[Peace-discuss] The war between the U.S. & Pakistan

[C. G. Estabrook]

  And, as usual, we have to ask why this story appears now. The spin from 
Washington is the perfidy of the Pakistanis...

The US has been concerned about controlling Pakistan for some time, as part of 
its general policy of controlling Mideast energy resources.  (Pakistanis reject 
with heat the notion that their country is part of the Mideast, but from the US 
POV it is: look at CENTCOM's AOR - "Area of Responsibility".)  It used Pakistan 
to PROMOTE jihadism as a counter to the USSR and furthermore helped Pakistn to 
develop nuclear weapons, outside th NPT.

General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq was president of Pakistan 1977-88. After helping to 
defeat the Palestinians in the Black September in Jordan military operation in 
1970, he was appointed Chief of Army Staff in 1976 by Prime Minister Zulfikar 
Ali Bhutto - whom he overthrew in a bloodless coup d'état in 1977; two years 
later, he had Bhutto (the father of Benazir "Pinky" judicially murdered. Zia's 
consolidted the nuclear program, initiated by Bhutto, and promoted Islamization. 
With the Carter adminstration he subsidized of the Mujahideen movement before 
and during the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Pakistan developed nuclear weapons, outside the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), 
thanks in no small measure to Ronald Reagan, who pretended not to see what his 
ally was doing. This was one element of Reagan's "unstinting support" for the 
"ruthless and vindictive" dictator Zia ul-Haq, whose rule had "the most 
long-lasting and damaging effect on Pakistani society, one still prevalent 
today," the highly respected analyst Ahmed Rashid observes. With Reagan's firm 
backing, Zia moved to impose "an ideological Islamic state upon the population." 
These are the immediate roots of many of "today's problems - the militancy of 
the religious parties, the mushrooming of madrassas and extremist groups, the 
spread of drug and Kalashnikov culture, and the increase in sectarian violence."

The Reaganites also "built up the [Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, ISI] 
into a formidable intelligence agency that ran the political process inside 
Pakistan while promoting Islamic insurgencies in Kashmir and Central Asia," 
Rashid continues. "This global jihad launched by Zia and Reagan was to sow the 
seeds of al Qaeda and turn Pakistan into the world center of jihadism for the 
next two decades." Meanwhile Reagan's immediate successors left Afghanistan in 
the hands of the most vicious jihadis, later abandoning it to warlord rule under 
Rumsfeld's direction. The fearsome ISI continues to play both sides of the 
street, supporting the resurgent Taliban and simultaneously acceding to some US 
demands.

A "fundamentalist Sunni dictator," Zia died along with several of his top 
generals and then-United States Ambassador to Pakistan Arnold Lewis Raphel in a 
suspicious aircraft crash on 17 August 1988. Perhpas life imitated art: there 
were more thatn enough elments who wanted Zia ddead (including perhaps the CIA, 
so a "Murder on the Orient Express" scenario may have developed.  Or it may have 
been an accident.

The result was large nuclear armed military state, able to thwart US wishes in 
the region; the US war in AfPak is largely an attempt to control Pakistan.

On 8/24/10 8:38 AM, David Green wrote:
> The events surrounding Mr. Baradar's arrest have been the subject of debate 
> inside military and intelligence circles for months. Some details are still 
> murky - and others vigorously denied by some American intelligence officials 
> in Washington. But the account offered in Islamabad highlights Pakistan's 
> policy in Afghanistan: *retaining decisive influence over the Taliban, 
> thwarting archenemy India, and putting Pakistan in a position to shape 
> Afghanistan's postwar political order.*
> http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/23/world/asia/23taliban.html?_r=1
>
>
>
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