The following is a guest contribution. Reuters is not responsible for the content and the views expressed are the author’s alone. The writer is a commentator on South Asian political and military affairs and author of “A History of the Pakistan Army”.
By Brian Cloughley
The trouble with the contest to become president of the United States is that it affects us all. No matter how appalled we might be about machine politics of a foreign presidential election, driven and at the mercy of money supplied by staggeringly powerful business interests, the bottom line (literally and figuratively) is that the entire world feels (and sometimes reels from) the influence of the US President. For the past seven years we have witnessed and been gravely affected by economic mismanagement; insolent and malevolent disdain for those who object to “You’re with us or against us”; and an arrogant policy of global military domination to an extent never even dreamed of by the Caesars, Genghis Khan, Bonaparte, Adolf Hitler or Stalin.
It might have been hoped that in November this year the American people would elect a man or woman for all peoples. A person with vision, compassion, a deep knowledge of the world that America dominates, and, above all, that most important of human attributes: informed Common Sense.
It is not to be so.
Leaving aside Senator McCain, who may well be elected in spite of his manifold deficiencies and war service that focussed on bombing cities in North Vietnam (OK, so I served in Vietnam ; but at least I realise I was wrong), I had hoped that Senator Obama - young, intelligent, seemingly forthright, in tune with the modern age - would be elected. But on reading his recent speech I am in despair on many accounts, and particularly concerning his proposed policy on Afghanistan and Pakistan.
If he is elected, Pakistan should shudder. And Afghanistan should despair.
Senator Obama’s foreign policy advisers and slick speechwriters had him say that “The greatest threat to our security lies in the tribal regions of Pakistan, where terrorists train and insurgents strike into Afghanistan. We cannot tolerate a terrorist sanctuary, and as president I won’t … We must make it clear that if Pakistan cannot or will not act, we will take out high level terrorist targets like bin Laden if we have them in our sights.”
The threat could not be more blunt: if the government of Pakistan does not give permission for US forces to conduct offensive operations inside Pakistan (which it can’t: what government of any nation could do that and retain the support, the respect, the loyalty of its people?), then the US will strike inside Pakistan no matter how much the democratically elected government might protest. In fact, this option is on the cards right now, anyway, and Senator Obama is merely echoing current Bush feelings.
So Senator Obama would continue Bush policy to send US troops and strike aircraft and missile-firing drones (”We need more Predator drones on the Afghan border region,” he declared) to attack US-identified targets in the territory of a friendly nation. He says “We must expect more of the Pakistani government”; but how much more does he want? His country has already killed scores of civilians in Pakistan in the past two years by having drone-launched missiles blast villages in which US-recruited Pushtun-origin agents, Afghan and Pakistan citizens, picked out what Senator Obama calls “high level terrorist targets” and sent information to their controllers in Bagram or Islamabad (and elsewhere that I won’t mention) by their amazingly technically advanced communications devices. But it is ironic, as well as morally appalling, that the villagers in Pakistan who were killed in the Predator-guided missile attacks - these slaughtered women and children - died because the target information that led to their massacre was incorrect. (And unfortunately for these pawns of the US, who were well-paid and inserted by ingenious means into the tribal areas on both sides of the border, many were identified and killed in the most disgusting manner. But their families in the US and elsewhere have been fairly generously recompensed, which may be some consolation.)
Further to that comparatively minor slaughter (after all, what’s the death of a few innocent villagers, here and there?) has Senator Obama any notion of how many soldiers of the Pakistan army and the Frontier Corps have been killed in combating militants who were driven into Pakistan by the US invasion of Afghanistan, or who were turned to militancy by these unwelcome refugees? Does he know that well over a thousand grieving families of the army and the Frontier Corps have suffered the loss of sons, husbands, fathers and brothers because the US army is incapable of securing its side of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border?
Of course not: because his speechwriters concentrate only on the sharp, US-centric aspects of international affairs. They care nothing about the sacrifices of Pakistan in this US-created conflict. He doesn’t know that Pakistan has been host to millions of Afghan refugees for decades. (No other country in the world has been forced to look after so many refugees for so long - a horrible global record, which is hardly the fault of Pakistan.)
And if any talk-show interviewer asked Senator Obama “How many Afghan refugees remain in Pakistan” he wouldn’t have a clue what was being talked about. The fact that over a million Afghans are still in Pakistan and don’t want to go back to their own country because it is in a state of ungovernable chaos is neither here nor there to the presidential candidate, or to most of the world, in fact. Doesn’t it dawn on anyone that in that million (about 1.3 million, according to the UN) Afghans in Pakistan there are many who have reason to detest the present regime in Kabul and who want to get rid of it by fair means or preferably foul?
