John R. Houk
© June 16, 2011
You cannot tell me that Pakistan was harboring Osama bin Laden for years in protective comfort! The NY Times reports that a number of Pakistani informants relaying info to the CIA have been arrested by Pakistan. According to the NYT, one of the informants was a Pakistan army major.
Apparently the CIA is calling Pakistan on arresting informants for the CIA. Pakistan is quickly becoming exposed as an unreliable ally. Perhaps since the goal was to get the head of al Qaeda at the time of an Islamic terrorist attack on U.S. soil, it might be time to leave Afghanistan. Or perhaps there is a strategic purpose to be on Iran’s borders via Afghanistan and Iraq. In which case, American troops should secure strategic areas comparable to our enemy Iran. Then we can support Afghanistan’s current corrupt Karzai government only as it benefits American interests rather than Karzai’s interest.
Pakistan is becoming a villain in the Global War on Terror (GWOT) offering carrot and stick charity to the Taliban especially in Pakistan, but I have to assume also on the Afghanistan side of the border. Pakistan’s carrot and stick charity for the Taliban aids Pakistan’s National Interests and NOT America’s National Interest.
It would be to America’s National Interest to clandestinely search out Afghan leaders that have more care for an Afghan national government to benefit all its citizens rather than tribal exploitation competition. I am certain that is the attraction of the Taliban to many Afghanis. As ruthless and as purist Islam as the Taliban is, that Islamist collection of Muslims represent a consistent form of Islamic justice more than does the Karzai government which holds leadership mostly because of the power of American might. We need to find a collection of tribal leaders that do not appreciate the Taliban and is willing to work with the American government for a better Afghanistan rather than work for the American government based on monetary feudalism.
Apparently the Afghan tribal leaders are motivated by gain for their family areas of influence more than a sovereign Afghanistan nation among the global States unfortunately nominally aligned by the United Nations.
Let’s face it; there is a natural resource in the Middle East that drives the global economy. We all know that natural resource is petroleum. The oil rich nations of the Middle East and Muslim world are just as interested in keeping the global petro-economy flowing as they are to maintain any dar al-Islam beliefs of their region. Thus there are two big dog oil magnate nations in competition with each other: Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Iran is quickly pulling an Adolf Hitler by strengthening their regional military might. This military strengthening by Iran is mostly the result of technology exchanges and arms exchanges from Russia. Iran part of the exchange are petro-dollars and oil. Iran has already gone nuclear. If – probably when – Iran becomes a nuclear military power, a huge attribution will be due to the technological help of Russia.
Saudi Arabia has chosen the path of receiving military technology from America as well as American military support similar to America’s involvement as the big military dog of NATO. The irony is a significant amount of the Saudi Royal family are supportive of the purist Islam represented by the Islamist Wahhabi sect. Purist Islam takes it as a huge insult that the infidel/kafir (America) is deeply involved in Saudi Arabia’s defensive National Security.
This dar al-Islam (House of Islam) superiority complex against the dar al-Harb (House of War) individuals being on the holy Arabian Peninsula is an abhorrent offense. This is interesting since the Wahhabis think of themselves as Sunnis. Sunnis represent about 90% of Islamic thought. The other 10% is roughly the Shias. The two sects have a huge animosity toward each other over the succession of the Caliphate in the early days of Islam. I won’t go into the Sunni-Shia split except to say the Shias believe the Caliphate succession should be through the bloodline of the Islamic pseudo-prophet Mohammed.
Thus oil giants Saudi Arabia and Iran are vying for regional hegemony. The Saudis seem to like the status quo. The Iranians are thinking hegemonic control of oil to bring on the global economic chaos that will bring the clash of civilizations. The Twelver Shias of Iran (i.e. the Hojjatieh portion) expect chaos to bring back the occultic 12th Hidden Imam (the last known direct descendant of Mohammed) to manifest with Jesus and open up a medieval can of whup-ass on the kafir nations to bring Islam to the whole world. Sunni purists also have an apocalyptic picture that will bring one called the Mahdi (Short Version – Long Version) but the theology is different among Sunnis.
Now here is a scenario to think of. Sunni Saudis and Shia Iranians are vying for oil hegemony yet there is a nuke power in the region that has its own Interests above both the Saudis and Iranians. That nuke power is Pakistan.
Pakistan’s reason for becoming a nuke power originally has little to do with the dar al-Islam versus dar al-Harb thinking of purist radical Islam. Pakistan’s interests are to keep up with the hated Joneses next door; i.e. is the primarily Hindu nation of India. Pakistan and India hate each other with a passion and the two nations prepare their National Interests around being able to confront each other on an even basis. They kind of have a Cold War feel about them in which both nations ultimately rely on the old Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) military doctrine in order to NOT launch nukes at each other.
Pakistan was initially formed in 1949 as a secular State when the British gave India Independence. However, Independence did not result in one sovereign India. Rather India was divided with Hindu dominated India getting the bulk of the land mass and with Pakistan being given smaller (in comparison to India) land to the Northwest and Northeast of India but with nothing connecting both sides of the Pakistan nation. As time went on the portion called East Pakistan became dissatisfied with the rule of the government centered in the Pakistan of the West. Ultimately this resulted in independence for East Pakistan which included a new name more applicable to the language group living in the area – Bangladesh.
In case you were unaware, there were large minorities of Hindus in both Pakistans. Thus in 1949 there was a large population exchange between India and Pakistan of Muslims, Hindus and I believe Sikhs. Even after the exchange a large number of Hindus remained in the Pakistans and a large amount of Muslims remained in India. Islam became more and more radicalized in Pakistan and Bangladesh. This resulted in an exodus of Hindus that would otherwise live under threat of Sharia punishment for practicing their non-Muslim faith openly. Indeed this is part of the dispute between Pakistan and India today. When the 1949 division occurred there were a few semi-autonomous mini-nations under the protection of the British military. The order went out that forced these semi-autonomous regions to choose between forming with Muslim Pakistan and multi-religion but primarily Hindu India. The area of dispute became Kashmir. The area for hundreds of years had a Hindu Maharaja but a majority Muslim population. India claimed the area because the last Maharaja declared with India. Pakistan took umbrage because of the fact that the larger population was Muslim. Most of the problems that exists between India and Pakistan are around who should administrate Kashmir.
Then there is the issue of Muslim hate for Hindus in Bangladesh. Ethnic cleansing began in the future East Pakistan in 1947 with a large spike of genocide in 1971 (2.4 million) around the time East Pakistan became independent Bangladesh.
The point is radical Islamic factions in Pakistan have slowly garnered the hearts of the Pakistani populace with the secular minded Pakistanis quickly becoming the minority. This radical Islamizing is also mirrored in the Pakistani government in the form of byzantine struggles by the government bureaucracy, most notably Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). The ISI is supposed to be the big dialogue point between American Intelligence (particularly the CIA) and Pakistan in the GWOT.
The mixed bag of support and non-support from the ISI and the recent arrests of Pakistani citizens for being informants to the CIA relating to our recent raid inside a cushy compound for Osama bin Laden which resulted in his death might mean it is time to begin severing our close so-called relationship to Pakistan. Now I didn’t say abandon that relationship with Pakistan because there probably are a few venues that benefit both America’s National Interests and Pakistan’s National Interests. Nonetheless, it is time to dial back the trust with a Pakistan partnership to a big dose of trust but verify. Without verification of a deal we must stop the aid based on trust.
JRH 6/16/11
No comments:
Post a Comment