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Will War against Terror
Eventually Turn Into War against Pakistan?
 US
led war against terrorism is expanding its agenda. President –
Elect Barack Obama’s strategy to move Iraq based US forces to
Afghanistan will have serious military implications for Pakistan
and Pakistan will willingly or unwillingly be entangled in
adversarial military engagement with the United States.
Arrival of Iraq based US forces in
Afghanistan will also change military dynamics for the United
States and it will be difficult for United States not to engage
with Pakistan Army in confrontational manner. The presence of
such huge number of US military forces in Afghanistan will call
for US administration to expand its territorial activities
within Pakistan. US forces may end up culling a swath of land
from Pakistani territory to secure its supplies directly from
Arabian Sea.
There are many serious strategist thinkers in
Pakistan and US who infact see US and Pakistan as two
adversarial states. These Pakistani and American strategic
thinkers see Pakistan-US alliance as marriage of convenience
which can fall apart the moment dynamics of situation will
change in the region.
Arrival of Iraq based US forces in
Afghanistan will be one such change. The need to shift Iraq
based US force to Afghanistan is being felt by American
Administration quite for a while. Bush administration did not
want to ditch Iraq and shift the force to Afghanistan. Bush
administration wanted to secure Iraq before shifting forces to
Afghanistan. The shaping up Barack Obama administration, more
focused and more clear-headed, already knows where the onus of
continuing war against terrorism is going to be. It is
definitely Afghanistan and Pakistan instead of Iraq.
Bush administration will conclude agreement
with Iraqi regime to leave limited number of forces in Iraq as
insurance to maintain American influence in Iraq before
President Bush will vacate White House for President Obama. Thus
making it convenient for President Obama to fulfill his promise
to pull forces from Iraq and shift them to Afghanistan as he has
mentioned many times during his election campaign and
afterwards.
While Americans are giving final touches to
their arrangements of departure from Iraq, Pakistani leadership,
both political and military, has already psychologically lost
the war. They are faithfully receiving all the blows from US
forces. With every new drone attack inside Pakistani
territories, Pakistani leadership’s subdued and apologetic
behavior is strengthening American resolve to continue military
engagement in the region with an open agenda.
Thus there are growing chances the American
war against terrorism, with swelled American forces presence in
Afghanistan, will convert into war against Pakistan which will
minimally end up culling a swath of land from Pakistani
territories to provide direct access to US and NATO forces to
Arabian Sea.
This time this access to hot waters of
Arabian Sea will not be for Moscow, but it will be for
land-locked Afghanistan based US and NATO forces.
MQM’s Taliban Hoax
Altaf Hussain is playing smarter game than
many traditional common MQM supporters, traditional Pakistani
politicians and average media people can understand.
His tirades about the Hoax of Taliban in
Karachi are part of a bigger agenda, which Altaf Hussain wants
to fulfill in more than one stage.
By throwing up the presence of Hoax of
Taliban in Karachi he intends to pull more Muhajirs into MQM
fold. A large number of Muhajirs do not support MQM. They can
see through MQM’s mafia style tactics to control the Karachi and
Sindh politics.
These tactics became more evident when MQM
mafia leaders forced cable operators to shut down GEO and ARY
transmissions in Karachi and Sindh upon their refusal to
telecast Altaf Hussain’s propaganda tirades live from beginning
to the end.
Lately, GEO and ARY are under tremendous
pressure from their viewers to stop Altaf Hussain’s propaganda
tirades on these two channels. They have been threatened by
their viewers to deny them business if they continue these MQM
propaganda tirades.
Leaving this issue aside, and coming back to
Altaf Hussain’s bigger agenda, it is becoming evident from Altaf
Hussain’s tactics that he is pushing Karachi towards a direct
confrontation with Sindh and Pakistan.
His Hoax about Taliban’s presence in Karachi
is one side of the picture. The other side of the picture is his
advice to the youth of Karachi to get ready in every possible
sense including physical training and military training to
defend their homes and families.
Is Karachi going to fight a war? If it is a
war, against whom this war is going to be? All official channels
have denied confirming Taliban presence in or around Karachi.
Obviously, the war for which Altaf Hussain is talking about is
not between the Hoax of Taliban, but it will be fought in
connivance with the forces whose representatives have been
meeting Altaf Hussain in London and his followers in Karachi.
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