Keeping one’s cool
Advertisement is basically propaganda, the science of converting the feelings of a targeted entity towards a particular belief. At this point of time we are being subjected as a nation — and a religion, to sophisticated and adverse propaganda, literally inviting reaction. The western media is being fed with an irrational viewpoint that the wave of Islamic resurgence for the past decade is the modern version of the Muslim on horseback holding the world at ransom with his scimitar. Whereas in the western world it is considered fashionable to search and identify with one’s roots (a la Haley or for that matter, Dukakis), one’s fundamentals so to say, this same penchant is looked on with deep suspicion whenever Islam is involved. An intricate smear campaign has been particularly mounted against our Armed Forces as an institution, both internally and externally, with certain voluble and immature neophytes in political circles being used as puppets on a string by those vested interests who would rather do without a strong and credible Pakistan Army. Our major political leaders of all shades have, however, shown great maturity by not indulging in similar muck-raking. Some blatant misconceptions are already being floated around externally, the modern sword toted in Pakistan’s hand being depicted as a nuclear bomb. As propaganda goes, these canards must rank as the most successful of efforts at misinformation ever planted universally into the educated human psyche, the picture of Muslims as a modern day terrorists, capable of demolishing the world with their suspected cache of nuclear weapons. Sadly, we may have contributed unwittingly to these preposterous suggestions by our on-going search for the fundamental basis in our religion. This has not been helped by our share of kooks holding forth from time to time. As the Iran-Iraq war winds down to a ceasefire, the ending in a stalemate of this horrific entanglement only brings to focus the unreasoning basis for continuing fighting for over eight years, exposing our religion to western contempt — and universal suspicion, other than the awesome human and material damage inflicted on each other.
The last decade’s background probably started with a perceived threat to Soviet Russia’s soft underbelly, the Muslim republics bordering Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and China, after the convolutions in Iran in the late 70’s. The Shah of Iran, despite being a US ally, served an extremely useful purpose for the Soviets because of his utter contempt for Islamic values. His speedy modernisation efforts ran afoul of the strong religious hierarchy, their efforts to restrain the pace only served to make him impatient with what he perceived to be their “ancient” retrogressive attitude; he had the SAVAK means of making his impatience felt. All this ultimately boomeranged resulting in his undoing and among other things exposed the Soviets to their worst nightmares, mostly of a continuous green wave of fanatical Muslims swirling into their Red heartlands. Somewhere deep within the Kremlin the communist version of whiz-kids must have decided it was time to launch a pre-emptive strike against Islam and decided on Afghanistan as a safe launching base. Iraq, which was more or less in the Soviet camp at that time, had its own boundary (and ideological) grouse with Iran, which was perceived by them to be weak militarily post-Shah. A disintegrating Iran and a compliant brow-beaten Pakistan was part of the scenario, the warm waters of the Indian Ocean and the oil of the Persian Gulf the ultimate bonus, the icing on the cake. All the chessboard pieces were neatly stacked and everything was poised to GO, including an appreciative India on the sidelines, but on the one hand Hafizullah Amin’s loyalties in Kabul became suspect and Russians perforce had to jump the gun around Christmas 1979 while on the other, the Iraqis found the Iranians to be quite a handful. As surprises go, Iran did not disintegrate and Pakistan emulated Brig. Gen. McAuliffe’s famous answer to the Germans at the Battle of Bastogne in World War II, though in fact “peanuts” was substituted for “nuts”. To add to all this, the Afghans refused to roll over and play ball, preferring to vote their disaffection with their feet and their resentment by the time-honoured Afghan way of collective sniping ie. guerilla warfare. All in all, the Soviets are now withdrawing from Afghanistan, the “Geneva Accords” serving as a face-saving formula for the crushing defeat inflicted upon them by the Mujahideen. The sight of this superpower biting the dust is edifying indeed and no amount of bluster and propaganda, Shevardnadze or Najibullah-style, will change the fact that a land war in Asia is not winnable against a motivated population, steeped in their inherent and historical penchant for freedom. As humiliations go, Afghanistan will rankle for a long, long time and Gorbachev, iron smile and all, has not heard the last of it from the wounded Soviet Civil and Military bureaucracy.
Officially, Vietnam was a defeat for the US, the North Vietnamese won the war but in actual fact lost the subsequent battle for control of South East Asia, the long-term communist aim for the teeming millions in the region. The Domino Theory was put to test and the 50,000 or so Americans who died in Vietnam in an unpopular war did not do so in vain (despite the self-flagellation by the Americans) because with the sacrifice of their lives they bought valuable time for the South East Asian countries to stand up for themselves against communism and the economic prosperity of ASEAN speaks for itself; the dominoes did not fall.
