Mr. Vanni Cappelli, credential as a freelance journalist are circumspect, specially since he also the president of the so called “Afghanistan Foreign Press Association” which is a front for the Tajik Norhtern Alliance in Afghnistan. His verbosity against Pakistan and for India stems from his stay in India as part of India Inc.
The Capppelli punditocracy is an admixture of discredited Neocon assertions, unsubstantiated, or outright distortion, and pure unadulterated Indian balderdash. His nauseating fixation upon and paranoid conspiratorial delusions about Pakistanis are a transparent attempt to justify the murderous rampage, carnage and barbarism faced by West Asia. The twaddle fails to illuminate the confusing deluge of eerily inept and counter-intuitive claptrap masquerading as fact in the clumsily stage-managed “global war on terror” environment.
The author’s selective amnesia fails to consider the fact that more than 1000 Pakistanis have died fighting the so called “war on terror”, and Pakistan has been a US ally since 1947. Pakistanis say “we don’t want your favors or your hate”. Leave Pakistan and Pakistanis alone.
The Pakistani people also have some questions for Congress. Pakistan paid $450 million for F-16s. She neither got the planes nor the money, and the planes were resold for additional Dollars to Pakistan. What kind of friendship is this?
More than 1000 Pakistani soldiers have died in the “war on terror”, but India got a Nuclear deal. What kind of friendship is this?
Pakistan has been an ally of the USA for more than 60 years, a cold war ally, a founding member of SEATO and CENTO and currently a Major Non-Nato Ally (MNNA). However Pakistan get lectures to “do more” while the USA is unable to crush her enemies in Afghanistan and the NATO soldiers are unable to provide security to the Mayor of Kabul, the incompetent Mr. Karzai. How about more democracy for the Pashtuns of Afghanistan.
Pakistan was instrumental in defeating the USSR, and liberating Afghanistan. As a reward Pakistan faced multi-faceted sanctions. What kind of friendship is this?
Israel got $30 billion in aid. Pakistan got peanuts for waging this war. What kind of friendship is this?
According to a report published in a US daily Pakistani officials said Pakistan received 1300 pairs of U.S.-made night-vision goggles that enable them to see and fight al-Qaeda and Taliban insurgents in the dark. The sophisticated goggles were supplied by the Bush administration at a cost of US $6.4 million.
But every three months, the troops had to turn in their goggles for two weeks to be inventoried, because the U.S. military wanted to make sure none were stolen, U.S. and Pakistani officials said. Militants perceived a pattern and scurried into the open without fear during the two-week counts.
Pakistani officials say that strict U.S. control over equipment and a failure to provide other equipment, such as spare parts, has impeded their ability to hunt down Taliban and al-Qaeda sympathizers, the report said. In addition to goggles, the U.S.-made attack helicopters are grounded for weeks because of parts shortages.
President Ayub Khan said it best in his book: We need “Friends Not Masters”.
Pakistan was the only state dismembered after 2nd word war. Pakistanis pledged “never again”. A.Q Khan and Pakistan’s clandestine nuclear program in the face of world sanctions was an achievement which prevents the enemies from crossing Pakistan’s borders ever again. Other countries like India, Korea, South Africa, Brazil, Argentina, Israel also ran similar secret programs banking on the under-word trade of arms and part. To blame Pakistan for all evils is ridiculous. The charges against A.Q. Khan were never proven and the Dutch court threw out the case. Pakistan has more than 30,000 scientists working on the programs. In other words Pakistan has 30,000 Khans. An entire University is dedicated to produce metallurgists every year. This was not a one man effort. Khan was Openheimer and Einstein combined for Pakistan’s “Manhattan Project”.
Pakistanis refuse to take foster parentage of the morass of foreign policy failures that perpetuate this cycle of blowback and violence. Empire building and Imperial hubris has repercussions.The powers to be have to think of the consequences of creating evil. The Frankenstein monster like Rabbi Eliyahu of Chelm‘s mythical “Golen” came after it’s maker. How many remember the lessons from the broomstick in The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.
We want to anathematize this mantra of “holding Pakistan responsible” for the actions of the scum that was nurtured in the augean stables of national corruption (CIA’s drug trade, First Afghan war against the USSR, Iran-Contra etc), trained as anti-communists in xenophobic camps during the 80s, and used as human cannon fodder against the USSR by the likes of the hedonistic Charlie Wilson who were luxuriating in leafy complexes on the Potomic.
