Selling a civil war to Pakistan

The world was laughing at the Americans when they were changing the name of French Fries to Freedom Fries. Can you believe their Congress actually met and passed a resolution to this effect?! This is while the President who ran on promises of health care, and Congress, didn’t even bother to hold a single vote on the issue. The media cheered them along and all the Americans were a bunch of dumb flag waivers. “Support the troops, Support our boys who defend this nation� was the slogan constantly rubbed in the face on anyone who dared to question the trend or anything the US President said.

Most Americans don’t know that their government actually hired the Rendon Group, a company that specializes in the business of “perception management�….or in more truthful words, propaganda...or more truthful words still….making fools out of the public by telling half truths and outright lies to them.

Today only the most ardent deniers of the truth still say that Bush and the government DID NOT falsify the case for the Iraq War. What was the media doing? They were encouraging Americans to pour their French wines down the gutters in a display of anti French sentiment simply because they dared to question the American government’s policy. They flared sentiment against anyone who dared to question, not even sparing the Dixie Chicks who are now taboo’d from appearing on most of the mainstream media. Lest we forget, “embedded journalists� was a new term coined to gloss over the fact that reporters were now not even going to bother getting the story from anywhere else except the Good guys [Americans]. They refuse to show American troops dead because “its News, not reality TV�. Wow!! What stunning logic and what a bunch of idiots who swallow this shit.

And while everyone was focused on the enemy and the War and engaging in the “Support the troops� campaigns, their government stripped the country of Habeus Corpus and other key elements of the Magna Carta that are the basis of Western civilization……the media response? Dead silence……..except for the occasional aberrant who may get the chance to say it once on TV, nobody and I mean nobody is discussing how eerily reminiscent this was of Hitler’s rise to power from an unpopular leader to the unchallenged dictator after the convenient burning of the Reichstag (Parliament) Building. Hmmmmmm……could it be that events, particularly wars and disasters have been exploited by leaders? NO WAY!! (Sarcasm)

All of the above has basically led to the stripping of the constitution, break down of law and order, elimination of the system of checks and balances, and basically a blank check being handed over to the government to conduct whatever it needs to do secretly in the name of National Security whether that be kidnapping, murder, bombing civilians, declaring war on other nations, spending money faster than anyone in history and maxing out the country’s credit, etc. Everything breaks down when the foundations of civilization that have developed over time are just swept away in hysteria. Today the American dollar has fallen more than 45% since Bush took office, the country’s debt has become its biggest nightmare, and the status of America in the world has been totally annihilated.
Coming to Pakistan, I think only a fool would think that our politicians, media people and “opinion leaders� are any better than the scum of the Earth that I have described above, i.e. Western politicians, media and opinion makers.

Geo’s “King breaker� Mir Khalilur Rehman is well known for making bold and public statements about his ability to topple any government of Pakistan within a certain number of hours. That is a very mighty boast about his influence on the masses. Their policy is clearly to create viewership through emotion and controversy among the masses.

The owner of Daily Times/ Business Plus, Salman Taseer, is an admitted PPP “jiyala�. During the MQM reign his media outfit purposely completely abstained from ever criticizing them or even whispering Altaf’s name in a bad way. They are scared to death of saying anything about The Don of Karachi, Altaf bhai….mazloomo ka saathi….Altaf Hussain! The fact that he owns a media outfit, is a politician, and one of the country’s biggest businessmen has only raised eyebrows with a few who still bother to use the gray matter between their ears. Mr Taseer promoted Callmate and other companies of his own through this channel. Callmate Telips later went lost billions of rupees of investor money. Notice that First Capital Equity Securities is regularly advertised on Mr Taseer’s media outfits? That’s because he owns that company.

ARY boss Abdul Razzak Yaqub specifically fired Dr Shahid Masood because his criticisms were affecting Mr Yaqub’s business and he didn’t want to irk Mushy boy when so much dough was rolling in. The guy sold real estate, gold, calling cards, groceries and pretty much everything through that channel. Notice that most of those businesses being advertised on his channel were his own companies, i.e. ARY Gold, ARY Calling Cards, ARY Real Estate, etc. Clearly the channel is just a loss leading business he uses to sell other stuff…..do not expect lofty ideals such as journalistic integrity and the right of the public to the truth to be accommodated in this free-for-all economy.

You simply cannot expect our Pakistani media to be respecting any sort of lofty ideals, it has, in my opinion, been conclusively proven that that is simply not the nature of the Pakistani ruling class. If anything, our media are probably much bigger liars than even Hannity and Combs or that racist loud mouth idiot, O’Reilly.

I have noticed that people give too much credit to these institutions that have proven to be failures in the shiniest of shiny capitals, Washington. The answer is for the public to always be willing to question and not just accept whatever we are told, especially when historic things are taking place. We should never be willing to compromise on the checks and balances that prevent the powerful from making fools of the public. These checks and balances include bringing people to court for crimes rather than allowing the government to carry out military operations within its own territory, or rendering [kidnapping] people and making them disappear. Those who resist arrest can obviously be dealt with force, but unless everyone and their uncle knows that we do not disappear people and we will deal with them justly, they will have reason to distrust us and to fight. They are probably also being exploited and lied to by their own media and leadership and the only way to fight lies is with openness and truth.

Our government has admitted to kidnapping people and making them disappear. They have admitted to torturing people. They have admitted to massive civilian casualties in bombing raids IN THEIR OWN TERRITORY! Yet, so much of our public is marching along in giving them more blank checks to carry out yet more of the same as a solution to the ills caused by these tactics.

For whatever reason, powerful interests that have yet to be fully identified are very keen for Pakistan to declare war on its own citizens and to steadily expand that initial war into some climatic event. Once we agree to abandon the checks and balances, due process, and truthfulness in this operation, it will be expanded into an endless War on Terror operation that will benefit a few at the expense of the many and those checks and balances will be gone forever and replaced with only a façade of civility.

When they came for the Muhajir, I didn’t say anything because I wasn’t a Muhajir. When they came for Baloch nationalists, I said nothing because I wasn’t a Baloch. When they came for Pashtun tribesmen, I said nothing because I wasn’t a Pashtun tribesman. When they came for the Mullah I said nothing because I wasn’t a Mullah. And when they came for me, there was nobody left to speak up.

We will in effect become a secret police state in which terror and counter terror become the norm. Make no mistake about it, we have been sold a civil war in Pakistan and we have swallowed the bait hook line and sinker. We will all pay for this dearly.