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India-Pakistan

Breeding Terror?

2011-06-29

[Dawn] There is a saying, if you look into an abyss, the abyss looks into you. In our case, there is much truth to it. Since the public flogging of journalists and social workers in the time of the all so much talked about General Zia, our nation as a whole, if it is even justifiable to use the term for Paks, has taken a plunge to greater depths, perhaps never thought before possible.

We have since then managed to kill a leader cum politician in 2007; blown to smithereens countless men, women and kiddies of Pakistain; eaten our own offspring -- quite literally;

Wait a minute -- we haven't seen any reports of cannibalism, which I'm pretty sure is forbidden by Shariah. But perhaps the editorialist didn't literally mean literally.

and, killed journalists as well as publicly flogged women in the name of honor; brutally murdered our youth only to hang them upside down on a pole; and left to die kids on road bleeding to their last breath.

Terror is an attention-seeking monster. It breeds on recognition -- the type of recognition one sees when one turns the television on, or picks up the newspaper, or even opens up a website. Three dead here, 17 injured in a suicide kaboom

there, naval buses attacked, PNS Mehran, the GHQ, Data Darbar, Imam Bargahs, barely a spot on this country seems safe. And so, there is this delusional sick mind (read translation: Taliban) sitting somewhere in a valley showing to his students on television the trophies of his success in the form of broken limbs, splattered blood, and a nation writhing in pain and agony.

Intentionally or unintentionally we have given the spotlight to the Baitullah Mehsuds and Fazlullahs, to Lashkars of terror and their allies, to sectarian divisions and ethnic wars. Yes we are at war. No one is suggesting a state of denial, but the constant hammering of violence on our minds has made us collectively, a monster. There are segments that come out to justify acts of abhorrence and mob attacks and others that defend the cold blooded murder of the Governor of our largest province.

While America has a 9/11 and India harps about their 26/11, Pakistain has had so frequent and so many of them that it is hard to keep up. We kill in the name of honor; murder in the name of freedom; leech, loot and plunder the wealth of our nation under the guise of governance. To top it, the world accuses us of harboring terrorism and providing safe havens to "seasoned terrorists" that use our soil to attack India and threaten the security of the world on the lam (read: America). Yet, no one seems to acknowledge the fact that if we harbor and nourish them to this day, we would not have death looming over our citizens each passing day.

What we are breeding; however, is much worse. It is a generation as unfeeling and as unthinking as the dead. It is already a generation divided on every conceivable issue, whether it is politics, freedom of expression, honor, sectarianism or caste, biradari and ethnicity. As Gibran once put it, 'Pity the nation divided into fragments -- each fragment deeming itself a nation'. And now it seems, those much cherished and honorable beliefs of justice and humanity are washing away as well.

Day after day, week after week, year after year, these stories of hate have hardened our hearts to the point of no return. The monster has long been looking back into us, and we have gazed into this abyss far too long. Forget the notions of politics and of media, the inhabitants of the Land of the Pure are losing their grip on humanity -- slowly becoming a part of the abyss, being sucked into adversity and ignorance, a state of mind so dangerously powerful that it could wash away traces of any renaissance that ever happened.

Posted by:Fred

#9 creative writer wannabees? Maybe their editors like a little excitement in their work. But the original article is an opinion piece after all.

Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2011-06-29 15:54

#8 There is a saying, if you look into an abyss, the abyss looks into you.

Who are these people who write for Dawn? They have a certain flair for drama--creative writer wannabees?

Posted by: JohnQC 2011-06-29 15:52

#7 Pakistan WAS india, they got kicked OUT/
(And good riddance)

Posted by: Redneck Jim 2011-06-29 15:04

#6 This is the way to go. The 4th way!

...The Fourth Way is Accountability and it is simple enough. Stop arguing over who will rule in which Muslim country. That is a decision that only the inhabitants of that country can make. And they wont make it through elections, so much as through dealmaking among their oligarchy, tribal leaders and occasional outbursts of armed force. It would take a massive project of decades to have any hope of changing that. But we dont need to. What we need to do is make very clear the consequences of attacking us to whoever is in charge.

Rather than trying to shape their behavior by shaping their political leadership, we can use a much more blunt instrument to unselectively shape all their leaders. A blunt instrument does not mean reconstruction. It doesnt mean Marines ferrying electrical generators. It doesnt mean nation building. It means that we will inflict massive devastation on any country that aids terrorists who attack us. If they insist on using medieval beliefs to murder us, we will bomb government buildings, roads, factories and power plants to reduce them back to a medieval state. We will not impose sanctions on them, we will simply take control of their natural resources and remove the native population from the area, as compensation for the expenses of the war.

