Dear AgNoStIc MuSliM
Thanks very much for your thoughtful and logical response. I truly appreciate you investing the time and attention to articulate your views, I find them very informative, a great learning opportunity.
However I respectfully differ with the flow-down inferences from the revered concept of the State of Pakistan:
1. Whereas Pakistan State and its Constitution are absolutely uncontroversial (above board); the implementing framework is not.
a. Just because a corrupt traffic policeman receiving a Rs 200 bribe from me is wearing a Uniform sanctioned by the state, I cannot salute him with the reverence as I salute my Flag!.
b. Just because our Commander-in-Chief (President) is formally instituted under the States constitutional framework, that does not entitle him to a revered status even though he has served time for embezzlement and corruption.
c. Just because the Armed Forces are sanctioned under the States framework, it does not confer upon them the right to launch operations on their own soil (stated objectives are always very noble, even Pol Pot regime in Cambodia had noble objectives!).
2. State Constitution is the bed rock on which rest of the framework is anchored. Its been 36 years since we had the 1973 Constitution; 20 years under direct martial law, and the rest under Quasi martial law. Repeated amendments have mutilated the letter and spirit of Constitution.
3. It is a fact of life that since 2001 the Government of Pakistan has essentially forfeited its sovereignty to the USA. The Constitution of the State of Pakistan does not sanction:
a. Sale of its citizens to CIA/FBI
b. Or to facilitate drone strikes on its soil.
c. Hand over a serving Ambassador of another country to CIA for being interned in Guantanamo bay.
d. Abduction / Disappearance of hundreds of Pakistanis without a due judicial process.
e. Authorize the use of our airspace and resources to a foreign country to launch operations on our soil or that of neighbors.
4. The Constitution does not confer upon the Services the instutions:
a. Appointing serving Army Officers to run State institutions like KESC, PIA, CDA, Factories and even Cricket teams!.
b. Rapacious land grabs and commercial activities on the pattern of Lt. Gen. Zarrar Zameen, or others of his elk.
In a nutshell the State implementing machinery (Government) has lost its constitutional and moral authority.
The absence of the State taking on the TTP means we leave the people of SW to suffer under a barbaric and medieval regime imposed under force of arms by the Taliban. Torture, denial of freedom, extortion, the rape of innocent young minds as they are taken from their families to serve as cannon fodder for the Taliban, and brainwashed to blow themselves and other innocents up.
FATA has been managed under the draconian FCR (1901) by the corrupted nexus of Political Agents and selected Muajib Khwar Maliks. Taliban are essentially a reactionary force that swapped the ends on the rapacious system then in place. It is not possible to enforce ill conceived ideas on the tribal populace, unless you have some respectability and moral authority.
TTP menace did not rise overnight, it was carefully nurtured over years to CREATE a front in Pakistan where Musharraf regime can be seen as waging a valiant struggle against Al-Quaida.
In favor of the military operation, I would point out that the GoP has tried for nine years now various non-military options to end the insurgency and Taliban threat.
Taliban doctrine gained acceptability due to the misuse of the Armed forces in FATA since early 2002. It began with the ritual BALLI of tribal lives by Musharraf Government whenever a western dignitary passed by Pakistan. Jack Straw while visiting a Medrassah in Peshawar on a goodwill visit was told how expensive his goodwill
Damadola airstrike - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
On 13 January 2006 the Central Intelligence Agency fired missiles into the Pakistani village of Damadola (Urdu: ڈمہ ڈولا
in the Bajaur (Urdu: باجوڑ ) tribal area, about seven kilometres (4.5 miles) from the Afghan border, killing at least 18 people. Originally the Bajaur tribal area government claimed that at least four foreign members of al-Qaeda were among the dead. US and Pakistani officials later admitted that no al-Qaeda leaders perished in the strike and that only local villagers were killed.[1] The attack purportedly targeted Ayman al-Zawahiri, second-in-command of al-Qaeda after Osama bin Laden, who was thought to be in the village.
Hundreds of such incidents were repeated in Khyber, Mohmand, Orakzai, Bajaur, Waziristan till the fuel / air mixture had reached the right proportions. The ill conceived Lal Masjid operation ignited the mixture first in Swat (girl students burnt alive); and then a full scale conflagration. Taliban just emerged as the rallying point by default.
against the people participating in a mixed marathon in Lahore
You have absolute freedom to enjoy your black label, rave parties late into morning, and occasional ecstasy highs and ++, as long as you dont attack the sensibilities of the society. The mixed marathon was one of Musharrafs many hedonistic ideas (kinda enlightened moderation); essentially boycotted by the people of Lahore. Even Ch. Pervaiz Elahis family did not participate.
So while you have a right to disagree with the methodology of the State, I fail to see on what grounds you disagree, given that the State has attempted non-violent means already. Nor have you offered any new way to disband the Taliban militias that does not involve military action.
There is a sure shot way to disband the Taliban militias, by giving them due political space in accordance with the Constitution of Pakistan. To achieve that end you have to restore our FEDERALIST Constitution in its letter and spirit; with due judicial processes. Collective punishments and mass exodus is not sanctioned by any Constitutional provision. PAKISTAN HAS TO EMERGE AS A SOVEREIGN STATE IN ISLAMABAD FIRST!
I don't care who is paying for the operation or praising it - for the reasons outlined above, it is clear to me that the only way to safeguard the lives and freedom of Pakistanis in the long term is to eliminate the terrorist threat, whether it be in FATA, Punjab or Baluchistan, and given everything else that has been tried and the lack of viable alternative solutions, this is the only option left.
Dear Sir you know it very well that such simplistic outlook has got us where we find ourselves today. Even a Soap factory is managed with better dexterity than this. If this was a solution, you and I would have been enjoying a holiday in pacified Swat today (or even in 5 years).