Al Qaeda's central front moves from Iraq to Pakistan
IN the brutal assassination of Benazir Bhutto, it appears that the shadow of Iraq has fallen over Pakistan.Just last week, Secretary of Defense Gate said al Qaeda was switching its focus from both Iraq and Afghanistan to Pakistan. Part of this is a natural reaction to the defeat it has had in both theaters. By focusing on Pakistan it protects its base and avoids direct combat with the US which was defeating its forces. Pakistan needs to quit resisting the US's direct help in defeating the Taliban and al Qaeda or it will suffer more turmoil.It's not clear whether Western intelligence has gathered any real hard evidence of a formal shift in priorities by the terrorists from Iraq to Pakistan. But from the perspective of murderous jihad, such a shift certainly makes sense - because al Qaeda has failed in Iraq and faces too many obstacles in Afghanistan.
As retired Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni told Time magazine this week, al Qaeda is shopping for a new battlefield. "I really think they're trying to ignite Pakistan into the kind of chaos they need to survive," Zinni says, "and create a fundamentalist, even radical, Islamic government."
Meanwhile, Al Qaeda in Iraq is confronted with the US-led surge under Gen. David Petraeus, the consolidation of the Shia-majority administration in Baghdad and the widespread disillusionment of Iraqi Sunnis with al Qaeda's introduction of Taliban ideology in their country under the pretext of anti-American resistance.
Bottom line: Al Qaeda in Iraq is on the run. And the obvious place for Qaeda terrorists to seek sanctuary is Pakistan.
The Bhutto family is Shia Muslim by origin and, as Iraq has taught the world, Sunni radicals hate Shias even more than they hate Jews and Christians.
Pakistan has provided considerable financial and human assets to al Qaeda and effectively handed over much of its northwest frontier to the Taliban. Pakistan has also attracted the tattered remnants of defeated groups like the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which once provided backup troops to the Taliban.
Pakistani jihadism is unique in its global reach. It's often forgotten that Pakistani armed combat groups have recruited local and foreign jihadists - including Americans who converted to Islam - to attack Indian forces in Kashmir. Islamists in the Pakistani communities abroad - especially in Britain - have been the main players in terrorism in Western Europe, the other region to which the terrorists have tried to move the jihad. Wahabi "lobby" organizations in the United States include many more prominent figures of Pakistani than Arab origin.
In shifting their focus from Iraq to Pakistan, the terrorist commanders must also have an eye on the most dangerous element in the global Islamic equation: Pakistani nuclear weapons, the existence of which cannot be denied. Pakistani nuclear engineer A.Q. Khan admitted providing atomic technology to North Korea, Iran and Libya.
The fatal attack on Bhutto was aimed not only at political reform in her country, but at her stated commitment to strengthen Pakistani action against the Taliban and local radicals and at Pakistan's support of the government of Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan.
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The comments in this article may be true, but the real issue or the threat in Pakistan is not so much from outside or from AlQaida, rather it is from inside with in existing administration, institutions such as intelligence services, interior ministeries, army and other law and enforcement and public services agencies. There is a significant minority in elite community, religious groups, political pundits, fudels, retired army generals, judges and other civil servents as well as war lords, Vaderas, maliks and others who has no accountability to the estate. They are running their own states and empires to protect and pursue their own agends and helping and serving extremist elements like Alqida and others. All this was made possible going back in 80s when Pakistan teamed up with US to fight in Afghanistan. US never looked at the real issues in Pakistan or in a broader canvas of islamic world. Its about time US stop looking for patchy and sticky solutions and get to the bottom of the problem. Beting on one strategic asset to the other by pouring huge amount of money with no accountability in Pakistan will not do any good to either Pakistan or US. The biggest looser in this context will ultimately be US, as Pakistan or Pakistani people don't have much to loose. As far as the political leadership of pakistan, the army, the feudel community, the industrialist and the religious pundits and clowns, they all got themslves covered with a backup forign passports in their pockets. Most of them if not all of them are on US / UK or Saudi or other countries payrolls or have some sort of personal alliances. The odinary middle and lower class will be the one who will suffer and may even aligned themslves with extremist forces in absolute desperation and as a last resort.
ReplyDeleteTherefore US should take a hard look at its forign policy and reassess and re-strategize. Most of your presidential candidates don't have the slightest clue of ground realities. Those who do have some understanding are using it for the domestic consumption.