Baibars_1260
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The 1971 Civil War Psychological Syndrome, and how to beat it !
( Note: The intention of this opening post is not to discuss the causes of our Civil War and its military history , but the aftermath, and most important how we should handle the psychological impact on the generation today )
Most Pakistanis who personally experienced the Civil War of 1971, are either dead, or too old to care reliving or relating their experiences. The survivors are tired and silent. No one will listen to them as they fade away. Not even their own heirs or children.
Much of what dispassionate and neutral historians wrote is either inaccessible to the generation born after 1971. With the trillions of dollars backed Social Media industry, and its electronic footprint the younger generation has a significant attention deficiency problem, and would rather read a four line social media post, than a 500 page book written by a professional researcher. Very few books are available on the click of an internet search engine button and no one would have the patience to read them.
With a dominance over the Social Media our enemy is attempting the greatest psychological experiment in history in imbuing an entire generation with guilt, despair and frustration over a "historic defeat and humiliation." Likewise the enemy is also imbuing its own younger generation with extreme jingoism and religious fundamentalism reliving a glorious victory of a "1000 year revenge".
Pakistan is not the only nation in the world to have faced a Civil War, and military intervention by a hostile power. Other nations, U.K., U.S.A, Russia, China, Spain, Lebanon, Sudan, Ethiopia to name a few, have all faced Civil Wars. The Partition of British ruled India itself was a Civil War of sorts. Pakistan is the only nation that tortures itself over a Civil War, which actually was only waged and lost over a dog leg "swamp" that was artificially linked 1000 miles away. There are several parallels to this situation such as the French and Algerian connection, which we can discuss in later posts.
Other nations far bigger and more powerful than Pakistan have faced far more humiliating military defeats with far more reaching geo-political consequences and have moved on both psychologically and materially.
1. India was decisively defeated by China in 1962, with loss of territory that completely altered the geo-strategic equation.
2. The USA lost the "anti-communist" war in Vietnam ( 1975 ) leading to concessions to China.
(Paracel, and Spratly Islands, and later Hong Kong ).
3. The Soviet Union lost the war in Afghanistan and broke up (1988 ).
All resilient nations recover from the trauma of a Civil War and military intervention / defeat. Japan and Germany are the best examples.
Yet , no nation suffers from a psychological impact of a Civil War that had a relatively minor impact on it military capabilities as Pakistan
The psychological impact (quite evident on the PDF) of this social media manipulation is remarkable. When discussing Pakistan's history, social, and current affairs, almost every second or third thread contains the "magic" numerals "1971" in posts by members.
These magic numerals are used by both our enemy "guests", our former brethren,our very own patriots, fervent religious propagandists, ethnic nationalists and above all by self flagellating self hating fellow countrymen.
Let's take a look at how this "magic " number "1971" is used:
1. Our enemy uses 1971 to remind us that we are "vanquished defeated" nation and we will be defeated again this time on our own territory. This is feeding a dangerous delusion in the minds of the younger generation that might result in a very undesirable result for their nation.
2.Our former brethren and ally of our enemy reminds us of "1971" as a combination of the following :
(a) Their martial prowess and military strength is superior to ours since they won the Civil War.
(b) We are barbarians and savages who carried out massacres, rapes, and destruction during the Civil War for which our armed forces personnel need to be turned over for trial and execution as "war criminals ".
(c) We need to acknowledge our guilt and apologize ( Delhi agreements of 1973, 1974 don't count. We must live in shame forever.
(d) We need to surrender 50% of all our financial, and military ( air, naval, armored) , assets as a "division" following the conclusion of the war.
(e) It is all our fault.
3. Our fervently religious patriots attribute our Civil War loss to the fact that we were not "good Muslims ", abandoning the spirit of the Ummah, and thus incurring divine displeasure. This despite the fact that most Muslim majority nations supported us during our Civil War in a display of Ummah solidarity never seen since. But for their support India would never have made the humbling concessions it did, swapping captured territories, and releasing ( and exchanging POWs ).
4. Our ethno-nationalist insist that the Civil War was the result of racial disparity of our former brethren who were more culturally compatible with our enemy than with their Western wing countrymen ; ignoring the fact that cultural similarities with populations of two other neighbor countries have so far not produced a secessionist movement that remotely resembles the situation in 1971.
5. Self hating liberal democrats use the Civil War as a stick to beat
our armed forces reminding them of their "defeat" , and ignoring the fact that but for the brilliant performance of our armed forces in the West Pakistan would have been dismembered further with the loss of Azad Kashmir.
6. Patriots ( Type 1) constantly remember primarily the enemy involvement in the Civil War. It is the enemy on whom the blame lies, and our former brethren are entirely innocent, ; our own follies not withstanding.
We must therefore :
(a) Restore the faith and trust in our former brethren and take back our territory.
(b) Avenge 1971 by causing an enemy territory to secede.
7. Patriots (Type 2):
We will never forgive, never forget the treachery of our former brethren, We will never forgive, never forget, the "defeat" our enemy inflicted on us and we will avenge even if it takes 1000 years, or even if we mutually annihilate each other.
In the subsequent posts let us look at the immediate aftermath of the civil war, the present and the future.
Facing the facts will help us rid us of the psychological trauma we suffer every time we visit a social media site, or forum. Our enemy would like nothing better than to damage our sense of nation hood forever. We can't be defeated militarily but we can be defeated psychologically.