Let’s have no nonsense about the Pakistan government failing to do “more” about the Pakistan-Afghan border. Islamabad proposed that a barrier be built, and actually provided a detailed scheme for it. I attended a briefing by the former foreign minister of Pakistan at which he described it in detail. (Although I did not agree at all with the proposal to plant anti-personnel mines. I’ve seen too much of the effects of Soviet mines on Afghan children - the shattered legs and hands, the total destruction of youthful aspirations - to ever imagine that mines are anything but evil. OK, so I used them - Claymore mines - when in ambush in Borneo when we were fighting the Indonesians who wanted to take over Malaysia, decades ago; but I’ve changed my mind, having visited hospitals full of Afghan kids who have had their arms or legs blown off.) Predictably, however, the Kabul government vetoed the project, although a few miles of fences were eventually erected in spite of that stupid objection, which was entirely to do with Afghanistan’s insular objection to the well-established legality of the border.
But if America can’t secure its own border with Mexico, in spite of annual expenditure of billions of dollars in security measures, how can it expect Pakistan to seal its frontier with Afghanistan? Half a million illegal immigrants cross from Mexico into the US each year, including criminals of all natures, and, no doubt, some terrorists intent on mayhem in America. Yet Washington - and Senator Obama - make the demand that Pakistan stop all the militants and drug smugglers who want to move to and from their areas of operation.
How fatuous.
Senator Obama declares that “The greatest threat to our security lies in the tribal regions of Pakistan.” No it doesn’t: it lies in the ignorance of those who fail to understand the problem.
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Mir Bhai,
Allah Bhagwan is watching all who carry out death and destruction of the innocents Afghans, Indians and Pakistanis - all of whom come from one mother. We are all Allah\’s flowers of different colors and scents who are getting butchered by the Pakistani merchants of death, but may Allah be my witness, they will one day reap what they sow, as they will be pushed into the Hellfire by Allah where they will beg all those whom they killed to please forgive and them and help them out, but to no avail.
- Posted by Nathuram WaghmareMir I share your disgust and pain, and hope Allah/Bhagwan gives all people in power and influence to be good and do good.
Peace.
Nathuram Waghmare
Dear Readers,
if you go back and read the history Pakistan is a country that always palyed double standard policy toward US and Afghanistan and even International Community USA supported Afghans to fight Russians not pakistan and Afghanistan Saved Pakistan Ass from Fire of Russians during which they Fight agaist russians. USSR wanted to occopy not only Afghanistan but to reach the Warm waters which includes pakistan and thats how Afghanistan saved Pakistan. as far as pakistan’s slogans that they helped Afghani refugess …. thats totaly nonsense there will billions of Dollars raised to Pakistan during the War in Afghanistan donors such as USA Europe and Austrillia helped afghan refugeess settled in Paksitan buy paying pakistan billions of dollars not only this but Afghan refugess who were living in Europe and American helped thier relatives by sending them money monthly pakistan were reciveding more than 4 billion dollar anually only from families who helped thier relitives in Pakistan so how they claim they helped Afghan refugess ????
- Posted by TameemGook Luck Obama!Take troops out of Iraq send them to
- Posted by Rafi AminPakistan,
Good to see these posters so I ask…
So where does all the US aid money go that is given to Pakistan? Is Bin Laden not hidding there? Will Musharaff hang onto power?
- Posted by Neal in the US[...] accuses Obama of proposing to continue the failed Bush policies in Afghanistan. He writes for the Reuters blog as follows: “So Senator Obama would continue Bush policy to send US troops and strike [...]
- Posted by wtf Pakistan » Blog Archive » Is Obama’s Recipe for Afghanistan Credible?[...] are some excepts from a piece Pakistan Should Shudder; Afghanistan Should Despair by By Brian Cloughley, a guest writer on Reuters [...]
- Posted by wtf Pakistan » Blog Archive » Will Obama Deliver Change?Pakistan should have never supported the Afghan mujahideen, or hosted millions of Afghan refugees on our soil. Today we suffer from terrorists in Afghanistan, and ingrate former refugees who only brought with them ignorance, drugs, thuggishness,misogyny and then have 12 children per family.
Its also amusing to see the Indians boasting on this page. India is an under-developed, impoverished, dirty country, and in no shape to boast about anything.
- Posted by Aamir AliThis is the only act that Pakies will not do. This would raze the entire satanic plans and programs of Angrez ka Kuta (Filtistan).I
- Posted by MirI beg Allah To give us this chance to bring back our refugees back to home and this will give us a very upper hand.
Remember that Afghans are never ungrateful and we never forget what has happen upon us by the Punjabies.
We will get our own land back, whether now or after 100 years. This is a promise, you can ask from your father that when we promise will do that.
Pakistan’s problems stems from harbouring Afghan refugees who have more than over stayed their welcome. Let us send the remaining 1.3 million (ungrateful) Afghan refugees back home and most of our problems will be over.
