Pakistan—The “Failed State” --- Properly Poised for a Necessary Military Coup!
Very rarely does a country ebb in and out of a military coup or what we call a “soft coup” as readily as Pakistan, the failed civilian state, does.
Since it’s birth in the late 1940’s, Pakistan has struggled to evolve into a democratically run muslim state. But from the very beginning of it’s inception, it has had a severe structural problem that would not allow it to evolve into a civilian democracy.
The country from it’s very inception was run by an oligarchy of approximately eight major corrupt families.
Included in this close circle of kleptocracy was the iconic symbol of women’s liberation and astute civilian rule—Benazir Bhutto.
Of course, nothing could have been further from the truth than Benazir. By destiny and accident, I had spent some time with her when she was a fellow student at Harvard in Social Psychology and then years later when I was a senior official.
On both occasions, it was apparent to me that like all politicians around the world, she was sculpted with the precise features embedded in a charismatic leader, irrespective of gender.
She continuously talked and referred to her father who, she had claimed, had been killed in a military coup and that her corrupt husband, who later became one of the civilian leaders of Pakistan, had been improperly jailed for corruption for ten years.
In short, she was the new face of the new state of Pakistan, boisterous, filled with platitudes, and corrupt.
Lurking during her tenure as well as that of the failed leadership of her father and brother was the Pakistan military, incredibly highly disciplined and well educated corps of military officers trained in both England and the USA.
As chance would have it during one of my hostage negotiation crisis, I had the good fortune to meet one of the major leaders, if not the founding father, of the Pakistan Military—General/Ambassador Yaqub Kahn.
He was an elegant, soft-spoken , exceedingly courageous individual who without my knowing who he was at the time, had volunteered his services to encounter a terrorist directly and negotiate face-to-face with him. It was Ambassador Kahn who really successfully disarmed the Terrorist who had held over five hundred hostages in three buildings in what became known as the Hanafi Hostage of Washington DC.
Subsequently, we became friends and comrades-in-arm, sharing geopolitical insights and tactical concerns.
He kindly reminded me that I could never have been disobedient against him. But I reminded him that if he were the General I would have been the leader of his country and executed him pre-emptively.
We both laughed and went on our respective ways.
But in that little narrative lies the basic truth of Pakistan.
It has always been and will always continue to be a military state controlled by the Pakistani military as well as the Special Unit created by the USG called the Inter-Services Intelligence or affectionately known in the trade as the “ISI”.
The ISI has a special place of in the war on terrorism. They helped create it. They funded the ‘terrorist groups’ in Northern Pakistan and of course, in Afghanistan.
With and without our help, the ISI can play the CIA and other US intelligence units, including our Military Intelligence, like putty in the hands of mutilators.
They execute and arrest at will.
If they want more money from our impotent, ignorant congress and WH, they simply play the role of ‘Terrorist’ facilitator and show the world how they are ‘helping to combat’ the fictional CIA/ISI created war on terrorism.
But you know all that.
What you may not know is that, contrary to common expectations, this failing, extremely sunni, radical state of belligerents who possess perhaps close to 100 or more tactical nuclear weapons [deliverable] are very close to Israel, a Jewish theocratic state.
In the past twenty years of Neocon and WH hysterics, contrived and fanciful, no mention is ever made of the fact that Pakistan really does possess a REAL NUCLEAR THREAT TO INDIA, SOUTH ASIA and you know—THE HOLY LAND OF HYSTERICS---ISRAEL.
Isn’t it fascinating that this country, of non-country, consisting of radical Sunni Fundamentalists without any real civil institutions presents NO CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER TO ISRAEL.
And in contrast, a civilization that has been around thousands of years as the Persian Empire or a muslim caliphate-- without any deliverable nuclear weapons—presents a CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER TO ISRAEL AND THE WORLD.
WOW! Something is wrong here!
WOW! Something is wrong here!
Either I have misread the situation or….. the American/Israeli narrative is completely false.
Think about this episode that occurred several years ago when Pakistan was led by a very charming, effective military general turned civilian—Pervez Musharraf.
He made the big mistake of making a peace overture in public to Israel and claiming that he would love to have open Diplomatic Relations with Israel because he admired a JEWISH THEOCRATIC STATE that was militarily unequalled.
Now that is a compliment.
So…. something is rotten here!
Could it be that our Presidents have been lying to us?
Could it be that our Presidents have been lying to us?
Could it be that DCI Panetta has killed more Pakistanis and innocent muslims with his useless and destructive Drone Attacks?
Could it be that our CIA is out of control and was creating a potential civil war in Pakistan?
Could it be that our CIA and our Military officers don’t see eye-to-eye or gun-to –gun?
Could it be that Saudi Arabia is constantly funding this failed state in order to buy a Life Insurance policy against any radical islamists who are not crazy about the decadent, rapacious "Fairy Land Kings"?
