The Nation, Pakistan
Bush and CNN Signal New Violations of Pakistan Sovereignty

By Shireen M. Mazari   

September 23, 2006
Pakistan - The Nation - Original Article (English)

President Musharraf's revelation that the United States had threatened to "bomb Pakistan back to the Stone Age" makes official what many already knew. And the American arrogance continues, with President Bush declaring that if U.S. intelligence was sure that Osama bin Laden or other terrorist leaders were hiding here, the White House would unilaterally order military action inside Pakistan to take them out. The implication is that the U.S. would feel no need to either inform the Government of Pakistan, or seek its permission. This latest reflection of U.S. arrogance came during Bush's interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer.

Given the poor quality of U.S. intelligence, especially its human intelligence, and its misuse of intelligence, we in Pakistan should now expect, if politics in Washington so demand, the U.S. military to violate our sovereignty. After all, this is an election year for the Congress and Republicans are sliding in the polls. While the Foreign Office has stated that the United States cannot enter Pakistan to "hunt for Osama," to refute Bush's statement would require a response from the highest levels of our political and military leadership. Without such a rejoinder, even Karzai's bellicosity will increase - as was reflected in his speech before the U.N. General Assembly. Watch .

What is so ominous about Bush's statement is that it follows a two-week long campaign of Pakistan-bashing by CNN, with one newsreader referring to Pakistan as Qaedastan. Up to now, the Government of Pakistan has made no protest nor taken any action to deal with CNN's Nic Robertson, the journalist most responsible for distorting facts and reporting half-truths while reporting from Pakistan itself. In fact, one hears that Mr Robertson is given extensive access in Islamabad, both political and in terms of protocol. In any case, it is clear that CNN's propaganda blitz against Pakistan was timed to create the proper media environment for Bush's statement - and most likely Karzai's statement to the U.N. General Assembly.

What are we coming to? Despite our military strength and our overall power potential, we seem to suffer from a debilitating lack of self-confidence. Therefore, all and sundry from abroad can abuse and attack us, even as we overreact to domestic voices of dissent. American generals and politicians feel that Pakistan is fair game, as they intervene in our internal affairs to criticize us as and when they choose.

And we seem to be adopting a strangely Christian posture of turning the other cheek - something that the Christians themselves abandoned long ago. The latest intrusion into our internal affairs is the chorus of U.S. generals and politicians that have spoken out against a peace agreement between the government and tribal elders [In North Waziristan Agency]. As NATO's Commander in Afghanistan General James Jones warned in the now-familiar style of U.S. arrogance, he and his men were "closely watching" the results of this pact. The defeated U.S. presidential candidate of 2004, John Kerry, and Senator Biden, have been more scathing in their criticism of the deal. Have we bothered to respond strongly to these gentlemen, and told them to stay out of our internal affairs? Of course not!

Under these circumstances, we should be clear about where all this is leading. NATO and U.S. military in Afghanistan want to deflect attention from its failures by focusing on Pakistan, making a U.S. military incursion into Pakistan quite likely. After all, they have done so before and never expressed one iota of an apology or regret, after they managed to bomb and kill only civilians. So as the going gets even rougher for NATO and the U.S. military in Afghanistan and for the Republicans in Washington, Pakistan may be victimized and face an American military incursion onto our territory. The political and propaganda ground is certainly being prepared for such an action.

We have the wherewithal to counter such a move, but will we do so on military terms? Unless we do, our sovereignty will continue to be willfully undermined from across the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. What then was the purpose of acquiring a stable deterrence and a strong military? It must have been a proud moment for Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, to stand proud before the international community in the U.N. General Assembly, and call a spade a spade. Watch .

And it's not just Pakistan that seems to suffer from a confidence deficit. Most Muslim states appear to be in the throes of this ailment - with a few notable exceptions such as Iran. That is why Muslims feel lost. And that's why non-Muslim states and their political leaders are trying to harass their Muslim populations.

It seems Britain has gone the furthest by declaring Muslim thought, which may contemplate violent responses to American abuse, as actual terrorism, although nothing beyond thinking had actually taken place. Worse still, the British Home Secretary has now asked Muslim parents to effectively spy on their children. Why has he not asked British parents in general to do the same? Can one even begin to imagine the psychological pressure he is putting on British Muslim children? He is probably seeking to put so much pressure on them that they actually leave Britain for good! Perhaps it is time for the British government to realize that the root cause of the radicalization of British Muslims. The blame goes mainly in their faulty foreign policy, which is quickly degenerating into the simple targeting of Islam and Muslims - and partly on the social marginalization of Muslims. Perhaps the British, including British NGOs, which are so eager to tell us of how our political set up is causing terrorism in Balochistan and so on - should do some introspection themselves.

Unless Muslim states and civil societies stand up for themselves and cure their guilt-ridden post-9/11 defensiveness, they will continue to be abused and attacked at will by a neoconservative U.S. agenda backed by loyal allies like Blair's Britain and the present regime in the Vatican.

It isn't a matter of moderates versus extremists. If the majority of moderate Muslims are threatened by extremists from within, they are threatened equally from the outside by the intolerant forces of the Christian West led by President Bush.

So, just as we need to fight the anti-modernists amongst us, we also need to fight the political-religious anti-moderns from outside. The war has just begun and will be waged on all fronts. But it begins by reasserting our self-confidence and believing in our ability to resist all threats from all sources. When will our leaders rise to the challenge? Their strength, in the final analysis, comes from within.