shape of death of innocent women & children.

Could this be a CENTCOM briefing on Iraq? Or could it be U.S forces’ presentation on their successes in Afghanistan?

Wrong answer: It’s all happening (or rather has happened) in our beloved Pakistan.

This is a briefing to journalists not by Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt on the bombing of Fallujah, but by ISPR Spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan on an action in Wana, Waziristan.

How did things come to this? And more importantly, why is there not too much discussion amongst the Pakistanis (at least the "enlightened" ones) on this matter?

In their drawing rooms, Pakistanis waste no time in discussing “the illegality of war in Iraq”, “the unacceptability of collateral damage” , the “illegal occupation of Palestine”, etc. etc. . But hey, why go 1000s of miles away, when there’s so much happening at home that needs to be discussed?

Our educated class is consumed by concepts like “Blowback”. We can (and we do) engage in lengthy discussions about how Osama was trained & nurtured by CIA in the early days of Soviet-Afghan war, and how the U.S is now just seeing the reaction to its own follies.

But not a word on blowback when it comes to people that our own governments trained or tolerated? Whenever Blowback is mentioned in Pakistan’s context all I see are stiff reactions, lame excuses or just mute lips. And all this comes from people who just a few minutes ago were justifying that the U.S. deserves the Blowback because you know “as you sow, so shall you reap”. So 9-11 is blowback, and the attack on Karachi’s Corps Commander isn’t?

According to our drawing room wisdom, Osama was nurtured by the U.S, so every action or act of terror committed by Osama or his followers is U.S. responsibility. How about all the “militants” that our army is now chasing in Wana? Should we take any responsibility for their actions? Has the General -who is so good at lecturing Pakistanis on everything under the sun -ever said even one word of sorry to the nation on whom the institution he’s now leading imposed these militants in the first place?

Every now and then I see people who can calmly explain to me the reasons behind “blowback” for hours, but the same people get red with fury when someone describes the similarity between what U.S sows & reaps & what Pakistan has sown in the last few decades & is reaping now. Is the issue as simple as “We have to get these bloody terrorists now, they are hampering Pakistan’s growth,” OK, but where did these terrorists come from in the first place? Timbuktu?

Has anyone wondered how we got to the stage where we had to use gunships/fighter jets in our own country, on our own people? We don’t even need an invitation and start bad-mouthing how the U.S has no regard for the life of Iraqis/Afghanis, how it bombs at will & then hides behind terms like “minimal collateral damage”.

Where have those discussions gone now vis a vis Pakistan & Pakistanis being bombed? Is using gunships/artillery/mortars/fighter jets in our own country a small matter? At least the U.S bombs other country’s civilians unlike what our forces are doing.

Are we seeing a repeat of the 1971 debacle, when our Army took matters in its own hands in order to suppress rebellion, and the common Pakistani had no clue about what was going on in the East?

But surely the scenario in 2004 is much more disappointing when supposedly educated Pakistanis (and you can see a lot on different discussion forums all over the web too) are reacting probably the same way that educated Pakistanis in those days in 1971 did with regards to their distant brothers in the East. And all this is happening even with the not too distant hindsight of those dreadful mistakes of 1971 in front of us.

Will we ever learn from our history?