Very objective assessment.
We share your anguish and concern.
So long as people are aware of the failings of the State , any problem can be fixed.
For that The people of Pakistan must realize that they hold the power to drive the megalomaniacs out.
Also that the average Pakistani is not really concerned about jingoism whether it be Nationalistic or Religious.
Every Pakistani is, as far as I come to know of them,are as much patriotic and religious as the jokers who control Pakistan.
If only well-meaning people come forward to set Religious and false Patriotism away and set Growth as their objective,decide to throw away the corrupt Generals and Politicians of yore,infuse young blood( preferably Non-resident Pakistanis), FIRMLY DECIDE THAT DEMOCRACY IS THE OPTION and resolve that they shall resolve their problems including Economic, with-out running to West,especially the US, Pakistan shall be in the comity of Proud and Self Reliant Nation.
There is no joy in asking this. Pakistan exists in a tough neighbourhood. A strong and vibrant army is necessary and desirable.
But as the initial shock and disbelief wears off, there is a deep, deep sense of unease here.
Did they know he was here? Surely, they knew he was here?…..
It’s too frightening to make sense of. The world’s most-wanted terrorist. A man who triggered the longest war in American
history. The terrorist mastermind the world’s only superpower has moved heaven and earth to track down. A decade of
hunting. Hundreds of billions of dollars spent. The blood of countless Americans and others spilled.
And when he was finally found, he was found wrapped in the bosom of the Pakistani security establishment….
Why would they do it? What did they hope to gain? Pakistan has nothing in common with Al Qaeda. They serve no purpose to us; there is no confluence of interests that can be imagined.
Did we think we could produce him like a rabbit out of the hat when we needed to? Did we think if we turned him over, the American attention span would lapse and they’d move on, leaving us unable to suckle at the teats of the superpower?
Or, assured in our assumptions about the world around us, did we simply think we could get away with it?
It makes no sense. And yet, perhaps there was an inevitability to this. Did the 1965 war make any sense? It was hard to find any sense to it then, even less so today.
Did Kargil make any sense? Not then, not today.
Did hawking nuclear paraphernalia on the international market make any sense? Buying did perhaps, but selling? And now we
have the world’s most-wanted terrorist recovered from the bosom of the Pakistani security establishment.
So maybe it does make sense after all. The establishment has flirted with irrationality in the past. Now it appears to have
perfected it…..
As long as national security and foreign policy remain in the hands of a cabal of generals — unaccountable and untouchable, a
lay unto themselves, and in thrall to their own irrational logic — what future can this country have? Surely, not much of a
future.
Is self-correction an option? Good luck trying to find anyone in the homeland or beyond with even a modicum of knowledge
and understanding of the institution who believes it is capable of reforming itself.
Zia’s army, Musharraf’s army, Kakar and Karamat’s army — it may seem difficult to reconcile the differences. But while they were very different men, the strategic orientation of the army has more or less been the same. Some addressed the strategic imperatives from a religious angle, others from a more secular angle, but it has always been the army’s angle.
Can anything be done?
The outside world can’t fix us. In fact, even now the US is probably a better friend of the Pakistan Army than of the Pakistani people. Soldiers and intelligence networks are more useful than an under-educated and impoverished population. Double-gamers and duplicitous allies at least have something to offer; what can the wretched Pakistani people offer myopic Americans?
Can we fix ourselves? Take a look around. Does anyone think Asif Zardari has what it takes? Nawaz Sharif may have the chutzpah, but does he have the nous? Beyond them, what is there but a fetid pool of opportunists and political mercenaries?
So maybe that’s the answer after all. They knew. They knew he was there. And they knew they could get away with it……
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