In the aftermath of Mumbai tragedy Saeed Minhas writes from Islamabad:
Reading ‘the sovereignty dodge’ written by Robert Kagan of Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in The Washington Post, my mind had the flashes of the then secretary of state in the first Bush Jnr. administration Gen. (Retd) Colin Powel showing satellite pictures to the UN special session convincing the world that Iraq has massive loads of weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
The power pointed surveillance show of Powell not only made him repent showing the ‘artifacts’ of the FBI whiz kids but also proved to the world till today that sans WMDs, Americans and coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan have found everything else from dead bodies, mass graves to hatred for America and economic woes for the common Americans and the world. With power comes the responsibility and that is the only thing which Bush administration seems to have forgotten with impunity since deadly attacks of 9/11. Belittling of the UN, over powering the Iraq and Afghanistan with sheer brute force and unmatched airpower, was what we have witnessed so far since 2001.
The ‘Great Game’ of the neo-cons, if we may call it ‘Great Brutal Game’ of our generation, seems to be heading towards its logical conclusions where the world powers first destroyed the very concept of nation state and then gave the concept of the ‘earned sovereignty’ not the ‘assumed sovereignty’ and now seems to be groping the dark in utter confusion.
If Robert Kagan really wants to trace this game then we have to jog through our memories and revisit the 1979 and not the 9/11 when the neo-cons jumped on the chance of ending the four-decade of cold war and allied with the obnoxious dictatorship of Zia ul Haq in Pakistan.
If everything is fair in war and love then Americans came to Pakistan to achieve their ‘national interest’, and military junta of Pakistan felt free to grab the almost dying notion of pan-Islamism. It was the infamous Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) not the Pakistan army which was given a task to humiliate Soviets in Afghanistan and they did it as per the asking of the CIA. It was at that time that Pakistan became from a liberal and advanced thinking nation to a quasi-theological state.
Least interested in its land and people but only in its geographical nuisance, Washington allowed all this to happen and allowed Zia ul Haq to use or abuse religion and make Pakistan a hub of jihadists of the world and a battlefront for the glory of Islam.
Yes, the world is crying hoarse now that Pakistan is a problem and headache for the world and I agree that it has become one but 170 million people living in this land wants the world to know that this uni-polar world, the US-centric world made Pakistan what it has become now — a migraine for the world in the words of Madeleine Albright.
Now whether we rebuke Washington or its western allies or not it hardly makes any difference but we have to agree that we all have been complacent and allowed the monsters to grow with our own dollars and weapons. Finger pointing at this stage is only going to lead us to confusion where instead of any table-talks weapons will start talking and that for sure neither Washington nor its allies could afford at this time. It is a multi faceted issue and needs multi pronged approach with multi-national coalition.
President-elect Obama does not have a choice but to weigh in heavily but only after consulting all the players who have contributed in this Great Ugly Game including the victims of the game. Be it Russia, China, Iran in the region or Britain, France and Germany in Europe or Saudis and even Libya from the Arab world, all have a stake in the situation. We are no more living in 70s or 80s, its new millennium. Russian bear seems to have come out of its slumber and after successful Georgian venture is heading with nuclear deals to Venezuela and other anti-American lobbies, Chinese have its own well-protected economic and geographic fortress and stakes in the region, and India due to its size and consumer attraction has an appeal for the corporate powers of the world. Given the economic melt-down and the internal weaknesses and given the assumption a chance that the game-playing era is over, can Washington or for that matter the world afford an Indo-Pak war? Or can Washington think straight and help convince all the stake-holders to show restraint and draw a common strategy to combat terrorism just like it was seeking a joint strategy on economic recovery with the G-20 leaders?
Leaving this on the nuclear armed neighbors to deal with will be identical to turning its back on Pakistan after 1989 when the loads of stringer-missile-laden jihadists were garlanded into Pakistan and Talibanization was emerging as a phenomenon.
This really is time to re-draw world peace by using all the forums like European Union, SAARC, Arab League, ASEAN, African Union and of course by redefining the UN, and all international monetary organizations. If Washington can go from capitalism to socialism with a US $ 700 billion bail-out plan, then for the world peace it might consider revisiting its approach for the six billion living human beings. Otherwise, history might take its own turn to redefine the maps, logics and definitions from the debris of the world.