By Irfan Siddiqui, published by the daily Jang
At this juncture, Richard Holbrooke, the US special ambassador for Pakistan and Afghanistan is on his tour to Pakistan, and there, in USA, in his first press conference after taking office, President Barack H. Obama said:
“there is no doubt that, in the FATA region of Pakistan, in the mountainous regions along the border of Afghanistan, that there are safe havens where terrorists are operating.
And one of the goals of Ambassador Holbrooke, as he is traveling throughout the region, is to deliver a message to Pakistan that they are endangered as much as we are by the continuation of those operations and that we’ve got to work in a regional fashion to root out those safe havens.
It’s not acceptable for Pakistan or for us to have folks who, with impunity, will kill innocent men, women and children. And, you know, I — I believe that the new government of Pakistan and — and Mr. Zardari cares deeply about getting control of the situation. We want to be effective partners with them on that issue.”
An important advancement in this context is that the President Obama has formulated a committee to review the ongoing US policy on Pakistan and Afghanistan. A former CIA official Bruce Rydal has been chosen for this purpose, who is engaged with a popular American think tank Brookings Institute now a day. According to White House spokesperson, Bruce Rydal will submit his report after taking in account, the military and non-military aspects of American policy about Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Visit of Richard Holbrooke still continues in Pakistan and thus far the positive conclusion of those discussions has come up in shape of formulation of a joint negotiations group. Both countries have also agreed to the point that terrorism will not only be fought through military means alone. Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has welcomed president Obama’s step to re evaluate the American policy for Afghanistan and Pakistan and said that the lack of ethics in American Policy will be hopefully covered now.
What is Al Qaeda? How we outline this entity? What have been the ingredients for its formulation? How it has been arranged? What is its administrative skeleton and infrastructure? The world has not been fully explained about it yet. For the first time it was fully explored immediately after 9-11 and now this imaginative phantom has become a strong reference to this so-called war on terror. Is there any Al Qaeda or not? The fact remain that an inferno is alight against America due to its muslim curtailing policies. Its involvement in Afghanistan has changed both sides of the picture across the Durand line. Everything that is happening; call it revolt, call it extremism, label it as terrorism, call it militancy and then blame it to Al Qaeda or Taliban. However, It is hard to negate the fact that this fire blazed after America’s intervention in the region and it should also be accepted that if there was any problem in Afghanistan and Pakistan, it has now been converted into an unstoppable storm due to arrival of American forces, mass murders in Afghanistan, and drone attacks in Pakistan and its high tides are not easy to tame. Before his arrival to Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke said in his address to International Security Conference in Munich that it would take a lot of time to control the Taliban resistance. Afghanistan was tougher then Iraq. He had not seen such a complicated situation in his life that allied forces were facing in Afghanistan.
An informed American ambassador has said that when stove of Afghanistan has been burning since last seven and a half years. America has used its vicious technology with full force against an enemy that has no organized army, no modern weaponry, no tanks, no guns, no air force, no missiles. It only has a soul and a head raising immortal spirit to live.
If war on terror was aimed to kill a few million people in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq, this mission is over. If this crusade started to end the extremism and terrorism in the world to make it peaceful, then we must know that this wish has become part of a pile of dirt and dry leaves now. The world has become more unsecure then before and the yield of extremism has spread till where the eyes can see.
Bush bid farewell as a symbol of embarrassment. Obama arrived at White House with a new spirit of change. It is rightfully said that American policies are controlled by their think tanks, powerful groups and effective lobbies. A single individual, may it be American president, cannot change them. But, this aspect holds weight that approach of an American president and his personality, however, influences the issues. If Bush can make this world a hell with his ignorance then it is not unpleasant to hope for a little bit of development from Obama, who chants for change and maintains a moderate approach. But it certainly does not mean that any high hopes should be kept about any revolutionary approach to be observed by Barack H. Obama in favor of Islam and Muslims. Because, the spirit of America still holds in the grasp of the Jews. But a possibility should also not be ignored that if American policies come out of misery of Bush’s tactics then highways of constructing the situation can be broadened enough.
After the American attack on Afghanistan, organization of issues came into the hands of those people, who were quite unaware of that particular sense of “morality” that was referred by Shah Mehmood Qureshi. One name was George W. Bush and the other was Pervez Musharaf. First one considered himself as the king of the world and the latter thought of himself as an emperor of Pakistan. Bush and his pawns had Musharaf encircled; and he, while, chanting the slogan of “Pakistan First” injected such bugs of diseases’ into the veins of Pakistan, which nobody knows, will take how long to cure. People thought that after elections of 18th February, formulation of a democratic movement and farewell of Pervez Musharaf would open the door to bring change in the obtuse policies of Pervez Musharaf. Nothing changed. New government proved to be the continuity of President Musharaf and it became ever easier for America to play with Pakistan’s independence and sovereignty.
Now it seems as Obama administration has itself felt the fruitlessness of American policies. Richard Holbrooke has come in the same context as what changes would be inevitable in “Bush-Musharaf policies” in order to get out of quicksand and make their efforts productive. Bruce Rydal, responsible to frame the organization of new policy has worked with three presidents and thoroughly understands south Asia. One BBC correspondent says that Bruce Rydal thoughts Kashmir as the key to resolution of Afghanistan issue. He strongly believes that till the Kashmir issue is resolved, Pakistan cannot concentrate fully on its western border.
This whole advancement means that with reference to the complex crisis of so called war on terror, Afghanistan, FATA and Swat, another new window of possibility is being opened up. Pakistani leaders should take advantage of this situation with full intelligence, prudence, strategy and courage. We should also form a high level forum to restructure our policy. This task can also be delegated to that joint committee of parliament which is already working under the supervision of Senator Raza Rabbani. If America is ready to listen anything then it should be made clear to them that this problem cannot be resolved even if they keep sitting here for 100 years and keep striking missiles for 100 years. This Inferno will engulf the whole earth. Obama has recently referenced a hadith of holy prophet (SAW) which states as; do not wish for anyone else what you do not like for yourselves. If America wants to see its cities populating, growing and joyous, it will have to get rid of its sick nature of converting others’ habitats into slaughterhouses.
It is the only permanent solution to the problem
