This ain’t my war

This ain’t my war

By Kamran Shafi

BUT before we go there a matter of the greatest import: the Commando’s latest pronouncements. In a press conference on Sunday, an angry, upset and cagey Pervez Musharraf announced the planned dissolution of the governments at the centre and the three provinces where ‘elected representatives’ rule, gave out the date before which elections should be held, and said that the so-called emergency (read martial law) will stay indefinitely.

He also used unkind language about My Lord Iftikhar Chaudhry and Benazir Bhutto when asked whether he was opposed to her or was her ally, she being a ‘popular leader’. While all in all it was a sorry performance, most instructive were the glum faces of the soon-to-be-made-redundant members of the cabinet. Do they know something we don’t?

This reminds me. Please, do see pictures of the most recent corps commanders’ meeting published in Sunday’s press and also one in the newspapers of Wednesday, Oct 17, showing the Vice Chief of Army Staff visiting troops in Miramshah. Instructive, you will agree.

Which, be as it may, what will Benazir do now? Will she follow Washington’s lead and merely ‘welcome’ the fact that Dubya’s ‘tight’ buddy has announced a date for the elections never mind that they can never be fair and free if conducted during martial law, without a free judiciary, without a free media and without the participation of Nawaz and Shahbaz Sharif? Or will she galvanise civil society and join the lawyers in their demand that the superior judiciary be restored under the able and courageous guidance of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry? I have always said Benazir is the smartest, most fearless politician around. Will she prove the point this time too?

And no sir, no matter that everyone including Charlie and his Aunt are going blue in the face trying to assert that the Great Debacle, also known in official Americanese as the Global War on Terror, is our war, it ain’t mine!

Not in the way it was stupidly (un) planned, not in the way it was prepared for, not in the way it is being prosecuted. In no way is it mine. Make no mistake, though. I am as opposed to the Talibanisation of my country as anyone else, for this is the only country I have; I am as against the obscurantist as the next man and I stand completely opposed to the religious extremist. But this isn’t my war.

I do not want anyone to tell my little daughter to wear this dress or that, to wear the hijab or not to wear one, to go to school or not. I don’t want anyone to force his or her way and thoughts and mores on anyone, let alone on my own daughter, or my wife, or I. But this is not my war!

I do not say this to merely score a point: I say it to caution restraint and to ask for a little more heart, slightly more common sense. For starters can our government, such as it is, make an immediate announcement that women and children and the unconcerned public which does not carry arms against the state are not the enemy?

That whilst they will not be targeted by government forces, it is highly regretted that some have already been killed and wounded? That many innocent families have already lost their homes and hearths and that the government of Pakistan and all its agencies including the Pakistan Army sincerely regret their losses? And will make them up after a properly conducted survey?

Also could new Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) be established for the new dangers that our troops face in the field? Such as suicide bombers coming into close proximity of troops and threatening to detonate their explosive laden vests if they do not surrender? Should the troops not be covered by snipers, what was once called ‘one foot on the ground’?

I am only a ‘bloody civilian’, surely our Rommels and Guderians know better, but could someone please explain why almost 300 men and a battalion headquarters including the CO of an infantry unit were taken prisoner by a handful of tribals?

They came up against, variously, a road-block/landslide/got caught up in a rain-storm – the ISPR dissembling with so much abandon, and so often on the same incident, that it is virtually impossible to understand what it is saying.

Well, if it was a road-block, why did the unit get taken by surprise? Why weren’t pickets mounted, an age-old SOP for the tribal areas, on the prominent features along the route to watch for such obstacles? Instead of the unit blundering ahead why wasn’t an armed patrol sent to see if there were hostiles lying in ambush? If it was a rainstorm why weren’t proper guard posts mounted, the pickets already occupying any high ground?

While the state’s forces are facing defeat after defeat in the Frontier at the hands of armed extremists, the gallant puls is having a field day doing what it does best: mercilessly and cruelly beating up unarmed liberal Pakistanis, this time peacefully protesting against martial law and the destruction of the Supreme Court and the curbs on the media.

If you are one of the lucky ones who have fast internet connections or satellite TV you will have seen the brutality of Musharraf’s police as they get hold of protesters and carry them to the jail vans. While four hefty Yahoos carry the poor man by his arms and legs, at least five run along side pummelling him with hard socks and slaps to his head and face.

Do go onto the internet where tens of sites now give you a ringside view of the General’s idea of enlightened moderation. You will see extremist criminals walking tall in the areas they have ‘liberated’ and respected lawyers and teachers and members of civil society and senior journalists and poor political workers thrashed and carted off to his stinking jails.

Well, let’s see what Benazir does now!

Bushism of the week: “More than two decades later, it is hard to imagine the revolutionary war coming out any other way.” — President George W. Bush; Martinsburg, W. Va., July 4, 2007