- Posted by Khan,SPakistan and Israel created in the same year and clearly for the same purpose. One filled with Islamic fundamentalism and hate toward anyone and the other with Judaic fundamentalism full of hate helped by years of prosecution and humiliation. They both are made as cancerous glands to give pain, destruction, fear, terror and main points of the British games in two hot parts of the world.
Our writer as I have enough information about Malaysia not to forget ( Possibly the third home for Alqaed in the world is malalysia), Pakistan is helping Malaysian Military and terror networks are working together.
This is why he is badly biased toward Afghanistan.
Let me clearly tell you that Pakistan never let Afghan refugees to live in its (Illegal) terretories based on humanitarian or Islamic values or codes. It was the masters wish and Pak ( FILTY) did so. What they had in their coward minds for this action has been telling us by their actions now.
They exploited the Afghan youths and created out of them Taliban, Mujahideen, and Other terror and Dark minded cult followers.
Pakistan, let them live in its teretory for making them fight the war they never could do against Soviet Union. They made them to fight against India, They made them to fight against each other and so on.
Let us talk about Heroin and Gun, hahahaha
Afghans are making Pakistan a place of ensecurity by bringing Heroin and Gun culture in to Pakistan?// A man with no brain should talk like this. Guns are sold to Pakistan Government and Heroin is Trafficking by YOUR GREAT FUCH and ISI, for their covert and overt games and incomes. Heroin and other drugs are transported by Pak military openly to Karachy ports. Let me clarify to you that in the areas that Taliban are fisting and British army is in control the drug is flourishing and is the exist gate of all Opeum harvested in Afghanistan and than processed in Pakistan, The culture of Guns are well seen from Pakistani Pushtun movies and the terrible Revange system of All pakistanies.
Second we should not forget the strategic and coward plans of Pakistan based on their military mainframes. To day Pakistan is strong and very advanced in terms of Military and Technology and they at other hand misuse the weakness and shabby situation of Afghans. In fact, they afraid of a united and strong Afghanistan. Because, they do not put their trust in Allah and forward brotherhood.
They do what the British is wanting them to do.
Also, the discipline they give to Mujahideen and Taliban or refugees lived there by several madrassa and groups as to not have the love and respect for their motherland and injecting into them the Akhwanese Bull shit idea of Pan Islamism , which give no value to motherland, that in return benefited Pak-Anglo causes.
The least but not last words of mine is very shocking. Since, the government and elite 21 families governing Pakistan are Punjabies. They still have their Hindu inheritances and have the pain of several centuries of Humiliation and subjugation by the hands of Afghans. They ( Punjabi Muslims) are in fact, to not cross the politeness, are illegal sons of Afghan came out of no kind of Marriage bonds during the course of History. This has created a kind of revengeful thoughts among them and are trying to harm us as much as they can. They are so weak and with nothing to be proud of that, so they have named their weapons by our worries and Kings.
To conclude my openion here, let me tell you, that the days are not very far that we revenge our sons and send them back to their mother (India ) and give a lesson to the Pashtuns became slaves of Punjabies.
- Posted by MirYou can ride as far as you can, but the fate of banditism and terrorism is destruction finally, the one dig grave for others will fall into it one day. Allah is not blind and He is patient. Watching you, and observes that how much you can give pain and harm to someone not having power at the moment. Pakistan should know that we are like iron, has seen many downs and ups during all these centuries and will not fall easily, but you watch for your own ass, the clay idol would not withstand the rainy days. Just a push from several sides would smash you, then no one would be able to clean itself!
[...] WAKE UP AMERICA, this is no different from what Hitler did in 1939. Here is another like-minded take from the former UN Kashmir mission head on Obama’s pronouncement. One last comment - it is a [...]
- Posted by Liberty Maven: For Liberty, One Individual At A Time :: Liberty MavenLook who is talking: Ahmed “Quraishi”, who was listed, not so long ago, as one of Pakistan’s traitors on Pittafis list.
First of all Quraishi is not a Pakistani, I mean he doesn’t belong to any province of Pakistan because he is an Arab immigrant to South Asia as you can read it from his second name. For that matter, Jilani is also an Arab and Musharaf is an Indian as you can get. He could also be a Saudi Wahabi, but he writes for any regime in Pakistan.
I have a message for you Quraishi: Tell your masters in the ISI that you don’t fool around with Uncle Sam, because no body does that and everybody understands the consequences. You are putting the Uncle in a very sensitive situation which is your fault.
As fas as Najib is concerned: You (ISI) killed him. Even if I never was a supporter of Najib, he was completely right about your military and ISI that you are nothing but a bunch of terrorists. Your way of killing him was very disgusting and the entire world is witness to it.
When it comes to Karazi: We shall see if it’s your General Musharaf or Karzai that is going to be hanged first. Like Najib.
