Last night’s attack on PNS Mehran clears the fog and offers stark clarification about the sides in this war that ravages the nation. First of all, to everyone who continues to say that this is not our war, that there is a difference between TTP and al Qaeda and other militant groups, last night’s attack destroyed that lie for good. These groups may operate under different banners during individual attacks, but they have shared goals and when necessary they even share operations.
Well-placed sources in the Pakistani security agencies believe the Sunday night attack might be a jointly coordinated terrorist operation conducted by the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan and al-Qaeda to avenge the May 2 killing of Osama bin Laden.
Now we must ask why the terrorists chose their specific target. Attacking PNS Mehran was a suicide mission, that much is obvious, and it was a suicide mission targeting not drones or NATO supply lines. No. They attacked our defences against India.
Let’s pause for the message here. The Orions are supplied by the United States, something of a bribe for Pakistan’s counterterrorism aid. They play absolutely no role against al-Qaida: Orions hunt submarines — Indian submarines. It’s possible that the bin Laden killing prompted the Taliban to target any U.S.-supplied spycraft. But they attacked a navy base, not the Shamsi airfield used for the drone war. The Pakistani Taliban appear to be saying: Continue your alliance with the Americans, and your struggle with the Indians — Islamabad’s major strategic concern — will be a casualty.
What this means is that the militant groups are working as a united front to destroy Pakistan from within. To do this, they are even willing to destroy our ability to defend the nation vis-a-vis India. We do not have to believe this in theory, they have proven it in their own acts. Compare this with the actions of our so-called enemy America – after 26/11, the US increased military aid to build Pakistan’s defences against India.
Less than a year after the Mumbai terrorist attacks, the United States Mission in Islamabad urged Washington to commit $2 billion over a five-year period beginning April 2011 to enable the Pakistan military to address, among other security needs, its “growing conventional disadvantage vis-à-vis India,” in order to secure its cooperation in the “war on terror.”
The U.S. Government accepted the recommendation. A report in the Washington Post on October 22, 2010 said: “The Obama administration will ask Congress to expand military aid to Pakistan, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday, announcing a five-year, $2 billion package that would increase current financing for weapons purchases by about one-third.”
So who is the real enemy here? America that provided the Orion spy planes allowing us to detect Indian submarines, or the jihadis who destroyed them? The Americans who increased military supplies to strengthen our defences against Indian attack in response to 26/11, or the militants who attempted to provoke an Indian attack on Pakistan? Is our sovereignty threatened by American drones targeting foreign militants or foreign militants targeting our military bases?
Faisal Kapadia’s most excellent post for Dawn reflects my feelings exactly.
I think it’s about time that we as a country understand that our establishment engages in saber rattling because we are unwilling to accept the truth. After all if any one of us had a choice of getting the enemy from up above or sending troops on the ground where some of us might die, we all know which route we would ourselves choose don’t we? The pacifists can go on chanting their mantras of “we don’t need this American war” but we all know that the only way out of this is to finish those against this country by any means possible.
What I am not willing to see any longer is my land desecrated by the blood of my countrymen who are being slaughtered by foreign militants. I am not willing to let this constantly hanging sword of Damocles threaten mine and my loved ones security anymore. I am not willing to sit and cry over the Leaks which tell me what I have known all along. I want to see results and if they come at a faster rate with US involvement let’s go for it now, while there is still a Pakistan to fight for and save. Don’t you agree?
I do agree. 100%.
