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| India-Pakistan | ||
| Pakistan is bleeding to death | ||
| 2009-03-06 | ||
| By Nadira Naipaul My country is bleeding to death. It is heart breaking and it augurs the twilight of a nation. I am mourning the loss of Pakistan's pastoral mountain "state" of Swat with its fair, gentle people. Pakistan's continuous dalliance with Islamists, the machinations of politicians and the greed and strategic intrigue of its army have delivered these peaceful people into the hands of the vermin-like Taliban, whose flinty hearts match the stony terrain they descended from. The shame of it. It is a challenge to and very possibly the end to the constitution of Pakistan. At best it is a consequence of the apathy and operational paralysis of the Pakistani army. At worst it is the harbinger of a future in which the Islamists and our "national" army, which brokered the deal with the black-turbaned Taliban, will spread their tentacles through the rest of the country. How did we get here? Years ago the Taliban warlord and commander Gulbuddin Hekmatyar predicted this event, quivering with rage when he was ordered to leave Pakistan. I was then a journalist covering these events and sensed his desperation. He had sent thousands to their deaths, for a jihad funded by the US, and was now trapped like a rat, along with rival mujahideen groups now fighting each other for power in Afghanistan. "Pakistan has played the whore," he said on his expulsion. "It took the money while we gave our blood. We rid Afghanistan of the Russians and one day we will descend from the mountains and put you right." Used to the ravings of egotistical generals and deranged politicians, I dismissed his threat. The evil has, a decade or so later, seeped over the mountains and infested Pakistan. Their carefully chosen target this time was the Sri Lankan cricket team. I got the news while sitting in the forests of Gabon, Africa, and began to pray that this atrocity is some internal Sri Lankan affair with Tamil terrorists taking revenge on the national team for their recent losses. But the immaculately planned and executed attack, in which eight people died and seven members of the team were injured, demonstrates that what remains of civil society has lost the battle. It may be only a matter of time till the black-turbaned menace will pour on to the plains and make us another Iran.
And the army has never had its hand far from the levers of power and profit. It is the other leg of our one-legged democracy. After 11 years of the dictatorship of General Zia which enriched the corps' commanders and their favourites, while promising the masses riches in heaven, the army will not relinquish its access to wealth.
General Musharraf appointed nephews to sensitive positions and fell into the way of all dictators, demanding sycophancy above truth. Musharraf became willy-nilly the guardian of the army's industrial empire. The army had become and is today a huge business mafia. It, and its officers and ex-officers, owns the cement factories, spices and fertilisers; it bakes bread and makes cheese. The army is forced by operational paralysis to negotiate with the Taliban, and has handed over Swat to these thugs to administer according to the Sharia, letting them bomb and burn schools to stop, at first, girls being educated and now to prevent all modern education in their territory. The assault on the Sri Lankan team in the heart of our greatest city, the fact that none of the assailants, who had rifles, grenades and rocket launchers, have been apprehended, has demonstrated to the world that our government is a trussed rather than a lame duck. | ||
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #6 Since when Pakistan is a country? |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2009-03-06 14:17 |
| #5 As it could be expected she spins it: Hykhmatyar spent more time fighting Ahmad Shah Massood than fighting the Soviets. Then after the Sovietws withdrew and the fall two years later of the regime they sponsored he bombarded Khabul causing thousands of victims trying to wrestle power from the coalition whose strong man was (untermensch aka Tajik) Massod. Hykhmatyar, a Pshtoon and a supremacist one at that was soundly defeated alongside his pakistani protectors dozens of them (it was found they were not ven Pakistani Pashtoons but Punjabis) falling into the hands of Massood's men. At this point since his defeats and the bombarding of Khaboul had made he was "burned" even in the eyes of Pashtoons Pakistan drew Mullah Omar out of its sleeve. |
| Posted by: JFM 2009-03-06 12:12 |
| #4 Pakistan is eating a giant Islamic D-Con burger, a bite at a time. That is why she is bleeding to death. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2009-03-06 11:23 |
| #3 From self-inflicted wounds. |
| Posted by: mojo 2009-03-06 11:03 |
| #2 promises Now it describes pretty much all politics. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2009-03-06 09:11 |
| #1 "...bleeding to death." Die! Die! Die! |
| Posted by: Scooter McGruder 2009-03-06 09:00 |