Monday, July 16, 2007

Pakistan: The New Front Line in the War on Terror - Vol. 3 Issue 81

From time to time I have hectored our readers about the terrorist haven called Pakistan. As I have previously pointed out, unlike Iraq, Pakistan has been among the foremost Muslim countries supporting the Islamic terrorist network. (I won’t bore you with pointing out that Sadam was an archetypal tyrant and only cared about total control of Iraq. He did not give a hoot about “Jihad") In contrast, Pakistan’s support of Islamic radicals goes back decades. Pakistan is a country that was born through terror. Over the years since the country’s founding, the Pakistani secret police, the ISI, had become the true power in Pakistan. No one rules that country without the approval of ISI’s secret government within the government. The fall of the Bhutto dynasty is example enough. The ISI has always been alligned with the fundamentalist Islamic movement. It is well known that the philosophy of the Egyptian Brotherhood was part of the basis of the idea of a State called Pakistan. See, Wikipedia.org.

For the last 5 years—since the U.S.’s invasion of Iraq—Pakistan’s political situation has steadily deteriorated. With the ISI sympathetic to the Taliban and Al Qaeda, Pakistan’s military dictator has become weaker and weaker. He is caught in an untenable conflict; he needs the US’s money and military to fend off the extreme fundamentalists, at the same time he cannot survive without compromising with the fundamentalists and their Al Qaeda allies. This conflict has always meant that eventually widespread violence would erupt within Pakistan. Last weekend it began. Mushareff ‘s forces raided the Red Mosque in Islamabad in order to remove Islamic radicals who had occupied the building. The Pakistani military killed almost all of them. Predictably, there was a ferocious response. The Islamic radical faction immediately revoked the 10 month old “peace” agreement covering Northwest Pakistan (Waziristan). Abdullah Farhad, a militant spokesman, said the 10-month-old cease-fire pact was being terminated in North Waziristan, a remote area on the Afghan border where the U.S. worries that al-Qaeda has regrouped.

He said Taliban leaders took the decision after the government failed to abide by their demand that it withdraw troops from checkpoints by 4 p.m. (1100 GMT) Sunday and accused authorities of launching attacks and failing to compensate those harmed. “The peace agreement has ended,” Farhad told reporters in Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province.

The immediate result was 70 dead and 150 wounded. See, IHT.com. Folks, this is only the beginning. American soldiers will be forced to fight in Pakistan because THAT is where our true enemies are to be found. Fighting for “democracy?” Nah, just making sure the crazies stay in their own neighborhood.

Knowing History is a bitch, I remain

Savant