| by Mahboob A. Khawaja
( May 12, 2013, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) America and Pakistan both stand at a critical juncture in time and history and are searching for new policies for change and new relations. America had the opportunity when President Obama – the first colored president to enter the WHITE- White House erected by his black folks predecessors over the centuries and promised to enliven his moral conscience for a new beginning in American history-making. But once in inside the White powerhouse, he lost touch with the prevalent realities demanding navigational change. So the bogus War on Terror and its worst impacts on so many nations continue to this day because the President of the United States turned out to be the least powerful person in decision-making. Pakistanis have the opportunity over this weekend in their first-time ever free national elections to reject leaders of corruption, deceit and insanity and to use the ballot box for change, new beginning with new leaders. If they happened to miss this opportunity, time and history will hold them accountable for their own demise. America needs Pakistan for its futuristic effective role as a superpower and presence in South West Asia. Pakistanis hope that the Obama administration will learn from its errors of judgments and major strategic blunders in Iraq and Afghanistan and stop the terrorism of wars against innocent people and cultures in the Middle East and South West Asia. Pakistan’s political landscape is changing and after the May 11, election new political leaders will emerge to realign major network of relationships with the US and other Western nations allied to the war syndrome. With high strategic tempers and expectations, it is a time to wait and see game. From the infamous Gunanatanmo camp, pictures of American insanity at Abu Ghraib prison, continuing drone killings of the innocents in tribal belts of Pakistan and Afghanistan onward to indefinite bogus war on terrorism, all are burden on the human conscience and more so on the policy makers, not aware of the future. Even most powerful nations of the world lack knowledge of the future.
In the 21st century new age of hope for change and enlightened optimism, diplomacy was not allowed to play its role in conflict management and stopping the aggression. Diplomats are resourcefully enriched people with minds and foresights not exhaust in finding workable and peaceful outcomes in situations of conflicts and adversity. Until forty years earlier, America was active in diplomacy and not too much warmongering. But once ignorant and politically self-serving people embraced the power, they appeared devoid of reason and vision to move the American historical progress to connect to the future.
Pakistanis do not deserve unethical and unfriendly treatment from the US. History tells us that they made sacrifices to facilitate the US to establish relationship with the Peoples Republic of China. During the heights of the Cold War, America used Pakistani territory to plan and fly its U2 spying missions on the former USSR. At one time, the USSR threatened to bomb Pakistan if she would not change its strategic partnership. Pakistani suffered immensely because both the friendly US and the former USSR sided with India on the issue of Kashmir. The American led War on Terror has destroyed the capacity and infrastructures of social, economic, civic and moral and political governance of the nation. American cannot rebuild Pakistan except by Pakistanis on their own. But American can stop its aggressive drone attacks and backdoor intrigues to undermine the interests of the people of Pakistan. Mutually suspicious and paranoid, America and Pakistan continued their collaboration. Pakistani politicians and military Generals were readily available whenever American needed to use them for its own policy aims and military goals. History spells out that aggressions and hegemonic control and exploitation of others do not bring triumph and success but degeneration and viciousness for the succeeding generations to live with. America did bribe and bought Pakistan Generals to invade Afghanistan and install a puppet regime ousting the Talabans rule. General Pervez Musharaf is currently on trial in Pakistan for treason and so many other charges of corruption and killings of the innocents. America hired Asif Ali Zardari, our man in Islamabad to replace Musharaf, to do just that under the false shadows of democracy. Most likely, he will see the day in a court of law soon for many crimes against the people of Pakistan.
Pakistan being a leader of the Muslim people, and other Middle Eastern states never threatened America or posed any threat of violence against its security and integrity. Why should America be fighting against Muslims and Islam? Truth digging will spell out that in global affairs if thousands or million innocent lives are demised and slaughtered in search of diplomacy, proponents of monstrous thinking will continue to insist that diplomacy should be given a chance. If American politicians are not irrational and war addicted what else is the reasoning for their utter madness and animosity against Islam and Muslims? Glen Greenwald (“The 'War on Terror' - by Design - Can Never End.” the Guardian: 1/4/2013), points out that the US warmongering has no end to its policy objectives:
“There's no question that this "war" will continue indefinitely. There is no question that US actions are the cause of that, the gasoline that fuels the fire.”
After analyzing some of the current belligerent trends and inhuman tragedies of the US actions in Afghanistan and Pakistan and massive killings by the illegal drone attacks,
John Pilger (Film - The War You Don't See), a reputable Western journalist describes how “We journalists... have to be brave enough to defy those who seek our collusion in selling their latest bloody adventure in someone else's country... That means always challenging the official story, however patriotic that story may appear, however seductive and insidious it is. For propaganda relies on us in the media to aim its deceptions not at a far away country but at you at home... In this age of endless imperial war, the lives of countless men, women and children depend on the truth or their blood is on us... Those, whose job it is to keep the record straight ought to be the voice of people, not power.”
Glenn Greenwald (“The 'War on Terror' - by Design - Can Never End. The Guardian: 1/4/2013”), shares a foresight in time and place to wonder:
Does that sound to you like a government anticipating the end of the War on Terror any time soon? Or does it sound like one working feverishly to make their terrorism-justified powers of detention, surveillance, killing and secrecy permanent? The policies adopted by the Obama administration just over the last couple of years leave no doubt that they are accelerating, not winding down, the war apparatus that has been relentlessly strengthened over the last decade.
Over the decades of unchallenging aggressive adventures in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, and now in Syria, West and North Africa and soon in Saudi Arab according to Robert Fisk (“Could Saudi Arabia be Next?