Two things are certain for me!
The first is that if Pakistan and India can fight each other over Kashmir, there will be war until the sun sets.
No two countries are more addicted to this sado-masochistic relationship than Pakistan and India. Oh, of course, I forgot the S& M relationship between the Israelis and the Palestinian ‘terrorists groups’ funded by Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Then there is the last conclusion of which I am certain.
Tomorrow, as the call for prayer flows over the minarets of Islamabad, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and his military commanders will attempt a ‘soft coup’ and ---guess what?
Surprisingly they will find no resistance from the Pakistanis, the Americans, the Israelis nor me!
As far as I am concerned, that’s only one more de facto military regime after Syria, Iran, India, Israel, Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya and don’t forget… you guessed it…..
As far as I am concerned, that’s only one more de facto military regime after Syria, Iran, India, Israel, Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya and don’t forget… you guessed it…..
The most militaristic of all regimes ---OUR BELOVED USA.
God Bless America!!!
Forget it about it.. the President… the Congress.. the Judicial system and the rest… just remain comfortable while our Republican Centurions populate over 733 bases around 245 countries.
What? me worry?
Didn’t you know there were so many ‘terrorist countries’?
Forget about it, Donny Brasco…
It’s time for Alfred E Newman to take over!!!
Yes, What me worry?
AMERICANS DEMOCRACY?
“FORGET ABOUT IT… “
Tell me what’s really important, who wore what at the Oscars?
And, who came out today?
And what did Kardashian do yesterday?
“Sequestration”—that’s just another fancy word for ‘nothing will happen’
Just take comfort that our AMERICAN EMPIRE is expanding exponentially while the Republic is destroying itself from within.
Hail to our Caesar!!
And our Centurion Guards await your orders… so you think!
Pakistan keep on asking for more aid to ‘democratize’ your country..no one in our military or CIA/MI will ever deny you that ‘incredible chance’ to become ‘democratic’.
By the way, Caesar Obamus, that meeting with the Silver Spring Deli owner President Karzai was beyond absurd.
At least when you put on a show, make it credible, not a continuing farce.
But, fagetta 'bout it…..
What is the salient feature of The Divine should such an entity exists? Absoluteness and being absolute means that there is no such thing as "Democracy". Afterall, when you could do no wrong and is actually the source of correctness for ALL, the weakness of "Democracy", that of The 51% bullying The 49%, pales into insignifiance/uselessness, especially the uselessness of those airyfairies who demand and expect to be worshipped, 25/8, those whose wetdream is to be Superman/The-Present but are always exposed as Subman/The-Past or Supraman/The-Future instead after emerging from their phone booths, the pour thangs - "Not so poor when we have your IP address and know who you are and will vapourise you when it is your turn next…" 3men to that.
ReplyDeleteThose who are into Religion 101 and could spout-off every warning line and passage of direness in "The Religious Texts" might be surprised to learn that The Divine is not only not about Religion & Religiosity, The Divine is actually a living entity, so alive that HE, through He-She, has no need for time and is never, ever, under the threat of Ownership Issue, least of all by The G_d-dists, The Hallelujahs and The Blow 'Em Uppers, The Semitic Speciality of 3 for the price of 1 - not such a bargain after realising that you could only keep one because being human means that they cannot live with one another without divine intervention.
True Religion is the innateness of Morality within, usually expressed as Taboos, and which confers the authority, oka Authority, which requires no reverence to Saving-Worshipping or even jackbooting. This Authority ensures that a normal human will not, say, poke a needle in his eye for whatever reason of normality - and all without the sanctioning of Quackery & Handler, that Tentacle of The Bookie whose mantra is Repeat Prescription.
Religion therefore is about becoming Pure [within Desire, oka the Unrequited Past] and is neither willy-nilly Desiring Purity, oka Control Freakism, especially others' purity, nor to become the object of Desire by Others, oka Abandonment. This latter part of being an object of worship is what truly damages most because its operation is covert, being Of Cunning, oka Left-Sidedness. Humanity being Of Duality/Relativity, the dual-natured human like a football team where one has both a Goal-Scoring and a Goal-Keeping Department. Without being able to balance both, one's moral/true/absolute progress then is akin to taking 1 step forwards and 2 steps backward. If true, one's first duty then is to identify whether "Leadership" belongs to The GSD or The GKD whilst not forgetting that the failure to realise this reality is what limits the number of humans who are able to transcend being Of Purity/Absoluteness. As per the norm, Humanity's MO being Of Ownership Issue, when attainment fails, to own then becomes the next best option and when it comes to owning, it is merely the latency to being owned. This is because the desire to own stems from having been owned by a higher, but usually unseen, Concept, which in the case of humans, are one's Thoughts Of The Past or The Future.
"I create nothing. I own."