Few political scientists have fully identified the inherent risks of direct US action in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan. Not only will this generate a tsunami of anti-Americanism, and anti-British feelings, this action will also push the miscreants to the urban areas of Pakistan destabilizing the country. Al-Qaeda will thrive in chaos and threaten the government and the people of Pakistan.
The push theory (pushing miscreants out of one area) does not work. When the Police raids a street gang on a street, they simply move over to the next street. The solution is a comprehensive plan to interdict drugs and create alternative employment for the youth. Similarly fighting terror is a two pronged strategy. An unstable Pakistan is bad for the entire planet. The solution is a massive “Marshall Plan” for Pakistan, which creates incentives for the people to earn a proper living. To start with, the US should abolish the quotas and subsidies on textiles. This will enhance Pakistani exports and provide jobs to the youth.
Action in Afghanistan pushed many people into the tribal areas of Pakistan. Pushing them out of FATA will push them deep into Pakistan. When an anti-Pakistan government was installed in Kabul, surely Pakistanis were not happy. The geo-strategic interests of Pakistan have to be taken into account. Neither the government, nor the people of Pakistan have signed up for indentured servitude to carry on the follies of a broken foreign policy that supports an incompetent and corrupt non-representative non-Pushton, minority “government” (actually institutionalized narco-warlordism) in Kabul. The NATO troops are teething on annihilation by the anti-occupation insurgent (wrongly labeled as “Talibaan”). All of Afghanistan is in revolt against the “occupiers”. All this has created immense problems for Pakistan, and Pakistanis are not too happy fighting Pakistanis……neither Musharraf nor anyone else supports Pakistanis fighting Pakistanis. The Tribal areas are “tribal”. They joined Pakistan under treaty obligations that allowed them total autonomy…that was the deal for joining the Federation. They have helped Pakistan for the past 60 years. The articles of the confederation of the constitution of Pakistan cannot be changed because of failed US policies in Afghanistan. NATO and America needs to build peace by wining the hearts and minds of Afghans not by cluster bombs and missiles.
Blaming someone else for the Neocon inspired foreign policy failures is a favorite pastime of losers in the USA. Blame China for the problems in North Korea, blame Libya for the issues in Chad, Blame Cuba for the anti-Americanism in Venezuela, blame Iran for the fiasco in Iraq, blame the Palestinians for the war in Israel, and blame Pakistan for the incompetence of the puppet Vichi like Karzai war lordism misnamed a “government” and the failures of NATO in Afghanistan. You can fool some of the people all the time, all the people some of the time, but not all the people all the time. The American people see thorough the smoke screen of demonizing all Muslims everywhere. America and world recognizes that the failed Neocon policies will not get better by blaming others.
Already all the roads to Kabul are in Talib control. America made a critical mistake in imposing a non-Pashtun Northern Alliance anti-Pakistan Karzai government in Kabul. Pakistan and Pashtuns will never tolerate a Northern Alliance government in Kabul. The worst thing America can do right now, is to invade the FATA areas. This will unite the Talibs as never before, and the fall of Kabul will be expedited.
American policy makers are blind to all this. Just like they never found WMDs in Iraq, they will never find OBL in Pakistan. Pakistani cooperation is crucial in this part of the world. They are destabilizing a country of 150 million people which will have long term consequences for India, China, the Central Asian republics and Iran. If attempts to destabilization continue, the “Plan for a new American Century” (PNAC) will be further discredited as Pakistan will join revolutionary Iran and create a nexus with the economic powerhouse China or even a resurgent Russia.
We need to develop a “Pull theory” which would pull the insurgents into more productive endeavors like employment and economic prosperity. The only solution is a “Marshall Plan for Pakistan and Afghanistan”. Build bridges, don’t blow them up.
“In the early 1900s, a crusty British general, Andrew Skeen, wrote a guide to military operations in the Pashtun tribal belt, in what is now Pakistan‘s North-West Frontier Province. His first piece of advice:
“When planning a military expedition into Pashtun tribal areas, the first thing you must plan is your retreat. All expeditions into this area sooner or later end in retreat under fire.”
After the British defeat in 1843, and the Russian defeat in 1980 a Russian General added “Bring plenty of body bags”