Bad News For Palestine in 2013. 1/2/2012, The Independent), America has earned the distinction of being a leader in intrinsic and endless corrupted wars to dismantle, humiliate, kill and destroy the Arab people and maintain the surge for more bloodsheds anytime - anywhere - outlines Glen Greenwald: There's a good reason US officials are assuming the "War on Terror" will persist indefinitely. There is zero reason for US officials to want an end to the war on terror, and numerous and significant reasons why they would want it to continue.
Paul Craig Roberts (“The Institutionalization of Tyranny.” 1/19/2013: OpenEdNews), clarifies how the Bush-Obama regimes have lied and deceived the American society to institutionalized tyranny and broke all legal and moral values to kill innocent people in other parts of globe. Paul Roberts explains that “conservatives accept the monstrous police state that has been erected, because they think it makes them safe from “Muslim terrorism”, they haven't the wits to see that they are now open to terrorism by the government…… For Washington, victory means stamping out moral conscience and protecting a corrupt government from public exposure of its war crimes.”
Wars are marked on the global chessboard. The Obama administration is continuing the Bush policy of war engagements against the Muslims across the globe. The scenario and acts are derived from the preconceived notion of strategic engagement to attack the splinter groups of Talaban in Afghanistan and Pakistan and provoke a challenge to be responded with full fledge military response as justification for the US led war efforts in southwest Asia. Glenn Greenwald (The 'War on Terror' - by Design - Can Never End) attempts to synthesize the end game:
There's no question that this "war" will continue indefinitely. There is no question that US actions are the cause of that, the gasoline that fuels the fire. The only question - and it's becoming less of a question for me all the time - is whether this endless war is the intended result of US actions or just an unwanted miscalculation.
Why would anyone in the US government or its owners have any interest in putting an end to this sham bonanza of power and profit called "the war on terror"? Johnson is right that there must be an end to this war imminently, and Maddow is right that the failure to do so will render all the due-process-free and lawless killing and imprisoning and invading and bombing morally indefensible and historically unforgivable. But the notion that the US government is even entertaining putting an end to any of this is a pipe dream, and the belief that they even want to is fantasy. They're preparing for more endless war; their actions are fueling that war; and they continue to reap untold benefits from its continuation.
At a critical juncture of time and opportunities in global affairs, it is rational to THINK what mankind needs most - Peace, co-existence and Not more cruel wars. At a critical juncture of its global affairs, America needs more Pakistan, than Pakistanis want American aid (dry milk, used clothes, obsolete weapons and delusional aid workers) or its security shield against the unknown. If honored, American troops are due to be leaving Afghanistan in 2014. There is no logical and safe route for the US to withdraw large segments of armed forces, equipment and logistical supporting material from Afghanistan except via Pakistan. Educated and responsible Pakistani people want America to RETHINK of its policies and practices in that part of the world. They do not beg so called AID and its prolonged dehumanization impacts on the society but do want mutually respectful friendship - Friends Not Master as pointed out General Ayub Khan in 1967.
Would the American-led bogus War on terror ever end? Or is it a strategy to gain political pause and then to go for new and innovative long war against the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan? Tom Hayden (“Our Government Is Planning to Stay at War for the Next 80 Years- Anyone Got a Problem with That? LA Times, April 1, 2010) asks the Obama administration:
It's time the Long War strategy was put under a microscope and made the focus of congressional hearings and media scrutiny. The American people deserve a voice in the strategizing that will affect their future and that of their grandchildren. There are at least three important questions to address in public forums:
* What is the role of the Long War idea in United States' policy now? Can the Pentagon or president impose such war-making decisions without debate and congressional ratification?
Bruce Riedel, One of Obama’s advisors on Pakistan and the War on Terrorism (“Battle for the Soul of Pakistan” 1/4/2013, Brookings Institute and Centre for Middle East Policy) calls it “2013 could be a transformative year for the country, indeed it will be the battle for the soul of Pakistan.” Bruce Riedel thinks that ‘Pakistan will be a failed state by 2030.’ He does not spell out the truth that selfish and incompetent Pakistani Generals in cooperation with the US policy planners have degenerated the thinking culture of the nation where according to Riedel “One measure of Pakistan's instability is that the country now has between 300 and 500 private security firms, employing 3,00,000 armed guards, most run by ex-generals.” What makes the ex-Generals to create a culture of fear and insecurity? Should the ex-generals be not held accountable for their crimes against the people of Pakistan? Is it the ex-Generals or the bogus War on Terror they have perpetuated? Is it that they draw their after service gratuities from such crime-riddled adventures? He adds that
“So, it is no wonder that the generals prefer to have the civilians responsible for managing the unmanageable, while they guard their prerogatives and decide national security issues. As important as the coming elections will be, the far more important issue is who will be the next Chief of Army Staff.”
Bruce Riedel warns; “The changes in Pakistan are unlikely to come peacefully and will have major implications for India and America. The stakes are huge in the most dangerous country in the world.”
To the larger mankind rejecting cynicism but viewing rationally, if the American policy maker want to regain their image and integrity as a peaceful nation and not as an aggressor, it is TIME to RETHINK and Be HEARD - what we need most – accelerated polices and practices for peace-making, diplomacy to bridge the irrational gaps of strategic expectations using friends as subservient delivery boys, equitable collaborative relations and not more sadistic wars to destroy the living humanity.
(Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja specializes in global security, peace and conflict resolution with keen interests in Islamic-Western comparative cultures and civilizations, and author of several publications including the latest: Global Peace and Conflict Management: Man and Humanity in Search of New Thinking. Lambert Publishing Germany, May 2012).
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