Delete-- Gordon Gekko
Ha ha fantastic film, one of my favorites and a great book to! Surely Dr p with your experienceyou could make a film of all the warring nations and base it on the great gangster movies? A composite of good fellas , godfather, casino,donnie brasco etc etc, USAwould have to be played by Joe pesci! Britain definately would have to be duvalls tom hagen, and I'd have to cast Iran with de niro with the rest of Europe played as hyman Roth!! Israel the Teflon don, with India and Pakistan represented by the kray and Richardson gangs of London, if your to busy hey forget about it!
ReplyDeleteI gotta say I really vomit when I see snot-nosed punk drug-addicted cokeheads like Marty Scorstese make sick comedy out of savage violence. Criminal violence isn't so funny in real life, and the dis-connect between reality and fantasy in the minds of sicko "film-makers" like Scorstese, Tarantino, Rodriquez and other pussy-punk wimps who have never been involved in real violence in thier lives makes me puke.
DeleteI wouldn't mind meeting any of these wimps in a dark alley sometime and teach them a lesson about what's not funny about their chosen craft.
Probably fair to say that they haven't had a fight in their lives but they we're not bad films and a harsh reality is some people are more Donnie brasco than Gordon gecko, life imitates art far more than art imitating life! You only have to look at who is supposed to run the western world and there you have the same scenario! The world is a stage but the play is badly cast!!
DeleteTo say the films of Scorstese are not bad is simply untrue.
DeleteScorstese will be remembered as a Hollywood icon and darling who made horrible films.
"The Departed" "The Aviator" "King of Comedy" "New York New York" "Gangs of New York" "Cundin" "Last Temptation of Christ" "The Color of Money" are...
1.stylistically uninteresting
2.devoid of any meaningful relationships between characters or authtentic human character [Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore being the one exception].
3.Relies entirely on making humor out of over the top gratuitous violence.
He will not be remembered.
The guy's a cokehead too...seriously.
Well I wassnt a fan of any of the above films granted! But it boils down to preference I suppose, I've read some accompanying books to some of gangster films and found them to be good also, I find sub culture very interesting and I suppose the fact we readers engage on these types of mediums make us every bit part of of that sub culture
Delete"The Departed" was a wonderful script based on a true story and could have been an important film except Scorstase tured it into a laughing horror show.
Delete"Body of Lies" was an important book which captured the realities of the CIA and phoney War On Terror but was RUINED by Ridley ["Alien"] Scott, who is incapable of any kind of adult material.
Time and time again today's directors botch and ruin great material because they are immature, comic book level idiots or WORESE....such as Tarantino, Rodriquez and Scorstase, who are scoiopaths.
When I was in graduate school and learning how to build nuclear bombs from George Rathjens, we were all fixated with the prospect of the "ISLAMIC BOMB!"
ReplyDeleteBeleive it or not in 1984 so many people assumed when Pakistan "got the bomb" that it would therefore hand it over to every Muslem "radical" who might seek to have it. Little did we know that Pakistan's bomb would have nothing to do with Islam, Israel, or anything else ultimately except perhaps how much the North Koreans could pay to have one too.
Yes boys and girls the Pakistanis dis what we asked them to and played Russian Roulette by tempting the Soviets to attack them for allowing the Afghan Mujahadeen sanctuary in their barren nation. I among others was surprised at the Soviets' forebarance, and their failure to punish Pakistan was what emboldened Director Casey [not Charles Wilson] to escalate the matter until every village in Afghanistan ran with blood [thank you, Ronald Reagan].
So in 2001 the US comes along and demands that the Pakistanis reverse themselves and put to the sword the very allies and kinsmen we so recently praised, and upon whose honor the Pakistanis have pinned their souls.
Yes Dr. P in General Kahn you learned what true HONOR means to these people!
And they weren't about to betray their allies in Afghanistan and elsewhere so easily.
It took several years for the USG and CIA to figure out what I and many of my generation already assumed - that from 2001 onwards the Pakistanis were double-dealing the US, and that's what the US deserved.
And as for the American servicemen killed or maimed by the Talibs, Hakani's, etc. supported by Pakistan...
DeleteGuess what?
You're government doesn't give a shit.
You're only cannon fodder.
"Fugeddaboutit" was popularized in the early 1990s in television ads for Tops Appliance City. DOMNIE BRASCO takes place in the 1970s. However, as I note, similar New York City words had been popular since at least the 1930s.
ReplyDeleteHey you mugs. Are you on the level or are you a heel?
DeleteHey...what kinda junt ["joint"] is that you're runnin' ova dare?
Hey, whadda ya so sore about?
Go ahead, lettum have it!
I'll givit tooya good....see.
Hey...whatsit tooya Mug!
How about the domestic terror from within?
ReplyDeleteAlmost 11 million views:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wx9GxXYKx_8&bpctr=1358583861