[Peace-discuss] Obama orders killing in Pakistan

[C. G. Estabrook]

	Published on Sunday, May 17, 2009 by Winnipeg Sun
	US Stirs a Hornet's Nest in Pakistan
	by Eric Margolis

PARIS - Pakistan finally bowed to Washington's angry demands last week by 
unleashing its military against rebellious Pashtun tribesmen of North-West 
Frontier Province (NWFP) -- collectively mislabelled "Taliban" in the West.

The Obama administration had threatened to stop $2 billion US annual cash 
payments to bankrupt Pakistan's political and military leadership and block $6.5 
billion future aid, unless Islamabad sent its soldiers into Pakistan's turbulent 
NWFP along the Afghan frontier.

The result was a bloodbath: Some 1,000 "terrorists" killed (read: mostly 
civilians) and 1.2 million people -- most of Swat's population -- made refugees.

Pakistan's U.S.-rented armed forces have scored a brilliant victory against 
their own people. Too bad they don't do as well in wars against India. Blasting 
civilians, however, is much safer and more profitable.

Unable to pacify Afghanistan's Pashtun tribes (a.k.a. Taliban), a deeply 
frustrated Washington has begun tearing Pakistan apart in an effort to end 
Pashtun resistance in both nations. CIA drone aircraft have so far killed over 
700 Pakistani Pashtun. Only 6% were militants, according to Pakistan's media, 
the rest civilians.

Pashtun, also improperly called Pathan, are the world's largest tribal people. 
Fifteen million live in Afghanistan, forming half its population. Twenty-six 
million live right across the border in Pakistan. Britain's imperialists divided 
Pashtun by an artificial border, the Durand Line (today's Afghan-Pakistan 
border). Pashtun reject it.

Many Pashtun tribes agreed to join Pakistan in 1947, provided much of their 
homeland be autonomous and free of government troops. Pashtun Swat only joined 
Pakistan in 1969.

As Pakistan's Pashtun increasingly aided Pashtun resistance in Afghanistan, U.S. 
drones began attacking them. Washington forced Islamabad to violate its own 
constitution by sending troops into Pashtun lands. The result was the current 
explosion of Pashtun anger.

I have been to war with the Pashtun and have seen their legendary courage, 
strong sense of honour and determination. They are also hugely quarrelsome, 
feuding and prickly.

One quickly learns never to threaten a Pashtun or give him ultimatums. These are 
the mountain warriors who defied the U.S. by refusing to hand over Osama bin 
Laden because he was a hero of the anti-Soviet war and their guest. The ancient 
code of "Pashtunwali" still guides them: Do not attack Pashtun, do not cheat 
them, do not cause them dishonour. To Pashtun, revenge is sacred.

HAM-HANDED

Now, Washington's ham-handed policies and last week's Swat atrocity threaten to 
ignite Pakistan's second worst nightmare after invasion by India: That its 26 
million Pashtun will secede and join Afghanistan's Pashtun to form an 
independent Pashtun state, Pashtunistan.

This would rend Pakistan asunder, probably provoke its restive Baluchi tribes to 
secede and tempt mighty India to intervene militarily, risking nuclear war with 
beleaguered Pakistan.

The Pashtun of NWFP have no intention or capability of moving into Pakistan's 
other provinces, Punjab, Sindh and Baluchistan. They just want to be left alone. 
Alarms of a "Taliban takeover of Pakistan" are pure propaganda.

Lowland Pakistanis repeatedly have rejected militant Islamic parties. Many have 
little love for Pashtun, whom they regard as mountain wild men best avoided.

Nor are Pakistan's well-guarded nukes a danger -- at least not yet. Alarms about 
Pakistan's nukes come from the same fabricators with hidden agendas who brought 
us Saddam Hussein's bogus weapons.

THE REAL DANGER

The real danger is in the U.S. acting like an enraged mastodon, trampling 
Pakistan under foot, and forcing Islamabad's military to make war on its own 
people. Pakistan could end up like U.S.-occupied Iraq, split into three parts 
and helpless.

If this continues, at some point patriotic Pakistani soldiers may rebel and 
shoot the corrupt generals and politicians on Washington's payroll.

Equally ominous, a poor people's uprising spreading across Pakistan -- also 
mislabelled "Taliban" -- threatens a radical national rebellion reminiscent of 
India's Naxalite rebels.

As in Iraq, profound ignorance and gung ho military arrogance drive U.S. Afghan 
policy. Obama's people have no understanding what they are getting into in 
"AfPak." I can tell them: An unholy mess we will long regret.

© 2009 Winnipeg Sun

Eric Margolis is a columnist for The Toronto Sun. A veteran of many conflicts in 
the Middle East, Margolis recently was featured in a special appearance on 
Britain’s Sky News TV as “the man who got it right” in his predictions about the 
dangerous risks and entanglements the US would face in Iraq. His latest book is 
American Raj: Liberation or Domination?: Resolving the Conflict Between the West 
and the Muslim World

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/05/17-6