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Eliminating militants from Swat
By General Retd Mirza Aslam BegThere is a deliberate effort on the part of very responsible personalities in USA to pressurise Pakistan to "use every possible option to eliminate Taliban and secure Pakistan." It has also been claimed that Taliban will reach Islamabad and that Pakistani nuclear assets would fall into their hands. Sequel to such statements some of our political leaders are also warning the Pakistanis of the eminent danger that the nation faces on account of Taliban. In the context of these statements, let us discern what reality lies behind the orchestration of these views, which Dr S.M. Koreshi, has rightly called this psychological warfare, as the process of "dehumanisation, demonisation and destabilisation." I would add one more to it: denuclearisation. First of all, we must understand the dynamics operating behind the phenomenon called Taliban. The western media, as well as we ourselves, have created such 'constructs' and have become their victim. For example, 'War on Terror' was one such construct. The reality however is that these are 'Wars of Liberation' and America has not been able to win any of these wars and has been humiliated as a consequence of the self-created construct, and now has abandoned the use of the term - War on Terror. The stark reality is that the people of Iraq, Afghanistan and Kashmir, are fighting for their freedom, yet their armed resistance against aggression is being demonised as terrorism. The Taliban in Afghanistan are the real Taliban called mujahideen, when fighting the Soviets, now relentlessly struggling against the occupation of Afghanistan by USA and their allies. They do get help from our tribal areas and enter our borders, but soon return to fight the occupation forces. We have around a hundred thousand soldiers protecting our western frontiers, yet they have not been able to stop them, Why? The western media in general and the people of USA in particular, are phobic about Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda - another construct. Every Islamic Resistance is being termed Al-Qaeda. Mullah Omar's spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, explains the difference between Taliban and Al-Qaeda: "They are global, we are regional. We two are separate. We don't fight under their command. Recently we have welcomed some of their fighters," under the banner of the Shadow Army. As a result of this misconception, neither the Taliban have been eliminated nor Al-Qaeda has been defeated. General Musharraf launched military operation in 2004, against our tribals in Waziristan, "to catch the master-mind." The tribals retaliated, creating serious security problems. Erroneously, we started calling them Taliban, whereas they are our tribals. If we had dealt with them, with compassion, these very people could have turned into our vital force. However this is also true that within them there are a whole lot of foreign infiltrators and agent saboteurs, who are instigating the local people to fight against our government. These very tribals, prior to 2004, had never turned their guns on Pakistan, but they did react when they were subjected to attack. The strategy adopted by the NWFP government was to win over the hearts and minds of our estranged tribals, who responded positively. Mirza Aslam Beg was Chief of Army Staff of the Pakistan Army Posted by: john frum 2009-05-10 |
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