Demonizing Pakistan

[Pak123]

After the Times Square case, US pundits took to the airwaves to malign Pakistan for an act committed by a US terrorist. This was a gift from God to DynCorp and Blackwater, reaffirming that America must continue a failed war.


ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—It has finally taken a US Republican Senator to see some sense and admit that there was no proof of any Taliban connection with Faisal Shahzad, and that the Obama Administration has been making its statements in this connection purely on conjecture.

According to the top Republican of the Senate Intelligence Committee, US intelligence had no real proof of any Taliban link at all.

This is what the Pakistanis have been saying all along, including the Pakistan military. The TTP itself has stated it had no link with Shahzad, nor had it trained him. Given how the TTP routinely lay claim to terror acts across the world with no hesitation, and often when they are not involved even, if they had denied any linkage to Shahzad that denial should have been given some credibility.

However, the US Administration, for its own purposes, was so desperate to malign Pakistan and Pakistanis as monsters that it behaved in a most irresponsible manner towards an ally that has had its citizens shed their blood for the US cause. In the process, they have undermined the safety and security of thousands of Pakistani students and others living in the US; they have publicly and wrongfully sought to portray Pakistanis in a dangerous light and have almost forgotten that Shahzad is an American citizen.

Ironically, in an effort to demonise Pakistan and Pakistanis, they have also conveniently forgotten that none of the 9/11 terrorists were Pakistani or had lived in Pakistan. But such sensitive details are lost on a US Administration that effectively is following the Bush policies on Pakistan.

Unfortunately, some US apologists in Pakistan have also been quick to jump on this US bandwagon and tried to show how middle class Pakistanis are all anti-American and capable of carrying out terror attacks against the US! No one is interested in the truth and all Pakistanis now are deemed to be guilty till proven innocent as far as the US is concerned. That is why the New York transport authorities (MTA) saw it fit to put out an advertisement directly targeting Pakistanis, which has since been removed from some places but not totally.

The worst part is that Mrs. Clinton as well as the US Attorney General who made the strongest Shahzad-TTP linkage in his statements have not seen fit to either concede this mistake or apologise to the Pakistani people for their histrionics and accusations. As for the haste in declaring the Shahzad-TTP link, clearly it had a purpose. It was intended to push Pakistanis into acceding to more unreasonable demands from the US - such as an immediate commencement of the military operation by the Pakistan Army in NWA and the increase in US troops on the ground in Pakistan. All this has also been accompanied by increased drone attacks on FATA. Meanwhile, Pakistanis stand maligned and abused; but who gives a damn?