- Posted by kaburaKarzai should worry about meeting the same fate as Najibullah, who spent his time in power plotting bomb attacks and sending terrorists to Pakistan, with help from the Soviets and the Indians. Karzai lived for a decade on a monthly stipend provided to him by the ISI. Today he’s sending terrorists to Pakistan. Nejibullah was hung in Kabul by the real Afghanis who love their country. As for Pakistani government, get a heart. Tell Washington to solve their Afghan problem on their own.
- Posted by Ahmed QuraishiWhile Senator Obama talks about change, he is doing what every presidential candidate has done in the US: Follow the conventional wisdom to pander to the voters. As Ralph Nader put it, “Obama is an overly cautious captive of his handlers”. He is shifting his positions on just about every issue of substance, domestic or foreign. He recently agreed with the US Supreme Court decision to overturn Washington DC gun ban. He has started talking about asking the commanders on the ground in Iraq on when and how to withdraw from Iraq, rather than just give them a withdrawal time-line. He has become extremely hawkish on Afghanistan and Pakistan. He has been playing up the fears of terrorism, just like George Bush, to establish his national security credentials. He has stopped talking about the suffering of the Palestinians under Israeli occupation. The list goes on and on. He may well be elected, in spite of, or as a result of these shifts. But will this represent the message of CHANGE that brought him where he is? I have a feeling that the young, idealistic supporters of Obama expect real change from him. If he does not deliver on it, he would at best be a one-term president, if at all, causing people to be disillusioned by the Democrats once again.
- Posted by Riaz Haqi think new Pakistan government should take a clear stand that there will be no use of force and the military must not allowed to interfere in whole situation and tribal leaders should be brought to pm house for talks only a political solution is possible.
- Posted by yaseen chIs Raja saying that since the deal with the English has expired Pakistan should just take over the part of Afganistan which is part of it. As big chuncks of Afganistan have been part of what is Pakistan before.
Pakistan would be able to control the situation better than NATO, Americans and Indians there.
- Posted by DannyDear Brian: I respect your experience & appreciate your point of view. When I was last in Pakistan & Afghanistan, you were probably still in Viet Nam. I don’t have the boots-on-the-ground experience to have a rigid opinion of contemporary Western Pakistan, but I do know that the expressions on both sides of this issue have some elements of truth. I do know from my experience very long ago, that no one can say they had to wait for the Afghani refugees to bring guns or heroin into the region. They were there in 1966, hidden in plain site. Actually, I’d never seen so many guns per capita and I came from America. I am certain that 3 million traumatized & desperate refugees must have make things far worse. Like you, I live in the South of France, but I am back in America selling my home in Silicon Valley, where I have many friends & neighbors from the region. I can repeat the story of my buddy at the Discount Cigarette Store — an Afghani whose family is living in Pakistan. He tells me that most of the money he now sends to his mother to support his wife and son is taken up by paying bribes to Pakistani officials who threaten to send them back to Kabul; I know that my Pakistani neighbor who was with me when I heard this tale of woe, did not doubt our Afghani friends’ sincerity or the truth of the story he related. We were both equally sad that conditions are so bad. I don’t know the short-term solution to this problem; I don’t know which of the military options is appropriate. I do know that the long term solution is always the same: Improve education and health; build schools and train hospital staff. That is what I am doing in a West African Muslim country. I don’t know how to do that under the guns of the Taliban, although I read (in a column by Nicholas D. Kristof) that there is a man named Greg Mortenson who is doing just that — building schools and education boys and especially girls in Pakistan’s tribal areas. It seems to me that no matter where we are on the other spectra, his work deserves support from each of us… Joey Tranchina
- Posted by Joey TranchinaTaking the war to Pakistan is perhaps the most foolish thing America can do. Pakistan has 160 million Arabs and a nuclear arsenol. Pakistan also has the support of China. The last thing the United States should do at this point and time is to violate yet another state’s sovereignty.
- Posted by John MaszkaFrom Brian Cloughley :
Thank you all for your comments. Absolutely down to earth, most of them — even the ones by those who obviously detest my point of view. I can tolerate vilification, even if it is slightly over the top, simply because I respect free speech — which is more than the Afghan parliament does, having evicted one of the few women Members for being critical of their weird, corrupt, feudal, male chauvinistic ways.
Coincidentally, this evening I met someone who had been in Peshawar in 1980 (as I had been), and we reminisced about how lovely — and safe — it was before it became the capital of drug dealers and barbaric buffoons with their agendas of murderous mayhem. Last year I strolled in Qissa Khawani and Saddar Bazaars and had chai with several old acquaintances, all of whom warned me that I was taking a grave risk by walking along streets which had formerly been so unmenacing.
The problem, they said — and two were Afghan shopkeepers — was that there were so many Afghan and Pakistani Taliban who just hate foreigners. They would kill a foreigner just for being a foreigner.
How sad.
- Posted by beecee