Accountability means no more aid to tyrants or terrorists, and no grand democracy projects either. It means that we stop trying to pick a side, and just make it clear what happens when our side gets hurt. We gain energy independence and never look back. And when weve done that, the Muslim world will no longer be able to play America against Russia, against Asia and Europe. Instead it will suddenly find itself stuck with a predatory Russia looking for an energy monopoly, a booming China expanding into their part of the world, and no Pax Americana to protect them from either one.

America has provided the stability that kept many Muslim countries from imploding. It has protected others directly and indirectly from being conquered more times than anyone realizes. All the treachery and terrorism that has been carried out, has been done under an American umbrella. Now is the time to furl up the umbrella, and let the rain fall where it may.

It will be a cold day indeed, when Russia and China realize that they can do what they like in the Muslim world, without the US to stop them. And a colder day still, when European countries realize that there is nothing standing the way of deporting their insurgent Muslim populations, because the US will not lift a finger to protect them, as it did in Yugoslavia. That is accountability. And in both its active and passive forms it will exact a high price from the enemy, and none from us. To employ it, we must be prepared to use massive force casually without considering any collateral damage. We must achieve energy independence at any cost. And we must be prepared to realize that everything else we have tried has failed. Only by disengaging from the Muslim world, can we ever be free of it...

http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/25659

Posted by: Mikey Hunt 2011-06-29 13:29

#5 We make our daily choices out of our Values. Every choice we make in the myriad of choices that comprise our days, our years, our lives is a brick in the internal edifice of our Character.
The Foundation of our beliefs is the origin of our character. Our beliefs have a foundation. Moslems have a foundation of belief. Hindus have a foundation of belief. Democrats have a foundation of belief. Nations have a character which is based on the foundation of their collective choices which define their common priorities of vision of WHO they are as a people.

Human nature itself is rooted in decisions and those decisions are characteristics of the being of humankind. We Know who we are by the choices we make. We MAKE those choices because we have built ourselves by a steady habit of choosing...and lay down a pattern of our choosing which defines us as individuals.

Belief Systems are literally that. Some survive and prosper and they will inherit.Some will not survive, they are inefficient both morally and economically.Some will not survive because they pursue death and not life. It is only a matter of time and competition. Every Age has its competition and struggle.

At Lepanto,Don Juan of Austria commanded a fleet of Galleys, BUT there were eight ships, only Eight, of the Van which carried Massed Cannon. The Ottoman Moslem fleet had its ships loaded with Infantry ready to ram and board . The Moslems had no massed Cannon, nor ships constructed solely for that purpose.

When the two fleets closed to engage. The Eight Ships of Massed Cannon in the Christian Fleet did something new, made a choice to fight in a new way. They moved into the Moslem fleet , straight into it, firing broadsides, all ships firing in any direction it chose, moving as a single body of the line, piercing into the Moslem Fleet and unapproachable, a wall of splintering massed fire. Broadside after broadside tore the Moslem Galleys to splinters, drowning thousands of Moslems who could later be speared in the water at leisure as they were helpless among the floating debris of their wreckage. Spitted by pikes as they drifted in the waves...after the battle was over and decided.Easy killing.

AND all that was NOT luck or an accident. It was based on men making choices out of their character, based on their beliefs in a foundation of what National Character they had. The Ottomans were largely Janissaries, armed Moslem slaves who served a Moslem Cause. Don Juan of Austria wasnt served by slaves and he didnt belong to a society based on obedience to a ruler who was God's Vizier. The men in Don Juan's fleet fought for themselves and their ability to make choices that would benefit them personally. Genoese,Portuguese, Spaniards...merchants and mariners in it for the trade and the money. Not slaves.
Essentially that was why they won.
Christianity in the age of Don Juan of Austria was full of flaws but its efficiency for the individual was way ahead of the Moslem worlds ability to marshall national and personal resources at the point of contact.

Eight ships with massed Cannon, unapproachable and firing broadside after broadside into the enemy who had nothing to counter it. A choice made by one man based on national character and a Belief System.

A man who fights doesnt just carry a gun....what he carries is his character.

Posted by: de Medici 2011-06-29 12:07

#4 Pakistan would be better off in pieces, and I think that will be the end result, it is just a question of how much bloodshed between now and then.

Posted by: rjschwarz 2011-06-29 10:35

#3 India wouldn't.

Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2011-06-29 02:12

#2 Pakistan would be better off as a province of India. The most backward and shameful of Indian provinces -- but better off, nonetheless. And that is where their shame lies.

Posted by: Scooter McGruder 2011-06-29 01:10

#1 Pakistan is on a roll -- downhill and picking up speed.

Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2011-06-29 00:10

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