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Kashmir Herald
A Sinister Nexus
Had there been no jihad in Afghanistan in the 1980s, there would have been no jihad in Kashmir in the 1990s. Had there been no US-Pakistan nexus in Afghanistan, there would have been no jihad in that country. History has unsavoury lessons to teach about the regional implications of military alliances. Ronald Reagan’s foreign policy adviser Jeane Kirkpatrick claimed that there was a difference between “authoritarianism” and “totalitarianism” in order to rationalise Washington’s tight relationship with General Zia’s Pakistan. Zia, whose influence on the most recent wave of radical Islam is stellar, was labelled a soft autocrat who could be used to dethrone the “evil empire” of the totalitarian USSR. The dangerous concoction of guns, drugs and mujahideen which was the outcome of the US-Pakistan nexus of the eighties spilled over into Kashmir, Tajikistan, Sinkiang, Bosnia, Chechnya etc. in the nineties. It created the phenomenon of globe trotting jihadis who could fudge identities and carry out terrorist acts with precision.
The poison which Reagan sowed lay dormant for a while in the late nineties but has again reared its ugly head with the Bush Jr. administration. Donald Rumsfeld has just declaimed to the press that Pakistan under General Musharraf is a “moderate Islamic state” that is proving its worth as an ally of the US in terms of the number of Al Qaeda terrorists being handed over to the Americans. Rumsfeld went on to state that it is precisely Pakistan’s model of ‘moderate Islam’ which the US is seeking to foster in the Arab world. As if the creation of one Pakistan has not spawned enough global problems in the last 57 years, the Americans are planning to reproduce more Pakistans around the world. This is the present-day version of Kirkpatrick’s semantics. Musharraf is an ideal ruler for the US to latch on to- he promises and delivers obediently. At least that is what Bush believes, despite evidence to the contrary.
Inside sources revealed to KNN that when Bush got re-elected in November, the Pakistan army and ISI had three nights of revelry and gaiety because they were sure their own futures were secured for another 4 years. Not only is Pakistan benefiting militarily and economically as a ‘Non-NATO Ally’ of the US, the hand of Uncle Sam is evident in Pakistan’s internal politics too. For a long time, the US had been preventing a meeting between exiled politicians Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif. The US had warned Benazir that whatever good press she gets in the western media as a beacon of democracy would be terminated if she tried to topple army rule by joining hands with her erstwhile foe, Sharif. Benazir also went into secret discussions with Musharraf recently and is said to have done a deal for her husband Asif Zardari to be released from jail and for her to be made Prime Minister in exchange for giving greater legitimacy to Musharraf’s Presidency. Informed Pakistanis feel that even this demarche was made with American blessings. The daily beeline which Pakistani politicians make outside the US embassy in Islamabad is itself an indicator of how much the US controls Pakistan today.
A new wave of jihadi terrorism in Kashmir can be expected from a new generation of radical Islamists as the first decade of the 21st century progresses. The blame, without blinkers on, will rest as much on the pliant state of Pakistan as on the puppeteer state of USA. Whether the pro-US lobby in India likes it or not, its reading of history is low brow.
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