AN OPEN LETTER TO GENERAL ASHFAQ KAYANI
Dear General Kayani,
Over a month ago, on 7 October, you issued a press release relating to the current security situation in Pakistan. I quote from the press release: “COAS reiterated that Pakistan is a sovereign state and has all the rights to analyse and respond to the threat in accordance with her own national interests.” In particular, the statement made a pointed reference to the clauses in the USA’s Kerry Lugar Bill – since signed by the USA president into that country’s law – which compromised Pakistan’s security.
Over the last one month the security situation has, if anything, grown worse while our puppet of a government has accepted the American offer of “aid” with all of its humiliating conditions intact. In my view – which I believe is shared by countless Pakistanis - the increasing incidence of terrorism in the country has a causal link to our people’s, and our armed forces’, opposition to the American interference in Pakistan’s internal affairs. It is inconceivable that the Peshawar outrage, and the attack on the headquarters of the Pak Army, could have been mounted solely by a ragtag army of so-called “Taliban”. Clearly, a great deal of sophisticated planning lies behind much of the terrorist activity that is taking place currently to break the will of the Pakistani nation to resist the foreign stranglehold on our country.
Quite simply, our armed forces have to fight ALL terrorists. On the one hand, there are the so-called 'Taliban' and their foreign backers and, on the other hand, there lurks an equally deadly but elusive enemy: the armed mercenaries who roam the streets of our major cities (for example, Xe Services/Blackwater, under the guidance of their CIA handlers), the scheming, prying “armed diplomats” and, sad to say, the Pakistani collaborators in influential positions. If the action of our armed forces is limited only to South Waziristan we run a grave risk of being pushed into North Waziristan and made to fight the Americans' war there. Surely, the ISI has already collected a lot of evidence uncovering the foreign involvement in the terrorism that is spreading like a contagion?
It is high time, General Kayani, for you to issue another press release and to live up to the brave words of the earlier statement: “to respond to the threat in accordance with our own national interests”. There is an increasing realisation that the Waziristan action, taken in isolation, will lead us into an American trap from which it will be difficult to escape. There has to be parallel action in Islamabad, Peshawar, Lahore and Karachi, to free our people from the curse of foreign-inspired acts of terrorism.
TAILPIECE (20 Nov 09)
The Pak Army says little, Parliament's lips are sealed and the American presence in the country grows stronger! Here is an eye opener published in "The Nation" today:
http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Opinions/Columns/20-Nov-2009/Americans-in-Pakistan/
1 comment:
Thanks for the e-mails - and thanks to my friend who described the current situation as being "stuck in a Machiavellian knot". Those who are sceptical should consider this:
The news today is that 12 soldiers of Pakistan Army died in South Waziristan while the enemy lost just 6 lives. This makes no sense at all. With that sort of ratio the Army may win a hollow victory but at what cost? Already, the number of men our Army has lost in this ugly and hypocritical "war on terror" far exceeds the number of American deaths. Each time a few Americans die in Afghanistan, a wave of alarm sweeps the USA. But we go on sacrificing the lives of our soldiers in an irresponsible manner and then we console the grieving families through loud talk of their loved ones having attained the status of a "shaheed"! If fighting a proxy war for an imperialist power can give us "shahaadat" then our values have gone seriously awry!!
Some basic points which neither the Pakistan government nor the Army addresses are:
1. What, in your view, is the justification for the presence of USA forces in Afghanistan? And do you agree with the explanation that the USA gives for its presence in that country?
2. By the Americans' own admission, there are no "Al-Qaeda" people left in Afghanistan. If so, the Americans are simply fighting the Afghans who are resisting foreign occupation of their country. Why don't the Americans leave Afghanistan to the Afghans?
3. Who are the "Pakistani Taliban"? People with extreme religious views have always existed in Pakistan but they only became a threat to the security of Pakistan's citizens after the Americans had been in Afghanistan some 3-4 years. By the Army's own admission, the enemy weapons it has captured in Swat and South Waziristan were made in USA, India and some other countries, and they had been supplied to the enemy via Afghanistan, which is occupied by the USA forces! Pakistan's government needs to summon the USA ambassador and demand an urgent explanation for the supply of USA/Indian weapons to those attacking the Pakistani state. Similarly, General Kayani needs to make it crystal clear that there will be no further co-operation with the USA military until the supply of arms to the enemy is stopped and the supply routes are closed off.
Therefore, General Kayani, please STOP once you have defeated the enemy in South Waziristan and allow a national debate to take place in Pakistan's Parliament. Venturing into North Waziristan at the behest of the USA will mean ruin and dishonour for Pakistan because we will then be facing the Afghan Resistance against the American occupation of their country.
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