Impoverished by war, destitute by economic choice, hungry and friendless, Vietnam is now looking to the US, its former foe (and once-upon-a-time friend, circa 1945) for economic succour, though national pride has made the process slow, the delay keeping their semblance of dignity sacrosanct. Frustrated with its version of communist fundamentalism and resorting to a pragmatic policy of livability with its neighbours, Vietnam is a sorry example of socialism’s inadequacies. Afghanistan, on the other hand, is the start of a series of future miseries for Soviet Russia, because more than a million men are under arms, most of whom are ethnic cousins (fundamentalists in the Soviet jargon) to the adjacent downtrodden Russian Muslim republics and represent a certain threat to Russian sovereignty in their own backyard, the green bogey of their nightmares. When one looks at statistics and sees that the burgeoning Muslim population will, by the year 2000, have eclipsed ethnic Russians in the USSR, fulfilling the dire prophecies of the erstwhile whiz-kids in the Kremlin, who by now are probably confined as a punishment permanently in the subterranean dungeons within its bleak, intimidating walls. With the Iran-Iraq war winding down, a vast mass of the irregulars in the Iranian Army will also be available (theoretically) to add to the Russian fears. Islam is having a resurgence in spite of itself (we are our own worst enemies) and the Reds will be hard put to contain the crumbling of their ideological frontiers, though not necessarily their territorial integrity. When you consider the long and short of it one can see Iran as a natural American ally in this region five years down the road, when mutual suspicions (and festering wounds) have simmered down.
Perceptions aside, there is no known Muslim motivation in the region to conquer any new frontiers but there may be a desire to get back what was theirs in the first place. In the case of Pakistan, ambitions are limited to a peaceful settlement of the Kashmir problem, Indian obduracy permitting. Unless given real provocation we do not see a visible threat by a revitalised Iran or a re-Islamized Afghanistan to the soft Soviet underbelly. An Iranian-Pakistan-Afghan confederation of any kind is far from reality and is only a figment of Rajiv Gandhi’s overworked Anti-Muslim imagination to justify his on-going vendetta against Pakistan. In fact, anti-Muslim propaganda in Soviet and western circles have been assiduously helped along by India for a variety of reasons emanating from its own ambitions to be a regional super-power. India has been particularly stoking fears universally among all and sundry post-Afghanistan. Iran’s prospective post-war stance has also been cleverly brought into suspicious focus by them, the viable alternative presented being to recognize the emergence and tacit support to India as a bulwark for joint western and Soviet interests in the region. This Hans Christian Andersen fairy-tale has been deliberately conjectured to foster Indian long-term pipe-dream ambitions. However, we have to accept that anti-Islam propaganda has taken some root all over and we have to live within this grey environment. The target of Indian vindictiveness has to be anti-Muslim because that is precisely the message of August 14, the deep-rooted Muslim need to be free of Indian domination, resulting in the creation of the separate, independent homeland of Pakistan.
Whatever may be our political creed, our leaders must take note of Pakistan’s need for unity in its federation and particularly to keep adverse propaganda away from the Pakistan Army. The greatest stumbling block to Indian hegemonistic ambitions remains a strong, credible Pakistan Army. In this region, this is the one force that the Indians cannot dare to tangle with and despite all their bluster, they know this in their heart of hearts. The much-vaunted Sunderji (of Operation Blue Star fame), the man who would conquer Pakistan through “Brass Tacks” and other strategies, fed Rajiv Gandhi with visions of Indian military glory and sowed the winds by making their ill-conceived, poorly planned jump into Sri Lanka. Currently the Indian Army is reaping the whirlwind not only at the hands of Sikh militants but also from their former proteges, the Tamil Tigers. Before the Indians step out of the South Asian region to become a super-power, they will have to contend with the professionalism of the Pakistan Armed Forces. The Pakistan Army carries an enormous and silent burden because it cannot shrug off its primary responsibilities to every Muslim in South Asia and its secondary responsibilities for all races and religions which are presently subject to some form of Indian tutelage in the region. The tragedy is that they have to guard the territorial integrity as well as the ideological frontiers of the nation which are presently under constant attack by some of our own home-grown political neophytes, elected not by adult franchise, but by the purchase of a few Provincial Assembly votes. Blessed with a gift of the gab they tend to be-little the tremendous sacrifices rendered by our Armed Forces by casting wild aspersions. A US Senator can afford to talk about the military with impunity and authority, he has probably not only seen national service, but his deep knowledge stems from the fact that he has fought for his country in either World War II, Korea and/or Vietnam. In this context, while one has to tread carefully not to alienate part of our population by an excessive zeal in calling people “subversives” or by the use of the time honoured phrase of “miscreants”, one has to draw the line at outright and blatant attacks made on the integrity of the Army. People who have no concept of nationhood or heard a bullet fired in anger cannot begin to understand the rudiments of patriotism. Patriotism begins with a deeply imbued courage of conviction, with the embodiment of sacrifice for what one really believes in, the totality of love and devotion to duty and responsibility and the lack of fear in facing upto the consequences of one’s actions in good faith, not just the ability to run off at the mouth. The Pakistan Army has a tremendous moral obligation, held in trust by a devoted nation and in the face of grave provocation from vested interests, the maturity in the leadership of the Pakistan Army must persevere as it is our sole bulwark against the bad guys.
Subject to massive doses of adverse propaganda, the military leadership must show great patience, be oblivious to anything but the AIM, which is singularly and only, the defence of Pakistan.
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