US war of terror in Iraq
Published: October 25, 2010

THE revelations in the 400,000 classified US military documents on the Iraq war, covering the period 2004-2009, by Wikileaks, are a damning indictment of the US. The civilian deaths and torture as well as the killing of women at US check posts, all caused and then concealed by the US military, show the real and murderous face of the US military supported by the US Administration. The numbers are staggering and reveal a virtual bloodbath of Iraqis by the US military in Iraq as well as the gross inhuman treatment and grisly torture meted out to Iraqi detainees.
The numbers in the tens of thousands are simply numbing and recall once again the inhuman and abusive side of the American state, especially its military which was also evident in Vietnam where one can still recall the horror of the napalm victims and the vivid picture of Vietcong being shot at point blank range by US soldiers. But the degree of the killings and abuse is on a totally new level in Iraq and it is almost difficult to take in at once – such is the brutality of what the US indulged in, in Iraq. It is as if 9/11 simply dehumanised the American state and we saw it in the Guantanamo prisoners’ treatment, the killing of Afghan prisoners at Qila Jhangi and the suffocating of more Afghan and other prisoners in Afghanistan in airless trucks. Add to this the use of daisy cutters and bunker buster bombs and there was no reason for the world to claim ignorance about what the US was all about in its so-called war on terror. But the world chose to look the other way and effectively gave the US carte blanche to kill, torture and indulge in a bloodbath of Muslims to avenge 9/11. Now the Wikileaks make it even more difficult for the world to continue being complicit in these killings by its silence.

The irony of all these revelations about the true nature of the US military should not be lost on Pakistan given how the US Administration has declared in a most hypocritical manner that it will not allow funds to be given to three units of the Pakistan army for their alleged abuse of human rights in FATA and Swat! While no one in Pakistan should condone this abuse of its own population by its army which is meant to serve the nation, and action should be taken if such charges are proven, it is not the place of the US to interfere in such matters – especially given its own shameful track record. Given the admission, finally, by the US State Department Spokesperson that US military aid to Pakistan is in the former’s own interest, it should have no business to decide where the aid will go and the Pakistan military should have made a strong rejoinder. Under the circumstances, the silence of the Pakistan military is as inexplicable as it is worrying.

Pakistanis lose, US wins
Published: October 26, 2010

JUST when one thought the Pakistan government, and especially the Pakistan military, had decided to see sense and refrain from committing to an operation in NWA, Foreign Minister Qureshi reveals that all is ready for exactly such an operation with 34,000 troops already deployed. The only thing is when the operation would begin – and that is the only decision that seems to have been left to the Army. So, once again, our rulers have succumbed to US pressure and will embark on another series of killings in NWA – that is, against more Pakistani citizens – at a time when the US is itself begun to move towards talks with the Taliban. In fact, NATO itself has been ferrying the Taliban to locations in Afghanistan in preparation for such talks and US Envoy Holbrooke has formally stated that the war in Afghanistan cannot be won militarily and talks with the Taliban would take place.
While one can understand this particular government’s desperation to prostrate itself before US diktat, it is inexplicable why the Pakistan Army would agree to undertake operations that will neither bring stability to the country nor resolve its own terrorism problem. All that will happen is that there will be more civil-military antagonism, especially in sensitive areas of the country. Meanwhile, the US will also succeed in isolating Pakistan from all Afghan Pushtuns fighting the US occupation forces in Afghanistan. So the US will talk to the Taliban while weakening them politically and shift the centre of gravity of their unsuccessful war into Pakistan’s FATA region while they make their exit.

Surely the Pakistan Army cannot be so ready to compromise the security and stability of the country for a few weapon systems from the US – especially when even these will not be state of the art and will be subject to use restraints by the US. The Americans have already informed the Indians that the weapons they will sell to Pakistan will have their assurance that they will not be used against India.
While there are serious question marks over the outcome for Pakistan of the just-concluded Strategic Dialogue – with no movement forward on a possible debt write-off , ROZs and market access – it would appear that once again the US got exactly what it wanted from this Dialogue. And the worst of it is that simply to renew what are dubious bonds with the US, the Pakistan military has conceded to undertake the NWA operation simply to help the US in its dialogue with the Taliban just as it had earlier shown its complicity in the drones policy which has killed thousands of innocent Pakistanis. It is time Pakistan’s decision and policy makers reverted to looking after Pakistan and its people’s interests first.

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Regards,
CHAIRMAN MAO