( Note: The intention of this opening post is not to discuss the causes of our Civil War and its military history , but the aftermath, and most important how we should handle the psychological impact on the generation today )
Most Pakistanis who personally experienced the Civil War of 1971, are either dead, or too old to care reliving or relating their experiences. The survivors are tired and silent. No one will listen to them as they fade away. Not even their own heirs or children.
Much of what dispassionate and neutral historians wrote is either inaccessible to the generation born after 1971. With the trillions of dollars backed Social Media industry, and its electronic footprint the younger generation has a significant attention deficiency problem, and would rather read a four line social media post, than a 500 page book written by a professional researcher. Very few books are available on the click of an internet search engine button and no one would have the patience to read them.
With a dominance over the Social Media our enemy is attempting the greatest psychological experiment in history in imbuing an entire generation with guilt, despair and frustration over a "historic defeat and humiliation." Likewise the enemy is also imbuing its own younger generation with extreme jingoism and religious fundamentalism reliving a glorious victory of a "1000 year revenge".
Pakistan is not the only nation in the world to have faced a Civil War, and military intervention by a hostile power. Other nations, U.K., U.S.A, Russia, China, Spain, Lebanon, Sudan, Ethiopia to name a few, have all faced Civil Wars. The Partition of British ruled India itself was a Civil War of sorts. Pakistan is the only nation that tortures itself over a Civil War, which actually was only waged and lost over a dog leg "swamp" that was artificially linked 1000 miles away. There are several parallels to this situation such as the French and Algerian connection, which we can discuss in later posts.
Other nations far bigger and more powerful than Pakistan have faced far more humiliating military defeats with far more reaching geo-political consequences and have moved on both psychologically and materially.
1. India was decisively defeated by China in 1962, with loss of territory that completely altered the geo-strategic equation.
2. The USA lost the "anti-communist" war in Vietnam ( 1975 ) leading to concessions to China.
(Paracel, and Spratly Islands, and later Hong Kong ).
3. The Soviet Union lost the war in Afghanistan and broke up (1988 ).
All resilient nations recover from the trauma of a Civil War and military intervention / defeat. Japan and Germany are the best examples.
Yet , no nation suffers from a psychological impact of a Civil War that had a relatively minor impact on it military capabilities as Pakistan
The psychological impact (quite evident on the PDF) of this social media manipulation is remarkable. When discussing Pakistan's history, social, and current affairs, almost every second or third thread contains the "magic" numerals "1971" in posts by members.
These magic numerals are used by both our enemy "guests", our former brethren,our very own patriots, fervent religious propagandists, ethnic nationalists and above all by self flagellating self hating fellow countrymen.
Let's take a look at how this "magic " number "1971" is used:
1. Our enemy uses 1971 to remind us that we are "vanquished defeated" nation and we will be defeated again this time on our own territory. This is feeding a dangerous delusion in the minds of the younger generation that might result in a very undesirable result for their nation.
2.Our former brethren and ally of our enemy reminds us of "1971" as a combination of the following :
(a) Their martial prowess and military strength is superior to ours since they won the Civil War.
(b) We are barbarians and savages who carried out massacres, rapes, and destruction during the Civil War for which our armed forces personnel need to be turned over for trial and execution as "war criminals ".
(c) We need to acknowledge our guilt and apologize ( Delhi agreements of 1973, 1974 don't count. We must live in shame forever.
(d) We need to surrender 50% of all our financial, and military ( air, naval, armored) , assets as a "division" following the conclusion of the war.
(e) It is all our fault.
3. Our fervently religious patriots attribute our Civil War loss to the fact that we were not "good Muslims ", abandoning the spirit of the Ummah, and thus incurring divine displeasure. This despite the fact that most Muslim majority nations supported us during our Civil War in a display of Ummah solidarity never seen since. But for their support India would never have made the humbling concessions it did, swapping captured territories, and releasing ( and exchanging POWs ).
4. Our ethno-nationalist insist that the Civil War was the result of racial disparity of our former brethren who were more culturally compatible with our enemy than with their Western wing countrymen ; ignoring the fact that cultural similarities with populations of two other neighbor countries have so far not produced a secessionist movement that remotely resembles the situation in 1971.
5. Self hating liberal democrats use the Civil War as a stick to beat
our armed forces reminding them of their "defeat" , and ignoring the fact that but for the brilliant performance of our armed forces in the West Pakistan would have been dismembered further with the loss of Azad Kashmir.
6. Patriots ( Type 1) constantly remember primarily the enemy involvement in the Civil War. It is the enemy on whom the blame lies, and our former brethren are entirely innocent, ; our own follies not withstanding.
We must therefore :
(a) Restore the faith and trust in our former brethren and take back our territory.
(b) Avenge 1971 by causing an enemy territory to secede.
7. Patriots (Type 2):
We will never forgive, never forget the treachery of our former brethren, We will never forgive, never forget, the "defeat" our enemy inflicted on us and we will avenge even if it takes 1000 years, or even if we mutually annihilate each other.
In the subsequent posts let us look at the immediate aftermath of the civil war, the present and the future.
Facing the facts will help us rid us of the psychological trauma we suffer every time we visit a social media site, or forum. Our enemy would like nothing better than to damage our sense of nation hood forever. We can't be defeated militarily but we can be defeated psychologically.
