Osama Episode Places
Safety of Pakistan's Nuclear Assets in Peril
"First
of all, it has given tremendous grist to our detractors, who are campaigning to
paint Pakistan as the epicenter and state sponsor of global terror. Secondly,
it has opened the gates to the Americans, to not only intensify their drone
incursions, but to mount ground raids on our territory."
The doing in of Osama bin
Laden is certainly a momentous episode, although it's highly questionable that it
will enfeeble al-Qaeda. He was long ago reduced to a spiritual inspiration,
cloaking his blood-soaked campaigns in religious garb. In reality, the movement
has never been monolithic. It has always been a conglomerate of regional and
national groups, each with its own agenda, and all given to violence and
bloodletting to perpetuate their designs.
Even the commonly repeated legend
of Dr. Ayman
al-Zawahiri's role is a stretch. He may be known as al-Qaeda’s military
commander and chief of operations, and he may be considered an existential
threat to Pakistan for openly calling for its destruction, but each group that
runs under the generic name of al-Qaeda has its own mastermind, commanders, cadres,
sources of funding and weapons, and chain of command and control.
So even if al-Zawahiri is
eliminated, al-Qaeda's bloody movement will continue unless the causes it feeds
on are removed, such as the Palestinian and Kashmir imbroglios, Western
anti-Muslim hate campaigns and the bolstering of repressive regimes in
the Muslim world by the West. This would marginalize the extremists from the national
mainstream.
Nonetheless, Osama’s killing is
a huge prize for President Barack Obama. Notwithstanding the doubting Thomases,
unwilling to believe it was Osama that was killed, the death of the terrorist
mastermind gives a tremendous boost to Obama's bid to recapture the White
House. For the most part, the American people have joyously accepted their
government’s claim.
But be that as it may, the bin
Laden episode puts Pakistan in dire straits both domestically and externally. Domestically,
it has triggered very disturbing questions in the minds of the people. First, they
are deeply flabbergasted as to why our intelligence agencies were so ignorant about
his location: he was holed up not in a secluded area, but in a densely populated
residential area of a bustling city - Abbottabad - and for as long as three
years.
Also, Pakistanis are horrified
that American Special Forces - Navy SEAL commandoes - flew unmolested deep inside
our territory in four helicopters, and were engaged in battle for about two hours. Their
raid on bin Laden's hideout was just a stone's throw from an army garrison and Pakistan's
premier training academy. And yet the intrusion drew no response either from
the Army or Air Force.
Perhaps the American raiders
or their controllers jammed Pakistan's radar. With a military budget greater
than the entire planet's combined, they possess the state-of-the-art in weaponry
and technology. But what so disconcerts people is that while the U.S. raid
continued for hours - in such close proximity to our military installations - there was
no reaction. So while this episode has seriously dented the military’s public
image, it has simultaneously stirred fears regarding the security of our precious
nuclear assets, and the possibilty of foreign assault. Externally, the episode has created
gigantic problems.
First of all, it has given
tremendous grist to our detractors, who are campaigning to paint Pakistan as the
epicenter and state sponsor of global terror. Secondly, it has opened the gates
to the Americans, to not only intensify their drone incursions, but to mount
ground raids on our territory wherever and whenever they want. Furthermore, as they assert that North Waziristan has become a hotbed of activity and launching
pad for attack on U.S. and allied forces for al-Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban of
the Haqqani Group and that Quetta is a base for the Afghan Taliban leadership, it
should come as no surprise if both places now come under such assaults. Thirdly,
this U.S. raid will undoubtedly serve to embolden others to make similar
incursions into our territory.
So, our political and
military leadership must put their heads together and figure out how to cope
with the aftermath of this raid and its severe fallout, because what appeared impossible
until yesterday has now become possible. A joint session of Parliament must be
convened immediately and a huddle with top military and intelligence officials commence to
formulate a common strategy. Even political leaders outside Parliament must be
invited to this special session. This matter is extremely grave and must be treated
as such.
