We Have Met the Enemy and the Enemy is Us!

For many years, we Pakistanis, among others, have been lecturing the Americans, the Israelis, and the Indians that they need to look at the root causes of their problems with "terrorism." Is it not the unfair foreign policy of the Americans? Is it not the 40-year old occupation of Palestinians and their lands? Is it not the 60-year nightmare of brutal occupation and suppression of Kashmiris? Perhaps, now in the aftermath of the horrible carnage in Islamabad, we should be asking ourselves similar questions:

Is it not the domestic policy of our Government?
Is it not the brutal and harsh bombing of Pakistani civilians by their own Air Force?
Is it not the confusing foreign policy of being subservient to Americans while simultaneously standing up to them, albeit in a loud but pusillanimous fashion?

What motivates these terrorists to take numerous innocent lives in a final senseless gesture of stupidity, horror, mindless and false courage, and a certain permanent spot in hell? There must be something much worse than death that torments these insane sacrificial dogs. Perhaps a sense of thorough humiliation at being occupied, or unavenged outrage at the senseless death of relatives who were bombed by high-tech, high-altitude yet highly cowardly airplanes. The victims and their relatives cannot shoot down the fleeting bombers, they cannot punch a hole in the deadly tanks, and they cannot catch the menacing missiles to hurl them back at the perpetrators of death. But, it seems, what they can do is to bring similar misery to the relatives and friends of these bombers. The "terrorists" can make them feel unsafe in their hotels, bars, homes, offices, airports, and military bases. So a reasonable question to ask of those who applaud their fighting men, who support them with their taxes, and with their blessings is: "The hour is late, do you know where your warriors are?"

There is not much wrong with Pakistan that a drastic overhauling of our armed forces cannot solve. Our poor economy, sad state of democracy, ethnic strife, home-grown terrorism, foreign meddling in our domestic affairs, and the gross inequities of wealth and poverty are all related to our powerful military. By "powerful," I mean powerful at home, but AWOL at the borders and beyond. This military force has consumed the lion's share of our national budget for its expensive toys and equally expensive perks. It has had a thoroughly linear degradation of competence from 1948 to 1965 to 1971 and now, to the ridiculous nadir of bombing Baluchistan and FATA. It has been reduced to occupying Quetta, Karachi, and Swat, and losing encounters with wild-haired, bearded holy warriors with exposed ankles. It has given us three long and nightmarish reigns that have either lost half the country, pitched one province against another, or made us the laughing stock of such fortunate people as Afghans, Nepalis, Indians, and Bangladeshis.

Ostensibly, these would-be ghazis are necessary to thwart another Indian adventure into our country. Yes, the Indians have been aggressors in the past, but thanks to the wisdom of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and the tenacity of Dr. A. Q. Khan, the possibility of Indian aggression is greatly diminished. Even if the Pakistani Army were deployed against such a menace, can we safely predict an outcome different from Dacca '71? Thank God for ZAB and AQK - both civilians.

The performance of the PAF is limited to pounding Pakistani citizens. And we all know that the Navy is needed to stop the threat of smuggling gold from Dubai and to keep the menacing Indian fisherman from stealing our best shrimp and flounder. The Pak Army, when not occupying Karachi to suppress Indian agents, or mounting death-defying operations against Muslim nuns in Islamabad to keep Chinese massage parlors open for momins, is usually very busy. It runs banks, government agencies, commercial enterprises, and other important institutions. Why should the Indians attack us externally when the Pakistani Army is destroying us internally?