U.S. pushes Pakistan into abyss

The massive truck bomb that exploded Sept. 20 at the Islamabad Marriott hotel, killing more than 50 and injuring over 250, is the most recent manifestation of the many-sided political violence shaking Pakistan. It threatens the ruling powers and, more importantly, endangers the authentic mass social protest movement that brought down the decade-long authoritarian rule of Pervez Musharraf. The Pakistani cauldron includes: an armed Pakistani military and intelligence service that supports and attacks the Taliban fighters it itself founded in the 1990s; Islamic extremists waging war on both sides of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border; and self-aggrandizing/manipulative civilian political leaders maneuvering over state power. Within that cauldron, the Bush administration has chosen to take its "war on terror" to a new level.

U.S. TROOPS IN PAKISTAN

The New York Times reported in September that "President Bush secretly approved orders in July that, for the first time, allow American Special Operations forces to carry out ground assaults inside Pakistan without the prior approval of the Pakistani government." The first known assault involved more than two dozen Navy Seals spending several hours on Pakistani soil, possibly killing militants, but also civilian bystanders. The Pakistani government and military protested the secret assault, even though Pakistan's military at times works hand in glove with U.S. CIA and military officials. In late August, for example, a meeting was held on a U.S. aircraft carrier in the Indian Ocean attended by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Muller together with Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the chief of staff of the Pakistani Army.

U.S. political-military-economic interference in Pakistan dates back to Russia's occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s. The U.S. supplied billions of dollars, at first to arm Afghan fighters against Russia. Later, in 1994, Pakistan created the Taliban to intervene in the civil war that raged in Afghanistan after the Russian withdrawal. Taliban training camps, some no doubt funded by U.S. dollars, became poles of attraction for Islamic militants.

Then came 9/11/01 and everything changed. Or did it? Musharraf joined Bush's "war on terrorism," and billions more U.S. dollars flowed in. At the same time the Pakistani military and Inter-Services Intelligence agency played a double game. They took U.S. money and arms while launching selected attacks against Taliban fighters on their territory and, at the same time, gave help and free rein to other Taliban who crossed the border to launch attacks in Afghanistan.

After 9/11/01 the U.S. considered Pakistan "its" territory, not only for launching war in Afghanistan, but as a target itself. For several years the U.S., under CIA operations, has used Predator aircraft to fire missiles in Pakistan at suspected militants. The result has been many civilian casualties, particularly in the tribal areas. There is a growing resentment by the Pakistani masses against the U.S., both for the U.S.-NATO continued military occupation of Afghanistan seven years after the U.S.'s first invasion, and for the U.S.'s military-political manipulations within Pakistan, particularly its nine-year-long support of Musharraf 's authoritarian rule.

WHAT ABOUT PAKISTANIS?

This helped create a mass protest against Musharraf that intensified with Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry's principled stand against him. Tens of thousands of lawyers and supporters marched in the streets after Musharraf dismissed Chaudhry, helping to develop a mass protest movement which led to the end of Musharraf 's rule. It was one of the few times in the last decade when the voices and actions of the Pakistani masses could be heard and seen.

Are the hopes and desires of the Pakistanis to be again diverted in face of the reckless, endless "war on terror"? The U.S. is playing a dangerous game with Pakistani lives. On the one hand, it maneuvered with Musharraf and the "democractic" parties time and again; the latest being U.S. support of the new president, the corrupt Asif Ali Zardari, who inherited leadership of the People's Party after its leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated. Treating the party as her private property, Bhutto's will gave her husband Zardari control. With Musharraf removed, Zardari reneged on his agreement to restore Chaudhry to office, no doubt fearing the possibility of corruption charges.

On the other hand, and even more dangerous, the U.S. is playing with fire with the Taliban in Pakistan. The Pakistani Taliban is conducting its own war within, even as it is supported by elements of the Pakistan military in its other war in Afghanistan. In one tribal region of Pakistan the Taliban recently burned 130 girls' schools. Many of the recent suicide bomb attacks and the assassination of Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto last December have been attributed to the Taliban. Now we have the horrific massacre at the Marriott hotel in Islamabad.

Not satisfied with its nine-year support of Musharraf's authoritarian rule, the U.S. is continuing its seven-year war of occupation in Afghanistan, and escalating its military attacks against the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Pakistan. In truth, the U.S. escalation is paving the way for an unstable, chaotic Pakistan to fall into the abyss by opening the door wide for Islamic fundamentalism. It may well lead to a war on the people of Pakistan. Are their hopes and desires for freedom and peace to be smothered by "the war on terror"?

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